The Rays were trailing the Blue Jays 10-1 in the eighth inning on Friday when Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash made the call to his … outfield.
With the game a blowout, outfielder Brett Phillips came on to make his major-league pitching debut, and it was hilarious.
“Kevin Cash came up to me in the dugout and said, ‘Hey do you know how to pitch?’ And I mean, first off the bat, what kind of question is that?” Phillips said in a video made by the Tampa Bay Times. “I like to think I that have like a Mariano Riveraesque cutter, Randy Johnson-type fastball, a reference ball that I didn’t even have to show last night because I didn’t have to.”
Phillips, the former Royals outfielder, started off with a 94 mph fastball. After that, it was a steady stream of off-speed pitches. Really, really slow off-speed pitches.
The second pitch was exactly half the speed of the first.
Most amazing of all was Phillips’ pitching motion, which seemed that it could have been in “Monty Python.”
Phillips gave up a run on two hits with two walks in his inning of work. Here are the highlights:
The Tampa Bay Times put together this video that shows Phillips’ unique, warm-up style, how he tried to intimidate a Blue Jays batter and his hilarious self-confidence.
“Some people on Twitter are already calling me the next Shohei (Ohtani),” Phillips deadpanned. “It’s kind of rewarding. But I know the Rays aren’t too happy about that because hopefully I’m blessed to make it to this arbitration case at the end of the year.”
This is even funnier than the highlights: