You know a pitch is filthy when it hits the batter who swung at it

May 12th, 2022

There's no shame in striking out. Every batter strikes out. With the kind of filthy pitches we see on a daily basis, there's no shame in looking kind of foolish while striking out. And, you know what, there is no shame -- no shame! -- if you whiff on a pitch that's so nasty it ends up hitting you while you strike out.

Why do we bring this up? Well, on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, Halos reliever Jimmy Herget -- dubbed the Human Glitch by @pitchingninja -- dropped a curveball on the Rays' Francisco Mejía that Mejía clearly wasn't expecting.

Mejía, who entered the night hitting .344 in 11 games this season, didn't come close to getting his bat on the ball, and the ball wound up plunking him on the hip. It was the first out of a perfect seventh for Herget, who also struck out one other batter in the inning.

But Mejía shouldn't feel bad -- this has happened before and will certainly happen again (plus Tampa Bay won the game, 4-2).