Broken bats happen in all types of ways on a baseball field. On jam shots, on high-and-inside heat, on balls off the end of the bat, on impact with thick thighs after a frustrating strikeout. But we can confidently say this is a new and impressive way to splinter some lumber.
In his fourth-inning at-bat during Tuesday's Spring Training game against the Pirates, Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu checked his swing on a pitch in the dirt from right-hander Thomas Harrington. The Bucs backstop pointed down to the third-base umpire for an appeal. It was ruled a strike. Okay, so far nothing out of the ordinary. Except when Abreu looked down at his hands, he was holding only the handle of the bat. The barrel had frittered away toward the pitcher. And yet Abreu never made contact with the pitch. In fact, he didn't even come close.
You're not alone if you're scratching your head.
That was exactly how Abreu reacted when he walked back to the dugout to retrieve his new lumber, a perplexed look on his face. Evidently the 26-year-old two-time Gold Glover is simply so strong that a mere flick of his wrist caused the bat to splinter.
Abreu was not involved in the making of a recent video testing the grip strength of MLB players, but after witnessing this mystifying checked swing broken bat, we can only assume he would have blown all those numbers out of the water.