Chris Davis -- yes, Chris Davis -- threw a nasty tailing 82-mph fastball to record a strikeout?
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Orioles slugger Chris Davis has had an eventful few weeks. After setting a dubious Major League record for consecutive hitless at-bats, Davis broke it in a big way against the Red Sox -- and now, a week later, we saw his first pitching performance in seven years.
With Baltimore trailing the Twins on Saturday night, 16-7, Davis took the mound in the ninth inning for his second pitching appearance and first since May 2012 -- in which he was credited with a win, no less!
On the hill Saturday night, Davis served up a home run to former teammate Jonathan Schoop, but bounced back in impressive fashion against Ehire Adrianza. This is a filthy tailing fastball, and Adrianza couldn't do anything with it:
If you were curious, as I certainly was, this was not Davis' first career pitching strikeout. He picked up a pair of those in his two-inning pitching performance in 2012, so he now has three strikeouts over three innings of work in his career.
That means, of course, that Davis now has a K/9 ratio of 9. Not bad, Chris! Not bad at all.
After the game, the Orioles' Branden Kline, who was just called up by the team for Saturday's doubleheader and pitched two innings before Davis' appearance without notching a strikeout, delivered a great quote:
"I did watch CD and I¡¯m going to ask him how to strike guys out, because he has more strikeouts than I do," Kline said to MLB.com's Joe Trezza.
The Orioles' Renato Núñez, meanwhile, wasn't surprised by Davis' strikeout: "I was warming up with him in the cage, so I could see he had good stuff. I was catching him, getting ready to go out to the field. I was catching him. Good stuff."