When an intentional walk goes awry, starring Ronald Belisario (Video)

There are some folks in baseball who believe you can speed up by the game by issuing automatic intentional walks. Throwing four balls high and wide is a waste of time, they say, so just forego the four pitches and send the batter to first. In fact, this was one of six pace-of-play ideas tested last year in the Arizona Fall League.

A counterpoint to that argument: Tampa Bay Rays reliever Ronald Belisario.

Let us explain. Belisario was pitching for the Rays in the ninth inning Monday night against the Cleveland Indians. He had runners stationed at second and third with one out, so walking Michael Brantley to load the bases and set up a double play made sense. 

[On this week’s StewPod: Looking back at a fun week in baseball with Jeff Passan]

As you can see in the highlight above, things didn’t go as planned. Instead of an easy toss out of the zone, Belisario skyed a ball toward the backstop, allowing Jason Kipnis to score from third base. Oops. Most intentional walk attempts don’t go this wrong, oh but every once in a while. 

The Indians would score four runs in the inning and turn a 3-1 lead into a 7-1 win. 

The next time someone floats the idea of automatic intentional walks to help baseball’s pace-of-play and you want to cite the one time in 50 that a pitcher botches what’s supposed to be an automatic pass, remember the name — Ronald Belisario.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz