Jayson Werth, Carlos Villanueva share another eephus pitch moment
On Sunday, Washington Nationals left fielder Jayson Werth was thrown a pitch he had no idea what to do with. In the bottom of the fifth inning of the Nationals’ game against the San Diego Padres, Padres reliever Carlos Villanueva was pitching to Werth in what would be just a three-pitch at-bat. In between two pitches in the mid-80 mph range, Villanueva threw — or soft tossed — a pitch that was 30 mph slower.
Yes, Villanueva threw Werth a slow, looping 55 mph eephus pitch for a strike. Even though it’s pretty cool that Villanueva can uncork that one when he needs to, the best part was Werth’s reaction. Once the ball hit the catcher’s glove, Werth dropped the bat to the ground, slumped his shoulders a bit, and started to look toward the umpire, his body language saying what his mouth couldn’t: “Are you kidding me with this?”
What’s truly funny about this is that it’s happened before. This exact thing. In 2013, Werth and Villanueva were facing off during a Nationals-Chicago Cubs game, and Villanueva threw Werth a 57 mph eephus pitch that he was 100% not expecting.
You can see how he just froze after the pitch crossed the plate, wondering what in the world had just happened. Werth said later that the pitch had thrown him into a mini “existential crisis” right there at the plate because he’d never seen a pitch that slow.
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Three years later, Werth wasn’t expecting that moment to repeat itself. At least this time it didn’t throw him into an existential crisis. Though it probably wasn’t any more pleasant to watch that pitch crawl by again and not even take the bat off his shoulder. If they’re both still in baseball in 2019, maybe they can recreate this moment a third time. Maybe then, Werth will know it’s coming.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
