Hunter Pence loses fly ball in the sun, had sunglasses on his hat (Animated)

Losing a fly ball in the sun is part of afternoon baseball. Sunglasses help, but there’s only so much they can do. As San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence could tell you, they do even less when you don’t use them to cover your eyes.

During the sixth inning of San Francisco’s 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, Pence was unable to track down a shallow fly ball in right after losing it in the sun. Had his sun glasses been covering his face instead of sitting atop his head, he probably would have had better luck. That’s the thing about a nice pair of shades on the baseball diamond — you need to actually look through them for it to have any effect.

Pence may have only played in one game this season, but he has already become a punchline. The Facebook group MLB Memes ragged on him almost instantly (via @_SoDevilish):

That should make this White Sox fan feel better. Even the players screw up every now and then. Pence may have still been in spring training mode when tracking the ball, but the play has made its way onto the regular season blooper real. Don’t worry, Hunter — there will be plenty more bonehead mistakes to make us forget about it.

GIF via @gidget