Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Matt Joyce had himself a once-in-a-lifetime experience on Thursday. The rare moment actually came before the game while Joyce was taking batting practice.
Joyce was taking pitches from a pitching machine and fouled one off the top of the cage. It somehow deflected off the cage and back into the pitching machine, causing the machine to spit it back before Joyce even had time to realize what had happened.
What are the odds of that? Joyce can’t be happy about it. It’s kind of one of baseball’s unwritten rules to not quick-pitch a hitter before he’s ready, yet the machine went and blew a strike right past him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some retaliation before Friday night’s game.
