Detroit Tigers reliever Phil Coke served up a great quote on Tuesday night after serving up a big home run to Adam Dunn in the 9th inning of Detroit’s 8-6 win.
Coke came in to close out the game with an 8-4 lead. He struck the first two batters out, then allowed a double, single and 3-run home run to Adam Dunn. The homer to Dunn came with an 0-2 count and after a pitch didn’t break the way Coke wanted it to.
The lefty explained after the game that catcher Alex Avila called for a slider to Dunn, but he didn’t get on top of the pitch, so the movement mimicked a two-seam fastball where it runs in to a lefty, rather than breaking away like a slider should. The great part came when Coke described the pitch as an “incidental” two-seamer instead of an “accidental” two-seamer.
From the Macomb Daily:
“That’s what Alex (Avila, the catcher) said. It came back to him. It was like I threw an incidental two-seamer,” Tigers reliever Phil Coke said.
Don’t you mean ‘accidental?’
“No, it was an incident, because he hit that a long way. Somebody almost died,” Coke joked. “There was an incident in the outfield seats.”
I’m still pretty sure he meant accidental, but that quote is fantastic.
Oh, and good for Dunn — he had been 0-for-6 with 4 strikeouts in his career against Coke until that homer. It’s about time he got one.
Forearm bash to Deadspin
