The Minnesota Twins decided to spare their bullpen after a disastrous 7th inning on Friday and ended up turning to a position player to pitch. And the results were hilarious, but successful.
Down 10-3 entering the bottom of the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Angels, the Twins asked Willians Astudillo to get the final three outs for them (barring a huge comeback in the top of the ninth). Astudillo, mind you, is a utility player and not an actual pitcher. But Astudillo still got the job done, even if he was lobbing some pitches in at 46 mph. This was like the MLB version of high arc softball.
Take a look at this video:
Willians "La Tortuga" Astudillo just came in and threw a
***46 MPH PITCH***
They don't call him "" for no reason pic.twitter.com/jYlTWm6OnQ
— The Baseball Newsletter (@bbletter) April 17, 2021
Astudillo, who is known as “La Tortuga” (the tortoise), stuck to a turtle’s pace and kept most of his pitches under 60 mph. He did kick it up over 70 for one, but remained mostly with the slow balls.
Willians Astudillo blowing up the radar gun in his inning… on the too-slow end, not the too-fast end:
51.4
59.0
46.0
pitch too slow for Statcast
72.5
pitch too slow for Statcast
46.3— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) April 17, 2021
Did we mention that he put together a 1-2-3 inning?
Astudillo has actually pitched once before in 2018. He has played every defensive position in MLB except shortstop.
