Philadelphia Phillies bullpen too ‘busy’ to finish the game
Jun 17, 2015, 11:48 AM | Updated: 12:23 pm
It was a rough, strange night for the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday.
Trailing 17-3 during the seventh inning of their game against the Baltimore Orioles, Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg decided to do one of the most beautiful things in baseball — he brought in a position player to pitch.
It worked, at least at first.
Right fielder Jeff Francoeur was stellar in his first inning of work, retiring Baltimore 1-2-3 in the inning before going out for a second inning of work.
He proceeded to get an out and load the bases, naturally leading to Sandberg wanting a replacement.
There was only one problem — it appeared that the Phillies bullpen had already called it a night.
Sandberg, along with pitching coach Bob McClure, tried to call down to the bullpen but simply got a busy signal instead.
The phone was off the hook, and apparently bullpen coach Rod Nichols was hoping his bullpen would be off the hook as well.
In the time missed, Francoeur gave up a sacrifice fly and another run to make it 19-3 Orioles.
Using the advanced SOS techniques like towel-waving and hand-signaling, Sandberg and McClure were finally able to track down Nichols and the runaway bullpen to get their tired hero, Francoeur, out of the game.
Sometimes, in a 15-run game, you just want to call it a night.
