The Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians were knotted 1-1 in the heading into the top of the 18th inning, but Toronto had a problem. It had exhausted its bullpen and run out of pitchers to use. So despite being in a tie game in extra innings, the Blue Jays turned to infielder Ryan Goins. It was Goins first appearance as a pitcher as a professional.
Toronto IF makes pitching debut in tie game and somehow throws a scoreless inning
Goins came through with a scoreless inning, but his path to that point was anything but smooth.
It started poorly in warmups when Goins airmailed his catcher by a few feet.
Things didn’t go much better once the inning began. There were a couple of solid offerings, including one decent curveball! But, Goins lacked much control. The first two batters singled to set up a first and third with no outs situation. Goins then induced a ground ball that led to a force out at home for his first out.
After intentionally walking a batter, Goins faced a bases loaded situation with only one out. It seemed like he was staring down the loss in his first professional pitching appearance. Nope. Chris Gimenez hit into a six-four-three double play to end the inning.
The Blue Jays went on to lose an inning later — another position player, Darwin Barney, allowed a home run to Carlos Santana — and technically Goins allowed three baserunners and threw seven balls out of 15 pitches. Still, he has a perfect 0.00 career ERA and that may never change.
