Xander Bogaerts hit an absolute bomb off of Kevin Gausman in the fifth inning of Thursday night’s game between the Red Sox and the Orioles. It was a true rocket, staying in the park only because it hit one of the Green Monster light towers.
Buck Showalter didn’t even let Xander Bogaerts finish his home run trot before pulling his pitcher
Brutal.
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
X Gon Give It To Ya, indeed.
As has been the case with Orioles pitchers this season, Gausman didn’t have a great night and that home run put the home team up 6-zip. That Bogaerts’ bomb would be the end of Gausman’s night wasn’t really a question as he’d already thrown 100 pitches before that one.
What was a surprising development was the quickness with which Baltimore manager Buck Showalter went to take the ball from his starter. He didn’t even wait for Bogaerts to get all the way to home plate before he made his move, cutting behind him on the third base line to pull Gausman.
Absolutely brutal move by Showalter. Also probably against one unwritten rule or another. Showalter somehow managed to make his pitcher feel worse about a bad performance and show up an opposing player at the same time. That is an elite Grumpy Old Baseball Manager move. They don’t teach that at the academy.
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