Orioles' Wilkerson becomes 1st position player to record save
Increasingly, position players are being asked to take the mound during the late innings of blowouts, but never had one been relied on to record a save. Until now.
The Baltimore Orioles sent outfielder Stevie Wilkerson to the mound in the 16th inning of their marathon contest against the Los Angeles Angels. The game technically began on Thursday, but bled into Friday morning.
Wilkerson promptly retired Brian Goodwin, Kole Calhoun, and Albert Pujols for a clean frame, becoming the first position player in MLB history to record a save.
"I knew we were thin on guys," Wilkerson said after the 10-8 victory, according to Joe Trezza of MLB.com. "I knew it was a possibility when the game was getting late.
Following the contest, the 27-year-old was still in disbelief after making history and retiring a future Hall of Famer in Pujols.
"I don't think I've wrapped my head around it yet."
The save wasn't the only key contribution the Orioles got from Wilkerson. The outfielder hit a ground-rule double during the eighth inning that scored Jonathan Villar, which tied the game at 4-4 at the time.
Trey Mancini homered in the subsequent frame to put the club up in the ninth, with Goodwin answering with a home run of his own to tie it in the bottom of the frame. No runs were scored again until the 15th inning, when the Orioles took a three-run lead. At that time, the club had used eight different pitchers already, and summoned left-hander Tanner Scott from the bullpen to record his first career save. Things didn't go as planned, though, as Scott blew the save, allowing three runs to tie it back up and send it to the 16th frame. With two out, Jonathan Villar homered, gifting his team a two-run lead and setting things up for Wilkerson's successful save attempt.
This isn't the first time the Orioles have had an anomalous pitching line by sending a position player to the bump. Back on May 6, 2012, Chris Davis came on to pitch in the 16th inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox. After a clean inning, the Orioles took a three-run lead in the top of the 17th, setting Davis up to get the win after he went back out to seal it.
Thursday marked Wilkerson's third pitching appearance of the season. The two previous ones came as relief mop-up duties earlier in July against the Tampa Bay Rays and Red Sox. Over those three previous innings of work, Wilkerson had yielded one run on two hits, while striking out one.
In 68 games this season, Wilkerson owns a .230/.272/.405 slash line with eight home runs and two stolen bases.