Is This The Slowest Hit-By-Pitch In Major League Baseball History?

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Every now and then in Major League Baseball when a team falls way behind, rather than waste the arms of one of their relievers, they bring in a position player to pitch.

Probably the most famous (or infamous as the case may be) of this happening was back in 1993 when Texas Rangers manager Kevin Kennedy brought in outfielder Jose Canseco to mop up a game only to have him injure his arm and end up out for season after surgery to reconstruct his throwing elbow.

A similar situation occured on Sunday (minus the season-ending arm injury) when the Brewers fell behind the Dodgers by nine runs and manager Craig Counsell decided to let infielder Hernan Perez pitch in the seventh inning.

Facing the Dodgers’ Austin Barnes, Perez uncorked an 87 mph fastball – hit high-water mark for the game. Pretty good stuff. It was his next pitch that was one for the record books, however, as he followed that pitch up with a 48 mph slider… that hit Barnes, not the he probably felt it. Watch…

To put that pitch in perspective, my son plays little league. He can throw a baseball more than 48 mph. Heck, he’s been hit by pitches from other kids that were faster than 48 mph.

Granted, Perez was trying to mix in a change of speed, as all pitchers do, but the average Major League Baseball slider is usually around seven to nine miles per hour slower than the pitcher’s fastball, not 39!

On the plus side for Perez, the hit-by-pitch didn’t come back to haunt him. In fact, Perez, who also went 1-for-4 at the dish on Sunday, actually ended up being the Brewers’ most effective pitcher tossing two scoreless innings in relief with one strikeout and one walk!

Oh, Brewers’ catcher Erik Kratz also pitched. Check out his wicked knuckler…