Guided by reflex and not by rational thought, Phillies pitcher Sean O’Sullivan apparently forgot that he should use his glove when fielding a line drive hit back to the mound.
During the second inning of Tuesday’s game between the Phillies and Pirates, O’Sullivan not only caught a ball hit off the bat of A.J. Burnett with his bare hand, but he made it look easy.
OK, to be fair, Burnett didn’t exactly smoke the ball there. But he still made enough contact where O’Sullivan had to catch the ball shoulder-high as he was coming off the mound in his follow-through. The takeaway is that the right-hander looked pretty cool making that catch, like it was no big deal. Or maybe like he willed the ball into his hand with The Force or some other superhuman ability.
And though O’Sullivan’s teammates were surely impressed by his quick reflexes and tough hands, how soon was it before someone in the Phillies dugout mention that reaching out for a batted ball with your pitching hand is not the best way to get through life in the major leagues?
Or is it possible that in the second between the bat coming off Burnett’s bat and landing in O’Sullivan’s right hand, time slowed down for the pitcher, during which he thought to himself, “Oh, this is just a pitcher hitting. I think it would be all right if I just reached out and caught that with my bare hand. It will look so bad-ass.” In that moment, O’Sullivan may have been in the zone.
Unfortunately, the magic for O’Sullivan was gone by the fourth inning when he put two of the first three runners he faced on base, and then served up a three-run homer to Josh Harrison. Maybe he was still thinking about that sweet grab.
