Watch Red Sox pitcher Fernando Abad bewilder Adrian Beltre with a super-slow pitch
Just don't call it an eephus.
Red Sox relief pitcher Francisco Abad has a fastball that reaches into the mid-90s. Even his changeup averages around 80 mph.
So it was no wonder that Adrian Beltre was nearly floored — literally — by a super off-speed pitch from Abad during Wednesday’s game between the Red Sox and the Texas Rangers.
Two things universally enjoyed: An eephus and Adrian Beltre! pic.twitter.com/Gw4XpMrekO
— MLB (@MLB) July 6, 2017
The pitch — a strike clocked in the low-60s — surprised Beltre so much that the Ranger slugger fell to a knee.
It’s hardly the first time Abad has confounded batters with a super-slow pitch. In fact, he struck out Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop with a 60 mph pitch just last month.
Fernando Abad already owned the slowest K pitch (59) of the @Statcast Era. He struck again tonight with this 60 mph lob to Schoop. #RedSox pic.twitter.com/cpW1oomsVM
— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) June 2, 2017
Despite what some have called them, Abad’s pitches (and many other contemporary examples) are not true eephus pitches, as they have historically been known. As author Stefan Fatsis said on a recent Slate podcast and as baseball writer Jonah Keri wrote for Grantland in 2015, a true eephus pitch involves lobbing the ball unusually high. It is not simply just a slow pitch.
One good example of a real eephus that both Fatsis and Keri point to is New York Yankees pitcher Dave LaRoche’s strike out of Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Gorman Thomas in 1981.
That said, even if it wasn’t an authentic eephus, Abad’s pitch Wednesday was incredibly weird and slow. Just look at Beltre’s reaction.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/882829295810424832
