Down 15-0 in the top of the ninth inning, the Chicago White Sox turned to legendary home run hitter Adam Dunn. However, the team wasn't interested in Dunn's hitting experience; the 'Big Donkey' took the mound instead.
In Dunn's first career inning of relief he threw 22 pitches and gave up one run on two hits and one walk. The White Sox fell to the Rangers 16-0 on Tuesday night, but not before they deployed a position player to the pitcher's mound. Oddly enough, this occurrence is not out of the ordinary in modern day baseball. A number of managers have called upon such players to face batters.
One of the more memorable such instances was when Nick Swisher came to pitch in relief for the New York Yankees against the Tampa Bay Rays in April of 2009. In his pitching debut, Swisher tossed a scoreless inning and even struck out Gabe Kapler in a 15-5 loss to the Rays. But Swisher was not the last Yankees position player to take the mound. In fact, Yankees manager Joe Girardi called shortstop Alberto Gonzalez to the hill for 1/3 of an inning against the Seattle Mariners last season.
Every team has brought in a position player as a relief pitcher since at least 1989, and a total of 23 have done so since 2007. Five teams did last year and seven teams did in 2012. Some of the most recent notable names (prior to 2014) include David Murphy (2013 Rangers), Skip Schumaker (2013 Dodgers and 2011 Cardinals), and Chris Davis (2012 Orioles). SB Nation provides a full list of each MLB team's most recent position player who has pitched.
In 2014, a total of 10 different position players have already been used as relief pitchers, which is only the NINTH season in the modern baseball era (beginning in 1900) that this number has reached 10 or higher. These pitchers in 2014 have amassed 33 1/3 innings and a 5.13 ERA, according to MLB.com. Managers cite big leads or big deficits, resting pitchers, shortage of pitchers, and other reasons as to why they might bring in a position player to pitch.
"There's a point in time in the game where the score and the inning is going to dictate that you start to look toward tomorrow, and you're just forfeiting that one inning just to get through the day to keep that guy fresh," said Red Sox manager John Farrell, in this MLB.com article.
Bleacher Report provides a list of the "Top 10 Most Memorable Position-Player Pitching Performances of All Time."
