Isiah Kiner-Falefa is not a pitcher – and he reminded everyone of that on Thursday when he took the mound.
The Yankees infielder was called upon to pitch late in the Yankees’ blowout loss to the Twins, and threw the slowest pitch ever recorded by the team in just his second attempt from the mound.
After getting Minnesota outfielder Trevor Larnach to fly out on his first pitch – a 61 MPH “fastball” – he delivered his second pitch to Jose Miranda at a whopping 38 miles per hour.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa throws a pitch in the ninth inning USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConThe pitch fluttered well away from where Kiner-Falefa was aiming and towards Miranda’s head – though he had ample time to avoid the ball.
Per Sports Illustrated, it was the slowest pitch ever recorded by a Yankee.
Miranda hit a single two pitches later, but Kiner-Falefa was miraculously able to escape the mound without giving up a run.
His career ERA sits at a pristine 0.00.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa jokes with the umpires, asking if they want to check his hands Charles Wenzelberg / New York PostAfter leaving the mound, Kiner-Falefa joked with the umpires and asked if they wanted to check his hands for sticky substances.
The Twins cruised to the victory after Yankees pitchers Jhony Brito and Colten Brewer coughed up nine runs in the top half of the first inning, including home runs to Michael A. Taylor, Carlos Correa and Edouard Julien.
As part of the MLB’s new rules, position players are only allowed to pitch when their team is trailing by eight or more runs, or if they are up 10.
The less fortunate of the criteria happened to apply to the Yankees on Thursday.
