Chris Davis was Born to be a Pitcher

This is another one for the lone Orioles fan I know.  While I'm sure he is on top of these facts, some tidbits for everyone else.  Yesterday, the marathon 17-inning game between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox came to an end with the Orioles winning 9-6.  The win for the Orioles was their fifth in a row while the loss for Boston was coincidentally their fifth in a row.

Nevertheless, the attention grabber of this game (aside from the 17 innings played) was that not one, but two position players pitched for their respective teams.  The fact that both teams resorted to this measure made it the first time since 1925 for that to occur.

Chris Davis would come in for the Baltimore Orioles in the 16th, inning and managed to pitch two shutout innings in route for the win.  Coming up with the loss was an Orioles former first round pick, but current Boston Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald.

A position player being attributed a winning decision is a rare event these days, in fact, far more rare than the perfect game.  Despite that, the previous occurrence took play just under a year ago when middle infielder Wilson Valdez was credited with a win in a 19-inning Philadelphia Phillies victory.  Prior to that was journey man catcher, then with the Colorado Rockies, Brent Mayne in 2000.  Those three are the only players to accomplish this feat since 1968.  1968 was the last time an American League player had accomplished the feat prior to yesterday when Rocky Colavito picked up a win for the New York Yankees.

Truthfully, I feel Chris Davis was ready to pitch this game all day.  After all, he went 0-for-8 on the day with five strikeouts.  That sounds like a true Major League pitcher in my opinion.  McDonald of the Red Sox went 1-for-4 with a run scored, hitting much to well to be a pitcher, hence his loss.  This begs the question if Chris Davis was born to be a pitcher seeing that he generally averages a strikeout per start (26 Ks this year for his 26 starts), and led the American League in such the only year he was not demoted to the minors (150 Ks in 2009).  Joking aside, props to Davis for managing to do what his team needed of him, even if it took him nine tries.