Cleveland Guardians play-by-play broadcaster Matt Underwood made light of the evident struggles of Detroit Tigers shortstop Javy Báez in perhaps the most ruthless way possible on Tuesday night, moments after Báez was hit by a pitch.
For those who have been watching the MLB over the past few seasons, it’s no secret that Báez has been unable to rediscover the All-Star form that he had as a member of the Chicago Cubs.
Not only has Báez put up the worst numbers of his professional career this season, sporting a .185 batting average on the year. He has also been among the worst overall players in all of baseball based on the wins-above-replacement statistic.
Underwood pointed out Báez’s rough batting average during his third at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, where he was clearly frustrated after being hit by a pitch from Guardians relief pitcher Nick Sandlin.
“Javier Báez… He got hit. I’ll tell you what, Sandlin has been all over the place,” said Underwood as Báez began to slowly creep towards the pitcher’s mound. “Báez chirping… Look Javy, you are way under .200. Nobody’s hitting you on purpose. It wasn’t even a fastball. It was a breaking ball.”
"Look, Javy. You're hitting way under .200. Nobody's hitting you on purpose."
No lies detected from Matt Underwood here. pic.twitter.com/PDRxRrKnWn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 10, 2024
Guardians color analyst Rick Manning then chimed in, agreeing with Underwood that the hit-by-pitch wasn’t done on purpose.
“Well, he hung his last one,” said Manning. “This one gets away from him. There’s no way he’s trying to hit him.”
It’s an incredibly harsh thing for Underwood to say. But it’s also entirely correct. Especially when you consider that it was pretty clearly a breaking ball thrown by Sandlin.
The game was also very competitive, tied at 7-7 with two outs in the inning and nobody on base. You’d be hard-pressed to find any pitcher who would want to hit a batter in that situation.
Regardless, Báez clearly thought differently for one reason or another. Or maybe he was potentially frustrated considering his poor season thus far, which has to be weighing on him at this point.
