Quinnessential

The first two times Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn took the mound to pitch it wasn't serious. The Phillies were so far behind that the game was out of reach; and, rather than use a real pitcher in a game they no longer had any chance to win, they called upon Quinn to come in and get as many outs as he could and at the same time provide a little comic relief for the fans who hadn't already left. But this time it was different. This time - late last Friday night (Aug. 2) at Citizens Bank Park - with the clock about to strike midnight and with the Phillies out of options at pitcher, Quinn was brought in to pitch in a tie game in the 14th inning against the Chicago White Sox. Well, to the surprise of no one, this didn't end well for the Phillies; but they didn't go down without a fight. In fact, even though they saw the home team lose, the fans still at the park at that late hour were glad they still were, because the last two innings turned out to be the most entertaining part of the game.

If you had told Quinn when he woke up that morning that he was going to have the chance to be the winning pitcher in the game that night, he would have asked you what you'd been smoking. But in sports - and especially in baseball - these three words are always so true: you never know.

In Quinn's first two appearances on the mound he inherited deficits of 15-4 (against the Mets last August) and 14-1 (against the Dodgers this season on July 15, photo from that game above) and got roughed up pretty good. After he was done the final scores of those games ended up 24-4 and 16-2. So it seemed highly unlikely he was going to go unscathed by the White Sox, even if they are one of MLB's worst offenses.

When I turned the game on after I got home from work, it was already the 8th inning and the Phillies led 3-2. I didn't know it then, but had the Phillies held that lead Quinn would have been one of their offensive heroes of the night. His first career home run while batting left handed (photo on left and video on first link below) leading off the bottom of the 3rd started their comeback from a 2-0 deficit. Then with the score tied in the 7th, he bunted for a hit, stole his second base of the game (photo on right below and video on second link below in which you get a good look at his dreads after he takes his helmet off) and came in to score (on a single by Jean Segura) what looked like would be the winning run. But then in the 9th, with the Phillies one strike away from victory, somebody by the name of Matt Skole (whom I had never heard of before even though I'm a huge White Sox fan) singled to drive in the tying run.  

https://www.mlb.com/video/roman-quinn-homers-3-on-a-fly-ball-to-right-field

https://www.mlb.com/video/quinn-swipes-second-in-the-7th

I had other things I wanted to do, but for some reason I decided to keep watching as the score remained 3-3. And about 2 hours later my patience for hanging in there was rewarded as Quinn - dirty uniform and all and sans the sleeve he had been wearing on his right arm - unexpectedly came on to pitch in the 14th (photo on left below). Roman wasn't fooling anybody with his upper 70's MPH 'fastball'. Everybody that hit the ball hit it hard. But thanks to some good defense behind him he was able to get 3 outs on 3 hard-hit balls.

Vince Velasquez, a pitcher who replaced Quinn in the outfield, made a perfect throw home from left field to cut down a runner at home plate for the 2nd out; and then 3B and fellow dreadhead Maikel Franco, atoning for his error earlier in the inning, nicely fielded a hard grounder (video on link below) for out number three.

https://www.mlb.com/video/carson-fulmer-grounds-out-third-baseman-maikel-franco-to-first-baseman-rhys-hosk

At some point while Quinn was pitching the announcers on the White Sox telecast informed us that in all the history of MLB there have been only two players ever that have hit a home run, stolen a base, and had a scoreless pitching appearance in the same game. After the top of the 14th Quinn had a chance to be the third. But with the Phillies' offense remaining dormant in the bottom of the 14th, he was going to have to get at least three more outs to do it. And for a moment it looked like he would.

The first two batters in the 15th were retired easily on weakly-hit ground balls. But after the next two reached base on a single and a walk, slugger Jose Abreu singled to left. Trying to come to the rescue again, Velasquez unleashed another ridiculously perfect throw home but it was too late (barely) to get the speedy Leury Garcia. Continuing to steal the show, Velasquez prevented any further damage when he made a sensational diving catch to retire the next batter and keep the score at 4-3.

It has been 5 years since a position player was the winning pitcher in a MLB game; but now for Quinn to get the win the Phillies were going to have to score two runs. The Hollywood ending would have been for Quinn to hit a 2-run homer to win it. But in real life the Phillies put another 0 on the board, with Roman last seen barking at the umpire (photo on right) after being called out on strikes for the final out of the game.

I encourage you to click on either one or both of the videos below for a short look at Roman's excellent adventure. No, he didn't quite get the win (that would've been really excellent), but at least already early in his MLB career he's made a memory to last his lifetime.

https://www.mlb.com/video/quinn-s-1-run-outing

https://www.mlb.com/video/must-c-phils-fall-in-wild-game

Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of Quinn in the future - and I don't mean on the mound either. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound native of Port St. Joe, FL, is one of the fastest players in baseball. In fact, he's fast enough that he could have played football. Florida State offered him a scholarship to do just that after he graduated high school in 2011. But with his heart set on baseball, he accepted the Phillies' $775,000 offer as a signing bonus after they picked him in the 2nd round of the draft that year. Beginning in 2012 he has spent at least part of every season in the minor leagues. He made his MLB debut in 2016 and started growing his dreads in 2017.

Sadly - and at least for now - Quinn is the only player with dreads remaining on a Phillies roster that began the season with four. Andrew McCutchen, whose dreads have been making a comeback the last couple of years (even surviving his stint with the Yankees last year), tragically tore his ACL in early June (that's him being helped off the field in photo on right above). Even more tragically Odubel Herrera was suspended for the rest of the season in early July after an arrest for domestic violence (that's him in court on July 3 in photo on left above). And now, two days after helping Quinn pitch a scoreless inning, Franco has been demoted to the minors.

With his speed, Quinn has the chance to be an everyday player and a tremendous asset to his team and make millions of dollars throughout his career. In his first 100 games in MLB (spread over three seasons) we've seen glimpses of his potential. But we've also seen his career held back by a whole bunch of injuries. Here's hoping he gets healthy and stays healthy. I don't think we've seen the best of him yet; but if we ever do, we might see someone who can be a very special player.  

To wrap this up here are a few of Roman's numerals from the game last Friday ....

0

• The number of times Quinn's hat fell off his head while pitching (but that's not too surprising - his dreads aren't that long yet)

.169

• Quinn's batting average at the end of the game - the highest it had been all year (it has since soared to .195) 

1

• Number of runs allowed by Quinn - fewest of his 3 career pitching appearances; also the number of times a White Sox batter swung and missed one of his pitches

2

• Number of runs scored, stolen bases, and innings pitched by Quinn (all tying or setting new career highs)

3

•  Number of hits by Quinn in the game (also tying his career high)

4

•  Number of hits Quinn would have had in the game had his would-be single in the 5th inning not instead turned into a force out at 2nd base

6

• Number of at bats Quinn had in the game (a career high); also the number of hard-hit balls he allowed (out of the 8 balls that were hit off him)

18

• As in 18.00, Quinn's career ERA in his 3 pitching appearances (10 runs allowed in 5 IP)

36

• Number of pitches thrown by Quinn in the game

81

• Speed in miles per hour of the fastest pitch thrown by Quinn (but he did have one at 86 MPH in the game against the Dodgers in July)

405

• Distance in feet of Quinn's home run in the 3rd inning - second longest of his 5 career home runs)

559

• Number in thousands of dollars of Quinn's salary for 2019 - lowest salary on the team (according to USA Today)