Justin De Fratus Recorded a 400 Foot Out on His First Pitch in the Bigs
In case you weren’t paying attention as the Phillies played hungover baseball last night, Justin De Fratus (dee-freight-us) made his Major League debut in the ninth inning. His first pitch went something like this:
Deep breath, kid. It looks like a lazy fly in the box score (because numbers always tell the truth…).
De Fratus, who is going to need a nickname soon because I refuse to continually put that space in there, got out of the inning unscathed, allowing just one baserunner (a walk). What’s more, his brother, Chris, caught a foul ball… during his brother’s debut… while he was on the mound. I’m sure there is a SABR nerd who has the time to figure out the odds of that*, but we’ll go with this: they’re low. Very low.
Steve Bucci has your quotes: [Philly Sports Daily]
De Fratus was facing Cardinals centerfielder John Jay with two outs. He hung that slider, and Jay fouled it off — right into the waiting hands of Justin’s brother, Chris.
“He was sitting in the family section and he moved to get a better picture of me,” Justin said.
Perfect timing.
Nice work, D-Frat. Now, just pull up that hat so we can see your eyes.
*Maybe not. Moneyball, the story of one man's tactics that led a team to not win the World Series, comes out this week. I'd imagine most are pantsless in a windowless room somewhere.
