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Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow are fond of saying that a great thing about baseball is that, on any given day, you see something you’ve never seen before. The Colorado Rockies apparently took that as a challenge on Thursday.
In the seventh inning of their game against the San Francisco Giants, starting pitcher Kyle Freeland came out to the mound, then promptly turned around, jogged off the field, and darted into the clubhouse (initial reaction: we’ve all been there, buddy. Maybe have something different for lunch tomorrow.).
It turned out that Freeland had snapped his belt, and needed to pop into the Coors Field Banana Republic store for some replacement leather.
That was weird enough as is, but why settle for “weird” when you can opt for “weirder?” Seeing that Freeland had departed his post, reliever Yency Almonte — who was warming up — came running onto the field like a college freshman who got lost on the first day and is 10 minutes late to class.
This justifiably confused Rockies manager Bud Black which, in turn, justifiably confused Giants manager Gabe Kapler. The confusion confused Almonte, who eventually realized he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and hightailed it back to the bullpen like a college freshman who got lost on the first day and is 10 minutes late to class but goes into the wrong classroom.
Kyle Freeland broke a belt buckle before the seventh, so he came to the dugout for a new one. Yency Almonte ran all the way to the infield thinking he was in for relief. He had to run back to the pens. Gabe Kapler called shenanigans. Game is back now. #baseball
— Nick Groke (@nickgroke) August 6, 2020
Freeland then returned, looking fresh and dapper with his new outfit, gave up three runs in a matter of minutes, and was replaced by Almonte.
Baseball!