It was just an exhibition, so nothing from the Mets’ 7-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday will count as more than a fun eccentricity. But Luis Guillorme of the Mets did something that could be unprecedented: he saw 22 pitches in a single lap on the board.
The strange event came on the fifth entry in Port St. Lucie, Florida, against Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks. Guillorme was left behind in a summoned coup and a rocking coup. Then, over 20 shots, he hit 16 fouls and hit four shots out of the hitting zone, earning a satisfying prank for the first while teammates burst out laughing.
“I’m happy to be done with the hike, because if I had left, it wouldn’t have been fun for me – all that work for nothing,” said Guillorme. “It is very cool.”
Since the pitch count data became official in 1988, the largest number of pitches in a single board presentation is 21, from Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants against Jaime Barria of the Los Angeles Angels in 2018. This resulted in a flyout.
The twist on Sunday was that Hicks was making his first appearance in a game since June 2019, just before undergoing Tommy John surgery. It was also the first day that the referees would be applying the three-hit rule for pitchers in spring training. The Cardinals planned to use Hicks for just 20 or more shots.
“I thought, before the inning, ‘What happens if he has high pitch counts?'” Said Cardinals manager Mike Shildt. “This was answered immediately.”
Hicks was unhurt, but Shildt and a coach successfully appealed to the referees to let their workday end after an exhausting duel. Hicks, who played 105 miles an hour as a rookie in 2018, said he planned to launch his slider on Sunday when he won the count. He did a lot of blows, but he said it could have been clearer.
“It is there enough to receive a lot of dirty balls,” said Hicks, “but it is not there yet as my elimination pitch.”
Guillorme, a reserve field player with 0.333 strokes last season, made sure of that. Like unlikely feats of spring training, he said, Sunday’s is still behind his obstacle with a hand from a wandering club while watching from the bench in 2017. All he wanted to do, said Guillorme, was to get it right a ball in the middle.
“I was just trying to get the pipe out there and put the ball in play,” he said. “I was not trying to do much.”
What he did was perhaps enough to set a record – not officially, at least. When he hit again on Sunday, Guillorme did not come close to repeating.
“But it’s fascinating,” said Shildt. “The guy is next on the hit, he lines up on the first shot. But this is baseball. “