LOS ANGELES – Scott Schebler hit the game-winning home run on Saturday, but Sunday morning he was apologizing.
“I get it,” Schebler shouted across the Reds clubhouse to Tucker Barnhart. “I got out and you didn’t get to face him. Geez Louise, I’m sorry.”
With Dodgers switch-pitcher Pat Venditte on the mound in the sixth- and seventh innings Saturday night, there were plenty of people who wanted to see how a switch-pitcher facing a switch-hitter would work. Barnhart is one of three switch-hitters on the Reds roster, but none of them faced Venditte in Saturday’s 5-2 victory.
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“I was ready for it,” said Billy Hamilton, another switch-hitter who got into the game after Venditte was finished. “I didn’t know if the guy was going to throw right-handed or left-handed. I was pretty pumped by it, too.”
Alas, with Scooter Gennett on second and Eugenio Suárez on first, Schebler lined out to end the inning, leaving Barnhart and his extra helmet in the on-deck circle.
Because he’s a switch-hitter, Barnhart has one helmet with a right ear flap and another with a left ear flap. He wore his right-handed hitting helmet (the left ear flap) on deck and swung the bat right-handed.
Venditte has to tell the batter and umpire which hand he’s going to throw with before every at-bat, so the decision isn’t as much in the hitters’ hands as Venditte’s.
Hamilton said he started asking questions – to Barnhart, to bench coach Pat Kelly and assistant pitching coach Derrin Ebert – about just how it would work.
According to Major League Baseball Rule 5.07(f):
(f ) Ambidextrous Pitchers
A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher’s plate. The pitcher is not permitted to pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, the batter becomes a runner, the inning ends, the batter is substituted for by a pinch-hitter or the pitcher incurs an injury. In the event a pitcher switches pitching hands during an at-bat because he has suffered an injury, the pitcher may not, for the remainder of the game, pitch with the hand from which he has switched. The pitcher shall not be given the opportunity to throw any preparatory pitches after switching pitching hands. Any change of pitching hands must be indicated clearly to the umpire-in-chief.
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All three Reds switch-hitters – Barnhart, Hamilton and Rosell Herrera – said they’d bat opposite of whatever Venditte pitched.
“(Barnhart and I) feel better from one side than the other side,” Hamilton said. “Like, I’m pretty sure the other team knows. You come in the game, ‘if Billy comes up, you want to throw right-handed because he feels better right-handed than left-handed. Tucker’s the opposite because he hits better left-handed than right-handed.'”
Barnhart had a good idea that Venditte would pitch left-handed to him, forcing him to bat right-handed. At least, that’s what Venditte did in 2014 when he was in the Yankees organization and faced Barnhart while the Reds catcher was playing for Triple-A Louisville. Barnhart hit a two-run single in the 2014 game.
“Once you’re in the box, it’s normal,” Barnhart said. “It’s getting there and having to be told which way he’s pitching, which arm he’s throwing with. It’s interesting.”
(Top image: Pat Venditte throwing right-handed by Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)
