Orioles Rookie's First Career Base Hit Turns Into Ridiculous Clown Show

The Orioles and Blue Jays are currently playing a series that has no significance whatsoever to the greater baseball universe. The only reason to have these games is so such-and-such youngster can get his first taste of life in the majors. In this case the youngster is Orioles rookie outfielder DJ Stewart, and “life in the majors” means benefiting from the hilariously sloppy defense of the Toronto Blue Jays:

The clown show started with a hard single to right field. Teammate Chris Davis chugged from first to third on the hit, drawing a strong but wild throw from outfielder Billy McKinney. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made an attempt to cut off the throw, but the ball deflected off his glove and into shallow left field. This gave Stewart second base. Davis, who’d made it into third standing up, continued right on chugging toward home. But the excitement wasn’t done! Pitcher Aaron Sanchez, backing up at third base, chased the ball down and fired home to try to get slow-ass Davis, and might’ve had him with an accurate throw, but his throw bounced away and into the Orioles dugout. Stewart, who by that time was already well on his way to third, was granted the extra base by the ball going out of play.

Whew! The fun little league dinger goes down as a plain old single, with an error by McKinney on the throw from right field, and an error by Sanchez on the throw from right field. And this was Stewart’s first career hit in the majors! I’m sure he’ll have no trouble recalling it years from now, but unlike the majority of first hits, this will be a story worth telling.