Babe Ruth. Kendall Graveman. It would seem as though the only thing both players would have in common was that they were both pitchers, but Graveman joined Ruth by batting cleanup for the Oakland A’s the other day.
It would make sense that the last pitcher to hit cleanup prior to this year was Babe Ruth. After all, the Yankees pitcher turned outfielder was the premier slugger of his day, and one of the top power threats in baseball history. Considering Ruth went on to hit 54 home runs that year, it makes sense that the Yankees would have put him in a position.
Then there is Oakland A’s pitcher Kendall Graveman. Not only has Graveman never hit a home run, but he has had all of one major league at bat. That at bat happened on Wednesday, when Graveman was slotted in the cleanup spot. Even stranger, this at bat happened in Yankee Stadium, instead of a National League park.
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The story of Graveman’s at bat is a bit interesting. Danny Valencia, the starting third baseman, left the game in the fourth inning due to a hamstring injury. With that injury, second baseman Chris Coghlan moved from second to third, and designated hitter Jed Lowrie took over at second. As that cost the A’s their DH, Graveman was then put into the batting order, in the cleanup spot, where Valencia had been slated to hit.
His first, and thus far only, at bat took place in the fifth inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Graveman had a chance to give himself quite a bit of breathing room and expand the A’s 3-1 lead. Instead, in what was an relatively anticlimactic moment against Nathan Eovaldi, Graveman struck out on three pitches. At least he went down swinging.
Next: Five closers on the hot seat
It’s not every day that one sees a pitcher hitting cleanup. Heck, it’s not even something that one sees every century, or had ever seen in the history of the Oakland A’s organization previously. But on Wednesday night, Kendall Graveman found himself forever linked to Babe Ruth due to his first career at bat.