Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants has set a new major league record for seen pitches in an at-bat. In his 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels, he fought pitcher Jaime Barria for 21 pitches.
Belt hit 16 foul balls with two strikes before finally hitting a ball that went into the field after 12’45” – but into the glove of Angels-Right-Fielder Kole Calhoun for a lineout.
“I didn’t want to give up and neither did the pitcher,” Belt described the surreal sequence. “It was a good fight. If it helped me find my rhythm later in the game, it was worth it.”
Bottom line was Belt 3-5 with two runs and beat the home run to the meanwhile 4-0 for the Giants.
The previous record was held by Infielder Ricky Gutierrez of the Houston Astros. It came in 1998 on a 20-Pitch-At-Bat against Clevelands Bartolo Colon. Data collection, however, began in 1988.
Barria threw 49 pitches in the first inning against San Francisco and invited the bases. However, he managed to finish the inning without a run.
The At-Bat went on so long that Belt started to talk to Angels-Catcher Martin Maldonado at some point. “He actually said that he hated someone else doing something like this. Belt really said that,” Maldonado told reporters.
“When I’m in the field and someone else does something like that, I can’t stand it, but I didn’t want to give up,” Belt explained his conversation with Maldonado and added: “Basically I had to apologize to everyone afterwards.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.