Give A.J. Pierzynski credit for trying, at least.
When Atlanta Braves pitcher David Aardsma hopped a ball to the plate in the eighth inning Monday night, Pierzynski turned in one of the most shameless sell jobs you'll ever see from a catcher. He framed up the pitch like it were a strike, held it there to show the ump and looked at him like, "come on, this is totally a strike."
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Nevermind that the pitch bounced a few feet before the plate. Nope, A.J. tried to sell this sucker as a strike. Pierzynski is more jokester than bona fide pitch framer — in fact, he ranks as one of the worst catchers in MLB this season *at getting extra strikes, according to Baseball Prospectus — so we're guessing he found a moment to have fun and went with it.
This wasn't Pierzynski's best moment of the night, though. That came when he hit a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to tie Atlanta's game with the San Francisco Giants. The Braves went on to win 9-8 in 12 innings, completing a comeback after being down 6-0.*
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Pierzynski may not have helped his pitcher steal a strike with his frame job, but he helped his team steal a win, and that matters quite a bit more.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz