Hunter Greene may have given a new meaning to the phrase boot and rally.
The Reds pitcher was clearly battling something when he took the mound in the top of the first inning on Tuesday night in what became a Cincinnati loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park.
Greene had walked the first batter of the game on six pitches to start the first inning.
On just the second batter of the game, Greene wound up hurling after throwing the first pitch to Bryan Reynolds.
Greene (5-3) got through a three-run, 32-pitch first inning and managed to last four innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
“Nobody really knows (what caused it) but it is a lot of liquid built up in my system,” Greene said. “The only way it seems to come out is by vomiting. It just sits on my chest. No one wants to go out and get sick. After that I did a good job of getting ahead of hitters but didn’t do a good job of putting them away.”
It was the second straight start where Greene had thrown up, with the first time also coming against the Pirates, but the Reds pitcher explained that it occurred because he drank too much weather.
“I definitely hydrated too much,” Greene said at the time, according to the Cincinnati Inquirer.
During Tuesday night’s incident, the team trainer came out and checked on Greene along with his teammates.
There was a brief injury delay before the game continued.
Greene had entered Tuesday’s game with a 5-2 record and a 3.35 ERA with a 1.117 WHIP and a 3.0 WAR.
He had exceeded 100 pitches in seven consecutive starts.
Pitchers becoming ill on the mound is nothing new and it has happened in the past in Major League Baseball, with it occurring to Dylan Bundy at Yankee Stadium in 2021 in nearly 100-degree weather.
The Pirates (38-41) moved a game ahead of the Reds (37-42) in the NL wild-card race.
The Padres (43-41) would hold the final NL wild-card spot if the season ended today.
— with AP
