Hunter Pence goes insane after Johnny Cueto's two-run bunt
On Thursday night, San Francisco Giants right fielder Hunter Pence briefly lost his mind. And he had good reason to. With one bunt, pitcher Johnny Cueto turned the Giants’ one-run lead to a three-run lead. Though it wasn’t really a two-run bunt. Johnny Cueto bunted and the runs scored on an error, though it looked like a bunch of errors.
Before we look at Pence losing his brain, let’s look at the play that caused it. Cueto was batting in the sixth inning with runners on first and second, and the bunt he laid down was a really good one. It rolled between the mound and the third base line, and it was too quick for the pitcher to get to it. But Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado didn’t realize that, and so he had to hustle to get to it.
Arenado did manage to grab the ball, but the throw he made to first was offline and it shot past the bag. It bounced off the railing in front of the stands and was eventually picked up by right fielder Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez looked like he was going to make a throw home, but thought better of it once he saw that both Giants runners had scored.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]
This whole time, Hunter Pence was watching from the dugout and going absolutely crazy from excitement. His ritual was so complicated that I had to break it down. Allow me to present to you the the many stages of Hunter Pence excitement:
STAGE I: The shaking of the teammate
He’s so excited and he wants someone else to feel it too! It’s like he thinks, for just a second, that his excitement can be transferred via grabbing and shaking.
STAGE II: Peppy jumping
Pence is jumping the same way I did when I went to see the Backstreet Boys in concert when I was in middle school, so we have that in common. I also love the windmilling arm of the guy behind him, since it looks like he’s winding Pence up to make him go.
STAGE III: Excited bellowing
Pence’s hair starts to shake and bop around as he yells, which adds a whole new dimension of ridiculousness to this. Does Pence have a name for his hair monster? Or his beard? I think he should.
STAGE IV: Wild arm motions
Here is when Pence’s brain completely stops working and his arms and hands start to act on their own. He starts with the “safe” arm motion, but then he tells the baserunners to keep going. It looks like he’s doing a weird dance or he’s doing the crazy person signal at his own head.
STAGE V: Head-grabbing
He doesn’t really grab his head, he mostly grabs his hair. But he’s flabbergasted by what’s happened, and can you blame him?
STAGE VI: The final cheer
The process has run its course and the rest of Pence’s internal excitement escapes in this big cheer. Six separate reactions in ten seconds seems exhausting.
Considering the position the Giants are in right now, that’s totally the reaction I’d expect from Pence and his teammates. They’re locked in a tight race with the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot, so every single win counts. Those runs padded the Giants’ lead, and they won 7-2. This wild-card race is gonna come down to the wire, folks.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – –
Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
