Normal 2025 Pirates Moment: Before Coming Into Pitch, Reliever Dennis Santana Decided To Swing At a Fan Who Was Chirping Him In The Bullpen
It was your regular ol' Pittsburgh Pirates game until the 9th inning on Thursday evening. Paul Skenes showcased his incredible arsenal, left with the lead, and ended up with a no-decision after the bullpen couldn't do its job. Just your typical day that ends in "y" for the Buccos. The only wrinkle for this game was that one of their relievers attempted to fight a fan in the stands before coming into pitch. Only the Pirates, man. Here I thought the usher vs. fan fight from a month ago was gonna be rock bottom for their season, but I've been proven wrong.
Interesting enough, this appears to have been friendly fire with the fan rocking a Roberto Clemente jersey.
What's incredible about this moment is that Dennis Santana proceeded to come into the game to pitch after all that. You think the bullpen coach even bothered to say anything after manager Don Kelly called to see if Santana was ready to come in?
"Is Dennis good?"
"Well technically yes, but he just tried to hit a fan. Don't worry he missed and we pushed him away."
Probably easier to just say "yeah" and get him as far away from the fan as possible. Can't imagine Kelly was told what happened and still brought him in. That would be incredible.
No way to tell what was being said through the two videos above, but I feel like there are plenty of other guys more worthy of chirping on the team than a pitcher who has a 1.72 ERA in 31 innings. If copious amounts of alcohol weren't a factor here I'd be very surprised.
P.S. I'm laughing at the groundskeeper going back to raking the dirt after we nearly had a player punch a fan in the stands right in front of him. That guy is there to do his job and only that job. Someone has to rake the dirt amidst that chaos.
