Lawrence Butler of the Athletics went to extreme lengths to not hustle during a game against the Tigers on Tuesday. Butler came to the plate with one on and no out in the bottom of the eighth in a tie game and hit a towering pop fly.
Butler, who came into the game hitting .208 on the season, swung at the first pitch he saw and popped it up so high the announcer to commented it would have been a "home run in a silo."
A dejected Butler wandered around home plate waiting for the ball to be caught. Except it wasn't. None of the Tigers were able to settle under it and it dropped halfway between home plate and the pitcher's mound.
The ball had been in the air for approximately seven seconds by the time it dropped and all Butler had done was haphazardly walk towards the dugout. Pitcher Troy Melton picked the ball up and fired it to second to get the lead runner and then it was thrown to first for a double play as Butler had basically shut it down as soon as he hit the ball.
it took 10 seconds for lawrence butler to get to first base pic.twitter.com/4kfPgsDpql
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 27, 2025
Butler recently told an interviewer that he was "fed up" with umpires because they "don't give a f---."
Compare this to what happened in the Red Sox-Orioles game on Tuesday. David Hamilton hit a pop fly with two outs and everyone ran hard. When the ball dropped Hamilton ended up on second with a two-run double.
Oh no pic.twitter.com/Gfag7vpC8M
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 27, 2025
Amazingly, neither play affected the outcome of either game. The Red Sox were already winning and never gave up a run and the Athletics ended up winning in the 10th inning.
Butler even worked a walk in a six pitch at-bat to set up the walk-off walk and got to celebrate with his teammates.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Athletics Outfielder’s Shocking Lack of Hustle Leads to Double Play.
