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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

MLB fans loved what Adley Rutschman told Shintaro Fujinami after a missed call ended the game

Adley Rutschman Shintaro Fujinami Orioles Ron Kulpa Trayce Thompson

The Baltimore Orioles have the American League’s best record, and they cruised to an easy win on Monday night against the White Sox. But you have to appreciate the honesty from Orioles reliever Shintaro Fujinami.

He knew they won the game on a generous call.

With the Orioles up by nine runs in the ninth inning, Fujinami got two quick outs and went ahead 0-2 against pinch hitter Trayce Thompson. That was when Fujinami went with an 85 mph sweeper just off the plate outside, but home plate umpire Ron Kulpa rung up Thompson on strikes to end the game.

The pitch looked outside enough to have Fujinami asking catcher Adley Rutschman if it was actually a strike.

I mean, that exchange was so wholesome.

Fujinami seemed convinced that the pitch was outside (it was), but Rutschman appeared to say something like, “No, it was beautiful.” To be fair, it was a nice pitch, and you can’t really blame Kulpa for calling the pitch a strike in that situation (0-2 count, two outs in the ninth of a 9-0 game). It was a “let’s go home” kind of call.

Fans enjoyed that postgame conversation as well. Every pitcher needs a supportive teammate like Rutschman. He wanted Fujinami to focus on the great pitch and not the call.

This was how Twitter reacted

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