The longest at-bat in MLB history, a breakdown

Mar 15, 2021 3.6M views 4:37

MLB St. Louis Cardinals 2021

What Happened

In a March 2021 spring training game, Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks faced Mets prospect Guillermo Heredia (referred to as 'Guillerme' in the video) in his first appearance after two years off due to injury and COVID. The at-bat stretched to 22 pitches as Heredia kept fouling off Hicks' 100 mph sinkers, sliders, and changeups. Jomboy breaks down each pitch sequence, noting Hicks went three sinkers then three sliders, mixed in changeups, and even had two strike-three foul tips dropped by catcher Yadier Molina. Heredia eventually drew a walk, ending the longest at-bat in MLB history, though it doesn't count toward the regular season record of 21 pitches.

Why This Matters

The 22-pitch at-bat went viral because it scrambled the usual spring training script. Hicks was just stretching out his arm in February-style low-stakes work, but he couldn't put Heredia away. The big detail Jomboy flags: a scoreboard glitch had everyone thinking the count was further along than it was, since a foul tip got mistaken for ball four. Because it's exhibition baseball, the official MLB regular-season record stays at 21 pitches, held by Brandon Belt against Jaime Barria in 2018. For Hicks, the start mattered as proof his velocity survived Tommy John surgery and a year away. He still hit 100 on the gun. The Mets dugout celebrating a walk like a walk-off captures exactly why spring training can be more fun than anyone expects.

With 3.6M views, this breakdown ranks #35 of 1,583 in Jomboy's catalog, landing in the top 2.2% of everything he's ever posted.

Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Jordan Hicks. Teams: Cardinals.

Key Terms Mentioned

Manager Ejection

it is the at-bat of spring training

everyone's talking about it i was on

vacation when it happened now i'm back i

got to take a look i'm excited this

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laughs Jordan Hicks is on the bump for

the cardinals

he hasn't pitched in two years injury

and then covid

and he hasn't seen a batter in two years

it's spring training so he's just gonna

take it nice and easy throw some

fastballs twirl some sliders

see what he's got nothing too strong

nothing too serious first pitch

100 miles per hour out of the gun strike

one

second pitch nasty slider 89 miles per

hour oh and two here's those two pitches

overlaid

how are you ever going to make the

adjustment well you'll see because

guillermo is about to make the adjustion

adjustment a million times he goes

another fastball fouled back then

another slider

fouled back and he goes back to the

fastball ball

one and two five pitches deep we're

having an at-bat

okay another fastball he fouls that one

back another fastball he fouls that one

back so three fastballs in a row he goes

to the slider

he fouled back slider again three is

slider

puts it down fouls that one down the

first baseline nice play by the first

base coach

now he goes another slider and that's

failed back so he went

three sinkers in a row then three

sliders in a row

guillermo is just fouling everything

back that's high he goes matrix style

chills out count evens up at two and two

go back to the fastball again that i

thought was a ball it's actually

the scoreboard thought it was a ball but

it was actually a foul tip

so now yachty goes do you want to throw

the fastball no you want to throw the

slider no you want to throw the change

up okay

hicks says i want to throw the change up

guillerme throws his bat at that one

that dude misses the ball your one job

is to catch that ball and you didn't do

it

change up didn't fool him goes back to

the slider now this guy shows him how

it's done and that's how you protect the

bullpen mound

yeah yeah the bench is starting to get

super excited we're 14 pitches deep

yachty's like dude what do you want to

throw i mean it's your first appearance

what's everyone think like let's just

throw fastballs and get out of here like

nah i want to get this guy out so

first he's got to check out his

fingertips see if they're still working

still working i mean 14 pitches is a

hell of an at-bat

he goes back to a hundred mile per hour

now dom is loving it

alonso's loving it banging the railing

screaming

let's [ __ ] go let's go all right

he goes back to the changeup and gearme

just throws the bat at it and spoils it

again now he's laughing because he's

like this

is funny i don't know how i'm doing this

17th pitch of the at-bat

foul back that could have been strike

three if yaddy hangs on to it but he

doesn't

gang on to it let's go

18th pitch he goes back to the slider

and that's fouled back and alonso is

fired up top of the step

19th pitch he goes to the slider again

fouled back everyone's cheering again

now they're saying like get up

get up you're witnessing something cool

everyone get up and one fan gets up

one fan gets up gotta work on that the

mets gotta work on that a little bit oh

so that is ball three but because of the

foul tip from earlier everyone thought

that was ball four

so dom's face when he finds out that

that wasn't ball four he's like what

what there was only two balls

the bat's still going 21st pitch

is a slider fouled back alonzo screaming

they're dancing in the dugout 22nd pitch

he

takes he spits on the slider alonso's

cheering again

and that is the longest at bat in mlb

history

but it's just spring training 21 is

still the record for regular season

and they got to take him out because

they were only going to throw like 22

pitches in the inning

his whole inning was used up on one

batter Jordan Hicks was like okay

that was crazy if there was a one batter

minimum rule you'd have to face two more

batters but it's spring training no one

really cares

that's about as fun and wild as it gets

i mean

for a walk walks usually aren't

celebrated like this but look at these

guys

looking like they just won big at

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and celebrate just like them wouldn't

that be fun

gear may i did a breakdown of him when

he pitched last year and i think he

liked it

so me and gearme good friends sup dude