Based off his recent stint as a member of the Boston Red Sox, nobody would ever mistake Pablo Sandoval for a "do-it-all" guy. But on Monday, in his second year back as a San Francisco Giant, Sandoval literally did it all, joining one of the most elite groups in the history of the MLB.
In the top of the second inning of the Giants' road game against the Cincinnati Reds, Sandoval, who is not exactly fleet of foot, stole third base, his first stolen bag since 2012, his only stolen base that season. He's only stolen 12 for his entire career, so the swiped bag was equally as incredible of a feat for Panda as the one that put him in rarified air.
Later in the game, with the Giants trailing 7-1, Sandoval hit his third homer of the year, a three-run shot that cut the lead to 7-4. It would end up being the last time San Francisco scored all game, and the Reds immediately began to pile on, going up 12-4 in the bottom of the sixth.
Two innings later, with the game well out of reach and the Giants having exhausted their bullpen, Sandoval was then called on to pitch, which added to one of the greatest Twitter threads there is:
Amazingly, Sandoval pitched a clean inning, needing only 10 pitches to do so and getting out of it with an inning-ending double play:
Sandoval ended the game with a homer, a stolen base and a scoreless inning pitched, something that had not been done in the MLB in 114 years.... 114 YEARS! The last time it happened was in 1905, and it was a San Francisco Giant who accomplished the feat against the Cincinnati Reds. As preposterous as that sounds, it's true according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson threw nine shutout innings, smacked a homer and stole a bag on May 23, 1905.
This marks the second time Sandoval has pitched in his career, and the second time he's thrown a scoreless inning. So far in his pitching career he's faced six batters, given up zero hits and zero runs and hit one batter. He may have missed his real calling.
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