It’s been an interesting couple of weeks when it comes to the Chicago Cubs and remarkably slow pitches. Last month, shortstop Andrelton Simmons filled in on the mound and set a Major League Baseball record for the slowest pitch ever to result in a swinging strike — one that crossed the plate at just 44.9 miles per hour.
When the Cubs played the Yankees on Sunday, another Cubs player also set a record for a slow pitch. This one didn’t work out for the Cubs, unfortunately. In the eighth inning, Frank Schwindel pitched at 35.1 miles per hour to the Yankees’ Kyle Higashioka — who promptly hit it for a home run, bringing the Yankees’ lead over Chicago to 18-4.
This wasn’t Higashioka’s first home run for the game, either — he’d hit his first one in the third inning. And, like Simmons, Schwindel is not normally a pitcher; a first baseman by trade, he was brought in at that point in the game due to the poor showing of the Cubs’ bullpen.
As Yahoo! Sports notes, it was a particularly harrowing game for Cubs starter Keegan Thompson, who left the game before the first inning was over. The Yankees scored five runs each in both the first and seventh innings.
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