Last night, as the Pirates set up a rout of their NL Central rival Reds in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh’s Rowdy Tellez pulled off a very rare personal feat.
During a 6-run first inning for the Bucs, Tellez stole a base for just the fourth time in his career.
That stolen base, which Tellez snagged uncontested (which might be the funniest part about all of this) actually ended up being pivotal. With him in scoring position, an outfield single by Nick Gonzales was able to bring Tellez home for the third run of the inning.
That stolen base by Tellez was just the fourth time in his big league career he stole a base. With yesterday’s game in the books, Tellez is 4-for-7 in stolen base attempts over his 598 major league games.
So naturally, the question arises: when were the three other times the big man successfully stole a base? Wonder no more my friends:
June 12th, 2019
Though the season before saw him make his major league debut, 2019 was really Rowdy’s breakout season in MLB with the Toronto Blue Jays. Here we also see the first stolen base of his majors career.
In a mid-June game that saw the Blue Jays visit the Baltimore Orioles, Tellez was tabbed as Toronto’s designated hitter. He had a tremendous day at the plate, going 2-for-5 with 4 RBI, which accounted for half of Toronto’s runs in that game.
One of those hits was a grand slam, hence the 4 RBI, but in the ninth inning Tellez hit an infield single to the shortstop to get on base. With Toronto’s Freddy Galvis at the plate, Tellez snagged second base before Gavlis would hit am infield popfly into foul territory to end the top of the ninth.
Unfortunately, extended highlights of this obscure game in the middle of June from five years ago are incredibly hard to find (gee, I can’t imagine why), and unfortunately I could not find any video of Tellez masterfully stealing that bag. However, the grand slam he recorded before that stolen base is pretty easily available:
August 5th, 2022
It would take over three years, a pandemic, and a change in residence before Rowdy Tellez would swipe another base. Now with the Milwaukee Brewers, his second career stolen base came on a day he was playing first base. Interestingly, Andrew McCutchen, now his teammate in Pittsburgh, was playing DH for the Brewers in this game.
Tellez went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout, but he made that solo hit count when he lifted it over the right field wall in American Family Field to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.
In the third inning, Tellez got on base for the second and final time in this game, drawing a leadoff walk off Cincinnati Reds starter Robert Dugger. He remained planted on first base until there were two outs in the inning, when he took off to steal another uncontested base.
Tellez was very happy with himself after the steal, but unfortunately it was all for not. Hunter Renfroe would strike out to end the inning. But nobody could ever take away the achievement Tellez had made!
September 8th, 2022
Perhaps still riding high from his stolen base less than a month prior, Tellez was destined to show he had one more up his sleeve.
In the second game of a double header against the San Francisco Giants, Tellez was back in the DH spot after filling in at first base for the Brewers in a 3-2 first game win.
He had a lot more quiet of a game this time around than in previous stolen base affairs, going 1-for-4 against the Giants with a single as his only hit, coming against Luis Ortiz (not the Pirates’ Ortiz) in the seventh inning. His lob to right field pushed Christian Yelich to third base with one out.
Keston Hiura hit a popfly into foul territory for the second out, and with the stakes raised in the seventh, Tellez hustled to nab second base to put two runners in scoring position. Sadly, it was for not; Víctor Caratini grounded out to the pitcher Ortiz to end the inning, stranding both Yelich and Tellez.
Sadly, similarly to the first game, highlights of his stolen base were hard to come by. It’s like the internet doesn’t even care about these legendary moments!
Stat Lines With Stolen Bases
Perhaps the craziest part about all of this is Tellez’s stat line in games he has stolen a base.
In four games in his major league career in which Rowdy has snagged a bag, he is 6 for 16 (for a .375 batting average) with 7 RBI and 2 home runs.
In four games in his major league career in which Rowdy has snagged a bag, he is 6 for 16 (for a .375 batting average) with 3 walks, 7 RBI and 2 home runs. For reference, that’s a 283 RBI, 81 home run pace.
He also has exactly one strikeout in every game he has successfully stolen a base, and has a walk in 3/4 of those games.
(Featured photo by Scott Galvin/USA Today Sports)
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