[imagesource: NBC Sports]

27-year-old rookie pitcher Jake Brentz makes $570 500 per year playing for the Kansas City Royals.

That’s significantly less than some of his teammates (Salvador Perez will earn around $14 million), but he’s not exactly going hungry.

As a pitcher, and especially as a pitcher for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, your job is to throw the ball with venom and vigour, which you hope will be followed by the sound of it smacking into the catcher’s gloves at home plate.

Brentz failed on both accounts during the Royals’ match against the Oakland Athletics last Tuesday, hurling the ball into the ground just in front of him.

Worse still, this took place on his birthday.

It was quickly dubbed the worst pitch in MLB history, and that seems pretty accurate:

I think this GIF just about sums it up:

Jake Brentz just did this with a pitch pic.twitter.com/6FXSiLWdOb

— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) September 15, 2021

As embarrassing as his gaffe would have been, Brentz came back strongly.  The New York Post reports that he struck Starling Marte out two pitches later, worked a perfect inning, and earned his fifth win of the season.

Sweet, sweet redemption.

You just know his teammates will show him the pitch time and time again over the course of the season, though.

[source:nypost]