To say New York Mets shortstop Luis Guillorme earned his fifth-inning walk would be an understatement.
After going down 0-2 in the count to St. Louis Cardinals righty Jordan Hicks, Guillorme worked a 22-pitch at-bat to take a free path to first.
Guillorme fouled off 16 pitches, including nine straight before getting Ball 4, and it wasn’t easy. He saw 10 pitches that were 99 mph or above throughout the at-bat, according to pitch-tracking data.
“It’s pretty cool,” Guillorme said after the Mets’ 7-5 win on Sunday night. “I’m just happy I ended up with the walk because if I would’ve gotten out that would’ve been not fun for me. All that work for nothing. But, you know, it’s pretty cool.”
Hicks did everything he could to get the out, mixing in fastballs that clocked as high as 101.4 mph with sliders that ranged from 83.2 to 91.9 mph, and a couple of changeups.
It was a rude welcome back to the mound for Hicks, who was facing his first batter since 2019. The 24-year-old reliever had Tommy John surgery in 2019 and opted out of the 2020 season. Hicks was removed after the Guillorme at-bat.
The inning didn’t go much better for the rest of the Cardinals pitching staff, as the next two batters after Guillorme were hit, as was a third batter in a five-run fifth for the Mets.