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Orioles Announcers Said a Red Sox Hitter Couldn't Be Walked, Guess What Happened Next

Eventually it had to happen.

Kyle Koster

Ceddanne Rafaela hadn't drawn a walk in 160 plate appearances.
Ceddanne Rafaela hadn't drawn a walk in 160 plate appearances. / MASN
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The Baltimore Orioles were already down 3-0 to the Boston Red Sox in the top of the ninth inning on Wednesday night so any additional insurance runs would have made their task in the bottom of the frame even harder. O's reliever Cionel Perez found himself pitching to Ceddanne Rafaela with two on and one out, needing a double play to get out of the frame and minimize the damage. The good news, according to Baltimore broadcasters Kevin Brown and Jim Palmer, was that Rafaela was nearly impossible to walk so attacking the strike zone would pay off.

"This is a guy you can't walk," Brown said. "Rafaela is 160 plate appearances without one now."

"Well, he doesn't walk, you walk him," Palmer added.

By now you probably know what happened as this conversation played out—Perez misfired with four straight pitches to break Rafaela's streak and load the bases.

Now, some people would have you believe that the announcer's jinx is not real and they'd be very correct. But it's still funny whenever things line up like this.

The good news for the Orioles is that they were able to get out of the inning with a double play. The bad is they failed to push any runs across in the bottom of the ninth and lost, 3-0.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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