Terry Francona Laughs About the Time Trevor Bauer Nearly Gave Him a Heart Attack

Reds manager Terry Francona appeared on The Mo Vaughn Podcast recently and shared had a laugh about the time Trevor Bauer tossed the ball over the center field wall before being pulled from the game.

For those who don't know the story, I will set the scene.

Trevor Bauer was on the mound against the Kansas City Royals in July of 2019. Francona was the manager of the Cleveland Guardians at the time. The inning started with Cleveland leading 5-3. After a couple of bloop hits and defensive miscues, the Royals took a 7-5 lead and Tito came out to remove Bauer from the game. While Francona was walking out, Bauer got the ball from the catcher and fired it over the center field wall.

"You know, Mo," Francona said. "I was yelling at him so hard down behind the dugout that I started getting a pain in my neck and I thought oh my God, I am having a heart attack. So I walked away and he kind of stood there and looked at me like 'are you done, are you not done, are you going to yell?' I just walked away because I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

Postgame Reaction

In baseball, it's the ultimate no-no to show up your manager when he comes out to the mound to remove you from the game.

Bauer apologized after the game.

“I want to be clear that my frustrations were with myself and my inability to stop the situation and keep my team in the game," Bauer said. "It was not directed at any of my teammates, even though I know that it came off that way. I love going to battle with my guys every day, and today I feel like I really let them down, both personally and professionally.

“I’m an intense competitor and that fire is what drives me, and today it completely consumed me, took over. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how I behaved. I’ll be better about it. It won’t happen again.”

Francona wasn't thrilled, but handled it with class with the media after the game.

“So many things went wrong in that inning,” he said. “We lose a ball in the sun, we get the tapper back to him. There’s a walk or two mixed in. Some hits and a couple balls that weren’t hit hard. It seemed like everything that could happen, did.”

You can see the full clip below. The full episode of The Mo Vaughn Podcast will release on Thursday.

Tito telling us how Trevor Bauer throwing the ball over the CF wall almost killed him is so damn funny 😂

The whole story and more on tomorrow episode of The Mo Vaughn Podcast. One of the best episodes yet!https://t.co/lNVByd6qUX pic.twitter.com/KIRP8z4Bct
— Will Burge (@WillBurge) February 11, 2026

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