River Cats reliever rips a double? Let us explain

The advent of the universal designated hitter has made what happened Saturday night in Sacramento something mirroring a lunar-like event: a pitcher digging into the batter’s box.

But Chris Wright isn’t just any pitcher, he’s a relief pitcher. To further ramp up the oddity of the moment, for one night only, he was also the Triple-A River Cats’ starting left fielder.

You’ve heard of the emergency catcher, a scenario that almost never arises. Position players pitching? A fairly common occurrence. But with planned starting outfielder Luis Matos a late scratch, Sacramento needed someone to take some cuts and shag fly balls in left.

Surely, with the high propensity of two-way players that have emerged in years past, Wright is one of that ilk. Not so. The 24-year-old southpaw hadn’t logged a plate appearance since his junior year at Bryant University in 2019.

So it wasn’t terribly surprising to see him strike out -- from the leadoff spot -- in his first at-bat; more than four years off from facing live pitching is enough to mess up anyone’s timing. But it was what happened in his second at-bat with a 1-2 count in the third inning of the River Cats' 6-5 loss to the Rainiers that was the stuff of Minor League lore.

Facing Tacoma left-hander Logan Allen -- who has 33 big league appearances under his belt -- Wright took a rip at the first breaking ball that he saw all night and swatted it over right fielder Zach DeLoach’s head, landing on the warning track and one-hopping the wall.

After 121 appearances in the pros as a pitcher, Wright needed just two at-bats to collect his first hit. And upon jogging in standing, while wearing a shin guard to boot, he even had the team celebration ready to be deployed. As the Sacramento broadcast team pointed out:

“They were playing him a little shallow in right field, they didn’t do their research on his college batting prowess.”

When you need a 2-Way STUD pic.twitter.com/x9ajUzbxQx

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 20, 2023

Over three seasons at Bryant, Wright actually was quite the two-way contributor, finishing as a semi-finalist for the John Olerud two-way player award in 2019. The native of Providence, R.I., hit .295 with a .399 on-base percentage over three seasons in the Northeast Conference while emerging as the club’s closer in his final year on campus.

That the Giants are the club involved in such two-way hijinks is maybe the baseball universe’s full-circle way of tying things together.

Reggie Crawford, whom San Francisco selected with its first-round pick in 2022, has received the green light to carry on his two-way duties as he makes his way through the system. (MLB Pipeline, who ranks Crawford as the team's No. 8 prospect, believes his future solely lies on the mound, especially as he moves to higher levels.) The club’s first-rounder this year, Bryce Eldridge, No. 4 on their Top 30, has long been a first base/pitching standout, although he’s yet to make his pro debut on the hill despite a torrid start at the dish in the Arizona Complex League.

Wright was replaced prior to the top of the fifth, leaving him with a .500 average and 1.500 OPS to his credit.