With the pitch clock winding down, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras made an interesting decision during Saturday’s 5-1 win against the Minnesota Twins.
Contreras realized his grip tape was beginning to come apart near the bottom of his bat during an at-bat that had a full count. In a split-second decision, Contreras decided to utilize his teeth to unroll the tape and tear it off.
The Cardinals slugger had previously used his lone timeout earlier in the at-bat and the pitch clock was at 11 seconds. With that in mind, Contreras decided his unwind the tape and put it in his mouth rather than his pocket.
Contreras ended up striking out on the next pitch, but knew it was a questionable decision.
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“That was a bad taste, really bad,” Contreras said after the game. “I don’t try to put [pine tar or sticky spray] on my [bat], but it was disgusting. It was a bad taste.”
The Cardinals catcher revealed it was the first time he had been forced to put batting tape in his mouth.
“With this clock, you have to do things that are out of your control, and I had to do that instead of striking out,” Contreras added. “Well, I struck out anyways, but I’d rather strike out swinging rather than by the clock.
“I don’t think [chewing the tape] was a bad thing to do, but I was just running out of time. I had no time.”
After a strong spring, Contreras has had a rough start to the regular season. He went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in Saturday’s game and has yet to record a hit in three games.
