Pat Venditte makes major league debut, confuses everyone

The switch pitcher has arrived. Oakland Athletics reliever Pat Venditte, who can throw as both a lefty and a righty, made his major league debut on Friday night in Boston.

Of course, this isn’t exactly a situation you see every day, so we saw some interesting things happen over the course of the day.

Earlier in the day when Venditte was called up, Oakland labeled him an “SHP” on Twitter as opposed to an LHP or RHP.

Venditte also got his name colored in blue on the A’s lineup card, just like switch hitters do.

NESN had some fun when Venditte was warming up in the bullpen, showing him throwing from both sides in a split screen.

Venditte faced one left-handed hitter, four right-handed hitters, and one switch hitter, Red Sox catcher Blake Swihart.

The rules state that Venditte must “declare” what arm he’s using to pitch at the beginning of the plate appearance, and then the batter must “declare” what side of the plate he’s hitting from, and neither side can switch during the at bat.

Considering the left-handed Brock Holt was the first hitter Venditte faced before four straight right-handers, it’s no wonder there was some confusion on Swihart’s end.

Venditte ended up throwing two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, striking out one, and getting a double play while throwing 28 pitches.