Josh Donaldson nearly hurting himself thinking he needed to get out of the way of a Rick Porcello pitch in the 9th inning, only to realize it was a breaking ball and he didn't, was the most embarrassing thing to be captured on tape of anyone wearing A's gear on Sunday. (Yes, way more embarrassing than the young A's fan who threw a foul ball back after his Dad gave it to him as a present from a stranger.)
Donaldson is a grown man playing a professional baseball game and this should never happen to the former in the latter:
They don't call them knee-buckling breaking balls for nothin', but you don't often see them resulting in the hitter falling to his knees, hand saving him from falling completely over, and possibly hurting himself.
Mario Impemba said during the telecast he doesn't think he's ever seen something like it before. A quick google search gives me a similar result to Alexei Ramirez, but there's no hint of injury after. Donaldson got so jelly legged, he couldn't hold himself up, falling to the dirt in shame. He was then slow to get up and clearly wincing before daring to dig back in.
It will be even more embarrassing for Donaldson when his teammates rib him by playing it in the clubhouse and Donaldson realizes Porcello's breaking ball wasn't *that* nasty. I mean, it was definitely good, but probably not test-the-strength-of-the-hitter's-ACLs good. Sharp nonetheless.
I'm really happy for Porcello, too. No matter what he does in his career now, he shall always be remembered for making not one but now TWO grown men look foolish.
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