Pirates second baseman Rodolfo Castro may have taken his “call up” to the Majors on Tuesday a bit too literally.
During the fourth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks, the Pittsburgh infielder lost his phone out of his back pocket while sliding headfirst into third base.
Castro, who was called up from Triple A Indianapolis earlier in the evening, got on base via a walk earlier in the inning. He was able to make his way for third on Oneil Cruz‘s single but the impact of his slide into the bag sent his phone flying from out of his pocket.
Third base umpire Adam Hamari immediately saw the phone and made Castro aware of it resting on the ground next to third base. The 23-year-old then handed the phone to third-base coach Mike Rebelo before the inning continued.
After the game, Castro said that keeping the phone with him on the basepaths was unintentional. He explained that he put his oven mitt-like sliding glove in his pocket but had forgotten to remove the phone before going up to the plate.
“I don’t think there’s any professional ballplayer that would ever go out there with any intentions of taking a cellphone,” Castro told Pittsburgh media members through an interpreter, per the AP. “It’s horrible it happened to me. Obviously, it was very unintentional.”
Castro was technically in violation of MLB’s regulation that prohibits electronic devices on the field or in the dugout. It remains unknown if he will face any further discipline from the league, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
Castro finished the game without a hit in four at-bats during the Pirates’ 6–4 loss to the Diamondbacks.
“My first day back, if I was to be the center of attention, I would want it to be helping the team win, but never in this form,” Castro said, according to AP. “This is definitely something that was an accident, a mistake, something I’m going to learn from. But definitely something I didn’t mean to happen.”
