WATCH: Cellphone falls out of Pirates player’s pocket mid-game originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
It’s not uncommon for a baseball player to have his helmet fall off while running the bases.
But Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro lost something else on the Chase Field basepaths Tuesday night.
In the top of the fourth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Castro went from first to third base on a single by Oneil Cruz. And as he slid head-first into third base, Castro’s cellphone (yes, his cellphone) fell out of his back pocket.
After being hilariously alerted of the dropped phone by umpire Adam Hamari, Castro picked it up and gave it to third base coach Mike Rabelo.
So why did Castro, who was just recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday, have his phone on him during a game?
Well, the 23-year-old claimed it was an accident, saying he forgot the phone was in his pocket after placing his sliding glove in there as well. Castro expressed regret while discussing the incident postgame.
“I don’t think there’s any professional ballplayer that would ever go out there with any intentions of taking a cellphone,” Castro told reporters through an interpreter after Pittsburgh’s 6-4 loss (h/t AP). “It’s horrible it happened to me. Obviously, it was very unintentional.
“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. 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.”
What did Pirates manager Derek Shelton think of the odd scene?
“I thought the umpires handled it very well and did a good job,” Shelton said. “There was no intent to do anything. He made a mistake and kept his phone in his pocket.
“You stay around the game and you see things you haven’t seen before. This was just a kid who made a mistake. It’s just one of those things we move forward from and tell him, ‘You can’t do that.'”
D-backs skipper Torey Lovullo shared the same sentimentsaying he was of the belief Castro “wasn’t doing anything malicious.”
It will be interesting to see if and how MLB, which has cracked down on the use of illegal technology in recent years, reacts to this peculiar situation.