SARASOTA, Fla. — The last time Félix Bautista, baseball’s most dominant, most intimidating reliever, fired off a competitive pitch, stunned silence trailed in its wake.
The date was Aug. 25, 2023 and Bautista was just one strike away from his 49th save of the season. His upstart Baltimore Orioles, MLB’s most invigorating surprise, were up a run in the ninth inning. Bautista, a 6-foot-8 fireballing dynamo known fittingly as “The Mountain,” was in the homestretch of an all-time sensational relief season. Through 61 innings, the broad-shouldered Dominican had punched out 110 batters with a microscopic 1.48 ERA.
And right before it all went wrong, it couldn’t have felt more perfect.