He Slid Into Third And Then Something Illegal Slid Out Of His Pocket…

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Rodolfo Castro, a second baseman with the Pirates, might have taken his Tuesday “call up” to the Majors a little too literally.

The Pittsburgh infielder dropped his phone while falling headfirst into third base during the fourth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks.

Castro, who had earlier in the evening been brought up from Triple-A Indianapolis, reached base via a walk. On Oneil Cruz’s single, he was able to advance to third, but the force of his slide into the bag caused his phone to fly out of his pocket.

Adam Hamari, the third base umpire, noticed the phone right away and informed Castro that it was lying on the ground adjacent to the third base. Before the inning resumed, Castro passed the phone to third-base coach Mike Rebelo.

However, the 23-year-old claimed it was an accident, stating that after putting his sliding glove in there as well, he forgot the phone was in there.

The strange incident is allegedly being investigated by the league. Castro is “technically in violation” of MLB rules banning electronic devices on the field or in the dugout, with the lone exception of iPads that have been permitted by the league, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It’s unclear if Castro will be punished by the league.

Castro apologized for the event following the game and insisted it was “extremely unintended.”

As per the AP, Castro spoke to the Pittsburgh media through an interpreter, “I don’t think there’s any professional ballplayer that would ever go out there with any intentions of taking a cellphone, It’s horrible it happened to me. Obviously, it was very unintentional.”

Castro failed to record a hit in his final four at-bats as the Pirates fell to the Diamondbacks 6-4.

“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, the outlet added, “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.”

Castro claimed that he forgot about the phone because he put an oven mitt, which athletes use to protect their hands when sliding into bases, in his back pocket.

“You stay around the game and you see things you haven’t seen before,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “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.’”

Sources: Dailywire, Yahoo, Espn

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