Rangers’ top prospect introduces himself to pitcher. Next time, he took a quick seat.
When Josh Jung stepped into the batter’s box Monday morning against Lance Lynn in a minor league intrasquad game, neither Lynn nor catcher Robinson Chirinos knew who he was.
Three pitches later, the Texas Rangers’ No. 1 prospect made it very clear to the veterans.
Jung, last June’s first-round pick (8th overall out of Texas Tech), ripped a fastball over the batter’s eye in center field, simultaneously impressing Chirinos and infuriating Lynn.
“He did what a first-round pick is supposed to do with it,” Lynn said of the 2-0 fastball that was supposed to be away but came back over the middle of the plate. “The next time I knew who he was and it didn’t go well for him.”
Indeed, Lynn struck out Jung on three pitches in his next at-bat. Lynn isn’t sure how hard he was throwing.
“Showed him the good stuff,” Lynn said. “I didn’t know who he was when he was in the box the first time. I was like, ‘all right, good swing.’ I just knew he wasn’t going to get a hit.”
Except for Jung’s solo homer in the second, Lynn was dominating over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out 12, walked one and allowed three hits while getting his pitch count up to 82.
It was a a fun experience for Jung, even the strikeout. He’s been playing catch with Lynn during fielding drills for several weeks, but still the cagey veteran claims he didn’t know him in the box. At least the first time.
“Any time someone gets you once you don’t want them to get you again,” said Jung, a third baseman. “It’s just so much fun to have competition against those guys. Just try to put a barrel on it but he definitely blew it by me the next time. I took the first [pitch], the next two I swung. So it was like good morning, good afternoon, go take the bench, kid.”
Chirinos knew whoever was batting had a good eye because Jung laid off two borderline pitches on the corner to get ahead 2-0.
“The way he took the first two I knew he was a good hitter because they were good pitches,” Chirinos said. “(Lynn) was [mad]. I don’t care where you’re throwing, if it’s 9 in the morning, every time you give up a homer you should be mad about it,” Chirinos said. “I was impressed.”
