Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates Show Importance of Pitchers' Ability to Hit

In Tuesday night's marathon game between the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates that chugged on into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, both teams ran out of position players en route to the Braves' 19th inning victory. What's lost in the story though, is the fact that pitchers—yes, pitchers—had several key at bats in extra innings.

Though Daniel McCutchen had the only AB by a Pittsburgh reliever, the Braves had a more complicated situation brought on by the joint ejections of Nate McLouth and Fredi Gonzalez in the ninth inning. That necessitated Atlanta relievers making four plate appearances.

The result? Christian Martinez and Scott Proctor combined to go 1-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt and the game winning RBI. It's also of note that neither of them struck out.

Now, I know that Martinez is a starter by trade and chewed up six innings on the hill, but his offensive production also helped give the Braves a couple of great scoring opportunities on which the regular hitters couldn't capitalize.

The game could have been ended in the 10th when Atlanta had two on and one out. Martinez laid down a sacrifice bunt to give the Braves runners at second and third and two outs for Martin Prado.

Martinez then reached on a single to right in the 13th with one out. David Ross walked two batters later to put Martinez in scoring position as the winning run with two outs.

Proctor went 0-for-2 in his plate appearances, but he put the ball in play both times and produced the game-winning RBI on a fielder's choice. Even though the call at the plate was completely blown, Proctor put the ball in play and something happened.

Contrast that with the Braves' starting pitcher from last night, Tommy Hanson. Hanson is hitting .057 on the year. He grounded out with runners in scoring position to end the second inning and later struck out looking in the fourth inning.

Hanson's teammate, Tim Hudson, even helped out his own cause on June 20 against the Toronto Blue Jays by producing the only runs scored in the ballgame when he hit a two-run homer. Hudson is no stranger to success at the plate. In his senior year at Auburn, Hudson hit .396 with 18 home runs and 95 RBI.

As a pitcher, he went 15–2 with a 2.97 ERA.

Another former Braves pitcher in the form of Mike Hampton was also known for his ability to handle the bat. Hampton ran into 16 homers in his career, including seven in 2001 with the Colorado Rockies. He managed a .246 average.

Do I even need to elaborate on the mention of Babe Ruth, the man who cranked 714 homers and is still rightfully second all-time in the feat?

If he had come up with the Yankees in 1973 or later, we would have been robbed of one of greatest hitters ever, instead of having another run of the mill overweight power pitcher (CC Sabathia?).

And in a game that thrives on stories, a designated hitter would have never allowed Juan Marichal to club Johnny Roseboro in the head to start a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and Dodgers, definitely one of the most memorable and talked about moments in baseball history.

Unlike football, baseball players are supposed to play both ways. In the National League, that means pitchers have to swing the stick at least a couple of times a game. Quite frankly, they should enjoy the part of their job that entails hitting things with a stick.

Is it too much to ask that they take some hacks in the cages on their days off? It seems that it should be part of their job to help out themselves and their teammates by not being automatic outs in the lineup.