The gag here (you could sort of infer something weird was going on), is that he’s NOT a pitcher (which you could also tell from his delivery), he’s an infielder, I guess pressed into pitching for this spring training game to rest the bullpen during a blowout (so that’s also why d’Arnaud was even expecting to get hit.)
Good fun.
[ETA: oops. Apparently not a spring training game, opening day was last week.]
