Royals’ MJ Melendez prematurely headed to dugout after thinking ump called strike three

The Royals were part of Major League Baseball history on Thursday, although they certainly would have preferred to have missed out.

Despite a stellar performance from Brady Singer, the Royals lost 1-0 on a walk-off home run by New York’s Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium.

Stats by Stats noted there were shutout wins in Major League Baseball on Thursday by the scores of 1-0, 2-0. 3-0 and 13-0.

“The last time there was a 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 and a 13+ run shutout all on the same day was on August 12, 1890,” Stats by Stats tweeted.

That’s the kind of obscure stat you’d only find in baseball, right? Baseball Reference shows the games that matched that criteria on that date nearly 132 years ago were:

• Boston Beaneaters 1, Philadelphia Phillies 0
  
  

• Columbus Solons 2, Rochester Broncos 0
  
  

• New York Giants 3, Brooklyn Bridegrooms 0
  
  

• Chicago Pirates 14, Buffalo Bisons 0
  
  

What likely didn’t happen in any of those games from 1890 was a catcher heading to the dugout after thinking he’d just caught the final strike of an inning.

Unfortunately for Royals rookie MJ Melendez, that’s just what happened with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Thursday. Judge was at the plate when Brady Singer threw a 2-2 pitch.

Plate umpire Ramon De Jesus had been calling a lot of low strikes in the game, so Melendez figured that was another one. Melendez caught what he thought was strike three, got up, threw the ball to a Royals teammate and headed toward the dugout.

Melendez was on the grass before he realized the pitch had been called ball three, and he had to make a baseball walk of shame back to his position behind the plate.

Here is the video from Twitter user Sean Negron.

The good news for Melendez is Judge struck out swinging on the next pitch.