Seattle Mariners closer Fernando Rodney did his trademark "bow and arrow" celebration at the wrong time.
With Seattle leading 5-4 in the eighth inning, Rodney entered the game and recorded the final two outs of the frame. He then pointed his imaginary arrow and pretended to shoot it toward the Angels dugout. Of course, the game wasn't over. Rodney still had to preserve the one-run lead and face Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton in the ninth. Rodney's premature celebration didn't go unnoticed.
After Trout worked a five-pitch walk to start the bottom of the ninth, Pujols drove a line drive down the right field line for a double. The 22-year-old phenom scored easily to tie the game at five and immediately after the play was over, both Trout and Pujols celebrated by shooting their own imaginary arrows. A few batters later, outfielder Grant Green hit a walk-off single to give the Angels a 6-5 win.
"He woke up our dugout," Green said of Rodney's premature celebration after the game, via MLB.com. "At the time, we were hitting well in the game but we didn't really have that key hit. He did it at the wrong time with Trout, Pujols and Josh [Hamilton] coming up."
Rodney, who played for the Angels in 2010 and 2011, told reporters that his eighth-inning arrow shooting was "for the fans" after they booed him. While Trout and Pujols both claimed their arrow gestures were done in good fun, the three-time NL MVP said he had been waiting a long time to do it to Rodney.
"I've known him for 15 years," Pujols told Earl Bloom of MLB.com. "Every time I see him, I tell him I'm going to do [the arrow pose] to him. I think he thought it was the last inning because on the board it said ninth. I did it to our dugout, not to Fernando."