"I think it was the eephus," catcher James McCann said.
It's a pitch he usually throws once a game, almost always for a ball without any result. It usually sails off the plate, though Twins outfielder Torii Hunter swung at one early in the year. It's not so much a game strategy as it is a timing mechanism for Simon to slow down his delivery when he feels himself hurrying. On Sunday, it resulted in one of the oddest hit-by-pitches in some time.
Encarnacion homered off a Simon splitter in the strike zone in the opening inning, shrugging off two pitches off the plate to get out of an 0-2 count.