The puke and rally is a tale as old as time. I've had my fair share of run-ins with one of drinking's oldest and finest traditions, and if you're like me, you know that clearing out the belly makes you feel like a brand new person.
And for Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Adrian Houser, letting his lunch fly over the baseball field is a sure-fire way to intimidate the other team and let them know he's about to have a fantastic day on the mound.
Last year, Houser was called up from the Triple-A Biloxi Shuckers to play for the big league club in mid-June. He arrived about 30 minutes before first pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies — a game that ended in a 10-9 loss for Milwaukee — but Houser's first MLB game that season stole the show.
Coming in as a relief pitcher in the eighth inning, Houser vomited twice behind the mound. He later said, "I think it was a little combination of traveling this morning and not having a lot of food in me."
This season, Houser has earned his way to a starting role with the Brewers when called upon, as well as making relief appearances for the NL Central powerhouse's bullpen. And when Houser took the mound to start against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, history repeated itself.
Houser blew chunks (again) in the first inning after committing an error. In yet another classic example of the wonders a puke and rally can do for a person, the Hall-of-Fame hurler was lights out the rest of the game.
He threw 6.0 innings, allowed one earned run on three hits and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts to pick up his fifth win of the season.
"I have no idea," Houser said after the game, "but if I keep pitching like that, I'll take it every time."
The second-round draft pick by the Houston Astros was part of the Carlos Gomez-Mike Fiers trade which brought Brett Phillips, Domingo Santana and Josh Hader, as well as Houser, to Milwaukee in 2015. The 26-year-old right hander from Tahlequah, Oklahoma has a 5-5 record and 4.00 ERA to this point in the season.
The future is bright for this young man, but if he keeps puking up all over the baseball field, there's no telling how high this future Hall of Famer can fly.
