Sean Murphy’s butt earns him a free base and the attention of the baseball world

The Oakland A’s routed the Tampa Bay Rays 13-2 at Tropicana Field on Monday, and there were plenty of impressive performances along the way. One hero stood out above the rest, though, capturing the attention of the entire nation: Sean Murphy’s butt.

In the 1st inning, the Rays had to make an emergency call to the bullpen due to an injury to their starter. Reliever Chris Mazza quickly entered the game, a couple hours earlier than he might have been expecting, and when he delivered his first pitch he appeared to lose his grip. The ball sailed so far off the plate that it looked like it might miss Murphy entirely and pass behind him.

Murphy’s butt had other plans.

Surely Murphy could have gotten out of the way of that pitch if he’d wanted, but instead he stuck out his booty to earn himself a free base. And it was still a close call, requiring every bit of the catcher’s ample buns to clip the baseball. Good thing he didn’t skip leg day this spring.

The vision of Murphy backing that ass up got him more than just first base, as he soon found his derriere trending all over social media. Among the responses:

• “Thickey Henderson” — Demetrius Bell, SB Nation’s Battery Power
• “what’s the butted ball metrics here?” — Sung Min Kim, baseball writer
• “Plunked like a truck, truck, truck.” — Josh Gondelman, comedy writer
• “Sean Murphy apparently robbed a bakery on the way to the ballpark.” — Mike Golic Jr, football analyst
• “Butt seriously folks, I am so happy Sean Murphy’s dumper is finally getting the love it deserves” — Jeremy F. Koo, friend of Athletics Nation
• “I haven’t seen so much chatter on the internet about an A’s catcher’s butt since Anthony Recker was on the team.” — Melissa Lockard, The Athletic

It got some new sound effects on TikTok.

And some apt comparisons to Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.

Stupid, sexy Murphy.

A few more observations:

• “Sean Murphy produced the sexiest hit by pitch in recorded history.” — @MichelleyM
• “Sean Murphy did more for baseball in three seconds than Rob Manfred has done in ten years” — @WillDaBeast755
• “BREAKING NEWS: Baseball to 10 day IL after getting demolished by Sean Murphy’s cheeks.” — @emachulate
• “Did Sean Murphy just butt for a base hit?” — @FernandoRGallo
• ... or @FauxMikeGallego has an idea for a Coliseum stadium giveaway

Even one of Murphy’s teammates took notice.

During a rebuilding season, it’s important to stop and smell the roses. Wait, poor choice of words. It’s important to appreciate the little things. No, still not right. It’s important to enjoy the ride and all of life’s wonders along the way. Later Monday night, Murphy hit the first triple of his MLB career, but it was his juicy double that stole the show.

Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports