As Cincinnati Reds reliever Tejay Antone recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2017, he posted a photo of his arm on social media.
The caption: Road to 100.
At the time, Antone’s fastball was usually in the low-90s. Antone could only hit 95 mph occasionally. A few of his teammates reacted to the social media post and told Antone he’d never hit 100 mph.
Four years later, on Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers, Antone threw a 100.2 mph fastball to strike out Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez.
“That's just fuel to the fire,” Antone said. “I love to prove people wrong. I'm just a competitor at heart, so when you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to get after it and try to do it.”
After Friday’s win, Antone was one of four relievers in MLB with an ERA of 1.93 or below and at least 31 strikeouts. But Antone has had a different role than the rest of those pitchers.
While the other three pitchers average 9.6 saves this season, Antone has only two saves. On Friday, he entered the game in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings. He didn’t get the save, but he didn’t allow a hit and gave the Reds offense time to pull away.
Asked to describe his role on the team, Antone said he has become the “mid-game closer.”