Sam Antonacci was not a name that I knew before last night. But the Chicago White Sox left fielder definitely got the notice and ire of Red Sox fans when, on the first pitch of the game, he grounded out to first base, and then hit Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras with an obviously intentional elbow as he ran by. When Contreras asked Antonacci if everything was okay between them, Antonacci just ignored him.

Then in the third inning, when Antonacci was up for the next time, a 93 mph Sonny Gray sinker plunked him on the thigh. Some speculated it was retaliation, but I don’t think the Red Sox would intentionally put him on base in an 0-2 count with a 1-run lead. However, it did look to me like Antonacci may have intentionally moved into the path of the baseball. So I paused the video and was able to see that, had Antonacci just stayed still, he probably wouldn’t have been hit. Certainly not had he done what most hitters do on a low and inside pitch, which is to scooch their feet backward. Instead, Antonacci pivoted on his front foot, so the back of his front leg faced the pitcher’s mound, but also moved closer to the plate. You can see it in these pictures:

In the left frame, the ball is approaching, and Antonacci has not yet begun his attempt to “get out of the way” of the pitch. The second frame is just before the ball strikes him. The third frame is the two images superimposed.

On this superimposed image you can see that his thigh was initially not in the path of the ball, but then moved forward until it was.

On the second frame, notice that even as he is turning away from the ball, he is keeping his eye on the ball. He would do that if he wanted to be precise about where the ball hits him.

So it seemed pretty obvious to me that Antonacci intentionally helped ensure the ball hit him, while disguising it as an attempt to get out of the way of the ball. Kind of the way he intentionally elbowed Contreras while disguising it as accidental contact. Perhaps with the elbow he was trying to set Contreras off, and get him another suspension? That part we can’t know.

But I did feel confident that if Antonacci is the kind of guy who pulls stunts like this, then we might be able to get some extra confirmation of that fact by observing that he has a high hit-by-pitch total. So I looked up the numbers.

Confirmed.

He was actually tied with Willson Contreras for second place on the MLB hit by pitch leaders list at the time of the elbow throw, and for first place in the American League. Perhaps the elbow was out of resentment for not being the outright leader in the stat? Probably not, but it’s fun to speculate surprising if unlikely reasons.

So now he’s in second place by himself, and he got there in relatively few plate appearances. I wonder if he has the highest rate of being hit by pitches? It turns out, for hitters with at least 100 PA, he does:

This can’t just be bad luck.

Could it be because of crowding the plate? Yes. Antonacci does appear to crowd the plate like Contreras does. But he also appears to have a talent for intentionally adding to his HBP totals on the right kind of low and inside pitch.