Blake Treinen stunned to be part of "Jeopardy!" clue

By Mark Zuckerman

Nationals

February 25, 2016, 4:44am

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VIERA, Fla. - Blake Treinen was hanging out Wednesday evening, minding his own business, when his phone rang. He glanced down, saw it was his mother calling and answered, assuming she was just checking in on things.

The call proved to be not nearly as banal as that.

"You're never going to guess what happened!" she yelled into the phone. "You were a clue on 'Jeopardy!'"

Within minutes, Treinen's phone was buzzing nonstop, with Nationals teammates and coaches, old friends and relatives telling him what they just saw on the popular quiz show.

"Just kind of crazy," the soft-spoken reliever said.

Indeed, Treinen was part of a clue in a Double Jeopardy! category titled "Hard-Throwing Pitchers." Others named in the category were Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, Tigers ace Justin Verlander and former Yankee left-hander Ron Guidry.

All well-known pitchers to even casual baseball fans. Then came the $2,000 clue, which read as follows ...

"The Nationals' Blake Treinen has hit 100 mph with this type of pitch that gets its name from its downward motion."

Did you get it correct? And, more importantly, did you answer in the form of a question?

The contestant on the show did correctly answer - "What is a sinker?" - and won the $2,000.

Few, if any, major league pitchers can throw sinkers that hard. Generally, that pitch's velocity falls in the low-to-mid-90s. Treinen is an exception; his average sinker last season clocked 96.3 mph and he regularly hits 97-98 mph with it.

But does he remember ever reaching triple digits?

"Yeah, in Cincinnati, I think," he said. "Last year. I was fired up that game. I can't remember why, but I was kind of mad when I went in. Maybe they hit Bryce twice or something, so I was kind of fired up."

Indeed, over Memorial Day weekend, the Nationals did get upset over Reds pitchers twice hitting Bryce Harper. And, yes, on May 30, Treinen did enter out of the bullpen for the bottom of the sixth. The second batter he faced was Zack Cozart. He fell behind in the count 2-0 with a pair of 99-mph sinkers, then found a little extra gear and fired a 100-mph sinker down the middle, getting Cozart to swing and miss.

Little could he have known at the time that pitch would land him on a nationally televised quiz show nine months later.

So, does Treinen even watch "Jeopardy!"?

"Every now and again," he said. "I don't like to watch because it just makes me feel dumb. I don't ever know the answers. But it would've been funny if I just decided to watch it and that happened."