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PITCHER'S MOUND — Well, that's one way to say hello to an old friend.
Former teammates Joe Musgrove and Chad Kuhl faced off last Friday night, when Kuhl's Rockies visited Musgrove's Padres in the pitchers' duel that ended in a four-game series split.
But on the mound, the competition was as fierce as ever.
Competition, that is, in the form of a friendly game of tic-tac-toe. Musgrove opened the mini-game against his former teammate from the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2018-2020 as many players do — with an X in the bottom-left corner. Who among us hasn't opened a game in such a way?
Kuhl followed suit, and the two pitchers went back and forth for several innings until ultimately playing to a stalemate.
The game even caught the attention of television viewers, which included the teams' official Twitter accounts.
Sorry it took us a minute, we were busy scoring runs 😌 pic.twitter.com/gHgtN2Jhdk
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 11, 2022
"I didn't tell him about that," Musgrove said, per MLB.com. "I just got out there and figured it would be fun, trying to keep it light. I love Chad. … I know we're both a little nervous going out there and facing each other, so I was just trying to have some fun and mess around a little bit."
On the scoreboard, Musgrove out-dueled Kuhl in six innings en route to the Padres' 9-0 win, the first of two before the Rockies came back to split the series with a pair of wins Saturday and Sunday.
But the rest of the day was just a fun little competition among friends.
"I didn't expect it, went out there — just one of those things," he said. "It's just fun to kind of compete against each other."
The Talking Friars podcast, dedicated to all things San Diego Padres, even broke down each move on their YouTube channel. You can give it a watch here.
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