Ken Giles Fight Club’d himself and Astros fans are shook

There are post-failure meltdowns by athletes, then there’s what Ken Giles did to himself on Tuesday night.

It was a tight game Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, as the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros were in a scoreless tie heading into the top of the ninth. Astros’ closer Ken Giles was tasked with preserving that score for a potential ninth-inning rally after starter Justin Verlander went eight shutout innings with 14 strikeouts and just three hits allowed.

But things went off the rails quickly for Giles, as he was charged with four runs on four hits while recording just one out. The decisive blow was a three-run homer from Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, which may further loosen Giles’ grip on the closer gig for Houston. He now has a 5.23 ERA this season, despite a streak of 19 straight batters retired heading into Tuesday night.

We’ve seen pitchers meltdown after failing and being removed from a game, with the Gatorade cooler or the water cooler the primary targets and a glove or a bat as a frequent weapon of rage. But Giles went a different way as he walked off the mound in frustration, in a moment that probably made Mike Tyson proud.

That was an incredibly sudden and pretty violent-looking right hook to his own chin from Giles, and thankfully the YES Network followed him off the mound or it may have never been seen outside the stadium. He was unphased and unstunned though, and followed with a bit of a dugout meltdown too.

https://twitter.com/Epic_Tweets31/status/991706674078605313

After obviously cooling off a bit, Giles owned his bad outing at his locker post-game.

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Giles has a very closer-worthy career K/9 rate of 12.2. But shy of a strikeout to clinch a World Series win, his self punch-out on Tuesday night will be the most memorable of his career.