TORONTO -- Tuesday was a terrible day for the Toronto Blue Jays, but at least Cliff Pennington gained some cache. The infielder joined Babe Ruth in an exclusive club. And he established an even more exclusive club for himself as well.

With the Blue Jays trailing 12-2 in the ninth inning, Toronto manager John Gibbons called on Pennington to pitch and record the final out. Ruth was the only previous person to be a position player and a pitcher in the postseason, but of course, he was a pitcher and an outfielder in his career. Pennington, however, is the first non-pitcher to take the mound in a postseason game.

"That’s pretty cool," Pennington said when asked about Ruth. "Maybe I can hit 70 home runs and be in that group, too."

Pennington hadn’t pitched since he was in college, where he said he was decent. He said he and Gibbons began to discuss the possibility of him pitching in the eighth inning. With the game out of hand, Pennington said, "We didn’t want to burn anybody. We want to have everybody ready for tomorrow."

Gibbons said that in addition to saving Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez, reliever Aaron Loup also had to go home for a family issue. "We were in a bind," Gibbons said.

Fans, who had been booing their team earlier in the awful loss, began cheering Pennington when he started warming up in the ninth inning.

"I didn’t even know the fans knew I was down there but I guess they had the camera on me," he said. "They were giving me cheers before I even left the pen. They definitely helped me out."

Pennington relieved Mark Lowe with two out and runners on first and second. His first pitch to Paulo Orlando was clocked at 90 miles per hour and drew huge cheers. He then gave up a broken-bat single to Orlando, followed by a single to Alcides Escobar that scored two runs. He then retired Ben Zobrist on a foul pop to end the inning.

"Actually it wasn’t too bad," Pennington said. "I was more nervous in the pen. Once I got out there it was just like when you’re playing."

Because the two runs were charged to Lowe, Pennington left with a 0.00 career ERA in the postseason, which is better than Ruth's mark. Hopefully, he can preserve that by not pitching in Game 5.