Dodgers Announcer Didn't Understand His Own 'Mercury Retrograde' Reference

Joe Davis, Spectrum SportsNet's play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, had baseball fans completely confused by a tense eighth inning moment during Friday night's contest between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

With the score tied at seven, Dodgers shortstop Chris Taylor hit a rope down the third base line that snuck under the glove of Padres third baseman Tyler Wade.

What came next was total confusion:

"It gets under the glove of Wade. Mercury Retrograde!" Davis exclaimed.

Davis's broadcasting partner Eric Karros chuckled in laughter, before Davis chimed back in.

"Whatever that means. Go-ahead run is aboard here in the eighth."

As it turns out, a planet in retrograde means that "from the perspective of earth, a planet's motion across the sky goes backwards night after night compared to its usual direction for a period of time." This phenomenon happens to Mercury three or four times per year.

Now Davis, Karros and baseball fans everywhere have familiarized themselves with a solar system concept that non-astronomers likely knew very little about.

Who knew that the lesson would come as a result of an April baseball game between the Dodgers and the Padres?

San Diego won the game 8-7 in extra innings.