James Karinchak Strikes Out Jose Altuve, Celebrates By Battling His Own Spit

Pitchers can be some of the craziest people in sports. Cleveland Guardians reliever James Karinchak is living up to that description just about every time he takes the mound.

Describing Karinchak as an intense guy is an understatement. He proved that Saturday night during Cleveland's 4-1 win over the Houston Astros.

Karinchak ended the 8th inning with a knee buckling strikeout of Jose Altuve. Being the crazy intense guy that he is, the strikeout was followed by a celebration as he made his way back to the dugout.

The 26-year-old put both hands in the air, started talking to himself while strutting of then mound, and battled his own spit.

Spoiler alert: the spit won.

Karinchak doesn't strike me as a decaf kind of guy

Karinchak is a strikeout machine who likes to let you know how much fun he's having on the mound.

If he's on your team you love him. If he's on the other team you hate him.

Every team needs a guy like this. Obviously you have to pitch well in order to pull it off and Karinchak has been doing that since returning from a shoulder injury last month.

He has a 1.98 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 13.2 innings this season. In his last 10.2 innings he's allowed two hits while striking out 18.

The Guardians are just two games behind the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. They're going to need the right-hander to continue to pitch well if they have any hopes of competing in the postseason.

That's going to mean more strikeouts and more crazy spit battling celebrations. Staying crazy is going to be the easy part for Karinchak.