Fred Breining

{{short description|American baseball player (born 1955)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

| name = Fred Breining

| image = Fred Breining 1983.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Breining in 1983

| team =

| number =

| position = Pitcher

| positionplain =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|11|15}}

| birth_place= San Francisco, California, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place=

| bats = Right

| throws = Right

|debutleague = MLB

| debutdate = September 4

| debutyear = 1980

| debutteam = San Francisco Giants

|finalleague = MLB

| finaldate = May 6

| finalyear = 1984

| finalteam = Montreal Expos

|statleague = MLB

| stat1label = Win–loss record

| stat1value = 27–20

| stat2label = Earned run average

| stat2value = 3.34

| stat3label = Strikeouts

| stat3value = 260

| teams =

• San Francisco Giants ({{mlby|1980}}–{{mlby|1983}})
• Montreal Expos ({{mlby|1984}})

}}

Fred Lawrence Breining (born November 15, 1955) is an American former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1980 through 1985 for the San Francisco Giants and the Montreal Expos.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Daniel |date=May 11, 2017 |title=How a former Giants pitcher came to a fork in the road — and found an unusual claim to fame |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/11/how-a-former-giants-pitcher-came-to-a-fork-in-the-road-and-his-unusual-claim-to-fame/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202021406/https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/11/how-a-former-giants-pitcher-came-to-a-fork-in-the-road-and-his-unusual-claim-to-fame/ |archive-date=December 2, 2018 |access-date=April 1, 2024 |website=The Mercury News |language=en-US}} He had been traded along with Ed Whitson and Al Holland from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Giants for Bill Madlock, Lenny Randle and Dave Roberts on June 28, {{by|1979}}.[https://www.mlb.com/news/bobby-bonds-trade-tree Guardado, Maria. "Bobby Bonds left; Kruk, Kuip & an MVP arrived," MLB.com, Monday, May 4, 2020.] Retrieved October 19, 2022. Breining won 27 games at the MLB level, and on September 23, 1981, he picked up his only major league save against the Dodgers. Breining pitched three shutout innings to preserve an 8–4 victory over their rival Los Angeles Dodgers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198109230.shtml|title=Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Box Score, September 23, 1981}}

His career was cut short when pitching to Ray Knight, when he fielded a bunt and threw it to first, only to blow out his shoulder. Breining never played another inning as a Major Leaguer. After that, he became an instructor at the Dusty Baker International Baseball Academy, and also offered private lessons in the Sacramento area along with Lloyd Moseby, who served as hitting coach.