A team scored nine runs in the first inning \u2026 and lost? \u2026 Did you hear about the rookie who did something Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron and Rickey Henderson never did? \u2026 And what about the three guys, all with the same name, who combined for an out at the plate that will go down in history (just not the history they expected)? We looked so deeply into that one, the Baseball Reference computers almost spontaneously combusted!<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s time for a big What We Missed edition of the Weird and Wild column, beginning with \u2026<\/p>\n
Pirates of the Coors-ibbean![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2227362819-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Oneil Cruz, left, hit a grand slam during the Pirates\u2019 nine-run first inning last Friday. Alas. (Justin Edmonds \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Is it OK if we start with the adventures of the Pirates, the most upside-down team in baseball? Let\u2019s recap their three-game series at Coors Field last weekend:<\/p>\n
Friday \u2014 score nine runs in the top of the first (that seems good) \u2026 and lose (17-16)!<\/p>\n
Saturday \u2014 get a three-homer game from their sweet-swinging first baseman, Liover Peguero (that also seems good) \u2026 and lose (8-5)!<\/p>\n
Sunday \u2014 give up back-to-back-back homers (that seems bad) \u2026 but win (of course)!<\/p>\n
That seems almost impossible. But do you watch the Pirates much?<\/p>\n
Just in the intermission between regular-season Weird and Wild columns, they also \u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 Threw a shutout in all three games of a series (against the Cardinals) and then \u2026 in the very next series \u2026 got shut out themselves\u00a0in all three games of a series (against Seattle).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Played another three-game series in which they got swept by the worst team in the American League (the White Sox), followed \u2026 immediately thereafter \u2026 by a three-game series in which they\u00a0did the sweeping\u00a0of the team with the best record in the American League\u00a0(the Tigers).<\/p>\n
So is it even possible to make sense of them? I doubt it. But if it is, I knew just the man to do it. It\u2019s the great Rich Donnelly, longtime (now-retired) Pirates coach, who still lives in Pirates country in beautiful Steubenville, Ohio. But it turns out even he couldn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been watching ball, and I\u2019ve been in\u00a0ball, all my life,\u201d Donnelly told me. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never seen a team like this. Every morning I go down to the sports bar. I don\u2019t drink, but I go to listen to all the Pirates fans. And I tell them: If you bet on the Pirates every game, you need to go see a psychiatrist \u2026 because if you bet on them every game, then tomorrow morning, when they give out the bread in downtown Steubenville to the poor people, you\u2019d be in that line.\u201d<\/p>\n
WEIRD AND WILD:\u00a0\u201cBecause they\u2019d be in Chapter 11?\u201d<\/p>\n
DONNELLY: \u201cYeah, Chapter 11. Or Chapter 12.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, we don\u2019t know much about Chapter 12 around here. But it has to be worse than Chapter 11. So if you\u2019re a Pirates fan and you\u2019re familiar with Chapter 12, let us know in the comments section what it looks like in there!<\/p>\n
Once in a Blue (Jays) moon![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2228112788-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s Blue Jays achieved liftoff at Coors Field. (Justin Edmonds \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
All right, now let\u2019s talk about\u00a0the next series\u00a0at Coors after that visit by the Pirates because, well, Holy Loperfido, what just happened?<\/p>\n
The short answer is, the Blue Jays just scored 45 runs in three games in that series, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday \u2014 while the home team only scored six. But if that\u2019s all you know about this series, you\u2019ve come to the right place. Here we go.<\/p>\n
A series of unfortunate events!\u00a0Let\u2019s start here. According to my friends from STATS Perform, there have been 54,762 series of three games or more since 1901. That\u2019s in the American League, National League and Federal League. But how many of them have been like this one? Right. Zero!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as cold as the Rockies!\u00a0And while we\u2019re on that subject, STATS reports, there have been 709 series of three games or more played at Coors Field, the wackiest ballpark of modern times, since it opened in 1995. Remember, Vin Scully once said: \u201cYou don\u2019t need an official scorer at Coors Field. You need a certified public accountant.\u201d But if you thought you\u2019d seen it all at this place, you know what we just learned? Nope!<\/p>\n
Playing the hits!\u00a0Did you know that 17 of the 30 teams in MLB haven\u2019t gotten 21 hits in any game they\u2019ve played this season? I only ask because the Blue Jays just averaged 21 hits a game in that series.\u00a0And how many other teams since 1901 have gotten 63 hits (or more) over a three-game series? That would be nada.\u00a0Of course.<\/p>\n
Born to run!\u00a0Did you know that 12 of the 30 teams also haven\u2019t scored 15 runs in any game this season? And yes, the Blue Jays\u00a0just averaged 15 runs a game in that series.\u00a0Perhaps you think lots of teams have done that at Coors. In reality, however, no teams had ever done that at Coors. But that was then. This fact no longer applies.<\/p>\n
Viva la differential!\u00a0The Blue Jays won the first game, 15-1. It wasn\u2019t even their biggest blowout of the series. They won the final game, 20-1. You don\u2019t see that much! According to STATS, the only other team in the last seven decades to win two games by 14 runs or more in the same series was Doug Glanville\u2019s 1999 Phillies, who whomped Ben Davis\u2019 \u201999 Padres, 18-2 and 15-1, on Aug. 24-25.<\/p>\n
But the last American League team to do that? Ha. That was Slammin\u2019 Sammy White\u2019s 1953 Red Sox, who beat up on Ray Boone\u2019s \u201953 Tigers, 17-1 and 23-3, at Fenway Park that June.<\/p>\n
Viva la differential, part two!\u00a0So add it all up, and the Jays\u2019 run differential, just for this series, was plus-39! Sixteen teams in baseball haven\u2019t won any game by 13 runs (or more) this season. And the Blue Jays just won three games in one series\u00a0by an average of 13 runs.<\/p>\n
Not to suggest that\u2019s a lot \u2026 but to find the last team with a bigger run differential than that in a three-game series, you\u2019d have to travel back to the early days of the Teddy Roosevelt administration \u2026 when Cozy Dolan\u2019s 1901 Brooklyn Superbas pounded Heinie Peitz\u2019s \u201901 Reds to the tune of 25-6, 16-2 and 9-2 in a dramatic set that September. (Hat tip: Elias Sports Bureau.)<\/p>\n
How \u2019bout the extra-curriculars! This is mind-blowing. On the way to outhitting the Rockettes, 63-20, the Blue Jays outhomered the home team, 13-1, and had a slight advantage in extra-base hits, by which I mean\u00a032 to four!<\/p>\n
That seemed like a lot. So I asked STATS if any other team in the modern era had ever smoked that many homers and extra-base hits in one series, while allowing that few. You know how many teams have done that? Just one, naturally \u2026 the 2025 Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
Finally, we\u2019d like to thank Austin Nola!\u00a0For what, you ask? For making these notes possible. What else?<\/p>\n
The Rockies\u2019 catcher pitched the ninth inning of the last game of this series \u2026 and served up eight hits and eight runs\u00a0in that one inning.\u00a0Just so everyone in the Nola family is clear on this, the most hits and runs ever allowed by Austin\u2019s brother, Aaron, in any of the 1,700-plus innings he\u2019s pitched is six (of each), last Sept. 24 against the Mets.<\/p>\n
Austin told reporters after the game he had a sneaky feeling a little abuse was coming shortly from his brother when he got a glimpse of that box score.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019m going to get a text from him,\u201d Austin said. \u201cI\u2019ll just blame it on Colorado or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick at night<\/p>\n
You know how long I\u2019ve been wanting to write about The Nick Kurtz Game<\/a>? Since Home Run No. 4 landed, of course. And that was two weeks ago in Houston.<\/p>\n So here it is, the Greatest Offensive Game of This (or Maybe Any) Century:<\/p>\n 6-for-6 You don\u2019t think that game was an all-timer? Maybe this will change your mind.<\/p>\n I was in Cooperstown the next day, chatting with Mike Schmidt and Jim Leyland, whereupon Schmidt said, \u201cHey Jim, did you see that Nick Kurtz Game?\u201d<\/p>\n Then he began describing all four home runs, in remarkable detail. And just hearing a man\u00a0who once hit four in a game himself\u00a0get that stoked about someone else having a game like that told me all I needed to know. This. Was. A. Thing. Even among the all-time greats.<\/p>\n So how Weird and Wild a thing was it? Let me tell you.<\/p>\n You know who never hit four home runs in any game?\u00a0How about Babe Ruth, just to pick a random name.<\/p>\n You know who never got six hits in any game?\u00a0Let\u2019s throw Ichiro (Once Got 262 Hits in a Season) Suzuki out there.<\/p>\n You know who never drove in eight runs in any game?\u00a0I think I\u2019ll drop a Henry (More RBIs than Anybody Who Ever Lived) Aaron on you here.<\/p>\n You know who never scored six runs in any game?\u00a0Yep, I\u2019m going there. Rickey (Most Runs in History) Henderson never did that.<\/p>\n But Nick Kurtz did\u00a0all of that \u2014 in one game \u2026 in the 66th big-league game of his life, for the West Sacramento A\u2019s. He could play another 6,666 and never do it again.<\/p>\n So do I even care that, according to Baseball Reference\u2019s Katie Sharp, Kurtz was the first man in history to bash his fourth home run of a game off a position player (Cooper Hummel)? I do not!<\/p>\n That\u2019s because I can\u2019t stop thinking about stuff like this:<\/p>\n All-Star Game starter Javy B\u00e1ez in the whole month of July: 2 HR, 5 RBIs, 6 runs<\/p>\n Nick Kurtz in one game that didn\u2019t even last three hours:\u00a04 HR, 8 RBIs, 6 runs<\/p>\n I hate to interfere, but \u2026<\/p>\n Just out of curiosity, I googled the magic word, interference,\u00a0before I wrote this section.\u00a0A lot of variations came up that didn\u2019t seem to have anything to do with baseball.<\/p>\n Quantum interference \u2026 wave interference \u2026 pass interference \u2026 election interference. I learned more than I wanted to know about all of them. But catcher\u2019s interference? That\u2019s apparently way less common and way less important.<\/p>\n Really? Tell it to the Phillies and Red Sox \u2014 because from July 21-23, they played what we\u2019ll always remember as The Catcher\u2019s Interference Series.<\/p>\n Game One of that series ended this way, courtesy of still-confused catching perpetrator Carlos Narv\u00e1ez:<\/p>\n The Phillies just won a walkoff Catcher\u2019s Interference. You probably haven\u2019t seen this before pic.twitter.com\/RH1v0Q6MRE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n That wildness went down in the 10th inning. Then, in the very next inning these two teams played \u2014 the first inning the next day \u2014 an even more nutso episode of Catcher\u2019s Interference Theater busted out.<\/p>\n Bryce Harper essentially stole home, but it was technically catcher\u2019s interference pic.twitter.com\/eXEH6qsRwn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n What the heck!<\/p>\n So that\u2019s two catcher\u2019s interferences against the Red Sox, both of which led to runs crossing the plate, in two days. And I\u2019m guessing you have some questions.<\/p>\n First, in case you were thinking,\u00a0hey, walk-off catcher\u2019s interference must not happen much, that\u2019s some excellent thinking. The Elias Sports Bureau reported that this was just the second game in the last 105 years to end on a walk-off catcher\u2019s interference. The other one was Aug. 1, 1971 \u2014 more than half a century ago \u2014 and the catcher was Johnny Bench.<\/p>\n Except that play was nothing like this play, because all Bench did was step in front of the plate to catch the pitch because Manny Mota was somehow trying to steal home\u00a0with the bases loaded.\u00a0And that\u2019s a balk you almost never see \u2014 except that the day after the walk-off, Narvaez reenacted it!<\/p>\n Baseball is so bizarre. So I went back to 1920 because that\u2019s about how far back reliable public play-by-play data goes. In all that time, how many runs would you guess the Phillies scored on catcher\u2019s interference calls \u2014 in more than a century, remember? How about one. And to find that last instance on Baseball Reference, I had to go back to 1965.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the Red Sox had allowed only one run on catcher\u2019s interference in those 105 years. And then \u2026 two runs scored like that in back-to-back innings?\u00a0You\u2019ve just seen the perfect summation of why there is such a thing as a Weird and Wild column.<\/p>\n But wait! We have a bonus addendum here!\u00a0Is it OK if I circle back to the first catcher\u2019s interference because it was the culmination of one of the goofiest extra innings ever. This is how the Red Sox and Phillies conspired to concoct the game-winning rally in the 10th inning:<\/p>\n Zombie runner. So that\u2019s no balls put in play \u2026 followed by a walk-off catcher\u2019s interference \u2026 to score a (zombie) runner who did not even bat in that inning \u2026 during which the team that won only truly swung at one pitch \u2026 and I\u2019m going to argue that swing wasn\u2019t even on the pitch that drew the catcher\u2019s interference, because that was barely a checked swing. So seriously, how wacky is \u2026<\/p>\n Baseball!<\/p>\n Suspended animation<\/p>\n If you read this column regularly, you know there\u2019s nothing that gets our hearts pumping more than a good old-fashioned suspended game. So let\u2019s hear it for those 2025 Reds. Do they get suspended more than Manny Ramirez? It seems like it.<\/p>\n The Reds have now played three suspended games just in the last two months. One was at a Fenway (on July 1). The other was at a Speedway (in waterlogged Bristol, Tenn.), last Saturday.<\/p>\n Ken Rosenthal could tell you all about that one. \u2026<\/p>\n Ken Rosenthal on the scene for Fox Sports at the rain-delayed Speedway Classic.<\/p>\n Or we could do that! How weird and wild was it? Ha. Here goes.<\/p>\n History will always tell us \u2026\u00a0that the just-traded Miguel Andujar\u2019s first game with the Reds was a home game on Saturday, Aug. 2 \u2026 even though he never set foot in the batter\u2019s box that day and never set foot in Cincinnati that day, for that matter!\u00a0<\/p>\n History will also try to convince Hurston Waldrep \u2026 that the Braves rookie\u2019s first career win came in an Aug. 2 game in Tennessee even though he spent every minute of his day Aug. 2 in Georgia (as a member of the Gwinnett Stripers Triple-A team) before he was summoned for an emergency crack-of-dawn commute, to pitch the resumption of that game on what we could have sworn was Aug. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then there was Eli White \u2026\u00a0whose only two-homer game of the last four seasons came at a racetrack, not a ballpark \u2014 in a game in which both balls sure looked as if they left his bat on Sunday \u2026 which won\u2019t stop every box score in our land from claiming they mysteriously came down Saturday.<\/p>\n And baseball\u2019s brand new Tennessee Waltz \u2026\u00a0will always be literally waltzing on very strange air \u2026 because everything I just described happened on Sunday, Aug. 3 \u2026 but the historians will still try to convince us that Major League Baseball has only been played on one day in AL\/NL history \u2026 and you know which day that was?<\/p>\n Not Aug. 3!<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the toy box? Michael Wacha on July 5: May the Fours be with you. (Rick Scuteri \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n You know what happens when they play baseball games for a month? Box scores happen!<\/p>\n Then stuff appears in those box scores that needs to be in columns like this. So here\u2019s some of that stuff, just because I know you need to know, even if you aren\u2019t aware you need to know it.<\/p>\n Michael Wacha, July 5 \u2014 The Royals\u2019 box-score craftsman started against Arizona in this game. He was symmetrical if not quite dominant:<\/p>\n 4 IP 4 H 4 R 4 ER 4 BB 4 K<\/p>\n So what\u2019s up with that?\u00a0From the start of the live-ball era in 1920 to this year, only five pitchers in history had spun off one of those 4-4-4-4-4-4 lottery tickets. And now, naturally,\u00a0we\u2019ve seen two of them just this year.\u00a0(Zac Gallen had one on Opening Day.) Because baseball!<\/p>\n Corbin Martin, July 21 \u2014 If we\u2019re going to talk symmetry, why not talk historic symmetry, with this classic from our new favorite Orioles reliever in a game at Cleveland:<\/p>\n 1 IP 1 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 1\u00a0\u00a0K 1 HBP 1 balk 1 HR<\/p>\n So what\u2019s up with that?\u00a0Are you a fan of box-scorigamis? We\u2019ve got one! This is the only box score in the entire Baseball Reference database with all nine of those \u201cones\u201d!<\/p>\n Antonio Senzatela, Aug. 1 \u2014 How much mileage can we possibly get out of that Pirates-Rockies series? Thanks for asking. We\u2019re not done \u2014 because Senzatela was the Rockies\u2019 starting pitcher in the opener of that series \u2026 and never made it through the first inning:<\/p>\n 2\/3 IP 7 H 8 R 8 ER 2 BB 0 K<\/p>\n So what\u2019s up with that? According to Baseball Reference, Senzatela is the 86th pitcher since earned runs became an official stat (1913) to cough up eight of them and not get through the first inning. The previous 85 teams with a starting pitcher who did that didn\u2019t fare too hot. By which I mean they went 1-84.\u00a0But Senzatela\u2019s Rockies came all the way back to win, 17-16. So make that 2-84!<\/p>\n Hayden Birdsong, July 21 \u2014 Speaking of not making it out of the first, here\u2019s how Birdsong\u2019s start for the Giants went in this game against the Braves:<\/p>\n 0 IP 1 H 5 R 5 ER 3 BB 0 K 1 HBP<\/p>\n So what\u2019s up with that?\u00a0You don\u2019t see many starts like this! Six batters faced \u2026 zero outs \u2026 walks to at least four of them \u2026 and at least five of them score. In fact, to find the last starting pitcher to spin off a line like this, you have to take a time machine back to Sept. 22, 1993, to a start that was memorable for a very different reason: It was Nolan Ryan\u2019s last start!\u00a0At least he could blame his torn elbow ligament! (Hat tip: MLB.com.)<\/p>\n The Weirdest, Wildest Games of the Month The Tigers\u2019 Matt Vierling and Riley Greene were all smiles during an epic win on July 6. (Ken Blaze \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n Baseball never runs out of plot lines that should have been written by Quentin Tarantino. Every day, there\u2019s another I Never Saw That Before special appearing before our eyes. So here come a few of my favorites from the last month.<\/p>\n Tigers 7, Guardians 2 in 10 unlikely innings (July 6) \u2014 How\u2019d this game make the list? Think how hard it is to win a game in which your team A) gets exactly one hit in the first nine innings and B) is still trailing with two outs in the ninth! But the Tigers somehow did that.<\/p>\n First, they scraped together an impossible game-tying rally: hit by pitch, stolen base, ground ball,\u00a0game-tying wild pitch by Emmanuel Clase with Cleveland one strike away.\u00a0Then they won it with a six-run 10th!<\/p>\n My friends at STATS dug into this one. Want to guess how many other teams in the last half-century have won a game like that (one hit through nine innings, trailing with two outs in the ninth)? Yep. That would be none!<\/p>\n Yankees 5, Rays 4 in 11 bizarre innings (July 30) \u2014 How\u2019d the Yankees win this game? I have no idea.<\/p>\n They trailed in the eighth inning. They trailed in the ninth inning. They trailed in the 10th inning. They finally won in the 11th inning, on a walk-off hit by a guy (Ryan McMahon) who hadn\u2019t even been a Yankee a week earlier.<\/p>\n So how impossible was this plot line? According to STATS, just one team in the modern era has erased a deficit in the eighth inning, erased another in the ninth, erased yet another in the 10th, then won in the 11th. And that team would be \u2026 the Yankees, in this game.<\/p>\n Padres 7, Mets 6 (July 28) \u2014 The Jose Iglesias revenge game! The ex-Mets utility crooner scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth against the Mets, after a Mark Vientos slam and a stunning Ronny Mauricio game-tyer had brought New York back.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Padres\u2019 director of scoreboard ops, Jeff Praught, laid the challenge on me after this game: Go find another game in which any team did what the Padres did \u2014 give up a grand slam and\u00a0a separate game-tying homer in the ninth inning, but still win \u2026 without needing extra innings.<\/p>\n Baseball Reference research whiz Katie Sharp went to work on this one \u2014 and found only four other teams in the entire Baseball Reference database that had pulled this off: the 2004 A\u2019s, 1998 Rangers, 1971 Giants and 1970 Expos. My favorite game in that bunch: a wild Expos comeback against the Roberto Clemente\/Willie Stargell Pirates \u2014\u00a0 finished off with a walk-off three-run bomb, with two outs in the ninth, by the legendary John Boccabella!<\/p>\n Reds 12, Braves 11 in 10 nutty innings (July 31) \u2014 Before the Reds and Braves headed for Tennessee, they played this ridiculous game. So why was it so ridiculous? Because it was still only 1-1\u00a0in the eighth.\u00a0And then \u2026<\/p>\n Atlanta scored eight in the top of the eighth \u2026 but then served up eight runs, on\u00a0eight straight hits,\u00a0to the Reds (before they made an out) in the bottom of the eighth! Ever played that card game Crazy Eights? This was the first AL\/NL game ever in which both teams scored eight runs (or more) in (yup) the eighth.<\/p>\n Marlins 13, Yankees 12 (last Friday) \u2014 Let\u2019s ask a different question than we asked about that previous Yankees game: How\u2019d the Yankees\u00a0lose\u00a0this game? It took some doing!<\/p>\n They scored 12 runs \u2026 and they lost (which broke a 234-game winning streak when they scored 12-plus). They had a six-run lead \u2026 and they lost (for the first time since Aug. 13, 2023 \u2026\u00a0in their previous game in Miami).\u00a0\u2026 And after blowing that six-run lead, they took a two-run lead on three straight hits with two outs and nobody on in the ninth \u2026 but they still lost \u2026 on this spectacular Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez\u00a0walk-off single that never even made it beyond the dirt!<\/p>\n AGUST\u00cdN RAMIREZ HITS A WEAK GROUNDER IN FRONT OF HOME PLATE AND THERE\u2019S NOTHING AUSTIN WELLS CAN DO AS XAVIER EDWARDS COMES IN TO GIVE THE MARLINS AN INCREDIBLE 13-12 WIN OVER THE YANKEES pic.twitter.com\/fUxqo1aZNW<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 MLB Walk Offs & Game Winning Plays (@MLBWalk_Offs) August 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n It may have looked like the shortest walk-off hit you\u2019ve ever seen. But Sports Info Solutions says it actually traveled 18 feet. I\u2019ll take the under. But if we buy that, it makes this only the third-shortest walk-off hit in the two decades SIS has been keeping track. The record holder? It\u2019s this 9-foot\u00a0rocket by Alex Bregman on July 10, 2018.<\/p>\n (Hat tips: Mark Simon, James Smyth, Jay Cuda.)<\/p>\n Six more things I can\u2019t believe happened<\/p>\n 1. The Rays lost a 22-8 game! That was June 27 in Baltimore. You know what their record was in their next 30 games? How \u2019bout 8-22!<\/p>\n 2. There\u2019s no home run swing-off jinx! And how do we know this? Because all four players who homered in the swing-off that ended the All-Star Game \u2013 Brent Rooker, Randy Arozarena, Kyle Stowers and Kyle Schwarber \u2013 then homered in the first game after the All-Star break!<\/p>\n 3. The Phillies hit for the home run cycle (in order)! That happened Monday, in a 13-3 pounding of the Orioles \u2014 meaning they bombed a solo homer, two-run homer, three-run homer and grand slam in that order that night. So how rare is that? Only four other teams have ever done it, Katie Sharp reports. You know the difference between the Phillies and those other four teams? The Phillies were the first team ever to hit no doubles and no triples in a game \u2014 but still go home-run cycling, in order!<\/p>\n 4. More Phillies innovation (not a good thing)! On the other hand, it isn\u2019t easy to lose a game on a walk-off, lead-flipping, inside-the park homer by a catcher \u2014 but the Phillies did that, too, courtesy of an epic Patrick Bailey inside-the-park walk-off on July 8 (the first by a catcher in 99 years)!\u00a0It also isn\u2019t easy to lose a game in which you hit five homers, hold a five-run lead and strike out 15 on the mound \u2014 but the Phillies lost one of those, too, to the Red Sox, on July 23!<\/p>\n 5. Spencer Strider vs. Justin Verlander! You\u2019d pay to watch those guys dominate, right? Oops! They matched up in Atlanta on July 23\u2014\u00a0 and combined to spin off a messy 71-pitch first inning\u00a0\u2026 complete with five walks, one hit and (miraculously)\u00a0no runs.\u00a0This sport started keeping track of pitch counts in 1988. You know how many other 71-pitch (or more) innings we\u2019ve seen since then that somehow resulted in no runs? None would be an excellent guess! (Hat tip: C.J. Nitkowski.)<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Shohei Ohtani homered for his 1,00th career hit. (Luke Hales \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n 6. And you know what Shohei Ohtani did? Lots of stuff!\u00a0Heck, this guy did so much stuff, I could have devoted a whole column just to him. But here\u2019s the thing I can\u2019t stop thinking about:<\/p>\n From July 19-23, he homered in five games in a row \u2014 and he pitched in one of them.\u00a0That was in a July 21 game against Minnesota, in which he\u00a0allowed a homer\u00a0(to Byron Buxton) in the top of the first and then\u00a0hit a homer\u00a0in the bottom of the first.<\/p>\n Not to give you the impression you don\u2019t see humans do both of those things in the first inning much \u2026 but the last time it happened, it was in maybe the craziest game ever played \u2014 the legendary 23-22 game between the Phillies and Cubs in 1979. Randy Lerch homered in the top of the first that day. Then he got one out in the bottom of the first.<\/p>\n In other words, he was weird and he was wild \u2014 but he was no Shohei Ohtani!<\/p>\n What\u2019s in a name?<\/p>\n Finally, I know I need to learn to focus more on what\u2019s important in life. But I get distracted sometimes \u2014 by baseball\u2019s never-ending name games!<\/p>\n The Orioles\u00a0traded at the deadline for a pitcher named Palmer (Twine Palmer, to be exact). Why did that excite me? Because no Palmers have thrown a pitch for the Orioles since May 12, 1984 (Jim\u2019s last game).<\/p>\n A guy named Clemens\u00a0pitched against the Red Sox! That was Kody, of course, on July 30. And why did that also excite me? Because nobody named Clemens has pitched against the Red Sox since Sept. 16, 2007 (which was Roger\u2019s last career start).<\/p>\n The shot heard \u2019round Vladivostok was hit Wednesday at Coors Field \u2026 when a guy named Vladimir (Guerrero) went deep off a guy named Victor Vodnik. So why did that excite me? Because I can\u2019t stop thinking that this might be the only American highlight you\u2019ll see all season on a scoreboard of the Russian Baseball Federation.<\/p>\n But none of them can top this!\u00a0Hey, pay attention out there. What we\u2019re about to discuss may not have been the greatest, most dramatic or most picturesque relay throw of all time. But it\u2019s probably the highlight of this whole column, so you\u2019d better read every word of this.<\/p>\n Jackson to Jackson to Jackson. The relay play you didn\u2019t know you needed. pic.twitter.com\/5FOyYPeyM7<\/a><\/p>\n
4 homers
5 extra-base hits
8 RBIs
6 runs scored
19 total bases<\/p>\n
Four-pitch walk.
Wild pitch.
Intentional walk.
You know what happened next.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1034.jpg\")
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