All of this really happened during the Strange But True baseball season of 2025.
A 404-foot rocket to the center-field fence somehow turned into a “ground-ball” double play. … Then there was the Strangest But Truest walk-off ever, complete with a guy running off the bench and slamming into the dude about to score the winning run.
Oh, and how ’bout the pitcher who this October struck out a hitter whom he never threw an actual pitch to. … And let’s not forget a home run “trot” that went on for so long that the big bopper who hit the blast saw half his team’s infield get ejected before he’d made it to home plate.
And why would I mention all that? Because it’s time once again for that end-of-year extravaganza you’ve been eagerly waiting. Happy Strange But True Feats of the Year column to all who celebrate!
This is just Part 1 of our annual Strange But True extravaganza. So let’s kick this off with all the strange, the true and the mind-boggling …
Stuff I can’t believe happened this year!
Francisco Lindor’s Mets started the season 45-24 (.652). They ended it 38-55 (.409). (Tomas Diniz Santos / Getty Images)
The Mets were once 21 games over .500, after only 69 games … and didn’t even make the playoffs. So how many other National League teams in the wild-card era have gotten that far over .500 that early (or earlier) and not showed up in the postseason? Yup. Not one! And no team in either league has done it since the arrival of multiple wild-card teams in the AL and NL (in 2012). (Hat tip: Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen.)
The Guardians were 15 1/2 games out of first place in July … and 10 games out with 21 to play. Not to mention … they still had a losing record on Sept. 4 … and even lost 10 games in a row at one point in June/July. Then, of course, with a little assistance from their friends in Detroit, they still won their division. So how many teams have ever done all of that? None is always a fantastic guess.
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 ’bout 8-22!
The Red Sox had the most déjà vu season ever. They gave up home runs to men named Yastrzemski (Mike) and Devers (Rafael). And they even got to bat against a “pitcher” named Clemens (Kody*).
(*not an actual pitcher)
Ever heard of an 8-minute, 52-second home run trot? Speaking of Devers, he actually had one of those on Sept. 2, thanks to a wild, mid-trot, bench-clearing brouhaha instigated by the pitcher who allowed that epic first-inning home run, the Rockies’ Kyle Freeland.
It was Devers’ 16th homer since his trade to the Giants. That “trot” trot took almost two minutes longer than the other 15 combined.
A home run by Rafael Devers led to a benches-clearing brawl between the Giants and Rockies.
🎥 @NBCSGiants pic.twitter.com/Z0dTSGeeLx
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 3, 2025
The Giants spun their infield through a Cuisinart! In a related development, two of Devers’ teammates, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, got ejected from that game before Devers could even finish his home run trot. And that introduced even more chaos into this fracas.
Devers, you see, was only the second batter of the game. So thanks to those ejections, it meant the Giants got zero plate appearances that night from the two guys who were penciled into the 3 and 4 holes in the lineup.
Plus, it meant that by the time the Giants took the field in the first inning, they ran an infield out there where literally nobody on the lineup card was playing the position they were supposed to play. Want to take a stab at how many games in the last half-century have featured any of that? Right you are. That would be none.
Jeff Hoffman defied every rule of mathematics with an Aug. 10 outing for the Blue Jays that went like this: 2/3 innings pitched … five walks … and zero runs allowed. Oh, and one more thing: He was the winning pitcher!
Man, what was up with that? His outing went: walk, walk, pop-up to end the eighth inning, then walk, walk, sac bunt, walk, emergency pitching change. So one of the two outs was a bunt! And in between, there was an Ernie Clement home run that added the “WP” bonus points.
Wow. So how many pitchers in history have walked five hitters in less than an inning without allowing at least one of them to score? Once again, nada is the perfect guess.
More fun with math! Does it also seem mathematically impossible to get five outs on two pitches? Not to those Brooklyn Cyclones of the High-A South Atlantic League. On June 15, they did exactly that: Ended the ninth inning with a triple play … then (Zombie Runner alert!) inherited a bonus runner and turned a double play on the first pitch of the 10th inning.
Six of one and, uh, none of the other. Did I say there would be no math? Nope! So let’s hear it for Beloit Sky Carp outfielder Emaarion Boyd. On April 9, in the always-lively High-A Midwest League, he stole six bases in one game … despite the slight technicality that he didn’t get any hits. Naturally, it took him until his 26th game of the season to roll up six steals in games where he actually did get a hit!
Robbie Ray broke the rules! Then there was Robbie Ray, starting pitcher for the Giants in an April 11 game in New York. He went only four innings … but he still got The Win. That’s not normally allowed — in any other game. But when games get rained out (and the winning team pitches only five innings), the baseball gods say: The heck with that rule! Who knew!
Gunnar Henderson drew a walk … even though his entire April 24 at-bat consisted of just two pitches! It went pitch-clock violation, ball two, ball three, pitch-free intentional walk. (Hat tip: Orioles TV Strange But True fan Kevin Brown.)
The Reds gave up nine runs in an April 30 game in which they also … retired 20 hitters in a row! No NL team had done that since 1992. (Hat tip: Reds TV stats guru Joel Luckhaupt.)
The Dirty Dozen! How bizarre is baseball? This bizarre …
• The Diamondbacks on May 17: scored 12 runs … and they lost (14-12 to the Rockies).
• The Diamondbacks on May 18: scored one run … and they won (1-0, again against Colorado).
Hit the ejector button! Here’s what it was like to be the manager of the (Don’t Call Us Sacramento) A’s. In May and June, they went through a stretch of 21 games in which they went a picturesque 1-20. And in the only game they won, the manager, Mark Kotsay, never got to join the fist-bump line … because he got ejected!
Law and Out of Order! In a wild (and weird) Aug. 18 game against the White Sox, the Braves coughed up 13 early runs. That allowed them to bring in a position player (Luke Williams) to pitch in the eighth inning … but then they had an actual pitcher (Tyler Kinney) pitch the ninth. Guess which one gave up more hits? Yep. The guy who pitches for a living (1-0).
Deja Boom! The trade deadline is always good for lots of upside-down Strange But Trueness. But this year, I especially loved this:
July 2 — Mike Yastrzemski homers against Merrill Kelly
Aug. 19 — Mike Yastrzemski homers against Merrill Kelly again
So what’s so Strange But True about that? Oh, nothing much, other than the fact that they were wearing four different uniforms! That first homer came in a Giants-Diamondbacks game. Then Yaz got dealt to the Royals, Kelly got traded to the Rangers, and it seemed like they remembered each other.
The road to Canada … has never been shorter than it must have felt to Seranthony Domínguez this July. Two days before the trade deadline, he got to hang out in both teams’ bullpens on the same day, after he got dealt from the Orioles to the Blue Jays — between games of a doubleheader between the Orioles and Blue Jays!
According to my intensive research (on Google Maps), he got 460 miles worth of moving expenses out of that deal. But where else could a guy walk down a hallway in Baltimore for like a minute and a half and wind up in Canada? Yep, only in …
Baseball!
Wait! There’s more! That’s because the pitching prospect Domínguez was traded for, Juaron Watts-Brown, could definitely relate. He was pitching for the Blue Jays’ Double-A team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, at the time. And what team were they playing? Yep, it was the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate, the Chesapeake Baysox. So how long was his commute? From one dugout to the other!
Traded twins: Brothers Taylor (left) and Tyler Rogers were dealt on the same day. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
O Brother Where Art Thou? I love those Rogers twins, Taylor and Tyler. They’re always a Strange But True classic waiting to happen. But never more than on July 30, when they both got traded on the same day!
First, Taylor went from the Reds to the Pirates (only to have the Pirates flip him again the next day to the Cubs). Then, just minutes later, Tyler went from the Giants to the Mets. Once upon a time, two of the DiMaggio brothers (Joe and Dom) played a combined 24 seasons in the big leagues (for the Yankees and Red Sox, respectively) and got traded zero times. But was this actually cooler? Discuss!
The Name of the Game! I don’t know why it amuses me that a Busch (Michael) homered at Busch (Stadium). But it does.
For the same reason it amuses me that the Yankees had a Fried-Rice pitcher-catcher combo! (That’s Max and Ben for those of you who don’t have a menu.)
Yeah, I’ll admit I got a chuckle when the Rangers ordered a Burger to go — by sending Jake Burger to the minors in May.
And when a guy named Vladimir (Guerrero) went deep off a guy named Victor Vodnik on Aug. 6 at Coors Field, was anyone but me wondering if we should call that The Shot Heard Round Vladivostok?
But none of them can top this Name Game relay throw by the Orioles on Aug. 3.
Got all that, Jackson? That was the Orioles recording a Strange But True classic out at the plate — on a relay from Jeremiah Jackson in right, to Jackson Holliday at second, to the catcher, who was also named Jackson (Alex).
It was so much fun that Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen spent two days of his otherwise-fulfilling life trying to research all the possible parallels to this. Thanks to him, I can actually ask: How many other outs at the plate have ever involved three players with the same name? And the answer, naturally, is … none!
Five Strange But True October classics1. Take that, David Copperfield!
Alex Vesia recorded a one-pitch strikeout for the ages in the Wild Card Series. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
Sometimes, October baseball isn’t just a sporting event. It’s a magic trick. Otherwise, how would we explain this Strange But True at-bat in Game 2 of the Dodgers-Reds Wild Card Series, when this bizarre thing actually happened:
A pitcher struck out a hitter he never threw a pitch to!
Yeah, that seems hard, but hang with us. It began as an eighth-inning at-bat pitting Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan versus Reds outfielder Will Benson. But Sheehan was having so much trouble throwing strikes that his manager, Dave Roberts, yanked him with a 1-and-2 count.
In trotted Alex Vesia to pitch. So up marched the Reds’ Miguel Andujar to pinch hit. Vesia threw one pitch to Andujar, who swung and missed it. Which meant … Vesia got credit for a one-pitch strikeout — but not of Andujar.
You’ve gotta love the rules of baseball … because according to those rules, Vesia had just struck out a hitter he never threw a pitch to … namely, Benson.
Has anything like that ever happened in a postseason game? Of course not. Because it makes no sense that a pitcher could throw a pitch to one hitter and strike out another hitter who was sitting in the dugout at the time. But there is an explanation, you know. It’s …
Baseball!
2. The hitless wonder!
There were so many brain-warping Shohei Ohtani moments in this postseason, it’s hard to pick out just one. (So naturally, there will be more in future editions of this Strange But True series.) But I can’t stop thinking about this one.
Between Game 2 of the Wild Card Series and Game 1 of the NLCS, this man wasn’t quite as Ohtanic as usual. By which I mean … he went 1-for-20, with nine strikeouts. And that wasn’t even the Strange But True part.
The Strange But True part was … while all that was going on, he still got intentionally walked three times — once by the Phillies in the NLDS, then twice by the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS.
And how many hitters have ever had a five-game span, in a single postseason, with only one hit but still more intentional walks than hits? That would be one. Only Ohtani.
3. The Bronx Bummers!
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays bludgeoned the Yankees in the NLDS. (Mark Blinch / Getty Images)
Back in 1927 and 1928, probably the most legendary Yankees teams of them all won back-to-back World Series. You know how many runs they gave up in those two World Series combined? That would be 20.
Why would I bring that up? Because in Games 1 and 2 of this ALDS, the Yankees gave up 20 runs to the Blue Jays in a little stretch that went like this: 20 runs, 20 outs!
Oh, and one more thing. The Blue Jays scored 20 runs just in between runs scored by the Yankees. And how many other teams have ever plated that many runs in a row in a single postseason series? That, of course, would be zilch.
4. Louis the 15th!
Then there was Blue Jays reliever Louis Varland. He prompted an entertaining debate in the press box during the World Series: Which was more likely to happen — the sun rising or “Every Day” Louis pitching that day? And we decided Varland was the correct answer.
Craig Kimbrel pitched in 14 games all season. Varland pitched in 15 games just in the postseason, the most ever. Who knew!
5. It takes two, baby!
Finally, it was the day after Game 7 of the World Series. I’d literally written about that game all night. So I was staggering through the airport when I ran into Stan Kasten, president of the Dodgers, who couldn’t wait to tell me: “You missed the greatest note of the whole World Series.”
I hate it when people say stuff like that to me … but he might be right. Here goes:
How did Game 6 of that World Series end? With the Dodgers turning an incredible 7-4 double play in the ninth, with the tying run at second base.
And how did Game 7 end? With the Dodgers turning another double play, with the potential tying run on first base.
According to Baseball Reference’s Katie Sharp, no potential World Series clinching game had ended on a double play, with the tying run on base, in more than 50 years — since 1972 Game 5. (Joe Morgan to Johnny Bench!) And then …
It happened two games in a row, with this World Series on the line. How even? Oh, that’s right. It’s …
Baseball!
Strangest But Truest Whatever That Was of the Year
After rising to almost catch Max Muncy’s 404-foot blast, Sal Frelick plays the ball off the wall in NLCS Game 1, triggering one of the most unusual double plays ever. (Aaron Gash / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
I’m pretty sure I don’t have the power to will crazy stuff to happen in baseball just because I happen to be the universe’s No. 1 fan of that crazy stuff. But you should know that not everyone believes that.
So there I was on Oct. 13, minding my own business in a press box in Milwaukee, moments after the Strangest But Truest “ground-ball” double play of all time. My brain was still trying to absorb how it was possible that a 404-foot rocket to the center-field fence had just forced me to write an 8-6-2 “grounded-into-double-play” entry on my scorecard.
It was about then that I looked up and saw my friend Drew Olson, longtime Milwaukee radio and sportswriting legend, heading my way.
“You know this only happened,” he told me, “because you were here.”
For the record, I don’t know that. But if I keep writing columns like this, I can’t stop the rest of humanity from being way too suspicious that I have that kind of power.
Whatever! Take a look one more time at the insane double play that the Dodgers’ Max Muncy “grounded” into in Game 1 of the NLCS.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!?! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/x7BbmJ6hzX
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2025
So what’s so Strange But True about that? Ha ha. Here’s what!
There was no actual “ground” in it! So you thought you knew what a groundball looked like, huh? Well, one thing we can agree on is, it sure didn’t look like that — possibly because this was a baseball that never touched the ground at any point.
It was nearly a grand slam! This was also a baseball that came within inches of clearing the center-field fence, for what would have been a grand slam … but somehow, when the dust settled, there were no runs on the board and the catcher (William Contreras) wound up recording two outs — at home and then at third.
It was almost a “ground-ball” triple play! OK, so that would have been mathematically impossible because there was already one out when the ball left the bat. But those Dodgers base runners got so confused, they tried running (or not running) into outs all over the diamond.
The runner on third, Teoscar Hernández, forgot to tag up. The runner on second, Will Smith, wasn’t sure if he was allowed to go to third. And Tommy Edman, the runner on first, got so mixed up that Muncy appeared to pass him on the bases. So all four of them could have been out — or could have scored if this ball had flown six more inches over the fence.
So how the heck was it a “groundball?” I asked the official scorer, Tim O’Driscoll, that question — because of course I did. How, I wondered, could this be scored a “groundball,” despite the slight technicality that it never touched anything remotely similar to “the ground?”
“It’s a ground-ball double play,” O’Driscoll said, “because once the ball hit off the glove and off the wall, the ball wasn’t caught. … (Then) there was a forceout at home and a forceout at third. And because the ball wasn’t caught in the air, it becomes a ‘groundball.’”
I asked if he understood the irony in that. He couldn’t help but laugh.
“When you fill in your (official scorer’s) sheet,” he said, “you can’t say yeah, it was a half-caught, deflected, grab in the air. It has to say, ‘GIDP.’”
Strangest But Truest Walk of the Year
Ever heard of a team scoring three runs on a walk? Now you have, because … that … really … happened!
So whatever it is you had planned for the next 61 seconds, forget that. You need to watch the linked video of those Albuquerque Isotopes, of the Pacific Coast League, scoring three runs on a walk, on April 15.
How nuts is that? It’s so good, I could watch it all day. Did you know that the Isotopes are the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies? And that also feels almost perfect.
That’s because those big-league Rockies had so much trouble scoring any runs this season that during one five-game stretch on the road, in that same week in April, they scored three runs … in a span of 134 batters. And while that was going on, their Triple-A team scored three runs in a span of one batter — who walked!
Five more Strange But True plays we can’t believe1. Strangest But Truest Walk-off of the Year
Is there something in those New Mexico chiles that causes epidemics of the dreaded Strange But True Fever? I ask because we’re going back to Albuquerque for another play. It’s a walk-off something-or-other, but what exactly? Good question. My best advice is: Just watch it! You can thank me later.
It was like the teams said “How do we get featured on “Weird and Wild” by @jaysonst … and I think they did it. https://t.co/rey6fQ3cIZ
— MLB Scoring Changes (@ScoringChanges) May 22, 2025
What in the world was that? Just your basic game-winning, lead-flipping, bases-loaded, two-run double, from a May 21 Albuquerque-Reno game — which also included …
• The runners on first and third base scoring but not the guy on second.
• And why didn’t the runner on second score? Thanks to the most bonkers obstruction call in the history of obstruction calls — caused by a teammate (Ildemaro Vargas) running out of the dugout to celebrate, with his video camera, and slamming into the runner (Blaze Alexander), who would have been the winning run, before he could make it home!
• So that guy was out. But then the winning run scored anyway — while nobody was looking — because the center fielder (Sam Hilliard) had no idea any of this was happening. So he assumed the game was over, and fired a definitely-still-not-dead baseball into the stands. Which meant the final runner got to advance two bases … and score.
I know that not all games in Albuquerque go this way. But here at Strange But True World Headquarters, we’d like to thank the Isotopes and the entire population of New Mexico for their invaluable contributions to this column.
2. Strangest But Truest Inside-the-Park Homer of the Year
Here’s one I can guarantee that everyone reading this had never, ever seen before: a walk-off inside-the-park homer by a catcher. We take you now to Oracle Park, for this July 8 Patrick Bailey miracle — a walk-off inside-the-parker in the ninth, with his team trailing the Phillies, 3-1.
PATRICK BAILEY WALK-OFF INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN 🤯 pic.twitter.com/QipLzyDh7C
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) July 9, 2025
For the record, that ball would have been an outside-the-park homer in all 29 parks located in Not San Francisco — but who cares. It was way better this way, because …
• It was the first inside-the-park walk-off by a catcher in 99 years. Last to do it: the legendary Benny Tate, who forgot to post about it on YouTube in 1926! But here come two other parallels that might be more crazy than that. …
• It was the first inside-the-park walk-off homer by anybody, for any team that was trailing, since Ángel Pagán hit one for the same team (the Giants) in the same park, in almost the same spot, in 2013.
• And it was the first by a team that was trailing by two runs or more since — what else? — another Phillies-Giants game. Except that one was by Bob Dernier, for the Phillies against the Giants, on May 15, 1989. And I highly recommend you take a few seconds to listen to the stupendous Harry Kalas call of that one.
Bob Dernier hits a walk off 3 run inside the park Home Run in the bottom of the 12th to beat the Giants 3-2 in 1989 #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/L9nFDB61C6
— Philadelphia Phillies Home Runs (@PhilliesHR) February 6, 2023
But back to our regularly scheduled programming. Had we ever seen a walk-off inside-the-parker by a No. 9 hitter, and a catcher hitting .188, before? I’ll bet my Golden Gate Bridge toll that there is no chance of that.
3. Strangest But Truest 9-3 Skidoo of the Year
You know what seems like it should be impossible? Losing a game on a walk-off “single” — by your own team. But there’s a sport we know of — baseball! — where nothing is impossible.
So check out what happened to Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk with two outs in the ninth, in this Sept. 24 game against the Red Sox.
Alejandro Kirk was thrown out at first from right field to end the game pic.twitter.com/Io66pnwf3T
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 25, 2025
It’s a hit! Oh, wait. Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu clearly had other ideas — and turned this into the most routine 9-3 out, on an alleged “single,” you’ll ever see.
4. Strangest But Truest Forceout of the Year
Can a runner get credit for an assist on his own forceout? Um, only if he uses his head?
Check out this wild forceout in a Sept. 18 Cubs-Reds game, featuring a ricochet off the noggin of the Cubs’ Moisés Ballesteros that turned into the most cerebral play of the game (literally).
For the record, that play went down as the first 3-8-6 forceout in the entire Retrosheet database, which goes back more than a century. So Ballesteros did not get an assist, but the first baseman, Spencer Steer, somehow did, because baseball is the headiest sport ever.
5. Strangest But Truest Double Play of the Year
Finally, let’s head back to the minor leagues one last time, because I love this.
Ever seen a 7-2-4-2-5-2-3-6 double play? Now you have, courtesy of the South Bend Cubs and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on May 24! I counted six different rundowns involving six different fielders and three different base runners, not even including the hitter who started all this with a fly ball.
So if you were scoring at home — and scoring Midwest League games at home is rumored to be one of Indiana’s most popular hobbies — you, too, had to jam those digits, 7-2-4-2-5-2-3-6, into one little square. Just do me a favor and don’t try to dial that number on your cell phone. Definitely not in service! Even in minor-league …
Baseball!