An MLB calendar of oddball occurrences
Baseball is filled with bizarre coincidences, amazing statistics, and lots of oddball occurrences. Last season was no exception. As 2014 spring training gets underway, we decided to look back at the kookiest from 2013 in our annual Calendar of MLB Weirdness.
APRIL
April 5 Emilio Bonifacio is the second player of the live-ball era to strike out four times and commit three errors in the same game.
April 5 The Diamondbacks score two runs on a single passed ball.
April 5 Xavier Cedeno is the fifth pitcher in history to allow six runs without recording an out, yet surrender fewer than two hits.
April 6 The Rangers issue three intentional walks to Albert Pujols, but he homers the two times they don’t.
April 7 Reigning Cy Young Award winners R.A. Dickey and David Price each lose their starts by a score of 13–0.
April 7 Braves batters strike out 16 times for the second time in five days, but Atlanta wins both games by scoring a combined 14 runs.
April 9 In 10.1 innings, Brett Myers has allowed more home runs (seven) than 12 entire teams have hit.
April 10 With his fifth home run in his ninth game, John Buck equals the tater total of all Mets catchers in the 2012 season.
April 10 Including his previous start against them in 2012, the Mets’ Jeremy Hefner puts 13 consecutive Phillies batters on base.
April 16 KC’s Kelvin Herrera’s MLB-high 82.1 innings without a home run allowed evaporates when he serves up three in the span of four Braves hitters.
April 20 Two of the day’s starters, Rick Porcello and Philip Humber, combine to allow 17 earned runs while retiring a total of three batters.
April 24 Baltimore’s Josh Stinson allows five hits in his season debut — four homers and a double.
April 24 Eric Hinske of the D-Backs is awarded second base when the Giants’ Santiago Casilla, warming up in the bullpen, gloves his base hit.
April 29 Milwaukee is the first team in 55 years to hit at least four home runs and three triples in a game.
April 29 Between the 11th and 15th innings of Oakland’s 19-inning win over the Angels, three different center fielders sustain leg injuries while running to first base and must be removed from the game.
April 30 The month ends with the highest home run total by catchers (117) and highest strikeout total by pitchers (5,992) of any April in baseball history.
MAY
May 3 Braves third baseman Chris Johnson appeals an official scorer’s decision by insisting he should be charged with an error.
May 7 Thirteen-year veteran Nick Punto’s home run is the first he’s ever hit prior to June 2.
May 8 The Cardinals and Cubs, playing each other, rap into four double plays apiece.
May 10-11 Cardinals pitchers hold the Rockies hitless for 49 consecutive at-bats.
May 11 Nelson Cruz cranks his third game-tying homer of the week, all setting up close Rangers victories and each in the sixth inning.
May 11 All three Marlins outfielders record an assist.
May 14 The Phillies poke their 16th straight solo home run.
May 17 Gerardo Parra’s homer on the game’s first pitch provides the sole run in Arizona’s defeat of Miami — the first time that’s happened since 1993, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
May 18 On the same day the Orioles’ streak of 109 victories when leading after seven innings is terminated, the Astros win for just the fifth time in their last 139 after trailing in the seventh or later.
May 19 Buck Showalter’s dash from the dugout to argue that a Rays double should have been called a foul ball backfires when the umps decide to check the replay and change their ruling to a home run.
May 21 Mike Trout’s cycle is the first in 81 years also to include at least five RBIs and a stolen base.
May 24 The umpire, thinking the first baseman caught the ball on the bag, calls out Jesus Sucre even though the pitcher takes the throw six feet in front of it.
May 25 All nine A’s starters drive in a run by the fifth inning.
JUNE
June 4 The Red Sox score in every inning against the Rangers except the one pitched by outfielder David Murphy.
June 4 Miguel Cabrera ends a streak of 2,457 plate appearances in which he did not strike out after reaching a 3–0 count.
June 6 Bud Selig, announcing first-round picks, repeatedly calls it the “2000” draft.
June 8 Jose Fernandez and Matt Harvey are the first starting hurlers since 1884 to match up against each other in two games that lasted 15 or more innings during the same season.
June 12 Brandon Moss gets just his fifth hit over 40 at-bats in 19 games, but all are home runs.
June 13 For the second time in franchise history, the Phillies win a game in which they score three or fewer runs despite accumulating at least 16 hits. (They first did it in 1954.)
June 14 Freddy Galvis (following Carlos Gomez and Carlos Gonzalez) is the third player in eight days to hit a triple in successive innings.
June 15 Exactly one month after Raul Ibanez was the first 40-year-old in Mariners history to hit a grand slam, Henry Blanco becomes the second.
June 18 For the second time in a week, Alfredo Aceves is demoted to Triple-A immediately after beating Tampa Bay with a one-run start.
June 25 Alexi Casilla homers for the second time in 498 at-bats — both off Justin Masterson. (He failed to hit another in 2013.)
June 28 A position player for two different teams (the White Sox’ Casper Wells and L.A.’s Skip Schumaker) throws a scoreless inning after his pitching teammates allow a combined 35 runs.
JULY
July 2 The Mets, who had set an NL record by failing to score more than five runs in 30 consecutive home games, tally seven times in the seventh inning at Citi Field.
July 5 The fireworks of victory are ignited at Busch Stadium with no outs in the ninth inning.
July 9 Al Alburquerque, who hadn’t allowed a home run in his first 71 major-league games, serves up one in a second straight appearance.
July 11 The Giants win for only the third time in 17 tries, with Madison Bumgarner notching the “W” in all three.
July 14 Brandon Workman (joining Jarred Cosart and Danny Salazar) is the third pitcher in four days to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his first big-league start, equaling the total number who had done that in the previous 15 seasons.
July 22 Joe Blanton becomes the second pitcher (with Bert Blyleven) to allow a home run in 10 consecutive outings two years in a row.
July 28 One day after a record-tying four games end in a 1–0 score among seven shutouts in all, there are four more whitewashes, including another pair of 1–0 battles.
July 28 For the first time in 50 years, the only players with multiple hits in a game are the starting pitchers (Travis Wood and Tim Lincecum).
July 31 Texas sweeps a three-game series from the Angels with each win via a walk-off home run — just the second time a team has ever done that.
AUGUST
Aug. 2 The Braves become the fourth team of the modern era to hang up a five (or more)-run inning in five consecutive games.
Aug. 4 Mike Scioscia is the first manager in 30 years to give the ball to seven pitchers during the eighth and ninth innings of a game.
Aug. 4 The Cardinals get an RBI from the first eight starters in their batting order for the second time in four days.
Aug. 7 The Rangers run their total to 13 stolen bases over two nights against the Angels.
Aug. 9 Although their first four batters of the game get a hit, the Pirates fail to score in the first inning.
Aug. 9-10 After hitting five home runs in his previous 85 games, Josh Reddick doubles that total in two days.
Aug. 10 Breaking his own Mets season-opening record of 2012 by needing 233 at-bats to raise his batting average to .200, Ike Davis finally reaches the Mendoza Line in his 264th of 2013.
Aug. 13 The Twins score their 23rd consecutive run on homers.
Aug. 13 Both teams’ leadoff hitters (the Mariners’ Brad Miller, the Rays’ Ben Zobrist) homer twice — just the third time that’s ever happened.
Aug. 13-14 After driving in 13 runs in his first 153 appearances of the season, Alfonso Soriano matches that total in a span of seven trips to the plate.
Aug. 16 The Braves limit the Nats to three or fewer runs for the 13th consecutive time.
Aug. 17 The Cubs are shut out for the fifth game in their last seven at Wrigley Field, tying a major league record for home games.
Aug. 19 Jake Elmore of the Astros catches and pitches in the same game — both the first appearances of his career at those positions.
Aug. 21 Max Stassi’s first career RBI sends him to the hospital, as he is hit by a pitch with the bases loaded that ricochets off his shoulder into his face.
Aug. 24 Cliff Pennington becomes the first Diamondback ever to draw five walks in a game, doing so in the 16th inning. Two innings later, teammate Tony Campana ties his record.
Aug. 27 Alfonso Soriano socks his 400th home run and Aramis Ramirez his 350th on the same day.
Aug. 27 For the first time in 28 games, the Brewers score a first-inning run.
Aug. 30 A 38th consecutive Marlin who drew a walk fails to score.
Aug. 30 21-year-old Taijuan Walker debuts by throwing to a batterymate (Henry Blanco) who was catching for Class A Bakersfield when he was born.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 6 Yusmeiro Petit, preceded by Yu Darvish, makes this the first season in which two pitchers lose a perfect game with two outs in the ninth.
Sept. 13 Princeton product David Hale strikes out Princeton product Will Venable as the first batter he faces in his major-league career.
Sept. 19 Matt Moore allows Texas to steal four bases in the first four innings — one more than he’d permitted in 136 innings entering the game.
Sept. 26-28 After the Brewers beat the Mets by the same score (4–2) for the third straight day, the Elias Sports Bureau reports that this is the fourth time in the past 20 years this has happened — all involving one of those two teams.
Sept. 29 The Astros, needing 14 strikeouts in their season finale to set a major-league team record for a season, stage a clutch performance and whiff 19 times.
Sept. 29 Mike Trout sets a record for most games played in the outfield (148) without recording an assist.
Sept. 30 For just the third time in the 162-game era, no player records 200 hits, although Adrian Beltre and Matt Carpenter finish with 199.
OCTOBER
Oct. 3 Carlos Beltran goes deep, concluding the NLCS game with 15 home runs in 129 postseason at-bats — precisely the same stats that Babe Ruth had in his postseason career.
Oct. 15 Matt Holliday finally leaves the yard after the first 242 hitters of the NLCS come up empty.
Oct. 27 One night after Game 3 of the World Series ends on an obstruction call, Game 4 ends on a pickoff — neither of which had ever happened before.
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