Blue Jays 28, Red Sox 5: The night the Sox gave up 4 TDs at Fenway and broke the record book St -

Let’s see now. We saw a second baseman drop a fly ball on the left-field warning track. … We saw two pitching matchups that make this column worth writing — by which I mean “Gray versus White” and “No. 99 versus No. 0.” … We saw a team go a whole week without scoring a run. … And we saw a guy throw harder than Josh Hader — from the shortstop hole.

But hey, there’s a special reason we call this the Weird and Wild column. And that reason could be summed up like this: 28-5!

1. A football score at Fenway

So there I was, on a peaceful Friday night in beautiful Cooperstown, N.Y., when my phone began to rattle like my car on a cobblestone street. I always know what that means.

There are certain games every year, you see, that America seems to think are My Kind of Game. And that night in Boston, a thing was happening. Blue Jays 28, Red Sox 5 was happening.

This Red Sox – Blue Jays game is like a real time @jaysonst column.

— Owen Poindexter (@owenpoindexter) July 23, 2022

You realize this Jays-Red Sox game is going to demand your attention @jaysonst …. https://t.co/sELTac3noM

— Jeff Blair (@SNJeffBlair) July 23, 2022

This is a weeks worth of columns for you. Oh the stats you will see.

— Tom Crowell (@tom_crowell51) July 23, 2022

A week’s worth of columns, huh? Well, I can definitely get this week’s Weird and Wild column out of it. I can promise you that. You’re about to read what goes on at Weird and Wild World HQ when the scoreboard looks like this.

I’m guessing the #RedSoxNation bloke managing the scoreboard at #Fenway has booked himself in for a Tommy John, with all the work he’s been getting lately. pic.twitter.com/1W8LTctBed

— Mike Maloney (@maloneytweet) July 24, 2022

CHAPTER 1 — A 28-5 GAME?

What a score to see on any team’s scoreboard:

28 to 5?

There has never been an NFL game that ended 28-5. There has never been an NBA or NHL game that ended 28-5. And according to my friend, Doug (Kernels) Kern, there has been only one other baseball game in history that ended 28-5. I’m pretty sure you didn’t watch that one on MLB Network — because it erupted on Aug. 25, 1891!

This one was 14-0 in the fourth inning. It was 25-3 in the fifth. It was 27-3 in the sixth. And Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri were nowhere in sight!

The Red Sox had never lost a game by 25 runs in their history. They were down by 25 in this game with 12 outs to go!

The Blue Jays had never won a game by 20 runs in their history. They were up by 21 in the fifth inning!

No team had scored 25 runs in the first five innings of any game in 100 years — since the Cubs did it at Wrigley Field, on Aug. 25, 1922, in a legendary game that ended: Cubs 26, Phillies 23.

But we’re honestly just scratching the surface here, so let’s get to …

CHAPTER 2 — THEY BROKE THE RECORD BOOK

Raimel Tapia races around the bases for an inside-the-park grand slam. (Bob DeChiara / USA Today)

The Red Sox had given up two inside-the-park grand slams in the history of Fenway Park. Then Raimel Tapia hit the third in this game.

The Sox had also allowed just one batter to get six hits (or more) in a nine-inning game in the last 60 years. They allowed one of those, too — to Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

No visiting team had ever hit for the home-run cycle (slam, three-run homer, two-run homer, solo homer) in any game at Fenway. That’s in 111 seasons! But the Jays went cycling in this game, because why the heck not.

The Blue Jays had never scored 28 runs in any game in franchise history. The Red Sox had never allowed 28 in any game in their history. But so much for that, too.

So let’s put that in perspective. According to our friends from STATS Perform, no team had ever put up 28 runs in a road game, had a home run cycle, hit an inside-the-park slam and had a player get six hits in a nine-inning game in the same season. So then the Blue Jays did that on one whacked-out night at Fenway Park, because of course they did.

More on those feats shortly. But first, it’s time for …

CHAPTER 3 — IF BILL BELICHICK WERE WRITING THIS

Imagine finding your team trailing 27-3 — in a baseball game. So you say that sounds like a football score? Here’s what we have to say about that.

We’ll view that score through the prism of the team that plays down the highway from Fenway, the Patriots. Now the bad news, for the sake of this note, is that the Pats did fall behind 27-3 in their playoff game against the Bills in January. So here’s our policy: Let’s ignore that! Let’s focus instead on the regular season, because that’s way more convenient.

• The last time the Patriots trailed 27-3 or worse in any regular-season game: Week 4, 2014, when the Chiefs raced out to a 27-0 lead at Arrowhead.

• But … to find the last time the Patriots trailed by exactly 27-3 in a regular-season game, you would have to travel back to Week 6 in 2008, against the Chargers, on what we’ll basically describe as a “rough day for Matt Cassel.”

• And since we’re rummaging through our 28-5 files, let’s ask: What was the last time the Pats gave up exactly 28 points and scored five or fewer in a game? How about Week 3, 1995, in a 28-3 thumping by Steve Young and the 49ers at Candlestick.

• Oh, and one more thing. The Red Sox didn’t just start giving up touchdown passes in this game. They also allowed 14 and 13 runs, respectively, in their two previous games, against the Yankees leading into the All-Star break. So let’s think about that.

Runs vs. Red Sox in 3 games (July 16-22): 55
Points vs. Patriots in 5 games (Nov. 7-Dec. 6): 36

Because … football!

CHAPTER 4 — THEY CALL THIS RUN SUPPORT!

This was Kevin Gausman’s 18th start for the Blue Jays. They hadn’t scored in double figures in any of the previous 17. Then they scored 11 runs for him in this game in one inning.

So as he took the mound in the fifth inning, that meant Gausman was pitching with a 22-run lead. And you don’t see that regularly. Best I can tell, from a way-too-time-consuming trip through Stathead, Gausman became only the fourth starting pitcher in the last 74 seasons to find himself out there twirling with a 22-run lead (or more). The others:

Chuck Stobbs, Red Sox, on June 8, 1950. Pitched a complete game (because 1950) in a game in which his team led the Browns 29-3 in the ninth. That’s a 26-run lead if you’re subtracting along at home (or even if you’re not).

John Candelaria, Pirates, on Sept. 16, 1975. Headed for the mound in the seventh, up 22-0 over the Cubs at Wrigley. That sounds like a 22-run lead by my calculations.

Dave Frost, Angels, vs. A’s on Aug. 25, 1979. The Angels took control of this one so early, thanks to an eight-run first inning, that they just put Frost on automatic pilot — and let him go all nine in a 24-2 bashing of the Blue Jays. So he, too, got to twirl away with a 22-run cushion.

But before Gausman, you know how many pitchers had ever thrown a pitch up 22 runs (or more) as early as the fifth inning? Yessir. That would be none.

CHAPTER 5 — TEOSCAR’S 11

Let’s do a quick recap of the Jays’ 11-run fifth inning:

Out. Out. Then …

Single. Single. Single. Single. Walk. Single. Double. Single. Walk. Single. Single. Double. Out (finally).

So what you had there was a team scoring 11 runs in an inning after there were two outs and nobody on! And how often does that happen? Baseball-Reference’s amazing Katie Sharp dug through the BR play-by-play files back to 1915 and found …

No other team had ever scored 11 or more runs in an inning that began with two outs and no runners on base. Whoah.

CHAPTER 6 — LOURDES OF THE RINGS

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had himself a night: 6-for-7 with five RBIs. (Bob DeChiara / USA Today)

It was quite a night in the life of Lourdes (6-for-7) Gurriel. But, especially, it was quite a fifth inning. He kicked off the scoring in that 11-run inning with a two-out RBI single. Then, a looonnnggg time later, he was back up there — and thumped a two-out, two-run double.

So that’s two two-out, run-scoring hits in the same inning? Sure is. And did you know only two other men had had an inning like that in the previous six decades, according to Sharp? But here comes everyone else to do it in the Baseball-Reference play-by-play files:

Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies — July 30, 2010
Carlos Guillen, Mariners — Aug. 30, 2003
Chuck Cottier, Senators — May 11, 1962
Nellie Fox, White Sox — Sept. 2, 1959
Spook Jacobs/Harry Simpson, A’s — April 21, 1956
Chris Van Cuyk/Rube Walker, Dodgers — May 21, 1953
Bud Stewart, Pirates — Sept. 7, 1942
Riggs Stephenson, Cleveland — July 7, 1923

CHAPTER 7 — NOT AS EASY AS 1-2-3

Six Blue Jays players scored at least three runs in this game. You know what they had in common?

None of them were hitting in the 1-2-3 spots in their lineup! That seems impossible, right? Well, maybe that’s because, according to Baseball-Reference’s fabulous Kenny Jackelen, no other team in the modern era has had six players score at least three times in any game without any of them hitting in the top three slots. Whew.

CHAPTER 8 — THE CYCLE GANG

Tapia hit a slam (inside the park) in this game. Danny Jansen hit a three-run bomb. Jansen and Matt Chapman launched two-run homers. Teoscar Hernández hit a solo shot.

They call that the home run cycle. I know I’ve never seen one. But here’s the Weird and Wild part of the Blue Jays’ home run cycle:

From the opening of Fenway in 1912 until two months ago, the Red Sox had hit for the home run cycle seven times — but had never allowed one to any visiting intruders. But now, naturally, they’ve allowed two of them just this season — and both came in Nathan Eovaldi’s last eight starts! He also got one started on May 17, against the Astros. Holy Lance Armstrong!

CHAPTER 9 — GRAND CENTRAL

Have you ever seen an inside-the-park grand slam? Well, you’ve gotta lay your eyes on this one, by Tapia.

It’s well played by Jarren Duran in center, don’t you think? But whatever. Let’s move on from that part, because any inside-the-park homer is the stuff Weird and Wild revelations are made of.

• This was the sixth known inside-the-park slam in Fenway history. One cool tidbit: This one occurred nearly 100 years to the day since the first one, on July 18, 1922, by the Tigers’ Bobby Veach. Sorry, there’s no grainy black-and-white video of that one because YouTube was down that week. But you can tell it was a while ago, since one of the guys who scored on that slam was Ty Cobb.

• But we can fire up some video of the only other inside-the-park slam by a visitor. Ready? Here goes. Tee up Junior Felix, also of the Jays, on June 2, 1989. More Felix fodder coming right up.

Last inside the park grand slam by the @BlueJays before yesterday…Junior Felix in 1989, also at Fenway… pic.twitter.com/jnsLwJGJqi

— Sheldon Fernandez (@sheldonfff) July 23, 2022

• A fun little Jays inside-the-park grand-slam fact:

Inside-the-park slams in Fenway in Blue Jays history — 2
Inside-the-park slams in Toronto in Blue Jays history — 0

• But Tapia wasn’t through inflicting bases-loaded damage on the Red Sox. On Sunday, a mere five at-bats later, he cleared the bases again — this time with a three-run triple. So that’s an inside-the-park slam and bases-loaded triple in the same series?

It took great work by Jackelen to tell us just how unusual that is.

Twice in the same series? Never been done, according to the BR play-by-play annals, before Tapia worked his grand-slam magic.

Twice in the same season? It was just the 11th instance of that happening in the Baseball-Reference database — but only the third time in the last 79 years.

Twice in two weeks? Just two other men have even come that close: Aaron Altherr (nine days apart) for the 2015 Phillies and Whispering Bill Barrett (13 days) for the 1926 White Sox.

• Hang on, though. Back to Felix one more time, because he followed almost this same script back in 1989. That was Junior’s first series in Boston. He fired up three homers and 11 RBIs in that series. And when he was asked afterward how he liked hitting at Fenway Park, he actually uttered these immortal words:

“So that’s what they call this place.”

CHAPTER 10 — AND WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT …

• The Blue Jays had played 29 series this year before they rolled into Fenway. They hadn’t scored 28 runs in any of those series. Then they scored 28 in Boston in one game.

• Gurriel was only the fifth player in history to get six hits in a nine-inning game at Fenway. You know what bonds those five players? None of them played for the Red Sox. (The others: C.J. Cron in 2016, Floyd Robinson in 1962, George Myatt in 1944 and Myril Hoag in 1934.)

• The Red Sox bullpen didn’t have what you’d call a lockdown evening. By which I mean, they gave up 19 runs in this game. Let’s put that in perspective. The Sox played 14 games in the 2018 postseason — and their bullpen allowed 21 runs in that entire postseason (or 19 runs if you don’t count the 10th through 18th innings of games that ended way past your bedtime).

• The Blue Jays hadn’t had a seven-run inning all season. They finally had one in this game (in the third inning) — and it wasn’t even their biggest inning of this game (thanks to that 11-run fifth).

• All nine starters for the Blue Jays had a multiple-hit game — by the fifth inning. That had happened in just one other game in the Baseball-Reference database, according to Sharp: The A’s also did that in a 21-7 mashing of the Astros on Sept. 10, 2019.

• In fact, every Blue Jays starter had at least three hits — except for Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Santiago Espinal, who had spent their previous game … playing in the All-Star Game.

• The good news for the Red Sox was Christian Vázquez hit two home runs in this game. The bad news was it didn’t stop his team from losing by 23 runs. According to ESPN Stats and Info, he’s only the second player in the modern era to go deep at least twice in a game his team lost by 20 runs or more. The other: Jim Thome, for Cleveland, in a 23-3 wipeout in Minnesota, on June 4, 2002.

• Thanks to those two attractive blowouts against the Yankees, the Red Sox managed this inspirational feat: They got outscored by 47 runs in three games. You know how hard that is to do? So hard that the last team to do it was those Weird and Wild stalwarts, the Louisville Colonels, this time the 1894 edition. They got outscored, 60-11, in an August series that had to be relocated to Philadelphia because the Colonels’ stadium caught fire.

• Finally, we started this opus with a photo of the Fenway Park scoreboard. Let’s end it with an even more viral photo of the Fenway scoreboard. You know how you can tell your team just gave up a whole lot of runs? When you can’t even add them all up!

Even the scoreboard operators at Fenway are committing errors

(The game ended 28-5) https://t.co/xRhymq7O9U

— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) July 23, 2022

2. Star wars: The Weird and Wild Empire strikes back

Hey, we can’t let that All-Star Game roll by without an appearance in this column because it was Weirdness and Wildness at its finest.

• The losing pitcher in that game was the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin. What was so Weird and Wild about that? Oh, only the fact that he had no losses all season at the time (11-0). So how many other starting pitchers in history had arrived for an All-Star Game with no losses but then took the loss in that game? Correct. That would be nada.

• Juan Soto at least got three at-bats in this game, so that was good. And what pitcher did he face in the third of those AB’s? That would be Gregory Soto of the Tigers. According to loyal reader/tweeter Greg Harvey, Soto versus Soto was only the third All-Star matchup ever of guys with the same last name. The others: Andruw versus Todd Jones in 2000, Odúbel versus Kelvin Herrera in 2016.

• Clayton Kershaw in his last start before the All-Star Game: Seven perfect innings — against the Angels. Clayton Kershaw in the All-Star Game: Gave up a hit on his first pitch, to Shohei Ohtani — who plays for the Angels (and told him he’d be swinging).

• The National League has now won three of the last 25 All-Star Games (3-21-1). Just to give you an idea of how hard that is, before this year, 20 teams in the 21st century had had a stretch in which they went 3-21. Those teams averaged 103 losses in those seasons. But somehow, a bunch of All-Star teams that included Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Chipper Jones, Chase Utley, Mookie Betts, Buster Posey, Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Roy Halladay, etc., etc., etc., found a way to go 3-21? Incomprehensible.

• Giancarlo Stanton won an MVP award in the National League in 2017. He won an All-Star Game MVP award this year. You know how many other players have ever won an MVP in one league, then won an All-Star MVP in the other league? Exactly one — a fellow named Frank Robinson. Won an NL MVP award for the Reds in 1961. Won an All-Star MVP trophy in the other league in 1971. Good company!

Giancarlo Stanton joined an exclusive MVP club. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)

3. This week in useless info

JUST CRUZ-IN’ — I love Oneil Cruz. He’s the Weird and Wild gift that keeps on giving. Tuesday, in the second game he’d ever played at Wrigley Field, he did this.

I was hoping, since he’s 6-foot-7, that he was the tallest dude ever to hit a home run at Wrigley. Sorry! But thanks to Baseball-Reference/Stathead, I can tell you all the guys who homered there who were taller than him:

Tony Clark (6-8) — yeah, the Players Association honcho — on July 31, 2005
J.R. Richard (6-8) — yeah, the pitcher — twice (8/26/76 and 4/26/79)

That’s the end of quite a list!

CRUZ CONTROL – You think I’m done with the Cruz notes? Ha. You don’t know me very well. Because in a July 14 game against the Marlins, the Pirates’ bazooka-armed shortstop did this.

Oneil Cruz 97.8 MPH throw!

It’s the fastest throw by an MLB infielder during the Statcast era, which began in 2015 pic.twitter.com/PZihHJ4Hdu

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 14, 2022

Was that an actual human throwing a baseball 97.8 mph from shortstop? It was. And that’s a thing we’ve never seen, ever, since we’ve been tracking this stuff. But we haven’t even gotten to the Weird and Wild part:

You see, the Pirates have used 27 pitchers this year. Want to guess how many of them average 97.8 mph off the mound? Right you are. None!

THEY LOVE NEW YORK — Those two New York teams are pretty good this year, right? Well, tell it to the Astros.

They’ve played 11 games against the Yankees and Mets over the last few weeks. They threw 1,638 pitches in those 11 games. Well, here’s something I think you need to know about those 1,638 pitches:

Not one of them was thrown with the Astros trailing!

Oh, they did lose two of those 11 games, thanks to a couple of Aaron Judge walk-offs. But other than that, they never trailed at any point in any game. Unbelievable.

BUT OAKLAND, UM, NOT SO MUCH — On the other hand, the Astros have other teams, not from New York, they’re required to play. So they just stopped by Oakland this week. That went well.

When that series began, the Astros were on a 108-win pace (64-32, .667 winning percentage). The A’s, meanwhile, were on a 104-loss pace (35-67, .357). Yet somehow, the team that got swept was … eh, the Astros?

True! So when was the last time any team with a winning percentage that good got swept, in a series of three games or longer, by any team with a winning percentage that bad this late in a season? According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that would be Sept. 18-19, 1938! Bobo Newsom’s 1938 Browns swept three from the Gehrig/DiMaggio Yankees in St. Louis.

A week later, the Browns fired their manager (Gabby Street). Three weeks later, the Yankees swept the Cubs in the World Series. Because … baseball!

ZERO HEROES OF THE WEEK — Have you heard the one about the big-league team that went a week without scoring a run? The 2022 Marlins are that team. And yeah, they did that, with some slight assistance from the All-Star break. They scored zero runs from July 15-22, with three shutouts in a row in between.

According to Baseball-Reference, just two other teams in the modern era ever went a week (or more) between runs: Harry Spilman’s 1985 Astros (July 13-20) and Tyler Saladino’s 2016 White Sox (eight days, from July 9-17). The All-Star break helped them out, too.

But also: In the game before this streak, the only run the Marlins scored came on a sac fly. So that means they managed to send 133 consecutive hitters to the plate without a run-scoring hit from any of them until Miguel Rojas finally ended that nightmare with an RBI double on July 22.

THE KAAT-ON CLUB — As I sat there in Cooperstown on Sunday afternoon, watching Jim Kaat get inducted into the Hall of Fame, I started reflecting on the incredible story of this man, who pitched in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s:

• Kaat pitched to Ted Williams.

• Who faced Red Ruffing.

• Who was a teammate of Babe Ruth.

• But Kaat also pitched to Tim Raines.

• Who played in a game with Albert Pujols.

• Who is still active!

Jim Kaat: Walking history museum.

Jim Kaat, who pitched 25 years in the majors, goes into the Hall. (Gregory Fisher / USA Today)

THEY PUT THE “MORE” IN BALTIMORE — The Orioles of 2021 lost 110 games. Remember that? But the Orioles of 2022? After 99 games, they’re 50-49. So that means they’re guaranteed not to have a losing record after 100 games. And that’s basically mind-boggling.

Why? Because it isn’t every 110-loss team that flips the script and gets 100 games into the next season playing .500 baseball or better. In fact, according to STATS, only two previous teams in history have ever done that. And I’m guessing your memory of them is a little hazy.

• There was Cupid Childs’ 1899 St. Louis Perfectos (from 39-111 to 54-45-1).

• And let’s not forget Chicken Wolf’s 1890 Louisville Colonels (from 27-111 to 64-36).

That’s two straight appearances in the Weird and Wild column for those 1890 Colonels, incidentally. And we still can’t get them promoted to generals!

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT — Joe Maddon would tell you that firing a manager in midseason is overrated. He’d be right — in his case. But then you have the other two teams that pulled the old managerial switcheroo this season: the Phillies and Blue Jays.

The Phillies told Joe Girardi to take the rest of the summer off in June, then went 9-1 in their first 10 games under Rob Thomson. The Jays replaced Charlie Montoyo with John Schneider on July 13, then went 8-2 in their next 10 games.

So that got me thinking, which is always trouble for my friends from STATS. Has there ever been another season, I asked them, in which two teams won at least eight of their first 10 games after changing managers in midseason? And the answer was …

Of course not!

Matter of fact, if we eliminate managers who split those 10 games over two seasons, this had happened only twice in the last 60 years. There was Joe Morgan (10-0 with the 1988 Red Sox). There was Jeff Torborg (8-2 with Cleveland in 1977). And that’s it. So … two in six decades, then two in two months!

TRUE COLORS – Maybe it’s because I’m warped by this weekly Weirdness and Wildness, but some pitching matchups seem as if they exist just to keep this column in business. Like this one, for example.

Nats and Dodgers are underway on a gorgeous, 72-degree Tuesday evening in L.A. with Josiah Gray (wearing gray) facing Mitch White (wearing white)!

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 27, 2022

So perfect. Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium: Gray (Josiah) versus White (Mitch). Thank you!

Perhaps you were wondering: Was this the first Gray-White duel in history? Well, before I could even ask, the official Name Game guru of Weird and Wild, David Benjamin Firstman, was already answering.

Aug. 5, 1910: Dolly Gray (Senators) versus Doc White (White Sox) — for the earth-tone championship of the United States of Baseball.

LEAVE NO TRAYCE — Will the world’s most impactful Thompson brother please stand up?

Is it Klay, one of our favorite three-point bombardiers ever? Or is it Trayce, who has somehow become an indispensable Dodger? You decide.

Dodgers’ 2022 record when Trayce plays: 22-7
Warriors’ 2022 record when Klay played: 17-15*

(*-regular season record)

Splash!

But in other Thompson brothers news …

Trayce Thompson tonight: triple, double

Klay Thompson, career: zero triple doubles

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 22, 2022

THE SLAM HEARD ROUND THE WORLD — Jonathan India smoked the first grand slam of his career Monday. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but here’s what I asked myself: I wonder how many players with the same name as a country have ever hit a slam?

So of course I looked!

We’re still waiting on Ty France’s first slam. And sorry, I’m not counting “Chili” Davis (eight slams) or Todd Hollandsworth (two slams). So here goes, from my list of the 150 largest countries on Earth:

Dutch Holland, on Sept. 11, 1932, vs. Larry Benton
Germany Schaefer, on June 28, 1908, vs. Ed Walsh

And that’s all I found, in the modern era. Did I miss any? You know where to find me. Except if you go down this rabbit hole, it gives me the chance to ask: What’s wrong with you?

Jonathan India’s first grand slam, and down the rabbit hole we go. (Katie Stratman / USA Today)

4. This week in Strange But Trueness

TWO TIMES ONE – You never know what you’ll see in the old transactions column. Like this, for instance.

So what’s the big deal about that? Oh, only that the Phillies sent two guys who were once the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft to the minor leagues on the same day. So has that ever happened? You know we looked into it!

Our friends from STATS have complete transaction data through the last 29 seasons. Want to speculate on how many other teams have sent two No. 1’s to the minors on the same day in all those years? Yep, that would be none.

Closest any team came before this? That would be the 1995 Mariners, with two guys named Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. They sent out Griffey on a rehab option (asterisk alert) on Aug. 13, then optioned A-Rod back to Triple-A Tacoma on Aug. 15.

Griffey and A-Rod … Moniak and Appel. That’s about right.

THE 99-0 GAME — (We’re on a numerical roll here.) No, 99-0 wasn’t the score of the Mets’ July 16 doubleheader opener with the Cubs. It was only the numbers of the two starting pitchers: Taijuan Walker (99) versus Marcus Stroman (0).

Because that’s about as Strange But True as these number-crunched games get, we were deluged by questions about whether this was the largest difference in numbers of two starting pitchers in any game in history. And guess what? Heck yeah, it was, according to Sharp, because it was the first 99-versus-0 duel ever. Will that record never be broken? I think so!

But that’s not all — because who was the winning pitcher in this game? Another No. 0 in your program, the Mets’ Adam Ottavino. That means this was the first game ever in which one Numero Zero started and another Numero Zero got the win. I know I’m off-kilter, but I love this!

BEWARE OF ZOMBIES (TWICE) — As long as Zombie Runners roam this Baseball Earth, Strange But Trueness is capable of breaking out at any time. And you know who could fill us in on that? Cubs reliever Mychal Givens.

In that same Cubs-Mets doubleheader featuring all those 99’s and 0’s, here’s how Givens’ day went:

Losing pitcher in Game 1: Givens
Losing pitcher in Game 2: Givens
Earned runs allowed by Givens: None

According to Elias, he’s the first pitcher — since earned runs became an official stat — to take a loss in both games of a doubleheader despite the slight technicality that he allowed zero earned runs. But that’s not even the Strange But True part.

The Strange But True part was why those runs were unearned: It’s all the Zombie Runners’ fault (as usual).

THE OLD 1-2 — You never know what to expect from the Astros.

July 21: First two hitters of the game (Jose Altuve, Jeremy Peña) lay down bunt hits!

July 24: First two hitters of the game (Altuve and Peña again) go deep!

TROUBLE IN SHOH TIME – A Strange But True thing happened to the great Ohtani over the last few weeks: The Angels managed to lose six games in a row in which Ohtani homered (h/t Elias Sports Bureau).

The Angels finally ended that streak Tuesday in Kansas City. But it got me wondering how close Ohtani came to the record for most consecutive losses by any team in games in which the reigning MVP homered. Turns out, he got way too close!

STREAK	PLAYER	YEAR
7	Ken Griffey Jr.	1998
7	Freddie Freeman	2021
6	Jimmie Foxx	1934
6	Jim Bottomley	1929
6	Shohei Ohtani	2022

(SOURCE: STATS Perform)

WHAT’S OUT IS IN, WHAT’S IN IS OUT — Finally, all it would have taken was some minor help from official scorers, and we would have witnessed the Strangest But Truest E-4 in baseball history Sunday. Check this out.

The Yankees put four players in the outfield against Adley Rutschman, Gleyber Torres goes to left field, and it does not pay off. pic.twitter.com/j2gL76wxWk

— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) July 24, 2022

So follow this now. That was the second baseman dropping a fly ball at the left-field warning track, because … four-man outfield, and also … baseball is shifty!

It was originally scored an E-4 — in left field, but later changed to a double for Adley Rutschman, in a scoring decision this column would personally appeal if anyone would listen.

So naturally, we had to reach out to our friends from Sports Info Solutions to determine if this would have been the first error in known history charged to an infielder hanging out 200 feet from where you’d normally find him.

And that answer, from SIS’ all-knowing Alex Vigderman, was: Sure, it was! He sent us numerous other contenders from the 10 seasons in which SIS has compiled this data. We both agreed there was nothing remotely close.

So if you watched that ball clank off the second baseman’s glove on the warning track and thought, I don’t believe what I just saw, there’s only one explanation I can offer you:

Baseball … in 2022!

(Top photo: Michael Dwyer / Associated Press)

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