I have safely returned from my latest (and therefore greatest) ballpark road trip, and am now equipped with a seemingly insurmountable slag heap of material to share. But protocol must be followed, and protocol demands Crooked Nuggets.
“What’s Crooked Nuggets?” you ask. “Crooked Nuggets is what you’re reading now,” I answer. “I want a more substantial answer,” is your rejoinder. “Okay, I will provide you with one,” is my reply.
In much the same way that a beautiful butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, my words, as quoted above, will now emerge into action via the delivery of the following information:
Crooked Nuggets is the scrappy, succinct offshoot of my long-running, exceedingly awesome and insanely underrated Crooked Numbers column on MiLB.com. Crooked Numbers is a monthly round-up of the weirdest, wildest and most anomalous things to have occurred on a Minor League Baseball field. Crooked Nuggets contains EVEN MORE on-field weirdness!
So let’s get to it, lest it get to us!
1st of tha Month — Boise Hawks outfielder Charlie White made two pitching appearances this season, each on the first of the month and each resulting in a come-from-behind win. On August 1 the moonlighting position player took the mound in the top of the ninth inning, with his Hawks losing to the Vancouver Canadians by a score of 10-6. White pitched a scoreless ninth, and then hit an RBI double and scored in the bottom of the frame as the Hawks rallied to tie the game 10-10. White then shut down the Canadians in the 10th and 11th, with the Hawks pushing across a run in the bottom of the 11th for an improbable 11-10 victory.
One month later, to the day, White was at it again in a game against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. He was called upon to pitch the top of the ninth inning, and allowed a run as the Volcanoes extended their lead to 5-2. No matter — the Hawks scored four runs in the bottom of the inning en route to a 6-5 win. White contributed to the rally, walking and scoring a run as he earned his second victory in as many opportunities.
Titanium Sombrero — On August 1, Chevy Clark of the Great Falls Voyagers struck out in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12th innings in a game against the Billings Mustangs. But six strikeouts were enough for the struggling center fielder, as he laid down a sacrifice bunt in the 14th and, finally, grounded out to third base in the 16th. Great Falls lost the ballgame, 3-1, in 17 innings, putting a merciful end to what had been a horrific night at the ballpark. The two teams combined to go 2-for-33 with runners in scoring position.
NRISP — On the other end of the “batting with runners in scoring position” equation, we have August 2’s game between the Mississippi Braves and Mobile BayBears. The M-Braves won, 1-0, despite not recording a single at-bat with runners in scoring position during the ballgame. Mycal Jones’ ninth-inning sacrifice fly is what done won it.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up — The Dunedin Blue Jays staged an ’80s Night promotion on August 9, featuring a post-game concert by the band Stormbringer. The band’s set was cut short, however, due to an oncoming storm.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Part. 2 — On August 4, the Bakersfield Blaze had to postpone their game against the San Jose Giants due to a transformer failure. The next afternoon, as part of a pre-existing promotion, all fans bringing electronic waste to the ballpark received free admission.
Then Again, Maybe You Can Make This Stuff Up — After the Blaze were forced to postpone August 4’s ballgame, they went ahead and staged a fake game on Twitter. Read all about it.
Bako with a 2-run fake 4th; 2 singles, a wild pitch and a double. 3-0 Bako in Monday night MAKE BELIEVE action!
— Bakersfield Blaze (@BakoBlaze) August 5, 2014
Going the Extra Mile — To the best of my knowledge, the only pitcher to record two four-strikeout innings this season was Yankees farmhand Jacob Lindgren. The second-round draft pick accomplished the feat for Class A Charleston on July 12, upon which he was promoted to Class A Advanced Tampa. He then accomplished the feat for Tampa on August 3, upon which he was promoted to Double-A Trenton. On the season, Lindgren struck out 48 batters over 25 innings pitched. That’s a lot, but keep in mind that the maximum number of batters a pitcher could strike out over 25 innings is infinity.
Pitch Perfect, Hit Poorly — August 4’s game between the Dayton Dragons and Great Lakes Loons was notable due to — you guessed it — a snafu. MiLB.com’s Midwest League Notebook has more:
Dayton pitcher Nick Travieso batted three times Monday night in a 3-2 loss to Great Lakes. Manager Jose Nieves made a lineup card mistake, listing Avain Rachal as a designated hitter when Rachal was actually the Dragons’ third baseman. The Dragons lost the DH for the rest of the game, and the pitcher hit in the No. 5 spot. Travieso was 0-for-3 with a pop out and two strikeouts.
Big Easy, Pitching Hard — On August 9 against the Memphis Redbirds, three New Orleans Zephyrs pitchers combined to throw 197 pitches over just eight innings of work: Alex Sanabia (93 pitches, 4.1 innings), Rett Varner (53 pitches, 1 inning) and Donnie Joseph (51 pitches, 2.2 innings). The Redbirds won the game, 21-3.
Productive Outs — Shawn O’Malley of the Salt Lake Bees tied his season high with three RBIs on August 9, despite not recording a single. Two of O’Malley’s RBIs in this contest against the El Paso Chihuahuas came via the ultra-rare two-run sacrifice fly. Watch and learn:
An Erie Occurrence (And I was there) — Erie SeaWolves’ right-hander Wilsen Palacios struggled mightily against the Bowie Baysox on August 25. He went through the entirety of the starting line-up without recording an out, en route to allowing seven runs on seven hits and two walks in the first inning alone. But then a funny thing happened — Palacios settled down and followed up his frightful first with four scoreless innings, and ended up earning the win as the SeaWolves rallied for a 10-7 victory. Baysox starter Branden Kline took the opposite approach, retiring the SeaWolves 1-2-3 in the first but ultimately taking the loss after allowing nine runs over 4 2/3 innings.
Photographic evidence, taken by yours truly (aka “Me”):
Triple Trouble — The Oklahoma City RedHawks’ 10-2 win over the El Paso Chihuahuas on August 23 was highlighted by a most unlikely occurrence in the fifth inning. Three RedHawks players — Domingo Santana, Andrew Aplin, Carlos Perez — all hit triples in the frame, accounting for 60% of the triples that these players would combine to hit all season.
C-1B-2B-3B-SS-LF-CF-RF-P — Every year it seems that at least one Minor League player plays all nine positions in a game on Labor Day. This year, that player was Nate Orf of the Brevard County Manatees. Congrats, Nate.
Everybody Loses — The Yankees have two Gulf Coast League affiliates, creatively named “Yankees1″ and “Yankees2″, and this season both GCL Yankee entities won their respective division. Yankees1 then played Yankees2 in a sudden death semi-final, and Yankees1 won. There’s not much more 2 it.
Well, It’s My Birthday Too, Yeah — The Palm Beach Cardinals hosted the Bradenton Marauders on August 23. In that game, Bradenton’s Mason Katz, celebrating his 24th birthday, hit a home run off of Tyler Glasnow, celebrating his 21st.
And that’s it for this month of Crookedness. I’ll be back next month with more, so long as I have more. Meanwhile, a hearty thanks to the many people who helped make Crooked Number/Nuggets possible this month: Nate March, Alex Freedman, Nate Kurant, Mike Safford, Chris Kleinhaus-Schulz, Josh Jackson, Jon Laaser, Tim Hagerty, Dan Besbris and many others whom I am forgetting. Finally, I am still waiting for confirmation that at least one woman has read this column during any point of its existence. It’s got to happen eventually.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
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