Weird & Wild: The 24-2 Game, Brewers steal the show and an MLB-MiLB Johnny Vander Meer

New York Times

25-04-2025

So you thought the Weird and Wild sport of baseball was going to calm down one of these weeks, huh? Sorry. Not this week!
A team stole nine bases … before it made its 10th out. … A pitcher summoned his inner Johnny Vander Meer and spun off back-to-back hitless starts … in two different leagues. … And another pitcher lost a no-hit bid … on a ball that left the bat two innings earlier.
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But none of that was even close to being the Weirdest or Wildest stuff we saw this week. So let's tell you all about it, beginning with …
Once upon a time, in a baseball galaxy far far away, there was a pitcher named Wes Littleton. Did you know he's a legend — or at least a certified Weird and Wild cult hero? I could make you guess why. Or I could just show you this:
Yep. There it is. Just a fun little line score from Aug. 20, 2007 — from that time Wes Littleton got credit for a save for the Rangers … in a 30-3 game.
It's 18 years later now. So I'm hereby adding that save to the list of Records That Won't Ever Be Broken. And why would I be doing that this week? Because we just had Another One of Those Games that bring Wes Littleton back to life. We love it when that happens.
This one came along Sunday in Baltimore:
Randy Wynne. He had himself a huge day for the Reds. He went from an emergency call-up to That Guy Who Saved a 24-2 Game. What a cool day at the yard that was, huh? But still, he was no Wes Littleton.
I'll tell you lots more about Wynne — and about that 24-2 game — in a moment. But any time a guy makes a run at Wes Littleton and comes up short, we should all think about big Wes and smile.
BIGGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY IN A SAVE
(Since 1969)
(*in the same ballpark — Camden Yards)
Get the picture? It's 18 years later, and nobody has even gotten close to big Wes on that blowout-save leaderboard. So clearly, he holds one of the most unbreakable records ever set — and nobody even appreciated his role in history as it was unfolding. His teammate, Michael Young, remembers it well. And by 'remembers it,' we mean he pretty much remembers nothing about it.
WEIRD AND WILD: 'When Wes got a save in that game, did you feel like you were witnessing history?'
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YOUNG: 'No, I had no idea. Like, honestly, I didn't even know he got a save.'
W&W: 'So do you feel now like you were deprived of the chance to have goosebumps over a 30-3 save?'
YOUNG: 'I do. That's exactly right. And in 2007, I could have used all the goosebumps I could have gotten.'
W&W: 'So nobody even knew back then that he had just set the most unbreakable record of all time?'
YOUNG: 'No, there's no way anybody knew about that. Even him.'
Sadly, I came up short in my quest to track down Littleton for this column. But I did come across photographic evidence that suggests he's proud of that record now. It's right there on his Instagram page: A photo of the scoreboard. And the score in that photo is … 30-3.
So what has to happen for a pitcher to get a save in a dramatic game like that one — or 24-2? Well, he has to finish off a win … and go at least three innings … and 'pitch effectively.' Oh, and his teammates have to run around the bases many, many, many times.
Well, Randy Wynn's Reds teammates definitely held up their end Sunday. So now that we've paid our respects to the most unbreakable record in history, let's move along to …
We're only four weeks into this baseball season. But I feel like we've reached new April heights for most games in one month that America has decided are a 'Weird and Wild' kind of game. Well, America, I'm here for you at times like this. So here comes Everything you Need to Know About Reds 24, Orioles 2 (even if you didn't know you did).
24-2? Really? I was hoping we had ourselves a Scorigami — but not just the first 24-2 game in baseball history. I was rooting for the first 24-2 game in the history of any of the four major North American men's professional sports. Except …
Nope! Through the miracle of Baseball Reference/Stathead, I learned we've actually had four previous 24-2 games in the modern era — although only two of them have happened since 1912.
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But even weirder (and wilder), I also found two 24-2 games in NFL history! Anybody remember Steelers 24, Chargers 2 in Week 14, 1972? I'd guess no — unless you were that Chargers lineman who sacked Terry Bradshaw in the end zone that day.
The bottom feeders — Elly De La Cruz is our idea of a superstar, right? He batted third in this game for the Reds — and drove in one run. But whatever!
The Reds got 11 hits and 13 RBIs from the two dudes who batted eighth and ninth, Noelvi Marte and Austin Wynns. Add in the No. 7 hole (shared by Jake Fraley and Blake Dunn) — and that comes to 13 hits and 17 RBIs — from the 7-8-9 hitters!
Want to guess how many teams have ever spewed 17 RBIs in one game out of the bottom third of the order? As always, feel free to guess zero!
Austin's Powers — Johnny Bench used to catch for the Reds. Maybe you've heard of him. You know what he never did? Get six hits in one game. But you know who just caught for the Reds and did get six hits in one game? Austin Wynns, because of course he did. So what's so Weird and Wild about that?
• He's a catcher! And as loyal reader/friend of the column Eric Orns reports, Wynns is just the second catcher to get six hits in a game since 1949. The other: Paul Lo Duca, on May 28, 2001.
• He was the No. 9 hitter! And how many No. 9 hitters in the modern era have ever gotten six hits in a game? That would be one: Austin Wynns! It was the only spot on the lineup card that had never had a six-hit game … until Sunday. (Hat tip: Eric Orns.)
• He hasn't exactly been Luis Arraez! To find Wynns' previous six hits, you'd have to comb through the box scores all the way back to last July 11. Only one man has ever had a six-hit game after entering it with a lower career batting average than Wynns (.231) — the unforgettable Mike Benjamin, at .207. (Another hat tip to Orns.)
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Scoring position — Is it OK to mention one more tidbit about Wynns' big day? He was awesome and all that. But he also got his fifth and sixth hits with position players on the mound!
He singled in the eighth inning off an infielder, Jorge Mateo. That was hit No. 5. Then came a homer in the ninth off a catcher, Gary Sánchez. That was hit No. 6.
So who else has ever gotten his fifth and sixth hits in a game off position players? According to the amazing Kenny Jackelen of Baseball Reference, that could only be … nobody.
And who else has even gotten two hits off position players in a five-hit game? Well, there was the guy hitting in front of Wynns (Marte). But Yoán Moncada also did it on June 15, 2022.
Compromising position — Speaking of Mateo and Sánchez, they might not have reminded the population of Baltimore of Zack Britton and Tippy Martinez with their late-inning relief prowess … seeing as how they gave up nine runs (in two innings).
Before the Reds ran into those two guys, only two teams had ever scored nine runs (or more) against position-player 'pitchers' in the same game: The Blue Jays put up 10 against the Rays' Luke Raley and Christian Bethancourt on May 23, 2023. And the Mets scored nine against the Phillies' dynamic duo of Roman Quinn and Scott Kingery on Aug. 16, 2018.
Traffic jam — Then again, the Orioles didn't just need more pitchers in this game. They needed more traffic cops — because it was hard to tell where you found the most traffic that day, on the Beltway or when the Reds were running the bases.
Ever heard of a game in which a team got 25 hits … and 11 walks … and two hit batters? No, you have not! As Orns reports, the Reds were the first team to ever do that. Even if you ignore the hit-by-pitch part, they were the first team with that many hits and that many walks … in 75 years … since the Red Sox put up 28 hits and 11 walks on June 8, 1950.
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So that enabled the Reds to tie the weirdest record of the day: Leaving an incredible 13 runners on base in a game in which they scored 24 runs. The only other team to do that was … also the Reds, in a ridiculous 24-12 game at Coors Field in 1999.
Five more Weird/Wild blockbusters — This game was so wild that we're still not done! Did you know …
• All five guys who pitched for the Orioles finished the game with an ERA over 10.00! The previous latest point in a season that had ever happened, according to Orns, was the fourth game of the season, which was when the 2016 Rockies pulled it off.
• TJ Friedl batted eight times — in a nine-inning game! The only two other hitters who did that in a game in the 21st century? Frank Catalanotto and Ian Kinsler, for Texas, in (you guessed it) … the Wes Littleton Game!
• The Reds won a road game by 22 runs! And how rare is that? As Cincinnati TV sports anchor Charlie Clifford reported, they hadn't even scored 20 on the road since a 1999 20-1 game in Philadelphia against a Phillies team managed by … some guy named Terry Francona!
• Remember when the Reds used to play 1-0 games every day? That was just a couple of weeks ago. So according to my favorite Reds nugget finder, Joel Luckhaupt, to locate the last time a team won a game by at least 20 runs and lost multiple 1-0 games in a span of 25 games, you'd have to go back 70 years! Walt Dropo's 1955 White Sox were the last team to pull that off.
• Name the score! Finally, how can you not love a game in which the Reds got 10 hits from guys named Austin (Wynns and Hays)? I asked the official Name Game czar of Weird and Wild, David Firstman, to check that out. And the most hits he could find by two teammates with the same name was eight, by the Brandons (Crawford and Belt), for the Giants on Aug. 8, 2016.
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But that wasn't even the Weird and Wild Name Game highlight of the day. What catcher was Randy Wynne pitching to when he recorded the save that started this column? It was Austin Wynns. Which means …
It was a Wynne-Wynns situation!
GO DEEPER
C. Notes: Reds run wild in record-setting Sunday that has numbers galore
JUDGEMENT DAY — Aaron Judge in 2024: Whomped 58 home runs.
Aaron Judge in 2025 (so far): Rocking a batting average of … .415!
So how often does a guy who led his league in home runs one year blitz through April the next year hitting .400? OK, so April isn't over yet, but just in case. … The last defending home run champ to do that: Eddie Murray (.441) in 1982. (Murray tied for the American League lead in homers in '81.)
But who was the last man to lead the major leagues in home runs one year and hit .400 the next April (with at least 60 plate appearances). That would be some nobody named … Lou Gehrig (.412), in 1932. (Gehrig tied this dude, George H. Ruth, for the lead in 1931.)
SPIDER MAN 2-0 — Patrick Corbin's won-lost record from 2020-24: a scary 33-70!
Patrick Corbin's record this season in Texas (since summoning all his superpowers to pitch despite a mysterious spider bite): a stunning 2-0!
So does great spider power create great won-lost responsibility? You decide.
You would have to go back five years to find the last time Corbin's won-lost record was two games over. 500. He was 2-0 after three starts in 2020, quickly headed south and never had a winning record at any point over his next 132 starts for the Nationals. Until this man met that spider. And the rest is history.
'10's' ARE WILD (AND ALSO WEIRD) — Feel free to read our Weird and Wild bonus edition on how the Cubs gave up 10 runs in an inning last Friday and still won. But here's the weirdest, wildest epilog to that story:
Four days later, they won an improbable 11-10 game with the Dodgers. And here at Weird and Wild World HQ, we wonder about stuff like that.
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How many teams in the modern era have ever had a week like the Cubs — winning one game in which they gave up 10 runs in an inning and another game in which they allowed 10 in a game? I spent way too much of my theoretically useful life on this. But I could find only two!
One was Babe Ruth's 1933 Yankees: Won a 17-11 game against the A's on June 3 despite allowing 11 runs in the third inning. … And that came a week after a game in which they served up 11 runs to the White Sox — but won anyway by scoring 12 in the eighth.
The other team to do this? That would be Beals Becker's 1912 New York Giants. On June 20, they went into the ninth inning with a 21-2 lead … and gave up 10 in the ninth to Doc Miller's Boston Braves. … And then, two days later, in the same series, they won a madcap 14-12 game against the Braves.
But that's it … until these Cubs came along … many decades later!
JOC JAMS — Your attention, please: Joc Pederson got a hit! He was (somehow) 0-for-his-last-41 before his pinch hit Wednesday, for the Rangers in Sacramento. And that got me thinking, which is always dangerous.
Here's just a sampling of sweet-swinging pitchers who never went 0-for-41:
Randy Johnson
Roy Halladay
Tim Lincecum
CC Sabathia
Greg Maddux
Tom Glavine
John Smoltz
I could go on, but just remind yourself: What's Joc's primary job again? Oh, that's right. He's a DH … so the pitchers don't have to hit!
HOW BOUT THIS SIX-PACK — Like any newcomer to Philadelphia, Jordan Romano never set out to get the Boos Choir of Philly all riled up. But he just can't help himself.
So the bad news last Saturday was, he came on in the ninth inning and gave up six runs to the Marlins. The good news was, the Phillies won anyway, 11-10. And how often do you see that — a former All-Star reliever giving up six in the ninth but his team still won the game? Not much!
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Baseball Reference's Kenny Jackelen found only three other All-Star relievers who have done this in the division-play era (now in its 57th season):
• Keith Foulke — for the White Sox on June 25, 2000
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa — for the Blue Jays on April 18, 2000
• Jim Clancy — for the Astros on July 20, 1990
So don't try this at home … especially if that home is in South Philadelphia!
PLEASE WASH YOUR SOX — I've been trying not to pick on the White Sox in this column this year. But this just in: They finally wore me down.
Do you ever look at their box scores? All these names appeared in Tuesday's edition, with their season batting averages listed alongside:
Nick Maton — .167
Luis Robert Jr. — .151
Andrew Vaughn — .145
Michael A. Taylor — .149
Jacob Amaya — .089
Joshua Palacios — .182
(Not pictured: Miguel Vargas — .157)
It was 23 games into their season. What the heck! I couldn't remember a team with this many guys who were still gurgling beneath the Mendoza Line this late in a season. I asked Baseball Reference's brilliant researcher Katie Sharp if I was onto something. Of course I was!
Only one other team in the last 50 years had this many players 'hitting' under .200 this deep into a season. If you use a cutoff of at least 45 plate appearances, the White Sox had six of them. The only other team Katie found was the 2024 Diamondbacks — who had seven of them.
She found three other teams in the live-ball era — the '74 Orioles, '72 Brewers and '60 Tigers — and two more in the dead-ball era (1909 White Sox and Washington Nationals). But here I thought the dead-ball era was over. Um, not on the South Side of Chicago, it isn't.
CRIME DOES PAY — The Milwaukee Brewers in 2020: Stole six bases … in their last 33 games combined.
The Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday against the A's: Stole six bases … in the first inning.
The @Brewers successfully pulled off two double steals in the 1st inning.
They had a franchise-record SIX stolen bases in the frame 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GJWY8AmSSj
— MLB (@MLB) April 20, 2025
Hey, let's keep going. Those 2020 Brewers: Stole nine bases … in the whole month of August, a month when they sent 1,024 hitters to home plate.
The Brewers on Sunday: Stole nine bases … just in the first four innings, before they'd even sent their 20th hitter to home plate.
I don't know about you. But I never get tired of seeing all the ways teams try to win in the ever-changing sport of …
Baseball!
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This all happened, in real life, since the last edition of this column. No kidding.
• Cleveland's Emmanuel Clase spun off a 1-2-3 save against the Pirates last Saturday despite giving up a triple. … Um, how'd that happen? … Because Enmanuel Valdez ruined the Emmanuel vs. Enmanuel portion of this note … when he tried to call timeout after his triple … by lifting his hand off the bag to ask for time … and getting tagged out!
Wow. Valdez called OUT on this after sliding into third with an apparent triple and not getting a timeout. Never seen this one. pic.twitter.com/O8aaIiNXxV
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) April 19, 2025
• I watched Sandy Alcantara make a start last Friday in Philly in which he threw 30 pitches in the first inning … and then 37 more in the second! The only Cy Young Award winner in the previous five seasons to kick off a start with two straight innings of 30-plus pitches: Blake Snell (of course) … who did it in two starts in a row on Sept. 23 and 29, 2019. (Hat tip: STATS Perform.)
• Thanks to the magic of official scoring, Max Fried lost a no-hit bid in the eighth inning Sunday … on a ball that left the bat two innings earlier! Do I really need to explain this any further? I don't think so.
• And how about the Diamondbacks' first two batters, in their April 17 game in Miami, starting the game by going: strikeout … sacrifice fly. Wait, what? True! Corbin Carroll whiffed but reached first on a wild pitch. You know the rest. Steal of second. Steal of third. Geraldo Perdomo sac fly. Baseball! (Hat tip: Eric Orns.)
RALLY FEVER — As loyal reader Stephen Tolbert tweeted at us last Saturday, it isn't every weekend when you see teams put up a 10-run inning and an eight-run inning on back-to-back days. But it isn't any weekend when two teams do that … and they both lose.
In this week's Weird and Wild special, I devoted many words to describing how the Diamondbacks managed to do that last Friday at Wrigley. Then came Saturday, when the Washington Nationals rolled into the bottom of the seventh at Coors Field with a 12-2 lead … and gave up eight to the Rockies … but still won, 12-11, because baseball is so frigging weird (and also wild).
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FINNEGAN'S BOWL-A-RAMA — OK, so last Saturday was a day when the Nationals turned a 12-2 game into a 12-11 game. But that was a good thing — at least for the Strange But True portion of this column.
And that's because they had to wave in their closer, Kyle Finnegan, from the bullpen to pitch the ninth in that game. And as the radio voice of the Nationals, Dave Jageler, alerted me excitedly, Finnegan entered that inning with 299 career appearances, 299 innings pitched and 299 strikeouts. So … guess what happened next.
One inning … one strikeout … one career pitching line Mookie Betts would be totally jealous of.
It's official!! Kyle Finnegan's baseball reference page. He bowled a 900 series. 300 games pitched. 300 innings pitched. 300 strikeouts. Gotta love baseball. pic.twitter.com/NMf5E2LRSd
— Dave Jageler (@DaveJageler) April 21, 2025
IT'S A WALK-OFF UH-WHAT-WAS-THAT — Here's a game-ending play you don't see a whole lot. Take a look at how this April 10 Red Sox-Blue Jays game was won. See if you catch this.
Trevor Story walks it off for the Red Sox! pic.twitter.com/ZNJxNrL870
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 10, 2025
It's the old walk-off 4-3 out? What? FanGraphs' David Laurila inspired me to ask Katie Sharp if that's as Strange But True as we thought it was. Yup! It has happened only two other times in the last 50 years.
• Padres over Dodgers on May 21, 1997 — Wilton Guerrero throws out Quilvio Veras at first just for the heck of it.
• Pirates over Cubs on June 5, 1990 — Ryne Sandberg throws out R.J. Reynolds just for fun.
Crazy!
FIRST TO LAST — Here's another bizarre game for you, from last Saturday. The Diamondbacks scored two runs in a 6-2 loss to the Cubs — the first on a leadoff solo homer (by Corbin Carroll), the second on another solo homer with two outs in the ninth (Tim Tawa). In between, they just hung a bunch of zeroes. And yes, you don't see that much! (Hat tip: Jesse Rogers.)
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But just how much? Katie Sharp dug up only three other modern-era games in the Baseball Reference database with that same, hard-to-replicate script:
• A 15-2 Phillies loss to the Cubs on July 22, 2022, with Kyle Schwarber and Darick Hall providing the bookend homers.
• An incredible 2-1 A's win over the Red Sox on Aug. 22, 1971 — featuring a Bert Campaneris leadoff shot and a Reggie Jackson walk-off inside-the-park homer!
• And a 5-2 win for the Mets, over the Giants, on Aug. 8, 1962. Those two Giants homers: from Harvey Kuenn and Orlando Cepeda.
Hey, did we just drop the names of Corbin Carroll, Reggie Jackson and Orlando Cepeda in the same note? We did. You're welcome!
PAGING JOHNNY VAN DER MEER — And now one last thing. This might have been the greatest pitching feat of the whole darned season … and it feels as if nobody even noticed … except the Weird and Wild column.
Check out the last two starts by humongous Rays pitching phenom Joe Boyle.
April 13 — makes a last-minute fill-in start in the big leagues against the Braves:
5 IP, 0 hits
April 19 — heads back to Triple-A Durham, faces the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders:
6 IP, 0 hits
So if you're scoring at home (and hopefully, that never occurred to you), you've just seen two consecutive starts allowing zero hits.
Which seems good.
It's now 87 years since Johnny Vander Meer did that thing he is most famous for — by throwing back-to-back no-hitters, against the Braves and Dodgers. And granted, I'm pretty sure Joe Boyle isn't going to be quite that legendary for what he's done. But think about it.
Who the heck has ever had a major-league/minor-league Vander Meer?
All right, so you can call it a quasi-Vander Meer if you'd like, since Boyle didn't go nine innings in either start. But still, here's the question I asked Boyle's manager with the Durham Bulls, Morgan Ensberg:
WEIRD AND WILD: 'So he's thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues and a no-hitter in Triple A. What league should he pitch in next?'
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ENSBERG: 'That's a really good point. He should go back to the big leagues and try to continue to repeat this whole not-letting-guys-get-a-hit thing, because it's very effective.'
Very! So remember that, kids. If you can just go out there and never give up a hit, no matter what league you're in, I predict a bright future for you in the beautiful sport of …
Baseball!
(Top photo of the scoreboard from the 24-2 game: Nick Wass / Associated Press)