When Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin’s throw back to pitcher Cole Hamels hit Texas batter Shin-Soo Choo’s hands and rolled down the third base line—allowing the ever-alert Rougned Odor to score from third base—it may have represented the strangest baseball play ever.
Think about it: How many times have you seen the catcher’s throw hit the batter?
Even stranger, baseball’s rule book actually has a rule for this, and as long as Choo was in the batter’s box and made no attempt to block it, it’s a live ball and thus Odor is allowed to advance. As it was, the run put Texas up 3–2 in the seventh inning of the win-or-go-home Game 5. Fortunately for the Blue Jays, they took advantage of three straight Texas errors—which was almost as strange—in the bottom half of the inning and scored four runs to go ahead and eventually win the game.
It may have made for the strangest play in baseball history. Here are four other strange events:
July 5, 1989: Paul O'Neill kicks ball in frustration; saves game
Then-Cincinnati right fielder Paul O'Neill was trying to field a potential game-winning RBI single when he bobbled the ball in the outfield multiple times and finally—out of frustration—kicked it. Incredibly, the kicked ball went right to first baseman Todd Benzinger in time to freeze the runner at third base. As it was, the lucky bounce only delayed the inevitable as the Reds lost the game, two batters later, on a passed ball.
