On Tuesday night, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a Double-A associate of the Toronto Blue Jays, attained a feat unprecedented for any top-tier club during the expansion era.
Notoriously, the Portland Sea Dogs, the Eastern League partner of the Boston Red Sox, likewise played a role in this unusual event.
In Tuesday’s game held in Portland, Maine, while down 2-0, New Hampshire managed to tally its initial eight runs of the second inning without conceding a single base hit. Ultimately, the Fisher Cats registered a total of 10 runs during that inning – nine of which occurred with two outs – achieved with merely one hit and no assistance from fielding mistakes.
The method? Portland’s pitchers granted eight walks, struck two batters, delivered four wild pitches, and allowed a sacrifice fly along with a lone single.
Geoff Iacuessa, president of the Sea Dogs, conveyed to WGME Ch. 13 in Portland, “I cannot recall witnessing such an event, neither here nor in any other game I’ve observed. It was bizarre. I initially suspected something was amiss with the scoreboard, but upon verifying with the game changer, it proved accurate.”
Following the grounds crew’s removal of a substantial snow accumulation from earlier in the day, the game commenced at 5 p.m. ET, with a 35-degree Fahrenheit reading at the initial pitch.
The inning initially unfolded quite uneventfully, featuring two walks, a wild pitch, and a fanned batter by Portland’s starter, Hayden Mullins, who had impressively retired all three batters via strikeouts in the first frame. Subsequently, New Hampshire scored its inaugural point via a sacrifice fly.
With two outs, Mullins then issued passes to the subsequent three batters, knotting the score at 2. He was then replaced by reliever Jorge Juan, who promptly struck the initial batter he encountered with the bases full.
A wild pitch permitted the fourth run to score, and a subsequent walk re-filled the bases for the Fisher Cats. Juan then plunked another batter (5-2), delivered a further wild pitch (6-2), and issued walks to two additional batters (7-2) prior to departing the mound with the bases once more full.
Next came Cade Feeney, who ultimately concluded the inning, but not without delivering a wild pitch (8-2) and permitting a two-run single to Ismael Munguia – which constituted the sole base knock of the frame – pushing the score to 10-2.
New Hampshire secured a 12-7 win amidst the cold weather.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no top-tier baseball club has ever tallied over four runs within an inning without registering its initial base hit. MLB.com states there have been merely 16 instances in AL/NL history where a pitcher conceded five runs without yielding a single in 1⅔ or lesser innings pitched; remarkably, Portland’s pitchers accomplished this on two occasions within the very same inning.