Crooked Numbers is a monthly column dedicated to Minor League Baseball on-field oddities and absurdities. Keeping track of the weirdness is a team effort, so get in touch if you’ve witnessed something out of the ordinary at a Minor League game ([email protected]).
The wildest Minor League game of the decade?
Ontario’s ONT Field hosted a “Take Meow’t to the Ballgame” promotion on July 8 and the cats in attendance got their money’s worth. On this memorable evening, the hometown Tower Buzzers (LAD) defeated the Inland Empire 66ers (SEA) by the fantastical score of 22-21.
This 43-run affair was all Tower Buzzers in the early going, to put it mildly, as they scored 11 runs in the first inning and another five over the next two to take a more-than-comfortable 16-0 lead. The 11-run first was highlighted by cleanup hitter Chieng-Hsien Ko, who blasted a two-run homer and then capped the inning’s scoring with a bases-loaded triple (coming around to score following a throwing error by second baseman Brady O’Brien).
The 66ers, having been on the receiving end of an 11-run inning, decided to enjoy one of their own. After scoring three unearned runs in the fourth, the 66ers made it a ballgame with an 11-run seventh to pull within 16-14. Eight of the runs in the frame came with two outs, largely due to reliever Jose Cabrera’s inability to find the strike zone. The right-hander allowed just one hit but walked five batters, hit another and uncorked a run-scoring wild pitch.
The momentum then swung back toward the Tower Buzzers, who swatted a pair of three-run homers in the eighth to make it 22-14. That’s a football score and this was still a one-possession game. The 66ers marched toward the goalposts in the ninth, utilizing a combination of walks, wild pitches and shoddy defense to set up Starlin Aguilar’s two-out, two-run double. The score was now 22-21, with Ryan Picollo coming to the plate representing the go-ahead run.
Piccollo struck out, but the game did not go gently into that good night. Home plate umpire Anthony Artini, apparently under the impression that three hours and 57 minutes of insane California League baseball wasn’t enough, ruled that catcher Francisco Espinoza dropped the third strike. Piccolo had hustled to first in the wake of the play, with Aguilar moving to third.
Tower Buzzers pitcher Jecsua Liborious was livid, adamantly expressing his belief that the third strike had, in fact, been caught. After a lengthy conference between Artini and his fellow umpire Ryan Smith, featuring input from both team’s managers, the call was reversed. The save went to Liborious, his team victorious in a contest most laborious. No cats could be reached for comment following the game, as they all made a feline for the exits.
Meanwhile, in the Pioneer League
43 runs was not – repeat, not – the most runs scored in a professional baseball game in July. For that we go to the Pioneer League, an independent MLB Partner League comprised of players with no more than two years of professional experience.
On July 25 the Idaho Falls Chukars nearly scored 43 runs on their own, defeating the Great Falls Voyagers 40-18! This annihilated the previous record for most runs scored in a Pioneer League game, which had previously been held by the Ogden Raptors (they beat the Helena Brewers, 33-10, in 1995).
The Chukars, like the Ontario Tower Buzzers earlier in the month, began the game with an 11-run inning and didn’t let up from there. Every player in the starting lineup scored at least three runs. Third baseman Justin Trimble led the way with a five-hit, two-homer, 8-RBI performance. Left fielder Casey Vaughn, meanwhile, went 5-for-7 with a homer, seven RBIs and six runs scored.
Not to take anything away from the Chukars, but clearly the pitching in the Pioneer League leaves something to be desired. The league’s collective ERA currently sits at 8.40, while the OPS is .953. The Chukars preceded their 40-run ballgame with a 19-14 win over the Voyagers and followed it with a ho-hum 26-20 victory. Insanity.
Triple-A rosters often include veterans looking for another chance, and sometimes they feature rehabbing Major Leaguers. Even within this context the Gwinnett Stripers stood out for the collection of talent they assembled on July 21. The Atlanta affiliate’s line-up featured a combined 1,038 Major League home runs, and two of the players were former MVPs!
Andrew McCutchen (2013 MVP) and Carlos Santana, who began the season as the two oldest position players in the Major Leagues and are now seeking to extend their careers, both played for the Stripers that night. Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023 MVP) was in town on a rehab assignment, as was Ha Seong Kim. Rowdy Tellez (123 big league homers) batted clean-up.
Alas, all that star power wasn’t enough as the Stripers lost to the Iowa Cubs, 7-4. They did win the following day with a similar line-up that, as the Stripers noted, featured a combined 61 seasons of MLB service time. McCutchen has since been released, while Acuña is back in Atlanta. Santana, 40, remains in Gwinnett. It just goes to show, you never know who’ll you see when you got to a Minor League game!
