A Minor League Baseball Team Won A Game Without Recording A Single Hit Or Walk

Unsplash / Ben Hershey

The Phillies’ minor league affiliate Clearwater Threshers won a game yesterday without recording a single hit or walk in the game thanks to a bizarre minor league rule.

The Threshers lost the first leg of a doubleheader 4-3 at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, home to the Tampa Tarpons (Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Yankees).

In the second game, Tarpons pitcher Deivi Garcia was absolutely dealing. He came out and retired 21 batters with 12 strikeouts and threw seven perfect innings.

Before the start of the season, Minor League Baseball announced a new ‘pace of play‘ rule for extra innings baseball. These Class A-Advanced games only run 7 innings, so the new rule came into play which means despite not having a hit or a walk in the game, the Threshers started with a runner on second base.

Here’s how it all went down in extra innings and how a team managed to win without recording a single hit or walk in the game, one of the strangest endings to a baseball game ever recorded:

Clearwater (27-16, 59-52) did not have a base runner until Luke Williams became the extra-inning runner when the scoreless game moved into the eighth. RHP Christian Morris (L, 1-2) relieved Garcia and Henri Lartigue grounded a ball back to the mound. Williams broke for third and Morris threw to Diego Castillo at second. Castillo attempted to throw Williams out at third, but dropped the ball.
After a groundout by Edgar Cabral, Daniel Brito rolled one to first baseman Steven Sensley. Williams scored as Sensley’s throw to the plate arrived late, giving the Threshers a 1-0 lead. Morris got a strikeout and a groundout to keep Clearwater hitless. (via)

Just devastating.

As remarkable as it is for a team to win a game without ever recording a hit or a walk I’m thinking about how miserable it must feel as a batter to let down your pitcher when he threw 7 perfect innings and you guys couldn’t muster up a single run to win the game. The dude threw the game of his life and has nothing to show for it.

For a full explanation of that MiLB rule that starts extra innings with a runner on second base, you can follow that link above.

(h/t Extra Mustard)