Saturday, July 05

On the cusp of America’s 249th birthday please enjoy this, the 163rd edition of the Baseball Traveler newsletter. Let’s talk about Minor League Baseball.

I’ve been all over the place, but the Erie SeaWolves will soon be Oliver the place. Maybe that joke didn’t work, but it’s too late to turn back now. On July 19, the SeaWolves will take the field as the Erie Moon Mammoths, an identity chosen for the team by John Oliver and his staff at "Last Week Tonight." This is the latest chapter in a saga that began in May, when "Last Week Tonight" ran a segment celebrating Minor League team names and promotions. The segment concluded with Oliver asking teams to get in touch so that he could rebrand one of them. And here we are.

READ THE STORY BEHIND THE ERIE MOOM MAMMOTHS HERE

And now for something completely different:

Welcome to Crooked Numbers, a monthly column dedicated to Minor League Baseball on-field oddities and absurdities. Keeping track of this type of thing is a team effort, so get in touch (benjamin.hill@mlb.com) if you've witnessed something weird at a Minor League game.

Maximum efficiency

On June 15 against the Asheville Tourists, the Cyclones did the seemingly impossible, recording five outs over the span of two batters. It began in the top of the ninth, when Asheville’s Drew Vogel grounded into a 4-3-5 triple play.

The Cyclones, buoyed by their triplet-killing, scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to knot the score, 4-4, and send the game into extras. Vogel started the 10th inning at second base as an automatic runner, and Oliver Carrillo led off the frame with a fly out to left in which Vogel was thrown out attempting to advance to third. A 7-5 double play!

To recap: Two batters, five outs, with Vogel both forced out (in the ninth) and tagged out (in the 10th). The Tourists didn’t score in their half of the 10th, and the Cyclones won it in the bottom of the frame on Boston Baro's bases-loaded single. 

The biggest of blowouts
To find the last time a Major League team won a game by a 29-run margin, you’d have to go (way) back to June 29, 1897, when the Chicago Orphans defeated the Louisville Colonels, 36-7. To find the last time a Minor League team won by a 29-run margin, you have to go back to… last week. 

On June 27, DSL (Dominican Summer League) Miami defeated DSL Rangers Blue, 29-0. DSL Miami was winning 13-0 after the fourth inning and then doubled that total with a 13-run sixth. Miami hit just two home runs in the contest, both solo shots, collecting 20 hits in total alongside 15 walks. Two players in their starting lineup -- Jose Castro and Osvaldo Heredia -- managed to go 0-for-4 with three runs scored. Hard to do!

Speaking of the Dominican Summer League…
The DSL is comprised of young and very raw talent, and strange things occur at a rate disproportionate to leagues with more polished players. Take the June 10 game between the DSL Cubs Red and the DSL Braves, in which the Cubs Red starting lineup combined to steal 11 bases on just two hits. Juan Capada (0-for-1 in the box score) led the way with four stolen bases, including a sixth-inning sequence in which he was hit by a pitch and then stole second, third and home. Despite their prowess on the bases, Cubs Red couldn’t swipe a victory. The Braves prevailed, 5-4.

Lucky 13
DSL Miami wasn't the only team to score 13 runs in an inning this month. On Friday the 13th, the West Michigan Whitecaps scored 13 runs in the third inning of a game that took three hours and 13 minutes to play. That prodigious frame, in which every Whitecaps batter hit twice, highlighted a 20-6 win over the Lansing Lugnuts. The only Lugnuts pitcher who did not allow a run in the contest was catcher Nick Schwartz, who shut down the Whitecaps in the ninth.

Ups and downs
On June 27, the Amarillo Sod Poodles scored 11 runs in the seventh inning against the Arkansas Travelers. For Amarillo, this was the good news. The bad news was that they still lost the game. The Sod Poodles' 11-run outburst dug them out of a huge deficit and into a 15-12 advantage. The Travelers knotted the game at 15-15 in the eighth, however, and in the ninth, Christian Cerda hit a two-run walk-off homer to seal the rollercoaster contest.  

Ehrhard, soft tosser
Drew Ehrhard, a catcher by trade, pitched three times in the span of a week this month. He was particularly effective against the Somerset Patriots on June 10-11, tossing a scoreless inning in back-to-back games. His stuff, if you can call it that, is something to behold.

Been there, done that
On June 3, Carlos De La Cruz of the Harrisburg Senators came to the plate in a high-stakes situation: Bottom of the 10th, two outs, trailing 6-5, with teammate Johnathan Thomas on third base. The result? A two-run walk-off blast to win the game.

The next day De La Cruz found himself in nearly the exact situation, coming to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Senators trailing 6-5 and Thomas on third. The result? A two-run walk-off blast to win the game.

Speaking of déjà vu…
June 20, 2024: Springfield Cardinals throw a no-hitter against the Corpus Christi Hooks
June 20, 2025: Springfield Cardinals throw a no-hitter against the Corpus Christi Hooks

These are the only two no-hitters in the history of the Springfield Cardinals.

The ultimate sacrifice
Scoring from second on a sacrifice fly is like a double rainbow, a spectacular variation of a routine occurrence. This month, however, a runner scored from second on a sacrifice fly on, count 'em, three occasions. On June 5, Rudy Martin of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals accomplished the feat. Tristan Gray of the Charlotte Knights did the same three days later, while Rochester's Nasim Nuñez did so on June 21. The latter two occasions were two-run sacrifice flies, optimal production for a ball caught in the outfield.

Goose eggs galore
Rafael Sánchez threw a seven-inning no-hitter for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on June 7, pitching in the first game of a doubleheader against the Altoona Curve. He did it while the team was playing as their Manchester Chicken Tenders alternate identity, but that wasn't the only thing notable about it. The Fisher Cats' pitching staff entered the game with a 30-inning scoreless streak, and Sánchez's gem extended it to 37. The streak ended at 40 innings in Game 2 of the doubleheader, which the Fisher Cats also won.

Weird way to win it
In 2018, the Eugene Emeralds won the Northwest League title over the Spokane Indians on a walk-off balk, perpetrated by current Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase. This month Spokane received some measure of redemption, as on June 8 the High-A Rangers affiliate defeated Hillsboro on a bases-loaded walk-off balk. The Indians are certainly no strangers to anomalous walk-off celebrations, as last season Spokane won the league championship on Kyle Karros' walk-off hit by pitch.

They Shore do balk a lot
On June 29, three Jersey Shore BlueClaws pitchers combined for four balks. This was the team’s third straight game with a balk, and their third game overall with at least four. With 35 balks on the season, the BlueClaws have emerged as serious contenders to surpass the Minor League-record 48 balks committed by the Lynchburg Hillcats in 2023.

Little Help Here?
Jersey Shore starting pitcher Alex McFarlane was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week on June 30, recognizing the five hitless innings he threw on June 25. That gave the 24-year-old righty more Pitcher of the Week awards (1) than career wins (0) through 32 pro starts. 

He brought an 0-14 record into July 2, when he logged another start of five hitless innings, and this time the BlueClaws' bullpen completed the job. It was the eighth no-hitter in franchise history and resulted in -- finally! -- McFarlane's first career win. Thirty-third time's the charm.

Started at the bottom
Following a loss to the Tri-City Dust Devils on June 4, the Vancouver Canadians found themselves in a confusing spot: The High-A Toronto affiliate had the worst record in the six-team Northwest League, at 25-28. They also had the best run differential, at +47. 

Something had to give, and it did. The Canadians then embarked on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak, elevating them from the league's worst record to the league's best. Hard to do in a span of less than two weeks.

If you read this newsletter on a regular basis then I consider you a friend. Thank you for being a friend. Get in touch anytime, I'll be glad to hear from you.

Contact Benjamin Hill

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