Each Sunday in this space we bring you some of our favorite quirks, oddities and unusual plays from the week in baseball. Many thanks to our friends at Baseball Reference and the Elias Sports Bureau for research assistance.
A common baseball saying is that there are seven ways to reach first base (sometimes more, depending on how granular you want to get). Nationals pitcher Oliver Perez found one of them at just the right moment Sunday, dropping a two-out bunt in the bottom of the 15th and reaching on an error by John Ryan Murphy. Danny Espinosa scored from second on the play, making it the first game-tying plate appearance by any pitcher in extra innings since Rick Camp hit his famous home run for the Braves in the 18th inning on July 4, 1985.
One inning later, Chris Heisey hit the latest home run (by inning) in franchise history. Ryan Zimmerman went deep in their only other 16-inning (regular-season) game since the move to Washington. The previous franchise mark for latest walk-off home run was when Marquis Grissom of the then-Montreal Expos beat the Giants at Stade Olympique in the 16th inning on May 7, 1991.
Heisey also bookended Matt den Dekker's leadoff dinger from 15 innings earlier, marking the second time the franchise has hit a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer in the same game. Espinosa was involved in that contest, as well, ending a 2011 affair against the Cardinals that started with Jayson Werth's solo shot.
Sunday's game also marked the first extra-inning loss for the Twins franchise in Washington since Sept. 29, 1960 -- when they were the home team! The Yankees beat them 4-2 during the original Senators' final homestand at Griffith Stadium.
Jacoby Ellsbury invoked a less common way of getting to first base not once, but twice this week, being awarded catcher's interference on both Wednesday and Saturday. He has already managed it three times; all other players combined have two. Since the start of 2013 (when he led the majors at it), Ellsbury's 11 awards are nearly double anyone else's (Paul Goldschmidt has six).
Brett Lawrie found a common way to reach first on Wednesday, the base on balls. Lawrie walked in his first three plate appearances and was on deck when the game ended. That gave him the coveted complete-game 0-for-0, the first one of this major league season. The White Sox hadn't had a player do it since Adam Dunn in 2011.
Base hits (that's four!) were hard to come by for a few teams this week. You already know about one of those games. But the Red Sox managed just one single, by Jackie Bradley Jr., on Tuesday before losing in 10 innings. It was the first game this season to be scoreless through nine frames (the Rays and Sox also played one last year), and it's the first time Boston's played an extra-inning game with one hit since Sept. 18, 1934. Bobo Newsom of the Browns no-hit them through nine innings but allowed two walks and a single in the 10th and lost 2-1.
Another, more painful, method of reaching first is getting hit by a pitch. Brandon Guyer found that out on Thursday, when he was plunked three times. Only one other player in the past two-plus seasons has been hit thrice, and it's ... Brandon Guyer (last October).
The final two ways (if you're trying to list them) are a fielder's choice and a dropped third strike. We didn't have any fun nuggets involving those this week. We did, however, have these four fun tidbits:
• Jeremy Hazelbaker, Saturday: Seventh pinch-hit homer for the Cardinals this year, most by any team in a single month since the Phillies in August 1958.
• Sunday in the majors: First day to feature three pitchers used as pinch-hitters since Aug. 5, 1937. The last two of those came in the Pirates-Diamondbacks game, a game in which Shelby Miller became the first Diamondbacks pitcher to play in the field.
• Jake Arrieta, Thursday: Third Cubs pitcher to have two hits in his own no-hitter, joining Sam Jones (1955) and Walter Thornton (1898).
• Jason Hammel, Tuesday: First pitcher to drive in multiple runs, and every run for the team, in a Cubs win since Ferguson Jenkins in 1966.
