The ball got stuck where?! Here are the weirdest things to happen in the Minor Leagues lately

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 (benjamin.hill@mlb.com).

You see something new every day
Hey, did you hear about the inside-the-park home run that resulted from the ball being buried in the outfield grass by an outfielder who slid over it? It sounds like a crazy dream, but it was precisely what occurred in May 14's Double-A tilt between the Biloxi Shuckers (MIL) and Montgomery Biscuits (TB). MLB.com's Max Ralph sets the scene:

"In the seventh inning. ... Rays No. 26 prospect Austin Overn hit what seemed like a run-of-the-mill extra-base knock that snuck inside the first-base line and into right field. Biloxi right fielder Damon Keith ranged over to field the grounder, sliding to cut it off before it got all the way into the corner. Here’s where things went awry: Keith slid on top of the ball, digging it into the grass of Montgomery's Riverwalk Stadium."

After a delay of several minutes, during which multiple players valiantly attempted to dig up the ball, Biloxi first baseman Blake Burke was finally able to extract it. By then Overton was resting in the dugout, trying to make sense of what surely was and will be the most bizarre home run of his career.

Seven's wild
Through April 30, the Albuquerque Isotopes (Triple-A COL) had played 3,196 games in their franchise's history. In that time they had scored seven runs in two separate innings of the same game on one occasion. You can probably guess what happened next: The Isotopes scored seven runs in multiple innings of the same game, in back-to-back games, to begin the month of May. Two games, four seven-run innings, accounting for 28 of the total 45 runs the Isotopes scored.

On May 1 the Isotopes crushed the Chihuahuas, 26-8, setting an all-time team record for runs in a game. Every player in the starting lineup hit safely, scored at least one run and drove in at least one, leading to the most runs scored in a Minor League contest since the Durham Bulls (Triple-A TB) crushed the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (PHI), 28-10, on April 9, 2024. And, yes, the majority of the Isotopes' offensive explosion occurred during a pair of seven-run frames, in the third and the fifth.

The next night the Isotopes won by the slightly less grandiose score of 19-7, putting up seven runs in both the fourth and fifth. It was a team effort, of course, but Cole Carrigg and Braxton Fulford deserve a mention for scoring a run in each of the team's four seven-run frames.

The Isotopes and Chihuahuas met again at the end of the month, and wouldn't you know it? The Isotopes scored seven runs in the fifth inning of May 29's ballgame enroute to a 13-8 win. That made it five seven-run innings against the same team, all over the course of three games played in the same calendar month!

Everybody hits
The Albuquerque Isotopes weren't the only team to embark on an offensive tear of historic proportions this month. Over the course of three games, May 14-16, the High-A South Bend Cubs scored 58 runs against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (MIL)!

May 14's game started innocently enough, with the Cubs and Timber Rattlers tied 6-6 after six innings. The Cubs then proceeded to score 19 unanswered runs over the final three frames to win, 25-6. Matt Halbach led the charge, going 5-for-5 with a homer, two walks, five runs scored and six driven in.

That 25-run outburst was followed by a comparatively pedestrian 9-0 win, but the Cubs once again went into turbo mode on May 16. They won 24-4, taking a cue from the aforementioned Isotopes and scoring seven runs in two separate innings (the second and the seventh). Remarkably, the Cubs didn't hit a single home run in the game.

Over these three games, South Bend collected 54 hits and, even more distressing for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, walked 37 times. Their tally of 58 runs over three games is more than a Major League team has ever scored within that span; the 1950 Red Sox hold that mark, with 56 runs scored.

Wind Surge power surge
In the history of Major League Baseball, a team has hit 10 home runs in a single game just once. That honor belongs to the Toronto Blue Jays, who smashed 10 dingers against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 14, 1987. This feat has been more common in the Minors, as five teams have hit 10 home runs in a game since 2005 (when Minor League Baseball online recordkeeping began).

The Wichita Wind Surge (Double-A MIN) became the most recent members of the 10-homer game club on May 7, doing so in a 19-7 win against the Amarillo Sod Poodles (ARI). Former amateur hockey standout Garrett Spain led the way with three home runs, with Bill Amick adding a pair as well.

In a text message to MLB.com, Wind Surge hitting coach Andrew Cresci summed up the events of the evening thusly: "Insane night."

When you're hot, you're hot
Henry Bolte, the No. 5 prospect in the Athletics organization, enjoyed a hot streak for the ages with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators just prior to getting called up to the big league club. Over three games against the St. Paul Saints, from May 7-9, he reeled off a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances. For context, no Major Leaguer in the Expansion Era (1961-present) has accomplished this feat, nor even managed to do it in 11 consecutive plate appearances.

Zooming in further, Bolte notched consecutive five-hit games on May 8-9, and nine of these 10 hits went for extra bases! On May 8 he hit two home runs, two doubles and a triple, and he followed that up on May 9 with a single, two doubles and two home runs.

Walk this way...walk that way
Here's a baseball accomplishment you've probably never considered before: Gunner Gouldsmith of the Lansing Lugnuts (High-A OAK) walked from both sides of the plate -- in the same inning! He did so on May 13 during a nine-run sixth against the Quad Cities River Bandits (High-A KC), drawing a walk from the right side against Ryan Ure and from the left side against Nick Conte. This was arguably the "highlight" of a chaotic 15-3 Lugnuts win.

Gouldsmith's two-walk inning came in the midst of a total meltdown by the River Bandits' pitching staff. Ure entered the game in the sixth and walked five consecutive batters before being removed. Conte then came on and allowed a pair of walks, a pair of RBI singles and then, for good measure, another pair of walks. Kamden Edge was the next to toe the rubber and he, too, issued a walk before the inning mercifully came to a close.

For those keeping score at home, River Bandits combined to issue 10 walks in the sixth frame alone, and 13 in the game. This led to the Lugnuts scoring their 15 runs on just eight hits. The River Bandits' offense, meanwhile, scored just three runs on 16 hits. Baseball is weird, that's all there is to it. How else do you explain a game in which the victorious team gets outhit 16-8 and still wins by 12?