A walk-off win -- by the visitors?! Just one of many weird occurrences in the Minors 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).

Good things come in threes
From Opening Day through June 2, there was just one triple play throughout the entirety of Minor League Baseball. (An around-the-horn 5-4-3 turned by the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp against the Charlotte Knights on May 10.) The baseball gods clearly decided that this relative dearth of triple plays was unacceptable, as the month of June featured five in a one-week span!

It started in the Dominican Summer League on June 3. In the bottom of the sixth inning with runners on first and third, Staryln Cruz, Jorwin Pulido and Jose Manon of the DSL Braves combined on a wild 8-2-8-6-2 triple play against the DSL Astros. This was the rare triple play that also featured an error -- a throwing miscue by Pulido, the catcher -- but alas: no video exists. All one can do is read the game log and dream.

One day later, the Charleston RiverDogs got in the act with a 4-6-3 triple play against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Alberth Palma, Cooper Flemming and Tom Poole were the participants in this one.

Next up was the Hudson Valley Renegades on June 6, with Wehiwa Aloy, Alfredo Velásquez and Victor Figueroa turning a game-ending 5-4-3 triple play to cinch an 8-6 win against the Frederick Keys.

Minor League Baseball fans didn't have to wait long to see another 5-4-3 triple play, as the very next day a trio of Montgomery Biscuits -- Brayden Taylor, Gregory Barrios and Will Simpson -- turned the trick in the seventh inning of their tilt against the Biloxi Shuckers.

Can't stop now! Yet another triple play took place on June 9, the third 5-4-3 in a four-day span and the fifth triple play in a seven-day span. This one came courtesy of the Great Lakes Loons' Jose Izarro, Nico Perez and Eduardo Guerrero, who accomplished the feat in the third inning of their game against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

The Loons' triple play preserved a 2-1 lead, but the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had the last laugh in that game. The Timber Rattlers came to bat trailing in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings before pulling out a 10-9 win in the 11th. Wisconsin fans would have done anything to win that game, including giving you the shirts off their backs.

A dynamic double play duo
Double plays are worthy of attention too, at least when they're some combination of bizarre and spectacular. For your consideration:

Kudos to Wichita Wind Surge catcher Andrew Cossetti, who, during June 3's game against San Antonio, hustled from the plate to first base following a pop-up in foul territory. He was in the right place at the right time, recording the putout to complete an improbable 3-2 double play. (Cossetti also homered twice in the ballgame, but it wasn't enough as the Wind Surge lost. 6-5.)

On June 7, the Oklahoma City Comets pulled off a 7-5-3 double play against the Round Rock Express that has to be seen to be believed. Left fielder Jack Suwinski didn't make the catch, but he did deflect the ball to third baseman Noah Miller, who did. "The most improbable double play of the season!" marveled Comets broadcaster Alex Freedman, because surely it was.

One to remember
The Portland Sea Dogs beat the Hartford Yard Goats 9-0 on June 2. It goes without saying that no one on the Yard Goats scored a run, but how about this? Everyone in the Sea Dogs' lineup scored a run. Nine players, nine runs. What are the odds? (Seriously, someone let us know.) The Sea Dogs scored four runs in the third and two in the seventh. At that point everyone in the lineup had crossed the plate except Johanfran Garcia, Will Turner and Miguel Bleis, but the stage was set.

Garcia led off the eighth with a single and moved to third on a single by Turner. Bleis then doubled to score Garcia, and this was followed by Tyler McDonough's double that scored Turner and Bleis. There were still no outs in the inning, but the next three Sea Dogs hitters, apparently not wanting to disrupt this rare instance of run-scoring equilibrium, went down quietly. Thus the highly improbable was achieved, the runs having been distributed with maximum equitability.

A day-night doubleheader to remember
On Aug. 4, 1982 Joel Youngblood got a hit for two Major League teams, playing for the New York Mets in the afternoon and the Montreal Expos at night. Josh Rojas pulled off a Minor League-Major League version of the feat on June 4, hitting a double for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers during a 12 p.m. matinee road game against the Columbus Clippers and then hitting a go-ahead single for the Kansas City Royals that evening in another road game against the Minnesota Twins.

In the bottom of the fifth inning of the game in Columbus, Rojas received a call-up to Kansas City. He then rushed to the Columbus airport and, after missing a flight, had to wait four hours until he could depart for Minneapolis. Fortunately the Twins-Royals game was delayed by rain for 67 minutes, so Rojas was able to arrive at Target Field just in time to deliver a two-run pinch-hit ninth-inning single that gave the Royals the win. All in a day's work.

More like a run-off
Walk-off wins come in all sorts of forms, few more rare than what the Dayton Dragons pulled off against the Fort Wayne TinCaps on June 11. It was the bottom of the ninth of a 4-4 game, with the bases loaded and two outs. Peyton Stovall worked a 2-2 count and, then, on the ensuing pitch, Kien Vu stole home to win the game for Dayton.

Home team in name only
Nolan Schubart hit a walk-off homer for the Lake County Captains on June 18, giving them a 3-2 win over the Great Lakes Loons. However! He hit this game-winning blast at the Dow Diamond, home of the Loons. The Captains were the "home" team in this ballgame due to the rescheduling of a game in May that was rained out in Lake County.

Try to follow along
On June 28 Iowa Cubs starting pitcher Kenten Egbert struggled against the Buffalo Bisons, allowing eight runs over 2 2/3 innings. Instead of being removed from the game, however, Egbert was shifted to first base. First baseman Jonathon Long was moved to second, with second baseman Scott Kingery coming in to pitch. Kingery retired the lone batter he faced to escape further damage and then homered in the bottom of the third. At this point Kingery was still in the game as the I-Cubs pitcher. So, yes, even in the year 2026 it is possible for a pitcher to hit a home run!

Kingery moved back to second in the fourth inning, with Long shifting back to first. Egbert did not come back out to pitch, however, though perhaps that had been the Cubs' original intent: To simply give Egbert a breather during a laborious inning and then have him continue. Something similar happened on Aug. 14 of last season, when I-Cubs starting pitcher Will Sanders was shifted to left field with two outs in the first inning after allowing four runs. He returned to the mound in the second inning and went on to pitch through the fourth. Baseball is weird. Sometimes that's all there is to say.

Back to the land
Finally, a question: Do bats grow on trees? If so, Garrett Martin of the Somerset Patriots planted a seed.