Catchers aren't supposed to be fast: Blake Swihart hits extra-innings maybe-an-inside-the-park HR

As the Red Sox went to Citi Field on Friday night to take on the red-hot Mets, winners of seven straight games, they must have known it would be difficult to win -- without at least some strange baseball magic helping them along the way. 

Fortunately, rookie catcher Blake Swihart was there to help them with that magic. 

With the score tied at 3 in the top of the 10th, Swihart drove the ball off the top of the center-field fence. After the ball bounced by Mets center fielder Juan Lagares and headed back toward the infield, the race was on. Surprisingly, given that it was a catcher rounding the bases, Swihart came all the way around to score to take the lead. 

This was clearly magical. After all, catchers aren't supposed to be anywhere near that fast. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a law requiring any catcher able to do that to immediately turn in their chest protector and head into the outfield. It would make sense given that Swihart was only the 28th catcher to ever hit an inside-the-park homer (only Dan Wilson and Gary Carter have hit two) and Swihart is the only backstop to hit one in extra innings. 

However, while the rookie may be alone among his padded peers, he's not alone among inside-the-park-during-extra-innings-ers. There have been 16 other extra-innings inside-the-park homers since 1973 with Angel Pagan's walk-off against the Rockies being the most recent in 2013:

Among the more notable ones, the 630-homer legend Ken Griffey Jr. had a walk-off 11th-inning sprint. Given the hamstring issues that plagued his career, even watching the highlight makes me nervous: 

Marquis Grissom's inside-the-parker may have been peak Expos: 

Even Derek Jeter pulled it off with a trip around the bases on Aug. 2, 1996, driving in current Yankees skipper Joe Girardi along the way. 

Before the inning was over, the Red Sox would go on to score two more runs, giving them a 6-3 edge which would prove crucial as the Mets weren't ready to give up their winning streak just yet. Without a little of their karma-equalizing magic of their own. 

After Red Sox reliever Junichi Tazawa gave up a leadoff single before getting a double play in the bottom of the 10th, the right-hander walked the next four batters to force in a run and cut the Red Sox lead to 6-4. Though Craig Breslow would then come on to get the final out and prevent more runs from scoring, considering that Tazawa has a career 1.9 BB/9 ratio and one career appearance with as many as three walks in an outing -- that coming all the way back on Aug. 16, 2009 -- there clearly was some funky baseball magic in Citi Field on Friday.