How? Minor League team scores 10 runs on 1 hit -- 8 before the hit! -- in one inning

Sometimes, a couple of well-timed hits is all it takes to start a big inning. Every once in a while, you don't even need that.

On a chilly Tuesday evening in Maine -- 35 degrees at first pitch -- the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double-A affiliate of the Blue Jays) scored 10 runs on one base knock in the top of the second against the Portland Sea Dogs (BOS). In fact, the Fisher Cats scored their first eight runs before they even notched that hit.

How rare is that? In the expansion era (since 1961), no Major League team has ever scored more than four runs without getting its first hit, per Elias. There have only been 16 instances in AL/NL history of a pitcher allowing five runs on no hits in 1 2/3 or fewer innings -- and it happened with two Sea Dogs hurlers by the end of the second inning in this one.

Even more unlikely? The defense didn't make a single error in the wild frame. It started with a walk by Sean Keys (the Blue Jays' No. 17 prospect) and did not come to an end until five batters in the Fisher Cats' lineup had each come to the plate twice and Portland had sent three pitchers to the mound.

And despite the leadoff walk, the situation initially appeared to be under control for Sea Dogs pitching -- the first New Hampshire run didn't hit the board until a sacrifice fly that also amounted to the second out in the frame.

If you were keeping score at home, the half-inning -- which lasted 31 minutes -- looked something like this:

BB
BB
WP
K
SF (1-2)
BB
BB
BB (2-2)
HBP (3-2)
WP (4-2)
BB
HBP (5-2)
WP (6-2)
BB
BB (7-2)
WP (8-2)
1B (10-2)
K

To recap, that's eight walks, two hit batsmen, four wild pitches, one sacrifice fly and one single, with 14 men coming to the plate.

The big inning was especially rough on Sea Dogs starter Hayden Mullins (Boston's No. 16 prospect) and reliever Jorge Juan. Mullins struck out the side in the first but wound up charged with five runs on five walks over 1 1/3 innings. Juan didn't record an out and was also charged with five runs on five walks.

Neither Mullins' line (1.2 IP, 0 H, 5 R, 5 BB, 4 K) nor Juan's line (0.0 IP, 0 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 0 K) has ever been posted in a Major League game.

Fittingly, the Sea Dogs -- whose home opener was the setting for all of this -- scored their first three runs of the game without getting a hit, either.