Weird & Wild stats and facts from MLB’s return. Plus, ranking ABS challenges
Quick pop quiz: What year is it?
Quick pop answer: It isn’t last year anymore. Apparently.
All it took was one long weekend of baseball in 2026 to remind us that whatever we thought we knew about this sport as recently as, um, last year, it’s ancient history now.
The Marlins in first place? Joey Wiemer for MVP? Cal Raleigh on pace for 400 strikeouts and zero homers? All true. All happening heading into the first full week of this MLB season.
And in case you had any doubt, the official position of the Weird and Wild department is: We’re good with that.
So let’s launch another fun-filled season of this column by wishing you a heartfelt …
Happy New Year (ABS edition)
The Reds, Red Sox and umpire CB Bucknor put their stamp on the first week of the ABS era. (Aaron Doster / Imagn Images)
You know what wasn’t a thing in Major League Baseball last year? Robot umpire hijinks.
You know what is definitely a thing this year? Those robots! So here come our four favorite Automated Ball-Strike system challenge highlights from the first series of the season:
Fourth prize: That was fast — The mantra for every team, now that they’ve all arrived in the Land of the Robots, is this: Don’t get into the ninth inning without a challenge in your pocket. You know who didn’t get the memo? The Braves.
On Saturday against the Royals, they managed to blow through both of their challenges before they’d made an out at the plate in the first inning.
Top of the first: The catcher, Drake Baldwin, takes a shot at a challenge and misses.
Bottom of the first: Leadoff hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. challenges the first strike and gets that wrong, too.
Number of pitches thrown the rest of the night: 258.
Number of pitches the Braves were able to challenge out of those 258: Zilch!
Third prize: The world will never be the same — Some men are just built for New Age/New Rules baseball. We have found just such a man: Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler. And Friday versus the Giants, he lived the ultimate times-they-are-a-changing inning.
His first strike of the first inning: a Luis Arraez pitch-clock violation.
His last strike of that inning: a strikeout of Rafael Devers on an Austin Wells strike-three pitch challenge.
Has any pitcher ever felt more futuristic? Discuss!
Second prize: Ejections are still a thing — The popular wisdom this spring (possibly spread by a certain writer who authors this column) was that we all needed to observe a moment of silence. Over what? The death of the managerial ejection. What else?
And we knew exactly who to blame for that crime against baseball. It was those devious robot umps, who were determined to render all ball/strike managerial eruptions obsolete. Lock ’em up.
But you know who didn’t agree with that theory? The manager of the Twins, Derek Shelton. Those ejections were coming, he told me, confidently, late this spring. He even knew exactly what the plot line would look like.
Before too long, he predicted, some umpire was going to deny/allow a challenge in a heated moment — and “managers are going to get frustrated.”
Bingo. Give this man a side gig with the Psychic Hotline!
Now presenting the first manager in history to get booted out of a game over a challenge kerfuffle: Derek Shelton himself.
Twins manager Derek Shelton was LIVID as he argued that Ryan Helsley didn’t challenge this call fast enough pic.twitter.com/NnsgUb3iap
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 29, 2026
On Sunday, the resident plate ump in Baltimore, Chris Segal, allowed a second straight Orioles challenge in the ninth inning. Incredibly, it was the 10th challenge of this game.
So the moment felt heated. The challenger, Orioles closer Ryan Helsley, might or might not have taken too long to tap his cap, over a 3-2 pitch that would either have turned into ball four or strike three. Shelton landed on the too-long side of that line. So the frustration boiled over. And one wave of the thumb later …
The manager of the Twins had made robotized history.
But you know what else was officially Weird and Wild about that? This is Shelton’s seventh season as a big-league manager — the first six in Pittsburgh. How about this:
His earliest career ejection arguing balls and strikes: Game 6 of the season, in 2024.
His earliest ejection now that the robots are in charge: Game 3, in 2026.
So it can be done. Who knew?
First prize: No K for you — Finally, let’s drag our favorite robo-cam to Cincinnati. Before it arrived, it would have seemed mathematically impossible for a pitcher to strike out the same hitter twice in one at-bat. But this just in: It’s 2026.
So on Saturday, veteran ump CB Bucknor set up shop behind home plate. Looking over his shoulder, though, was a mysterious invisible robot. And we were about to discover that for CB, ABS was not as simple as ABC.
On a day when he became the first umpire to get overturned six times — five of them just in two innings (the sixth and seventh) — Bucknor turned the impossible into Mission Possible.
With the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, Red Sox reliever Ryan Watson did that thing you once thought couldn’t be done. He “struck out” the Reds’ Eugenio Suárez on back-to-back pitches — and never got credit for a strikeout.
Huh? How even?
Suárez challenged both strike threes, got them overturned and then … well, he grounded out to end the inning. So nothing epic came of it. But listen to this crowd and you’d have thought these people had just seen a home run land in Kentucky on the fly.
So let’s stand and applaud for those ABS robots. Now that they’re on the scene, these Weird and Wild columns will practically write themselves. But now that that’s out of the way, let’s wish you a …
Happy New Year (Regular ol’ Baseball edition)
Joey Wiemer reached base in his first 10 plate appearances of the season, tying a record Carlos Delgado set in 2002. (Griffin Quinn / Getty Images)
The Phillies’ Trea Turner had a quip this spring that is stuck in my head.
You may think baseball follows some sort of logical script that makes it relatively predictable. Nope, Turner said. In truth, “nobody knows anything.” Let’s prove that now.
Paul Skenes in 2025: Allowed three runs in the first inning all season.
Paul Skenes in 2026: Allowed five runs in his very first inning of this season and didn’t even get three outs. (For further context, google “Oneil Cruz.”)
Brandon Lowe, longtime Tampa Bay Rays bopper: Played seven Opening Days for the Rays … made it to the plate 26 times in those games … and hit zero homers.
Brandon Lowe, new Pittsburgh Pirate: Played his first game as a Bucco … made it to the plate four times … and hit two home runs. (Must be the french fries on the sandwiches.)
Luis Robert Jr., longtime fearsome White Sox slugger: Played 577 games for the Sox … and mixed one walk-off home run into his busy schedule.
Luis Robert Jr., enticing Mets reclamation project: Squashed a walk-off homer in his second game as an enticing Met. (Must be the aroma of the No. 7 train.)
Phillies relievers since 1969*: Have played 23 times on Opening Day in Philadelphia … employed closers named Brad Lidge, Tug McGraw, Jonathan Papelbon, Steve (Cy Young) Bedrosian, Billy (Hall of Fame) Wagner. Craig Kimbrel, Jose Mesa and Ricky Bottalico … and had never had any of them save a game on Opening Day in their fair city. How was that even possible?
Jhoan Duran in 2026: Had no idea about any of that and saved the first Opening Day game in Philly that he ever pitched in, because … baseball!
*1969: dawn of the modern save rule.
Aaron Judge in 2025: Never struck out four times in any game.
Aaron Judge in 2026: Went K-K-K-K in his first four at-bats of this year. So … how many reigning MVPs had ever punched out four times on Opening Day? (Don’t guess yet.) … And how many reigning batting champs had ever whiffed four times on Opening Day? (Not yet, either.) … And how many men, coming off a 50-plus-homer season, had ever gone K-K-K-K on Opening Day? (OK, now go!) Yes, even here in 2026, zero is still a fantastic guess.
Aaron Judge in the next two games: Homered in both of them, including this ridiculous mash Saturday off an ambulance sitting in left field. The question then asked by my Starkville co-host, Doug Glanville: “Can you call an ambulance for an ambulance?”
Aaron Judge leaves the yard in back-to-back games! pic.twitter.com/WzKNCT4Soc
— MLB (@MLB) March 29, 2026
Mike Trout in 2025: Played in 44 series for the Angels, never reached base more than 10 times in any of them.
Mike Trout in 2026: Reached base 13 times in the first series he played this year for the Angels, who are in favor of that!
Alex Bregman in 2025: Made it through a whole season playing for the Red Sox at Fenway Park without ever hitting two Monstah shots (or any other kind of homer) in any game in Boston.
Alex Bregman in 2026: Smoked two home runs at Wrigley Field on Sunday in his third game as a Cub. Must be the Lou Malnati’s.
Joey Wiemer, famed Marlin, in 2025: Never reached base more than three times in a row at any point in any of the 27 big-league games he played in.
Joey Weimer, way more famed National, in 2026: Came to bat eight times in two games in his first weekend with the Nationals. Reached base in all eight of them, then found his way on base two more times in his next game, Monday in Philadelphia. Holy DiMaggio.
Baseball has been keeping track of streaks like this since 1951. And the first National Leaguer in streak-tracking history to reach base in his first 10 plate appearances of any season is a fellow who … just went 6-for-40 in spring training? Of course.
Christian Yelich, invaluable Brewer, in 2025: Had no RBIs or extra-base hits as a pinch hitter all last season.
Christian Yelich, still an invaluable Brewer, in 2026: Unloaded a lead-flipping, game-winning pinch homer in his third game of this season.
The Marlins in 2025: Didn’t sweep a series at home against an NL team all last year (although they did sweep the Yankees in August … because of course they did).
The Marlins in 2026: How’d their first series in Miami (against the Rockies) turn out this year? Slightly better than that!
The Phillies in 2025: Were so dominant in the land of cheesesteaks and Rocky that they didn’t lose a single series at home before July 20 … and won 11 in a row after that … not to mention 15 of their last 16. In fact, they lost only three series in Philadelphia the whole season — the best home-series winning percentage by any NL team since Willie Mays’ 1962 Giants.
The Phillies in 2026: How’d their first series in Philly (against the Rangers) turn out this year? Not like that!
The Mets in 2025: Went 1-73 in games in which they found themselves trailing at any point in the ninth inning or later.
The Mets in 2026: How’d they do when they fell behind in extra innings in the second game of this season? They somehow won a game in which they scored no runs in the first nine innings, and trailed in both the 10th and 11th innings against the Pirates. Seems hard.
The other two games in that Mets-Pirates series: Yes, just as we all expected, the Pirates lost the game that Skenes started, and the Mets lost the game that Nolan McLean started, because …
Baseball! (In 2026!)
Real people did this stuff
Kevin McGonigle hit the ground running for the Tigers. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
DETROIT MUSCLE — You know who never got four hits on any Opening Day for the Tigers? Oh, only Ty Cobb … and Al Kaline … and Miguel Cabrera.
You know who did? Their spectacular rookie third baseman, Kevin McGonigle, in the first game he ever played in the big leagues. Baseball. It’s the best.
CUT TO THE CHASE — You know who never hit two home runs for that team from Cleveland on Opening Day? Oh, how about Jim Thome … and Albert Belle … and Rocky Colavito.
You know who did? Chase DeLauter, in the first big-league Opening Day game of his life.
You know why we can’t describe that as his “big-league debut?” Because he got seven plate appearances in the postseason last year before he’d experienced that thing we like to call “the regular season.” So I think that means he debuted after his debut. I think that also means he got his first hit after his first hit. But I don’t mean to confuse you, so let’s keep going.
THOSE SOX DON’T MATCH — You know who never homered in the first three games of any season for the White Sox? Oh, let’s throw out cool names like Frank Thomas … and Dick Allen … and Paul Konerko. We could actually list every single dude who ever played for the White Sox, but that would take a while. Whatever, because …
You know who did? Munetaka Murakami, in the first three games he ever played in the major leagues.
That happened in Milwaukee, where no hitter for the Brewers homered in all three games of any three-game series last year. So maybe Bernie Brewer doesn’t approve of Murakami doing that in the first three games he ever played in Milwaukee, but we’d raise a frosty mug of Sapporo over that.
BUT WAIT. WE’RE NOT EVEN DONE — You know who else homered in the first three games of this season? That man, Chase DeLauter, we were writing about earlier. So what’s so Weird and Wild about that? How about this:
Players who homered in Games 1, 2, 3 of any season
This year — 2 (DeLauter and Murakami)
All other seasons in history — also 2 (Trevor Story in 2016, Kyle Lewis in 2019)
CEASE FIRE — You know who had never struck out seven hitters in a row in any game they pitched for the Blue Jays? Great names such as Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Dave Stieb.
You know who did? Dylan Cease, in the first game he ever pitched in a Blue Jays uniform. Eat your heart out, Ricky Romero.
OUR PAL SAL — Did you know that world famous on-base machine Joey Votto never reached base more than eight times in his first three games of any season? That’s a fact.
Did you also know that the guy playing first base in Cincinnati these days is Sal Stewart? He just reached base 10 times in the first three games of this season. So his OPS+ after those first three games was almost 500 (490, to be exact). Which is also about how many times he’d reach base this year if he can keep up this pace (which seems unlikely).
PAGING THE SINGLE GUY — The Mariners have played more than 7,700 games since they arrived in Seattle in 1977. You know what they’d never done in those 7,700 games? Strung together two in a row without hitting at least one single.
So what did the Mariners do in the first two games of this season? Hit nine extra-base hits, but zero singles. They’re the first team since at least 1900 to still be single-free after two games.
That meant they had to send 77 hitters to the plate this year before any of them hit a single. And naturally, the man who broke that streak was noted singles expert Cal Raleigh, a guy who almost hit more homers (60) than singles (63) last year.
Maybe the M’s should have activated their always-ready-to-go special advisor, Ichiro. He once got nine singles in two games (in 2004).
Footnote alert! In the Mariners’ defense, Statcast says the hardest park in MLB to hit a single last year was … you guessed it: T-Mobile (don’t call us Safeco) Park.
WEIRD AND WILD INNING OF THE WEEK — Finally, it seems like our kind of thing that 18 teams forgot to score 14 runs over the weekend in their entire first series of the season. Meanwhile …
Last Thursday, the Rays and Cardinals scored 14 just in one inning.
The Rays put up a “6” in the top of the sixth. The Cardinals then hung a crazy “8” in the bottom of the sixth. And not to give you the impression that doesn’t happen every year on Opening Day, but …
According to the great Sarah Langs of MLB.com (and the Elias Sports Bureau), the last time two teams scored that many runs in an Opening Day inning was in 1890, when Chippy McGarr’s 1890 Boston Beaneaters and Oyster Burns’ 1890 Brooklyn Bridegrooms did it.
If you’re thinking that must have taken a while, good thinking. STLSportsPage.com’s Rob Rains clocked it at 51 minutes (and 84 pitches).
So how Weird (and Wild) was this thing? Back in 1968, Bob Gibson had a stretch of 16 starts in which he faced over 500 hitters and still didn’t give up 14 runs — over two and a half months. But back here in the world we live in, the Cardinals and Rays just put up 14 in one inning. How can you not be romantic about the beautiful sport of …
Baseball! It’s so back … in 2026.
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