ESPN's Jayson Stark put together a collection of some of the weirdest things to happen in baseball this year -- and, not surprisingly, the Red Sox made an appearance in a whole handful of those tidbits.
• Just for Starters Dept.: We should have known what kind of World Series we were in for when the first inning of Game 1 featured a leadoff homer by a fellow who hadn't hit a leadoff homer all year (Dustin Pedroia) -- off a pitcher who hadn't allowed a leadoff homer since 2004 (Jeff Francis).
• Just Getting Warmed Up Dept.: The Red Sox had a longer winning streak in the postseason (seven games) than they had at any point in the regular season (five games).
• October Sky Dept.: Even more amazingly, the Red Sox scored 11 runs or more in three straight postseason games (Games 6 and 7 of the ALCS, Game 1 of the World Series). Before that, they'd done that once in all 107 of their regular seasons combined. But heck, that's only about 16,500 games.
• Farm Land Dept.: In the whacked out California League, a three-game series between the Lancaster Jet Hawks (Red Sox minor league affiliate) and the Lake Elsinore Storm produced a 30-0 game one day, a four-homer game the next day (by Lancaster's Alan Bates), a cycle the next day (by Lake Elsinore's Yordany Ramirez) and a total of 83 runs, 95 hits and 23 home runs in one series.
• Sum of All Fears Dept.: And for the 10th straight year since the release of "Good Will Hunting," the Red Sox lost on Ben Affleck's birthday (Aug. 15).
And the weirdest event in all of baseball this year is courtesy of the Red Sox bats - namely, Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell & Jason Varitek.
• Strangest But Truest Event Of 2007 How the heck did this happen? Yankees rookie Chase Wright, a pitcher who had given up four home runs to the previous 673 hitters he'd faced (in the majors and minors), needed a mere 10 pitches to serve up four home runs in a row to the Red Sox on April 22. Naturally, the four hitters who bashed them had combined for only four homers all season before that, in 218 at-bats.
on December 26, 2007 3:49 PM
A few other strange but true facts from that 4-HR barrage that Stark forgot about
*JD Drew was second in line in that HR in a row thing and in the last one with the Dodgers
*Terry Francona's father was in the one in 1963 so that's pretty funny too and it was on Terry's birthday
*It was the second HR of the year for all four of them as well(I still find that a pretty astounding stat even if it is early in the season)
My brother and my mom were having a cigarette outside as it all unfolded on TV so we had to watch it twice(rewind action via DVR). I'll take it though. I kept trying to mime to my brother that it was 4 HR in a row. He didn't believe me.