MLB Division Series Day 1: Weird & Wild highlights from watching all 1,421 pitches

It began with a Michael Busch leadoff home run floating through the sky in Milwaukee at a little after 2 p.m. Weird and Wild Daylight Time. It ended with a Josh Naylor bouncer down the first-base line nearly 10 hours later, on the other side of midnight where I live.

So what were you doing while all that baseball was going on? Checking out the fall foliage? Hanging out at a college football game with 105,000 of your closest friends? Picking up that dry cleaning you forgot you dropped off three weeks ago?

That, from what I hear, is the kind of stuff normal people do on October Saturdays. But it’s not what I did. Of course, it wasn’t. Instead, I was living the dream, watching 1,421 pitches go roaring toward home plate on one of the great baseball days of the year. Not that I was counting, except yes I was.

It was Day 1 of the Division Series. And it was something, all right. A guy who hit 55 homers this season got to pitch. The Brewers paraded 20 hitters to the plate before the entire Cubs lineup had gotten to bat once.

The Blue Jays did something they’d barely done since Joe Carter’s home run landed. (That was in 1993, by the way!) And the Tigers flew all the way across the country to fire up 11 innings of Pitching Chaos and ask: Collapse? What collapse?

Yes, I watched every darned minute of all of that while you were busy with your “normal” October stuff. But if you were curious about what you missed on the baseball fields of North America, you’ve come to the right place — where a Division Series edition of our October Weird and Wild column is coming right up in 3 … 2 … 1.

Take this Shoh to the Hill

Suppose you’d somehow just slept through the last eight years of baseball. Suppose you had no idea that any such human as Shohei Ohtani existed. Then suppose I woke you up Saturday night and said:

Hey, guess what? The winning pitcher for the Dodgers, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, was a guy who hit 55 home runs this year.

So what would you think, huh? Would you have asked: Is Babe Ruth still alive? Would you have asked: Were we mixing up real life with “MLB The Show”? Would you have asked: C’mon, who REALLY pitched for the Dodgers in that game?

You’d be in disbelief, right? So what does it tell us about the amazing Shoh Man that we just take this stuff he does for granted now?

Every time he takes the field, he’s redefining the boundaries of what is possible. And we’re so used to it, we don’t even think stuff like this is a story at this point.

But let’s say this again: A man who hit 55 home runs was the winning pitcher in the Dodgers’ 5-3 Game 1 win over the Phillies. He spun off six typically dazzling innings, striking out nine, inducing 23 swings-and-misses, allowing a whopping three hits — just one of them to the last 17 hitters he faced.

And he’s a real person, right here on the planet we live on.

Well, maybe that isn’t a major news flash in your household. But it’s a big deal here at Weird and Wild Postseason HQ. So let’s suspend our disbelief and digest all this. What do you say?

55 home runs and he pitched? There’s no point in even asking how many other players have ever whomped that many home runs in a season and then started a postseason game on the mound that fall. Only one man has ever done that. And you know exactly who he is.

But here’s a fun fact for you. Ohtani is not the only player in history to hit 55 homers or more in his career and also start a postseason game as a pitcher. Can you guess both of the other two?

Yeah, of course one of them is that Babe Ruth guy. He started (and won) three postseason games in his day — one in the 1916 World Series (a 14-inning complete-game win) and two in the 1918 World Series. He hadn’t hit 55 career home runs at the time because he was still mostly pitching in those days. But he had won a home run title (in 1918).

But who’s the other man to do it? That would be … (who else?) Rick Ankiel … who started two games as a pitcher for the Cardinals in the 2000 postseason … then became a position player and wound up hitting 76 career home runs. If you aren’t stumping all your friends with that one the next time you find yourself sitting on a bar stool, you’re not even trying.

Started a postseason game on the mound and in the field? Here’s another cool fun fact. Yes, Ohtani is the only man ever to start a postseason game as a pitcher and as a position player in the same year. But …

Once again, he is not the only player to do that in his career. OK, so the other two to do it are the same two guys who showed up in the last section, but that doesn’t make this any less fun.

Ruth started 36 postseason games as a position player for the Yankees between 1921 and ’32. And Ankiel started four postseason games in center field for the 2010 Braves. He even hit a game-winning extra-inning home run against the Giants in one of those October classics. Am I allowed to mention that Shohei has never done that (yet)?

He pitched to a guy who hit more home runs than he hit? Three times in this game Saturday, a dude who hit 55 homers this year (Ohtani) got to pitch against a guy who hit 56 homers (Kyle Schwarber). Is that as mind-blowing to you as it is to me?

You know how many other times in postseason history two men who hit that many home runs have ever faced each other? None, naturally. (Schwarber went 0-for-3 in that duel, by the way, and Ohtani punched him out twice.)

The MVP pitched to the MVP runner-up? All right, we won’t know for sure that it happened until next month. But it seems likely that Ohtani and Schwarber are going to finish 1-2 in the National League MVP voting this season. And if they do, that’s one more thing we witnessed in this game that nobody had seen before.

I checked with my friends from STATS Perform. And even though a bunch of pitchers have won the MVP award, none of them had ever thrown a postseason pitch to the guy who finished second that year. The closest call was postseasons in which the MVP got to pitch to the third-place finisher:

Dennis Eckersley (first) to Joe Carter (third) — Games 3 and 4, 1992 ALCS

Vida Blue (first) to Frank Robinson (third) — Game 1, 1971 ALCS

Incidentally, that will not be the last time Joe Carter comes up in this column (spoiler alert)!

The MVP pitched to the batting champ? Trea Turner led the National League in batting average this year. Let’s assume once again that Ohtani is going to be the NL MVP. So how often has the MVP thrown a postseason pitch to either (or both) of that year’s batting champs? Oh, it’s happened six other times, but it’s an amazing list. Here it comes, courtesy of STATS:

The MVP started and won a postseason game? Baseball is such a strange sport. Ohtani never threw a single pitch with the lead in this game. But he still got a win out of it, because he was the pitcher of record when Teoscar Hernández pounded a lead-flipping three-run homer in the top of the seventh.

So he added his name to this high-powered list of MVPs who won at least one postseason game on the mound in the same year they won the award. (This is just from the expansion era: 1961-present.)

(*OK, technically, Ohtani hasn’t won that MVP yet. But also, this postseason isn’t over!)

The starting pitcher struck out four times? Finally, guess what else happened in Ohtani World on Saturday? A whole bunch of whiffing happened. That’s what.

The starting pitcher for the Dodgers struck out four times in Game 1. And that’s a sentence I didn’t expect to be typing.

So how long has it been since any team’s starting pitcher piled up four K’s in a postseason game? How ’bout more than 40 years. Last to pull off that trick? Jerry Reuss did it twice in two starts in the 1981 NLDS. But before that you’d have to go back to 1969, when the Twins’ Dave Boswell K’d four times in Game 2 of the 1969 ALCS.

But the weirdest and wildest thing of all is that Ohtani came to bat in the ninth with a chance to strike out five times. Instead, he drew a walk against Phillies closer Jhoan Duran. And it’s a good thing. Only one pitcher in history has ever struck out five times in a postseason game: the Yankees’ George Pipgras, in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.

So that’s one more Weird and Wild thing we can always say now about Ohtani: He was no George Pipgras. But once again, this man had a night so amazing, in every other way, we are not going to let you take it for granted — no matter how hard you try.

Once in a Brew moon

Just when you think you know how baseball is played here in the year 2025, those Milwaukee Brewers show up for work. So what happened Saturday, on a day they got outhomered 3-0 by the Cubs? Brewers magic happened, naturally. As usual.

Allow us to sum up the first two innings of the Brewers’ 9-3 bombardment of the Cubs in this game.

The Brewers:

• 20 hitters came to bat

• 14 of them reached base

• Nine of them scored

• And Jackson Chourio got three hits … in two innings

The Cubs:

Hadn’t even gotten all nine hitters in their lineup an at-bat yet!

So it was the most Brewers game ever, friends. Here are just a few more examples:

They had a triple-double! How did the Brewers’ offense start this game? Their first three hitters — Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras — all doubled, on three pitches in a row. So how Weird (and Wild) was that?

The Brewers have been playing baseball for 56 seasons. Want to guess how many times in all those years their first three hitters have doubled to start any of the 9,000 regular-season games they’ve played? Yep. That would be none. Of course.

Oh, and one more thing: Only one team in MLB (the Rockies, with 18) hit fewer doubles in the first inning than the Brewers hit this year (22). And then they hit three doubles on three pitches before they even made a first-inning out in this postseason. Baseball!

Then they went to a singles bar! So that’s how the Brewers’ six-run first inning started. Now here’s how their three-run second-inning started: With the first three hitters going single-single-single.

I know that sounds like typical Brewers baseball, but, um, not so fast. I checked with STATS on this. Not to suggest the Brewers had never kicked off both the first and second innings of a game with three straight hits (of any kind) — but the last time they did it was as recently as … 45 years ago, on Oct. 1, 1980!

Action Jackson! You didn’t need to watch the first two innings to know that their favorite 21-year-old leadoff dynamo, Jackson Chourio, is going to be a star. But it was an excellent reminder.

• First at-bat: doubled to lead off the bottom of the first.

• Second at-bat: singled in two runs — and that first inning hadn’t ended yet.

• Third at-bat: singled in another run with an infield hit.

So he was 3-for-3 … by the end of the second inning.

All of which made Chourio … the first player ever to get three hits in the first two innings of any postseason game … the first guy ever to get two hits in the first inning of any postseason series … and the first Brewer ever to get three hits in the first two innings of any game in franchise history, regular season or postseason.

You know how many players got three hits in the first two innings of any regular-season game this year? As always, zero would be an excellent guess. And then Chourio did it in his team’s first game of the postseason. Because baseball — especially Brewers baseball — never runs out of Weird and Wild plot lines to keep us in business.

The Tigers: Was it all just a dream?

The specialty of their house, for two Octobers now, has been Pitching Chaos. But what about History Book Chaos?

Those pesky history books are always going to tell us that the 2025 Detroit Tigers were the authors of the biggest collapse in baseball history. They’re the team that made a 14-game lead disappear. And that’s an inconvenient truth that is never going away. But here’s a question I can’t stop thinking about …

What if they keep winning?

They’ve already sent one first-place team (the Guardians) home this October. Now they’ve officially placed the American League West champs, the Mariners, in the danger zone, with an eight-pitcher, 11-inning, 3-2 win in Seattle on Saturday night.

So let’s ask this again: What if the Tigers keep winning? Did that “collapse” still happen if they do something wild now like, oh, win the World Series?

“Things are going our way,” said their hero du jour, Zach McKinstry, late Saturday night. “And it’s baseball.”

Oh, it’s … baseball, all right. So since we’ve spent the last few weeks telling you about the ugly history the Tigers were making in September, it’s only fair that we now tell you about the more upbeat history they could be chasing in October.

Only four other teams have ever blown a lead of at least 10 games, failed to win their division but still staggered into the postseason thanks to the invention of wild cards. So how did those other teams fare in October after all that? Here’s a rundown:

NEVER WON A SERIES:

2022 Mets (lost 10-game lead) — lost Wild Card Series

2019 Twins (lost 10-game lead) — lost ALDS

WON ONE SERIES:

2012 Yankees (lost 10-game lead) — won ALDS, lost in ALCS

WON TWO SERIES:

2006 Tigers (lost 10-game lead) — won ALDS and ALCS, lost World Series

So that brings us to this Tigers team. No team has ever blown a double-digit lead and failed to win its division and then won the World Series. But what if that’s the miracle these Tigers have in store for us over the next few weeks?

Imagine how the historians would explain that, huh? I can only think of one way. It’s … baseball!

Finding Carter

Or maybe the Blue Jays are going to win this World Series. If they are, they’ll need to win 11 games this October. And that’s an interesting number, if only because …

On Saturday, in their 10-1 thumping of the Yankees, the Blue Jays just won their 11th postseason game since Joe Carter’s home run landed …

A mere 11,670 days ago!

That’s right. In the 32 years since Carter’s legendary walk-off homer sealed the Blue Jays’ most recent World Series title, they’ve basically averaged three postseason wins a decade. And before Saturday, they hadn’t even won a postseason game in nine years.

So here at Weird and Wild Postseason HQ, we live to put these things in perspective. Not that anyone requested that perspective, but why would that stop us? Ready? Here goes.

Since Carter’s homer … the Yankees have won 130 postseason games!

And the Astros have won 77 postseason games!

And the Rays — who didn’t even exist when Carter hit that homer — have won 28 postseason games!

And only three of the other 29 teams have won fewer postseason games than the Blue Jays — the Pirates (three), Reds (five) and Twins (nine).

Meanwhile, in those nine years when the Jays weren’t even winning a single postseason game … the Astros won 59 of them!

And the Dodgers won 53 of them!

And the other AL East teams won 65 of them!

Speaking of 65, that’s Joe Carter’s age these days. So it’s time for these Blue Jays to get to work. Ten more wins, and they won’t have to watch the videos of that homer anymore!

Party of Five

Wait! Don’t click out of this column yet. We have just a few more Weird and Wild tidbits we need to share.

CAPTAIN KIRK — Speaking of the Blue Jays, their ever-popular catcher, Alejandro Kirk, bopped two home runs Saturday in their first game of this postseason. Does that sound familiar? It should, because he also hit two homers last Sunday, in their last game of the regular season.

So how many other players would you guess have ever done what Kirk did — namely, hit two (or more) home runs in their last game of the season and then hit two more in their first game of the postseason? According to STATS, that would be exactly … zero.

In fact, only five players have even hit one homer in their last game of the season and then gone deep twice in their team’s first game of that postseason:

Mo Vaughn, 1998 Red Sox

Edgardo Alfonzo, 1999 Mets

Troy Glaus, 2002 Angels

Frank Thomas, 2006 A’s

Shohei Ohtani, 2025 Dodgers

THE ROKI CHANNEL — In case you didn’t pay attention to this sort of thing, the Dodgers’ bullpen was such a never-ending dumpster fire, they had to call on 12 different pitchers to save a game this season. Twelve!

So why would I bring that up here? Oh, only because the pitcher who saved their first game of the NLDS wasn’t even one of those 12.

That was their latest bullpen conversion project, Roki Sasaki. And his first professional save Saturday got me to wondering: How many other teams have ever had at least a dozen pitchers collect a save during the season … and then called on None of the Above to save a game in that postseason?

You might think that answer would be none. To which I’d reply … are you familiar with the Dodgers at all?

Let’s roll the clock all the way back to … last year, when the Dodgers had to call on 14 different pitchers to save a game during the season. But who saved the final game of the World Series? Not any of those guys. It was Walker Buehler, because of course it was.

The only other team that has ever done this: The 2020 Rays, who had 12 different pitchers save a game during a 60-game season, but then got to the postseason and had a 13th reliever, Pete Fairbanks, save three of them.

SCORELESS IN SEATTLE — Here’s more of that invaluable perspective we’re so famous for in this column. When Julio Rodríguez became just the second Mariners center fielder not named Ken Griffey Jr. to hit a postseason home run (the other: Mike Cameron), he didn’t merely give the Mariners a 1-0 lead Saturday.

He put a postseason run on the T-Mobile Park scoreboard for the first time … since 2001!

Before that blast, the Mariners hadn’t scored a run at home in a postseason game since Stan Javier homered off Mike Mussina … in Game 2 of the 2001 ALCS. That was 24 years ago, so it’s amazing how much other stuff can happen in 24 years. Here’s just some of that stuff.

In between … the Dodgers scored 338 postseason runs at Dodger Stadium … the Astros scored 296 postseason runs at Enron/Minute Maid/Whatever It’s Called Now Park … and the Red Sox scored 277 at Fenway Park … while the Mariners were scoring no runs in Safeco/T-Mobile!

DON’T LEAVE IT TO WEAVER — Poor Luke Weaver. He was so good for the Yankees last October. But this October? Yikes.

His first appearance of this postseason: Faced three hitters in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Red Sox. They went walk/double/two-run single.

His second appearance of this postseason: Faced three hitters Saturday in ALDS Game 1 in Toronto. They went walk/single/RBI single.

So let’s ignore his Infinity ERA for a moment, because according to Baseball Reference, he just became the second pitcher in postseason history to spin off back-to-back appearances of at least three batters faced and zero outs. The only other pitcher to do that: Rick Honeycutt, for the A’s in the 1989 ALCS.

But if it’s any consolation, the A’s went on to win that World Series … and Honeycutt went on to become a longtime pitching coach. So yes, there is life after messy box-score lines.

THE STRANGEST BUT TRUEST STRIKEOUT OF THE MONTH — Finally, is it OK if I circle back to the Weirdest, Wildest thing that’s happened in this entire postseason? Oh, that’s right. It’s my column. So I’m thinking it’s fine.

It happened in Game 2 of the Dodgers-Reds Wild Card Series, when you were probably sleeping. But if you were, wake up out there … because you need to know about this!

It was an eighth-inning at-bat pitting Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan versus Reds outfielder Will Benson. But Sheehan was having so much trouble throwing strikes that his manager, Dave Roberts, yanked him out of this game with a 1-and-2 count.

In trotted Alex Vesia to pitch. So in the Reds’ dugout, manager Terry Francona pinch hit Miguel Andujar for Benson … both of these things happening in the middle of a postseason at-bat. And that wasn’t even the Weird and Wild part. Here comes that part.

Vesia then threw one pitch to Andujar, got a swing-and-miss and got credit for a one-pitch strikeout — but not of Andujar. You’ve gotta love the rules of baseball … because according to those rules, Vesia had just struck out a hitter he never threw a pitch to … namely, Benson.

So how bizarre was this? I ran it past my friends at STATS. Here goes:

In the pitch-counting era, which began in 1988, we have record of three other instances of a pitcher striking out a hitter despite the slight technicality that he never actually threw a pitch to that hitter: Xavier Hernandez whiffing Wilton Guerrero on July 1, 1997, Wayne Gomes striking out Wally Joyner on Aug. 27, 1997, and Ashton Goudeau punching out Paolo Espino on Sept. 29, 2021.

But how many times had this ever happened in a postseason game? That would be precisely … zero … of course. Because it’s pretty much beyond our comprehension that any pitcher could throw a pitch to one hitter and strike out another hitter who was sitting in the dugout at the time. But there is an explanation, even in October. Yep. Repeat after me. It’s …

Baseball!

(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani: Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

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