By Kaitlyn McGrath, Jen McCaffrey and Lauren Merola
BOSTON – Under sunny skies, 112-year-old Fenway Park witnessed one other piece of history Monday afternoon.
Danny Jansen was at bat for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Boston Red Sox on June 26, with the rating at 0-1 and base one on, when the skies opened and the sport was suspended because of severe weather.
Two months later, play resumed on Monday, but Jansen was now playing for the Red Sox. The Red Sox signed Jansen on July 27, creating the chance that a player could play for each teams in the identical game.
This possibility became a reality on Monday.
When Jansen got here in to play catcher for the Red Sox, he settled behind the plate to take a swing at a game where he had began as a batter. (Boston's original catcher in the sport, Reese McGuire, had been designated for that position shortly after trading Jansen.)
With Jansen behind the plate, the Blue Jays brought in Daulton Varsho to take over Jansen's original 0-1 plate appearance. Varsho struck out, fouled off Nick Pivetta's first pitch and swung through the second. (If the Count was two strikesit might have been credited to Jansen's line, but went to Varsho as a substitute.) After the strikeout, the runner on first base ran to second base and Jansen's throw landed in center. But Will Wagner followed with a strikeout to finish the inning.
“At first I didn't really think about it much,” Jansen said before the sport about the potential for playing for each teams. “But now we're here and it's going to be a cool moment, especially when it's all said and done, to look back and it's such a weird thing that happens, but I'm grateful to have the opportunity to do it and it's going to be cool.”
Pinch-hitting for Danny Jansen: Daulton Varsho
Now in cinemas: Danny Jansen
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/PXnVZvbpml
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) 26 August 2024
The Blue Jays won the sport, which lasted two months, 4-1. Toronto broke a scoreless tie within the seventh inning with a solo home run by George Springer. The Blue Jays scored three more runs within the eighth inning on doubles by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Addison Barger. Jarren Duran's solo home run in the underside of the eighth inning was the Red Sox's only run. Jansen finished the sport 1 for 4, completing all 4 of his official at-bats as a member of the Red Sox.
Before the sport, the Red Sox released their revised lineup. Jansen was inserted into the seventh and Triston Casas into the eighth, where McGuire had batted in the unique lineup. Pivetta, normally a starter, took over Kutter Crawford's position on the mound in what’s going to officially be considered a relief appearance.
Game 1, Red Sox vs. Blue Jays: Duran CF, Hamilton 2B, Abreu RF, Devers 3B, Refsnyder LF, Yoshida DH, Jansen C, Casas 1B, Rafaela SS, Pivetta P
– Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) 26 August 2024
The Blue Jays had to interchange five players from the unique roster who are not any longer available, including traded players and shortstop Bo Bichette, who’s on the IL.
The resumption of play brings with it quite a lot of other complications beyond Jansen's dual role.
For example, Leo Jiménez and Wagner each made their MLB debuts after June 26, but because they still appeared within the suspended game that might be recorded within the record books as having taken place on June 26, they already appeared in a game before being promoted to the Major Leagues.
“We’re driving a DeLorean,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider recently joked, referring to the automobile best known for its time travel within the movie “Back to the Future.”
This has happened before. The athletics Jayson Stark recently wrote that Juan Soto made his debut in 2018 before he even debuted. “He came to the Major Leagues on May 20, to the Washington Nationals. But he later played in a game that had been suspended on May 15 – and scored a home run. That is, he debuted before he debuted and also hit a home run before his first home run,” Stark wrote.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays benched Joey Loperfido late to use him as a defensive replacement, meaning he was technically in two places at once. Still with the Houston Astros on June 26, the outfielder went 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch in a 7-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. Since he played left field for the final two innings, on paper he will go down in history as a player with two games played on the same day.
The Red Sox improved their record this season to 67-63, while the Blue Jays are 64-68.
Required reading
image credit : www.nytimes.com