The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, accomplished something Tuesday night that no major league team has done in the expansion era.
And infamously, so did the Portland Sea Dogs, the Eastern League affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
Trailing 2-0, New Hampshire scored its first eight runs of the second inning without giving up a hit in Tuesday's game in Portland, Maine. In all, the Fisher Cats posted 10 runs in the inning -- nine with two outs -- on just one hit and without the benefit of any errors.
How? Portland pitchers issued eight walks, hit two batters, threw four wild pitches and gave up a sacrifice fly and a single.
"I don't ever remember seeing that, here or any other game I've ever seen," Sea Dogs president Geoff Iacuessa told WGME Ch. 13 in Portland. "It was crazy. I thought maybe something was going on with the scoreboard and then I checked the game changer and it was correct."
After the grounds crew cleared the field of a heavy snowfall from earlier in the day, the game began at 5 p.m. ET with a temperature of 35 degrees at first pitch.
The inning started innocently enough with two walks, a wild pitch and a strikeout by Portland starter Hayden Mullins, who struck out the side in the first inning. New Hampshire then plated its first run on a sacrifice fly.
With two outs, Mullins then proceeded to walk the next three batters to tie the score at 2 before he was lifted in favor of reliever Jorge Juan, who hit the first batter he faced with the bases loaded.
A wild pitch allowed the fourth run to cross the plate and a walk loaded them up again for the Fisher Cats. Juan then hit another batter (5-2) and threw another wild pitch (6-2) before walking two more batters (7-2) and exiting the game with the bases again loaded.
Enter Cade Feeney, who eventually got out of the inning but not before throwing a wild pitch (8-2) and giving up a two-run single to Ismael Munguia -- the only hit of the inning -- to make it 10-2.
New Hampshire held on for a 12-7 victory in the chilly conditions.
No major league team has scored more than four runs without getting its first hit in an inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There have been only 16 times in AL/NL history that a pitcher has allowed five runs without giving up a hit in 1⅔ or fewer innings, according to MLB.com, and Portland pitchers did it twice in the same inning.
