The Houton Astros current 7-game losing streak matches their last 7-game stretch from June 16-22, 2019.

If he shook someone’s hand, he wouldn’t be able to be this locked in

Our childhoods and the greatest baseball video game of all time may finally rest.

The last time the Angels had a winning season was in 2015, back when they still had Anaheim in their name. Since changing the team name to The Los Angeles Angels in 2016, the team has yet to record a winning season.

I don’t think many people expected that to happen

Baseball nerds and avid medical drama fans will surely remember during the first season of The Pitt last year where a patient having a heart attack asks for the score of the Pirates game and someone replies with "they're up by two in the bottom of the first, McCutchen hit an oppo taco." Sleuth work by u/zcd29 revealed that McCutchen hit no such home run during either the 2023 or 2025 seasons.

Well, it seems the writers of the hit show are back on their nonsense again. In the latest episode, premiering earlier tonight (March 19, 2026), a patient enters the emergency room with a dislocated shoulder and a baseball in hand. The patient claims he caught a walk off "TATER" (quote from the show) off the bat of Oneil Cruz and dislocated his arm in the ensuing scrum. The second season is set on July 4th, presumably 2025, so I checked baseball reference to see if Oneil Cruz hit a home run on July 4th, and it turns out, not only did he not hit a home run (much less a walk off), but the Pirates were not even in Pittsburgh; the Pirates played that day in Seattle against the Mariners.

Cruz did not homer on July 4th, 2024, either. And as established in the last season, the series takes place in the 2020s and involved Andrew McCutchen being a current Pirate, so it must at least be after 2023. Cruz has also never hit a walk off home run in his career (though it is possible our patient did not use this term precisely).

This home run does not exist. It was invented by the writers of this show.

It is, however, possible this show takes place in the near future. That is beyond the scope of this post, but keep your eyes peeled on July 4th, 2026...

The Philadelphia Athletics currently hold the record for the worst “Modern Era” (post 1901) record at 36-117 (.236). That’s good for 38.2 wins in a 162 game season.

The Rockies are on pace for a 26 win season.

A .161 winning percentage would be the worst record since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 for a .120 winning percentage.

Justin Verlander was (probably*) the last active MLB pitcher who has faced a batter 5 times in a game, and it's entirely possible this will never happen again.

Getting this split requires a pitcher to pitch well enough and deep enough to face 37 batters*. This used to be a common occurrence, but now, with elite pitchers throwing harder and teams more aware of injury risks, it's far less common to let a starter muscle through a rough shutout or leave them to get shelled over 140 pitches in a blowout.

Verlander faced a 5th batter twice in his career. The first was in 2009 where he stranded 9 runners and faced Dewayne Wise 5 times. Final line: 9 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 0 ER / 1 R, 126 Pitches.

In 2012, he faced Alex Gordon 5 times. Final line: 9 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 ER, 131 Pitches.

The most recent 5th time through is David Price in 2014 (found by u/antithesys)

In 2019, Mike Minor faced 36 batters over 8.2 IP in 2019, but Jose Leclerc was brought in for a 1-out save.

In 2025, Zack Littell faced 37 batters. Unfortunately, leadoff hitter Jeremy Pena was replaced by Brendan Rogers for his fourth at-bat, so Zack Littell never faced a hitter for a 5th time. Final line: 9 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 117 Pitches.

Verlander is NOT the "last active player", as I initially claimed, because Dallas Keuchel faced Leonys Martin 5 times in 2013 and Keuchel is in the A's minor league system. Edited the top to be "last active *MLB* player". (Found by u/avmp629)

*I searched for games with 37 BF on stathead, but Catcher's Interference is one way to get on base without counting as a "batter faced". This means a pitcher could get to the 5th time through with only 36 BF. I couldn't figure out how to search this, so it's possible (but extremely unlikely) an active pitcher does have this split! I encourage anyone with a stathead subscription to check my work.

Edit: u/antithesys also pointed out that I was wrong, and CI DOES actually count as a BF. So I can say with confidence, Verlander was the last active player with a 5th time through split.

Some additional useless facts (all since 2000):

• No division has less than two different champions, but only the NL West has more than three (four different champions).

• The AL Central has the T-least amount of different champions, the least amount of total championships, and the longest championship drought (2015).

• The Yankees and Red Sox are the only championship winning teams to have won another championship after a division rival also won one. Four champions have won multiple unanswered by their division (Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals, Astros) and two champions have gone to another World Series after a division rival won a championship (Phillies, Dbacks).

If it makes you feel better Mets, I don't think he would've saved you today

I've worked in independent and minor league baseball for a dozen years, and have seen a lot - and yet just about every homestand, I swear I witness something new. Here's a list of some rare events that I came up with, with an X for which ones I know I've seen.

If you can think of any reasonable others, or want to share your list or checkmarks, chime in!