We have been blessed with a tremendous amount of weird baseball already this season. There was Cody Bellinger hitting a home run and getting called out on the same play on Opening Day, the Marlins losing on a walkoff hit by pitch against the Mets that hit Michael Conforto in the strike zone, and plenty of other rare sights — like Opening Day shrimp and Ronald Acuna Jr. just out running a hard hit grounder to the shortstop the other night.
On Monday, the weird baseball gifts kept on giving, as Cleveland visited the White Sox on Monday night in a AL Central tilt that saw Chicago walk it off on an incredibly strange play. With two on and one out, Nick Williams broke his bat on a routine grounder to the first baseman that should’ve been an inning ending double play or, at worst, a fielders choice to get to two outs in the inning. However, Yu Chang’s throw to second skipped off Yasmani Grandal’s helmet as he was legally in the basepaths, allowing pinch runner Nick Madrigal to motor around from second to score the game winning run.
THAT’S ONE WAY TO GET THE W pic.twitter.com/xxw1EypMny
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) April 13, 2021
It is an absolutely miserable way to lose if you’re Cleveland, as you got exactly what you needed in that situation by getting the grounder that should’ve been a fairly routine double play. For the White Sox, it’s a win they’re supposed to get so they’ll be thrilled to get that game over without needing extra innings by any means necessary, even if that is having your catcher take one in the back of the head as he runs to second.