The Giants' game Monday against the Reds was delayed by bees. Then it got stranger still.
MLBBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The San Francisco Giants’ day game Monday against the Cincinnati Reds likely won’t have any impact on this year’s division races or postseason, as both teams are only 15-20 following the Reds’ 12-4 win. But that game may wind up being one of the strangest we see all year across Major League Baseball. For one thing, it started with an 18-minute delay thanks to swarming bees:

Here’s a terrifying shot of bees on a camera lens:

Bee delays have happened in MLB before, but mostly in spring training or the minors, with only a few recent ones in the major leagues proper. The bees were eventually cleared and the game got underway, but not before Reds’ second baseman Derek Dietrich dressed as an exterminator to “help”:

And the strangeness didn’t stop there. The Reds put together a five-run first inning, and things then got real bad for the Giants. Consider what John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the hit batters:

The Giants tied a major-league record by hitting four batters in the sixth inning. The record was set in 1893.

• Pat Venditte plunked three batters himself. In fact, the switch-thrower hit batters on consecutive pitches – he drilled Jose Peraza left-handed and Josh VanMeter right-handed.

• Things got so out of hand that infielder Pablo Sandoval pitched the eighth inning. And hit his first batter, meaning the Giants hit five batters in a game for the first time in recorded history (since 1908).

But that wasn’t the only odd part of this game Sandoval was involved in. Despite hitting that batter, he finished that inning without allowing a run, thanks to a nice double play here:

This was the second time Sandoval had pitched a scoreless inning for the Giants (the first was last April), putting him in illustrious company:

Even more remarkable than that was Sandoval, not exactly known for his speed, stealing a base.

That, plus an earlier home run, put Sandoval in rare company too:

And it wasn’t even the first time he’d combined a home run and a stolen base!

At any rate, that all made for an exceptionally weird game. And one we probably won’t see the exact likes of again.

[The San Francisco Chronicle; photo from Zack Seward on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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