A Minor League baseball game between the Modesto Nuts and the Inland Empire 66ers had one of the most bizarre first innings in recent memory.
Modesto, a Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, started the game off relatively normally at the plate. The Nuts scored two runs in the first inning on a two-RBI double from center fielder Andrew Miller.
Things would get weird when they took the field in the bottom half of the inning. They started off the game by intentionally walking the first three batters in the inning.
Never seen this before, from Single-A Inland Empire’s game: 3 intentional walks to open the bottom of the 1st, followed by a pitching change. pic.twitter.com/m7BtokwfiZ
— AngelsMiLB (@AngelsMiLB) May 13, 2023
This obviously makes no sense without any context. A Twitter page not affiliated with the Angels organization called “Angels MiLB” on Twitter provided some context to the situation.
They detailed that this was due to Modesto manager Zach Vincej messing up their lineup card after failing to include the starting pitcher in their lineup. The error meant that they were required to intentionally walk the first three batters before they could make a pitching change.
Sounds like Modesto submitted the wrong lineup card, and their starter wasn’t on it, so they had to intentionally walk the first three batters (to adhere to the three batter minimum rule) and make a pitching change.
— Angels MiLB (@AngelsMiLB) May 13, 2023
Vincej seemingly messed up quite a bit in his lineup card, as Modesto made five defensive switches and two defensive substitutions before ever taking the field in the inning.
The entire lineup card must’ve been a mess: pic.twitter.com/CemLqEq1Ru
— Angels MiLB (@AngelsMiLB) May 13, 2023
The 66ers, the Los Angeles Angels Single-A affiliate, would take advantage of this brutal mistake. They scored six times in the first inning to jump out to an early 6-2 lead in perhaps the weirdest way ever.
