stauffer_ethier
Right-hander Tim Stauffer went for a walk on the weird side Tuesday night, setting up Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers to do something wildly unusual.
Ethier collected his team's first two hits in an eight-run second inning, in which Stauffer walked a San Diego Padres record six batters.
Ethier started the second with a single and later hit a grand slam against reliever Anthony Bass — but not before eight other men came to bat and did something other than get a hit. This is what happened between Ethier's at-bats:
— Aaron Miles walked
— A.J. Ellis struck out
— Jamie Carroll walked
— Pitcher Hiroki Kuroda walked
— Justin Sellers hit a sacrifice fly (which counts as neither hit nor out)
— James Loney walked (wow)
— Matt Kemp walked
— Juan Rivera walked
In the name of Juan Eichelberger, someone make Stauffer stop!
Stats LLC reports he had the wildest inning of any pitcher in more than five years, and it served as the turning point in an 8-5 victory for the Dodgers.
And, as @LobShots pointed out on Twitter, Stauffer's uncontrollable misadventure gave him one of the stranger pitching lines you'll ever see over 1 2/3 innings: seven earned runs, one hit, seven walks and two strikeouts.
And Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts had a thought: When's the last time someone got a team's first two hits of an inning? The authorities are looking into it.
Neither Stauffer nor Ethier gave much help in explaining the wacky inning. {YSP:MORE}
Stauffer left the clubhouse without talking to reporters (which is OK, once in a while, after a rough night) and Ethier gave only what must have sounded like a pre-recorded message:
"We played a good game, guys had a lot of fun, Kuroda pitched a good game," a smiling Ethier repeated over and over to reporters, no matter the question asked.
Asked why he wouldn't discuss his individual performance, he merely smiled and didn't respond.
Ethier's cheeky attitude probably has something to do with being overcome with joy at his knee injury suddenly clearing up. After going 0 for 14 on the Dodgers recent road trip, Ethier is 8 for 15 on L.A.'s homestand.
And it's a good thing, at least for weird baseball history, that he's back and swinging again.
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