We’re back! Did you miss us? The Weird and Wild column had to be preempted by other programming these last couple of weeks. But rest assured, even while we’re on other assignments, weirdness and wildness never takes a break. So …Did you hear about the dude who got plunked by two pitches in the same inning? … And what about that pitcher in D.C. who couldn’t decide if he was a starter or a reliever — so he just alternated between those gigs for over a week? … Or how about that game where the “best” starter in baseball got matched up with the “worst” starter in baseball — and if you think you know how that turned out … haha, have you ever read this column?So let’s plow right back into all the weirdness and wildness of the last three weeks, starting with …Merry No-Hitter Day!Like you, your dad and (mostly) Nolan Ryan, we love no-hitters. Of course we do. They’re the weirdest, wildest, coolest, most illogical, most exhilarating great feat in baseball. Here’s what we mean.Before Monday, we hadn’t seen a no-hitter — by anybody in the big leagues — in 629 days. Think about that.At a time when Jacob Misiorowski, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, Cristopher Sánchez, Garret Crochet, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and that Shohei Ohtani guy are all firing baseballs on any given day …Nobody had thrown a no-hitter in nearly 21 months.And then … a dude with an ERA north of 8.00 (Tatsuya Imai) went to the mound for the Houston Astros, to face the Texas Rangers, on Monday … and that turned into the first no-hitter of 2026?Wow. How can you not be sentimental about baseball?Was this one of the weirdest, wildest no-hitters ever? Let’s go with yes on that. Here’s why.The starting pitcherThat would be Imai. It’s his first season on this side of the Pacific after a distinguished career in Japan. I’d love to tell you he was igniting the 21st-century reboot of (Hideo) Nomo-mania. But no, this guy had an ERA of 8.31, five starts into his season (and MLB career).And what, you ask, is so weird (and wild) about that? Only this: Just one pitcher in history* has ever started a no-hitter with a higher ERA in that season than Imai had!(*who had made at least as many starts as Imai)According to Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen, that pitcher was Francisco Liriano, who was rocking a 9.13 ERA before his 2011 no-hitter for the Twins. So Imai is already in lofty territory. But hold on. We’re not done here, because …How many pitchers would you guess have ever started a no-hitter with a higher career ERA than Imai (and at least five starts)? Right you are. That would be none.How it startedDid you just ask how this game started? Thanks. Excellent question, because this classic began with Imai walking the first two hitters he faced in the first inning. Always a good omen for a historic evening, don’t you think? For more perspective on that, check out Chandler Rome’s tremendous story on this game in The Athletic.But let’s just say: You don’t see that a whole lot. In fact, according to Sportradar, only one other no-hitter in the last 30 years started the way this one did.That was a Phillies-Braves classic back on Sept. 1, 2014. Phillies starter Cole Hamels kicked off that four-pitcher combo no-hit platter by walking Jason Heyward and Emilio Bonifacio.But did Hamels survive that inning — despite those walks and three stolen bases? Yes, he did. He made it through six hitless innings. Then Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and Jonathan Papelbon went nine-up, nine-down in the final three innings. And nobody cared how it all started — until this column had to go dredge it up again 12 years later.How it endedHey, you know what was just as nutty? How this no-hitter ended — because its grand finale also made Weird and Wild no-hitter history! Meaning … it ended on an ABS challenge!Not a successful one, naturally. But after Brandon Nimmo got called out on strikes for the 27th out, he gave us a sneak preview of how every no-hitter in history will now (apparently) end if a guy takes strike three: He thought, what the heck, patted his helmet and challenged a pitch that was right down the middle at the knees.So in the midst of announcer Todd Kalas’ ebullient “the Astros’ 17th no-hitter” call, he had to stall until the ABS challenge-cartoon feature rolled … whereupon he could add those magic words: “And it is confirmed.”