Editor’s note: This is a bonus Weird and Wild. To read the main W&W column, click or tap here.Just when you think you know what’s possible in baseball and impossible, here’s this important announcement from your friends at the Weird and Wild column:No, you don’t.Before we explain this further, let’s ask a simple question: How many bases can you locate on an infield near you, not counting home plate? I hope you answered three. So if that’s true, how many base runners could possibly be standing on those bases? I hope you answered three again.All right, this is simple so far — until we assign you to stare at Orioles reliever Andrew Kittredge’s line in the box score from his May 27 appearance against Tampa Bay:Yes, it really says: Inherited runners … Kittredge 4! So … what the heck?My friends at MLB Scoring Changes alerted me to this mathematically impossible development a few days back, then explained it this way: Kittredge came in to relieve Yennier Cano — with a 3-and-0 count on the hitter, Ryan Vilade. That was because Cano got hurt. Can you see where this is going yet?
The bases were loaded. There were no outs. Kittredge then threw ball four to walk Vilade — but because the rules are the rules, Vilade had just been walked by a pitcher who wasn’t even on the field (Cano).That scored a run (also charged to Cano, not Kittredge). And it re-loaded the bases. But because he’d just completed a walk for another pitcher, the MLB.com box score will try to convince us Kittredge inherited four runners, not three, even though he actually threw a pitch to one of those four.Confused yet? You should be. If you check the box score of this game almost anywhere else on the internet, you’ll notice something: On those other sites, it says Kittredge only inherited three runners, not four.And why is that? Because what computer would believe it’s possible for a pitcher to inherit four runners when there are only three bases? I know you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but when even the computer hard drives themselves are saying no bleeping way, you know we’re all mixed up. Over at Baseball Reference, Kenny Jackelen checked and found several other games that followed this same script — two of them as recently as 2020. And best we can tell, only the MLB.com box scores are sticking with four inherited runners, as opposed to three.So … is this Strange But True enough for you? Mathematically, it’s impossible to legally cram four runners onto three bases. But here we have real box scores, trying to tell us four inherited runners is totally possible. Can we all get through this crisis?You’ll just have to dig deep and ask yourself: Do you even know the difference between what’s possible and impossible anymore? In real life, maybe you can. But you have to love that there’s an alternate universe where you’ll never be too sure you can. And where is that universe? Only in …Baseball!Jun 5, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
