MLB player makes unconventional history after playing for 2 teams in same game
By Wayne Sterling, CNN
(CNN) — In the type of quirkiness that likely one day will be a sports trivia question, Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen made Major League Baseball history Monday by becoming the first player to play for two teams in the same game.
On June 26, Jansen was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. At the time, he was in the middle of an at-bat against the Red Sox in a scoreless game at Fenway Park.
But that game was suspended due to weather in the top of the second inning with a runner on first base and one out.
It took two months for the contest to resume and during the wait, Jansen switched teams when Toronto traded him to Boston for three prospects.
When the suspended game continued Monday, Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho pinch hit for Jansen.
Jansen started the resumed game behind home plate as a defensive substitution for catcher Reese McGuire, who was designated for assignment last month by Boston, for what was Jansen’s own at-bat. Varsho would strike out swinging.
No longer a Blue Jay but a Red Sox player, Jansen was featured in the box score for both clubs.
The official scorebook and various other items associated with this unique moment in MLB history will go to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, according to the Red Sox broadcast.
As for Jansen, he lined out to first base for the final out of the second inning, singled to center in the fifth and struck out for the final out in the ninth, finishing 1-for-4.
“It was a very cool moment to be a part of it,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the game. “I don’t know if it’s going to happen again. It has to be like the perfect storm for that to happen, starting with the storm. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed it.”
Toronto won the first game of a day-night doubleheader 4-1.
The second game is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
