Some interesting plays, found by playing with statcast’s data from 2015-2024.
Swinging pitchout
The most halfhearted attempt ever to protect a runner on a hit-and-run. Good thing he missed; the throw ended up in center field and the runner made it to third.
Foul pitchout
A more serious attempt to actually hit the ball. This one actually played out well: Diaz grounded out but the runner advanced to second, and later scored the go-ahead run on a base hit.
Pickoff on an intentional walk
Continuing in the vein of weird things happening when the batter’s not supposed to swing: here, Michael Ynoa intentionally walks David Ortiz. But after the first pitch, the catcher Dioner Navarro casually throws just over the pitcher’s head to try to pick off Xander Bogaerts at second.
(Note that the video is confused here - they’ve already filled in the yellow diamond at first base, even though Ortiz hasn’t walked yet. And the statcast data is so strange! It has balls at plays numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, and a pickoff at play 4, even though clearly the pickoff is on the first pitch.)
Groundout on a ball
How about the reverse, when the batter doesn’t swing at a ball but still gets out.
Here, Garrett Cooper grounds out without swinging. Realmuto tries to throw the runner out at second, and the umpire rules that Cooper blocks his throw, and so is out on “batter interference”. The rule (“6.03 Batter Illegal Action”) is that the batter is out if he interferes with the catcher’s throw; but what I find hilarious is that this is marked a ground-out to the catcher! On a ball!
Even weirder example: Carlos Correa takes a ball that skips away from catcher Mitch Garver, and the runner advances to third. Correa doesn’t even really move, but sorta ends up in the way of Garver trying to chase the ball down, and he gets called out!
Free strikeout
It gets worse: you can even strike out without being on the field!
First, Jarrod Dyson gets tossed for arguing a bad strike call (and he was right: it was quite a bit outside) to make it 0-2.
Then Adam Jones comes in and strikes out swinging. And the strikeout gets charged to Dyson! Note that the video is even called “Jarrod Dyson strikes out swinging”, even though that’s Jones up to bat!
Four (or five?) outfielders
A handful of plays (before the rules about no shifting) are marked “4th outfielder”. Look at how the Reds line up against Matt Carpenter to lead off the game. It’s a little hard to see on the video; screenshot:
I’d even call it 5th outfielder.
And just for fun, in the same game, Harrison Bader makes it from first to third on a sac bunt:
Automatic balls and strikes
New in 2025 - and what’s odd is that there’s no video of them! For example, here’s Carson Williams taking a ball to make it 2-2:
The next pitch is labeled “Carson Williams strikes out on automatic strike.” (and hilarious the ESPN play-by-play misreads the code and shows the pitch as “Automatic Ball” and then marks it a strikeout). But MLB video doesn’t show it.
Bad statcast data
This isn’t exactly an odd play, but sometimes the statcast data is wrong. In this Braves/Blue Jays game, Drew Lugbauer pinch hits for Sean Newcomb in the top of the 6th, and then stays in the game on a double switch to replace Andy Wilkins. From the play-by-play:
Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter Drew Lugbauer replaces Sean Newcomb.
...
<Bottom of 6th>
Drew Lugbauer remains in the game as the first baseman.
...
<Bottom of 7th>
Defensive Substitution: Trey Harris replaces first baseman Andy Wilkins, batting 7th, playing right field.
So it has Wilkins replaced in the bottom of the 7th, even though he was already replaced in the bottom of the 6th. And sure enough, on the pitch-level data in the bottom of the 6th, it has Wilkins at first, but in fact Lugbauer was there.