BOSTON – Under sunny skies, 112-year-old Fenway Park witnessed another piece of history Monday afternoon.
Danny Jansen was at bat for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Boston Red Sox on June 26, with the score at 0-1 and base one on, when the skies opened and the game was suspended due to severe weather.
Two months later, play resumed on Monday, but Jansen was now playing for the Red Sox. The Red Sox signed Jansen on July 27, creating the possibility that a player could play for both teams in the same game.
This possibility became a reality on Monday.
When Jansen came in to play catcher for the Red Sox, he settled behind the plate to take a swing at a game where he had started as a batter. (Boston’s original catcher in the game, Reese McGuire, had been designated for that position shortly after trading Jansen.)
With Jansen behind the plate, the Blue Jays brought in Daulton Varsho to take over Jansen’s original 0-1 plate appearance. Varsho struck out, fouled off Nick Pivetta’s first pitch and swung through the second. (If the Count was two strikesit would have been credited to Jansen’s line, but went to Varsho instead.) After the strikeout, the runner on first base ran to second base and Jansen’s throw landed in center. But Will Wagner followed with a strikeout to end the inning.
“At first I didn’t really think about it much,” Jansen said before the game about the possibility of playing for both teams. “But now we’re here and it’s going to be a cool moment, especially when it’s all said and done, to look back and it’s such a weird thing that happens, but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do it and it’s going to be cool.”
Pinch-hitting for Danny Jansen: Daulton Varsho
Now in cinemas: Danny Jansen
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/PXnVZvbpml
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) 26 August 2024
The Blue Jays won the game, which lasted two months, 4-1. Toronto broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a solo home run by George Springer. The Blue Jays scored three more runs in the eighth inning on doubles by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Addison Barger. Jarren Duran’s solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was the Red Sox’s only run. Jansen finished the game 1 for 4, completing all four of his official at-bats as a member of the Red Sox.
Before the game, the Red Sox released their revised lineup. Jansen was inserted into the seventh and Triston Casas into the eighth, where McGuire had batted in the original lineup. Pivetta, normally a starter, took over Kutter Crawford’s position on the mound in what will officially be considered a relief appearance.
Game 1, Red Sox vs. Blue Jays: Duran CF, Hamilton 2B, Abreu RF, Devers 3B, Refsnyder LF, Yoshida DH, Jansen C, Casas 1B, Rafaela SS, Pivetta P
– Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) 26 August 2024
The Blue Jays had to replace five players from the original roster who are no longer available, including traded players and shortstop Bo Bichette, who is on the IL.
The resumption of play brings with it a number of other complications beyond Jansen’s dual role.
For example, Leo Jiménez and Wagner both made their MLB debuts after June 26, but because they still appeared in the suspended game that will be recorded in the record books as having taken place on June 26, they already appeared in a game before being promoted to the Major Leagues.
“We’re driving a DeLorean,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider recently joked, referring to the car best known for its time-traveling ride in the movie “Back to the Future.”
This has happened before. The athletics Jayson Stark recently wrote that Juan Soto made his debut in 2018 before he even debuted. “He came to the Major Leagues on May 20, to the Washington Nationals. But he later played in a game that had been suspended on May 15 – and scored a home run. That is, he debuted before he debuted and also hit a home run before his first home run,” Stark wrote.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays benched Joey Loperfido late to use him as a defensive replacement, meaning he was technically in two places at once. Still with the Houston Astros on June 26, the outfielder went 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch in a 7-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. Since he played left field for the final two innings, on paper he will go down in history as a player with two games played on the same day.
The Red Sox improved their record this season to 67-63, while the Blue Jays are 64-68.
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(Photo: G Fiume/Getty Images)
