I thought this might be fun in the offseason, the wildest full innings of all time, preference to more meaningful games but an especially ridiculous meaningless regular season inning can be nominated.
There are of course tons but the first that came to mind for me was the 7th inning in game 5 of the 2015 Rangers/Blue Jays ALDS in Toronto, the top of the inning had the go-ahead run scoring for TEX on a throw back to the mound that hit the batter's bat from behind and bounced away, which of course no one has seen before or after and so no one had any idea what to call. Then the TOR crowd went nuts when the call was eventually upheld and the run counted, as rowdy a MLB crowd as you will ever see and way out of control, throwing shit on the field and stopping the game for a while.
When they got to the bottom of the inning, the whole thing seemed to have somehow rattled TEX who booted ball after ball before Bautista put them out of their misery with one of the alltime best blast/bat flip combos. Out of context, maybe it could seem that Bautista overdid that but that was as surreal an inning as you will ever see, 53 minutes long, both teams fighting their hardest to each scratch across one more run to keep it tied at 3-3 and in a microsecond it was 6-3 and probably the series was over.
Wow, I forgot a lot of the people involved, plus after all that the benches cleared twice, after the Bautista HR and before the 8th, below is the Wikipedia entry, two paragraphs on one inning. I feel good about my nomination.
"The 53-minute seventh inning was laden with controversy. At the top of the inning, with Rougned Odor on third and two outs, Russell Martin was in the process of throwing the ball back to the mound after Aaron Sanchez delivered a pitch, but the ball hit Choo's bat and bounced toward third base. Odor observed this and ran to home to score the go-ahead run, though the play was initially ruled a dead ball by home-plate umpire Dale Scott and the run was voided. Rangers manager Jeff Banister came out to argue and after a discussion, the umpires awarded the run to Texas, citing rule 6.03a – that Choo was not intentionally interfering with the throw back to the pitcher. Since Choo was in the batter's box interference could not be called and the play was ruled a live ball. The game was delayed 18-minutes while angry home fans tossed beer cans and garbage on the field. During this time, a video review from the umpires was on confirming with a rules check, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons announced he was playing the game under protest.
The turning point in the game came during the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Rangers made three consecutive errors; a fielding error by Elvis Andrus, a throwing error by first baseman Mitch Moreland (that was thrown at Andrus), and a missed catch error, also by Andrus, loaded the bases with nobody out. Ben Revere proceeded to hit into a fielder's choice to first, with Moreland throwing to home, where pinch runner Dalton Pompey slid into the catcher Chris Gimenez to prevent the chance of a double play; after a Texas review, the play stood, and no interference was called. At that point the Rangers' sinker-baller Sam Dyson relieved Cole Hamels. Josh Donaldson hit a ball just over the glove of Rougned Odor. Odor recovered and threw the ball to second base for a force out but the tying run scored and left runners on first and third. The next batter, José Bautista, hit a three-run home run off Dyson to give the Blue Jays a 6–3 lead. He would flip his bat before running the bases, an action widely applauded by Blue Jays fans and several media outlets but considered unsportsmanlike by some observers.[28] The benches would clear afterward, when Edwin Encarnación threw up his hands to the fans in an attempt to discourage any more garbage being thrown on the field but Dyson interpreted that as Encarnación showboating. At the end of the inning, Dyson and Troy Tulowitzki got into an argument after Dyson touched Tulowitzki on the buttocks when the former was walking back to his dugout, and the benches cleared once again. There were no ejections or punches thrown in either bench-clearing incident."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UdsVO7HaJg
There are of course tons but the first that came to mind for me was the 7th inning in game 5 of the 2015 Rangers/Blue Jays ALDS in Toronto, the top of the inning had the go-ahead run scoring for TEX on a throw back to the mound that hit the batter's bat from behind and bounced away, which of course no one has seen before or after and so no one had any idea what to call. Then the TOR crowd went nuts when the call was eventually upheld and the run counted, as rowdy a MLB crowd as you will ever see and way out of control, throwing shit on the field and stopping the game for a while.
When they got to the bottom of the inning, the whole thing seemed to have somehow rattled TEX who booted ball after ball before Bautista put them out of their misery with one of the alltime best blast/bat flip combos. Out of context, maybe it could seem that Bautista overdid that but that was as surreal an inning as you will ever see, 53 minutes long, both teams fighting their hardest to each scratch across one more run to keep it tied at 3-3 and in a microsecond it was 6-3 and probably the series was over.
Wow, I forgot a lot of the people involved, plus after all that the benches cleared twice, after the Bautista HR and before the 8th, below is the Wikipedia entry, two paragraphs on one inning. I feel good about my nomination.
"The 53-minute seventh inning was laden with controversy. At the top of the inning, with Rougned Odor on third and two outs, Russell Martin was in the process of throwing the ball back to the mound after Aaron Sanchez delivered a pitch, but the ball hit Choo's bat and bounced toward third base. Odor observed this and ran to home to score the go-ahead run, though the play was initially ruled a dead ball by home-plate umpire Dale Scott and the run was voided. Rangers manager Jeff Banister came out to argue and after a discussion, the umpires awarded the run to Texas, citing rule 6.03a – that Choo was not intentionally interfering with the throw back to the pitcher. Since Choo was in the batter's box interference could not be called and the play was ruled a live ball. The game was delayed 18-minutes while angry home fans tossed beer cans and garbage on the field. During this time, a video review from the umpires was on confirming with a rules check, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons announced he was playing the game under protest.
The turning point in the game came during the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Rangers made three consecutive errors; a fielding error by Elvis Andrus, a throwing error by first baseman Mitch Moreland (that was thrown at Andrus), and a missed catch error, also by Andrus, loaded the bases with nobody out. Ben Revere proceeded to hit into a fielder's choice to first, with Moreland throwing to home, where pinch runner Dalton Pompey slid into the catcher Chris Gimenez to prevent the chance of a double play; after a Texas review, the play stood, and no interference was called. At that point the Rangers' sinker-baller Sam Dyson relieved Cole Hamels. Josh Donaldson hit a ball just over the glove of Rougned Odor. Odor recovered and threw the ball to second base for a force out but the tying run scored and left runners on first and third. The next batter, José Bautista, hit a three-run home run off Dyson to give the Blue Jays a 6–3 lead. He would flip his bat before running the bases, an action widely applauded by Blue Jays fans and several media outlets but considered unsportsmanlike by some observers.[28] The benches would clear afterward, when Edwin Encarnación threw up his hands to the fans in an attempt to discourage any more garbage being thrown on the field but Dyson interpreted that as Encarnación showboating. At the end of the inning, Dyson and Troy Tulowitzki got into an argument after Dyson touched Tulowitzki on the buttocks when the former was walking back to his dugout, and the benches cleared once again. There were no ejections or punches thrown in either bench-clearing incident."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UdsVO7HaJg