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MLB

Catcher makes MLB history by playing for Red Sox and Blue Jays in same game

Boston’s Danny Jansen took the field Monday in the resumption of a game that was rain-delayed in June, when he was still with Toronto.

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Danny Jansen, left, throws to second base after Daulton Varsho strikes out in a highly unusual pinch-hitting appearance. (Charles Krupa/AP)
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Boston’s Danny Jansen was behind the plate Monday for an at-bat originally begun by Toronto’s Danny Jansen. Yes, they are the same player, and yes, it was a highly unusual circumstance.

In fact, Jansen became the first major leaguer to play for both teams in the same game. That he caught the second and third strikes of the at-bat, after making the first strike himself two months earlier before the game went to a rain delay, added to the remarkable nature of the scene.

“I was surprised when I found out I was the first one to do it,” Jansen, who was traded from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox last month, said after Monday’s resumption of the game ended in a 4-1 Toronto win. “It’s cool. Leaving a stamp on the game is interesting. It’s strange. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have that.”

The history-making moment was set in motion when the game began on June 26. With one out in the top of the second inning at Boston’s Fenway Park, Jansen was batting for Toronto when he hit a foul ball for the first strike of his at-bat. At that point, falling rain intensified and a tarp was rolled onto the field as the game went into a delay.

It took until Monday for the game to be resumed, by which point Jansen had been dealt to the Red Sox shortly before July’s trade deadline. A platoon option for most of his seven-year MLB career, Jansen hadn’t appeared in all of Boston’s games after arriving there, but Manager Alex Cora did not leave him out of the lineup for the rain-delay resumption, which marked the first contest of a day-night doubleheader.

On Friday, Cora had said of Jansen, “He will play Game 1, by the way, for all the people who have been looking at history.”

After Monday’s game, Cora echoed Jansen in calling the historic at-bat “a very cool moment.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to happen again,” added the 48-year-old manager, who had a 14-year MLB playing career. “It has to be kind of like the perfect storm for that to happen — starting with the storm. And I’m glad that everybody enjoyed it.”

In place of Jansen on Monday, the Blue Jays sent Daulton Varsho to the plate as a pinch hitter. Because Jansen had accounted for only one strike against him, Varsho was credited with the strikeout. According to MLB’s rule book, if the at-bat had gone to a two-strike count before the game was delayed, Varsho’s eventual strikeout would have gone on Jansen’s ledger.

As fate would have it, Jansen got a turn at the plate in the bottom of the second, meaning he batted in both halves of the inning. He lined out to first in that at-bat but later singled to center — in front of Varsho, who had moved to the outfield after entering as a pinch hitter — giving Jansen one of just four hits Boston mustered in the game.

“Once the game started, just kind of locked in for the game and didn’t think about it much,” said Jansen. “Took a moment to enjoy it before the game.”

A 29-year-old catcher who until July had been a member of the Blue Jays’ organization since it made him a 16th-round draft pick in 2013, Jansen reached the majors five years later. He entered Monday with a .222 career batting average with 73 home runs, 219 RBI and a .732 OPS.

In a sign he was well aware of the history he made for and against the Blue Jays in one game, Jansen said he wore two jerseys during the contest, one of which he will keep. The other is bound for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which also requested the official scorecard.