Danny Jansen made baseball history in perhaps one of the most unusual ways - the 29-year-old catcher became the first player in MLB history to play for two teams in the same game .
The first game of Monday's double-header between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays was originally played on June 26. However, in the second inning of that game , the contest was called off because the rain had become too much for players and umpires to overcome.
As such, that game, which ended with Jansen - then with the Blue Jays - as the batter and facing an 0-1 count, was rescheduled to August 26, more than two months after the original game. Between the two dates, Jansen was traded to the Red Sox as Boston aimed to infuse their lineup with more power.
When the game resumed Monday, Jansen was behind the plate to catch Boston starter Nick Pivetta. In Jansen's place for Toronto was a pinch-hitter, Daulton Varsho, inheriting the 0-1 count his former teammate had before he was traded to the Red Sox.
Despite the moment, there were no other fireworks during the at-bat, with Varsho whiffing on a ball that was down and away. Ironically, Varsho did the one thing Jansen hoped he wouldn't do in this strange and historic situation, as he told reporters last month.
"I don't even know how this works," the 29-year-old said at the time, per MLB.com . "I've heard about it a couple times. That'd be funky. I'm down 0-1. I don't want to strike out."
Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters how he was questioned on Jansen's availability and the opportunity to make history. After receiving messages from reporters, Cora elected to play Jansen to make a strange bit of history come to fruition.
“Monday, [Jansen] will play Game 1 by the way, for all the people that have been looking at history,” he said, according to MLB . “I’ve been getting texts from Jayson Stark [of the Athletic] and [ESPN’s] Buster Olney, ‘Is he catching?’ Yeah he’s catching. Let’s make history.”
To make room for Jansen on the squad, catcher Reese McGuire was sent down to Triple-A in a corresponding move, who was the Red Sox's catcher during the June 26 matchup. In his first plate appearance, Jansen lined out to first in the 4-1 loss to Toronto.
After the game, Jansen explained what it meant to make history in one of the odds ways. “When I got traded, I didn’t really think of it, but I do remember having a tweet maybe sent to me earlier on,” he said after the game, per MLB.com .
“The last couple of weeks, it’s really picked up steam, just around the press and stuff like that. I think a couple of weeks ago I saw it was definitely a possibility. And when [Cora] announced I was catching this game, then it really [became real] and then I thought about it.
“Everybody keeps saying history is being made. It’s such a strange thing. I never would have imagined myself in this situation with it being history. I guess I would have assumed it would have happened before. That’s one of the first thoughts that went through my mind.”
In the end, Jansen does not mind too much that he's made history, but does think it's "cool" he did something no other player has done before and that it will be recognized in the Baseball Hall of Fame. “I haven’t spoken to them directly, but I think there may be something about getting some things authenticated, and I spoke to some authenticators about maybe sending something so that’s kind of been pretty cool,” he concluded.
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