By JAYSON STARK The Athletic
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We. Are. Back.

You know, I noticed something nutty in my two weeks out of the country last month: There is Weirdness, and there is Wildness, and it keeps on coming whether I’m around to document it or not. What’s up with that anyway?

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So I apologize for this column taking a break for the past few weeks. And I appreciate all of you who checked in to make sure everything was OK. But now comes the fun part. The Weird and Wild column gets to present an offering that will make everything right …

It’s the Weird and Wild Best of the Month compendium! Starting in 3 … 2 … 1.

I used to think of myself as a guy who followed baseball as closely as anyone you’ve ever met. Then my plane landed last week, and I learned I’d apparently spent way too much time overloading on gelato and pasta, because …

There was this guy who had just struck out 13 hitters in a row in the big leagues … and I honestly had no idea what team he pitched for.

That guy was Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada. And here’s what he’d somehow done while I was gone:

May 23 — K’d the last five Reds he faced May 26 — K’d all five Yankees he faced* May 28 — Three more hitters, three more K’s against the Marlins

(*including Aaron Judge!)

So how Weird (and also Wild) was that? I can help with that.

13 strikeouts in a row? So who else has ever done that — struck out 13 hitters in a row? No one has ever done that. The only other pitcher in history with more than 10 is Phillies reliever José Alvarado, who made it to 11 straight strikeouts last season. But as astounding as that is, this is about to get better, because this was actually …

13 swinging strikeouts in a row? And that is a thing I’d never even heard of — for good reason, it turns out. According to Baseball Reference’s Katie Sharp, only one other pitcher in the BR play-by-play files had ever even racked up 10 swinging K’s in a row. That was Corbin Burnes, who did that all on the same day, in an Aug. 11, 2021, start against the Cubs.

Is 13 strikeouts a lot? Let’s go with a lot. Ever heard of Jordan Romano, closer for the Blue Jays? He’s struck out 13 hitters all season. Meanwhile, Estrada — whom the Padres claimed off waivers last November — just struck out 13 in a row. Baseball!

Have any Padres relievers in the past been known as strikeout kings? Hahaha, that’s definitely a trick question. Ever heard of Goose Gossage? Or Trevor Hoffman? Or Craig Kimbrel? Or Josh Hader? They’ve all done some spectacular relief-whiffing for the Padres. And the closest any of them came to this was seven in a row, by Hoffman, in April 2000. But a dude they claimed off waivers just struck out 13 in a row. Baseball!

But that’s not even the Weirdest or Wildest part! And why is that, you ask? Because how did Estrada’s streak finally end last Friday? When he was asked to intentionally walk the first hitter he “faced” in an appearance in Kansas City. Which means …

His streak ended because he failed to strike out a hitter he never threw a pitch to!

Baseball! It’s the best.

Remember who won the World Series MVP Award last fall? Sure you do. It was this guy.

Corey Seager. He had himself One of Those World Series, didn’t he? More homers (three) than singles (two), with all three of those homers basically crushing the Diamondbacks’ souls.

So guess what happened when the Rangers and D-Backs met last week for the first time since the World Series?

First game of that series — Seager homers. Second game of that series — Seager homers again.

Did that seem rare? It did to me. And I wasn’t even in the country when the first of those home runs landed.

So I ran that question past my friends at STATS Perform. Here’s the cool list they sent back — of every World Series MVP to homer in the next game they played against the team they beat in that World Series. (Obviously, this was a slightly different feat back in the day because interleague play didn’t become a thing until 1997.)

• Lew Burdette (1957 MVP) vs. Yankees, Game 2, 1958 WS

• Reggie Jackson (1977 MVP) vs. Dodgers, Game 1978 WS

• Darrell Porter (1982 MVP) vs. Brewers, April 14, 1986 • Pablo Sandoval (2012 MVP) vs. Tigers, Sept. 5, 2014 • Jeremy Peña (2022 MVP) vs Phillies, April 28, 2023 • Corey Seager (2023 MVP) vs. Diamondbacks, May 28, 2024

But now here comes the Weird and Wild part. The World Series is now 119 Fall Classics old. And from 1903 to 2023, no World Series MVP had ever homered in each of his first two games against that team he’d played in that World Series … until last year, when Jeremy Peña did it. In other words …

1903-2022 — That thing never happened 2023-24 — That thing has now happened two years in a row!