Sports

Here's How You Can Score Twice in One MLB Game Without Facing a Single Pitch

By Stephen Douglas Sports Illustrated

Baseball is not a young sport. The game has been played in various forms and cultures dating back to the 18th Century and Major League Baseball has existed since 1903 and we have the box scores to prove it. According to Baseball Reference the first major league game took place more than 150 years ago so when something happens in a baseball game that has never happened? That's pretty interesting!

And that's exactly what happened on Sunday during the Reds-Twins game when Will Benson became the first player in history to score two or more runs in one game without facing a single pitch.

Wait, what? How? Why? Those are all legitimate questions you might be asking after hearing that piece of baseball trivia. So let's take a look at exactly what happened.

Cincinnati trailed Minnesota 3-1 as they headed into the ninth inning. Spencer Steer led off with a single, followed by another single from Tyler Stephenson. That's when Benson entered the game as a pinch runner. After the Twins recorded an out and walked Dane Myers, TJ Friedl doubled to clear the bases, scoring Benson in the process, as the Reds took a 4-3 lead.

That's all exciting, but totally normal stuff. So let's move to the 10th inning, after the Twins tied the game, where two modern rules made Benson's feat possible.

Elly De La Cruz started the inning on second base as the batter to make the last out of the previous inning. He scored on a fielding error when Eugenio Suárez hit a ball to left. Benson then came to the plate with one out and a runner on second, which left first base open. The Twins elected to put Benson on first. Maybe if De La Cruz hadn't already scored they would have thrown Benson a pitch, but they didn't so he was able to score four pitches later when Hinds doubled to left.

So there you have it. A pinch runner who is intentionally walked can score multiple runs without ever facing a single pitch. And this couldn't have happened before '17 because that's when teams could elect to put a guy on rather than go through the motions of throwing four pitchouts. Not to mention his walk may have only happened because of the automatic runner rule that was implemented in '20.

This of course means that it is possible for a player to be walked intentionally multiple times in a game and score multiple runs. In fact, it seems like the kind of thing Shohei Ohtani is destined to do at some point.

While Benson didn't face any pitches, he was credited with a plate appearance for the intentional walk, meaning he has to be one of the few players in history to score multiple runs in a game while only having a single plate appearance. Someone in the MLB research department please look that up and get back to us.

Benson, 27, has played his entire major league career with the Reds. This was the second intentional walk of his career. Last season, in a similar situation he was put on in the 10th inning of a 3-2 win over the Brewers. He also reached base the previous inning on an error while pinch hitting. He ended up scoring the run that sent the game to the 10th. And these are the types of things we will be able to look up in the early 3000's when some random player accomplishes something that hasn't happened since 2026.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Here's How You Can Score Twice in One MLB Game Without Facing a Single Pitch.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 1:27 PM.

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