Every once in a while, you stumble across a baseball statistic that sounds completely made up. I came across one of those recently, and the list of names involved immediately caught my attention.

There are only four players in MLB history who have both recorded a pitching win during their career and hit at least 50 home runs in a season: Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, Jimmie Foxx and…Chris Davis.

Yes, that Chris Davis.

At first glance, three of those names make at least some sense. Ruth was one of baseball’s great pitchers before becoming its first legendary home run hitter. Ohtani has essentially built his entire career around making absurd pitching-hitting combinations seem normal. Foxx is a little more obscure, but the Hall of Fame slugger who hit 58 home runs in 1932 also made a handful of pitching appearances late in his career.

Then there’s Davis, who belongs on the list because of one of the strangest games in recent baseball history.

Davis eventually joined the 50-homer club when he blasted 53 home runs for Baltimore in 2013, leading the majors and setting what was then the Orioles’ single-season franchise record. But his pitching victory came a year earlier, and it wasn’t the product of some meaningless ninth inning of a blowout.

No, Davis earned his pitching win at Fenway Park during a 17-inning game in which he started as Baltimore’s designated hitter, went 0-for-8, struck out five times and somehow finished the afternoon as the winning pitcher.

Baseball is a ridiculous sport sometimes.

A Game That Refused to End

On May 6, 2012, the Orioles entered Fenway Park looking to complete a three-game sweep of the Red Sox. Baltimore had already needed 13 innings to win the series opener two days earlier, meaning both bullpens had been worked extensively before Sunday’s finale even began. That became rather important once the game stretched well beyond the normal nine innings.

The afternoon didn’t exactly begin as a pitching duel. Baltimore jumped on Boston starter Clay Buchholz for five runs over the first three innings, including a three-run homer from J.J. Hardy. The Red Sox responded, eventually tying the game at 5 on Will Middlebrooks’ grand slam in the fifth. The teams traded runs again later, with Boston tying the game at 6 in the eighth on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia sacrifice fly.

Then everybody stopped scoring.

The ninth came and went. So did the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. By that point, what had begun as a Sunday afternoon baseball game had turned into a battle of attrition. Baltimore had used eight pitchers, while Boston had similarly burned through nearly its entire bullpen.

Eventually, Orioles manager Buck Showalter looked down his bench and realized he had reached the well, somebody has to pitch portion of the evening.

That somebody was Chris Davis.

There was just one problem: Davis was having one of the worst offensive games imaginable.

When Going 0-for-8 Somehow Earns You a Win

Davis had started the game as Baltimore’s designated hitter and entered the bottom of the 16th inning 0-for-7 with five strikeouts and a double play. He had struck out in each of his first five plate appearances and hadn’t pitched competitively since junior college in 2006. He had never thrown a professional inning in either the minors or majors.

At that point, however, what was there to lose?

Davis later joked that he was excited to try something different because hitting clearly wasn’t working. Showalter sent him to the bullpen to warm up, and the Orioles’ designated hitter suddenly became their ninth pitcher of the afternoon.

The funny thing is that Davis didn’t simply lob the baseball toward home plate and hope for the best. His first pitch was an 89-mph two-seam fastball for a strike. He followed it with a 90-mph fastball and eventually struck out Saltalamacchia on an 83-mph changeup.

Chris Davis apparently had some stuff.

Things did get considerably more interesting later in the inning. Marlon Byrd reached on an error before Mike Aviles doubled into center field. Byrd attempted to score from first, but Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy executed the relay to Matt Wieters, who survived a collision at home plate and recorded the final out. Instead of Boston walking off against Baltimore’s first baseman-turned-emergency pitcher, Davis escaped the inning without allowing a run.

That alone would have made for a great story.

Then Boston ran out of pitchers too.

Chris Davis vs. Darnell McDonald: The Pitching Matchup Everyone Expected

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine turned to outfielder Darnell McDonald for the top of the 17th inning. Suddenly, a game between the Orioles and Red Sox at Fenway Park had Chris Davis pitching for one team and Darnell McDonald pitching for the other.

It was the first Major League game since 1925 in which both teams used a position player on the mound. The previous occurrence featured Ty Cobb and George Sisler, because of course baseball history somehow manages to make these stories even weirder.

McDonald couldn’t match Davis’ success.

After Wilson Betemit walked and was caught stealing, Hardy doubled and Nick Markakis walked. That brought Adam Jones to the plate with two runners aboard, and Jones crushed an 83-mph offering from McDonald for a three-run homer.

After 16 innings of madness, Baltimore suddenly led 9-6.

There was only one thing left to do: send Chris Davis back out there and let him finish it.

Davis Had to Earn This One

Even with a three-run cushion, the bottom of the 17th wasn’t exactly comfortable. Ryan Sweeney led off with a single and Dustin Pedroia walked, putting two runners aboard with nobody out. Now Davis had to face Adrian Gonzalez, one of the better hitters in baseball at the time, with an actual game hanging in the balance.

Remember, this wasn’t a position player pitching the ninth inning of a 14-2 blowout. Davis was trying to protect a three-run lead in the 17th inning at Fenway Park with two runners aboard.

He struck Gonzalez out on three pitches.

Then came one of the most perfect endings imaginable. McDonald, Boston’s emergency pitcher, stepped to the plate against Davis, Baltimore’s emergency pitcher. Davis induced him to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

Game over.

The winning pitcher: Chris Davis.

The losing pitcher: Darnell McDonald.

Six hours and seven minutes after the first pitch, Baltimore had beaten Boston 9-6 in 17 innings. The teams used 18 pitchers and combined to throw 570 pitches. Davis threw two scoreless innings, allowed two hits and a walk, struck out two and earned the victory.

Oh, and because baseball wasn’t done being weird, Davis still had another plate appearance during all of this and finished 0-for-8. He became the first player in 107 years to go 0-for-8 at the plate and still earn the pitching victory.

That’s a box score you frame.

One Bizarre Afternoon Created an Even Stranger Baseball Stat

The 2012 Orioles would go on to become one of baseball’s best stories, winning 93 games and snapping a 14-year playoff drought. Davis was still a year away from his offensive explosion, but he was already developing into an important part of Baltimore’s lineup.

Then came 2013.

Davis erupted for 53 home runs, 42 doubles and 138 RBIs, finishing third in American League MVP voting and establishing himself as one of the most feared power hitters in baseball. That season put him into the exclusive 50-home run club. His bizarre afternoon at Fenway a year earlier put him into an even stranger one.

That’s how Chris Davis wound up sharing a statistical category with Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani and Jimmie Foxx.

The other names on the list are legendary hitters with legitimate pitching backgrounds. Davis got there because Buck Showalter ran out of relievers during a six-hour game in Boston and essentially said, Chris, you’re up.

And somehow he won.

That’s why I love stumbling across statistics like this. Baseball has been played professionally for well over a century, producing an almost endless collection of numbers, records and historical oddities. Every once in a while, you’ll find a list where one name looks completely out of place. Usually, there’s a great story explaining why.

In this case, that story involves 17 innings, 570 pitches, two position players pitching against each other, an Adam Jones home run, an 0-for-8 designated hitter and Chris Davis striking out Adrian Gonzalez with the game on the line.

Babe Ruth. Shohei Ohtani. Jimmie Foxx. Chris Davis.

One of these things is not like the others.

And that’s exactly what makes it such a great baseball stat.