Walbert Urena's night on the mound was one for the books, and not in the way a pitcher hopes. The Los Angeles Angels' right-handed reliever found himself in a statistical oddity against the Houston Astros, giving up six runs-all unearned.
While the box score might suggest a clean outing in terms of earned runs, the reality was far from it. Urena's performance was a rare sight in baseball. The last time a pitcher had such an outing was in 2021, and it’s been even longer since a reliever or an Angels pitcher faced a similar scenario.
Urena stepped onto the mound in the fifth inning, and things took a turn when the second batter reached base due to an error. Though this didn’t immediately impact Urena’s stats, the sixth inning told a different story.
Kicking off the inning with a groundout, Urena then made a throwing error, allowing Jake Meyers to reach base. This error set the stage for a cascade of unearned runs.
A single by Joey Loperfido followed, and after Urena struck out Jose Altuve, it seemed he might escape unscathed. But with the error in play, the inning was far from over.
A wild pitch let Meyers score, and after intentionally walking Yordan Alvarez and walking Isaac Paredes, Carlos Correa hit a two-run single, compounded by a throwing error from catcher Logan O'Hoppe. Christian Walker added an RBI single, and when Joey Lucchesi took over pitching duties, he allowed Urena’s remaining runners to cross home plate.
Urena's final line read: 1.0 inning, four hits, two walks, six runs-all unearned-and one strikeout. The quirk here is that the runs were unearned due to Urena's own error, highlighting an unusual twist in scoring that made for a tough night on the mound.