Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

Blue Jays lose to Red Sox on an extremely rare 9-3 putout

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated Sep 24, 2025 11:20 PM ET

The Toronto Blue Jays had some insult added to their injury at the end of Wednesday’s game.

Toronto lost on Wednesday to the division rival Boston Red Sox by a 7-1 final score at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ont. Though the game was already well out of reach by the end, the final out of the contest in the bottom of the ninth inning had Blue Jays collectively throwing up their arms in exasperation.

Batting against Red Sox reliever Payton Tolle with two outs and a runner on, Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk lined a base hit into right field … or at least what should have been a base hit. The ball was struck so hard that it arrived to right fielder Wilyer Abreu on a single quick hop. Abreu came up firing and managed to throw out Kirk at first base.

Here is the video.

Alejandro Kirk was thrown out at first from right field to end the game pic.twitter.com/Io66pnwf3T
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 25, 2025

That went down in the official scorecard as a 9-3 putout, which is an extremely rare sight in baseball on its own (much less to end a game). For one, the ball has to be absolutely smoked in order for it to get to the right fielder in time for him to have a play. For another, the batter has to be really (really) slow to get beaten to the bag from right.

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, the recipe for perfect storm was in place here, especially with the notoriously lead-footed Kirk. While he was an All-Star for Toronto this season, Kirk has the footspeed of a Galapagos giant tortoise. In his sixth career MLB season this year, Kirk had just managed to steal his first-ever big-league base last month (earning a loud ovation from the Blue Jays crowd as a result).

Nobody was cheering on Wednesday though after Kirk got a base hit taken away from him by his own inertia. 9-3 putouts are usually only ever seen at the college level, but if an MLB player was going to get victimized by one, it was probably going to be Kirk.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: