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Why has Tijjani Reijnders not worked at Manchester City and is he part of a wider trend?

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“It’s a bit difficult to convince players when they are already convinced,” Enzo Maresca said on Friday of Tijjani Reijnders’ prospective move to Al Qadsiah, only a year after joining Manchester City. “You need to change their thoughts, that is not always easy.”

Maresca had revealed earlier in pre-season that James Trafford, who has signed for Leeds United, and Omar Marmoush, who could yet leave the club, had gone into the summer having already decided to leave the club, due to frustrations from the previous season.

“Tijjani’s situation is like James Trafford’s situation, some more players, but I think when the club, the player, the manager, they all think the same way, that probably the best decision for a player is to go, you have to go.”

So how did it get to this? One of the key signings of last summer’s much-needed refresh is already on the way out, and as Maresca suggests with Marmoush, who signed 18 months ago, there are similar cases.

There is plenty to like about Reijnders’ game — he arrived at City as Serie A’s player of the season, with his ability to carry the ball, dictate the game and score goals marking him out as somebody who could make a real impact on any team.

City badly needed energy in midfield after an often disastrous 2024-25 season, during which they won just 11 of 35 games between October and March, and with Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan leaving, Reijnders appeared to provide exactly the energy and creativity that would be needed.

City have prioritised players who can beat a man with a dribble in the past few years, and Reijnders ticked that box, too. The idea with several of their signings last summer was to bring in players with the game-changing traits that would be needed in the Premier League, and that any weaknesses could be worked on.

There were always some weaknesses with Reijnders, however, and those have proven to be relevant. It was evident even in his fine season in Italy that he offers very little defensively, not having the nous to spot where a second ball might drop, let alone challenge for it successfully.

His 15 goals in all competitions the year before last represented by far his best goalscoring season – in fact, it was the only season in which he scored more than seven (that was in 2022-23, where his tally was boosted by three goals in Conference League qualifying). Take goals out of his game, coupled with his lack of defensive contribution, and you get a far less impressive player. He is also 28, suggesting he should have had a catalogue of impressive seasons behind him before he made the move.

What were football transfers like before the transfer window?

Tifo Football

But another issue may have been that he did not have an obvious place in the City squad to show his full range of abilities. Pep Guardiola wanted to harness Reijnders’ goalscoring, playing him high up the pitch in the areas around Erling Haaland, in a similar way to how Gundogan would sniff out opportunities in the penalty area.

“We knew he’s a special player arriving in the box,” Guardiola said last summer. “People in Italy know him perfectly. He can play as a holding midfielder but loves to arrive to the box to help strikers like Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush.”

Reijnders did sometimes “arrive” in the box — popping up on the edge of the area to meet a pull-back — but when teams were sat deep against City, he was usually permanently stationed in the front line, which did not seem to get the best out of him.

After a famously sparkling Premier League debut at Wolverhampton Wanderers, he increasingly struggled to replicate the creative spark and eye for goal that was shown at Molineux, but was regularly picked in the starting XI for months at a time when Guardiola stuck with the same line-up for weeks on end.

Strangely, after he enjoyed a purple patch in December and the start of January, in which he scored four in seven league games — a run that suggested he was finding his feet — he then suddenly dropped out of the team.

Tijjani Reijnders did not provide the attacking output Manchester City had hoped for (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Sources around Guardiola’s coaching setup said he was not played in the deeper role, the one that seemed to suit him so well in Italy, because they simply did not need him to do that job due to having Bernardo Silva and Rodri, particularly after the Spaniard returned from injury in January.

Between the start of February and the end of the season, he did not get off the bench in nine of City’s 14 league matches, and only started two. Sources close to the Netherlands international, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, indicate that he felt there was little faith shown in him, and had started to consider a move away, even though he and his wife had settled well in Manchester and made friends in the squad.

“They all work every day, they all do sessions every day and at the end of the week they all want to play a game,” Maresca added on Friday, about players, like Reijnders, who are seeking a move away. “When they don’t play, they struggle to understand or they struggle to see the reason why and I can understand that after one season some of them would like to play a little bit more. It’s a normal situation.”

There is likely to be considerable upheaval in the City midfield this summer, with Barcelona pushing to sign Rodri, and both Ayyoub Bouaddi and Enzo Fernandez potentially arriving at the Etihad Stadium, after Elliot Anderson signed during the World Cup.

Reijnders may have found the opportunity to play deeper had he stuck around, which may not have fixed his issues out of possession, but may have given him more opportunities to show off his other skills.

“The way he was playing in pre-season games, I was quite happy with his performance overall,” Maresca says. “Because I know Tiji from Italy, from Milan when he was there, I know him quite well, I know that he was probably playing in a different position; he likes to play a little bit more deep than higher on the pitch, but again in pre-season he was good, now we’ll see what happens and we’ll decide.”

Another issue is that several of City’s recent arrivals are keen to move on, raising questions about their suitability to the club in the first place.

Marmoush also looks short of the required standard, although it is admittedly difficult to be on the bench for weeks on end and only play when Haaland is rested or unavailable. Rayan Ait-Nouri has also admitted that he was “not very happy” at times last season, but is happy to stay and work with Maresca.

Nico Gonzalez is another to have been repeatedly overlooked last season but he has said he is content to be on the bench as long as the team thrives.

Since City started their rebuild in January 2025, they have signed Marmoush, Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Rayan Cherki, Reijnders, Ait-Nouri, Trafford, Marcus Bettinelli and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Khusanov and Cherki look very promising and Donnarumma brings certain much-needed traits, though he struggles with others. Reis has been on loan but is highly rated behind the scenes and Bettinelli is a third-choice keeper, but Trafford has moved on, Marmoush and Reijnders are set to go, Ait-Nouri is looking for a breakout season and Gonzalez is behind Mateo Kovacic in Maresca’s pecking order.

It means the final weeks of this transfer window will be crucial for City, and perhaps for director of football Hugo Viana, who has overseen many of the deals during the past 18 months, since replacing Txiki Begiristain.

Reijnders seemed to tick a lot of boxes for City but was ultimately deemed unsuited to what they needed, and has decided to cut his losses despite the change of manager representing the potential for a fresh start.

The move to Al Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia means we may never know how suitable Reijnders is to the Premier League, or top-level football generally, and it is hard to judge him fully given he is leaving City after just one season. But there were concerns from the outset and they have ultimately contributed to a failed move.

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'She knows how to deliver' – Johnson-Thompson's 'huge' high jump

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August 14, 2026

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Two-time world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson gets a third-time clearance at 1.83m in the heptathlon high jump at the European Athletics Championships.

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Enzo Fernadez: Chelsea set deadline for Man City for offers for Argentine

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17 minutes ago

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August 14, 2026

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City and Chelsea are already not on great terms after the circumstances around Maresca’s exit from Chelsea and move to City.

He was frequently butting heads with the Blues’ owners in his 18 months in charge and on 1 January left the club.

They were fifth when he left and ended up 10th – with Xabi Alonso having already replaced Maresca’s replacement Liam Rosenior this summer.

At the time Maresca’s exit was referred to as mutual but he has since said he resigned – and admits it “opened a path” for him to move to City.

It was always widely reported he was the frontrunner to replace Guardiola whenever the Catalan left City, having been his assistant before.

And sure enough at the end of the season he did join City, who had to pay Chelsea a huge compensation figure, even though he was no longer their manager.

Chelsea reporter Kinsella explained: “There is no doubt that, because of Maresca, there is bad blood between Chelsea and Manchester City and losing Fernandez to the Sky Blues would add another chapter to the story.

“Maresca’s mid-season exit was disruptive and unsettled players in the squad, including Fernandez himself, and led to a lengthy legal dispute that ultimately saw Chelsea receive £17.2m in compensation.

“The Italian had twice attracted interest from City before walking out on Chelsa. Ultimately, Maresca got his move but was also forced to apologise on Instagram and pay an undisclosed sum to Chelsea.”

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Weird & Wild: Trades, ejections, new rules, and the Strange But True Red Sox

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August 14, 2026

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A manager got ejected during a rain “delay.” … A hitter, catcher and umpire all “challenged” the same pitch. (Or did they?) … Two batting champs went 0-for-6 for the same team, in the same game. … And the Red Sox seemed determined to fill up about 17 Weird and Wild columns every time they took the field.

So here comes our latest, greatest recap of Weirdness and Wildness, starting with a screening of the …

Deadline Poets Society

You might think the trade deadline doesn’t fit the usual Weird and Wild motif. If you do, you’re just not paying enough attention.

The Angels … traded for two prospects named (what else) Angel. That would be Angel Arredondo and Angel Rivero. And here you thought Mike Trout was Mr. Angel.

The Padres … already employed one of the two big leaguers in the modern era named France (Ty). They then gobbled up the other (J.P.) after the Astros jettisoned him. Vive la France!

The Phillies … already had one multi-time batting champ in their lineup (Trea Turner). They then traded for another (Luis Arraez).

That puts them in the esteemed company as only two other teams in the free-agent era (1976-present) have made a trade like that in midseason: The 1986 Reds had Dave Parker and traded for their next player-manager, Pete Rose. … And the 1979 Pirates also had Parker on the premises, then traded for Bill Madlock.

Andrew Friedman on how the Tarik Skubal trade came together

Jayson Stark

The Dodgers … already had one two-time Cy Young Award winner on the payroll (Blake Snell). It’s possible you heard that they just traded for another (Tarik Skubal). They, too, are in rare territory, and it would be rarer if it wasn’t for … um, themselves.

Only two previous teams in the free-agent era had ever dealt for a multi-time Cy Young winner in midseason when they already had one in stock.

One was the 2023 Rangers. They had Jacob deGrom drawing a paycheck, then traded for Max Scherzer. … But speaking of Scherzer, now all these worlds are about to collide.

In 2021, these same Dodgers were the pioneers of this load-up-on-Cys strategy. They were already the happy home of Clayton Kershaw, but they decided that it might be tough to eke by with just one multi-time Cy Young winner. So they traded for … everyone’s favorite hired gun, Scherzer. And that’s it for this list, except for one little …

Asterisk alert! The 1986 White Sox had Tom Seaver on their roster, then added Steve Carlton to their collection of Cy Youngs. But the Phillies had just released Carlton, so no trades were necessary. Is that the same thing as Skubal/Snell, deGrom/Scherzer or Scherzer/Kershaw? Sorry. That’s a definite no!

The Rays … always seem to enjoy confusing the outside world with the challenge of trying to identify their mysterious players. So one more time at this deadline, they set out to do that yet again.

They already had a Taylor Walls on the roster and a Tyler Wall running their clubhouse operations. So (of course) they then made a strategic trade with the Orioles for reliever Tyler Wells. But that left one momentous question: How did they let Taylor Ward get away? (Hat tip: the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin.)

The “Red” Sox … have officially become one of the most colorful teams in sports. They already had Sonny “Gray” on the premises, then traded for Eli “White.” But they forgot to call up pitching prospect Dylan “Brown” for their series against the “Blue” Jays. And that’s just plain color-blind.

The Astros … must have seen Daulton Varsho hanging out in their ballpark when the Blue Jays were in town on deadline day — so they traded for him. Varsho then walked across the field to join his new team, and got $1,750 in moving expenses to hike approximately 200 yards. (The collective bargaining agreement says: We don’t care where you were when you got dealt. Pay up!)

By my calculations, that works out to about $15,000 per mile. Which is great expense money if you can get it. (All right, all right. I’ll concede that in real life, he does have to move his stuff from Toronto to Houston, which he probably won’t do by asking a couple of buddies to help him pack up his place and cram everything into the back seat of their 2011 Buick.)

Oh, and one more thing … The voice of Sunday Night Baseball on NBC, Jason Benetti, had another important question: Who’s paying for Varsho’s hotel room?

Good question. Varsho did travel to Houston with the Blue Jays, who booked his hotel. And we’re pretty sure he didn’t change rooms after switching teams. So who’s on the hook for those last two nights? Hmmm.

I asked a longtime traveling secretary that question. He guessed the Jays would probably suck that one up, since the whole stay is direct-billed. But it was also possible they’d bill the Astros for those extra nights, he said, even though “I wouldn’t have.”

So does the mystery of that hotel tab hover over the aftermath of this trading deadline just as heavily as Freddy Peralta’s ERA? Maybe not at MLB Trade Rumors — but it does in the Weird and Wild column!

Necessity is the mother of ejection

Since you’re probably reading this column on your phone, while navigating your way through cyberspace and scrolling your Instagram feed, this might not be the perfect time to complain about technology.

But do you really think that would stop us?

So what are we grumbling about today? We miss ejections. That’s all.

Baseball was so much fun when Lou Piniella was punting bases into the outfield and Earl Weaver was stomping around, screaming at umpires with his cap flipped backwards. Then technology — and those darned robot umps — had to come along and ruin everything.

According to our friends at closecallsports.com, ejections are down, from 122 (through Aug. 11 of last year) to 91 (through the same date this year). But mostly, it’s ball/strike ejections that have been devoured by those Automated Ball-Strike system gizmos.

BALL/STRIKE EJECTIONS*

2025 — 77
2026 — 10

(*through Aug. 11)

Wow. So all of that would make us very sad … except for one recent development:

The good old-fashioned innovative ejection has made a triumphant comeback lately. Here are our three favorite ejections this month:

Third prize: The Closeout Sale — It seems hard for a pitcher to get himself ejected from a game he isn’t even pitching in — before either team throws a pitch. But Chris Sale is creative like that.

On Sunday, the Braves’ ace was still frazzled over getting called for an over-the-top run-scoring balk the day before, in a game in which he actually was pitching. So before the action began the next day, he expressed some pregame thoughts. His favorite umpires didn’t enjoy those thoughts. And one wave of the thumb later, he had a lovely afternoon ahead of him in the delightfully air-conditioned clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.

Second prize: Rain Man — Bet you can’t name the major-league leader in ejections. No, it’s not Aaron Boone. No, not Ollie Marmol, either. No, not even David Bell. (Yeah, he’s still busy not managing. Just checking to make sure you’re paying attention.) It’s … percussion roll, please … Pirates manager Don Kelly, with six — and that’s two more than anyone else in MLB.

In his first full season as the Pirates’ fearless leader, Kelly has fought for truth, justice and french fries jammed into the middle of sandwiches. And apparently, he has fought extra doggedly lately because he has fired up three big ejections just in the last two weeks, to pull away from the pack.

Kelly’s totals include three ejections disputing checked swings, one on a replay review that went wrong and one on an unrecognized ABS challenge you’ll hear about later. But his most creative ejection of the year happened Aug. 2 in Cincinnati, when he got tossed during a rain delay. Or, at least, a rain intermission.

Technically, we can’t use the word, delay, because the game was never officially stopped. But why was the grounds crew allowed to spend 25 minutes “fixing” the waterlogged infield while rain kept falling and the tarp never budged? That’s what the manager who got ejected wanted to know!

First prize: From The Mountains to the Prairies … to the Clubhouse — You have to admire a man who is so respectful of the dulcet strains of “God Bless America” that he interrupts his ejection tirade to let the music play. So here’s to Rangers manager Skip Schumaker.

His trouble started in an Aug. 2 game in Houston when the Rangers burned their two ABS challenges early. But the Weird and Wildness really picked up when plate ump Todd Tichenor called a dubious inning-ending third strike on Nick Allen in the top of the seventh. And don’t you hate when that happens to a team with no challenges?

So between innings, Schumaker’s little what-the-heck, Todd chat with the ump was just heating up when … they heard That Song — and hit the pause button to salute our fair country.

They then picked up where they left off — and you know how that went. The good news was: The flag kept waving. The bad news was: Schumaker did not keep managing … because that’s how it works when the manager gets gonged. He still got fined, but America will never forget him.

“I’m a true patriot,” Schumaker told our Weird and Wild ejection inquisitors.

They said there would be no math

We’re going to do you a favor. We are not going to use up valuable space in this column to explain how the Blue Jays and Red Sox spent 17 minutes of their evening Monday trying to figure out what the Fourth Out Rule was.

This site has been there, done that and even attempted to explain that.

But when you’re writing a Weird and Wild World column, how could you not love a rule based on a thing that is literally not possible?

Quick quiz: How many outs are there in an inning?

Quick answer: Three – in every darned one of them.

Your honor, your witness!

So if there’s somehow going to continue to be a Fourth Out Rule, here are some other rules the Weird and Wild column would like to see:

The five-run homer rule. … The quadruple-play rule. … The 1-2-3-4 strikes-you’re-out rule. … The 60-feet, 7-inches rule. … The three-bases-for-the-price-of-two Amazon Prime special extra-base hit rule.

And I could easily keep going. But my Starkville co-host, longtime creative thinker Doug Glanville, says I’m missing the two greatest rule changes that the Fourth Out Rule could possibly inspire:

The Triple ABS Challenge Rule

“In the event that the pitcher, the batter and the catcher all challenge the same pitch,” Glanville proposed, “the umpire chooses the infielder of his choice to decide whether to challenge or not.”

The Shohei Ohtani is Two People Rule

“Shohei is a pitcher. Shohei is also a batter,” Glanville explained, in that observant way of his. “As it pertains to collective bargaining, he will receive two per diems, two hotel rooms and two free lattes at the lobby Starbucks.”

Make it happen, MLB. Those all are just as logical as the Fourth Out Rule.

Cashing in your miles

You know where maturity is clearly overrated? In Washington, of course. Oh, wait. I don’t mean that how you might think. I’m just talking about the Nationals — who have had only one man over the age of 30 (or even 29) make it into the batter’s box with a bat all season.

And shockingly, it’s this guy.

That was the artist formerly known as Miles Mikolas, pitcher turned emergency extra-inning pinch hitter, in a very wild (and very weird) 11-inning game in Philadelphia on Aug. 5.

He laid down a squeeze bunt, drove in a run, made it to first base and later came around to score. Unfortunately, that didn’t keep him from getting lopped off the Nationals’ roster a week later. But if you didn’t think that orbit of the bases was going to make it into Weird and Wild, you must have stumbled into this column thinking you were clicking on Wirecutter.

Did you know that … since the designated hitter rule rocked our world 54 seasons ago, Mikolas was only the third “true”* relief pitcher who has figured out a way to rack up both an RBI and a run scored in a game played with a DH? That’s a true fact (which are still the best kind of facts).

(*true = not a two-way player)

Here’s the whole group:

Miles Mikolas, Nats — Aug. 5 (11th-inning squeeze bunt vs. Phillies)

Ryne Nelson, D-Backs — March 30, 2025 (RBI pinch single in ninth vs. Cubs)

John Wetteland, Rangers* — Aug. 16, 1997 (RBI double in 10th vs. Yankees)

Mike Jeffcoat, Rangers* — Aug. 20, 1991 (RBI double in ninth vs. Brewers)

(*did this in a game he pitched in)
(Source: Baseball Reference/Stathead)

Great moments in ABS-ing

The robot ump era is now nearly 9,000 challenges old. Have you stopped paying attention yet? Good news. The Weird and Wild column hasn’t. So check out these three classic slices of ABS challenge history.

Third prize: Did William Contreras challenge a strike by his own pitcher? This Aug. 4 tap of the head from the Brewers catcher created quite the brouhaha — and even led to the ejection of Pirates manager/ejection king Don Kelly, who was pretty sure he saw what he saw. Yes, there was a late-breaking strike call that got everyone confused. But why would that stop it from making our list?

Second prize: The old triple challenge? Did the hitter, catcher and umpire all challenge this pitch, in this Aug. 3 Padres-Diamondbacks game? Either that or their heads all itched.

First prize: Tap, tap and drive home safely? Aug. 3 was kind of a busy day in this sport. So amid the trade deadline frenzy, you might have missed this. But you know who didn’t? Our eagle-eyed friend and Athletic colleague, Tyler Kepner.

First, he watched a Phillies-Nationals game end on a Garrett Stubbs challenge that turned into strike three. A few minutes later, a Pirates-Brewers game ended exactly the same way, thanks to a cagy Henry Davis challenge.

And about 12 seconds after that, this text from Tyler shook my phone: Have we ever had a day when two games ended on an ABS challenge? The correct answer, courtesy of Statcast king Jason Bernard is … no, we had not — but we have now!

Stuff I can’t believe happened

Did all of this really unfold on a baseball diamond near you? Not sure how … but it did!

The Cardinals blew a six-run lead — and still won by six! That actually happened in their wild 13-7 win at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 3. Does it seem hard to blow a six-run lead and win that same game by six runs (or more), especially in the Bronx? It should. According to Baseball Reference’s Katie Sharp, the Cardinals became the first team to do that in any version of Yankee Stadium.

Kyle Harrison struck out eight in a row — and then hit the exit ramp! Want to guess how the Brewers’ “other” whiff machine made history in this Aug. 5 start against the Pirates? He became the first pitcher to strike out eight hitters in a row — and then get taken out of the game (with cramping).

All the other pitchers in history who finished their day’s work by punching out that many hitters in a row left for a different reason — because the game was conveniently over.

Lazaro Estrada hit the win/loss/save trifecta! Here’s how the Blue Jays reliever’s visit to Philadelphia went last weekend:

Friday — first career win … Saturday — first career save … Sunday — first career loss.

I thought to myself: I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. So I ran that question past my friends from STATS Perform. Turns out it was the 20th instance of a pitcher hitting that W/L/SV trifecta in a three-game series. It’s a fun list that swoops in names ranging from Sparky Lyle to Jesse Orosco to Curt Schilling.

But how many other pitchers collected the first win, loss and save of their careers in the same three-game series? Once again, zero is a stupendous guess.

A five-inning save … in a shutout? Here’s one more thing I was pretty sure I’d never seen: A five-inning save … to finish off a shutout? Germán Márquez performed that magic trick in the Padres’ 7-0 blanking of the Giants on July 31. The Padres went with an opener, so that five-inning save was in order!

Turns out that had happened … in one other shutout since the dawn of the modern save rule in 1969. And it was way back in … 2025? The five-inning save artist that day was Alan Rangel, in a 13-0 Phillies win in Atlanta that got all scrambled by a two-hour rain delay. Love those five-inning “saves”!

Brayden Taylor played for and against the Marlins “on the same day?” Until last week, Taylor was an infield prospect in the Rays’ system. Then he got traded to the Marlins in the Liam Hicks deal. We’re glad he did because …

On Aug. 4, he played in a Triple-A game for the Marlins’ affiliate in Jacksonville. But also that day, he showed up in the box score of a suspended July game playing against the Marlins’ Double-A team in Pensacola, Fla. Suspended baseball animation. It’s the best.

Matt Olson chased the ghost of Gehrig in the Bronx? On Sunday, Braves first baseman Matt Olson stretched his iron man streak to an incredible 900 games in a row. I don’t know how you celebrate stuff like that, but he marked the moment with a home-run trot.

It was a mere 95 years earlier that Lou Gehrig entered that 900 Club in a game at the original Yankee Stadium. For the record, he waited until Game 901 to make his next trot.

Hey Siri, stop it! There I was last week, doing important “work” on my iPad when Jose Siri hit a home run for the Angels — and judging from the way it lit up, my iPad was definitely more excited about that development than I was.

Time to remind you: Baseball makes no sense

Every once in a while, I need to refresh your memory on my favorite thing about baseball: It … makes … no … sense. And what do I mean by that? Here’s what:

• The “unbeatable” Dodgers traded for the reigning two-time AL Cy Young winner (Mr. Skubal), then forgot to win a game for a week.

• The starting rotation of the “selling” Tigers ran up 26 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings — even though they traded away the reigning Cy Young in the middle of it.

• Oh, and you know what else? Those “selling” Tigers also shipped off the reigning Cy Young and promptly (what else) … swept the first full series they played without him. Want to guess how many teams had ever done that? Zero is a cool guess, as always. (Hat tip: STATS Perform.)

• Trea Turner has won two batting titles. That Phillies team he plays for just traded for a guy who has won three batting titles (Luis Arraez). But if you checked that box score Sunday, you might have noticed something not-sensible: They both went 0-for-6!

Katie Sharp found only three other games in the Baseball Reference database, back to 1898, in which any team got a pair of 0-for-6’s (or worse) from two former batting champs: Joe DiMaggio/Snuffy Stirnweiss (1946 Yankees), Al Kaline/Norm Cash (1968 Tigers) and Charlie Blackmon/DJ LeMahieu (2018 Rockies). Not pictured among any of those three pairs: two multi-time batting champs.

Dave Dombrowski on Phillies’ position shifts for Arraez trade

Jayson Stark

• Rays shortstop Taylor Walls had made it through this whole season (96 games) without hitting any homers. So what did he do Tuesday? He broke that streak by not just going deep, but going deep from both sides of the plate in the same game.

Did he set the record for most consecutive games played in a season before switch-hitting bombs in the same game? Of course he did, according to STATS. He knocked UL Washington (94 games, in 1979) off the top of that list.

• For the first time all season, a hitter thumped four extra-base hits in one game. And no, it wasn’t Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez or Junior Caminero. It was the Royals’ Jac Caglianone, who slugged .295 last season.

• Speaking of extra bases, I’ve seen a lot of home runs. But I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an “outside-the-park” homer that made less sense than this Aug. 6 ping-pong shot from Braves masher Ronald Acuña Jr. Was this one deflected by every Marlins outfielder except Juan Pierre? You decide.

• But you know what might make less sense than any of this? It’s the exploits of our newly anointed …

Strange But True Team of the Year

I don’t think there has ever been a Baseball Makes No Sense team of the year before. But it’s time to invent it! We need to do that just to honor the incomprehensible season of those Boston Red Sox.

Remember when they were 11 games under .500 — in July? Starting the very next day, they ripped off winning streaks of 15 and nine … just in their next 30 games. And how many teams have ever done that in any 30-game stretch? None, obviously, according to STATS.

OK, what if we take out the “30-games” part? That’ll help. So when was the last time we saw a team that was 11 under (or worse) then string together a winning streak of 15 games (or more) and later have another of nine games (or more) over any span of games in the same season? Don’t answer zero!

Yes, it’s not as if no team had ever done that. STATS tell us it happened as recently as 110 years ago, when Pol Perritt’s 1916 Giants started 2-13, then won 17 in a row (in May) and 26 in a row (in September).

Those Red Sox won 16 in a row just against teams in first place? Sure. Why the heck not. They were 14 games under .500 when the then-first-place Yankees stopped by to visit Fenway on June 25. The Sox then swept the series against the Yankees, White Sox, Rays, Dodgers and White Sox (again). So how many teams in the modern era have had a streak like that? According to one of our favorite nugget finders, Jessica Brand, that would be (yup) zero.

And then the A’s showed up? How long could our planet keep spinning backwards? Not forever, apparently. So last weekend, after winning nine series in a row, the Sox played the reeling A’s, a team that had lost 12 series in a row. If baseball made sense, we know how that would have turned out. But who actually won that series? The A’s, because of course they did.

So how many other times since 1898 had anything remotely like that happened? Zero! The old “record,” according to Baseball Reference wizard Kenny Jackelen, involved Slammin’ Sammy Khalifa’s 1985 Pirates (losers of eight in a row) winning a series against Howard Johnson’s ’85 Mets (winners of six in a row).

And lastly … that Red Sox team that had won 16 straight games against first-place teams went out last week and lost five straight games to two clubs that were very not-in-first-place teams: the A’s (who had the worst record in baseball since June 1) and Blue Jays (who had the worst record in the AL East entering that series).

I don’t know how we can possibly explain how these things happen. Oh, wait. I think I have a theory. Maybe because it’s …

Baseball!

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