Rare occurrence
Walk off catcher’s interference has happened twice in MLB
The Jackson County Central baseball team won its season opener over Windom this week on a walk off catcher’s interference call.
How rare is that?
Good luck trying to research how many times that its occurred in high school, but you can find out how often it has happened in the major leagues.
The answer is, two.
There have been more than 238,500 games played in Major League Baseball over its 154-year history. That means it has happened in 0.00000839 % of the games played in MLB history.
The most recent was on July 21, 2025. The only other was on Aug, 1, 1971, so MLB went more than its first century without it happening.
Until 2025, Philadelphia’s Edmundo Sosa hadn’t had a walk-off anything ever. He finally got his walk-off moment in the 10th inning of the Phillies’ 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Boston pitcher Jordan Hicks started the bottom of the 10th with Philly’s Brandon Marsh on second as the automatic runner. Hicks walked Otto Kemp to put runners on first and second. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third.
Hicks intentionally walked Max Kepler to load the bases.
Sosa, who had entered the game in the eighth when he pinch-hit for Bryson Stott against Red Sox left-hander Aroldis Chapman, stepped in.
“At that point, I just thought about defending the zone and being short to the ball,” he said.
According to the Philadelphia Enquirer, Sosa checked his swing on the fifth pitch of his at-bat. The bat clearly hit Narváez’s mitt, but home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott didn’t see it.
Sosa immediately signaled to the first-base dugout to ask for a replay review.
“I felt something,” Sosa told Wolcott.
He got the review and the call was overturned, ending the game.
“I don’t feel I was that close to the hitter,” Narváez said. “Everything went so quick. Really tough for that to happen in that moment to cost us the game. I take accountability. I’ve got to be better. That cannot happen.”
Only other
It was the first walk-off catcher’s interference in Major League Baseball since the Dodgers got one against the Reds on Aug. 1, 1971.
In that instance, Manny Mota attempted to steal home on the first pitch from Joe Gibbon in the bottom of the 11th of a game at Dodger Stadium. Catcher Johnny Bench moved outside, stood up and caught the pitch.
He tagged Mota at the plate, but umpire Harry Wendelstedt ruled that Bench interfered with Willie Crawford’s chance to hit the ball. He correctly called catcher’s interference.
“I’ve been in baseball 43 years and I’ve never seen that play called,” Dodgers hitting coach Dixie Walker told the Cincinnati Enquirer at the time. It would be another 54 years until a game ended in similar fashion.
Bench being involved in that first one is a bit ironic in that he is widely considered the best catcher of all time as he won 10 Gold Gloves (all consecutively from 1968-1977), leads all catchers in career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) and revolutionized the position defensively with the now-standard style of catching one-handed.
SOURCES: mlb.com, Philadelphia Enquirer, Boston Globe, The Associated Press.