The week in interesting & unusual stats (Celebrating 13s)

9:06 PM ET

Each Sunday in this space we bring you some of our favorite quirks, oddities and unusual plays from the week in baseball. Many thanks to our friends at Baseball Reference and the Elias Sports Bureau for research assistance.

Baseball players are notoriously superstitious, maybe more than any other athletes. So some of them (and some of you) have probably noticed there’s a Friday the 13th coming up this week. A few teams conquered their triskaidekaphobia a little early.

The Chicago Cubs ran their record to 24-6 on Sunday with a 13-inning win over the Nationals. It was the Cubs’ first walk-off of the year, and only the second time they have ever walked off against the Nats/Expos franchise in the 13th or later. Cliff Johnson’s 14th-inning grand slam was the difference on Aug. 8, 1980.

Joe Maddon’s strategy of walking Bryce Harper, no matter what, paid off for the North Siders but also gave Harper an interesting place in baseball history. He tied the major-league record by drawing six walks (last was Jeff Bagwell in 1999), and by also being plunked once, Elias notes that he became the first player ever to reach base seven times without an at-bat.

Harper also had three walks and a sacrifice fly in Saturday’s game, making him the first player in the live-ball era to have consecutive complete-game …

continue reading in source espn.go.com