Justin Verlander committed the strangest balk you'll ever see a pitcher make this past weekend, and maybe the weirdest play in recent Major League history. Pitching to the A's David DeJesus with a man on first, the Detroit hurler did a strange little jump off the mound and threw a line-drive (not a pitch) at the batter's feet, hitting him. The umpires took a few minutes to figure out just what the hell had just happened and ultimately awarded second base to the runner on first; since the balk happened first, DeJesus didn't get the HBP. Turns out Verlander had a quasi-reasonable explanation for the incident and was able to laugh at himself over the whole thing. Watch the video and check out how it happened after the jump.

Via the YouTube page:

"I went to go pick one and I didn't get my body turned," Verlander said. "The way I thought — and this was all in milliseconds — if I just throw it home, they won't call anything."

... The A's didn't know what to think.

"That was the strangest thing I've ever seen," A's manager Bob Geren said. "It took like six coaches to try to figure out what he did."

Verlander found the whole thing funny.

"I saw the video of it and I couldn't help but laugh at myself," Verlander said. "It might be the first time it happened in general. I thought nothing could happen at the plate. It was funny talking to the umpires. They gave me a hard time about it, too."

[via FFFP via Hot Clicks]