Last night’s win by balk was by far the strangest of the year for the Dodgers, and also supplied a nearly endless supply of puns (a balk in the park, a balk-off hit, “I wouldn’t balk at that Dodgers victory,” etc.), rivaled only by the humor of the Elymania Twitter craze.

First off, here’s Casey “The Beard” Blake describing the unusual play on the Dodgers’ post-game television show:

I was trying to make something happen.  That’s the first time it’s ever worked for me.  Usually guys don’t pay attention to me…I’m not really going anywhere right there.  But I said, hey, we got two outs and I might as well try something, and took a couple hard steps and sometimes it works.  The ninth inning, two outs, I’m sure there were some nerves on the mound, or some emotion, and so I just thought I’d try it and it worked one time.”

The balk-off win also inspired some great stories from across the web.  Here are a couple of my favorites from last night and this morning:

- Tony Jackson at ESPN Los Angeles looks at the umpiring coincidence between last night’s balk-off win for the Dodgers and their last one in 1989

- As usual, Eric at True Blue LA offers up the stats behind the balk-off

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo / LA Dodgers 2010