It was during a road series in Toronto that Jon Shestakofsky, then with the Boston Red Sox media relations team, found himself tumbling down a statistical rabbit hole.
The team’s rookie catcher, Christian Vazquez, had just kicked off his Red Sox career with five straight victories behind the plate, and Shestakofsky was eager to determine the last Major League catcher to do the same.
“Before I knew it,’’ says Shestakofsky, now with the National Baseball Hall of Fame, “the clock said 3 a.m., and I said, ‘What am I doing here? Is anybody even going to use this?’ ’’
As a matter of fact, yes.
Some call them trivia or factoids. Those who produce them call them “game notes.’’ These aren’t the “Moneyball’’-type sabermetrics that MLB front offices use to evaluate prospective free agent signings.
Rather, they’re the stats that pop up nightly on scoreboards, TV, and radio, the quirky minutiae that provide perspective on a team or player. Or at least keep things interesting during the slog of a 162-game season.
Like a carefully crafted swing, developing a compelling statistic is an art.
Stats that compare a current player to all-time greats like Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle are gold. Ditto for lengthy streaks and the bizarre.
During one stretch last season, for instance, the Sox won five games in a row while scoring exactly five runs in each of the victories. Not the flashiest stat — until it was determined that it was unprecedented. Bingo.
“Any time you can say it’s ‘the first time in baseball history,’ it’s probably a good note,’’ says Justin Long, Red Sox manager of media relations and baseball information.
The right fact can almost seem to predict the future, says Ken Levine, a former MLB play-by-play announcer and an Emmy-winning TV writer.
Say a reliever throws a wild pitch with a runner on third, allowing the game’s winning run to score. The announcer who informed his audience ahead of time that the pitcher had already tossed 14 wild pitches that season “looks like a genius.’’
On the flip side, getting too cute with the numbers can invite ridicule.
If a fact contains more than two qualifiers, you’re likely reaching, says Mike Ferrin, cohost of “Power Alley’’ on MLB Network Radio.
“It’s the sixth time that he’s gone six innings on a Thursday against an American League opponent,’’ he says, by way of example. “When you start adding the positioning of the moon, it’s a touch heavy.’’
The stats that fly by during a broadcast seem breezy, informal. In reality, though, they’re often the result of a herculean behind-the-scenes effort.
The Red Sox employ a five-person media relations team dedicated, in part, to providing a steady stream of team statistics.
Before each game, members of the team — sometimes pecking away at their laptops during 1 a.m. charter flights — compile a 10-page packet of game notes, a monstrous collection of information that’s distributed to broadcasters and beat writers in advance of an upcoming matchup.
A mere glance at the “Red Sox Notes’’ for just one game — in this case, an Aug. 10, 2016, home game against the New York Yankees — provides a dizzying peek into their world.
“At 61-50, the Sox have the same record they had after 111 games in 2004 (World Series champs) . . . 7 of the last 13 World Series champions were 61-50 or worse after 111 games, including 3 of the last 5.’’
Rick Porcello “is 1 of only 10 pitchers who debuted in 1976 or later to earn 100 wins before turning 28 years old.’’ Mookie Betts “joins [Washington’s] Daniel Murphy as the only major leaguers with at least 30 doubles, 5 triples, and 20 HR this season.’’
Some make it to Fenway’s scoreboard. Others onto local radio or television. And in some cases, they’ll go national — popping up on ESPN’s bottom-of-the-screen news scroll.
When a team is winning, it’s easy for the media relations team to keep the facts flowing. But pity the stathound responsible for delivering gems in the midst of a dreadful game or season.
“I remember one time listening to Vin Scully when the Dodgers were trailing 14-0 and it was in the eighth inning,’’ says Levine. “And he said something like, ‘When the Dodgers are down by six runs on a Tuesday night they are 0-3, and that kind of tells you how badly this game is going, that I would give you a statistic like that.’ ’’
In today’s data-hungry age, a growing number of companies are vying to provide stats jockeys ever more specific information.
The website Baseball-Reference.com is a Red Sox favorite. The Elias Sports Bureau, which offers historical research and statistical services, keeps its phones open 24 hours a day.
Some companies have even ventured beyond traditional statistics to deliver biographical nuggets.
So when a batter steps into the box, a broadcaster can fill time — and appeal to the nonsports fan — by talking about how the player grew up, say, farming in Oklahoma.
And while stathounds will always be bound by reality, a true ace can always find a little wiggle room.
Consider a recent call between Long and Elias’s director of research, John Labombarda.
Long was hoping Labombarda could generate a splashy fact about Porcello’s 2016 streak, which will still be alive on Opening Day: The right-hander has lasted at least five innings in his last 41 starts.
Sounds impressive, but Labombarda doubted it would rank particularly high in Sox history.
“In the old days, five innings for a pitcher was a terrible outing — pitchers started and finished games,’’ Labombarda said.
But he wanted to give his client something. “So I narrowed it and made him a top-four since 1920.’’
That year, he notes, marked a big one in baseball — the start of the “live ball era,’’ when offensive power numbers rose at the expense of pitching statistics.
“There are a lot of different cutoff points in baseball history,’’ Labombarda said.
The trick is knowing where to start.
Dugan Arnett can be reached at dugan.arnett@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @duganarnett. Beth Teitell can be reached at beth.teitell-@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @bethteitell.
