Holliday was forced to leave the Cardinals' matchup with the Dodgers in the eighth inning after a moth flew into his ear. He met team trainer Barry Weinberg halfway off the field before being escorted into the clubhouse.
Soon after, Holliday was taken into a dark room, where trainers tried to lure the insect out with a bright light, according to team spokesman Brian Bartow. A trainer then went in with tweezers in order to remove the moth, which unfortunately met its demise shortly thereafter.
"It died from an overflow of wisdom that he got in my head," Holliday told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
But this isn't the first time an insect or animal has crossed the line and entered the field of play in a disruptive manner.
Randy Johnson once hit a bird with a 95-mph fastball on March 4, 2001, as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, creating an explosion of feathers. The umpire ruled it as "no pitch."
Eight years later, a bird once again interfered with play. Only this time, it had more serious implications for the action on the field.
On June 11, 2009, the Cleveland Indians' Shin-Soo Choo hit a ball up the middle toward a pack of seagulls that had taken up residence in the outfield at Progressive Field. The ball kicked up off the outfield grass and struck one of the birds. It then rolled all the way to the wall, allowing Mark DeRosa to come around from second base to score the winning run.
There's no telling whether Coco Crisp, playing for the Royals at the time, would have had a chance to cut down DeRosa at the plate, but the bird made sure he had no shot.
"So it did hit a bird. Crazy things happen in this game," Crisp said after the game. "That's why it's a great game."
In fact, Hall of Famer Dave Winfield had a run-in with a seagull about 26 years prior.
On Aug. 4, 1983, Winfield accidentally killed a seagull while warming up before the fifth inning of a game at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. The incident caused outrage, though, and Winfield was charged with animal cruelty, although the charges were soon dropped.
In fact, Fenway Park's no stranger to weird events involving rodents. Former Sox first baseman Ed Jurak scooped up a rat with his mitt as it darted around the infield in 1984. Jurak then stuffed the rat into a trash can upon picking it up.
But as far as insects go, midges got the best of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberalin in Game 2 of the team's 2007 ALDS matchup with the Indians.
Battling the bugs and receiving sprays of bug repllent, Chamberlain walked two, threw two wild pitches, hit a batter and, more importantly, gave up the tying run in a game in which the Indians prevailed, 2-1.
What is the weirdest animal/insect-related event to happen during an MLB game?
