"Is this heaven?" "No, it's Iowa."
In a week that began with the angels (lowercase) claiming Vin Scully right at the trade deadline, the Angels (uppercase) quickly became That Game We Have To Write About. Plus lots of other adventures around the league. It'll be, uh, heavenly.
Home runs are cool. They're among the easiest, and certainly the quickest, ways to score in our little game here. Swing bat. Feel bat hit ball. Listen to crowd. As long as you remember to touch all four bases, you're good.
We take you to Anaheim, where it will not surprise you to learn that Shohei Ohtani started Thursday's game with a 1st-inning homer. He's got seven of those this year to lead the Angels. Luis Rengifo follows with a double but gets stranded. On to the 2nd, where #7 batter Kurt Suzuki tacks on another solo homer, just the third time this season Anaheim has gone yard in each of the first two frames.
Now it is Oakland's turn to finally wake up. They get a single and two walks to load the bases against Janson Junk, who has another of those unfortunate names for a pitcher. But it came true. Because in the span of 5 pitches, Ramon Laureano 2-run double, Sean Murphy 2-run double, and Seth Brown 2-run homer. This thing just became 6-2 Oakland, and that's as much scoring as the AL West usually sees in a week. This thing might be over early.
But the Angels are back to the top of the order, and Taylor Ward says, not so fast. He cranks a leadoff homer in the 3rd. Laureano comes up again for the A's in the 4th and adds another dinger against Touki Toussaint, now on the mound after Junk was, um, scrapped. It is now 8-3 when Jo Adell leads off the 4th inning with yet another Angels homer. It's the first time since August 19, 2017, that the Angels went yard in each of the first 4 innings of a game. But are you picking up the theme yet?
The Angels get a walk and a single in the 5th but don't score, so at least we won't have one of those "scored in every inning" games. We will, however, watch Jared Walsh hit another homer in the 6th to get within 8-5. Yes, that's 5 runs on 5 homers, and if the Angels just stop now, this will get some attention and at least make the "Bottom Of The Bag" segment later on. After all, 5-on-5 has happened just three other times in the past five seasons.
The only thing that could mess this up is if David Fletcher leads off the 7th by getting hit with a pitch, and then Ohtani hits another homer. Which, naturally, is what happened. But as the baseball gods would have it, there's a batter in between them. And Taylor Ward grounded into a double play that erased Fletcher and made Ohtani's homer another solo shot after all. It's 8-6 and you can stop now please. Yes, there have been three 5-on-5 games since 2017, but there have only been two 6-on-6 games in the live-ball era. The Blue Jays had one in 2010, and these Oakland A's did it at their cavernous park back in 1991.
Neither team scores in the 8th, and Zach Jackson fans Kurt Suzuki for the first out of the 9th. Let's just get two more quick outs and put this thing to bed. It's great that Mickey Moniak, just acquired from the Phillies in the Noah Syndergaard deal, wants to be a hero and all, and yes, the Angels are trailing by 2 runs still. But baserunners are just going to mess this thing up. In fact, there's really only one thing Moniak could possibly do to make this game more interesting. And yes, he did it.
So yes, that is 7 total runs, all on solo homers, a line never before achieved by any team in MLB history. And remember, Oakland still has those 8 runs from the 3rd and 4th innings combined, meaning Anaheim cranked seven dingers and lost. Only six teams in MLB history have pulled that off, and as you might expect, half of those have been in the past 2 years. Thursday's Angels joined the White Sox of June 25, 2016, as the only members of that loss list where all the homers were solo shots.
And the only other time the Angels hit 7 homers in a game-- win or lose, solo or whatever-- was on June 4, 2003, against the Expos when the latter played many of their home games in Puerto Rico.
Usually the number 7 is associated with good luck, and a different number is associated with bad. So if that whole "7" thing didn't work out for the Angels, well, let's keep this opposites theme going. Because the number 13 did work out for several teams this week.
Last year we yelled at Dylan Cease of the White Sox to, in our best "annoyed fan" voice, "cease walking people". Two seasons ago he had a memorable outing where he did his best A.J. Burnett impression, allowing 0 hits but having to depart in the 4th inning because he'd thrown 80 pitches and issued seven walks. So it took a little while, but it seems like he finally heard us.
On May 24 Cease was on the very wrong end of a 16-3 beatdown against the Red Sox. Since then, however, it's been record-setting. Literally. There was one hiccup, a 6-run outing against the Dodgers in June, but all those runs came in one inning and were unearned because of a 2-out error. So since May 24 he hasn't allowed more than 1 earned run in any game, regardless of innings (and most of them have been at least 6). On Friday when Cease held the Rangers to 1 run on 2 hits (which isn't hard), it was the 13th game in that streak. And if you throw out the Rays' infamous "openers" who only pitch 1 inning at a time, that's the longest such streak in MLB history. Jacob deGrom rattled off 12 straight last season, and Bob Gibson did it so often in 1968 (including 11 straight) that they had to lower the mound.
Alas, There was another team that did not hear our pleas this week. If home runs are "one of" the easiest ways to score, perhaps drawing a bunch of walks is truly the easiest. You don't even have to do anything except stand there. No swinging, no running, no effort required. Sure, getting hit by a pitch might be quicker, but that hurts.
While Dylan Cease was busy rattling off his 13th straight 1-run outing on Friday, the Tigers pitching staff was also finding new ways to amaze us. To their credit, it's usually the Detroit offense that gives us grief by failing to get more than 3 hits in a game.
Bryan Garcia has pitched in 74 games for the Tigers over the past four seasons, but until now he's bene relegated to the bullpen as your typical 1-inning mop-up guy. Friday against the Rays was only his second career start. And true to form, he only allowed 1 hit, an infield single to Randy Arozarena. Because it didn't take long for the Rays batters to realize, why are we swinging? If there was a barn behind home plate, Garcia would have trouble finding the side of it. He walked six batters and only escaped with no runs because of a caught-stealing and a double play. The last Tigers pitcher to give up 1 hit but 6 walks was Dontrelle Willis when he set a career high for free passes on April 5, 2008.
Will Vest appears for the 5th and manages to walk the bases loaded without even finishing the inning. Somehow the Tigers get out of that mess with only 1 run allowed, and they cling to a 3-2 lead after Brandon Lowe singles home another run in the 6th. Joe Jimenez walks the first batter he faces in the 7th, but at this point, only 1 walk feels like a victory. And turns out it was, because in the 8th Jimenez will snatch defeat from the jaws of said victory by (what else?) walking the first two batters of the frame. We are already back around to Brandon Lowe, who hits the Rays' first-ever lead-flipping double in the 8th or later against the Tigers.
And by the time this thing is over, the Tigers have gifted Tampa Bay a whopping thirteen walks, the most in any game in Rays history. The Tigers hadn't issued 13 walks in a 9-inning game since a 15-2 thumping by Seattle on June 15, 1991.
Our roundup of 13's would not be complete without a glance at Tuesday's scoreboard, where we find not just 13, but 26. No, the baseball gods didn't dump another 28-run game on us, although it might have felt that way to the Phillies. Who managed to give up a 13 within a 13.
Darick Hall's double actually put Philadelphia on the board early against Braves starter Spencer Strider. Who then hit his stride and retired 16 of the next 17 batters. By the time Strider leaves in the 7th, he has fanned 13 Phillies hitters, the most by any Braves pitcher in a game in nearly a decade. Kris Medlen struck out 13 Nationals on September 14, 2012; the only team to have gone longer without a pitcher doing it is the Twins (by about 2 months).
Meanwhile, on the other bench, Noah Syndergaard hasn't gotten into town yet, so it's an interesting parade of pitchers who trot to the mound-- and then to the showers-- for the Phils. Nick Nelson puts the first two batters of the 3rd on base and then Connor Brogdon lets them in. Andrew Belatti gives up a run in the 4th. But today's big winner is Corey Knebel, who gives up a 2-out double to Eddie Rosario in the 5th. After which the proverbial floodgates are open. Single, wild pitch, single, 2-run homer by Orlando Arcia. That's 5 runs on 2 outs, the first Phillies pitcher to do that in Atlanta since Luis Garcia on June 7, 2017. Mark Appel then gives up 2 singles and a walk before finally getting out of the inning with the score 9-1. And Francisco Morales-- called up from double-A for this one game while the team awaits Mr. Syndergaard-- issues 2 walks and a hit batter to start the 8th. Rosario then collects his 5th RBI of the game, the first Phillies batter to do that against the Braves since Dansby Swanson on July 4, 2019. By the time this is all over, your final is 13-1, and because these two division rivals play each other constantly, even that wasn't overly impressive. The Braves dropped a 15-1 on the Phillies on June 16, 2019, so that's as far back as the scoring or win-margin notes go. Hey, they can't all be historic.
One thing that does not have much history, however, is the concept of a doubleheader in San Diego. There is the old joke about the easiest job in the world being that of a San Diego weather forecaster. "What's it gonna be like tomorrow?" "Nice." So twinbills in the Gaslamp District are not unprecedented, but they're almost always caused by something else. Heck, in the olden days, doubleheaders were almost always scheduled on Memorial Day or Independence Day because the fans all have the day off and why wouldn't they want to enjoy two games for the price of one? (Owners now: "Wait, you mean we can make them pay twice by not doing this? Sold.")
Anyhow, that little kerfuffle with ownership earlier in the year is what got us a couple weird west-coast doubleheaders this week, caused by the rescheduling of the first week of the season. It's also the reason we saw the Angels play one on Saturday against the Mariners, who have had a roof over their stadium for their entire existence. But while their front office was busy dealing away eleven players (including minor-leaguers) over the course of Tuesday, those players who were left were busy racking up 13 runs against the Rockies.
The Rockies got 3 runs early off Yu Darvish before the Padres offense finally stirred around 2:30 pm and remembered they were supposed to be playing. Number-9 batter Trent Grisham connected for a game-tying homer in the 4th, after which Jurickson Profar's second hit of the day knocked out Colorado starter Ryan Feltner. They each notch another hit in the 6th off Jake Bird and come around to make it 7-3 on Jake Cronenworth's homer. Grisham will be the last batter to face Robert Stephenson in the 7th, drawing a walk, and then Profar greets Ty Blach with a 2-run double. Ha-Seong Kim triples in the 8th and then scores the 13th and final run on Grisham's groundout.
As noted, Trent Grisham hit 9th in this escapade, something that until recently was reserved for Padres pitchers. That ended up making him the first #9 batter in team history to have 3 runs scored and 3 RBI in the same game. Part of the reason he scored those runs is because Jurickson Profar, batting after him, collected 5 hits out of the leadoff spot. Only three other players in Padres history had pulled that off-- Jon Jay in June 2016, and Gene Richards twice (1977 and 1982). Profar and Kim also became the second Padres teammates ever to have 4 hits each with at least 2 of them for extra bases. Ken Caminiti and Jody Reed did that on September 19, 1995, also against the Rockies.
And although home doubleheaders in San Diego are rare anymore, the Padres do go to other cities where it rains, and they have played in over 200 twinbills in their history. Their 13 runs on Tuesday were the most they'd ever scored in the opener of one, topping a 12-8 against the Giants on May 30, 1977.
Two Orders Of Friars, To Go
So what do you suspect the Padres did in the night game of Tuesday's double-dip? Well, it didn't involve scoring 13 runs. But it did involve some NL-style small-ball and provide us a segue to our next section of fun.
Continuing the earlier theme, the Rockies score a pair of early runs off someone named Reiss Knehr, who seems to have appeared in 15 other games for the Padres since last July. But then they go quiet and a parade of bullpen arms works an inning or two each with no other damage. Meanwhile, Jose Ureña starts the game by giving up another single to Jurickson Profar and then walking two more batters to load them up. We'll generously say that it's the 1st inning, the Rockies have a 2-run lead, and they haven't recorded an out yet, but Randal Grichuk decides to catch a foul ball down the right-field line-- with a runner on third-- instead of the old advice to just let it drop and be a foul ball. That results in a sac fly to make it 2-1, plus Manny Machado tags up and goes to third. Four pitches later Wil Myers unleashes another sac fly to center and we're tied up. The Padres hadn't hit 2 sac flies in a home game against the Rockies since September 10, 2015, and only twice in their history had they hit back-to-back ones in the 1st inning. Tony Gwynn Sr and Phil Nevin did it in Houston on April 23, 2000, while Garry Templeton teamed up with Terry Kennedy in Atlanta on September 24, 1982.
And then... nothing. It's 2-2 after the 1st inning and it's 2-2 after the 8th inning. Finally, after 9½ hours of baseball that started at 1 pm, and just when you think this is really going to be the definition of a "zombie" game, along comes Trent Grisham again. That's the Padres' first walkoff homer against Colorado since Franmil Reyes on August 30, 2018, and it gives them their second-ever doubleheader sweep of the Rockies. The other was in Colorado's inaugural season, on August 6, 1993. And you might remember that Grisham homered in the day game as well. As mentioned, the Padres don't play many home doubleheaders, especially now. Their only other batters to go yard in both games of one are Manny Machado (August 27, 2020) and Cito Gaston (September 9, 1970).
The Week In Walkoffs
Our week in walkoffs began, however, with the Twins. When the Tigers weren't busy giving up 13 walks to Tampa Bay, they were holders of a precarious 2-0 lead against Minnesota on Monday before Michael Fulmer was told to go pitch the 8th. And while he did get a leadoff strikeout, he then proceeded to give up four straight singles and there goes your 2-0 lead. Jose Miranda's rally-capper was the Twins' first game-tying (not go-ahead) bases-loaaded single in the 8th or later against Detroit since Glenn Adams hit one off Aurelio Lopez on August 22, 1980.
That sends us away to Free Runner Land where the Tigers get a single from Akil Baddoo to score theirs, and Miranda comes up again to knock in Carlos Correa. So we're still at 3-3 but with Miranda now on first base. Cue Gio Urshela for the win. Since Target Field opened in 2010, it's just the second time the Twins have hit a multi-run walkoff homer in extras against Detroit, and the other also involved free runners. Jorge Polanco did it on July 11 of last year.
Saturday also brought us some walkoff magic, this one courtesy of the Kansas City Royals. But long before the walkoff, there were some fireworks, well, right off the bat. Love him or hate him-- and the handful of Royals fans we know seem to have changed their mind in the last couple years-- Whit Merrifield was a fixture at the top of KC's order for quite a while. It eventually became a struggle to find some leadoff achievement that he didn't own the team record for. Every leaderboard is a combination of Whit, Willie Wilson, Alex Gordon, and occasionally an Amos Otis sighting. But he got dealt to Toronto last week for a pair of minor-leaguers, so at least for now, we get the stylings of M.J. Melendez atop the Royals order. And on Saturday against Boston, he started the game this way.
Leadoff homers, as mentioned, not that rare. Whit had 13 of them. Melendez hit another one on Thursday in the first game of the Boston series, a 7-3 Royals win. As mentioned, we have to get to the end of this one for the fun. Bobby Dalbec and Alex Verdugo homer for the Sawx, and we stall out at 4-4 in the 6th. Nate Eovaldi and Garrett Whitlock combine to set down 15 Royals batters in a row. Then with 2 outs in the 9th, on the eighth pitch of an at-bat, welcome Nick Pratto.
We've mentioned Pratto before; he was one of the myriad of call-ups that the Royals had to make in order to travel to Toronto right before the All-Star break, and he just never went back to Omaha. Saturday was not only his first walkoff homer in the bigs, it was just the fourth ever for the Royals against Boston. Those others were by Bob Hamelin (1994), Rey Palacios (1990), and George Brett (1976).
But flash all the way back to M.J. Melendez nearly 3 hours ago. The Royals had a leadoff homer and a walkoff homer in the same game. In team history they'd only done that once before-- July 3, 1973, when Freddie Patek and Paul Schaal did the honors against Minnesota.
And A Bottle Of Rum
For walkoff fun, however, it was hard to beat the Jolly Roger this week. Although "Jolly Roger" may sound like Santa's weird cousin who plays the really bad malls in December (and whose lap you probably don't want to sit on), it's actually the pirate flag that comes out and runs around the field after a Pittsburgh victory. And hopefully they had it ready on short notice.
The flag probably was unfurled and ready to go on Wednesday when the Pirates took a 7-4 lead into the 8th against Milwaukee. Tyler Beede got tagged for all 4 of those Brewers runs while getting just 4 outs, but it was still early enough that Pittsburgh clawed back, with a 2-run homer by Oneil Cruz in the 7th putting them in the, uh, crow's nest. Until Yerry De Los Santos was given that long telescope-looking spyglass and told to protect the 3-run lead. That only led to four singles and a walk and yet another tie game at 7-7.
So we move along to the 9th and Devin Williams enters the game to face leadoff batter Bryan Reynolds. This takes 3 pitches. The Pirates' last walkoff anything against the Brewers was by Josh Bell, who's seen a lot of ink today, when he doubled off Dan Jennings on July 15, 2018. Williams is the first Milwaukee pitcher to give up a leadoff homer immediately upon entering a game since Matt Albers did so to Trevor Story on September 28, 2019. And in the past 35 years only three Pirates batters have had 3 hits and 3 runs scored in a game where they also hit a walkoff homer. Two of them did it this year-- Reynolds on Thursday and Jack Suwinski against the Giants on June 19. The other was Freddy Sanchez back in 2006.
Some 14 hours later PNC Park is active again with the sounds of bats and the smells of, uh, Pittsburgh. This one they might have been less ready for. The Pirates piece together 3 singles and a walk in the 7th to chase Brandon Woodruff and tie the game at 3-3. Proving that baseball folk will try anything at least twice, Devin Williams comes on for the bottom of the 9th. This time his leadoff batter is Cal Mitchell who flies out, and eventually we move along to Free Runner Land. Because it's not like a 12:30 "getaway" game was meant for the teams to, you know, get away.
Duane Underwood gets the 10th for Pittsburgh, and with 2 outs he promptly issues a pair of walks. Hey, if you can't get that third out, might as well set up a force at every base. And that might have worked, except that he ends up plunking Kolten Wong with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run. In Brewers history that's only happened three other times in extra innings; the "lucky" plunkees were Christian Yelich (2021), Mark Loretta (1999), and Don Money (1975).
But if Bryan Reynolds wasn't around to lead off the 9th, he is here to lead off the 10th. He does so with a first-pitch double to score the free runner and make it 4-4. He's the first Pirates batter with a tying or go-ahead hit in the 9th or later of consecutive games since Ryan Doumit did it in Milwaukee in April 2010.
Turns out two teams can play the "force at every base" game. Now that Reynolds is at second with nobody out, the Brewers issue a pair of intentional walks which force Reynolds to third. And then this happens. That's the Pirates' first "bounce-off" victory since a 15-inning affair with Cleveland on June 21, 2003. And Pittsburgh hadn't recorded consecutive walkoff wins over Milwaukee since July 19 and 20 of 1955. Yes, those games were against the Braves.
Spoiler Alert
Never do the shutout notes early.
Walkoffs are fun. They make for fairly easy notes. There's only a couple categories of people who don't like them-- the pitchers who give them up, and the beat writers who can't finish their game stories until somebody decides to do something. Give them an old-fashioned 9-0 beatdown where they're done by the 8th inning, and all they need is to get some pithy manager quote about how [pitcher] had some good stuff and [batter] is starting to get into a groove. Drop that in, file it, we're outta here in a half-hour. The other category that sorta disturbs that game story is when we think this game is going to limp along to its end, and then someone goes off and does something silly in the 9th. It's a lot like when we have this post essentially finished on Saturday night and then someone comes along and throws a no-hitter on Sunday.
The Red Sox were the first team this week-- but not the last-- to throw this wrench. They trailed the Astros 6-0 on Wednesday in the finale of their midweek series, and had only 3 hits to boot. This certainly looks like it is about to be their largest shutout loss ever against Houston. Until it isn't. Will Smith, having just arrived at the ballpark after being traded from Atlanta the day before, gives up a solo shot to Xander Bogaerts with 1 out in the 9th. "X" thus becomes the first Bostonian whose homer broke up a shutout of 6 or more in the 9th since Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit one against Minnesota on May 7, 2013. Their last such homer in a road game was by Orlando Cabrera in Seattle on September 9, 2004.
Not long thereafter, the remaining pieces of the Nationals-- having just sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego-- were trying to not get blown out by the Mets. And that wasn't going well either; Daniel Vogelbach hit a grand slam, and Jeff McNeil joined Scott Hairston (August 17, 2012) as the only Mets batters to have 3 doubles in a game at Nationals Park. By the bottom of the 9th it's 9-0 and we are approaching position-player-pitching territory. Amazingly that doesn't happen, but maybe it should have. Mychal Givens loses the shutout on a 1-out homer by Keibert Ruiz. That was the team's first homer since the move to Washington that broke up a 9-0 shutout in the 9th. They had three such dingers as the Expos-- by Shane Andrews (1995), Herb Winningham (1986), and Rusty Staub (1971).
Givens, of course, has quite the long leash, but then Lane Thomas homers with 2 outs. And when Givens give-ns up three straight singles to load the bases again, we need Seth Lugo for a cleanup on aisle 9. Those last 3 runs end up scoring as well when Lugo gives up a single to Luis Garcia; it makes Givens just the fourth pitcher in Mets history to give up 5 runs and 2 homers, get no more than 2 outs, and yet not take a loss (because he started with a 9-run lead). The others are Guillermo Mota (2007), Tim Hamulack (2005), and Mark Bomback (1980).
Although Soto and Bell were the big acquisitions for the Padres this week, one of the other returns they got for those 11 players was Brandon Drury of the Reds. He got in on this theme on Friday in his third game with San Diego, which also happened to be the night the Dodgers saluted Vin Scully in their first home game since his passing. Vin had plenty of chances to call a big Dodgers shutout against the Padres; they dropped a 19, a 14, and an 11 just in the Padres' first MLB season in 1969. So Friday's 8-0 score barely moved the needle. Until Drury broke that up with a 9th-inning sac fly after his new buddy, Josh Bell, had drawn a leadoff walk. Only two other batters in Padres history had broken up a shutout of 8 or more with a sac fly in the 9th: Austin Hedges against the Giants in 2015, and Shane Victorino at Coors Field in 2003.
And for the ultimate in crumpling up your game story and having to start over, we always have the AL West. Where-- aside from one random outburst where a team hits 7 homers and loses-- most of the games are 3-1, the "star of the game" is somebody who went 1-for-3 with an RBI double, both starters went 6 innings and struck out 5, and we feel for you, beat writers, because we don't know how you can write about nothing 120-ish times a year. So at least maybe crumpling up a blank piece of paper is worthwhile when there's actually something to replace it with.
On the heels of the Angels' 7-homer escapade on Thursday, they got to start that series in Seattle on Friday night. True to form, Patrick Sandoval works into the 6th and strikes out 5. Robbie Ray surrenders back-to-back hits for a run in the 1st but then fans 10 in a solid 7 innings. He also had 10 strikeouts against the Angels back on June 17, and joins Felix Hernandez and Randy Johnson as the only M's pitchers with multiple such games against Anaheim in a season. That said, he's on the hook for a 1-0 loss going to the 9th.
He's really on the hook when Ryan Borucki gives up a 2-run homer to make it 3-0 Angels. Mike Trout also hit a multi-run dinger in Seattle on June 18, marking the first time since 1989 (Chili Davis & Devon White) that the Angels have had two in the 9th or later in the same season there.
In what is already-- as usual-- the last game of the night, all Jesse Chavez has to do is get 3 outs without giving up 3-- yeah, of course he can't be bothered to do that. Walk, single, 2-out double to Adam Frazier, then a 2-run, game-tying single by none other than "Tie" France himself. Three other Mariners batters have hit a game-tying single against the Angels with the team down to its final out: Robinson Cano in 2017, Randy Winn in 2003, and Scott Bradley in 1987. And now Chavez gets the final out which means we get to stay here a little longer.
Happily our free runners go to work here, with Andrew Velazquez bunting Magneuris Sierra over to third, and then Taylor Ward's sac fly driving him in to put the Angels back on top. The Angels hadn't hit a go-ahead sac fly in extra innings of a road game since Erick Aybar did it in Minnesota on September 5, 2014, and they'd never hit one against Seattle. Jimmy Herget finally does what Chavez couldn't, working a perfect 10th, and the Angels do hold on for a win after blowing it in the 9th.
Probably did make for a more interesting game story than 1-0, though.
Oh To Be 13 Again
Said pretty much no one ever. But just when we thought we were done with the number 13, Sunday happened.
Remember Tuesday when the Braves dropped a 13-1 score on the Phillies? Well, the Phillies decided to pay that forward against another NL East rival, those hapless Nationals for whom Cory Abbott was making his second start. His previous outing, appropriately enough on Tuesday, went just fine with 5 scoreless innings and a no-decision. Sunday, not so much. After a solo homer in the 2nd and a bases-loaded walk in the 3rd, Abbott got tagged for 5 more runs in the 4th, including 2-run bombs by Nick Maton and Rhys Hoskins, followed by Darick Hall's second dinger of the day. Aside from the 7 runs, Abbott would give up 5 walks and 4 homers, becoming the first pitcher in Nats/Expos history to do that. The last for any team was John Danks of the White Sox on August 5, 2014. Maton would go on to become the second starting #9 batter in Phillies history with a homer, a double, and 4 RBI in a game, the other being actual pitcher Jack Scott against the Giants in 1927. After the Phillies blow up for 5 more runs in the 8th, we have another 13-1 final, their most runs scored against the Nationals since that 17-3 game from April 8, 2017, with the 12-run 1st inning, that always comes up in these situations. It was also the first time ever that all nine Phillies starters scored at least 1 run in a game against the Nats/Expos.
And if you remember, Tuesday's scoreboard had that 13-1 Braves game, but it also had a 13-5 as the Padres swept a rare doubleheader with Colorado. Sure enough, Sunday obliged us with one of those as well, once again from those wacky Kansas City Royals. Our friend M.J. Melendez is still at the top of the order, but he doesn't throw us a leadoff homer this time. Instead he waits until the 3rd before singling home the Royals' second run of the game. No, the homer is going to come in the 5th after a walk and a double to start the inning against Kutter Crawford. But with the Royals poised to win another 7-3 game, just as they did in the series opener on Thursday, along comes Darwinzon Hernandez for the bottom of the 8th. Let's see how that went.
In the interest of brevity, let's just say Hernandez faced 5 batters, walked 4 of them, and in between gave up a 2-run single to Michael Massey. All of those Royals runners would end up scoring, making Hernandez the first Red Sox pitcher to allow 5 runs while getting 0 outs in a road game since Dennis Lamp did it in Detroit on July 28, 1990. And wouldn't you know it, Melendez drove in the 13th and final Royals run with his second sacrifice fly of the game, also giving him 6 RBI out of the leadoff spot. Only three other Royals leadoff batters have posted a 6-RBI game, and you've already heard about two of them-- Whit Merrifield (2019) and Willie Wilson (1979). The other is Brian McRae in 1991. Melendez and McRae are also half of the list of Royals batters to have a homer and 2 sac flies in a single game, along with Melky Cabrera (2011) and Freddie Patek (1977).
You Complete Me
We mentioned Noah Syndergaard's journey from Anaheim to Philadelphia, which finally culminated with his arrival in time for Thursday's series opener with the Nationals. "Thor" apparently did not bring the hammer, we presume because the TSA wouldn't let him, but he did bring the lightning.
The Nats, now with Luke Voit completing the San Diego trade, and a couple of former Phillies (Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez) at the bottom of the order, hammered Syndergaard for 11 base hits in 5 innings, although 10 of them were singles and they ended up scoring only 4 runs. That came one shy of Thor's career high, set against the Phillies back in 2018 while with the Mets. He also became the first pitcher to give up 11 hits in his first appearance for the Phillies since Kent Bottenfield did it in Colorado 22 years earlier to the day.
Meanwhile, Paolo Espino is having his own issues, notably giving up four straight hits to start the 3rd inning. The last of those would be a 3-run Bohm-- er, bomb-- from Alec Bohm to put the Phillies up 5-2. He gets out of the 4th on a double play, and Syndergaard takes the hill for the 5th. Annnnd it starts raining. This is fine for the moment, we need three more outs to make this an official game. That's when Thor gives up four more hits and a pair of runs, with a perfect throw by Nick Castellanos in right being the only thing that saves the lead. That retired Yadiel Hernandez at the plate to end the inning, official-ize the game, and cause us to call for that wonderful tarp.
We're not sure who was in charge of this one, though we assume it's not MLB since it was the first game of the series and not the Nationals' last visit to Philly this year. We (and we presume several thousand people at CBP) stared at the radar and said, it's gonna rain for at least a couple more hours. The fact that they aren't calling this after 45, 60, 90 minutes-- and, as usual, they're not providing any guidance as to the thinking-- hints that they're going to try and restart this game. Which will happen somewhere around midnight. On a night with no west-coast games. Oh boy.
Now, mercifully that ended up not happening. Somewhere around 10:30 they came to their senses and ended the game with the Phillies winning 5-4. But check out these weird stat lines. Thor got a complete-game win despite allowing 11 hits, the first Phillies pitcher to do that since Zach Eflin in another rain-shortened affair on June 24, 2019. Espino only pitched 4 innings because the Phillies didn't bat in the 5th, yet still gets credit for a CG as well. In the last 40 years only three other pitchers have pulled that off-- Ryan Feierabend for Toronto (2019), Steve Trachsel of the Mets, 2006, also in Philly), and Pete Smith for the Braves (1990). And since CGs in general are going the way of the dinosaurs, Thursday's game was technically the first double complete game in the majors this season.
Speaking of the Phillies not batting in the 5th, Thursday was just the second time in the modern era that they won a game where they only batted four times. The other was that same Steve Trachsel game, a 2-0 affair against the Mets on May 11, 2006.
But the baseball gods saw fit to drop another "CG-11" on us on Thursday. This one, a little less dramatic-- or maybe more so-- because it did last all 9 innings. Down in Arlington, Johnny Cueto of the White Sox gave up 2 hits and a run in the 2nd, but then avoided further damage until the 7th. It's tied 1-1 when Cueto gives up two more singles, but his pitch count is still below 80. Plus he's pretty much the best option the White Sox have. Let's let him go. That backfires a little bit when there are two more singles and a sac fly and the Rangers take a 3-1 lead. Still though, 93 pitches through 7.
Cueto retires the Rangers in order in the 8th, and with Texas leading, there is no need for a bottom of the 9th. He thus ends up with a complete game despite having allowed 11 hits, the second White Sox pitcher in the last quarter-century to pull that off. Gavin Floyd did it at Target Field on June 15, 2011. And combined with what is technically a CG-11 by Noah Syndergaard (even though it's only 5 innings long), it's the first time MLB saw two "11-hitters" on the same day since August 11, 1987, when Toronto's Jimmy Key did it at Fenway and Rick Reuschel of Pittsburgh gave up 11 hits to the Cardinals.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Yu Chang, Saturday: Second player in Rays history to hit a homer on offense and also allow one on defense. The other was an actual pitcher, Esteban Yan against the Mets on June 4, 2000.
⚾ Brady Singer & Brad Keller, Tue-Wed: First Royals pitchers to give up 11+ hits in back-to-back games since Bruce Chen & Brian Bannister against Minnesota, July 27-28, 2010.
⚾ Trey Mancini, Friday: Became second batter ever to collect 3 homers within his first 4 games with the Astros. Yordan Alvarez did it when called up from the minors in 2019.
⚾ Jarren Duran, Monday: First Red Sox leadoff batter to have 3+ RBI and account for all the team's runs in a road victory since Wade Boggs at Milwaukee on August 15, 1992.
⚾ Juan Soto, Thursday: First player ever to have both a triple and a double in either of his first 2 games with the Padres.
⚾ Jesse Winker, Fri-Sat: Second Mariners batter to draw 3 walks in back-to-back games against the Angels. Edgar Martinez did it in July of 1998.
⚾ Jameson Taillon, Tuesday: Second Yankees pitcher in past 50 years to be charged with 6 runs while giving up only 2 hits. Scott Kamieniecki tossed in 6 walks against the White Sox on May 12, 1996.
⚾ Jacob deGrom, Sunday: First opposing pitcher to allow 1 hit and strike out 12+ against the Braves since Randy Johnson's perfect game on May 18, 2004.
⚾ Mariners, Wednesday: Second time hitting 4 homers in a game at the current Yankee Stadium. Other was a 7-0 win on June 30, 2010.
⚾ Orioles, Friday: First time converting 10+ hits into only 1 run, but still winning the game, since September 27, 1974, against Milwaukee.
⚾ Andres Gimenez, Monday: First Cleveland batter with 4 hits and 3 steals in a game since Kenny Lofton against Baltimore on September 3, 2000.
⚾ Cardinals, Thursday: First time winning the opener of a doubleheader against the Cubs via walkoff since Curt Flood homered on July 17, 1966.
⚾ Bryson Stott, Saturday: First Phillies #9 batter to hit a triple in the 1st inning since Dick Ruthven at Atlanta, August 25, 1982.
⚾ Taylor Walls, Tuesday: First game in Rays history where the team had multiple hits with all of them coming from the #9 batter.
⚾ Nolan Arenado & Paul DeJong, Sunday: First Cardinals teammates to have a homer, a double, and 4 RBI in the same game since Tommy Glaviano & Eddie Kazak in Brooklyn on May 9, 1949.
⚾ Luke Williams, Wednesday: First Marlins batter with 3 hits, 3 steals, and at least 1 run scored since Emilio Bonifacio against Houston on July 10, 2011.
⚾ Edward Cabrera, Friday: Second pitcher in Marlins history to allow 0 hits and strike out 8+ in a start. The other was Edinson Volquez's no-hitter on June 3, 2017. (Cabrera left after 5 due to pitch count.)
⚾ James Outman, Monday: Became first player in modern era to play his first two MLB games with the Dodgers and have multiple hits and multiple runs scored in both of them. Last for any team was Eric Hinske for the Jays in 2002.
⚾ Adolis Garcia, Saturday: First Rangers batter to have a 5-RBI game without either a homer or a triple since Josh Hamilton against Minnesota on August 23, 2012.
⚾ Keegan Thompson, Tuesday: First Cubs pitcher to give up 10 hits and record 1 strikeout in a game in St Louis since Steve Engel on September 5, 1985.
⚾ Jacob Stallings & Peyton Burdick, Sunday: First Marlins batters to hit back-to-back homers at Wrigley since Luis Castillo & Ivan Rodriguez on July 8, 2003.
⚾ Giants, Wednesday: First home game against the Dodgers where they had 8 hits but failed to score since Bob Welch threw a shutout against them on August 5, 1978.
