Usually there's a week or two every season where the theme of "crooked numbers" pops up, which always lends itself to a Casey Kasem countdown-style post. This is the first time we've actually managed to get all the numbers in, albeit a few at a time. Also, we're going to skip 31 through 40 because who really listens to the first hour anyway? Do you really remember what song was #31 on this date a certain number of years ago? C'mon.
The first crooked numbers of the week popped up within hours of our last post when Detroit hung a "9" in the 5th and rolled to a 19-9 win over Seattle. The Tigers' last nine-run inning was on September 17, 2008, at Texas, and their last one at home was a few months before that (April 23, also against Texas). The 28 runs were the most in any game so far this season, as were the 40 combined hits (24 by Detroit).
Although the Tigers had scored 19 runs four other times so far this century (but oddly, not 20), none of those games featured more than 21 hits. Detroit's last game with 19 and 24 was way back on July 1, 1936, when they dropped 21 and 25 on the White Sox. Gerald "Gee" Walker had 7 RBI and "Red" Evans became the second pitcher (and still the last) in White Sox history to give up 13 earned runs.
It was the first 19-9 score in the majors since April 11, 1993, in the third game ever played by the Rockies in Denver. They lost to the Expos at Mile High Stadium. The Tigers had played in one other 19-9 game in their history, and it was seven games into their history. Those pesky White Sox beat them by that score on May 1, 1901.
Just a few hours later, the Nationals and Rockies thought it would be a good idea to combine for 27 runs of their own, with Washington winning 15-12 in the highest-scoring game at Coors Field since July 4, 2008. That game (an 18-17 Colorado walk-off) was also the last time both teams hit a dozen in Denver; the Rockies hadn't scored 12 and lost since another 15-12 game, with the Cardinals on April 8, 2003.
A 15-12 slugfest by itself wasn't good enough for Trea Turner, however. He dropped the season's second cycle and the first by the Nationals since Cristian Guzman did it against the Dodgers on August 28, 2008.
Although Turner's home run was only a two-run job, his triple came with the bases loaded and he ended the day with 7 RBI. He thus became the second-youngest player to have 7 RBI in a "cycle" game, bested only by Joe DiMaggio on July 9, 1937. It was the fifth cycle recorded at Coors since the start of 2014, matching the total from all the ballparks below 5,000 feet combined.
Cycle or not, Turner also became the first player with a line of 4 runs, 4 hits, and 7 RBI, who did not have multiple home runs, since Phil Weintraub did that for the Giants on April 30, 1944. The next day, Turner went homer-double-single, making him just the second player ever to hit for the cycle one day and have a "near-cycle" (¾ of it, and a silly thing we track here at Kernels) the next day. The other was some guy named Stan Musial in July 1949.
Back to our final score, it was the first 15-12 game in the majors since July 14, 2006 (Atlanta over San Diego in 13 innings), and the first nine-inning variety since the Reds beat the Cubs on September 12, 2002. Not surprisingly, there had never been a day in major-league history with both a 19-9 game and a 15-12 game.
Washingtonians may want to be careful that their team doesn't move again, this time to Denver. The Nationals continued to dominate Coors Field, winning 11-4 on Wednesday and posting a 16-5 win on Thursday that included an 11-run 7th inning. They sent 15 batters to the plate in a 25-minute frame that was the highest-scoring by a Washington team since the second-incarnation Senators dropped an 11-run 6th on the Orioles on May 11, 1962. (The Expos' team record for runs in an inning was 13.)
And back to those scores again, the Nationals not only became the first visiting team ever to score 11+ in three straight games in Denver, but it marked the first time "Washington" had put up three straight 11's against the same opponent since August of 1899! The old National League Senators went 15-14-13 against the Cardinals, but limped to a 54-98 record that season (ahead of only the infamous 134-loss Cleveland Spiders) and were contracted when the NL went to eight teams.
The Yankees decided to join our parade of interesting scores with a wild, 14-11 walk-off victory over the Orioles on Friday after trailing by as much as 9-1 during the middle innings. Starlin Castro brought the Bombers all the way back with a two-run homer in the 9th, after which Matt Holliday (who wears #17 if you're wondering why it's lit up) walked off with a three-run jack. It was the first time the Yankees had combined for a tying homer in the 9th and a walk-off homer in the 10th (not later) since September 2, 1979, when Graig Nettles and Oscar Gamble respectively did it against the Royals.
Jacoby Ellsbury (jersey number 22) contributed to the comeback by matching Mark Trumbo's grand slam for Baltimore. Although the Yankees famously had that 2011 game where they hit three grand slams, Friday marked the first game in the Bronx where both teams hit a slam since Bob Cerv offset Wes Covington of the White Sox on May 28, 1961.
Friday's score marked the first time the Orioles had scored 11 runs against the Yankees and lost since July 13, 1936 (15-12).
Intermission
Since you were actually wondering what the #31 song was, here it is from multiples of five years ago.
1962: "The Jam Part 1", Bobby Gregg
1967: "My Back Pages", The Byrds
1972: "Taxi", Harry Chapin
1977: "Sometimes", Facts Of Life
1982: "Genius Of Love", Tom Tom Club
1987: "The Right Thing", Simply Red
1992: "Baby Got Back", Sir Mix-A-Lot
1997: "The Freshmen", The Verve Pipe
2002: "My Sacrifice", Creed
2007: "Home", Daughtry
2012: "Springsteen", Eric Church
Now, On With The Survey
After a remarkable 9-1 road trip, the Nationals returned home to face the Mets over the weekend. Travis d'Arnaud (jersey number 18) led Friday's attack with two homers and five driven in, already the third different Met with that line this year (Jay Bruce, Yoenis Cespedes). Not only is that the first time in Mets history that three different players have done it in April, it's the first time three different Mets have done before the All-Star Break. (Really.)
Michael Conforto (jersey number 30) added two homers in Saturday's win; behind Jose Reyes, Gregg Jefferies, and Lee Mazzilli, he is the fourth-youngest Met ever to have two homers out of the leadoff spot. It's also just the third time that the Mets have had a multi-homer game in consecutive contests against the Nationals/Expos. Carlos Beltran and Brian Schneider also did it at Nats Park in September 2008; while Jeromy Burnitz, Mo Vaughn, and Mike Piazza did it in three straight in September 2002, though the Mets still lost two of those games.
Annnnd then there was Sunday. The Nats erupted for a franchise-record 23 runs in the highest-scoring game since the famous 30-3 game by the Rangers nearly a decade ago.
The team launched seven home runs, tying the franchise record set by the Expos on July 30, 1978. In that game (a 19-0 shutout of the Braves which is also the largest victory margin in franchise history), there was the unique circumstance of a player (Andre Dawson) hitting two home runs but getting upstaged by a teammate (Larry Parrish) who hit three. Sure enough, Sunday's game had that too, with the respective parts being played by Matt Wieters and Anthony Rendon.
Two of Rendon's homers were solo shots, which should have left him with a nice predictable 5 RBI on the day. That would have already matched his season total, accumulated over 22 games. Except Rendon wasn't done. He tacked on a two-run single and a bases-loaded double to become the 13th player in major-league history to collect 10 RBIs in a game. Of those 13, only three (including Rendon) did it batting sixth or lower, and only three (including Rendon) did it as part of a six-hit game. The others in that second group are Tony Lazzeri in 1936 and the Reds' Walker Cooper in 1949.
Rendon also scored five runs, so-- never even mind the 10 RBIs-- he is only the 10th player in the live-ball era to have six hits and five runs scored in a game. C.J. Cron managed it last year, while the Expos' Rondell White (June 11, 1995) is also on the list. Cooper's 1949 game-- in which Cincinnati, like Washington, scored 23 runs-- is the only other game to meet all three thresholds.
And if you thought 19-9 and 15-12 were unusual scores, Sunday's game was just the third 23-5 affair in major-league history. The Giants beat the Phillies at Baker Bowl by that score on July 11, 1931; while on August 30, 1887, the Louisville Colonels (no relation ☺) of the old American Association defeated the New York Metropolitans. (Those Mets attempted to promote the ferry trade by playing at a cricket ground on Staten Island. It didn't work and they folded after the 1887 season.)
The 2017 Mets, for their part, added two homers on Sunday to bring the game total to nine. It was the first game in Nationals Park history to feature nine homers, and even good old R.F.K. hadn't seen one in half a century (and before it was called that). On August 29, 1963, the current Senators (now Rangers) played the former Senators (then and now Twins), with the Harmon Killebrew-led Minnesotans taking a 14-2 decision.
Ryan Zimmerman not only finished April with 11 home runs (taking the franchise's career record for April homers away from Andre Dawson, 36 to 35), but he leads the majors with 29 RBI. His teammates Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper are immediately behind him with 26 each. They are the first trio in franchise history to each have 26 RBI in a month, and the first in the majors since Michael Cuddyer, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau did it for the Twins in May 2009. It's also the first time in (at least) the Wild Card Era (1993) that three teammates have led the RBI chart at the end of any calendar month.
⋅ Jesse Hahn, Tuesday: Worked eight scoreless innings and allowed only one hit. Last Oakland pitcher to do that in a road game was the late Cory Lidle in Cleveland on August 21, 2002. Hahn ended up not getting the win because the game was a scoreless tie; first Athletics pitcher in (at least) the live-ball era to pull that off.
⋅ Indians, Sunday: First 8-run inning since May 27, 2015, against Texas. Only Braves, Brewers, and Cardinals have gone longer without one. Padres were on that list until they put up an 8-run inning Saturday, tying for their biggest inning ever in San Francisco. Also did it on Opening Day 1983.
⋅ Cody Bellinger, Saturday: At 21 years 290 days, became youngest Dodger with a multi-homer game since Matt Kemp (21-261) on June 11, 2006, and third-youngest ever at Dodger Stadium. Adrian Beltre (21-163 on September 17, 2000) and Scott Rolen (21-139 on August 21, 1996) beat him by a few months.
⋅ Braves, Saturday: Collected 20 hits in 11-3 win over the Brewers. The last time the Braves had 20 hits in a game in Milwaukee, they were the home team! It was June 15, 1965, in a 12-7 victory over the Phillies.
⋅ Aaron Judge, Wednesday: Fourth Yankee ever to homer on his 25th birthday, joining Tyler Austin (2016), Tom Tresh (1963) and Aaron Ward (1921).
Bottom Of The Bag
or, "Let's take a moment to check out the tops of the other charts."
⋅ Hernan Perez, Tuesday: Second player in Brewers history with a homer and two triples. Ted Savage did it on September 15, 1970 (their first season after the move), in a loss to Oakland.
⋅ Marcus Stroman, Tuesday: First American League pitcher since the Designated Hitter rule was added in 1973 to record an extra-base hit while pinch hitting. Gary Peters of the Red Sox had been the last to do it, on September 4, 1971.
⋅ Josh Phegley, Tuesday: First pinch-hit home run in Athletics history (to 1901) to break a scoreless tie in extra innings. Their last by a "normal" hitter (non-PH) was Matt Holliday on May 19, 2009.
⋅ Seth Smith, Wednesday: First Oriole to receive a walk-off bases-loaded walk (affectionately known as a "shrimp") in extra innings since Larry Bigbie against the Red Sox on April 8, 2004.
⋅ Indians, Saturday: Allowed 3 hits to Mariners in 1st inning but none for the rest of the game. Last time doing that in a 9-inning game (there was a rain-shortened version of this in 2005) was April 21, 1990, against the White Sox.
⋅ Gerrit Cole, Tuesday: Pitched seven innings, allowed two hits, zero earned runs, and lost (1-0 on an unearned run). The last Pirates pitcher to do that was Harvey Haddix on May 26, 1959. Yes, that game.
And there you have 'em, the 30 biggest... oh, you know the deal. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
Did You Know?
"Genius Of Love" by the Tom Tom Club actually peaked at number 31. Thirty-five years ago today. Next week it's gonna plummet to #85.
No comments:
Post a Comment