The "Off" Position

From lead- to walk-, who needs those pesky middle innings anyway?


It seems that for the last few days, we here at Kernels have reselected the same options on the great Baseball Reference Play Index a bunch of different times. So if you're like one of those Dodger fans who prefers to only watch innings 3 through 7, here's what you missed this week.


Grease Is The Word

With apologies to Betty, it was Anthony Rizzo who delivered some "greased lightning" on Friday with the Cubs trailing 5-2 and down to their final out in Cincinnati. His three-run bomb sent the game to extras, where the Cubs eventually won in the 11th. It was the first time Chicago had launched a tying homer when trailing by at least 3, and down to their last out, since Geovany Soto did it against the Brewers on September 18, 2008. Before that it was Sammy Sosa in 1993.

Since Rizzo arrived on the scene in 2011, the Cubs have hit 25 tying or go-ahead home runs in the 9th inning or extras; Rizzo has five of those. Soto is among the players with two, and in a bizarre coincidence, one of his was in the game where Rizzo made his major-league debut (June 9 in Philadelphia).


I Hear Something Russelling

In the previous game, last Wednesday, the Cubs trailed 4-3 entering the 9th, but manufactured a Kris Bryant RBI single to tie, and then a three-run walkoff homer by Addison Russell.

Russell became the youngest Cub to hit any walkoff homer since July 29, 2012. That day's two-run shot to beat the Cardinals... was by Anthony Rizzo.

The last time the Cubs' hit a three- (or four-) run walkoff homer was on June 30, 2011, against the Giants. They had the third-longest drought of such a thing among major-league teams, trailing only the Pirates and Brewers.

The player who hit that previous homer? None other than Geovany Soto. It was his other go-ahead one in the 9th inning or later, coming just three weeks after the first.

Those back-to-back Cubs wins (Thursday was an off-day) when trailing after eight innings were their first since April 23 and 24 of 2012, when they walked off the Cardinals with RBI singles on consecutive days. The player who scored the winning run in the first of those games? Geovany Soto.


The Part Of The Post That's Not About Geovany Soto

The Rangers had a pair of walkoffs last weekend as well, Thursday's being an RBI single by Delino DeShields Jr. to beat the Royals in the bottom of the 13th. Final score: 1-0. It was the sixth time in Royals history that they had played 12 scoreless innings, but the last was way back on July 23, 1992 (the Rangers did it as recently as 2014).

However, DeShields' hit was the first time the Rangers had walked off in a 1-0 game in the 13th or later since Ruben Sierra scored Gary Pettis to beat the White Sox on August 17, 1990. It was the first career walk-off anything for the junior DeShields; his dad had 11, but none in the 13th or later, and only one to settle a 1-0 game (a solo homer against the Dodgers in 1991).

Saturday's game would end when Elvis Andrus singled home Rougned Odor in the 9th for a 2-1 win; the last time they walked off the Royals twice in the same series was in September 1990. In back-to-back games that year, the ageless Julio Franco (who was already 32 by that point) scored both winning runs-- one in front of a Rafael Palmeiro double, and the other from third base when Pete Incaviglia drew a bases-loaded walk.


Paging Mr. Franco

Julio and Maikel aren't related (as best we can tell), but the latter also gave the Phillies a walkoff win in B10 on Saturday, after being unable to get the ball out of his glove for the third out of T10. (The play was ruled a single, the scorer saying Adonis Garcia would have beat it anyway, but still.)

With the bases loaded but two outs, Franco needed a multi-run hit for the win, and he clanged one off the base of the wall for the 4-3 victory. (Again, it was ruled a single, this time presumably because Franco didn't bother to run to second.) It was Franco's second career walk-off anything; the other was a bizarre play last August that was officially ruled a 9-2 fielder's choice because neither trail runner bothered to advance (since their runs didn't matter).

The last time the Phils got a multi-run walk-off hit in extras that wasn't a home run was on July 7, 1993, when Lenny Dysktra bounced an automatic double over the head of Dodgers LF Eric Davis in the bottom of the 20th inning. It was 1:47 am when that happened, but just five days earlier, the Phillies had set the all-time record (which still stands) for latest finish, when their doubleheader with the Padres endured six hours of rain delays and ended at 4:40 am.


Intermission
It's been stuck in my head ever since I typed the first header. Your turn.


Back To The Beginning

Ian Kinsler gave the Tigers a quick 1-0 lead on Thursday when he launched the third pitch of the game out of Tropicana Field (we know you can't really do that because it's a dome, but roll with it). The Rays, however, would come back to score eight times and leave Kinsler's homer as Detroit's only run in the loss. The last time the Tigers got a leadoff homer for their only run of a game was July 20 of last season... by Ian Kinsler. He's the first player in Tigers franchise history to pull that stunt twice.

Steven Souza would chip in a big chunk of that Rays offense, becoming the fourth player in team history to miss the cycle by the single. Sam Fuld was the last, on April 11, 2011. Souza was the second player to miss the single this year, after Josh Reddick did it the day before; there were only three such games in 2016.


Latecomers Will Be Seated

Friday's slate of games was notable for its four leadoff home runs, in this case all hit by home teams in the bottom of the 1st. Four leadoff homers happened as recently as August 19 of last season, but four by the home team had been nearly a decade. On September 25, 2007, the Brewers, Phillies, Mets, and Pirates each did it, although two of them would go on to lose.

The Pirates were among those teams again Friday, with Jordy Mercer hitting the team's first-ever leadoff homer against the Yankees (whom they don't play all that often). It was the sixth allowed by CC Sabathia since coming to the Yankees in 2009; he's tied with Hiroki Kuroda for the most over that span.

The Mets were the other team to hit a leadoff homer on that day in 2007 and again on Friday; 10 years ago they were already trailing the Nationals 4-0 when Jose Reyes went yard. This past weekend, Michael Conforto, newly moved to the top of the order, homered on Friday and then added another leadoff jack on Sunday night. He's the first Met to hit two in three days since... Jose Reyes on September 17 and 19, 2008.

And Sunday night's homer also came with the Mets trailing the Nationals 4-0 following a grand slam by former Met Daniel Murphy. Murph joins Jay Bruce as the only players with 5+ Citi Field homers as both a Met and a visitor, and two of the four 1st-inning slams in "Nationals" history (2005) have come at Citi. Josh Willingham had the other in April 2010.

Corey Dickerson of the Rays tagged one of those leadoff homers on Friday, and added another on Monday at Camden Yards. Combined with his shot on April 5, he is the first player in (Devil) Rays history with three before the end of April.


Paging Mr. Reyes

As for Reyes, he came up in yet another note on Sunday when Charlie Blackmon led off the Rockies' game with a triple. That was mostly because Blackmon had done the exact same thing on Saturday, thus becoming the second player in Colorado history with a leadoff three-bagger in consecutive games. Neifi Perez pulled that off against the Mets on September 14 and 15, 1999. But Reyes was the last player in the majors to do it, June 11-12, 2012, against the Red Sox.


Bottom Of The Bag

Bartolo Colon, Friday: Fourth-oldest pitcher in Braves history to allow 11 hits in a game. Cy Young did it in both of his last two career games (to end the 1911 season); the other 44-year-olds were Phil Niekro (1983) and Dennis Martinez (1998).

Zack Wheeler, Saturday: Third pitcher in Mets history to have an extra-base hit as a pinch hitter. Jon Niese (May 16, 2011) and Dwight Gooden (October 3, 1993, in season finale) each tripled.

Jake Arrieta, Saturday: Recorded a triple for fourth straight season. Last pitcher to pull that off was Ray Sadecki of the Cardinals in 1963-66.

Addison Russell, Monday: First Cubs batter to single in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd innings of same game since Ryne Sandberg did it against the Reds on September 7, 1986.

Dodgers, Monday: First time since (at least) the move to Los Angeles in 1958 that they made the last out of a game by getting picked off a base. Last time they ended one on a caught-stealing was August 27, 1993 (Brett Butler vs Cardinals).

Monday: First day on which both Chicago teams won by at least 11 runs since August 15, 1945. On that day, the Cubs beat the Dodgers 20-6; the White Sox beat those other Sox 11-0; and (really) Japan announced its surrender to end World War II.