We spent some time Saturday afternoon wondering what our next post would be about. (In the years of writing these every week for ESPN, sometimes the theme was the hardest part.) Then the Phillies dropped it right in our lap.
In a half-inning that took 36 minutes 51 seconds (according to the PitchF/X timestamps), the Phillies sent 16 batters to the plate; recorded nine hits, four walks, and two sacrifice flies; and jumped out to a 12-run 1st inning against the Nationals.
It was just the third time in Phillies history that they had posted a dozen runs in a frame; they first did it on July 21, 1923, against the Cubs at Baker Bowl. (That was the first game of a doubleheader as well; they lost the nightcap 16-9.) Then on April 13, 2003, they set the team record with a 13-run frame against the Reds, a game they won 13-1 (and which is still one of only two in MLB history where a team scored 13+ with all of them in one inning).
There were two 12-run innings during the 2016 season after none at all for the three years before that. The last team to post a 12-run 1st inning was the 2011 Orioles, who did so against the Yankees on July 30, a game they would also go on to win 17-3.
The 12 runs were the most ever allowed in an inning by the Nationals/Expos franchise (they had several 10's, though the only one since moving to Washington was against the Brewers on April 18, 2010).
Jeremy Guthrie faced 12 Phillies batters and got just two of them out, both on sacrifice flies. The other 10 all scored. Only two other starters have ever given up 10 earned runs without getting through the 1st inning: Jason Jennings gave up 11 for the Astros in 2007, and Luke Hudson did it for Kansas City the year before that. (Earned runs, if you're wondering, became official in both leagues as of 1913.)
Guthrie also had a 10-run start with the Royals in 2015 (May 25 versus Yankees), making him the first pitcher ever with multiple lines of ≤ 1 IP and 10+ ER. (He got into the 2nd in that game but didn't record an out.) He joins James Shields as the only pitchers this decade to have a 10-run outing with two different teams.
But the kicker? Saturday was Guthrie's 38th birthday. We trod this path two seasons ago when Chris Archer gave up nine runs on his birthday; the only other member of the 9-ER birthday club in the live-ball era was Hollis "Sloppy" Thurston of the White Sox. Thurston had the nickname long before giving up 10 earned runs on that day in 1925; he helped run his father's restaurant in the offseason and the Thurstons would give out ("slop") free soup to the less-fortunate.
The Game Dozen-'t Want To End
Wednesday saw three games hit the dozen-th inning (for the first time since last July 1), and two of those would end with multi-run walk-off homers. The Pirates and Red Sox played 11 frames without a run, the longest scoreless interleague game in Boston history, before Sandy León became the hero with a three-run homer. The Sawx had not hit a three-run (or grand slam) walk-off homer in any extra inning since Brian Daubach took Toronto's John Frascatore deep on May 24, 2000. Their last in the 12th inning or beyond was September 5, 1995, against Oakland, when Jose Canseco's three-run shot scored Troy O'Leary and Mo Vaughn.
Meanwhile, after a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 13th, the Astros were down to their final strike when George Springer blasted his own three-run walk-off to beat the Mariners 5-3. By inning, it was the latest walk-off homer in Astros history to be hit when the team was trailing; it was their first in any extra inning since June 28, 2007, when Carlos Lee walked off against the Rockies in the game where Craig Biggio got his 3,000th hit.
Wednesday thus became the first day in the live-ball era where there were two walk-off homers, each scoring three runs or more, and each in the 12th inning or later. There's a good chance it's the first time ever, but not enough linescores are available for games prior to 1909 to be able to say for certain.
Springer promptly started Thursday's game with a home run as well, becoming the first player to hit a walk-off homer one day and a leadoff homer the next, since Scott Hairston on August 3 and 4, 2007.
Whatever Works
The Brewers won Friday's game on an 11th-inning wild pitch (known as a "bounce-off" around these parts). Their last such play happened against the Twins on June 20, 2003, and was issued by Juan Rincón.
Meanwhile, after a leadoff double by Mallex Smith and two intentional walks, the Rays won Saturday's game in the 11th inning when Brad Miller drew yet another walk. The issue, of course, being that the bases were loaded. The Rays drew one of last season's seven "walk"-offs, against the Mariners on June 15 (Logan Morrison). It was the sixth such win in franchise history, and the first time they've done it in back-to-back seasons.
Those two game-ending plays hadn't happened in extra innings on back-to-back days (in either order) since July 26 and 27, 2005; Andruw Jones drew the walk for the Braves against Washington, while Brendan Donnelly uncorked one for the Angels to score Toronto's Russ Adams.
"Run"ning On The Catcher
Evan Gattis had an interesting game behind the plate on Friday, first getting called for catcher's interference, and later committing a passed ball. Again, the quirk is that both of those plays occurred with the bases loaded, giving the Royals two of their five runs. We always issue the caveat that some occurrences of catcher's interference might have been lost to history, but in the known population of play-by-play in the amazing Baseball Reference Play Index, only one other catcher has committed both a run-scoring CI and a run-scoring PB in the same game. That was Christian Bethancourt for the Braves in June 2015. Paulo Orlando became the first Royals batter ever awarded a CI with the bases loaded.
Speaking of Bethancourt, the experiment to turn him back into a pitcher continued this week. He started the 7th inning on Thursday by retiring Chase Utley, but then walked four straight batters, all of whom later scored (thanks largely to a Corey Seager double). Bethancourt thus became the fifth pitcher in Padres history to allow four runs but no hits. Ernesto Frieri was the last, on June 20, 2011, as part of a 10-run inning by the Red Sox (two walks, two hit batters).
By now you've probably seen the Yadier Molina video from Thursday. While fascinating in its own right (and we will refrain from speculating how the ball got stuck there), the Kernels Rules Desk was mostly sad that there was not another runner(s) on base when it happened. Because in this day and age, if we told you the word "paraphernalia" actually appears in the rule book, you probably wouldn't put it in this context:
5.06 Running the Bases
(c) Dead Balls
The ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases, without liability to be put out, when:
[...]
(7) A pitched ball lodges in the umpire’s or catcher’s mask or paraphernalia, and remains out of play, runners advance one base;
And no, we've never actually seen it invoked either. We just enjoy the fact that it exists.
Pitchers Who Rake
Tied 4-4 with the Phillies in the 6th, the Reds sent up pitcher Michael Lorenzen as a pinch hitter on Thursday. Of course he homered. It was the second of his career, the other coming last year in a game he had already entered as the pitcher. Thursday's dinger made him just the second Reds pitcher in the past 50 years to homer as a pinch hitter (not as a pitcher). Micah Owings did it on May 10, 2009. Oddly, the Reds were the only National League team without a pinch-hit homer in 2016 (CHW, KC, TEX were lacking in the AL). Starting pitcher William "Rookie" Davis had already doubled earlier in the game, becoming the first Reds pitcher with an extra-base hit in his MLB debut since Jeff Russell in 1983. And the combination of Davis and Lorenzen was just the second time in the past five-plus seasons that teammate pitchers had extra-base hits in the same game (as either P or PH). The other... was last August when Lorenzen hit his other homer; Tim Adleman had doubled earlier in that contest.
History Repeating
As mentioned in our previous post, the Twins finally snapped their streak of eight Opening Day losses, but when they won again Wednesday and Thursday, they were already well ahead of their 2016 pace. Minnesota became just the third team ever to start 0-9 one season and then 3-0 in the following season, joining the 2003-04 Tigers and the 1918-19 Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers). Both of those teams, like Minnesota did, won their fourth game as well. And both of those teams lost their fifth-- which the Twins did against the White Sox on Saturday.
Bottom Of The Bag
⋅ Kendrys Morales, Thursday: Third player in Jays history to hit a grand slam for the team's first homer of the season. Others were George Bell in 1990 and Ed Sprague in 1995.
⋅ Matt Kemp, Thursday: First Atlantan ever to have a multi-homer game at Citi Field. Braves' last player to do it at Shea was Kelly Johnson on April 22, 2007.
⋅ Jeff Samardzija, Thursday: Third pitcher in "San Francisco Giants" history (1958) to strike out 9+ but also allow three homers. Randy Johnson did it in 2009 (and won), while Juan Marichal pitched nine complete innings in September 1966 but got a no-decision because the game was tied.
⋅ Manuel Margot, Friday: Second player in Padres history to hit a leadoff home run in their home opener. Marvell Wynne did it, also against the Giants, on April 13, 1987.
⋅ Nomar Mazara, Friday: Youngest player in Rangers (/Senators) history with a 6-RBI game. Youngest in majors since Starlin Castro on May 7, 2010.
⋅ Brett Gardner, Friday: First Yankee with three hits, three runs scored, and two stolen bases in a loss since Rickey Henderson on April 11, 1988.
⋅ Cubs, Saturday: First time scoring 11+ runs without a homer since September 7, 2012, in Pittsburgh. First time in team history doing it in Milwaukee (Brewers or Braves).
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