Not too long ago, it was easy to tell from a pitcher's line whether he was finding the plate or not. Those who had a lot of pitches and a lot of walks, well, weren't. The overpowering ones would drop 18 strikeouts in a complete-game three-hitter (does anyone other than Ben Sheets remember that Ben Sheets did this?).
Then there are the kind who just throw it over the plate and see what happens.
Instant Bargain
Chris Sale, arguably off to one of the best starts ever with a new team, and certainly in this century (because we needed a Sale of the Century reference), struck out 12 more batters on Saturday to notch his seventh double-digit-strikeout game of the season. No one else has more than four (Jacob deGrom), and the rest of the Red Sox staff has one (Drew Pomeranz). The last pitcher in the majors to have seven 10-K games by May 13 was Randy Johnson in 2001; he would finish that season with 23 such games, again tying the major-league record he already shared with Nolan Ryan.
Sale did leave a couple of balls close enough to the plate to be raked for home runs (by Logan Morrison and Kevin Kiermaier); equally strange is that those were the only two hits Sale allowed. The last Boston pitcher to strike out 12+ and give up two dingers were Bruce Hurst against the Rangers on May 16, 1986 (he actually gave up three, including a leadoff shot to Oddibe McDowell). And only one other Sawx hurler has fanned 12 and had every hit allowed be a homer: Pedro Martinez, in his 17-strikeout one-hitter against the Yankees on September 10, 1999. The one hit was a solo home run by Chili Davis.
The Match Game
A few hours later, Nate Karns of the Royals matched Sale's line by recording a career-high 12 strikeouts of his own, and doing so in just five innings of work against the Orioles. He became the second pitcher in Royals history to fan a dozen or more in the first five innings of a game (regardless of final line); Kevin Appier did that against the Rangers on May 25, 1994.
Like Sale before him, however, Karns also left two balls in just the right spot, and Francisco Peña tagged both of them. He became the first Oriole to hit two homers at Kauffman Stadium since Melvin Mora on May 18, 2005, and also gave Karns a unique spot in Royals lore. Zack Greinke (June 13, 2010 at Cincinnati) and Danny Jackson (May 26, 1987, at White Sox) are the only other pitchers in team history to fan 12 but also allow two homers.
And as for two pitchers doing it in the same day? That had happened just once before in the live-ball era... and it was two weeks ago! Jacob deGrom and Charlie Morton both pulled it off on Friday, April 28.
Danny Jackson Fans, This Is Your Week!
Jackson's 12-strikeout game was not enough to overcome his 9-18 record with the Royals in '87; they traded him to the Reds after the season for middle-infielder Kurt Stillwell and a Power pitcher. (No, literally. Ted Power, who bounced to six other teams before retiring in 1993).
Anyway, in Jackson's first start with the Reds, the second game of the '88 season, he tossed a complete game in beating the Cardinals 8-1. That feat was finally duplicated on Saturday as well; although Lisalverto Bonilla had made one relief appearance, he became the first pitcher since Jackson to throw a CG (win or lose-- and he did lose) in his first Cincinnati start.
Hit(s) The Fan(s)
Jeff Samardzija finally won a game on Sunday, but it didn't exactly come easy. Continuing our theme, Samardzija struck out eight Reds batters but also allowed eight hits, something he's already done four times this year. Corey Kluber is the only other pitcher to have even done it twice. The last Giants hurler with four such games in an entire season was John "Count of" Montefusco in 1975.
Stephen Strasburg got in on this theme on Wednesday, allowing eight hits but also recording eight K's in the Battle of the Beltways against the Orioles. It was his fifth game with that line, now the most in Nationals history (2005). Gio Gonzalez has done it four times and Max Scherzer three.
Rick Porcello had a slightly different split on Friday, allowing nine hits and five runs but also striking out seven in Boston's loss to the Rays. Since the start of 2015, Porcello has had five such games (9+ H and 7+ K), beating out five others, including Sale, Gonzalez, and Scherzer, for the most in the majors.
Ineffectively Wild
Mike Clevinger started Saturday's game with three no-hit innings for the Indians. Those darned 4th innings. Although it could have been much worse, Clevinger issued his fourth and fifth walks of the game, uncorked two wild pitches, had the no-hitter broken on a bunt single, then threw the ball away trying to field said bunt single. He has some good company though; the last Cleveland pitcher with five walks, three earned runs, two wild pitches, and a fielding error was Sam McDowell who pulled all that off (and also had a balk!) against the White Sox on September 12, 1964.
If you're into heat maps (which we're not), Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Dodgers offers us this gem to back up his line from Thursday's game. In his return from the DL following a "hip contusion", Ryu allowed eight hits, six walks, and 10 runs, becoming the first Dodgers pitcher to reach those levels since one Lee Pfund did so on May 30, 1945 (and won!). The Nationals' Jason Bergmann (August 13, 2008) was the last to do it for any team, and Ryu was the first in (at least) the live-ball era to also hit a batter and commit a balk.
Over the weekend it was announced that Ryu's next start will be pushed back two days.
Fault Lines
Speaking of heat, the friction between the catcher's glove and the batter's backswing usually results in the former getting "faulted" with an interference call. Not only was this weekend's Astros/Yankees series a matchup between the two best records in the American League, it matched this season's leader in CI awards against the active career leader.
Josh Reddick earned his fourth such call of the year in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader, already tying him with Andujar Cedeño (1993) for second place on the Astros' all-time list. Their team record is held by longtime catcher Alan Ashby, who had six in 1987.
In the series opener on Thursday, Jacoby Ellsbury moved one overextended backswing closer to history, garnering his 28th career CI award and putting him one shy of Pete Rose's all-time record. (Rose is regarded as the record-holder, although some are lost to history, since the batters who received CI awards weren't officially reported by both leagues until 1963.)
That Ellsbury call was the first of his 28 to occur with the bases loaded and force in a run; the Yankees hadn't had that happen since August 18, 1992, when Pat Kelly got one against the Athletics. The Astros have committed two this year with the bases loaded (albeit with different catchers); the 2010 Mariners and Rose's 1986 Cincinnati Reds are the only other teams known to do that twice.
And although he got an RBI for the bases-loaded CI (which apparently even confused the official scorer until he reviewed the rule book after the game), Ellsbury's chance at tying the game was cut down at the plate when he was thrown out by LF Jake Marisnick for the final out. It was the first time the Yankees had the potential tying run thrown out at home to end a game (at least on a ball in play) since August 12, 1987, when Wayne Tolleson got nailed by Royals LF Lonnie Smith while trying to score on Roberto Kelly's double.
Intermission
We've had some dozen-strikeout games, but not a baker's dozen in a while. For that we have to bring in the fourth question ever asked by Jim Perry on Sale of the Century (at 3:15). (Also, if you have no reason to leave the house this week, the rest of that playlist lasts over 76 hours.)
Busterin' Loose
After 17 innings of squatting behind the plate, Buster Posey had enough and decided to shake things up (veiled earthquake reference!) with a walkoff home run to defeat the Reds on Friday (actually 12:43 am Saturday). It missed being the latest finish this year by two minutes, and was 43 minutes from being the latest in San Francisco history (June 21, 1983, also against the Reds).
Posey's homer was just the fifth ever hit by the Giants in the 17th or later, and the first walkoff. Larry Doyle holds the record with a 21st-inning inside-the-parker (back when such things were common) in Pittsburgh on July 17, 1914. George "High Pockets" Kelly hit one in the 18th inning in 1922, while Jim Davenport gave them a 17th-inning lead against the Mets on May 13, 1966. More recently, and more memorably, Brandon Belt's 18th-inning shot signalled the beginning of the end for the longest postseason game in MLB history, Game 2 of the 2014 Division Series against Washington.
As for that walkoff, however, Posey wrote his name next to one of the all-time greats. The team's previous record for latest walkoff was set when Willie Mays defeated the Milwaukee Braves at Candlestick Park on July 2, 1963. That game, which Hank Aaron called "the finest exhibition of throwing [he'd] ever seen", was a double complete game between Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn; there hasn't been even one CG of 15+ innings since then.
Some 5½ hours earlier, Denard Span had led off the festivities with his own solo homer. Posey's game-winner thus made the Giants the only team in major-league history to both start and end a game of 17 innings or longer with a home run.
Park Rangers
The Rangers didn't wait for extra innings, with Mike Napoli hitting a three-run jack in the bottom of the 9th on Thursday to walk off against the Padres 5-2. It was Napoli's second homer of the game; his other one came just an inning before to start the Texas scoring. He was the first Ranger to homer in the 8th and 9th innings of the same game since Mark Teixeira did it on July 13, 2006, and the first to do it where the second homer was a walkoff.
On Friday it was Joey Gallo's turn, with his three-run 9th-inning blast giving the Rangers a 5-2 win over Oakland (who of course won three straight walkoffs of their own last week). The last time Texas hit back-to-back walkoff homers was July 29-31, 2013, when they nailed three straight against the Angels. But it was the first time in team history that both homers had been at least three-run shots. The Angels' offense was the last to do that; on May 29, 2010, Kendrys Morales hit the infamous walkoff where he broke his leg jumping on home plate and was done for the year; the next day on the 30th, Howie Kendrick came through with a walkoff slam.
And the last known team to pull off back-to-back three-run walkoffs against different opponents was the 1947 Giants; Willard Marshall beat the Cardinals on June 6 of that year, and after Marshall was intentionally walked in their next game on the 9th, Walker Cooper hit the three-run shot to beat the Pirates. (Games on the 7th and 8th were rained out.)
Bottom Of The Bag
⋅ Matt Szczur (Fri) & Manuel Margot (Sat): First occurrence of a team homering on the first pitch it saw in consecutive games since Alfonso Soriano did it for the Cubs on September 19 & 21, 2007. In the era of complete pitch counts, which is to about 1988, no road team (i.e., first pitch of game) had ever done it.
⋅ Michael Conforto, Sunday: Third player in Mets history with a homer, a triple, a double, and four runs scored (also Kevin McReynolds 1989, Darryl Strawberry 1987). Third in past 100 years to do it in a loss for any team, joining Hal McRae (Royals 1977) and Ty Cobb (Tigers 1921).
⋅ Astros/Yankees, Sunday: First teams to trade 6-run innings in a doubleheader (Yankees did it in G1, Astros in G2) since the Indians and Red Sox on September 21, 2000.
⋅ Rockies, Saturday: First home game in team history where they scored 0 runs and struck out at least 14 times.
⋅ Trevor Cahill, Saturday: Third pitcher in Padres history to throw four wild pitches in a game. First for any team to throw three in one at-bat since Stephen Strasburg on August 17, 2013.
⋅ Josh Lindblom, Friday: First Pirates reliever to give up seven hits and four runs since... Josh Lindblom on Monday. First Pirate to do it twice in a season since Mark Petkovsek in 1993.
⋅ Miguel Sano, Friday: First player in Twins/Senators history (1901) to hit a solo homer in the 1st inning and have it stand up for a 1-0 victory.
⋅ Gregory Polanco, Thursday: First Pirate to homer for team's only hit of game since Joe Randa on September 22, 2006 (his final career HR broke up a 9th-inning no-hit bid by Chris Young of the Padres-- who still have never thrown one).
⋅ Luis Perdomo, Wednesday: First pitcher in Padres history to balk in a run and wild-pitch in a run in same game.
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