20-7
If someone told you Minnesota scored 7 in the 3rd period and beat Seattle 20-7, you would probably think Vikings and Seahawks. Especially when another column of the boxscore says 28-14. It's the 7 more "points" in the 7th period that start to confuse things. But no, it actually happened on Tuesday, the first 20-7 score in MLB since the Padres won in Montréal on May 19, 2001. (And with the exchange rate, that's closer to 16-5. ☺)
Unlike Anthony Rendon's 10-RBI game or Scooter Gennett's four-homer outburst last week, this game came from everywhere. The 28 hits set a Twins/Senators team record, and the 42 combined hits (that's the 28-14, incidentally) obliterated the old Target Field record of 35. Number-nine hitter Eddie Rosario went deep three times, two of them with someone on base, just the third #9 batter in team history to have multiple multi-run homers in the same game. Catcher Mark Salas did so at Tiger Stadium on May 29, 1987; and Greg Gagne pulled it off the year before (August 22) against Toronto.
Kennys Vargas became the first Twins player this year with four hits and four runs scored in a game, and the first to do it without a homer since Jason Kubel in 2008 (August 17 vs Seattle). Jason Castro had four hits and four RBIs and didn't lead the team in either category, just the third player in team history to manage that (Danny Valencia in Joe Mauer's 7-RBI game in 2010, and Buddy Myer for the Senators in 1935).
Eduardo Escobar topped the hit column with five base knocks, all of which were singles. The last Minnesotan with a 5-hit game was... Eduardo Escobar in Detroit, August 22, 2014. He's the first player in Minnesota history to have two such games batting 6th or lower, and the first for the franchise since Cecil Travis in 1946.
All told the Twins had 22 singles among their 28 hits, with Escobar, Vargas, and Castro accounting for 13 of them. They became the first trio of teammates in the majors to each have four hits, but none for extra bases, since Pat Listach, Darryl Hamilton, and Scott Fletcher each did it for the Blue Jays in a 31-hit outburst on August 28, 1992. (Kevin Seitzer also had five hits in that game, but two were doubles.)
And not to be overlooked, Twins starter Kyle Gibson gave up 12 hits and 6 runs of his own, making this the first game since August 27, 1938, where three different pitchers got tagged for 10 hits and 6 runs apiece. Boston's Fritz Ostermueller threw a complete game 12-hitter (as you did in those days) and beat up on the White Sox 19-6.
14-3
The Cubs started a midweek series at Citi Field by unloading 14 runs on the Mets on Tuesday. Anthony Rizzo was moved to the leadoff spot for the first time in his career and promptly took the second pitch of the game to center field for the Cubs' first leadoff homer in Flushing since Reed Johnson hit one on July 6, 2012. Rizzo became the first Cubs 1B to hit a leadoff homer since Rick Monday had three in 1976.
In the 2nd inning Rizzo drew a bases-loaded walk which begat Ian Happ's first career grand slam. Despite the Addison Russells and Kris Bryants of recent years, Happ became the youngest Cub to hit a slam in a road game since Ron Santo went deep at (yes) Connie Mack Stadium on August 16, 1960. Three more hits chased Zack Wheeler from the game; he got the dubious honor of being the first starter in Mets history to allow eight earned runs and a grand slam and not make it out of the 2nd inning.
Bryant and Jason Heyward would go on to homer later in the game, making it the first contest in 14 years where the top four in the Cubs' batting order all went yard. Mark Grudzielanek, Alex Gonzalez, Corey Patterson, and Sammy Sosa each did it in a home win over Milwaukee on June 24, 2003.
Javier Baez homered in Rizzo's spot later in the game after some double-switches; it was the first time the North Siders had ever hit five homers in a game at Citi Field. Oddly, they also did it exactly once at Shea (April 11, 1980) and exactly once at Ebbets Field (July 13, 1951), but never at the Polo Grounds.
Tuesday was the first day in MLB history with both a 20-7 game and a 14-3 game. It's happened four times in the NFL (which might be the scoreboard you mistook it for), but even the most recent of those was on November 30, 1975.
Rizzo, incidentally, hit another leadoff homer on Wednesday, making him the first player with back-to-back ones at Citi Field (including the Mets). The only person ever to do it at Shea Stadium was at least a Met, Kaz Matsui on May 22 and 23, 2004.
13-2
Speaking of Wednesday, if you thought you saw 13-2 on that day's scoreboard, you'd be right. Twice. The Braves pounded Tanner Roark and the Nationals in an afternoon getaway game, while the Astros threw up a 9-run inning later in the night in the battle of the two Texas teams. Neither team did it via the longball either; Atlanta's only dinger was a two-run job by Kurt Suzuki. It was their first road game with 13 runs scored, but only one homer, since July 26, 2003, when they won 15-4 in Montréal.
Each of the Braves' top three hitters-- Ender Inciarte, Brandon Phillips, and Nick Markakis-- each had three hits, two runs scored, and an RBI (they combined for 10, 7, and 6 total), a first for the team in 20 years. On April 18, 1997, at Coors Field (of course), Kenny Lofton, Michael Tucker, and Chipper Jones each did it in a 14-0 shutout.
Tanner Roark got tagged for seven earned runs in five innings; he has two of the Nationals' three such starts this season (Jeremy Guthrie has the other). The Nats' last pitcher to do that twice by the end of June was Shairon Martis in 2009.
Meanwhile, the Astros only had two homers among their 13 runs, and those happened to be back-to-back to start their 9-run 7th inning. Derek Fisher and Jake Marisnick became the second pair of starting 8- and 9-hitters to go back-to-back in Astros history (thanks to the National League, there's been some pinch hitters in there). Bill Doran and pitcher Bob Knepper hit them in the 6th inning of a 3-2 win at Candlestick Park on June 14, 1983.
The 9-run inning was the Astros' biggest at Minute Maid Park since July 10, 2003, when they laid one on the Reds and won 11-2. And Wednesday was the first day with a pair of 13-2 scores since August 23, 2003. Both of those games involved Chicago; the Sox beat the Yankees while the Cubs lost by the same score to Arizona.
10-9 and 10-8
The Giants and Rockies played a four-game set in Denver this weekend, and well, Coors will be Coors. It opened on Thursday with Colorado taking an 8-1 lead after three innings, and the Giants answering with eight of their own runs in the final three frames. Raimel Tapia's single in the 9th broke a 9-9 tie for the walkoff win. Tapia became the fifth-youngest in Rockies history with a walkoff hit, behind Nolan Arenado, Troy Tulowitzki, Juan Uribe, and Roberto Mejia. In the past nine seasons it was the fifth time the Giants had scored nine or more runs in a road game and ended up losing... and all of those were at Coors Field. And four of them were by a 10-9 score (the other was 14-11).
Arenado, for his part on Thursday, had three extra-base hits and four runs batted in, but no homers; all the hits were doubles. Only one other batter in Rockies history had pulled that off, catcher Charles Johnson in San Diego on June 1, 2004. And Giants starter Matt Moore got bailed out when his team tied the game in the 9th; he's the first pitcher in Giants history to give up 11 hits and eight earned runs in three innings or less and not get tagged with the loss.
There was no dramatic comeback and walkoff on Friday, though the Giants did get from 10-5 back to 10-8 in the last two innings before stranding the two tying runs on base to end the game. In that one it was Giants 2B Joe Panik who had three extra-base hits (two doubles and a homer) and three runs scored; he's the first Giant to do that in a loss since Pablo Sandoval was part of that same 14-11 game at Coors Field on August 22, 2009. Denard Span had a homer and a triple for seven total bases, marking the second consecutive game that San Francisco had two players with 7 TB and lost. In their west-coast history they'd never done that in back-to-back games; in fact, they hadn't had two games like that in a season since 1995.
It didn't get a whole lot better Sunday when Arenado hit a walkoff three-run homer, topping the two-run pinch-hit homer by Hunter Pence in the top of the 9th (the first PH HR of his career, incidentally, mainly because he almost always starts). That walkoff was Arenado's fourth hit of the game, and yes, they were single, double, triple, homer (not in that order). In the past 30 years, three players have had a walkoff hit to complete the cycle, and all of them are Rockies. Carlos Gonzalez also did it with a homer on July 31, 2010; while Dante Bichette singled to complete his on June 10, 1998. The last non-Rockie to do it was Boston's Dwight Evans, also via homer, in 1984.
Three of this year's four cycles have come at Coors Field; in the live-ball era (and probably ever), no stadium had ever before tallied three in a season.
867-5309
It's never been a baseball score. Just a musical one. Intermission!
11-2 and 15-7
Camden Yards has always been a homer-happy ballpark, but when the Cardinals showed up this weekend it got a real big smile on its face (as did they). St. Louis clobbered five homers in the opener on Friday, one each by five different players, the first time they've ever done that in an American League park (regular or postseason). Their only other game with five was last June in Seattle, and Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham each had two in that game.
Paul DeJong added two singles to his homer on Friday, and thanks to that designated-hitter rule, he became the first #9 batter for the Cardinals to have three hits, three runs scored, and three driven in, since legendary pitcher Bob Gibson did it at Candlestick on September 29, 1965.
The homerfest swung the other way on Saturday with the Orioles hitting five homers, including two by Jonathan Schoop. That was Schoop's second multi-homer game against an NL opponent this month; he went deep twice against Pittsburgh on the 6th, and is the first Oriole ever to do it twice in a season. The Cardinals hit three more dingers of their own, however, marking the 18th game in the 25-year history of Camden Yards to feature eight or more homers. Since it opened, it's third in that category among all ballparks (current or former); you probably didn't need too many guesses to get Coors Field (with 33!), but second is actually the friendly confines of Wrigley Field with 22 such games.
The 15-7 win on Saturday was the first by that exact score in Orioles/Browns/original Brewers team history. The last Baltimore team to win by that count was the old American Association Orioles, who beat the Columbus (Ohio) Solons by that score on May 22, 1891.
The score calmed down to 8-5 in Sunday's finale, but not before the teams combined for eight more homers (four each). Cardinals starter Lance Lynn surrendered all four Baltimore taters, the first to do so in under five innings since Sterling Hitchcock against the Rockies (at Busch, not Coors) on September 11, 2003.
Dexter Fowler homered in all three games of the series, becoming the first Cardinal to have three career homers in the Charm City, much less in one weekend (or three games in a row).
And all told, the three games saw 22 home runs, tied for the most ever in any three-day span at Camden Yards. The O's and Astros had a series with eight, nine, and five last August. The next-highest three-day total is 18, from May 31 to June 2, 1998.
13-4
Nick Castellanos offered up a triple, a double, and 4 RBIs as Detroit beat up on the Rays by this score on Saturday. No Tiger had posted that line in 367 days; Justin Upton (who had 3 RBI as well on Saturday) did it in Chicago last June. But the last Tiger to do it at home was Carlos Guillen on July 29, 2011. (All three players also batted 6th, for whatever that's worth.)
Rather than quibble over the definition of "batting around", we'll just say that the Tigers sent nine men to the plate in both the 4th and 5th innings, each time scoring five runs and stranding one. The last time the Tigers had back-to-back 5-run innings was September 17, 2008, at Texas (5th and 6th). Earlier that same year (May 24 vs Twins) was the last time they did it at Comerica.
That also meant Alex Avila got the odd experience of leading off three consecutive innings (and, by extension, Ian Kinsler of ending them). The last Tiger to do that was Yoenis Cespedes in Seattle on July 6, 2015. Like Avila, he also went homer-single-out in those three appearances.
Friday's game was also the first time in Rays history that three different players recorded a triple. The Reds would promptly do the same thing (three players tripled in a loss) on Saturday, the first time it's happened on back-to-back days since July 9-10, 1966 (Indians and Athletics, against each other).
And while we're here, on Thursday Miguel Cabrera's walkoff homer sent the Rays packing. The score of 5-3 didn't make our headlines, but the notable thing is that it was the first time the Tigers had ever hit a walkoff homer against Tampa Bay. And aside from combos involving the Astros, who just moved to the AL four years ago, the American League grid of such a thing is now complete. I.e., every current AL team has now hit a walkoff homer against every other current AL team. There are about 12 such combos remaining in the NL, all involving the 1990s expansion teams.
1-0
We haven't spent much time on 1-0 games lately, especially considering there's only been 10 of them the entire year (which is an amazingly far cry from the 69 just three years ago; there were 47 last year and 45 in 2015). But Chris Sale spun one of the gems of the season on Thursday, going the distance with 10 strikeouts and also chipping in an extra-base hit at the plate since the Red Sox were in Philadelphia and the pitchers had to bat. Sale was the first Boston pitcher with 10 K and an XBH since Ken Brett (brother of George) did it against the Senators on September 19, 1970.
Thanks to throwing a complete game and still being in the lineup, Sale also got his double as the leadoff batter of the 8th inning, the latest into a game that any Red Sox hurler has gotten a hit since 1997. On June 21 of that year, SS Mike Benjamin wound up position-player-pitching in a blowout by the Tigers. The previous year (May 23, 1996) saw the last 8th-inning hit by a true Boston pitcher, when the team gave up the DH against Seattle and Roger Clemens ended up batting.
There's just one problem here. It's the Red Sox who have the 0. Pinch-hitting journeyman Ty Kelly doubled in the only run of the game in the bottom of the 8th inning, and it was the Phillies who took the 1-0 victory against Sale. He became the first Red Sock with 10 strikeouts in a complete-game loss (never mind the double) since Tim Wakefield against the Yankees on September 11, 2005.
It was just the second 1-0 interleague win in Phils history, the other being June 24, 2011, against Oakland, on a Ben Francisco walkoff single. The Phillies' last 1-0 win over Boston was in the next-to-last season of the Braves' stay there; Dick Sisler singled off Warren Spahn in the bottom of the 15th inning to score Richie Ashburn with the walkoff on August 7, 1951. (And no, Spahn did not pitch a 15-inning CG. That game. He did earlier in the year, and again in 1963).
Bottom Of The Bag
⋅ Cody Bellinger, Tuesday: Second player in Dodgers history with a multi-homer game against Cleveland. Bob Caruthers did it against the old National League Spiders on June 12, 1888.
⋅ Gary Sanchez, Wednesday: First Yankee catcher to have 3 hits and 3 RBI in a loss since... Gary Sanchez did it twice last August. Only other Yankee backstop with three such games in his career was Yogi Berra (1951-54).
⋅ Khris Davis, Thursday: Two-run single in 10th inning was first time Athletics beat Yankees on an extra-inning walkoff when trailing (so, multi-run play) since June 1, 1932. Max Bishop homered in the 16th after Babe Ruth had a go-ahead single in the top half.
⋅ Jacob deGrom, Sunday: Fourth pitcher in Mets history to throw eight innings, allow no earned runs, and also hit a home run. Joins Johan Santana (2010), Dwight Gooden (1985), and Pete Falcone (1981).
⋅ Aaron Judge, Friday: First Yankee with a homer and a triple in same game since Brett Gardner, August 31, 2014. Had been longest drought in the majors by nearly a year (Marlins).
⋅ Jake Arrieta, Saturday: First Cubs pitcher to hit a home run in Pittsburgh since Rick Sutcliffe on April 23, 1985.
⋅ Brandon Phillips, Sat-Sun: First Braves hitter with a walkoff anything in back-to-back games since Ozzie Virgil on September 18-19, 1988 (singles vs Padres and Giants).
⋅ Trea Turner, Sunday: First player in Nationals history (2005) with four stolen bases in one game. Last for Expos was Marquis Grissom in 1992. Turner is first in franchise history to do it and still not score a run.
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