Out Like A Lamb
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks played a 6-3 affair on Tuesday, a score which would not suggest we'd be talking about five home runs. But here we are; Justin Turner hit two solo shots, while all six Arizona runs scored via the long ball. Chris Iannetta opened their scoring in the 5th, Jake Lamb added one in the 6th, and then the D'backs batted around in the 7th (we're of the "nine batters" mantra, don't @ us). And after a single, a hit batter, and an intentional walk, Lamb is up again with the bases loaded. By now you've figured out what he did. He thus became the ninth player in D'backs history to have two homers in a game with one of them being a grand slam. But the last was nearly nine years ago; Miguel Montero did it in Houston on August 16, 2008. Among the others on the list are Luiz Gonzalez, Reggie Sanders, Chris Snyder, and even Carlos Baerga.
Both Turner and Lamb were batting third in Tuesday's contest, making it just the second game in the past six seasons where both number-3 hitters went deep twice. Kris Bryant and Joey Votto traded taters in an 11-8 game at Great American Ball Park last June 27.
Seeing Red
Speaking of GABP, its week started with a bang-- er, a slam-- last Sunday when Jose Martinez of the Cardinals inserted a four-run homer into a nine-run 4th inning. St. Louis won the finale with Cincinnati 13-4, and Martinez became the first Cardinal to hit a grand slam within a nine-run inning since Chris Duncan did it at Oakland on June 16, 2007 (won 15-6). That nine-run frame was the second this year; their other was July 21 against the Cubs. The Cardinals last had two such innings in a season in 2007.
Although the Cardinals moved on from GABP-- hold that thought-- the slamming did not. On Monday the Reds' Patrick Kivlehan greeted the first pitch from Padres reliever Phil Maton by sending it out of the park in the bottom of the 8th inning. It was only icing since the Reds were already leading 7-3, but it led to the first game in over 30 years where Cincinnati scored 11 or more runs on eight or fewer hits. They got nine walks as a bonus in an 11-1 win over the Giants on September 6, 1983.
Kivlehan, for his part, had been double-switched into the game in the 7th inning, making him the first Reds batter to hit a slam as a defensive replacement (not a pinch hitter) since Jolbert Cabrera went deep in a 14-9 escapade with the Cubs on September 6, 2008.
Fast-forward to Thursday, when Scooter Gennett hit only one home run against the Padres, which is of course three shy of his season high. However, remember that one of those round-trippers in his four-homer game was indeed a slam as he piled up 10 RBIs. He thus became the first player since GABP opened in 2003 to have hit two grand slams there in the same season. (Adam Dunn leads the way with four total, but they were all in different years.) The last to do it at Riverfront was Todd Walker in 2002.
Cardinal Direction
Now back to the Cardinals. Returning to Missouri for the I-70 Series with the Royals, they hung 6 runs in the 4th on Monday and 6 more in the 5th on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium. There were no slams involved, but combined with the 9-run frame from last Sunday, it marked the first time since at least 1907 that the Redbirds had posted a 6-run inning (or higher) in three straight games. Prior to that, we don't know for sure that it happened, we just don't have easy access to every linescore to be able to check.
It was the two games at Busch on Wednesday and Thursday when the Cardinals went back to slamming en route to a four-game sweep of the home-and-home affair. (Disclaimer: Kernels does not endorse slamming of Busch, for multiple reasons.) Yadier Molina cranked one in the 6th inning of the first game with St. Louis down 5-4; it was their first slam to turn a deficit into a lead that late in a game since Allen Craig against the Reds on August 26, 2013. (Matt Carpenter did hit a walkoff slam in April, but that was a tie game at the time.)
For Molina it was the fifth grand slam of his career, putting him solely in second place among Cardinals catchers all-time. Ted Simmons had six during his 13 years with the club (1968-80), while Tim McCarver (four), Darrell Porter (three), and Del Rice (three) sit behind Molina.
On Thursday it was Dexter Fowler's turn to give them the lead, breaking a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 7th with the third slam of his career (each with a different team). It was the first time St. Louis had gotten a slam in consecutive games since September 1, 2011, when Albert Pujols (predictable) followed one the previous day from Jake Westbrook (not so much). According to Elias, they'd never before hit a go-ahead slam in consecutive games all the way back to 1882. And they became the first team in 13 years to score the winning run(s) of back-to-back games on slams in the 6th inning or later. In their final season, the Expos got a 7th-inning slam from the great Terrmel Sledge to beat the Marlins on July 31, 2004, followed by a 12th-inning version from Tony Batista to top, who else?, the Cardinals. (Nick Johnson would hit the final slam in Expos history a couple weeks later.)
Combined with Sunday's slam from Jose Martinez, it was the first time in team history that the Cardinals had unloaded for three slams in any five-day period.
This Is Howie Do It
After about a 2½-hour delay before Friday's game was postponed, a 3-hour delay to start Saturday night's game, and then a day/night doubleheader on Sunday thanks to said postponement, what else could befall the Giants/Nationals series besides extra innings? Although they did play three "nine-inning" games in under 24 hours (with 10 minutes to spare, even!), it took until the 24:29 mark of the marathon before Howie Kendrick stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 11th with the bases loaded. Given our theme for the week, you get three guesses and two of them don't count.
It was Kendrick's 99th career home run, but his first grand slam of any type (walkoff, extra innings, or otherwise). It was the Nationals' first walkoff slam since Ryan Zimmerman hit one in a 9th-inning tie against the Phillies on August 19, 2011. But since the move to Washington in 2005, the team had never hit a walkoff slam in extras, one of just three current teams ("current" in the sense of their current city) still without one. The others are also relatively "new", the two Florida teams (Rays 1998, Marlins 1993). The last extra-inning walkoff slam for the franchise was by Jose Vidro, also to beat the Phillies, on May 25, 2002.
And if you throw on an 11th-inning-or-later qualifier (Vidro's was in the 10th), only two other walkoff slams in Expos history come up: Mike Fitzgerald to beat the Cubs (B11, 2 out) on July 26, 1988; and Moises Alou in the 14th against Pittsburgh on September 23, 1992.
The Nationals at least have a day off on Monday; the Giants have to turn around and go to Miami. And maybe, just maybe, give up the first extra-inning walkoff slam in Marlins history too.
Leftover Salami
Elsewhere in the slam-iverse, former New Britain Rock Cat Brian Dozier hit the Twins' first four-run homer of the season in their 11-4 takedown of Milwaukee on Tuesday. That leaves the Red Sox as the only team left without a slam in 2017. Dozier's hit had to share the limelight with some others, as Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler each went deep twice, and each also homered in the same inning as Dozier's slam. It marked the second game in Twins/Senators history where two players homered twice, and a third different player also had a grand slam. That was another slugfest with the Brewers, at Miller Park on July 12, 2001, the first game out of the All-Star break. Jacque Jones actually hit two home runs including the slam, but teammates Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter also hit two of the non-slam variety.
Kepler and Rosario would also team up on Friday, each belting three hits, a homer, and three RBIs as Minnesota topped Detroit 9-4. Kepler has been a part of all three (heh) sets of Twins to do it this season; he and Dozier both satisfied the criteria on Tuesday, and Miguel Sano was his partner back on May 22 against Baltimore. It's Kepler's fourth game this season with three hits, a homer, and three RBIs; that's the most for the Twins since Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, and Jason Kubel each did it at least five times in 2009.
And at the risk of finding a way to shout-out every grand slam this week, Manny Machado (Monday) became the first Oriole to hit one in Anaheim since Brian Roberts went deep off closer Troy Percival on May 22, 2003; while James McCann (Saturday) became the first Tigers catcher to hit two (other was last July) since Mickey Tettleton in 1992-94.
Combined It's A Slam...
In an effort to speed up the "pace of play", one thing we've seen proposed is shortening games to seven innings. If you don't care for that boring middle part where nobody scores, well, Cleveland was your type of place on Tuesday. Charlie Blackmon started things with a leadoff home run for the Rockies, his fifth of the season. Then nothing happened for about 2½ hours. It stayed 1-0 all the way until the bottom of the 9th when the Indians scored four runs-- not on a grand slam, but close-- to walk off with a 4-1 win. After two walks, Austin Jackson tied the game with a single, and on the very next pitch, Yan Gomes hit a three-run homer.
It was just the second game in the history of Jacobs Field, Progressive Field, whatever it might be called next year, to both start with a homer and end with a homer. The other was July 16, 1995, when Rickey Henderson led off with a dinger for the Athletics. Rickey actually scored the go-ahead run once again in the top of the 12th on a sacrifice fly, but Manny Ramirez walked off with a 2-run homer (scoring Kenny Lofton) in the bottom half.
Have You Met Amed?
Among the less-depressing stories out of the Mets clubhouse recently has been the rise of Amed Rosario, the Dominican shortstop who made his debut two weeks ago following Jose Reyes's move back to 2B (presumably in preparation for this weekend's trade of Neil Walker). Rosario's breakout game finally came on Friday when he had three hits and three runs scored, including a solo homer in the top of the 9th that would prove to be the winning run in a 7-6 comeback victory over the Phillies.
Rosario won't turn 22 until November. Friday's game thus made him the second-youngest Met ever to have three hits, three runs scored, and a homer in one game. Gregg Jefferies did that against the Cubs on September 8, 1988. Three other younger Mets had the three runs and three hits, but sans homer, and that's a pretty good list too: Reyes, David Wright, and Ed Kranepool.
And forgetting the other hits, Rosario became the fourth-youngest Met to hit any go-ahead homer in the 9th inning or later. All were 21 and some change when they did it; the only difference is in the "change", by about three months top-to-bottom. Rosario trails only Darryl Strawberry (1983), Lee Mazzilli (1976), and David Wright (2004) on that list.
One Sock Can't Just Walk Off
Another highly-touted part of the "youth movement" has been Yoan Moncada from Cuba, who was a huge deal when signed by the Red Sox in early 2015, but languished in the minors and ended up as part of the Chris Sale trade last winter. He's finally come into his own in the past month or so with those other Sox, from Chicago, who on Thursday found themselves trailing the Astros 2-1 going to the bottom of the 9th. With one out, Moncada clobbered a 2-0 pitch from Ken Giles to the seats in left-center for a game-tying homer. It's 2-2 and we play on. The next seven batters combine for two walks and five strikeouts before Leury Garcia singles to start the 11th and gets to second on an error. Which means Moncada is up again, and wham, single to right for the 3-2 walkoff.
He became the first White Sock with a tying hit in the 9th inning, followed by a walkoff hit in extras, since Tyler Flowers also homered and singled to beat the Athletics on September 8, 2014. But having just turned 22 in May, Moncada became the youngest player to hit an extra-inning walkoff of any kind for the White Sox since Jerry Hairston (yes, that's Senior) singled home Bill Melton for a 6-5, 12-inning win over the Indians on August 7, 1973.
Alas glory is short-lived. On Saturday he went 0-for-4 with no walks and four strikeouts... and a caught-stealing? It is these quirky things about boxscores that we enjoy. If he struck out every time, how'd he get on base to be caught stealing? Hit by a pitch? None of those. Catcher's interference (our fave)? No errors in the boxscore. Turns out, in his first at-bat, Moncada swung and missed for strike three, but Drew Butera was charged with a passed ball allowing Moncada to reach. Two pitches later he tried to steal and boom. History! At least in the since-1920 live-ball era (and to be honest, the definitions of steals and caught-stealing changed quite a bit before that), he is the first player, for any team, to have four or more plate appearances in a game, strike out in every one of them, and also, somewhat mysteriously, get caught stealing.
Trivia Time
On Wednesday the Angels' Cesar Puello became the second player ever to record a hit, an RBI, and two stolen bases in his major-league debut. Who was the first?
Merri-Go-Round
The Royals rounded out their trip to Chicago on Sunday with a 14-6 thumping that tied for the team's most runs ever scored in Chicago (at any of the three possible parks). They topped the Sox 14-5 on May 13, 1979, at old Comiskey Park, and have never scored more than 10 in their handful of trips to Wrigley.
Whit Merrifield sat atop both the boxscore and the "star of the game" ballot with his three hits and five driven in out of the leadoff spot. After starter Derek Holland gave up seven hits and seven earned runs in less than three innings (for the third time this year, the most in White Sox history), Merrifield greeted Mike Pelfrey with a three-run homer. He tripled in two more runs in the 6th, thus becoming the first Royal with that HR/3B/5 RBI line since Angel Berroa did it in a 26-5 jamboree at Comerica Park on September 9, 2004-- a game that remains the only 26-5 final score in major-league history. He's the team's first batter ever to do it from the leadoff spot; in fact, only four others have even had the 5-RBI part: David DeJesus (2008), Brian McRae (1991), and Willie Wilson (twice).
Of course, part of the reason Merrifield had those runners to drive in was that number-9 hitter (and former New Britain Rock Cat) Drew Butera was always on base ahead of him. Butera became the Royals' 17th number-9 batter to have a 4-hit game. The last three occurrences have all been against the White Sox; Esteban German did it in an 8-7 loss on July 8, 2008; while Tony Peña pulled it off at Comiskey Park on September 25, 2007.
But only three of those 16 others managed to have zero RBIs as Butera did. The great Onix Concepcion-- still the only "Onix" in major-league history (and no relation to Dave that we know of, aside from both being shortstops)-- accounts for two of those in the mid-1980s; catcher Don Slaught (1983) is the other.
Touchdown, Ravens. No, wait...
From a "Kernels" persepective, the American League West produces some of the blandest games night after night. Every game is something like 4-2 where one guy had a double and a single, someone else had a generic two-run homer, and each pitcher threw 6⅓, allowed two runs, and struck out like five. They're the "bell" in the bell curve. So imagine our excitement at seeing a 12-5 score come out of Oakland on Saturday, especially one where the Orioles hung a 7-spot and knocked Sean Manaea out of the game in the 1st inning.
Manaea became the first starter (for any team) this season to give up six runs while recording only one out. The last A's hurler to accomplish the "feat" was Joe Blanton against the Rays on May 25, 2005. And while it was easily the shortest start of his career, it was also the third start in a row where Manaea allowed six hits, six earned runs, and struck out no more than one batter. No Athletics pitcher had pulled that off since Lynn Nelson did it for Philadelphia from June 29 to July 8, 1938. And that seven-run 1st inning was the Orioles' biggest since May 20, 2008, at (old) Yankee Stadium en route to a 12-2 victory.
Just like the Royals the following day, it was the top and bottom of the Orioles' order that did the damage, although they piled up a season-high-tying 20 hits, so pretty much everyone got involved. Tim Beckham, who has generated no shortage of notes since being acquired from the Rays two weeks ago, had three doubles, three runs scored, and three RBIs, the fourth player in Orioles history (i.e., 1954) to accomplish that in one game. Oddly, the others were all in a span of about three months in 1999, by Will Clark (June 13) and then Albert Belle twice (August 29 and September 23). Extending all the way back, only one other leadoff batter in franchise history had done it; that was Billy Hunter on September 4, 1953, in the final month of the St. Louis Browns moniker.
Of course, once again, Beckham drove in those runs because the number-9 guy, Joey Rickard, kept getting on base first. Rickard became the first Oriole with three hits and three runs scored out of the 9-hole since... Joey Rickard did it last Sunday. He's the franchise's first player in the live-ball era (1920) to do it twice-- at all, much less in the same season or even in a week.
And while they didn't really need a stellar pitching performance, the Orioles got 10 strikeouts from Dylan Bundy, duplicating his effort from Monday against the Angels. Amazingly, he is the first Orioles pitcher to record double-digit strikeouts in back-to-back games since Mike Mussina did it way back in July 1999. Every other team in the majors has had at least one pitcher do it in this decade (2010-17); Baltimore hadn't seen it yet in the millennium.
False Start
We have not spent much time at the Kernels Rules Desk during the season (coming up with hypotheticals and weird scoring things is a good time-waster in the winter), but it lit up on Tuesday thanks to Johan Camargo of the Braves. In case you missed it, Camargo was listed as the starting shortstop in Atlanta's home matchup with the Phillies. Lineup cards were handed over to umpire James Hoye, with Camargo batting 7th, all was well, let's have a small child yell "play ball!" into a microphone and Your Atlanta Braves Take The Field!
And then, well, oops.
After some delay, Camargo hobbles off the field, Jace Pederson runs out to shortstop, becomes the batter in the 7-hole, and the game proceeds as normal. So is Camargo considered as being in the game even though it hadn't started yet? From a practical standpoint, it doesn't actually matter since his knee is in several pieces and he's not going to come back out anyway. But in theory, could he? I mean, pregame scratches happen all the time, what's the difference?
The easy part is that Camargo does get statistical credit for appearing in the game and occupying that 7th spot in the order, even though he never batted. That happens all the time when a pinch hitter is announced and then pulled back due to a pitching change, and there's a rule (9.20) that even speaks to him being on the lineup card. Camargo does not, however, get credit for a game played on defense, or at a position, because he was not in the game for one pitch (or one play, in the case of something like a pickoff):
So who's the starting shortstop? Nobody really knows. The rules don't address "games started", except in one case-- the pitcher. To avoid last-minute shenanigans, Rule 5.10(f) (ibid., for you citation fans) states:
(This doesn't always avoid the last-minute shenanigans; Padres manager Preston Gomez "started" righty Al Santorini in a doubleheader in 1971 to make the Astros counter with a bunch of left-handed batters, then yanked him, pursuant to the rule, after one batter. Santorini then started the second game for real and pitched six innings.)
We looked back for pitchers to face zero batters, trying to see if there was precedent for a defensive player being replaced before the game started. However, all the starters threw at least one pitch before hearing the proverbial "pop" and taking themselves out. The only one we found with zero pitches is also covered by the rule-- the "ejected" part. On July 17, 1960, Don Newcombe-- by then with the Reds-- took the mound to warm up, the Pirates complained that his sleeves were too long and flappy, the umpire tried to make him go change, Newcombe protested and was thrown out. He is, however, still listed as the starter for that game; presumably getting ejected "incapicitates" him under the rule.
So as for Camargo's plight, Elias has officially credited Pederson with the start; our friends at Baseball Reference, possibly due to software limitations, have Camargo starting but give Pederson credit for a complete game. Shrug. Either way we're guessing he doesn't have any contract bonuses that will depend on this.
Bottom Of The Bag
⋅ Chris O'Grady, Monday: Fourth Marlins starter this season to leave a game at any point, usually due to injury, having not given up a hit yet. Most by any team since the 1958 Dodgers (Koufax was three of theirs).
⋅ Yu Darvish, Friday: First pitcher to record 10 strikeouts in each of first two games with Dodgers since Karl Spooner in September 1954.
⋅ Rangers/Mets, Tuesday: Second game in live-ball era where both teams had at least six hits but no more than one single (the rest were all XBHs). Other was between Cubs and Padres on October 1, 1993 (Cubs won 8-5).
⋅ Brewers, Saturday: Won for second time this year on a "bounce-off" (game-ending wild pitch). No other team has done it at all yet. Brewers did it three times total in their first 48 seasons (including one as the Pilots).
⋅ Matt Joyce, Wednesday: Hit leadoff home run in a game the Athletics were already trailing 3-0. First to do so since Bill Tuttle did it for Kansas City against the Senators on September 13, 1958.
⋅ Rafael Devers, Sunday: Third-youngest Red Sock ever to hit a 9th-inning (or later) home run against the Yankees, tying or not. Trails Bobby Doerr in 1937 and Tony Conigliaro in 1964, both at Fenway. Tris Speaker (1909) is now fourth.
⋅ Mark Leiter, Thursday: First Phillies reliever to record seven strikeouts since... Mark Leiter last Saturday. First to do it twice in a season since Lowell Palmer in 1970.
⋅ Tigers, Saturday: Posted third win in last 70 years by the exact score of 11-10. All have been against the Twins (a home walkoff in 2000 and a road win in 1998).
⋅ Ian Kinsler, Wednesday: First Tigers leadoff batter to score four runs and drive in four runs since Roger Cedeño against the Yankees, July 18, 2001.
⋅ Javier Baez, Monday: First Cubs batter with an inside-the-park homer in San Francisco since Chico Walker at Candlestick Park, August 28, 1991.
⋅ Martin Perez, Wednesday: First pitcher in "Texas Rangers" history to strike out four times as a batter. Last for Senators was Dick Bosman against Kansas City on August 20, 1971.
Trivia Answer
Like us, you probably thought of Billy Hamilton, Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, or any of the other prolific base-stealers in MLB history. (Ty Cobb is ineligible since RBI are involved, and those weren't officially recorded before 1920.) Nope. That stat line is the claim to fame of yet another former New Britain Rock Cat, Trent Oeltjen. The Australian native did it after signing with the Diamondbacks as a free agent and finally getting his callup on August 6, 2009.
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