We Were Not Told There Would Be A Quiz
Match the game to the stadium where it happened.
You're probably aware this is a trick question (because it wouldn't be here otherwise), but all of those things on the left happened this week. Just probably not in the locations you were expecting.
Prior to Monday, only five teams had ever scored 17 runs in the 57-season history of Dodger Stadium, and the home club was four of them. (The Angels never did it, so we're talking all Dodger blue here.) And you may remember that the Dodgers went to Wrigley Field last week and began a streak where the Cubs scored in double digits for four games in a row. So maybe on the long wagon ride back west (this is totally not a thing anymore), the Dodgers said, hey, we should try this "scoring" thing.
Pirates, meet buzzsaw.
Nick Kingham had already been lit up for four runs in the first three frames, but when Joc Pederson and Max Muncy opened the 4th with back-to-back homers, the rout was on. Tanner Anderson didn't fare any better, giving up four straight hits before getting out of the inning down "only" 10-1. Four more hits plus a bases-loaded walk in the 5th. 13-1. Steven Brault, your turn. Brault, of course, sang the national anthem at a Pirates game earlier this year, since we're doing the Independence Day theme. Matt Kemp sent a bomb bursting in air to left-center. 16-1. By the time the rockets' red glare settled, the final was 17-1, tying for the largest victory margin ever at Chavez Ravine. The only other 16-run game at Dodger Stadium was when the Giants beat them, 19-3, on September 14, 2013; before Monday, the home team's largest win had been a 16-1 over the Phillies in the stadium's first season... on July 4 (of course). The Pirates, meanwhile, hadn't lost a game by 16 or more since the Brewers dropped a 20-0 shutout at PNC Park on April 22, 2010. Monday thus marked Pittsburgh's largest road loss since a 21-4 defeat at the Polo Grounds (!) on May 25, 1954.
Kemp would finish the day with five hits, four runs scored, and four driven in, the first Dodger to reach those totals since Shawn Green's four-homer game in Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. Together Kemp and Puig became the first Dodger teammates with three hits, two extra-base hits, and four RBIs in the same game since Olmedo Saenz and Cody Ross did it in Pittsburgh on April 13, 2006.
As for our buddy Tanner Anderson, did we mention it was his major-league debut? Like we said, the flogging had already commenced before he got into the game, so it's not really his fault, but he did become the first Pirates reliever to surrender six runs in his MLB debut since one Marty Lang did it against the Cubs in 1930... on July 4 again (of course). He and Kingham together formed the first pair of Pirates to allow eight hits and six runs in the same game since Bob Walk and Miguel Garcia did it in San Diego on July 18, 1989.
Dressed To The Nines
Still, "it's only one game", right? On Tuesday Ivan Nova was given the task of righting the Pirate ship and salvaging the series. Oops. Picking up right where they left off, Joc Pederson sent Nova's first pitch of the game into the right-field seats. Then Max Muncy did the same with his fifth. And yes, it's 2-0 already, but if it feels like the Dodgers just led off a game with back-to-back homers nine days ago... it's because they did. In that case, against the Mets, Muncy followed Enrique Hernandez. Oh, was that not the game you were thinking of? Hmm, maybe that's because Chris Taylor and Corey Seager also did it on April 10 against Oakland. From 1884 to 2017, the Dodgers had only started two games in their history with back-to-back jacks. Now they've done it three times this year. And in the entire population of play-by-play data that's available (generally to about 1950), no team has ever done it three times in a season. Only three (2011 Brewers, 2003 Yankees, 1969 Reds) had even done it twice.
Nova, however, wasn't done making history on Tuesday. After somehow working around a Chris Taylor triple in the 2nd, Muncy came up again to lead off the bottom of the 3rd. Wham. His second dinger makes it 3-1. Yasmani Grandal triples to start the 4th, and now it's Taylor's turn. 5-2. Next time around in the 6th, Grandal can't very well see Taylor go triple-homer and not do likewise. 6-2. Okay, now that we've matched homers and triples, Taylor says let's try doubles. That finally knocks Nova out of the game, but count 'em, five home runs allowed, to say nothing of the two triples. Nova thus became the first pitcher in Pirates history-- which dates to either 1882 or 1887 depending on whom you ask-- to surrender five homers in a game. And when Hernandez mashes the first pitch from Dovydas Neverauskas into the seats, it's 8-2 and the Dodgers have once again collected nine extra-base hits in a game. They hadn't done that in back-to-back games since beating the Phillies 14-13 and 20-16 at Baker Bowl on May 17 and 18, 1929! If you're wondering about "any team", the Astros did it last year-- when else but the first week of July? They had the 3rd off, however, so it was the 2nd and the 4th.
Taylor's double made him the first Dodger to miss the cycle by the single since... Chris Taylor did it in Phoenix on July 15, 2016. He's the only Dodger in the live-ball era to do it twice. And when Taylor and Grandal matched each other homer-for-homer and triple-for-triple? Well, that gave us the note of the week (maybe the year). No Dodgers teammates had homered and tripled in the same game since Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson did it against the Phillies on May 2, 1948.
You've Got A Friend In Pennsylvania
So after getting swept in Los Angeles, the Pirates had to be looking forward to returning home for a three-game set with their eastern rivals, the Phillies. Mmmm, maybe not. Trevor Williams got lit up for five runs before departing in the 3rd, but the Pirates also knocked Nick Pivetta out in the 3rd inning, were within 5-4 an inning later, and hey, we're still right in this thing. Mmmm, maybe not. Rich Rodriguez gave up two runs in the 6th. Then even the famous Duquesne Incline didn't have enough counterbalance to contain this one. The combination of Dovydas Neverauskas, Josh Smoker, and Tyler Glasnow got, um, smoked for 10 hits and 10 more runs to make the final score 17-5.
Combined with that 17-1 loss in Los Angeles (you know, the one they were trying to forget?), it's the first time Pittsburgh has given up 17+ runs twice in a week since April 2010 when it happened in a strange home-and-home series against Milwaukee.
Glasnow may have had the oddest line of the week; while he gave up the final three runs, he also got the final six outs of the game, all via strikeout. He's the first Pirates reliever to surrender five hits and three runs, but also strike out at least six, since Don Robinson did it against the Cardinals on April 10, 1978. And they hadn't had anyone do it while also throwing a wild pitch since Claude Hendrix pitched finished off a bad start by Harry Gardner-- also against the Phillies-- on September 29, 1911!
Not to worry, Glasnow wasn't the only one throwing wild pitches. Between the two teams, five different pitchers uncorked one, and four different pitchers hit a batter. (Some did both.) Only one other game in the live-ball era can say that, and it involves the Phillies too. It was their 7-5 win over the Mets on September 30, 2015.
And remember, of course, that the Phillies gave up 17 runs to the Nationals just seven days earlier back at Citizens Bank Park. (Hang on, Nats fans, it's coming.) They hadn't scored 17 and allowed 17 in such close proximity to each other since 1951, when they lost an 18-9 game at Wrigley on May 18, but bounced back two days later with a 17-0 shutout... in Pittsburgh. And the only other 17-5 win (that exact score) in Phillies history was on September 12, 1895, in a game (at Washington, here we are again) that the newspaper we found described as "not very fast". It took a whole hour-50.
September 13, 1895 (via Google newspaper archive)
There's No I In Iannet-- Oh Wait, There Is
Prior to this week there had been only nine 1-0 games ever played at Coors Field and its 5200-foot elevation, and the most recent one (a win over Toronto) was more than eight years ago on June 12, 2010. Point of personal privilege, that was three weeks before we visited Coors for the first time, saw them beat the Giants 7-3, and thus completed the quest for all 30 MLB parks. The Giants were back in Denver this week (we were not), and they probably would have been thrilled with three runs. Actually, they had to be, because that's all they scored the entire series. Despite Coors Field's proclivity for extra-base hits and ridiculously-high-scoring games, San Francisco collected just three runs on 14 hits in three games; the only visiting team to manage less offense in a three-game series there was the 2002 Pirates (two on eight).
Wednesday's 1-0 game marked just the third time the Giants had ever been shut out on ≤ 3 hits in Denver; one was two years ago by Chad Bettis, and the first was September 24, 2005, against Sun-Woo Kim. And in both of those other games they at least had a double (Wednesday "featured" three singles). Tyler Anderson also walked only one hitter, becoming the second pitcher in Rockies history to throw 8+ scoreless innings at home while allowing no more than four baserunners and striking out at least nine. Jon Gray did it against the Padres on September 17, 2016.
And that "1" for Colorado? That was a Chris Iannetta solo homer. Only three games in Rockies history have been decided 1-0 in their favor by a solo home run... and Iannetta has two of them! The other game where he did it was July 18, 2010, in Cincinnati; the third is among those other nine 1-0 scores at Coors, when Joe Koshansky hit one against the Padres on September 17, 2008.
Adding to our pile of Independence Day oddities, it was exactly a decade earlier (July 4, 2008) that the Rockies and Marlins played the second-highest-scoring game ever at Coors Field, an 18-17 carnival that actually ended on a walkoff single. By Chris Iannetta. Because baseball!
Something's Fishy In Washington
Mention of an 18-17 Marlins game just leads us perfectly into the first mess that happened on South Capitol Street this week. (Spoiler alert, it was not the last.) Make your own joke about Congress (go on, it's easy!), but they were off this week, so odds are we're talking about the Nationals.
If you've ever watched a Congressional vote on C-SPAN (c'mon, you know you have), or election results roll in on your Preferred Cable News Channel, you know that sometimes things look very lopsided at the beginning but then begin to change. Once in a while it even swings totally the other way from those initial results you had at 7:15 right after the polls closed. Florida-- as the Marlins were known then-- had a great adventure with this back in 2000.
For better or worse, the only consequence of the 2018 edition was a baseball game. But one in which Nats starter Jeremy Hellickson got tagged for nine runs on nine hits, struck out only two, and didn't emerge for the 5th inning after 75 pitches. We haven't even mentioned that Tanner Roark gave up nine to the Red Sox on Tuesday, but we will now, because they're the first teammates in Nats/Expos history to do it in the same homestand. But hold out for those still-uncounted districts. Trea Turner, leadoff homer in the 4th, it's 9-1. Pablo Lopez gets into some trouble in the 5th, it's 9-5. And here to give the concession speech is Adam Conley. Walk, double, sac fly (9-6), walk, walk, strikeout, grand slam by Turner. Ten to nine. That bailed out Hellickson, who became just the fourth pitcher in franchise history to give up nine runs and not lose. A.J. Cole did it in Atlanta on April 28, 2015; the others were Expos Dustin Hermanson (1999) and Dennis Martinez (1993).
Dillon Peters couldn't contain the "sea change" (another election term we don't quite understand) and made it 14-9 by serving up four more runs in the 7th. Trea Turner drove home two more of those to give him a career-high (as it should be for anyone) 8 RBI. Only three leadoff hitters have collected 8 RBI in a game that included a grand slam, and of course they've all done it on either Independence Day itself or the day after. The others are Cleveland's Bill Glynn at Detroit, July 5, 1954, and the Cardinals' Augie Bergamo at the Polo Grounds on July 4, 1945.
The 14-12 final (Brian Anderson hit a 3-run homer in the 8th, if you're into counting absentee ballots) trailed only the famous 23-5 game against the Mets from last April as the highest-scoring contest at Nationals Park. It was the first 14-12 win (exact score) for any Washington team since the Senators beat the White Sox on May 3, 1949. And the last time the Marlins led by eight runs at the end of any full inning and still ended up losing? Yeah, that would be one decade plus one day ago-- that 18-17 walkoff loss at Coors Field on July 4, 2008.
Sunday Night Raw
⚾ CC Sabathia, Saturday: First Yankee pitcher to get ejected from a game he wasn't pitching in since Graeme Lloyd on May 19, 1998. Intermission!
Can I Get Another Amen? (It's Saturday Night)
Take your "first week of July", the week that centers on Independence Day, go to the last day of that week (the 7th), and then turn it on its ear. There's always a big finale to the fireworks show, and Saturday brought it hard.
We've already harkened back to the Phillies' 17-7 loss last Friday at the hands of the Nationals. So let's flip that into a 17-7 Nationals victory and the "players-only" meeting the team had this week. Obviously one of them said, I bet we can do better.
Unlike Thursday's game, this one started close. 2-0, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, Mark Reynolds actually drove in all three Nats runs, and then oh, landslide. Washington lit up Wei-Yin Chen for three hits and an intentional walk in the 5th; all of them scored and it was 7-3. After which it fell to Elieser Hernandez to give the concession speech. Mark Reynolds singled home two more. Pedro Severino three-run homer. Max Scherzer was nice enough to not make us look up the last Nats/Expos pitcher with two hits in an inning (it's never happened, by the way), but now it's 10-3. Reynolds homers in the 6th. 13-3 and now he's got an 8-RBI game. With Hernandez now in "take one for the team" mode, how about five more in the 7th including another two-run single by Reynolds. Final toll, 18-4 with Reynolds and Hernandez each providing that "1" by themselves. Hernandez's 10 runs in relief were a Marlins record, and the most by any pitcher since Vin Mazzaro's infamous 14-run outing in 2011.
We mentioned that 23-5 game against the Mets last year as well. That's the one where Anthony Rendon had three homers and also drove in 10 runs. The Nationals are just the fifth franchise ever to have multiple players with 10-RBI games-- the other four (BOS, CIN, NYY, STL) are all "original", and none of them's had players do it within eight years of each other. Reynolds is only the sixth player ever to have 10 RBIs with "only" two homers; Garret Anderson (August 21, 2007) held the "previous" title on that one.
As Trea Turner waves from afar, the Nationals become the ninth team ever to have multiple 8-RBI games in the same season. Josh Hamilton (his 4-HR game) and Nelson Cruz did it for Texas in 2012. But there had never been players to do it within three days of each other; prior to this week, Boston's Rudy York and Ted Williams had come closest, doing it two weeks apart in 1946.
As for that 18-4 score, it was the first one in either franchise's history (win or lose), and the first time a Washington team had won by that exact count since the Senators beat the White Sox on June 8, 1931. But combined with the 17-7 last weekend in Philly, it was only the second occurrence in Washington baseball history of multiple 17-run games within a 10-day span. The other... was in 1895! In the third season of the National League's "experiment" with an actual pitching mound to increase offense, well, it did. In six days spanning May and June of that year, the original NL team (disbanded in 1898) dropped consecutive scores of 15-10, 19-3, 10-5 (vs Pittsburgh), 21-4, 4-7, and 18-3 (vs Louisville).
And why not round out this series with a good old-fashioned 22-hit attack on Sunday? That, of course, was the Marlins again, except they scored "only" 10 runs this time and stranded a whopping 17 baserunners. That was the second time in team history they'd hit both those marks, and the other game was also in Washington. They won 12-1, but with another 17 stranded, at RFK Stadium on September 7, 2005. Combined with the Nationals' 13 LOB, the teams tied the major-league record for stranded runners in a nine-inning game; the last contest to have 30 featured 15 each by a pair of expansion teams-- the Angels and New Senators-- on July 21, 1961. None of the Marlins' 22 hits left the yard (in fact 20 were singles), a first in their history, and the first time any team had done it since a 19-inning Tigers game in August 2014.
J.T. Realmuto had five hits and drove in three runs, obviously without benefit of a homer. Dee Gordon (April 2015) and Juan Pierre (2005 season finale) are the only other Marlins to pull that off. And when combined with Martin Prado, you have just the second pair of Marlins teammates to have four hits in the same game against the Nationals. The others would both become Nationals later on: Dan Uggla and Josh Willingham on (here we go again!) July 5, 2006.
Fountains' Eleven
The Royals have suffered enough. (Hey, remember they actually won the World Series, like, in this decade?) If you're the Red Sox and you're up 8-4 going to the 9th, you're pretty good. It's been five years since you lost a game where you led by four or more after the 8th. (Angels, July 6 (there it is again!), 2013.) There's no need to take it out on Brandon Maurer, much less unload the team's first seven-run inning since April 10. But here we are, with a 15-4 final to accompany our 18-4 from Washington. The lower version is somewhat more common; the Giants had the last 15-4, over the Pirates on June 21, 2016, and the Sawx had another just 10 days before that against Minnesota. But it was only the third time the Red Sox had ever gotten to 15 runs at Kauffman; they won one of those pesky 18-4's in April 1983, and more recently, played what is still the last 22-11 game in the majors there on April 12, 1994. (They also had a 16-0 shutout of the Athletics in 1957, if you want the entire KC history.)
The one-two punch at the top of Boston's order, Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi, both gave us some notes, although it was really a group effort. Benintendi collected a homer, a double, and four walks among his six plate appearances, becoming just the third Red Sox batter in the live-ball era with a 2-XBH, 4-BB game. One of them-- David Ortiz on July 7, 2007-- shares the date, and the other-- Dwight Evans on May 15, 1982-- shares the stadium (also at Kauffman). Even if you throw out the homer, Benintendi is the first Bostonian to have four walks and four runs scored in a game since none other than Dom DiMaggio did it against the Yankees on (of course) July 1, 1950. Dom's more-famous brother went 1-for-4 in the same game.
Meanwhile Mookie collected four hits, including two for extra bases, along with a steal. It's his third time doing that out of the leadoff spot, breaking a tie with Johnny Damon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jose Offerman for the most among Red Sox in the live-ball era. But as we said, it was a group effort. All nine Red Sox starters drove in at least one run, and thanks to J.D. Martinez and catcher Christian Vazquez getting the late innings off, so did their replacements Blake Swihart and Sandy Leon. That's eleven different players with at least one RBI. Since gaining official-ness in 1920, the record for any game is 12, and no team's had 11 players do it since the Giants in a 16-6 win over Arizona on August 2, 1999. The last American League team to do it was the A's ten years prior.
To finish out the series on Sunday, the Royals got a five-hit game from Whit Merrifield, turned five double plays on defense... and of course still lost. Merrifield is the first Royals batter to have five hits in a loss since Tony Graffanino in Anaheim on May 29, 2005 (lost 7-6). He's the first leadoff batter to have five hits at all since Angel Berroa did that in Cleveland on September 16, 2003. And naturally, he's the first in team history to do both at the same time.
Benintendi followed up his four-walk day with a four-hit day, the first Red Sox batter to do that in consecutive games (either order) since outfielder Rick Miller, in the team's first-ever trip to what is now Kauffman Stadium, on May 26 and 27, 1973.
It's A Dry Heat
This is the time of year when most of the nation thinks it's hot, and then we see even larger numbers from the desert southwest and go, mmm, yeah, we'll stay here. So if it's 15 in Kansas City and 18 in Washington, well then it must be 20 in Phoenix.
The Padres have been experimenting with the bullpen as "opener" thing at times this season, but probably didn't expect they'd need it for Tyson Ross. Ross has averaged nearly six innings a start (which, frankly, is good these days), an average that got dragged down by an opening-frame "5" and a 2nd-inning "3" on Saturday. Enter Kazuhisa Makita for the 3rd and 4th. And hang a "3" and a "4" under those too. We've already matched the Red Sox score at 15-4... after four innings. It had been nearly seven years since any team scored 3+ in each of the first four frames; the Rangers actually did it in the first five against the Twins on July 25, 2011 (won 20-6). And eventually with the manufacture of a few more runs against Kirby Yates, we arrive at the final score you know and love, 20-5.
This one amounted to a group effort as well; only one of those 20 runs didn't have a matching RBI (it scored on an error), and so Saturday was the second game in D'backs history where four different players recorded at least 3 RBI each. Danny Bautista, Luis Gonzalez, Gregg Colbrunn, and Alex Cabrera did it in a 17-5 win in St Louis on July 27, 2000. Alex Avila had his 3 RBI while batting 8th; with three hits, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, he was the first player in team history to reach base five times and drive in three runs from way down there. Only a handful had even done it batting 7th, the most recent (still) being Robby Hammock against the Cubs in 2003. David Peralta had his 3 RBI on five hits, but none of them left the yard. Only two other Diamondbacks have pulled off a 5-hit, 3-RBI game that didn't involve a dinger: Gerardo Parra in Philadelphia on August 24, 2013, a game that featured a 5-run 18th inning (hold that thought!), and Junior Spivey at Coors Field on June 21, 2001.
The last 20-5 score (exactly) in the majors goes back more than a decade; the Phillies beat the Rockies by that count on May 26, 2008. Saturday was only the third time in Padres history that they'd had a 20 dropped upon them; one of those also involves the Rockies and Coors Field (20-1 in September 2005), and the other was a 23-6 lovefest at Wrigley on May 17, 1977.
Before we move on, though, let's take a look at those five runs the Padres did score on Saturday. Wil Myers scored three of them. Wil Myers had three hits. Wil Myers... had three home runs. In a loss. And not just any loss. A really really big loss. The first part happens often enough; fellow San Diegan Hunter Renfroe did it against these same (or similar) Diamondbacks just last September, although strangely those are the only two 3-HR games in a loss in Padres history. But losing by 15? That takes effort too. And in 2018 Wil Myers is still able to make major-league history. Prior to him, the only player to have homered thrice in a double-digit loss was Jack Manning of the Philadelphia then-Quakers (Phillies). That was in a 19-7 loss to the Chicago then-White Stockings (Cubs)... on October 9, 1884.
What About Me?
Somewhere Francisco Lindor is looking at this week and saying, wait, I had a 7-RBI game and I came in third? No worries, Franky, we've got your back. Because your two homers on Monday both counted as well, and it's been nine years since three different players had a 2-HR, 7-RBI game within a week of each other. And of course when that happened in 2009 (Derrek Lee, Shin-Soo Choo, Paul Konerko)... it was from July 2 through 7. You can't make this up.
Lindor led off the week with a groundout, then hit a sac bunt in the 3rd, but after Yan Gomes singled and the Royals' Jakob Junis hit two batters in a row, it's time to light this candle. Mired in a 2-2 tie, Lindor's grand slam gave the Indians the lead for good as they rolled to a 9-3 win over Kansas City on Monday. And that was plenty. But those last three runs (changing the score from 6 to 9) also came on a Lindor home run, just two innings later, and also off Jakob Junis (finally knocking him from the game). Only four batters in Indians history (1901) have poked a grand slam and a three-run jack in the same game; the others are Manny Ramirez (1999), Vic Wertz (1957), and Pat Seerey (1945). And only two other leadoff hitters have ever had a 7-RBI game for Cleveland. Grady Sizemore also did it against the Royals on August 21, 2008. And the other is a game we've already mentioned-- Bill Glynn's 8-RBI game against Detroit in the first week of July 1954.
And by the way, back in the 3rd inning Monday, Lindor was actually safe at first on his sacrifice bunt when Junis booted it. When Michael Brantley and Edwin Encarnacion later flied out, that gave the Indians the rare opportunity to hit three sacrifices in an inning. No team had done it at all since the Rangers on (yes, of course) July 5 of last year, and Cleveland's last such inning was on July 27, 2003, against Minnesota.
Crazy Eights
MLB's schedule-makers sent the Atlanta Braves to Yankee Stadium this week for the first time in six years, and although that series didn't explode the scoreboard, it gave us its own handful of sparklers. Monday's opener was finally decided in the top of the 11th when Ronald Acuña launched a two-run homer. As mentioned, the Braves don't visit here often. So how many Braves players have ever hit an extra-inning homer against the Yankees? That would be three. Marcus Giles took Scott Proctor deep on June 28, 2006. And the first of the bunch was HOF'er Eddie Mathews, whose walkoff in the 10th inning tied the 1957 World Series at two games each and propelled them toward the city of Milwaukee's only World Series title. Acuña also became the youngest player with a homer and a double at any Bronx stadium since Mickey Mantle did it against the Browns on April 30, 1952.
Mickey Mantle comparisons are usually reserved for Gleyber Torres, but he gets a different one this time. Torres mustered three hits in the 8-5 loss on Monday, which doesn't seem like a big thing. People get three hits all the time. But would you believe it's been nearly a half-century-- more than double Torres's lifetime-- since a Yankee batter younger than him had a three-hit game. At 21 years 201 days, Torres was the first since John Ellis did it in his sixth career game on May 30, 1969! The Yankees had been the least-recent team to have a player that young do it... by nearly 13 years; that honor now passes to the Giants and 21-year-old Tom O'Malley in 1982.
The Braves hit three more homers on Tuesday and lost, the first time they've ever done that against the Yankees (home or road, including postseason). But if you like symmetry (or are just curious as to why they lost), check out those pitching totals. Since the Yankees didn't bat in the 9th, the Braves staff threw 8 innings, allowed 8 hits, 8 runs all earned, walked 8, and struck out 8. Since earned runs were first officially recognized in 1912, only one other team has ever posted exactly 8 of each category in a game-- the Red Sox in an 8-7 loss to Toronto on September 6, 1998.
While we're here, partial credit (an "unpopped Kernel" as we say) to the Mets who narrowly missed doing the same thing with all 9's on Sunday, which no team ever has. Alas they came two strikeouts short (9 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 9 BB, 7 K).
Crazy Sixteens
Combine a couple of those 8's and you'll end up with 16. (Big, if true.) And to round out our week of silliness, we head back to the Marlins. In Tuesday's installment of the epic battle of Florida-based marine life, neither the Rays nor Marlins could catch a bite after the 5th inning. And the fishing line was all knotted at 4-4. (Disclaimer: Consult local regulations with regard to fishing for stingrays. And probably Marlins too. Some may be endangered.) We usually complain about those boring middle innings, but on we plod to the 10th. And 11th. And finally in the top of the 16th, with Brett Graves pitching a fourth frame, Tampa Bay went hook, line, and sinker, dropping a 5-spot that even included an RBI single from reliever Vidal Nuño. The Rays became the first team to score 5 or more runs in an inning numbered 16 or higher since the Diamondbacks had that previously-mentioned 5-run 18th in Philadelphia in 2013. Their 20 hits were, not surprisingly, the Rays' most ever in a National League stadium, and the second-most by any visiting team at Marlins Park (Phillies last July).
Leaving Nuño in to bat for himself-- twice-- made him just the second AL reliever since the introduction of the designated hitter (1973) with a multi-hit game. The other was Oakland's Edgar Gonzalez, who pitched four innings after starter Josh Outman couldn't get out, man, of the 2nd inning on June 19, 2009. Only two other Rays pitchers-- both starters-- have ever had two hits, driven in a run, and gotten the win in the same game: Andy Sonnanstine, also against the Marlins in 2007, and Mickey Callaway in 1999 in Montréal.
And with Nuño already at 26 pitches and a five-run lead, why on earth wouldn't you send backup catcher Jesús Sucre to the mound in the bottom of the 16th at 20 minutes after midnight? That didn't really go well; Sucre gave up two runs to make our final score 9-6, and we needed Jose Alvarado for a save anyway. But as far as we can tell (and this depends slightly on your definition of a "position player", considering converts like Rick Ankiel and Brooks Kieschnick), Sucre is the first position player to take the mound with his team ahead by five runs since player-manager Ty Cobb, who did this several times in his career when the season finale didn't mean anything, had himself get the last three outs of the Tigers' 1925 campaign.
On to week two of July. Which doesn't even have the All-Star break this year. Gulp.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Rick Porcello, Monday: First Red Sox pitcher in the designated-hitter era ever to have 3 RBI in a game. Previous was Sonny Siebert against the Orioles on September 2, 1971.
⚾ Billy Hamilton, Saturday: Had a 3-hit, 3-steal game while batting 9th, becoming first player in live-ball era to do that twice. Other game was two weeks after his debut in 2013.
⚾ White Sox, Tuesday: First time since at least 1920 hitting back-to-back triples in an extra inning. We couldn't prove or disprove any farther back, since there is one game that season where they scored 8 in the 16th and the Chicago Tribune describes the inning only as "an orgy of base hits and errors". No, really.
⚾ David Bote, Sunday: First game-winning walk for Cubs against Cincinnati since Dom Dallesandro on May 29, 1942.
⚾ Kendrys Morales, Wednesday: First Blue Jays batter to score 3+ runs, and every run for the team, since Roberto Alomar against the White Sox on May 10, 1991.
⚾ Brett Gardner & Aaron Judge, Saturday: Started game with back-to-back homers for second time this year (May 26 vs Angels). First teammates in Yankee history to do it twice in same season.
⚾ Athletics, Tuesday: First time grounding into five double plays and still winning since June 2, 1973, at Boston.
⚾ Tony Wolters, Friday: First visiting player ever to have a multi-triple game at Safeco Field. Last to do it at the Kingdome was Fernando Viña of the Brewres on July 24, 1995.
⚾ Niko Goodrum, Monday: Third extra-inning triple by a Tigers batter this year (also JaCoby Jones and Jose Iglesias). Most they've had in a season since at least 1933 (play-by-play dwindles before that).
⚾ Asdrubal Cabrera & Jose Bautista, Tuesday: First Mets teammates with three walks and at least one hit in same game since Keith Hernandez and Howard Johnson at Houston, July 11, 1987.
⚾ Wil Myers, Sunday: Second-latest home run in a road game in Padres history (T16/2 outs). Merv Rettenmund hit one in the 21st at Montréal on May 21, 1977.
⚾ Astros, Thursday: First-ever walkoff win against the White Sox. Since beating the Yankees in last year's ALCS, White Sox were the last of the other 29 current teams they'd never walked off.
⚾ Freddie Freeman, Saturday: First Braves hitter with a single, double, and a triple in Milwaukee since... yep, they were the home team. Rico Carty did it against Philadelphia on June 15, 1965.
⚾ Dustin Fowler & Matt Olson, Friday: First time Athletics have led off both 1st and 2nd innings of a road game with homers since Eddie Joost and Gus Zernial in Detroit on May 1, 1953.
⚾ Javier Baez, Wednesday: Stole home for second time this season (also June 3 vs Mets). First Cub to do it twice since Ted Savage in 1967. First time the team even had two steals of home in a season since Tuffy Rhodes and Glenallen Hill in 1994.
Did You Know?
You may be aware that Glenallen Hill's arachnaphobia once landed him on the disabled list in what is possibly still our favorite baseball injury story ever. But years later, after coming off the DL, Hill actually conquered that fear. If fuzzy eight-legged things creep you out, click at your own risk.
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