Baseball teams, especially minor-league ones, are at the marketing disadvantage of not playing in December. So, like big retailers for whom summer is downtime, many of them do some sort of promotion, often on July 24 or 25, under the "Christmas In July" banner, and it's really just an excuse to make the interns dress up in elf costumes. We heard at least one team this year declare that July 25 was "halfway to Christmas". (It's not. Maths are hard.) But there was one "25" that was impossible to ignore this July, and don't act surprised, you already knew what you were getting.
I'm Gonna Return This Tomorrow
The Mets, on the other hand, were probably not aware of what they were getting on Tuesday, although if they were, that makes it even more Mets-ian. Steven Matz, who decided after the game that, hmm, maybe I should get my arm looked at, faced 11 batters in the 1st inning, gave up hits to eight of them, walked Matt Wieters, retired two, and needed Jacob Rhame to get the final out of the 1st, but not before seven of those runners scored. Only one other pitcher in Mets history has allowed seven runs while getting a max of two outs, and that was also against the Nationals. Kris Benson did it on August 21, 2005, though Juan Padilla stranded an extra runner and he "only" got charged with six earned. The Nationals' seven-run 1st was their most since June 21, 2015, when they opened with a 9 against the Pirates.
You already know they're not done. Three more off Rhame in the 2nd and another 3-spot in the 3rd make this a 13-0 game before some of the fans have even found their seats yet. Since the move to Washington, it was the first time the team had reached 13 by the end of the 3rd inning; the last time in the majors to do that was the Phillies against the Nats last April, a game where they opened 12-1-0.
13-0 would have already been the Nats' largest shutout win over the Mets ever. But either the Nationals were really really good this year, or Santa's sleigh broke down on South Capitol Street (which is not ideal, trust us) and all the toys just got left there. Ryan Zimmerman homers in the 4th, 16-0. Anthony Rendon bases-loaded double in the 5th, 19-0! We've reached "matrix" territory at this point, by which we mean not the movie, but our Excel file of the last time every possible final score happened in the majors. (Someday we'll code it and link it on the site here, really.) Even forgetting the 7 for the moment, it was the first time in Nats/Expos history that they'd hung a 3-spot or more in each of the first five innings of a game; the last team to do that was the 2011 Rangers, in a game that came up a couple weeks ago when the Diamondbacks nearly did it in one of their 20-run slugfests.
By this point Tanner Roark had already collected two hits, two runs scored, and three RBIs, joining Bryn Smith as the only pitchers in franchise history with that line. Smith had a bases-loaded double against Houston on July 2, 1989; the only other "Washington" pitcher ever to have those stats was one Conrad Grob against the White Sox on June 6, 1956. Grob was drafted by the Dodgers in '55, spent the entire season in the minors, and was claimed by Washington in the Rule 5 Draft the next season. By rule, the Senators had to keep him on the major-league roster for all of '56, when he pitched in 37 games, but then he was re-purchased by Brooklyn that winter, sent back to triple-A for nine whole seasons, and never came back up.
Leave it to rookie Jeff McNeil to deny shutout history with a solo home run in the top of the 6th. In case the Mets weren't about to set any more records, he claimed the title of the most-useless home run in team history, trailing by 19 in the 6th. We can't say for sure whom he surpassed since the win probability on both is complete zeroes, but Vance Wilson hit a solo shot on July 30, 2002, against Houston when down 16-1 in the 7th, while John Buck hit one in 2013 against the Nats with the Mets down to their final out. That was also a two-run shot to cut the final margin to 13-2, so we're guessing it's a tiny bit higher. Ezequiel Carrera of the Blue Jays hit one last year when trailing 19-0 in the 9th, so alas McNeil did not make major-league history as well.
Surely by now you are screaming "position player pitching!" if you weren't already doing so in the 4th or 5th. Ah-yup. And not just any position player either. 35-year-old Future Mets Retired Number (you know this is at least a possibility because #LOLMets) Jose Reyes. Who had never pitched in the professional ranks before, and we can't find any evidence that he did in any other context either. In a move that felt very similar to Ichiro Suzuki getting to pitch in the last game of the season in 2015, Reyes promptly gave up six more runs, to say nothing of "plunking" Ryan Zimmerman with a 54-mph "fastball". Zimmerman, unfortunately, deprived us of one of the best scenes in baseball history by only fake-charging the mound in response. But only one other position player since World War II had tossed one inning or less and given up six runs; that was Cincinnati shortstop Paul Janish on July 6, 2009, in a 22-1 defeat. And combined with the 7 in the 1st, it was the third time since the move that the Nationals had a pair of 6-run innings in the same game-- BUT, in a bizarre coincidence, the first time it wasn't a July 27 game against Milwaukee. The other two such games were last year at Nats Park and 2009 at Miller.
Trea Turner singled off Reyes for his fourth hit of the game; he would score a third run when Wilmer Difo tripled two batters later. Combined with his two steals, he's the first leadoff batter to do all that for the Nationals since... Trea Turner at Atlanta on September 16, 2016. No leadoff batter in Nats/Expos history had done that twice, and the only other player in the majors to do it twice this century is Hanley Ramirez. Somehow Turner managed to not drive in a single run in this mess, however; only he and Tim Raines (August 5, 1982) can claim four hits, three runs, two steals, but zero RBIs, among all franchise leadoff hitters.
Turner may not have sent home any runs, but Daniel Murphy certainly did. With two homers, he collected six RBIs, the fourth player to do that for Washington this season (Turner, Matt Adams, Mark Reynolds). The franchise has never had four such games by any combination of players in the same season before. And along with three each from Rendon, Zimmerman, Roark, and pinch-hitter Reynolds, it was the first time in Nats/Expos history that four different players, let alone five, had driven in three runs in a game. The Orioles were the last to have five, August 16, 2016, in an 18-2 pounding of Oakland.
And that Difo triple, the last of the Nationals' 26 hits, made him the 10th Washington batter with an extra-base hit in the game. Only one other team in the live-ball era can claim that honor; the Indians also had 10 players with an XBH in a 15-13 extra-inning win at Kansas City on August 23, 2006.
It was so bad that the real bullpen had to get up again before Reyes was done, but finally Juan Soto lofted a fly ball to left to seal the score at twenty-five. It was the most runs the Nationals (or Expos) had ever scored, but not the most the Mets had ever given up. That came on June 11, 1985, when they lost 26-7 to the Phillies, a game that was also their worst margin of defeat in team history. Well, for three more outs anyway. Despite a home run from Austin Jackson in the 9th, which may have actually supplanted McNeil's as the most-useless one in team history (trailing by 23?), the Mets finally realized they weren't going to score two dozen runs in the inning and Amed Rosario grounded out to end the game at 25-4.
All the cells outlined in red got updated since Monday.)
It turns out none of our intermediate scores (13-0, 14-0, 16-0, 19-0, 19-1, 21-1, 23-1, 24-1, 25-1, 25-2) would have filled in any blank squares (the finals that have still to this day never happened); the Mets already had their 1 by the time the Nationals got to 20. But Tuesday's game did overwrite a square that hadn't been touched since before Excel's epoch. (Go on, try typing a date from 1899 into it. It won't take.) As seen above, the previous 25-4 score in the majors happened on September 2, 1899-- and also involved Washington. The original NL Senators lost a "comedy in eight acts" to Louisville that day. The only other occurrence of that exact score was seven years prior, when Baltimore beat St Louis on June 10, 1892.
And although the Nationals were off on Monday, remember that they were coming off a dreadful series against the Marlins, and that in Sunday's finale they got shut out on two hits, one of which was a Matt Adams single in the 9th. Since there haven't been a huge number of 25-run games to start with, we can report that the Nationals are just the second team ever to score 0 runs in one game and 25+ in the next. The Giants did that in the middle of a series at Ebbets Field on April 29 (lost 0-5) and 30 (won 26-8) of 1944.
Though Reyes will probably never live down his pitching performance, it really didn't matter to the outcome of the game, so we all can (and will) laugh about it. Reyes did at least try and make up for it on Wednesday, hitting two solo homers in a game he wasn't even scheduled to play. (Pitchers need rest, y'know.) Reyes got subbed in at second base in the 2nd inning after Phillip Evans was injured on an attempted double-play breakup, and proceeded to go yard in the 5th and 8th. Once again, it still didn't matter to the outcome; the Nationals won 5-3 and a Wilmer Flores solo homer was the Mets' only other run. But it gave Reyes yet another footnote in history. He's just the second player ever to hit two home runs a day after giving up two home runs. And the other not only did it the next day, he did it the same day! It was Cubs HOF first baseman Cap Anson, who like many players of the day, dabbled in pitching in the mid-1880s. On August 5, 1884, a youngster named Thomas Lynch made his only career appearance, pitching seven innings against Cleveland; player/manager Anson then tapped himself to throw the 8th and 9th and allowed two dingers in the 8-5 loss. But he also got one back in the bottom of the 8th by hitting his second homer of the day. The next game, on the 6th, Larry Corcoran was back on the hill for the 37th of his 59 starts that year; Anson proceeded to hit three more round-trippers as Chicago cruised to a 13-4 win.
Winter Solstice
Kids (and probably lots of adults) get antsy and excited seeing all those wrapped boxes just sitting there for weeks at a time, so once in a while you got to open one early. Say, on the 21st. And wouldn't you know it, the Dodgers unwrapped some more "matrix" fun, and maybe a new card game, on Thursday by hitting 21 against the Brewers. (PSA: If you're giving your kids card games, make sure they gamble "responsibly".) It started simply enough, with Joc Pederson hitting his fourth leadoff homer of the year, but then Jhouyls Chacin ran into some issues in the 3rd, not the least of which were two errors by his infield. He hit Justin Turner with a pitch, walked Yasmani Grandal, and then Cody Bellinger with the grand slam to make it 6-1. That was the Dodgers' first slam at home in over a year (Corey Seager, last June 11); the rival Giants are the only team to go longer without hitting one for their home faithful. Yasiel Puig homers in the 4th; after Chacin walks two in the 5th and gets pulled, newly-acquired Brian Dozier makes it 10-2 and the rout has begun. But we're not even halfway there. Puig homers again. Pederson homers again. Taylor Williams and Hernan Perez combine on a 9-run 7th, the Dodgers' largest frame since opening a game with the Rockies on April 26, 2008, with a 10-run 1st.
All told the Dodgers connected for seven homers, five doubles, 21 runs on 18 hits, a Dodger Stadium scoring record (really!), and just the second 21-5 win (exact score) in franchise history. The other one of those was September 24, 1887, over the Athletics in a game that was "decidedly cold, and everyone was glad when [it] came to an end." The seven homers tied for the most in Dodger Stadium history by any team; the three to do it have at least all been Los Angeles. They beat the Reds 17-6 on May 25, 1979, and the Padres on September 18, 2006; that latter game was also the Dodgers' only other contest (home or road) in the live-ball era where they collected 12 extra-base hits.
While the 21 was a Dodger Stadium record, it missed by one the Los Angeles Dodgers record, set at (naturally) Coors Field on July 21, 2001 (22-7). Their last home game with 21+ runs was at Ebbets Field on June 24, 1950. Pederson with the leadoff shot, and another homer later on, was reminiscent of his June 7 game at Pittsburgh; he's the first player in Dodgers history (1884) to do that twice in a season. And Puig also had a 2-HR, 4-RBI game last July in Miami while batting 8th; only two other Dodgers have ever done that twice-- Don Zimmer and Roy Campanella. And the quartet of Bellinger, Dozier, Puig, and Pederson is just the third ever, for any team, to each have a homer and four RBIs in the same game. The Rangers did it in that famous 30-3 game in Baltimore in 2007, and the Braves accomplished the feat at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on August 30, 1953. The Dodgers had never even had three players do it in the same game.
Sleigh Dodgers
That Thursday mess was only one highlight in a week of fun for the old Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. (Trolleys, while quaint, are not nearly as effective at distributing gifts as flying reindeer.) And they gifted their fans with two more walkoff wins earlier in the week, one on Wednesday against Milwaukee after getting no-hit by Chase Anderson through four innings. Yasmani Grandal broke that up with a leadoff homer in the 5th, and on the very next pitch, the second hit for the Dodgers was also the first hit for a Dodger-- Former New Britain Rock Cat Brian Dozier, in his first game after the Logan Forsythe trade with Minnesota. (For his part, Forsythe pinch-hit in the 8th inning of his first game with the Twins, trailing 2-0, and grounded into an inning-ending double play.) Recall that Dozier was part of that homerfest on Thursday as well; he's just the second player ever to go deep in each of his first two games with Los Angeles. After being traded from the Astros in the offseason, Jim Wynn did it in three straight games to open the 1974 campaign.
The teams traded runs in the 7th and 8th, sending us to the bottom of the 10th in a 4-4 tie. And here's Grandal again. Two-run walkoff with Matt Kemp on first, they being the only two batters faced by Matt Albers. Grandal was the first Dodger whose second homer was an extra-inning walkoff since Andre Ethier did it in the Freeway Series on August 2, 2015. And while Dozier didn't homer again, he did add a double and a single, becoming the first player with three hits including a dinger in his Dodgers debut since Rod Barajas was traded from the Mets on August 24, 2010.
At first, however, it looked like an inauspicious debut for Dozier; Wednesday's game began with a "Little League home run" wherein Lorenzo Cain tripled into the right-field corner and then Dozier's relay throw sailed into the dugout, resulting in an award of home. It was just the second time in Brewers/Pilots history that their leadoff batter had scored on a non-homer; on June 28, 2000, Ronnie Belliard had a leadoff double-plus-E8 against the Phillies. Cain would end up with a double and a single as well, the first visiting player to have all three hits at Dodger Stadium since the Cubs' Aramis Ramirez on July 9, 2010. No Brewers player had ever done it; the only other one in a Milwaukee uniform to do it against the Dodgers was Bill Bruton of the Braves at Ebbets Field on June 3, 1953.
And of course, the Dodgers faced Houston over the weekend and on Saturday night, Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Actually all nine of them, plus the Radio Flyer, plus a few snowmobiles. Fourteen runs the Dodgers gave up to the Astros, while more notably, not scoring any of their own. It was the team's worst shutout loss ever at Dodger Stadium (1962) and their worst anywhere since another 14-0 in Atlanta on April 28, 1997. The last home shutout of that size was also a 14-0 against the Braves, except they were still in Boston then. That was July 22, 1923, at Ebbets Field.
On the Astros side, it was their second-largest shutout of any team; they blanked the Expos 15-0 at Stade Olympíque on April 26, 1998. They also became the first visiting team to collect nine extra-base hits at Dodger Stadium since the Phillies did that in a 15-3 win on July 17, 2007. And Saturday's game wasn't really that big of a rout until John Axford entered in the 8th inning, faced seven batters, got one of them out, and then Zac Rosscup finished it off by letting the inherited runners score. Axford was the first Dodgers pitcher to get charged with 6+ runs in a home game while getting only one out since Jonathan Broxton had a rare meltdown, also against the Astros, on May 11, 2008.
Save The Best For Last
When it comes to opening Christmas presents, sometimes you've gotta get through the socks and the school supplies before they bring out the Radio Flyer. We often feel that way about each night's slate of MLB games; there's usually five or six clunkers (hi, AL West!) that get a half-hearted "ooh, thanks" while others end up being quite exciting. (This, we've always said, is the joy of baseball; you start a scoresheet with 81 blank squares and never quite know what's going to end up in them three hours later.)
Anyway, with that buildup, Monday's slate featured just nine games but had plenty of late surprises. After six innings, the Twins found themselves in a 4-4 tie with Cleveland in the opener of a three-game series (we were at the remaining two games, and no, they weren't nearly as interesting) when, with Ehire Adrianza on second, Mitch Garver dropped a fly ball into left field for a walkoff double and the 5-4 victory. Like most things related to the Twins and extra-base hits, Eduardo Escobar is the answer to the question of Minnesota's previous walkoff double; he hit that on August 11, 2015, against Texas. Jose Ramirez ended up with two homers in the loss, the fourth Clevelander to pull that off this season (Edwin Encarnacion and Francisco Lindor twice). That's after no Indians player did it at all in either 2016 or 2017. The last time they had four such games was in 2009.
While that game was ending, the Phillies/Red Sox tilt, which started an hour earlier thanks to those pesky time zones, was locked in an extra-inning stalemale after an Eduardo Nuñez triple in the 5th and neither team's offense doing anything since. Still neither team scored despite both of them getting runners to second in the 10th, and finally Nuñez singled to start the 13th and Blake Swihart also walked off with a double. And not just any double, a "ground-rule" double (which is not technically correct, but that's a soapbox for some other time) where Nuñez fortunately happened to have stolen second, or else he would have been sent back and we play on. Much like inside-the-park homers, we can't say for certain that every ground-rule double is accurately indicated as such, since many boxscores and league records back in the day would just list "two-base hits" (see the screenshot above, for example). But the last known occurrence of a walkoff automatic double by the Red Sox was on September 5, 1927, when Ira Flagstad received one in the 18th innings against the Yankees. Buddy Myer was on second ahead of him, having also been awarded a ground-rule double, and considering there were a total of eleven! of them in the game, it's a safe bet that the Labor Day overflow crowd had spilled out onto the field and it was an automatic two bases each time a ball went in there. The last one in the majors was by the Marlins' Chris Johnson in August 2016, and the last one to occur in the 13th or later went to the Mets' David Wright against Atlanta on May 5, 2006.
While looking up all of that, the Cardinals scored three runs in the 7th to tie their game with the Rockies and set up the possibility of a third walkoff double in under an hour. There hadn't been three on the same day since June 22, 1975... and thanks to Marcell Ozuna there still haven't. Instead of stopping at second (which wouldn't have been a walkoff in this case), he cranked his 13th homer of the year with one out in the 10th for a 5-4 victory. It's already the sixth walkoff homer by St Louis this season, most in the majors, and very likely the most in a season in Cardinals history. We did not definitively find another season with six, but with the quirk that the home team frequently batted first in the 19th century, some homers that are listed as the "top of the 9th" might actually be game-winners. The last of several seasons in which the Cardinals had five was 2008. And having hit a two-run shot in the 1st inning on Sunday against the Cubs, Ozuna became the first Cardinals batter to hit a go-ahead homer in the 1st inning of one game, and a go-ahead homer in extra innings in the next game (either order) since Mark McGwire against the Astros on July 11 and 12, 1998.
All four of the Rockies' runs on Monday came on a 5th-inning grand slam by Nolan Arenado. He was the second batter faced by Daniel Poncedeleon after Carlos Martinez gave up two hits and was removed citing a shoulder strain. You might have heard a little something about Poncedeleon's debut last week. Monday was his second appearance, and he walked Ian Desmond to load the bases before giving up the slam to Arenado. Sure, there have been plenty of pitchers for whom the first hit they allowed in the majors was a grand slam. But the last time it came in a second appearance (i.e., his debut was hit-free) was by Seattle's Cesar Jimenez on September 13, 2006 (Jimenez worked a 1-2-3 inning in relief two days earlier).
Wednesday's 6-3 win over Colorado was fairly unnotable aside from Poncedelon making his third career appearance-- and yet again not giving up a hit. This time it was only 2⅓ innings, but he faced eight, retired seven, and walked Arenado. Only two other pitchers in the live-ball era have had two hit-free games out of their first three appearances, regardless of length. They were the Rangers' Alexi Ogando in 2010 and Jay Hook of the Reds in 1957.
And the Cardinals weren't done either. They bookended that series with another walkoff on Thursday, this time a two-run pinch-hit single by Jose Martinez. Obviously a multi-run walkoff single can only happen when the team is trailing, and thus Martinez's hit was a first for a Cardinals PH since Dane Iorg hit one off the Giants' Vida Blue on September 18, 1979.
Shakedown 1979
It's highly unusual that we get two notes on the same night that both point back to the same day many years ago. But if you want "highly unusual", you can usually get it out of the Yankees and Red Sox. CC Sabathia struggled with command early on Thursday, walking four and needing 77 pitches to finish three innings. That was plenty for Aaron Boone, who tapped Jonathan Holder for the 4th-- unaware that he would then have to tap Chad Green for the 4th. And then Luis Cessa for the 4th. Gulp. The Red Sox blew up for eight runs, seven of them off Holder, who only faced seven batters. Which means he didn't record an out. And here's our first 1979 connection. Since earned runs were first officially kept by the American League in 1913, only one other Yankees pitcher had given up seven of them while not getting anyone out. That was Bob Kammeyer at Cleveland on... September 18, 1979. The same day as Iorg's walkoff for the Cardinals above. The "snowman" 8 (Christmas theme!) was actually Boston's second of the year against the Yankees; they had a 9-run 6th back in April, and haven't had two snowmen against the Bronx Bombers in the same season since 1959.
Ultimately Wednesday's final score would be 15-7, with Steve Pearce's three homers topping Didi Gregorius's two. In nearly 2200 games played between the two archrivals, only one other contest had ended with that exact count; it was on May 29, 1927, in favor of that year's eventual World Series champions. Pearce became the third Bostonian with a 3-HR game against the Yankees, joining Kevin Millar (July 23, 2004) and Mo Vaughn (May 30, 1997); all three did it at Fenway. But it wasn't just him. Throughout the lineup, the Red Sox collected 10 extra-base hits and four stolen bases, the first game in the live-ball era (against anyone) where they've hit both those totals. And for just the second time in Red Sox history, the top five batters in the lineup all had three hits and scored at least two runs. The other game was a 14-0 win at Philadelphia on September 19, 1943, and the one name out of the five you probably know is Bobby Doerr. (Though shoutout to Lamar "Skeeter" Newsome, so nicknamed by childhood friends because of his small size (and probably constant buzzing).)
Didi Gregorius, meanwhile, became the first Yankee batter to hit two homers in a loss at Fenway since Robinson Cano did it on April 25, 2009. As a team the Yankees hit four homers and still lost, their first time ever doing that at Fenway.
On Friday, however, four homers would have seemed like that Lexus commercial where there's suddenly a new car in the driveway with a giant bow on it (how does someone not notice this until Christmas morning?). In fact two homers would have at least been worth a thank-you note. The Yankees couldn't manage two hits against Rick Porcello in getting taken down 4-1. To top it off, it was our favorite kind of one-hitter here at Kernels, the kind where the hit happens in the 3rd inning, and with the bonus that it was a home run, in this case by Miguel Andujar.
The last time the Yankees got one-hit by an opponent, and the one hit was a homer, was... well, that turned out to not be very interesting, because it was the last time they got one-hit at all. Starlin Castro had the homer at Tropicana Field on May 29, 2016. But the last time they were one-hit at Fenway was June 7, 1990, by Greg Harris, and if you thought "Jesse Barfield" and "perfection" would never be in the same sentence, well, his 5th-inning single is what kept them apart. As for being one-hit by the Red Sox at all, that happened in the Bronx on September 10, 1999, and that was yet another game where the Yankees' only hit was a homer. It was by Chili Davis off Pedro Martinez, and yes, that was Pedro's 17-strikeout game.
Porcello, meanwhile, also threw back to that Pedro game, by throwing a complete-game one-hitter that was not a shutout (so, in our nomenclature, a CG-1 versus an SHO-1). That same 17-K game was the last time any Sawx pitcher did that against any oponent. Jon Lester threw the last SHO-1 at Fenway, against Toronto on May 10, 2013. And Lester was also the last Boston pitcher with a CG-1 (or better) that included at least nine strikeouts; that was in his no-hitter against the Royals on May 19, 2008.
Steve Pearce homered again, the first Red Sox batter to go deep four times in a two-game span against the Yankees since David Ortiz had two each on July 4 and 5, 2003.
And while the Yankees were getting one-hit by their Bostonian nemeses, the Mets were at Citi Field scrounging up just two hits against Anibal Sanchez and the Braves. That marked the third time since both teams have existed (1962) that the Yankees and Mets have both been held to two or fewer hits on the same day. The first was May 17, 1966, and the previous time before Friday was on August 9... of 1979.
Power Rangers
Similar to the oddity of the same date coming up in two different notes, once in a while it happens that the same game links to two different notes in a week. And sure enough, way up top we led with the Nationals' 25-run outburst on Tuesday that included 3+ runs in each of the first five innings. The last team to do that was the 2011 Texas Rangers. And wouldn't you know it, on Thursday the Rangers landed us on that same game again with their own 17-8 thumping of the Orioles. It wasn't the score in this case; it was the fact that 10 different Texas batters collected at least one extra-base hit. And the Rangers hadn't done that as a team since that same 20-6 game against Minnesota on July 25, 2011.
Eight of the nine Rangers starters reached base twice, scored at least once, and had at least one of those many extra-base knocks. Special thanks to Adrian Beltre for "only" having two singles and preventing them from running the table. It's still only the second time in team history that eight starters have done that; the other game was a 17-6 win over the Yankees on July 31, 2002.
The most bizarre line of the evening, however, easily belonged to Rounged Odor, who homered in the 6th around walking not once, not twice, but five times as the Rangers sent 51 batters to the plate thanks to all those runs. He's only the third player in Rangers history to draw five walks in a game; the others were Milton Bradley in Toronto on April 16, 2008, and Mark Teixeira against Oakland on September 23, 2004.
But five walks and a home run? That's been done by just four players in the live-ball era. Before Odor, it last happened aagainst Texas, on June 24, 2004, by Seattle's Edgar Martinez. Given enough guesses, you might get the other two: Mark McGwire (then still with Oakland) on April 26, 1997, and Hank Aaron on July 11, 1972.
Andrew Cashner finished (at least for now) his Orioles career in a blaze of glory, becoming the first Baltimore starter to give up 10 earned runs since Jason Johnson did it against the White Sox on August 15, 2000. And since the AL first recorded earned runs in its register in 1913, no starter for the Orioles or Browns had ever given up 10 of them without finishing the 2nd inning. Thursday's final score of 17-8 was the first of that exact count (see matrix above) since the Giants lost by that score at Coors Field on April 11, 2012.
The Orioles might should have kept walking Odor. On Friday he came right back with a 4th-inning grand slam to lead Texas to an 11-3 victory. He's the first player to draw five walks in one game and hit a grand slam in the next since Dodgers 1B Greg Brock did it in Montréal on May 17 and 18, 1983.
And if you've been following along, you notice that we've had sections on three high-scoring games from Thursday-- 15 by the Red Sox, 17 by the Rangers, and 21 for the Dodgers. August 2, 2018, is just the third day in baseball history on which teams scored exactly 15, 17, and 21 runs, and so far we've done it once per century. The first such occasion was on June 15, 1894, and the more recent one was still 88 years ago-- June 23, 1930, by the Yankees, Athletics, and Cubs (respectively).
Unwrapping The New Stuff
It's always fun to rip open a package and find some shiny new toy or item of clothing or piece of power equipment or whatever your definition of a "toy" is. It'll never be quite that clean and shiny again.
The Braves weren't content to only have five starting pitchers, so like cars or vacation homes, they spent some money on a sixth one this week, calling up Kolby Allard from triple-A as the team prepares to play 31 games in 31 days. Allard's debut was Tuesday against the Marlins, and he got his friends to come over and help him break in the new glove. The Braves offense staked him to an 8-2 lead before he started to get into trouble in the 5th and 6th before eventually being turned off for the day. Allard ended up surrendering nine hits and five runs, only striking out one batter, but getting the win because the final was 11-6 and he already had the big lead. The last pitcher in the majors to give up 9+ hits and 5+ runs in his debut and still get the win was Anthony Vasquez of the Mariners on August 23, 2011. And the last Braves pitcher to pull that off was one Arnold Umbach, who pitched the next-to-last game of 1964 for Milwaukee (and won it), spent all of 1965 in Atlanta (except that was the Braves' triple-A club, not the major-league one yet), and then did a 22-game stint in '66 when the MLB team moved.
Allard, as starting pitcher, also batted three times, laying down two successful sacrifice bunts and also getting his first career hit with a single in the 2nd. He also scored his first run when one of those bunts was thrown away and he continued around on a Kurt Suzuki double. The previous Braves pitcher to record both a hit and a run scored in his MLB debut was Lou Tost (pronounced like the bread product) against Brooklyn on April 20, 1942; Tost would pitch 38 games before enlisting in 1943 and really never returned to baseball.
Alex McRae of the Pirates found his way to the show on Wednesday, throwing three innings in relief after Nick Kingham gave up four runs in the 1st. He gave up three hits and a run, certaily respectable and the longest such debut by a Pirate since Trevor Williams did it two years ago. But the notable part is that instead of double-switching, Clint Hurdle put McRae in despite the pitcher's spot being up first in the next inning. McRae lined out to center. But in so doing, he became the first Pirates pitcher to throw 3+ innings of relief in his MLB debut, allow only one run, and take a turn at bat since Barry Jones did it, also against the Cubs, on April 20, 1986.
Ryan O'Hearn and Brett Phillips each hit two-run homers for Kansas City to double-handedly defeat the White Sox 4-2. For Phillips it was his first hit as a member of the Royals, having come over from Milwaukee in the Mike Moustakas deal. For O'Hearn it was his first hit as a member of the Royals, having been called up from Omaha when Brian Goodwin went on the DL. That also meant it was his major-league debut. And he thus became one of only three players ever to go yard in their first MLB game while wearing a Royals uniform. The others are Mark Quinn against Anaheim on September 14, 1999, and the aforementioned Clint Hurdle, who did it against Seattle on September 18, 1977.
Bottom Of The Bag
(or, Stocking Stuffers.)
⚾ Gorkys Hernandez, Monday: By inning, second-latest homer the Giants have ever hit in San Diego. Chili Davis went deep in the top of the 15th on July 3, 1982.
⚾ Mark Canha, Tuesday: First Oaklander with a steal of home in consecutive seasons (August 5 in Anaheim) since Dave McKay in 1981-82.
⚾ Tigers, Friday: First time they played a game of 13 innings or longer and failed to score since August 13, 1954, against the White Sox (Minnie Minoso walked off in the 16th).
⚾ Gleyber Torres, Wednesday: Youngest Yankee ever to hit two homers in a loss, breaking by over a year the mark of Frankie Crosetti, August 12, 1933, at Philadelphia.
⚾ Ramon Laureano, Sunday: First Athletics batter with three hits, a stolen base, and an RBI in any of his first three career games since Bert Campaneris did it in his debut, July 23, 1964.
⚾ Willson Contreras, Wednesday: First Cubs player to homer and get cited for a catcher's interference in same game since Adrian Garrett against the Pirates on July 27, 1973.
⚾ Ronald Acuña, Tuesday: Youngest Braves player to hit a leadoff homer since Sebastian "Sibby" Sisti at St Louis, July 16, 1940 (ten days before his 20th birthday).
⚾ Ronald Acuña, Thursday: Youngest Braves player to hit a leadoff triple since Sebastian "Sibby" Sisti vs Pittsburgh, July 27, 1940 (the day after his 20th birthday).
⚾ Red Sox, Fri-Sat: First time holding Yankees to 1 run on 5 hits (or fewer of each) in consecutive games since September 20 and 21, 1991.
⚾ Jonathan Lucroy & Franklin Barreto, Wednesday: First pair of 8- and 9-hitters in Athletics history ever to have 3 hits & 3 RBI in same game.
⚾ Deck McGuire, Sunday: First starter in live-ball era, for any team, to allow three hits, hit two batters, and throw a wild pitch while recording no more than one out.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Friday: Youngest player in Angels history with two homers and a stolen base in the same game. Broke the mark of Tim Salmon (August 18, 1993, vs Tigers) by nearly a year.
⚾ Joc Pederson, Thu-Fri: Hit leadoff home run in consecutive games, joining Carl Furillo (July 12-13, 1951) as the only players in Dodgers history to accomplish the feat.
⚾ Andrew McCutchen, Saturday: First Giants leadoff batter to have five hits in a loss since Eddie Milner at Houston, August 5, 1987.
⚾ Whit Merrifield & Daniel Palka, Thursday: First game where both teams hit a go-ahead pinch-hit homer of either 3 or 4 runs in the 8th inning or later since George Puccinelli of the Cardinals and Harvey Hendrick of the Dodgers on July 21, 1930.
Did You Know?
Since we made the reference to Power Rangers in one of the section headers above, we remembered this list (there are several out there) of the most popular toys from each year. And there they are, 1994. Now if only we can get the next two expansion teams to be named the Turtles and the Robosapiens.
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