Connect Four

Normally we think of baseball as a game of threes. Three strikes and you're out. Three outs in an inning. Three times three = nine innings per game. Nine batters per side. And sure, there are a handful of fours around. Four balls for a walk, though this wasn't always the case. Four infielders. Ever heard of a fourth out in an inning? (It's mentioned in the rule book-- think appeal plays for missing a base.) And of course, four bases required to make the diamond. And that last one sorta leads to a whole litany of other fours that got dropped, um, square into our laps this week.


Four Square(d)

In the Before Times, back when we were allowed to travel freely, we checked in last summer at Petco Park on a trip based around the annual SABR convention. We baseball lovers had a grand old time at the Grand Hyatt downtown, but nobody could see this much grandiosity coming.

Oh sure, it starts innocently enough, even though Jordan Lyles has already given up 7 runs to the Padres on Monday before we join our storyline. But that somehow just wasn't enough for the offensive machine that is Fernando Tatis Jr, who wandered to the plate in the 7th with two on and promptly made the game 10-3. It took Jesse Chavez four more batters to get out of that inning, and then Juan Nicasio began the 8th with a single and two walks. Bringing up Tatis again... with the bases loaded. Cue grand slam number 1. It was the first slam the Padres had ever hit in Arlington, and the second time they'd ever hit one with the team already leading by 7 runs. Greg Vaughn had the other of those on August 16, 1996. And yeah, that was a 3-run homer just last inning, making Tatis the fourth-youngest player ever to drive in 7 runs in a game. Ron Santo (1961) and Granny Hamner (1948) were a younger version of 21 than Tatis is, while Travis Jackson of the Giants was still barely a teenager when he did it in 1923. And Tatis is the fourth player in Padres history to hit both a slam and a 3-run dinger in the same game, after Hunter Renfroe (2016), Jack Clark (1989), and Dave Kingman (1977).

The Padres were apparently so excited by this development that they couldn't wait to do it again. Just 2 innings and 17 hours later, they begin Tuesday's game with consecutive singles from Trent Grisham, Tatis again, and Manny Machado. The Padres already hadn't done that in over two years (June 9, 2018), but you know what's coming. Mike Minor got two quick outs, including a force at home, but the bases are still loaded when Wil Myers can either end the inning without a run scoring, or he can... yeah. That. The Padres' previous 1st-inning slam came from Ryan Schimpf at Citi Field on August 12, 2016, and Tuesday was the first time they'd ever hit one in an American League park. It was the first time any visiting team had slammed in back-to-back games in Arlington (any stadium), and it was the fifth occurrence in Padres history of slams in back-to-back games. Chase Headley and Kyle Blanks did it in Pittsburgh in August 2011; the others were when Fred McGriff hit two by himself in 1991, Benito Santiago and Jack Clark in 1989, and Al Ferrara and Ollie Brown in May 1969 just 26 games into the Padres' major-league existence.

And speaking of the Padres' existence, they're still, 52 seasons later, looking for that first pesky no-hitter, so it's worth mentioning that Adrian Morejon had one in this game. Okay, so it only lasted 3 innings and 39 pitches because he's not truly a starter, but still he was the seventh pitcher in team history to be removed in the 4th inning or later with a no-hitter intact. Eric Lauer was the last to get that distinction, on August 30, 2018. This would also mean that the Rangers ended both games Monday and Tuesday with 5 or fewer hits, yet still managed to score 4 runs in each. The last time the Rangers pulled that off, they weren't the Rangers. They were the second Senators, and they actually won both games, in Kansas City on August 11 and 12, 1964.


Quad City Padres

On Wednesday everybody got to fly out to San Diego so the same teams could play two more games out there, because 2020 scheduling. Those cardboard cutouts paid good money for their 30 home games, darn it. And now that we're truly on the west coast, this one had your more-traditional west-coast feel of being an uneventful 2-1 yawnfest, with the Padres' "2" being solo homers from Jurickson Profar and, oh yeah, Fernando Tatis again. That was already Tatis's 12th homer of the season, but they've come in 10 different games to set a Padres record for the most games with a homer out of the team's first 26 of a season. Nate Colbert did it in 9 of the 26 back in 1972.

Had this stayed a 2-1 "meh" kind of game, we would have ended this section already. But noooo, thanks Joey Gallo. His solo homer sent us to extras and joined Mike Napoli's walkoff in May 2017 as the only tying or go-ahead homers the Rangers have ever hit in the 9th or later against San Diego. The Rangers then score their free runner to take the lead, but Rafael Montero walks two Padres batters to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th. As you know by now, loaded bases for the Padres soon become unloaded bases, in this case sending the cardboard cutouts into a frenzy when Manny Machado hit the second extra-inning walkoff slam in team history. Adrian Gonzalez had the other against the Mets on June 2, 2010. And the other walkoff homer the Padres ever hit against the Rangers was also a slam, Francisco Mejia in the 9th inning on September 16, 2018. There have only been four other walkoff 4-run homers in Padres history-- Hunter Renfroe last May, Rondell White in 2013, Steve Finley in 1998, and Bip Roberts in 1995. And the fine folks at Stats LLC pointed out that San Diego was the first NL team to hit a slam in three straight games since the old Cleveland Spiders did it in June 1895.

Now, if you had to match an accomplishment of the Cleveland Spiders, the grand-slam thing is one of your better choices. Can you not just be happy with that, cardboard cutouts? Sigh. So demanding. On Thursday we are stuck at a 2-1 score again, this time in the Rangers' favor, and Former New Britain Rock Cat Kyle Gibson has gotten himself in a little trouble in the 5th. Austin Hedges led off with a single. Tatis singled and Machado walked, but that's not the worst thing in the world considering both of them hit grand slams earlier in the week. So here comes Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded, but at least he hasn't hit a sl-- yes. Yes he did. And not even the Cleveland Spiders pulled this one off; the Padres are thus the first team in major-league history to hit a 4-run homer in four straight games. Recall that the walkoff one on Wednesday also came with the Padres trailing; the last team to hit a lead-flipping slam in even two consecutive games was the 2003 Yankees (Enrique Wilson & Nick Johnson). And we could find no instances of a go-ahead slam (so, includes the game being tied at the time, not trailing) in three straight games; the 1992 Phillies (Darren Daulton, Dave Hollins, Wes Chamberlain) were the last to even have three such slams in a week.

Unlike Wednesday, however, the game's not over. And then Danny Santana comes up for Texas in the 7th with the bases loaded and his team down by 3. So guess what he does. Nope, trick question. But he did hit a bases-clearing double, the Rangers' first such game-tying two-bagger in the 7th or later since Robert Kelly in Seattle on June 26, 1999. So are we gonna end up in extra innings again? Well, yes we are, but it's not that simple. After the Rangers score again in the 8th, Ty France and Austin Hedges both hit solo homers in the San Diego half, the first time the Padres have gone back-to-back to tie and then take the lead that late in a game since Adrian Gonzalez and Vinny Castilla did it in Milwaukee on June 7, 2006. And that just set up Nick Solak's tying homer in the top of the 9th, which was the second one ever hit by the Rangers in San Diego. You may remember the first one, because Joey Gallo hit it yesterday. And eventually Jake Cronenworth shoots a single up the middle in the 10th, the Padres' fourth walkoff ever against Texas, but surprisingly the first that was a mere single. The other events (including this week) were two homers and an error.

Now, the good news is that the Padres decided to take Friday off from hitting grand slams. So the 4-game streak of 4-run homers is broken and we can start thinking about other things that happened this week. But by Saturday a different Texas team (the Astros) was in town and the Padres were nice enough to let them have a taste too. And Houston starter Brandon Bielak probably did not have a grand time in San Diego. Trent Grisham greeted him with the Padres' first ever leadoff homer against Houston, leaving six opponents (CLE, LAA, MIN, NYY, TB, TOR) against whom they've never hit one. Two batters later Manny Machado made it 2-0. Then the madness began. Wil Myers led off the 2nd with a homer as well, just the third time in Padres history they've started the first two frames with dingers. And two of those three games are this year; Tatis and Cronenworth did it August 7 against Arizona. (The other was in 1970.) The rest of Bielak's inning: Single, walk, sac bunt, 3-run homer by Grisham again, hit Tatis with a pitch and get your catcher ejected. Bielak was the first pitcher in Astros history to give up 4 homers while getting no more than 4 outs. Then it got weird.

Humberto Castellanos gives up three singles to re-load the bases. And now Cronenworth, of the walkoff single on Thursday, is at the plate. About 30 seconds later he's at the plate again. And so are all his teammates. In just 29 games the Padres have hit six grand slams, already within four of their team record for an entire 162-game season. And that wouldn't even be the big story, because in the 7th Trent Grisham homered again. For the third time. Grisham and Cronenworth would be the first teammates in Padres history with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBI in the same game, and don't forget Grisham was the leadoff batter. They don't drive in 6 runs very often, because the guys at the bottom of the lineup don't usually reach base a lot. The only other leadoff batter in Padres history with a 6-RBI game was Bobby Tolan on July 17, 1974. And only five other players, for any team, have had 3 homers and 6 RBI out of a leadoff spot. Matt Carpenter did it for the Cardnials last July, along with Andrew McCutchen (2009), Oakland's Ernie Young (1996), Mickey Brantley of the Mariners (1987), and Cleveland's Billy Glynn (1954). And remember that Tatis had the 7-RBI game on Monday when he started this whole mess. The only other time in Padres history that two players had 6-RBI games within a week of each other was in May 2001, by Bubba Trammell on the 19th and Ryan Klesko two days later.


Doubling Down

Love it or hate it (and the odds are that you hate it), the international extra-innings rule, affectionately known as the free runner, isn't going anywhere anytime soon, certainly not this year. Ah, but what exactly counts as an "extra inning"? Because in this season of experimental rule changes suddenly come to life, MLB has also adopted the minor-league doubleheader rules stating that both games are only 7 innings long. Just as we were wrapping up last week's post, Willy Adames of the Rays made MLB history by hitting the first-ever "extra-inning" homer that was in the 8th. And that was only made possible because Toronto's home game last Saturday was suspended by rain, invoking another doubleheader quirk that the suspended game is played to its scheduled nine frames but then the original ("second") game is shortened to only seven. And remember, this is Toronto, where they have a roof. Which of course they are not playing under; the rain was at uncovered Sahlen Field in Buffalo. (Random fun fact: It was actually NOT the first suspended home game in Jays history. On August 28, 1980, a game with the Twins went into extras and had to be stopped after 14 nnings due to a curfew. And not the old 1:00 am American League curfew, but one imposed because the stadium had to be converted for a concert later that night by The Cars. Way to shake it up.) But to recap, the team that plays in a dome had a home game suspended by rain, which created a doubleheader in which the second game was only 7 innings, which they lost because the visiting team hit an "extra-inning" homer in the 8th, which was a 2-run homer because of the free runner who started at second base. Ain't 2020 baseball great?

The Jays, however, would find themselves in another doubleheader later in the week, this one with the Phillies on Thursday. And after being on the wrong end of that extra-inning homer on Sunday, the Jays suddenly found themselves on the right end of the first true "walkoff" anything in MLB history to occur before the 9th inning. (We say "true" walkoff in the sense that it occurred in the last scheduled inning; there have been a handful of plays that gave the home team the lead right before a game was called. The last one of those happened between the Rangers and Yankees in 1984. Wayne Tolleson is of course the father of Former New Britain Rock Cat Steve Tolleson. The more you know.)

Anyway, back to Thursday. After tying things up on a 6th-inning Cavan Biggio double, the Jays advanced Teoscar Hernandez to third in the 7th with a little help from a replay. Seven pitches later, Lourdes Gurriel rolled one through the left side for the 3-2 walkoff victory, yes, in the 7th inning. It was the fourth walkoff anything ever for the Jays against the Phillies; Rajai Davis singled in 2012 to score Yunel Escobar, while Raul Mondesi hit into a fielder's choice in 2000 where Shannon Stewart beat the play at the plate. But of course the only one fans of either team really remember, as Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark reminded us, is a certain Joe Carter homer in 1993. And speaking of weird homers, Bryce Harper went deep for the Phillies early in that game on Thursday, making him the team's first batter to hit a round-tripper in Buffalo since that city had its own National League team. It was one Charlie Bastian who hit that homer-- on September 17, 1885.

So in Game 2 the Phillies decided they did not want to get walked off in the 7th inning again, and Jays starter Tyler Thornton obliged. Four singles and a walk to the first five batters of the game led to a 7-run 1st inning without a homer being hit, and it led to Thornton's departure from the game after getting only 2 outs. Teoscar Hernandez tried to start a comeback by homering in the Jays' half, the first time in team history they'd hit a 1st-inning homer when already trailing by 7 runs. Kelly Gruber held their old mark in a 6-0 game (April 16, 1989) when he would go on to hit for the cycle and Toronto won 15-8. They wouldn't stage another comeback like that... would they?

In the 6th, Rowdy Tellez homers. Gurriel homers again after his walkoff single in Game 1. Two errors by the infield. Hector Neris wild-pitches in the tying run, and Tellez immediately clears the other two runs such that the Jays have matched the Phillies' 7-run inning and now lead. This gets Thornton out of a loss, the first Jays starter to give up 6 runs, not finish the 1st inning, and not lose, since Dave Stieb at Boston on June 25, 1990. Thanks to those errors, Neris got both a blow save and a loss despite allowing 0 earned runs and only 1 hit; the last Phillies pitcher to pull that off was (three guesses) Jonathan Papelbon on September 2, 2012. Andrew McCutchen ended up on a dubious list despite his best efforts; he hit leadoff in both games and had multiple hits and an RBI in both. The last Phillies batter to do that was Dave Cash on May 3, 1975, and the last to do it and have the Phillies lose both games was Dick Bartell against the Cubs on July 21, 1934.

As for that 7-run 1st-inning-for-naught, no team had done that and lost since the Royals did it against Cleveland on August 23, 2006. And the last time the Phillies pulled it off was a half-century ago, May 5, 1970, against San Diego. If only they'd had two more innings to try and mount a comeback of their own.


Two Become One Four

The Cardinals, who must play something ridiculous like 55 games in 45 days if they are going to finish the full 2020 schedule, have become very aware of the 7-inning rule. Earlier this week they were stuck playing five games in three days at Wrigley Field, two of those being rescheduled games from Busch Stadium in which the Cardinals were assigned to bat last. In Monday's opener, however, the Cardinals batted first and Brad Miller dropped a 2-run double in the top of the 7th to at least avoid the free runners (and keep Game 2 from starting any later). The Cards' last multi-run go-ahead double in the 7th or later at Wrigley had been by Paul DeJong on July 21, 2017, but Miller's was their first in the last inning (even though it's the 7th!) since Leon Durham flipped a lead against Dick Tidrow on June 28, 1980.

Game 2, despite its 5-4 score, would not be an offensive explosion either; in fact, in neither game did either team have more than 5 hits, the first time that's happened in a doubleheader at Wrigley since July 4, 1963, against the Mets. But the explosions that did happen were of the home-run vartiety: Brad Miller hit two even though St Louis lost, the first Cardinals batter to do that at Wrigley since Ryan Ludwick on April 17, 2009. Ludwick, later that year (July 12), was also the previous Cardinals batter to homer in one game of a DH at Wrigley and double in the other, as Miller did on Monday. The game-winner in this case would come from David Bote, he of the walkoff grand slam two seasons ago. This one wasn't quite as dramatic since it came in the 6th inning; in fact the cardboard cutouts showed basically no emotion in response. But still it was the Cubs' first lead-flipping pinch-hit homer against the Cardinals since Darrin Jackson took Ken Dayley deep on August 14, 1988. It also put an exclamation point on the spoiling of a combined no-hitter; Wilson Contreras, who was on third, had just recorded the Cubs' first hit of the game three batters earlier. That marked the first time in Cardinals history that their first four pitchers of a game (it's a doubleheader, so pitching by committee) had all worked at least 1 inning and allowed 0 hits.

After an uneventful "throwback" 9-inning game on Tuesday, the Cubs and Cards were back for two more on Wednesday, and it was Matt Carpenter who decided to nail our two themes together. Because what's a 7-inning game without a grand slam, and what's a grand slam unless it's in the 1st inning and you're the fourth batter of the game. Obviously the fourth batter is the first one who can possibly hit a 4-run homer, and Carp became the first Cardinal to do that in a road game since Todd Zeile in Philadelphia on July 28, 1993. That also meant that when Ian Happ led off the home half with a homer, they were already trailing by 4 runs; Happ was the first Cubs batter to do that since Brant Brown against the Phillies on June 18, 1998.

Kolten Wong, the leadoff batter for St Louis, would manage to score 4 runs which is no easy task in a 7-inning game. He ended up as the first Cardinals batter in the modern era with a double, a hit-by-pitch, a stolen base, and 4 runs scored in any game, and the first to score 4 runs while having only 1 extra-base hit (the double) since Skip Schumaker in 2008. Josh Phegley hit a 2-run homer in the 7th to make the final score 9-3, but his and Happ's longballs were the Cubs' only hits in the game. They hadn't finished a game with 3 or more runs on 2 or fewer hits since April 14, 1985, against the Expos; the only team to go longer without doing that is the Nats/Expos franchise itself. Aside from that time in 2015 when Cole Hamels no-hit them, that 1985 affair was also the last game where the Cubs had 0 singles, 0 doubles, and 0 triples.

But yeah, still more baseball to be played, the first time Wrigley has seen two doubleheaders in three days since August 31 and September 2, 2002. (We were at the former of these, caused by Darryl Kile's death postponing an originally-scheduled game in St Louis.) Happ promptly became the first Cubs batter to homer in one game of a DH and triple in the other since... Ian Happ did it in May 2018 against the Reds. Since we spent way too long on this, he's the ninth Cubs batter in the modern era to do it multiple times, joining George Altman, Ernie Banks, Phil Cavarretta, Bill Nicholson, Ron Santo, Roy Smalley, Billy Williams, and Hack Wilson.

So the game's only scheduled for 7 innings, and it's tied going into the 7th, and Bote (who has not switched teams between games) hits a 2-run single in the Cubs' half of the final inning at Wrigley. And nothing happens. They keep playing. The cardboard cutouts, while understandably excited, do not jump up and celebrate a walkoff win and stream out into Wrigleyville for cheap beers. That's because this was another of those "home team batted first" games that couldn't be played down in St Louis. They kept playing even though the Cubs now had a 4-2 lead, since the Cardinals hadn't had their chance to bat in the 7th yet. It's worth pointing out that the home team frequently batted first in the early days of the game, partly just out of convention, and partly because there were fewer, lower-quality baseballs involved and the home team wanted first crack at hitting them. But the last instance of a team taking that option was in 1915. And the Cubs didn't move into then-Weeghman Park until 1916. So Bote's go-ahead hit on Wednesday was the first one to occur in the final inning of a Cubs game at Wrigley and not be a walkoff.


We did not intend for this to become a Spice Girls playlist, but sorry not sorry. In keeping with the theme, slam your body down and wind it all around. Intermission!


Four Scores And Seven Innings Ago

So after that five-games-in-three-days special with St Louis, the Cubs had their first batch of "rivalry" games with those pesky South Siders. And in the first one on Friday, Jon Lester wasted no time giving up four homers to stake the White Sox to an 8-0 lead before being pulled in (of course) the 4th inning. The Sox hadn't pounded four homers in the first four innings of a game in Chicago since, well, four years ago (June 25, 2016) at their own place. Lester was the first Cubs pitcher to surrender four dingers in a game since Yu Darvish did it against the Giants exactly a year earlier. And they hadn't had someone give up 8 runs and 4 homers in a home game since Jeff Samardzija against the Angels on July 10, 2013.

However, a weekend in Chicago isn't complete without fireworks of some kind, and the Sox brought another load up from 35th Street on Saturday. Luis Robert began the scoring with a homer in the 2nd, just as he had done in Friday's game. And we sat on a fairly mundane 2-2 score until Jose Abreu-- who also hit one of the homers on Friday-- took the lead with another shot in the 6th. That made he and Robert the first Sox teammates to each homer in the same back-to-back games at Wrigley since Joe Crede and Jim Thome both went deep on July 1 and 2 of 2006. In the 8th, Abreu greeted Rowan Wick with another homer, making him the sixth batter in Sox history with back-to-back multi-homer games. The rest of that list is Matt Davidson (April 2018), Carlos Quentin (2010), Joe Crede (2008), Greg Norton (1999), and Zeke Bonura (1934).

And in the top of the 9th, why the heck not. Just for good measure, Yasmani Grandal-- who also went yard on Friday-- did so again, just so new Cubs pitcher Duane Underwood wouldn't feel left out somehow. That meant that Robert, Abreu, and Grandal all homered in back-to-back games, something no White Sox trio had done since Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Harold Baines against Milwaukee on May 25-26, 1996. And we haven't even figured out that note when guess who's hitting behind Grandal. Jose Abreu deposits his third homer into the bleachers to become the first player in White Sox history to hit five dingers in a two-game span. It also gave him 4 RBI in back-to-back games, the first Sox batter to do that on the road (not that they went very far, but still) since Magglio Ordoñez in St Louis on July 16-17, 1999. And a meaningless early single also meant that Abreu was the first Sox batter with a 4-hit game that included 3 homers since Tim Raines did that at Fenway on April 18, 1994.

All good things, including this section, must come to an end, and the Red Line was running on its Sunday schedule for the series finale. The 2-1 Cubs win wasn't terribly worth writing home about, except that guess who had the "1" for the White Sox. Yep, that's Jose Abreu with a 2nd-inning solo shot. That made him the third AL batter to homer in three straight games at Wrigley in the same season, and two have been from the South Side. Jermaine Dye did it in May 2005, while then-Ranger Rafael Palmeiro went deep in three straight in June 2002.


Slam Some Busch
(PSA: There are multiple reasons you should not do this. Save yourself.)

Meanwhile, back in St Louis, the Cardinals did finally return to Busch Stadium for a weekend series with Cincinnati. And after giving up a non-walkoff go-ahead single at Wrigley on Wednesday, they hit a walkoff single at their own place on Thursday. Given that they're in the same division and (usually) play each other 19 times a year, Kolten Wong's game-winner wasn't anything noteworthy. It was the play that preceded it which caught our eye. That's because Raisel Iglesias entered with a 4-2 lead, allowed four straight batters to reach and make it 4-3 with bases loaded, then balked in the tying run. Since saves became an official thing in 1969, he was the first Reds pitcher ever to blow one in such fashion, and the first to give up 3 runs on 1 out in the 9th (balk notwithstanding) since J.J. Hoover in April 2014.

As entertaining as balks can be, Friday's game turned on yet another grand slam, which is why this section is here. (There's a method to our madness.) With the Cardinals holding a 2-0 lead in the 6th, Harrison Bader booted a fly ball by Eugenio Suarez which should have ended the inning. Famous last words. A walk and a hit batter later, the bases are loaded for pinch hitter Matt Davidson. Yeah, the same Matt Davidson who hit four homers in two games for the White Sox just a couple years ago. So of course he did. It was the Reds' first lead-flipping grand slam since Wily Mo Peña in the 7th inning against the Pirates on June 25, 2004. And they hadn't hit such a slam on the road since Hal McRae took Jerry Reuss deep at the Astrodome on June 1, 1972.

Those 4 runs would be all the Reds needed for a 4-2 win, and it turns out (like the Cubs before them), Davidson would have one of only 2 hits for the team in the game. Eugenio Suarez led off the 2nd with a single that at least got it off no-hitter watch. Turns out it was just the second game in the modern era where the Reds scored 4+ runs on no more than 2 hits. The other was May 7, 1949, at Braves Field, and may have had something to do with the 8 walks they got that day. Meanwhile, because of the error, Genesis Cabrera (who really should be a starter if you think about it, but we're not the ones making these decisions), got tagged with 3 unearned runs and the loss despite not giving up a base hit. Since earned runs were adopted by the National League in 1912, he's the second Cardinals pitcher to allow 0 hits, 0 earned runs, strike out at least 2 batters, and still get charged with a loss. Dan Griner did that, also against the Braves (but at Fenway while they borrowed it for renovations to their own stadium), on July 9, 1915.


Grand Old Party

Is there a better section header on the day before the start of the Republican National Sort-Of-Convention? There was of course all kinds of turmoil surrounding where that convention would be held, and then if at all, and either way, neither Charlotte nor Jacksonville has a major-league team. (Yet. Buffalo says hold my beer.) So we'll flash back to the previous RNC, in 2016, an event that forced the Cleveland Indians to go 15 days without a home game coming out of that year's All-Star break since it was held at the basketball arena next door.

That's a long way of getting us to Progressive Field on Friday, but Isaac Paredes of the Tigers was likely flashing back to his own journey as he watched his first major-league homer sail over the fence. (Paredes was signed by the Cubs originally and was sent to Detroit along with Jeimer Candelario in exchange for Alex Avila.) But since you know the theme, you may already know that Paredes' first homer was of the 4-run variety, and that it flipped a 5-3 Indians lead into a 7-5 Tigers lead in (of course) the 4th inning of that eventual Detroit victory. It gave the Tigers their first 7-run inning in Cleveland since September 4, 2014, and it also gave them their first win against the Indians in 21 tries dating to last April. That was three wins shy of the all-time record for defeating the same opponent; the Orioles beat the Royals on 23 straight occasions across the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

As for Paredes, he was the 10th player in Tigers history whose first career homer was a grand slam, the previous being Brennan Boesch on April 30, 2010. He hit the fifth slam by a Detroit batter at Progressive Field, joining Victor Martinez (2011), Edgar Renteria (2008), Dmitri Young (2005), and Carlos Peña (2003). Unfortunately Paredes' other at-bats were not so prolific. In addition to the slam, he struck out three times, another thing that only four other Tigers batters have ever accomplished. Those "lucky" few are Brandon Inge (2009), Dan Gladden (1993), Darrell Evans (1986), and Jim Northrup (1968). And the only other player in MLB history to have that stat line (a grand slam and 3 strikeouts) in any of his first four MLB games was Roger Maris-- for the Indians in Detroit-- on April 18, 1957. (Additional fun fact, none of Maris's record-breaking 61* homers in 1961 were slams.)

Cleveland starter Adam Plutko duplicated the feat of giving up 7 runs and 2 homers to the Tigers without finishing the 4th inning-- a "feat" last accomplished by Ubaldo Jimenez nine years earlier to the day.


Four On The Floor

Sometimes it's the power of 4 hits, or 4 RBI, or 4 runs at a time on a slam, but sometimes it's the power of four different players working together. And sometimes it's a little bit of both. We take you to Coors Field on Wednesday, where you know there's going to be an offensive outburst if you just wait long enough. So it was 1-1 going to the 5th when Carlos Correa led off with a go-ahead homer for the Astros, and Kyle Tucker then ended up with a triple when Charlie Blackmon jumped for his fly ball at the wall and couldn't make a play. In the very next inning, Tucker came up again and greeted Jeff Hoffman with a more-traditional triple past Garrett Hampson in center. He thus became the 24th player in Astros history with a multi-triple game (the last being Jose Altuve in May 2017), but just the fifth to hit them in consecutive innings. The others on that list are Billy Hatcher (1989), Craig Reynolds (1985), Jerry DaVanon (1975), and Joe Gaines (1964).

As they tend to do at Coors, the floodgates would open as the Astros ran up 10 more runs in those next 4 innings, sending us to the 9th with a score of 11-3. So why wouldn't Tucker come up again with 2 outs and-- no, not triple again. This time he put one over the fence, so he couldn't really stop at third even if he wanted to. (He actually probably could. There's no rule against it, as long as he just stays on third and doesn't "abandon his effort" to run the bases. These are things we think about.) But anyway, that made Tucker the fourth player in Houston history to homer with 2 outs in the 9th and the team already up by 8 runs, joining Yordan Alvarez last August, Josh Reddick in 2017, and Jim Wynn in 1969. More notably, it made him just the third player ever to have a homer, 2 triples, and 4 RBI batting 7th or lower. The others were both Yankees: Elston Howard in 1960 and Bill Dickey in 1930. Tucker snuck in a single as well, the first Astros batter with 4 hits and 4 RBI batting 7th or lower on the road since Carlos Corporan in New York on April 29, 2013.

But 13 runs do not (usually) come from one player. Correa, batting above Tucker, had 3 hits and 3 RBI including that homer that started it all. Number-8 batter Adam Jones chipped in 2 hits and 2 RBI. And way at the bottom was Martin Maldonado who homered for the Astros' first run way back in the 3rd. If you add up the bottom four spots in the boxscore, you get 11 total hits-- the first time the Astros had done that since August 3, 2010. You also get 10 of their 13 RBI in the game, the first time the bottom four had done that since September 20, 2007, in a game where J.R. Towles drove in 8 by himself. And only once before in Astros history had their bottom four combined for both 11 hits and 10 RBI-- June 7, 1967, in a 17-1 victory in St Louis.

One more "4" out of that game: The Rockies turned four double plays. On defense. And still gave up 13 runs. They hadn't pulled that off since May 6, 2015, against the Diamondbacks.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Dane Dunning & Casey Mize, Wednesday: First game ever where both starting pitchers made their MLB debuts and both struck out at least 7 batters.

⚾ Jacob Stallings, Saturday: First Pirates #9 batter with 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBI in a home game since Dave Clark against the Cubs on July 2, 1996.

⚾ Shane Bieber, Thursday: First pitcher in Indians history to win his first 5 decisions of a season and strike out 8 or more batters in all of them.

⚾ Tim Anderson & Yoan Moncada, Monday: Second time this year White Sox have started a game with back-to-back homers. Last season where they did it twice was 2001.

⚾ Wilmer Flores, Wed-Thu: First Giants batter with a homer and 4 RBI in back-to-back games since Barry Bonds at Dodger Stadium, April 2-3, 2002.

⚾ Niko Goodrum: Sunday: First Tigers batter with 2 extra-base hits, 2 walks, and a stolen base in the same game since Bobby Higginson against the White Sox, September 28, 2004.

⚾ Zack Greinke & Antonio Senzatela, Tuesday: Second opposing starters in live-ball era to each throw 8+ scoreless innings and allow 0 walks and a max of 3 hits. Other pair was Ron Guidry (Yankees) & Jon Matlack (Rangers) on April 10, 1980.

⚾ Giants, Saturday: First time leading off a game with three straight walks since F.P. Santangelo, Rich Aurilia, and Barry Bonds did it against the Reds on July 23, 1999.

⚾ Carlos Santana, Tue-Wed: Second Cleveland batter ever to have a homer and 3 RBI in consecutive games in a National League park. David Justice did it in Milwaukee on June 5 and 6, 2000.

⚾ Harrison Bader & Dylan Carlson, Sunday: First game in Cardinals history where their #8 and #9 batters both had 2 hits, a homer, and 2 RBI.

⚾ Max Fried, Friday: First Braves pitcher to start a season 4-0, where all 4 wins were starts where he allowed 0 or 1 run, since John Smoltz in 1999.

⚾ Austin Barnes, Tuesday: First Dodgers starting #9 batter with 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and a stolen base in a game since pitcher Don Newcombe on September 19, 1956.

⚾ Triston McKenzie, Saturday: Second pitcher to make his MLB debut with the Indians and strike out 10+ batters. The other is only Luis Tiant on July 19, 1964.

⚾ Kyle Tucker, Wed-Thu: Second Astros batter ever to triple in back-to-back games at Coors Field. Ricky Gutierrez did it on September 9 and 10, 1997.

⚾ Ross Stripling & Justin Dunn, Monday: First game in Dodger Stadium history (1962) where both starters gave up 6+ runs, 2+ homers, and didn't get past the 3rd inning.

⚾ Mookie Betts, Sunday: First Dodgers batter in (at least) modern era to have 2 homers and 2 stolen bases in the same game.

⚾ Jesús Luzardo, Wednesday: First Oakland pitcher to drop the "Kernels trifecta"-- a hit batter, a wild pitch, and a balk-- since Gio Gonzalez in 2011. First to do it and get a win since Ron Darling against the Angels on August 20, 1991.

⚾ Yandy Diaz, Friday: Second player in Rays history with 3 hits, 2 walks, and a homer in a loss. Fred McGriff did it, also against Toronto, on September 20, 1998.

⚾ Kenta Maeda, Tuesday: First pitcher for any team to throw 8 innings, allow 1 hit, strike out 12, and not get a win since Matt Harvey against the White Sox on May 7, 2013.

⚾ Eddie Rosario, Saturday: First Twins batter to hit a 3-run homer as team's third batter of a road game since Kirby Puckett at Yankee Stadium, July 15, 1995.