30 for the 30th

Because apparently the Nationals are waiting until May to have a 35-run game.

Usually there's a week or two every season where the theme of "crooked numbers" pops up, which always lends itself to a Casey Kasem countdown-style post. This is the first time we've actually managed to get all the numbers in, albeit a few at a time. Also, we're going to skip 31 through 40 because who really listens to the first hour anyway? Do you really remember what song was #31 on this date a certain number of years ago? C'mon.

The first crooked numbers of the week popped up within hours of our last post when Detroit hung a "9" in the 5th and rolled to a 19-9 win over Seattle. The Tigers' last nine-run inning was on September 17, 2008, at Texas, and their last one at home was a few months before that (April 23, also against Texas). The 28 runs were the most in any game so far this season, as were the 40 combined hits (24 by Detroit).

Although the Tigers had scored 19 runs four other times so far this century (but oddly, not 20), none of those games featured more than 21 hits. Detroit's last game with 19 and 24 was way back on July 1, 1936, when they dropped 21 and 25 on the White Sox. Gerald "Gee" Walker had 7 RBI and "Red" Evans became the second pitcher (and still the last) in White Sox history to give up 13 earned runs.

It was the first 19-9 score in the majors since April 11, 1993, in the third game ever played by the Rockies in Denver. They lost to the Expos at Mile High Stadium. The Tigers had played in one other 19-9 game in their history, and it was seven games into their history. Those pesky White Sox beat them by that score on May 1, 1901.

Just a few hours later, the Nationals and Rockies thought it would be a good idea to combine for 27 runs of their own, with Washington winning 15-12 in the highest-scoring game at Coors Field since July 4, 2008. That game (an 18-17 Colorado walk-off) was also the last time both teams hit a dozen in Denver; the Rockies hadn't scored 12 and lost since another 15-12 game, with the Cardinals on April 8, 2003.

A 15-12 slugfest by itself wasn't good enough for Trea Turner, however. He dropped the season's second cycle and the first by the Nationals since Cristian Guzman did it against the Dodgers on August 28, 2008.

Although Turner's home run was only a two-run job, his triple came with the bases loaded and he ended the day with 7 RBI. He thus became the second-youngest player to have 7 RBI in a "cycle" game, bested only by Joe DiMaggio on July 9, 1937. It was the fifth cycle recorded at Coors since the start of 2014, matching the total from all the ballparks below 5,000 feet combined.

Cycle or not, Turner also became the first player with a line of 4 runs, 4 hits, and 7 RBI, who did not have multiple home runs, since Phil Weintraub did that for the Giants on April 30, 1944. The next day, Turner went homer-double-single, making him just the second player ever to hit for the cycle one day and have a "near-cycle" (¾ of it, and a silly thing we track here at Kernels) the next day. The other was some guy named Stan Musial in July 1949.

Back to our final score, it was the first 15-12 game in the majors since July 14, 2006 (Atlanta over San Diego in 13 innings), and the first nine-inning variety since the Reds beat the Cubs on September 12, 2002. Not surprisingly, there had never been a day in major-league history with both a 19-9 game and a 15-12 game.

Washingtonians may want to be careful that their team doesn't move again, this time to Denver. The Nationals continued to dominate Coors Field, winning 11-4 on Wednesday and posting a 16-5 win on Thursday that included an 11-run 7th inning. They sent 15 batters to the plate in a 25-minute frame that was the highest-scoring by a Washington team since the second-incarnation Senators dropped an 11-run 6th on the Orioles on May 11, 1962. (The Expos' team record for runs in an inning was 13.)

And back to those scores again, the Nationals not only became the first visiting team ever to score 11+ in three straight games in Denver, but it marked the first time "Washington" had put up three straight 11's against the same opponent since August of 1899! The old National League Senators went 15-14-13 against the Cardinals, but limped to a 54-98 record that season (ahead of only the infamous 134-loss Cleveland Spiders) and were contracted when the NL went to eight teams.

The Yankees decided to join our parade of interesting scores with a wild, 14-11 walk-off victory over the Orioles on Friday after trailing by as much as 9-1 during the middle innings. Starlin Castro brought the Bombers all the way back with a two-run homer in the 9th, after which Matt Holliday (who wears #17 if you're wondering why it's lit up) walked off with a three-run jack. It was the first time the Yankees had combined for a tying homer in the 9th and a walk-off homer in the 10th (not later) since September 2, 1979, when Graig Nettles and Oscar Gamble respectively did it against the Royals.

Jacoby Ellsbury (jersey number 22) contributed to the comeback by matching Mark Trumbo's grand slam for Baltimore. Although the Yankees famously had that 2011 game where they hit three grand slams, Friday marked the first game in the Bronx where both teams hit a slam since Bob Cerv offset Wes Covington of the White Sox on May 28, 1961.

Friday's score marked the first time the Orioles had scored 11 runs against the Yankees and lost since July 13, 1936 (15-12).


Intermission

Since you were actually wondering what the #31 song was, here it is from multiples of five years ago.
1962: "The Jam Part 1", Bobby Gregg
1967: "My Back Pages", The Byrds
1972: "Taxi", Harry Chapin
1977: "Sometimes", Facts Of Life
1982: "Genius Of Love", Tom Tom Club
1987: "The Right Thing", Simply Red
1992: "Baby Got Back", Sir Mix-A-Lot
1997: "The Freshmen", The Verve Pipe
2002: "My Sacrifice", Creed
2007: "Home", Daughtry
2012: "Springsteen", Eric Church



Now, On With The Survey

After a remarkable 9-1 road trip, the Nationals returned home to face the Mets over the weekend. Travis d'Arnaud (jersey number 18) led Friday's attack with two homers and five driven in, already the third different Met with that line this year (Jay Bruce, Yoenis Cespedes). Not only is that the first time in Mets history that three different players have done it in April, it's the first time three different Mets have done before the All-Star Break. (Really.)

Michael Conforto (jersey number 30) added two homers in Saturday's win; behind Jose Reyes, Gregg Jefferies, and Lee Mazzilli, he is the fourth-youngest Met ever to have two homers out of the leadoff spot. It's also just the third time that the Mets have had a multi-homer game in consecutive contests against the Nationals/Expos. Carlos Beltran and Brian Schneider also did it at Nats Park in September 2008; while Jeromy Burnitz, Mo Vaughn, and Mike Piazza did it in three straight in September 2002, though the Mets still lost two of those games.

Annnnd then there was Sunday. The Nats erupted for a franchise-record 23 runs in the highest-scoring game since the famous 30-3 game by the Rangers nearly a decade ago.

The team launched seven home runs, tying the franchise record set by the Expos on July 30, 1978. In that game (a 19-0 shutout of the Braves which is also the largest victory margin in franchise history), there was the unique circumstance of a player (Andre Dawson) hitting two home runs but getting upstaged by a teammate (Larry Parrish) who hit three. Sure enough, Sunday's game had that too, with the respective parts being played by Matt Wieters and Anthony Rendon.

Two of Rendon's homers were solo shots, which should have left him with a nice predictable 5 RBI on the day. That would have already matched his season total, accumulated over 22 games. Except Rendon wasn't done. He tacked on a two-run single and a bases-loaded double to become the 13th player in major-league history to collect 10 RBIs in a game. Of those 13, only three (including Rendon) did it batting sixth or lower, and only three (including Rendon) did it as part of a six-hit game. The others in that second group are Tony Lazzeri in 1936 and the Reds' Walker Cooper in 1949.

Rendon also scored five runs, so-- never even mind the 10 RBIs-- he is only the 10th player in the live-ball era to have six hits and five runs scored in a game. C.J. Cron managed it last year, while the Expos' Rondell White (June 11, 1995) is also on the list. Cooper's 1949 game-- in which Cincinnati, like Washington, scored 23 runs-- is the only other game to meet all three thresholds.

And if you thought 19-9 and 15-12 were unusual scores, Sunday's game was just the third 23-5 affair in major-league history. The Giants beat the Phillies at Baker Bowl by that score on July 11, 1931; while on August 30, 1887, the Louisville Colonels (no relation ☺) of the old American Association defeated the New York Metropolitans. (Those Mets attempted to promote the ferry trade by playing at a cricket ground on Staten Island. It didn't work and they folded after the 1887 season.)

The 2017 Mets, for their part, added two homers on Sunday to bring the game total to nine. It was the first game in Nationals Park history to feature nine homers, and even good old R.F.K. hadn't seen one in half a century (and before it was called that). On August 29, 1963, the current Senators (now Rangers) played the former Senators (then and now Twins), with the Harmon Killebrew-led Minnesotans taking a 14-2 decision.

Ryan Zimmerman not only finished April with 11 home runs (taking the franchise's career record for April homers away from Andre Dawson, 36 to 35), but he leads the majors with 29 RBI. His teammates Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper are immediately behind him with 26 each. They are the first trio in franchise history to each have 26 RBI in a month, and the first in the majors since Michael Cuddyer, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau did it for the Twins in May 2009. It's also the first time in (at least) the Wild Card Era (1993) that three teammates have led the RBI chart at the end of any calendar month.

(Those ones we edit down because they've been on the chart for six months and you don't need to hear the whole thing yet again.)

⋅ Jesse Hahn, Tuesday: Worked eight scoreless innings and allowed only one hit. Last Oakland pitcher to do that in a road game was the late Cory Lidle in Cleveland on August 21, 2002. Hahn ended up not getting the win because the game was a scoreless tie; first Athletics pitcher in (at least) the live-ball era to pull that off.

⋅ Indians, Sunday: First 8-run inning since May 27, 2015, against Texas. Only Braves, Brewers, and Cardinals have gone longer without one. Padres were on that list until they put up an 8-run inning Saturday, tying for their biggest inning ever in San Francisco. Also did it on Opening Day 1983.

⋅ Cody Bellinger, Saturday: At 21 years 290 days, became youngest Dodger with a multi-homer game since Matt Kemp (21-261) on June 11, 2006, and third-youngest ever at Dodger Stadium. Adrian Beltre (21-163 on September 17, 2000) and Scott Rolen (21-139 on August 21, 1996) beat him by a few months.

⋅ Braves, Saturday: Collected 20 hits in 11-3 win over the Brewers. The last time the Braves had 20 hits in a game in Milwaukee, they were the home team! It was June 15, 1965, in a 12-7 victory over the Phillies.

⋅ Aaron Judge, Wednesday: Fourth Yankee ever to homer on his 25th birthday, joining Tyler Austin (2016), Tom Tresh (1963) and Aaron Ward (1921).



Bottom Of The Bag
or, "Let's take a moment to check out the tops of the other charts."

⋅ Hernan Perez, Tuesday: Second player in Brewers history with a homer and two triples. Ted Savage did it on September 15, 1970 (their first season after the move), in a loss to Oakland.

⋅ Marcus Stroman, Tuesday: First American League pitcher since the Designated Hitter rule was added in 1973 to record an extra-base hit while pinch hitting. Gary Peters of the Red Sox had been the last to do it, on September 4, 1971.

⋅ Josh Phegley, Tuesday: First pinch-hit home run in Athletics history (to 1901) to break a scoreless tie in extra innings. Their last by a "normal" hitter (non-PH) was Matt Holliday on May 19, 2009.

⋅ Seth Smith, Wednesday: First Oriole to receive a walk-off bases-loaded walk (affectionately known as a "shrimp") in extra innings since Larry Bigbie against the Red Sox on April 8, 2004.

⋅ Indians, Saturday: Allowed 3 hits to Mariners in 1st inning but none for the rest of the game. Last time doing that in a 9-inning game (there was a rain-shortened version of this in 2005) was April 21, 1990, against the White Sox.

⋅ Gerrit Cole, Tuesday: Pitched seven innings, allowed two hits, zero earned runs, and lost (1-0 on an unearned run). The last Pirates pitcher to do that was Harvey Haddix on May 26, 1959. Yes, that game.

And there you have 'em, the 30 biggest... oh, you know the deal. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.


Did You Know?
"Genius Of Love" by the Tom Tom Club actually peaked at number 31. Thirty-five years ago today. Next week it's gonna plummet to #85.

The "Off" Position

From lead- to walk-, who needs those pesky middle innings anyway?


It seems that for the last few days, we here at Kernels have reselected the same options on the great Baseball Reference Play Index a bunch of different times. So if you're like one of those Dodger fans who prefers to only watch innings 3 through 7, here's what you missed this week.


Grease Is The Word

With apologies to Betty, it was Anthony Rizzo who delivered some "greased lightning" on Friday with the Cubs trailing 5-2 and down to their final out in Cincinnati. His three-run bomb sent the game to extras, where the Cubs eventually won in the 11th. It was the first time Chicago had launched a tying homer when trailing by at least 3, and down to their last out, since Geovany Soto did it against the Brewers on September 18, 2008. Before that it was Sammy Sosa in 1993.

Since Rizzo arrived on the scene in 2011, the Cubs have hit 25 tying or go-ahead home runs in the 9th inning or extras; Rizzo has five of those. Soto is among the players with two, and in a bizarre coincidence, one of his was in the game where Rizzo made his major-league debut (June 9 in Philadelphia).


I Hear Something Russelling

In the previous game, last Wednesday, the Cubs trailed 4-3 entering the 9th, but manufactured a Kris Bryant RBI single to tie, and then a three-run walkoff homer by Addison Russell.

Russell became the youngest Cub to hit any walkoff homer since July 29, 2012. That day's two-run shot to beat the Cardinals... was by Anthony Rizzo.

The last time the Cubs' hit a three- (or four-) run walkoff homer was on June 30, 2011, against the Giants. They had the third-longest drought of such a thing among major-league teams, trailing only the Pirates and Brewers.

The player who hit that previous homer? None other than Geovany Soto. It was his other go-ahead one in the 9th inning or later, coming just three weeks after the first.

Those back-to-back Cubs wins (Thursday was an off-day) when trailing after eight innings were their first since April 23 and 24 of 2012, when they walked off the Cardinals with RBI singles on consecutive days. The player who scored the winning run in the first of those games? Geovany Soto.


The Part Of The Post That's Not About Geovany Soto

The Rangers had a pair of walkoffs last weekend as well, Thursday's being an RBI single by Delino DeShields Jr. to beat the Royals in the bottom of the 13th. Final score: 1-0. It was the sixth time in Royals history that they had played 12 scoreless innings, but the last was way back on July 23, 1992 (the Rangers did it as recently as 2014).

However, DeShields' hit was the first time the Rangers had walked off in a 1-0 game in the 13th or later since Ruben Sierra scored Gary Pettis to beat the White Sox on August 17, 1990. It was the first career walk-off anything for the junior DeShields; his dad had 11, but none in the 13th or later, and only one to settle a 1-0 game (a solo homer against the Dodgers in 1991).

Saturday's game would end when Elvis Andrus singled home Rougned Odor in the 9th for a 2-1 win; the last time they walked off the Royals twice in the same series was in September 1990. In back-to-back games that year, the ageless Julio Franco (who was already 32 by that point) scored both winning runs-- one in front of a Rafael Palmeiro double, and the other from third base when Pete Incaviglia drew a bases-loaded walk.


Paging Mr. Franco

Julio and Maikel aren't related (as best we can tell), but the latter also gave the Phillies a walkoff win in B10 on Saturday, after being unable to get the ball out of his glove for the third out of T10. (The play was ruled a single, the scorer saying Adonis Garcia would have beat it anyway, but still.)

With the bases loaded but two outs, Franco needed a multi-run hit for the win, and he clanged one off the base of the wall for the 4-3 victory. (Again, it was ruled a single, this time presumably because Franco didn't bother to run to second.) It was Franco's second career walk-off anything; the other was a bizarre play last August that was officially ruled a 9-2 fielder's choice because neither trail runner bothered to advance (since their runs didn't matter).

The last time the Phils got a multi-run walk-off hit in extras that wasn't a home run was on July 7, 1993, when Lenny Dysktra bounced an automatic double over the head of Dodgers LF Eric Davis in the bottom of the 20th inning. It was 1:47 am when that happened, but just five days earlier, the Phillies had set the all-time record (which still stands) for latest finish, when their doubleheader with the Padres endured six hours of rain delays and ended at 4:40 am.


Intermission
It's been stuck in my head ever since I typed the first header. Your turn.


Back To The Beginning

Ian Kinsler gave the Tigers a quick 1-0 lead on Thursday when he launched the third pitch of the game out of Tropicana Field (we know you can't really do that because it's a dome, but roll with it). The Rays, however, would come back to score eight times and leave Kinsler's homer as Detroit's only run in the loss. The last time the Tigers got a leadoff homer for their only run of a game was July 20 of last season... by Ian Kinsler. He's the first player in Tigers franchise history to pull that stunt twice.

Steven Souza would chip in a big chunk of that Rays offense, becoming the fourth player in team history to miss the cycle by the single. Sam Fuld was the last, on April 11, 2011. Souza was the second player to miss the single this year, after Josh Reddick did it the day before; there were only three such games in 2016.


Latecomers Will Be Seated

Friday's slate of games was notable for its four leadoff home runs, in this case all hit by home teams in the bottom of the 1st. Four leadoff homers happened as recently as August 19 of last season, but four by the home team had been nearly a decade. On September 25, 2007, the Brewers, Phillies, Mets, and Pirates each did it, although two of them would go on to lose.

The Pirates were among those teams again Friday, with Jordy Mercer hitting the team's first-ever leadoff homer against the Yankees (whom they don't play all that often). It was the sixth allowed by CC Sabathia since coming to the Yankees in 2009; he's tied with Hiroki Kuroda for the most over that span.

The Mets were the other team to hit a leadoff homer on that day in 2007 and again on Friday; 10 years ago they were already trailing the Nationals 4-0 when Jose Reyes went yard. This past weekend, Michael Conforto, newly moved to the top of the order, homered on Friday and then added another leadoff jack on Sunday night. He's the first Met to hit two in three days since... Jose Reyes on September 17 and 19, 2008.

And Sunday night's homer also came with the Mets trailing the Nationals 4-0 following a grand slam by former Met Daniel Murphy. Murph joins Jay Bruce as the only players with 5+ Citi Field homers as both a Met and a visitor, and two of the four 1st-inning slams in "Nationals" history (2005) have come at Citi. Josh Willingham had the other in April 2010.

Corey Dickerson of the Rays tagged one of those leadoff homers on Friday, and added another on Monday at Camden Yards. Combined with his shot on April 5, he is the first player in (Devil) Rays history with three before the end of April.


Paging Mr. Reyes

As for Reyes, he came up in yet another note on Sunday when Charlie Blackmon led off the Rockies' game with a triple. That was mostly because Blackmon had done the exact same thing on Saturday, thus becoming the second player in Colorado history with a leadoff three-bagger in consecutive games. Neifi Perez pulled that off against the Mets on September 14 and 15, 1999. But Reyes was the last player in the majors to do it, June 11-12, 2012, against the Red Sox.


Bottom Of The Bag

Bartolo Colon, Friday: Fourth-oldest pitcher in Braves history to allow 11 hits in a game. Cy Young did it in both of his last two career games (to end the 1911 season); the other 44-year-olds were Phil Niekro (1983) and Dennis Martinez (1998).

Zack Wheeler, Saturday: Third pitcher in Mets history to have an extra-base hit as a pinch hitter. Jon Niese (May 16, 2011) and Dwight Gooden (October 3, 1993, in season finale) each tripled.

Jake Arrieta, Saturday: Recorded a triple for fourth straight season. Last pitcher to pull that off was Ray Sadecki of the Cardinals in 1963-66.

Addison Russell, Monday: First Cubs batter to single in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd innings of same game since Ryne Sandberg did it against the Reds on September 7, 1986.

Dodgers, Monday: First time since (at least) the move to Los Angeles in 1958 that they made the last out of a game by getting picked off a base. Last time they ended one on a caught-stealing was August 27, 1993 (Brett Butler vs Cardinals).

Monday: First day on which both Chicago teams won by at least 11 runs since August 15, 1945. On that day, the Cubs beat the Dodgers 20-6; the White Sox beat those other Sox 11-0; and (really) Japan announced its surrender to end World War II.

Something From Nothing

On the newness of ballparks and those pesky zeroes in the "hits" column.


With the recent Easter and Passover holidays, it's that time of year where the snow is gone (mostly), the trees are starting to bloom, and we celebrate new life through the inaccurate symbolism of bunnies hatching from eggs. We don't get it either, but the Atlanta Braves hatched their third ballpark last Friday, and so far it's been all it was cracked up to be.


Everybody Moves

Although the Braves' wins over the Padres in the first three games involved nothing dramatic, Ender Inciarte took a liking to his new home, recording the first hit and first homer at SunTrust-- on different plays. He homered again Sunday to become the first player to go deep twice. Bartolo Colón got his first win with the Braves on Sunday, the fourth-oldest ever to win a game for Atlanta. He trails Hoyt Wilhelm (48), Phil Niekro (44½), and Dennis Martinez (44), and alas, cannot jump any of them by the end of this season.

Monday's series finale set up the Braves to go 4-0 at their new home. Bizarrely, the last team to win its first four games at a new stadium was... the Braves, who did it just 20 years ago at Turner Field following its conversion after the 1996 Olympics.

The Padres took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the 8th, but Freddie Freeman tied things with his second homer of the day, and then Dansby Swanson won it with a walk-off single. Freeman became the third player in Atlanta history with two homers and two doubles in a game, joining Adam LaRoche (2009) and Felipe Alou (1966, their first year). Hank Aaron was the only player to do it during the Milwaukee years (1960).

Swanson's single made him the youngest Braves player to hit a walk-off since the aforementioned Freddie Freeman homered against the Marlins in September 2012. And while we're on ages, it's fun to point out that Bartolo Colón was signed by the Indians on June 26, 1993-- 7½ months before Swanson was born.


Homes Sweet Homes
Braves since 1953

First...
Game Date	Apr 14 1953	Apr 12 1966	Apr 04 1997	Apr 14 2017
Batter	Solly Hemus (STL)	Matty Alou (PIT)	Brian McRae (CHC)	Manuel Margot (SD)
Braves Hit	Joe Adcock	Rico Carty	Chipper Jones	Ender Inciarte
Run Scored	Joe Adcock	Joe Torre	Michael Tucker	Ender Inciarte
Home Run	Bill Bruton	Joe Torre	Michael Tucker	Ender Inciarte
Winning Pitcher	Warren Spahn	Don Schwall (PIT)	Brad Clontz	Julio Teheran
Walk-off Win	Bill Bruton 2-run HR	Hank Aaron Solo HR (4/29)	Fred McGriff BL walk (4/9)	Dansby Swanson Single (4/16)
First w/ 2 HR	Eddie Mathews	Joe Torre	Javy Lopez	Ender Inciarte

Minor-league minute: Although we'll get around to SunTrust in about two weeks, we here at Kernels opened another new ballpark this week, attending the fourth game at the finally-ready-for-play Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford. Let's just say we got our money's worth (here's the full boxscore and the proof that we never leave early).

Paging Mr. Garcia

Avisail and Leury Garcia, who to the best of our knowledge are no relation (one is Venezuelan and the other Dominican), single- (or double-?) handedly ended the Yankees' eight-game winning streak on Tuesday with a pair of homers to drive in all four White Sox runs.

Of the 39 major-leaguers to have the "Garcia" surname, no two had ever homered for the same team in the same game prior to Tuesday. (We even threw in Nomar Garciaparra, and still no pairs.) According to Christopher Kamka of CSN Chicago, it was just the second occurrence of same-named White Sox going deep in the same game; the others were Rudy and Vance Law on July 8, 1984.

Earlier in the week, Avisail and Leury were joined by rookie Willy Garcia, marking the first two times in major-league history that a team had started three outfielders with the same surname. The case of the Alou brothers was widely mentioned, but in their eight games together in 1963, at least one was always a defensive replacement; they never all started in the same game.

Willy's call-up was short-lived for the moment; he was sent back to triple-A Charlotte (N.C.) on Monday. He's the first Garcia to play for the Knights since-- of course-- Avisail and Leury both played there last season. However, as of this writing, Willy is not just the only Garcia on the Knights' roster, he's the only one in the entire 14-team International League.


A "0" From Either Direction

While we're having fun with names, Wei-Yin Chen, or Chen Wei-Yin in its original Taiwanese, was lifted from Tuesday's game against the Mariners after seven innings and exactly 100 pitches. Oh, by the way, he hadn't given up a hit yet. Brad Ziegler worked a perfect 8th before Mitch Haniger broke up the bid for the 12th combined no-hitter in MLB history. Chen did find one place in history, however. He's the first Taiwanese-born pitcher ever to make a start (of any length, even one out) and allow zero hits. (Chien-Ming Wang and Hung-Chih Kuo, along with Chen once before, were in the "one-hit" club.) Since the start of last year, only Chen, Rich Hill, and Ross Stripling have had both a 0-hit start and a 1-hit start both go at least six innings.

Haniger's double would be the only Mariners hit in Tuesday's game; since the start of 2011, they have been one- or no-hit more than any other team, 10 times to the Pirates' 9.


Can You Have More Of Nothing?

Chen wasn't the only pitcher to pose this somewhat-existential question in the last few days, however. Two days earlier, on Sunday, teammate Dan Straily took a no-hitter into the 6th, but was pulled after issuing five walks. Ziegler again worked the 8th, this time as the fourth pitcher of the night, and it was Neil Walker's turn to break up that 12th combined no-no. The Mets would tie that game in the 9th against David Phelps, meaning Straily's no-hit effort didn't even earn him the victory. Excluding 1st-inning injuries, he joins Brad Penny (May 27, 2000) as the only starters in Marlins history to allow zero hits and not get a win.

J.T. Riddle finally won that game Sunday with his first career home run; he becomes the third player whose first was a walk-off in a Marlins uniform. The others were Robert Andino on April 1, 2008 (also against the Mets), and Miguel Cabrera in his major-league debut against the Rays on June 20, 2003.


You've Come A Long Way, Miggy

Four hundred forty-eight homers later, Cabrera celebrated his 34th birthday on Tuesday by hitting one in the 1st inning against those same Rays. (For the record, they are completely different Rays; Carl Crawford, the last active member of the 2003 team, retired last year, although Jason Standridge is (really) still pitching in Japan.) Cabrera also homered on his birthday in 2010, and is the seventh Tiger in the live-ball era to do so twice. The most recent was Bobby Higginson in 1998 and 2000. The Tigers lost that game 6-1, also making Cabrera the first player in franchise history to hit a solo birthday homer for the team's only run of a game.

Cabrera's 449th was also the fifth-highest-numbered home run ever hit on a player's birthday, trailing Chipper Jones (457), Jim Thome (602), Barry Bonds (646), and Alex Rodriguez (678).


Back To Zero

The Marlins weren't the only ones teasing us with combined no-hitter bids this week, either. Sean Manaea of the Athletics actually had the year's first zero-hit start on Saturday when he threw 98 pitches, walked five, had two runs score on an error, and was pulled with nobody out in the 6th-- still without a hit, however. Nori Aoki would lead off the 7th against Liam Hendriks to break up that threat. Manaea would be the first Athletics pitcher to leave a no-hit bid in the 6th or later since Chris Codiroli against the White Sox on June 27, 1986; Codiroli was also the last A's starter to give up 2 runs on 0 hits.

The Astros would explode for eight more runs over the final three innings to win 10-6, the most runs they had ever scored in a game where they were no-hit through six innings.


Saturday In The Park

Manaea's "no-hitter" wasn't even the most impressive performance on Saturday, as both Tyler Chatwood and Ervin Santana threw complete-game shutouts. Chatwood blanked the Giants on two hits, while Santana allowed only a 3rd-inning single to Omar Narvaez of the White Sox. There have (still) not been three two-hit shutouts thrown on the same day since May 31, 1975; and Saturday marked just the second time ever that the White Sox and Giants were victimized on the same day. On June 26, 2005, Mark Prior of the Cubs and Oakland's Rich Harden did the honors, and those are respectively since interleague was only played a few weekends each year back then, and both teams were in the middle of their crosstown "rivalry" series.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Royals, Sunday: Won first 1-0 game via walk-off since Emil Brown singled off the Twins' Terry Mulholland on August 31, 2005.

⋅ Alex Cobb, Sunday: Second pitcher in Rays history to give up 11 hits and strike out zero. Victor Zambrano did it against the Angels on August 27, 2002.

⋅ Ryan Braun/Jett Bandy/Eric Thames, Monday: Second time in Brewers history that three different players have had "near-cycles" (¾ of it) in same game. On September 9, 1999, Jeromy Burnitz and Marquis Grissom missed the triple while Ronnie Belliard missed the homer.

⋅ Pirates, Saturday: First game with four homers and a triple at Wrigley Field since August 2, 1990 (for those who are old enough, that's the day Iraq invaded Kuwait). Andy Van Slyke had one of each.

⋅ A.J. Pollock/David Peralta: Second time in Diamondbacks history that their top two hitters have each had four hits in the same game. Ender Inciarte (there he is again!) and Gerardo Parra did it on June 24, 2014.

⋅ Ivan Nova, Monday: Pirates' first complete-game loss against the Cardinals since Rick Rhoden threw an 11-hitter on September 30, 1986.

⋅ Luis Severino, Tuesday: First Yankee pitcher with 10 strikeouts and zero walks in a loss since Mike Mussina against the Tigers on September 7, 2002.

⋅ Lonnie Chisenhall, Friday: First-ever pinch-hit grand slam for Indians in the 9th inning or later.

⋅ Yasiel Puig, Saturday: Second game of career with three hits and four driven in. The other was his second game in the majors, versus San Diego on June 4, 2013.

Remember When?...

Two or three times each season, we here at Kernels will be at a game and realize, yep, this one's gonna get written about. We've randomly stumbled into the latest finish ever in Pittsburgh, a team scoring in every inning (since duplicated), Josh Hamilton's four-homer game, the only time in Expos history that they led off a game with back-to-back homers, the Royals hanging a seven-spot in the bottom of the 9th to walk off. We didn't think that last one would be duplicated quite so quickly.


Scoreboard shots from Josh Hamilton's 4-HR game (before the last one) and the Royals' 7-run B9. One of those lost its "last time it happened" luster this week, and the other came close.


Ya Gotta Believe!

On Sunday the Angels led off the bottom of the 9th with an Albert Pujols solo homer to cut the lead to "only" five. It was Pujols' 592nd career dinger; the most recent player to hit number 592, Jim Thome, also did it against Seattle (May 23, 2011).

However, it was the four-run, two-out rally-- featuring four hits, four walks, and a wild pitch-- that brought the Angels all the way back for a 10-9 win on Cliff Pennington's walk-off single. Since the Mariners came into existence in 1977, the Angels have more walk-offs against them (32) than any other team.

The last seven-run bottom of the 9th in the majors was, as mentioned, last May by the Royals (earning Brett Eibner a permanent place in our hearts despite KC trading him two months later). The last time the Angels dropped a seven-spot in B9 was April 15, 1994, against the Blue Jays, a wild game in which they allowed five in T9 to go down 13-6, scored seven in B9--capped by a Harold Reynolds double-- to tie it, and then won on Damion Easley's single in the 10th. (There have been just four other games since then where both teams scored 5+ in the 9th.)

The Mariners last allowed a seven-run B9 on April 10, 1998, at Fenway Park, a game that ended on Mo Vaughn's walk-off grand slam, still the last one hit by the Red Sox when trailing.

Sure enough, after an off-day on Monday, the Angels pulled it off again Tuesday, this time "only" needing a three-run 9th to tie their game with the Rangers, and again starting the comeback with a solo home run (Danny Espinosa). All three of Espi's homers this year (he hit another one Thursday) have come in the 9th inning; no other player has hit two yet this year.

The Angels then won Tuesday's game on a squeeze bunt by Carlos Perez; Mike Napoli had no play at home and could only hope the ball rolled foul (it didn't). The last "bunt-off" in the majors, without an error involved, was laid down by another "Angel"-- Sanchez of the Cardinals on September 26, 2011. Anaheim hadn't won consecutive walk-offs against different opponents since September 8 (Indians) and 10 (Mariners) of 2010, and hadn't led off B9 with homers in back-to-back games since Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon did it on August 25 and 26, 1995.

And as for that list of Angels' victories, the Mariners may have been victimized the most since they were founded, but since the Angels themselves were founded in 1961, the opponent they've walked off the most is the Rangers (now 42 times including the Senators years, six more than any other team).


Please Come To Boston

Although we lost the fun of saying we were at the last seven-run 9th-inning comeback, we gained one for the annals this week by watching knuckleballer Steven Wright attempt to retire Orioles hitters at Fenway Park on Wednesday. He did retire four of them. The problem is that he faced 13. Eight of the other nine scored, and Wright became the first pitcher in Red Sox history to give up four homers within the first two innings of a game. (The team as a whole has done it several other times, but not all by one pitcher.)

Ben Taylor (and/or John Farrell) got the biggest ovation of the night when he replaced Wright, although he would later give up Trey Mancini's second homer of the game. That gave the Orioles their first five-homer game at Fenway since the final day of the 1977 season (won 8-7); Eddie Murray played the Mancini role in that contest and was the player who hit two.


Someone Say Four Homers?

As for that Josh Hamilton four-homer game, Yoenis Cespedes made us a bit nervous on Tuesday when he went deep in the 1st, 4th, and 5th innings of a Mets free-for-all at Citizens Bank Park. That made him the first Met with a three-homer game since… Yoenis Cespedes on August 21, 2015; he's now the only player in Mets history to do it twice.

Cespedes had two more chances to knock Hamilton off our pedestal; he doubled in the 7th inning to accumulate 14 total bases on the day. That's third in Mets history, behind his other 3-HR game (in which he also doubled and singled), and Edgardo Alfonzo's six-hit game (16 TB) on August 30, 1999.

Asdrubal Cabrera chipped in four hits and three runs scored; he and Cespedes became the first Mets teammates to post that line in the same game since (really) Ronny Paulino and Angel Pagán did it against the Tigers on June 29, 2011.

Lucas Duda also had two homers on Tuesday, including one in the 9th for the final margin of 14-4. Duda was also part of the last pair of Mets with multiple homers, teaming with Ike Davis against the Nationals on April 19, 2013.

All told the Mets hit seven homers and 14 extra-base hits in Tuesday's game. Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark points out that the Mets have had three games in their history with at least seven home runs. And all of them have been at Citizens Bank Park (not Citi Field, not Shea, not even that one year at the Polo Grounds).

While we're on the Mets, Travis d'Arnaud hit one of their biggest homers of the young season on Thursday, finally bringing the curtain down on the year's longest game so far. D'Arnaud's solo shot in the top of the 16th was, by inning, the second-latest ever in a road game in Mets history. Del Unser went deep in the 17th inning at Busch Stadium on April 19, 1976.

And speaking of duplicating things, Cespedes hit two more homers in that Thursday game with Miami; the last Mets batter with two such games in three days was Carlos Delgado on September 7 and 9, 2008.


Weekly Evan Gattis Note

We discussed the interesting game that Astros catcher Evan Gattis had last weekend, but darned if he didn't find his way back. This time it's for earning a game-ending bases-loaded walk to beat the Royals 5-4 on Sunday. Houston had not been served "shrimp", as that play is known in baseball Internet circles, since July 17, 1999, when Derek Bell scored Craig Biggio to beat the Tigers. They were the only team to not win a game in such fashion yet in the 2000's; the Red Sox (September 23, 2000) inherit the longest drought of such a thing. The Royals hadn't issued one since June 3, 2003 (to then-Dodger Adrian Beltre). And combined with the one the Rays got last Saturday, it was the first occurrence of "walk"-offs on back-to-back days in nearly 20 years. Nomar Garciaparra (Red Sox) and Andres Galarraga (Rockies) each got them in the 11th inning of their respective games on July 10 and 11, 1997.


It's A Good Thing

Every year (almost) since 1923, the Yankees have opened another season at the intersection of 161st and River Avenue. On Monday, however, Michael Pineda stole the show by retiring the first 20 Rays batters in order, half of them via strikeout, until Martha Stewart jinxed him by Tweeting about it. Evan Longoria belted a double for the first of only two Rays hits (a Logan Morrison homer would be the other) as the Bombers rolled to an 8-1 victory.

We scrounged up play-by-play for each of the Yankees' last 90 home openers, and Pineda was only the second pitcher to have either a perfect game through five or a no-hitter through six. Ron Guidry had the former, against the Brewers in 1979, before giving up four runs in the 6th. And against the Red Sox on April 12, 1959, Bob Turley erased his only baserunner (a walk) on a double play before allowing two runs in the 7th; he still won a complete-game two-hitter.

The Yankees later hit for the cycle in the span of four batters as they unloaded on the Rays' bullpen; the team's last time hitting for the cycle in one inning was August 3, 2011, against the White Sox. Eric Chavez had the home run and Mark Teixeira had his only triple of that season (in fact, the next-to-last of his career despite playing five more years).


Cycling The Rockies

Wil Myers didn't wait for his teammates to hit for the cycle on Monday; he took care of that himself by legging out an 8th-inning triple against the Rockies. That marked just the second cycle in Padres history, after Matt Kemp did it on August 14, 2015, also at Coors Field.

Last season the Padres had 17 players miss the cycle by the triple, second in the majors only to the Tigers' 18. Their team total of 18 "near-cycles" in 2016 (Manuel Margot missed the homer) tied for the most in San Diego history.

By date, Myers had the earliest cycle since Brad Wilkerson did it on April 6, 2005, in the second game ever played by the Washington Nationals. Last year's first cycle didn't come until June 15 (by Freddie Freeman).

The cycle, by the way, is one of those things that we here at Kernels, in 29 seasons, have still never stumbled onto in person.


Someone Say Freddie Freeman?

Freeman and Starling Marte each had four hits in Sunday's Braves/Pirates game, with Freeman's two homers ultimately losing to Marte's walk-off variety. Freddie became just the fifth Braves player in the live-ball era to have four hits and two homers in Pittsburgh, and the first to do it in a loss (anywhere) since Andrew Jones on September 23, 2006 (at Coors Field, of course). The rest of that other list ain't bad either: Gary Matthews (1980), Hank Aaron (1960), Jim Pendleton (1953), and Babe Ruth (1935).

Marte, meanwhile, was the second Pirate in the past 10 years to have four hits including a walk-off homer. The other… was Starling Marte, against Toronto on May 2, 2014. It was also the first walk-off homer Pittsburgh had hit against the Braves when trailing since Frankie Gustine took Vern Bickford deep on June 5, 1948.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Matt Holliday, Sunday: First Yankee to draw five walks, with none of them intentional, since Russ Derry did it against the Tigers on September 6, 1945.

⋅ Rangers, Sunday: First game in franchise history scoring 8+ runs, with all of them driven in by the lower third of the batting order.

⋅ Nationals, Monday: Committed four errors and won for the first time since the franchise moved to Washington in 2005. Posted just the third "14-19-4" linescore in MLB history, the others being by the Royals in 1983 and the Pirates in 1960.

⋅ Marcell Ozuna, Tuesday: First player (home or visitor) with a 2-HR, 6-RBI game at Marlins Park. Gaby Sanchez had the last such game for the Marlins, on June 11, 2010. Also first to have a rally cat climb onto the home-run sculpture during a game where he homered.

⋅ Stephen Piscotty, Wednesday: First "St Louis" batter to have a 5-RBI game in Washington since Roy Sievers did it for the Browns against the Senators on September 20, 1949.

⋅ Justin Haley, Thursday: First Twins pitcher in 30 years (and one day) to record a three-inning save with at least six strikeouts. Juan Berenguer did it against the Mariners on April 12, 1987.

⋅ Yu Darvish, Thursday: 11th game of career with double-digit strikeouts and zero runs allowed (regardless of innings pitched). Most in Rangers team history, passing Nolan Ryan who had 10 such games.

⋅ John Lackey, Max Scherzer, and Danny Salazar, Wednesday: Each struck out at least 10 opponents but still got the loss. Hadn't happened thrice in one day since Sandy Koufax (Dodgers, by a 2-1 score), Bo Belinsky (Angels, 2-0), and Sam Jones (Tigers, in 12 innings) each managed it on June 26, 1962.

The Sloppy Dozen

(no, not the Dirty Dozen; it'll make sense in a minute)


We spent some time Saturday afternoon wondering what our next post would be about. (In the years of writing these every week for ESPN, sometimes the theme was the hardest part.) Then the Phillies dropped it right in our lap.

In a half-inning that took 36 minutes 51 seconds (according to the PitchF/X timestamps), the Phillies sent 16 batters to the plate; recorded nine hits, four walks, and two sacrifice flies; and jumped out to a 12-run 1st inning against the Nationals.

It was just the third time in Phillies history that they had posted a dozen runs in a frame; they first did it on July 21, 1923, against the Cubs at Baker Bowl. (That was the first game of a doubleheader as well; they lost the nightcap 16-9.) Then on April 13, 2003, they set the team record with a 13-run frame against the Reds, a game they won 13-1 (and which is still one of only two in MLB history where a team scored 13+ with all of them in one inning).

There were two 12-run innings during the 2016 season after none at all for the three years before that. The last team to post a 12-run 1st inning was the 2011 Orioles, who did so against the Yankees on July 30, a game they would also go on to win 17-3.

The 12 runs were the most ever allowed in an inning by the Nationals/Expos franchise (they had several 10's, though the only one since moving to Washington was against the Brewers on April 18, 2010).

Jeremy Guthrie faced 12 Phillies batters and got just two of them out, both on sacrifice flies. The other 10 all scored. Only two other starters have ever given up 10 earned runs without getting through the 1st inning: Jason Jennings gave up 11 for the Astros in 2007, and Luke Hudson did it for Kansas City the year before that. (Earned runs, if you're wondering, became official in both leagues as of 1913.)

Guthrie also had a 10-run start with the Royals in 2015 (May 25 versus Yankees), making him the first pitcher ever with multiple lines of ≤ 1 IP and 10+ ER. (He got into the 2nd in that game but didn't record an out.) He joins James Shields as the only pitchers this decade to have a 10-run outing with two different teams.

But the kicker? Saturday was Guthrie's 38th birthday. We trod this path two seasons ago when Chris Archer gave up nine runs on his birthday; the only other member of the 9-ER birthday club in the live-ball era was Hollis "Sloppy" Thurston of the White Sox. Thurston had the nickname long before giving up 10 earned runs on that day in 1925; he helped run his father's restaurant in the offseason and the Thurstons would give out ("slop") free soup to the less-fortunate.


The Game Dozen-'t Want To End

Wednesday saw three games hit the dozen-th inning (for the first time since last July 1), and two of those would end with multi-run walk-off homers. The Pirates and Red Sox played 11 frames without a run, the longest scoreless interleague game in Boston history, before Sandy León became the hero with a three-run homer. The Sawx had not hit a three-run (or grand slam) walk-off homer in any extra inning since Brian Daubach took Toronto's John Frascatore deep on May 24, 2000. Their last in the 12th inning or beyond was September 5, 1995, against Oakland, when Jose Canseco's three-run shot scored Troy O'Leary and Mo Vaughn.

Meanwhile, after a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 13th, the Astros were down to their final strike when George Springer blasted his own three-run walk-off to beat the Mariners 5-3. By inning, it was the latest walk-off homer in Astros history to be hit when the team was trailing; it was their first in any extra inning since June 28, 2007, when Carlos Lee walked off against the Rockies in the game where Craig Biggio got his 3,000th hit.

Wednesday thus became the first day in the live-ball era where there were two walk-off homers, each scoring three runs or more, and each in the 12th inning or later. There's a good chance it's the first time ever, but not enough linescores are available for games prior to 1909 to be able to say for certain.

Springer promptly started Thursday's game with a home run as well, becoming the first player to hit a walk-off homer one day and a leadoff homer the next, since Scott Hairston on August 3 and 4, 2007.


Whatever Works

The Brewers won Friday's game on an 11th-inning wild pitch (known as a "bounce-off" around these parts). Their last such play happened against the Twins on June 20, 2003, and was issued by Juan Rincón.

Meanwhile, after a leadoff double by Mallex Smith and two intentional walks, the Rays won Saturday's game in the 11th inning when Brad Miller drew yet another walk. The issue, of course, being that the bases were loaded. The Rays drew one of last season's seven "walk"-offs, against the Mariners on June 15 (Logan Morrison). It was the sixth such win in franchise history, and the first time they've done it in back-to-back seasons.

Those two game-ending plays hadn't happened in extra innings on back-to-back days (in either order) since July 26 and 27, 2005; Andruw Jones drew the walk for the Braves against Washington, while Brendan Donnelly uncorked one for the Angels to score Toronto's Russ Adams.


"Run"ning On The Catcher

Evan Gattis had an interesting game behind the plate on Friday, first getting called for catcher's interference, and later committing a passed ball. Again, the quirk is that both of those plays occurred with the bases loaded, giving the Royals two of their five runs. We always issue the caveat that some occurrences of catcher's interference might have been lost to history, but in the known population of play-by-play in the amazing Baseball Reference Play Index, only one other catcher has committed both a run-scoring CI and a run-scoring PB in the same game. That was Christian Bethancourt for the Braves in June 2015. Paulo Orlando became the first Royals batter ever awarded a CI with the bases loaded.

Speaking of Bethancourt, the experiment to turn him back into a pitcher continued this week. He started the 7th inning on Thursday by retiring Chase Utley, but then walked four straight batters, all of whom later scored (thanks largely to a Corey Seager double). Bethancourt thus became the fifth pitcher in Padres history to allow four runs but no hits. Ernesto Frieri was the last, on June 20, 2011, as part of a 10-run inning by the Red Sox (two walks, two hit batters).

By now you've probably seen the Yadier Molina video from Thursday. While fascinating in its own right (and we will refrain from speculating how the ball got stuck there), the Kernels Rules Desk was mostly sad that there was not another runner(s) on base when it happened. Because in this day and age, if we told you the word "paraphernalia" actually appears in the rule book, you probably wouldn't put it in this context:

5.06 Running the Bases
(c) Dead Balls
The ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases, without liability to be put out, when:
[...]
(7) A pitched ball lodges in the umpire’s or catcher’s mask or paraphernalia, and remains out of play, runners advance one base;

And no, we've never actually seen it invoked either. We just enjoy the fact that it exists.


Pitchers Who Rake

Tied 4-4 with the Phillies in the 6th, the Reds sent up pitcher Michael Lorenzen as a pinch hitter on Thursday. Of course he homered. It was the second of his career, the other coming last year in a game he had already entered as the pitcher. Thursday's dinger made him just the second Reds pitcher in the past 50 years to homer as a pinch hitter (not as a pitcher). Micah Owings did it on May 10, 2009. Oddly, the Reds were the only National League team without a pinch-hit homer in 2016 (CHW, KC, TEX were lacking in the AL). Starting pitcher William "Rookie" Davis had already doubled earlier in the game, becoming the first Reds pitcher with an extra-base hit in his MLB debut since Jeff Russell in 1983. And the combination of Davis and Lorenzen was just the second time in the past five-plus seasons that teammate pitchers had extra-base hits in the same game (as either P or PH). The other... was last August when Lorenzen hit his other homer; Tim Adleman had doubled earlier in that contest.


History Repeating

As mentioned in our previous post, the Twins finally snapped their streak of eight Opening Day losses, but when they won again Wednesday and Thursday, they were already well ahead of their 2016 pace. Minnesota became just the third team ever to start 0-9 one season and then 3-0 in the following season, joining the 2003-04 Tigers and the 1918-19 Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers). Both of those teams, like Minnesota did, won their fourth game as well. And both of those teams lost their fifth-- which the Twins did against the White Sox on Saturday.

Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Kendrys Morales, Thursday: Third player in Jays history to hit a grand slam for the team's first homer of the season. Others were George Bell in 1990 and Ed Sprague in 1995.

⋅ Matt Kemp, Thursday: First Atlantan ever to have a multi-homer game at Citi Field. Braves' last player to do it at Shea was Kelly Johnson on April 22, 2007.

⋅ Jeff Samardzija, Thursday: Third pitcher in "San Francisco Giants" history (1958) to strike out 9+ but also allow three homers. Randy Johnson did it in 2009 (and won), while Juan Marichal pitched nine complete innings in September 1966 but got a no-decision because the game was tied.

⋅ Manuel Margot, Friday: Second player in Padres history to hit a leadoff home run in their home opener. Marvell Wynne did it, also against the Giants, on April 13, 1987.

⋅ Nomar Mazara, Friday: Youngest player in Rangers (/Senators) history with a 6-RBI game. Youngest in majors since Starlin Castro on May 7, 2010.

⋅ Brett Gardner, Friday: First Yankee with three hits, three runs scored, and two stolen bases in a loss since Rickey Henderson on April 11, 1988.

⋅ Cubs, Saturday: First time scoring 11+ runs without a homer since September 7, 2012, in Pittsburgh. First time in team history doing it in Milwaukee (Brewers or Braves).

Open, Season

Curtain Up

The first official pitch of 2017 was thrown by Chris Archer at 1:12 pm Sunday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It marked just the second time that a season's opening pitch was thrown in Florida; when the 1995 season finally began (three weeks late due to the strike), the Marlins had the only game played on "Opening Day", April 25. The Rays "hosted" one other season opener, in 2004, but that was the two-game series with the Yankees at the Tokyo Dome. Tampa's 7-3 win over the Yankees gave the New Yorkers their sixth straight season-opening loss, the longest streak in franchise history (topping 1934-38).

Plate umpire Jerry Layne called the first pitch of 2016 as well, becoming the first to do so in consecutive seasons since Joe West in 2004 and 2005.


Act One

Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies and George Springer of the Astros both went deep as their team's first batter of the season. No player had done it since then-Ranger Ian Kinsler in 2011, and both batters became just the second ever to do it for their respective teams. Heinie Mueller hit the other one for the Phillies at Baker Bowl on April 19, 1938, off Dodgers "great" Van Lingle Mungo.

Springer's homer was the third to open a season in Astros history, but the others were by the same player. Terry Puhl did it against the Reds in 1978 (off Tom Seaver) and again versus the Dodgers in 1980 (off Burt Hooton). Carlos Correa homered later in Monday's game, just as he did last year; he became the fifth Astro to go deep in consecutive openers. Richard Hidalgo did it in 1999 and 2000; the others were Joe Ferguson, Glenn Davis, and Jeff Bagwell.

And as for Kinsler, he went deep in the Tigers' rain-postponed opener on Tuesday, and while not a leadoff homer, it marked the second straight year he's homered in Detroit's first game. No Tiger had pulled that off since catcher Aaron Robinson in 1949-50.


That Boring Middle Part
(or, stuff that didn't fit anywhere else in the analogy)

Though not a walk-off, Adam Lind gave the Nationals the lead for good with a two-run pinch-hit homer in the 7th inning Monday. Lind thus became the first "Washington National" ever to hit a pinch-hit homer in his first game with the team. Former Royals DH Joe Vitiello made a brief return to the majors with the Expos in 2003 and was the last to do it for the franchise.

Jackie Bradley Jr. had an Opening Day triple that sparked a five-run 5th inning for the Red Sox (all with two outs). He was the youngest Bostonian to hit a triple in their opener since 1978, when Jerry Remy and Jim Rice (both younger than Bradley) hit them two batters apart in the same inning against the White Sox.

Khris Davis of the Athletics hit two homers Monday to lead the first victory on the newly-christened "Rickey Henderson Field". He joined Jason Giambi (2000) as the only Athletics in team history (Oakland, KC, or Philadelphia) to go deep twice in an opener.

Yasmani Grandal clobbered two homers as the Dodgers romped over his former team, the Padres, 14-3 in Monday's opener. Only two other players in team history have gone yard twice in the first game: Raul Mondesi did it in both 1995 and 1999; while HOF'er Roy Campanella hit two against the Giants in a loss in 1954. Joc Pederson also hit a grand slam Monday, the second in Dodgers history on Opening Day. Eric Karros did it in Montreal in 2000. Having scored 15 runs against the Padres in last year's opener made the Dodgers just the second team ever to post consecutive 14's, joining the Cubs in 2005-06.


Intermission
You know you want to watch the Van Lingle Mungo song again right now. We'll wait.


Show-Stopping Number

The most notable performance from this year's Opening Day of course goes to Madison Bumgarner. Not only did he take a perfect game into the 6th inning (making us reach for our Bob Feller trivia books), but he homered in his second plate appearance. That made him the first pitcher to homer in an opener since Clayton Kershaw in 2013, and the first Giants hurler since Johnny Antonelli in 1956. He stood to become the first pitcher to homer in his own no-hitter since Rick Wise of the Phillies in 1971.

Jeff Mathis spoiled that with a 6th-inning triple, and two batters later, Bumgarner had actually lost the lead on an A.J. Pollock dinger. No worries, he got it back. In his next at-bat in the 7th, Bumgarner homered again, the first pitcher in major-league history to go yard twice on Opening Day. No Giants pitcher had homered twice in any game since Jim Gott against the Cardinals on May 12, 1985, and no pitcher for any team had homered twice and struck out 10 opponents since (here he is again!) Rick Wise in August 1971 (not the no-hitter).

For his part, Mathis would end up going single-double-triple (in four innings, no less), the first player to do so in an opener since Aaron Miles of the Cardinals in 2006, and only the second catcher in the live-ball era. Bob Montgomery of the Red Sox pulled off that line in 1979.

Chris Owings ultimately won the game for the Diamondbacks with the year's first walk-off, the first time the Giants have lost an opener via walk-off since Dusty Baker's single (he was then a Dodger) scored Bill Russell on April 6, 1982.


The Big Finale

Owings wasn't the only one to end the show on a dramatic twist. Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals laced a bases-loaded single to left for a 4-3 walk-off against the Cubs on Sunday night. Grichuk has both of the Cards' walk-off hits to defeat the Cubs in the past four seasons, beating them with a home run last May. It was the Cardinals' first opening-day walk-off since Scott Cooper's two-run single (scoring Ozzie Smith and Bernard Gilkey) beat the Phillies in 1995; and also the first time St. Louis had walked off against Chicago in an opener since 1924.


Encore

After both teams grounded into inning-ending double plays in the 9th on Monday, the Orioles finally walked off against the Blue Jays thanks to Mark Trumbo's 11th-inning solo shot. Baltimore had only one extra-inning walk-off homer last season; it was also by Trumbo (to beat Arizona on September 23), and more notably, it was the first time in team history (Orioles, Browns, or the 1901 Brewers) that they had won their opener via walk-off homer.

It also marked five straight victories for the Orioles in openers that went to extra innings; their last loss came against Texas in 1977, a game in which Jim Palmer pitched a 10-inning CG but gave up an RBI single to Bump Wills (son of Maury) who was making his major-league debut.


Reprise

After their 14-run outburst in the opener on Monday, the Dodgers promptly got shut out by Clayton Richard and the Padres in Game 2 on Tuesday. Only one other team in major-league history dropped 14+ and 0 in their first two contests: The 1945 Senators against the Athletics; they lost the second game 1-0 in the 12th inning when George Kell beat out an attempted double play that would have ended the inning and Irv Hall scored from third.

Speaking of 14's, the Brewers' offense struck out 14 times in the opener Monday and then did it again on Tuesday. That earned them the dubious honor of being the first team in the live-ball era to fan 14+ times in each of their first two games.

After a six-run 7th inning on Monday that included three bases-loaded walks (the first time the Royals had issued three since 2009), the Twins won their second game on Wednesday with another six-run 7th inning. Although they actually had back-to-back six-run 2nd innings as recently as 2014 (yes, we looked), it also made the Twins 2-0 for the first time since 2007. (They were also 2-0 in 1997 and 1987 if you believe in patterns.) Minnesota had lost its last eight season openers before Monday; the longest active streak, as noted at the very top of our show, now passes to the Yankees.


The Cast Would Like To Thank

Birthday shoutout to Jay Bruce, whose bases-loaded walk was one of five drawn by the Mets in their six-run 7th inning Monday. The Braves had not issued five walks in an inning since April 8, 2009, against the Phillies; but more notably, Bruce became just the second Met ever to draw a bases-loaded pass on his birthday. Jim Hickman did it against the Reds on May 10, 1963.


The Reviews Are In

After the Orioles gave us our third Opening Day walk-off, none of the remaining cast members could come through with a fourth. Which means, alas, there has still never been a season where four teams won their openers via walk-off. (Obviously, prior to 1961, there were only eight games in most years, so odds were considerably lower.) To prove this, however, we had to scour some old newspapers for boxscores to rule out enough potential walk-off scores. (To say nothing of, the home team didn't always bat last in the early days.) Either way, that search yielded this fun story from The Providence Morning Star about the 1884 Boston Beaneaters (that's the NL team, now the Braves, write your own #Barves joke) raising the previous year's championship banner upside down. Sure enough, in the following four seasons (1885-88), they finished a combined 103 games back and didn't win another title until eight years and one new ballpark later.