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
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| Walk-off Win | 2-run HR |
Solo HR (4/29) |
BL walk (4/9) |
Single (4/16) |
| First w/ 2 HR |
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.
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