A Tribe On A Quest
The Indians piled up 19 hits in Monday's 15-9 slugfest with the Rangers, with absolutely no one stealing the show. Of Cleveland's nine batters (there were no subs), six of them had two hits, two of them had three, and poor Jason Kipnis "only" went 1-for-4. It was the first time eight different starters had multi-hit games since June 28, 2013, at the White Sox, and the first home game where Cleveland did it in 12 years (plus one day). On June 25, 2005, Coco Crisp led the way with four base knocks as they beat Cincinnati 12-7.
More notably, none of those 19 hits on Monday left the yard, marking the first-ever game at Jacobs Field (Progressive, whatever) where any team, home or visitor, had that many hits with no homers. Cleveland last did it at the Stadium on April 11, 1992; the Brewers did it in the sixth-to-last game played at the "Mistake By The Lake", September 24, 1993.
And continuing our series of unusual scores, 15-9 has actually happened 11 times so far this century, but it was the first one that either team had been involved in since June 4, 2008... when they played each other again! The Rangers have three 15-9 losses in their history, and two have been to Cleveland; the other was to the Red Sox in 1973. Cleveland has six 15-9 wins in its history, the most of any team since 1900 (the Yankees have five).
Union Of The Snakes
Chris Herrmann's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th gave the Diamondbacks a 6-5 win over the Cardinals on Tuesday. That paired nicely with his 11th-inning home run to beat the Mets on May 17; it's the first time in his brief career (six years but only 258 games) that he's had two walkoffs in a season.
And Herrmann pairs nicely with Daniel Descalso who also has two extra-inning walkoffs this season, and whose are also a single and a homer. The former beat the Phillies last Sunday, and Descalso's 13th-inning homer put an end to the April part of the D'backs' schedule. It's the first time in Arizona team history that two different players have had multiple extra-inning walkoffs in one season.
Arizona went on to beat the Rockies 6-2 on Saturday in a game where Descalso, Jeff Mathis, and Paul Goldschmidt all tripled. Two of those were leadoff triples, so while all three eventually came around to score, only Mathis got an RBI out of the deal. And for all three players, that run following the triple would be their only one of the game, the second time in Diamondbacks history where three players pulled that off. Stephen Drew, Orlando Hudson, and Chad Tracy each had a triple but only one run scored in a 10-5 loss to San Diego on April 24, 2007.
Saturday marked the 10th three-triple game in Diamondbacks history (nine of them at Chase Field), but they've had one in each of the past four seasons, so far the only team in the majors to do that. The Giants are the only other team with a chance to match them, but they haven't had one yet in 2017.
Ketel Marte joined the party on Sunday with a 9th-inning walkoff single, becoming the youngest Diamondback with a walkoff since Justin Upton also beat the Rockies on May 5, 2011.
Odd Number Of Sox
Although you could say one star was brighter than the others, the Red Sox exploded for 21 hits on Sunday in dominating the Blue Jays 15-1. After striking out to start the game, Mookie Betts went on a spree with an RBI single in the 2nd, a three-run homer in the 4th, a two-run jack in the the 6th, and then a line-drive single to score two more as Boston hung a "snowman" in the top of the 7th. Mookie's final line: 4-for-5, two homers, eight RBIs. It was the first 8-RBI game for the Sawx since... Mookie Betts had his three-homer game last August against the Diamondbacks. He joins Nomar Garciaparra (1999 & 2002) as the only players in Red Sox history to have a pair of 8-RBI games, and just the second visiting player ever with a 2-HR, 8-RBI game at Skydome/Rogers Centre. The other was also a notable Red Sock, just not at the time. Manny Ramirez did it when he was with the Indians on September 24, 1999. (Don Baylor, incidentally, had the only such game at Exhibition Stadium, in 1979.)
As for leadoff hitters, only five since 1920 (when RBI became an official stat) have collected 8 RBIs in a game. The last was Ronnie Belliard for the Rockies on September 23, 2003. Belliard and the Cardinals' Augie Bergamo (July 4, 1945) are the only others to have four hits as Betts did. The other 8-RBI guys are Jim Northrup of the Tigers in 1973, and Bill Glynn for the Indians in 1954 (Glynn had three homers but no other hits).
But this post is about teamwork, and Mookie couldn't have collected all those RBIs unless the guys at the bottom of the order kept getting on base. Tzu-Wei Lin and Deven Marrero each had three hits and scored twice, just the second time Boston's 8- and 9-hitters have both done that in a road game in the past 40 years. Stephen Drew and Jose Iglesias were the culprits in a 10-6 win in Detroit on June 21, 2013. (The previous road game, in 1974, was at Tiger Stadium; you have to go to 1953 to find a Sox game fitting this search that wasn't in either Boston or Detroit.)
Hanley Ramirez and Jackie Bradley also tossed in three hits to the mix, the first road game where five different Bostonians had three hits each since April 26, 2010. That game, also in Toronto, was a 13-12 Sox victory. Sunday's 15-1 score matched Boston's largest win ever against the Jays (14-0 on September 6, 2011). It was the first 15-1 in the majors this year, and the first loss by that score in Toronto history.
Cub Scouts
After the Kyle Schwarber Experiment fizzled, the Cubs have been trying various people in the leadoff spot for the last several weeks, with Anthony Rizzo memorably hitting a home run to begin his first game in that position (June 13). On Monday the honor went to Willson Contreras against left-hander Gio Gonzalez, with Rizzo temporarily bumped down to second. By now you've figured out what happened. Contreras led off his game with a home run as well, becoming the first catcher in Cubs history (all of it, to 1876) to start a game with a dinger.
It's the first time in (at least) the live-ball era that two different Cubs in the same season hit a leadoff homer in their first game batting in the leadoff spot. And adding in Ben Zobrist, who hit one on May 21, it's the first time three different Cubs have hit leadoff home runs by the end of June since 1994. The platoon who did it that year was Sammy Sosa, Shawon Dunston, and Tuffy Rhodes.
National Velvet
In a highly-publicized incident that ended with Miguel Montero getting released for "not being a team player" or something, the Nationals went on a stealing spree against the Cubs on Tuesday night. In un-Jake Arrieta-like fashion, he walked six batters and was replaced before recording an out in the 5th. Although he did have one 7-walk game last year, Arrieta became the first Cubs starter to walk six while lasting only 4 IP since Kerry Wood did it against the Cardinals on July 4, 2003.
The Nationals took advantage of all those runners on first, swiping a total of seven bases off Arrieta. That's believed to be the most ever against a single pitcher in Cubs history (though the scoring definitions for steals changed several times before 1910), and this is a team with Jon Lester who never throws to first. The seven steals were the most ever in Nationals history and the most for the franchise since May 7, 1986.
Trea Turner, now on the DL with a broken wrist (suffered not sliding into a base, but when hit by a pitch on Thursday), swiped four of those bags, the most by any Nationals player in... well, nine days. Turner also had a 4-SB game on Sunday the 18th, and is the second player in franchise history to do it twice in a season. The other is bound for the Hall of Fame in just a few weeks: Tim Raines in 1981.
But continuing our "teamwork" theme, Michael Taylor was also responsible for two of the Nationals' seven thefts. Only twice before in Nats/Expos history had one player stolen four bases and another stolen two. And both those games were by the same teammates 2½ weeks apart. Raines (the "4") and Rodney Scott (the "2") did it on both April 21 and May 8 of 1981.
Intermission
The phrase "the Kyle Schwarber Experiment" got this earworm going. Science!
Yankee Invasion
The Yankees have been an interesting mix of players all season, from the young sluggers like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez to the, uh, wily? veterans like Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. They introduced three new pups this week in the form of Miguel Andujar, Dustin Fowler, and Clint Frazier.
Andujar had a two-run single to start his MLB career as the Yankees sent eight men to the plate in Wednesday's 1st inning. He later added another single and two-run double, and would have had a fifth RBI had Chase Headley not been thrown out at the plate. He thus became just the second player since 1920 to have three hits, drive in four runs, and steal a base in his MLB debut. Roy Weatherly, who would play the role of "fourth outfielder" for the Indians for seven years and later do a brief stint with the Yankees, did it some 81 years and one day earlier (June 27, 1936).
Ignoring the four RBI, Andujar became the first Yankee with three hits but zero runs scored in his debut since catcher Charlie Silvera did that on September 29, 1948. New York collected 10 walks in the Wednesday game; that's actually not very Kernel-worthy, but it did enable them to score 12 runs as a team on only nine hits. The Yankees hadn't done that since a 12-8 win in Oakland (with nine walks) on August 9, 1999.
Then on Thursday in Houston, Fowler also had an interesting stat line in his debut, but not in a good way. In the 1st inning of his first major-league game, he blew out his knee crashing into an unpadded metal box.
Backup catcher Kyle Higashioka (April 10) also had zero plate appearances in his MLB debut; he got the call in the 9th inning of a blowout against the Rays. But Fowler is the first Yankee to start his major-league debut and leave before getting a plate appearance since pitcher Al Downing gave up five runs to the Senators in the 1st inning and was replaced on July 19, 1961. (The two Yankees to do it before Downing were also both pitchers.)
If, as seems to be consensus, Fowler is done for the year, he will be the first non-pitcher whose "first season" in the majors consisted of one game and zero plate appearances since Francisco Peña played one inning on defense for the Royals on May 20, 2014. The last Yankee to do it was outfielder Matt Luke, who pinch-ran in the second game of the 1996 campaign but was then optioned back to triple-A.
Frazier then effectively became Fowler's replacement, getting the right-field callup on Saturday in Houston. He promptly had a homer and a double, becoming the first Yankee ever to do that in his debut. The last for any team was Joey Gallo of the Rangers in June 2015. And Frazier is the fourth-youngest Yankee in the live-ball era to homer and double out of the 9-hole (never mind the debut part). Melky Cabrera (2007), Robinson Cano (2005), and Deion Sanders (1989) all did it slightly earlier in their 23rd year of life than Fowler did.
At the other extreme, Ellsbury tacked on a triple in Thursday's 6th inning, becoming the third-oldest Yankee to record a three-bagger at the current White Sox stadium (whatever it's called this month). Derek Jeter hit one there in 2014, while Marlins manager Don Mattingly recorded one on July 3, 1995, just after turning 34.
Fish Combo
Speaking of Marlins, the middle of their Sunday boxscore against Milwaukee was a mix of crooked numbers as well. Marcell Ozuna pounded two homers, the first a three-run shot in the 3rd that would ultimately be the game-winning RBI, but Christian Yelich right above him actually led the team with four hits and three runs scored. Miami didn't have a single batter with that line in all of 2015 or 2016, but they've now had three in the past two months; Yelich joins Miguel Rojas (May 3) and Justin Bour (May 23). He's also the first Marlin ever to post that line versus Milwaukee; the Cardinals are now the only NL opponent they've never done it against.
Since the start of 2012, the Marlins have had three games where one player had three hits and four driven in, while a different player had four hits and three runs scored. In all three of those pairs, Ozuna has been the player of the first part; he teamed with Donovan Solano against the Braves on September 5, 2014; and with Casey McGehee on June 5, 2014, against the Rays.
Hunter, Gatherer
The Padres won a 6-0 contest with the Braves on Thursday night, and not only were there a lot of zeroes on the Atlanta side, the San Diego side had its share too. The Padres' 2-3-4 hitters-- Manuel Margot, Wil Myers, and Hunter Renfroe-- combined for seven of the team's nine hits, all three extra-base hits (one each), four of the runs, and all six runs batted in (two each).
The Padres hadn't had that concentration of hitting lines-- three consecutive batters with three hits, an extra-base hit, and 2 RBI each-- since June 21, 2002, when they beat the Yankees by a 9-1 count. Those three hitters (3 thru 5 in the order) were Ron Gant, Bubba Trammell, and catcher Wiki Gonzalez.
Renfroe would go on to collect four hits in Sunday's win over the Dodgers, but two of them came with two outs and nobody on, so he also had the unique line of neither scoring a run nor driving one in. Yonder Alonso had the same 4-0-0 line in an extra-inning game in 2012, but the last Padres hitter to be a perfect 4-for-4 or better, with 0 runs and 0 RBI, was Xavier Nady at Wrigley Field on April 13, 2005. And it hadn't happened at home since Fred McGriff did it against the Dodgers on April 19, 1991.
First Mates
The Mariners, meanwhile, dropped a 10-0 beatdown on the Angels on Friday, a 17-hit attack that included four home runs. The Mariners hadn't hit four homers in Anaheim since May 28, 2007 (a 12-5 win), and Robinson Cano became their first player with two homers and five RBIs there since Alex Rodriguez did it in the next-to-last game of the 2000 season.
Cano, however, was preceded in the order by Ben Gamel who had four singles and two RBIs, and followed two batters later by Kyle Seager who chipped in three more singles plus another of the home runs. All told the 2 thru 5 spots in the order (Nelson Cruz went 1-for-4 in between) combined for 12 hits and 8 RBI, the first time that's happened for the Seattle lineup since May 29, 2003. At the Metrodome on that day, Carlos Guillen (four hits), Bret Boone (three), Edgar Martinez (three), and John Olerud (two) led the way to a 10-6 win over the Twins.
The 10-0 final on Friday was the Mariners' largest shutout this year, and their largest road shutout of another AL West team since laying a 13-0 in Oakland on July 2, 2003. Seattle's only other 10-0 win in Anaheim was on July 5, 1999, a game in which A-Rod and Edgar each homered twice.
Bottom Of The Bag
⋅ Yankees, Sunday: Kept their season record of not being shut out intact by scoring a lone run in the 9th inning. Sixth time this year that the Yankees have scored all their runs of a game in the 9th, most in the majors. (Royals and Pirates have each done it four times.)
⋅ White Sox, Sunday: Posted first "6-5-4" linescore (runs-hits-errors) in the majors since the Rockies in a 10-6 loss to the Giants on September 29, 2002.
⋅ Curtis Granderson, Tuesday: First player in Mets history to hit three leadoff homers in a seven-day span (21st and 22nd at Dodger Stadium, 27th at Marlins Park).
⋅ Rangers, Tuesday: Second team in live-ball era to have 16 strikeouts and three or fewer hits in a nine-inning game and win it. Mariners over Oakland, April 24, 1986.
⋅ Rick Porcello, Wednesday: First Red Sox pitcher to have 10 losses by the end of June since Danny MacFayden in 1932.
⋅ Whit Merrifield, Sunday: First Royals leadoff batter with 3 hits & 3 stolen bases since Vince Coleman, June 29, 1994.
⋅ Denard Span, Friday: First Giant to hit leadoff HR in Pittsburgh since Chili Davis on July 14, 1984. First Giant to finish game with 4 hits & 4 runs scored including a leadoff homer (any stadium) since Bobby Bonds, also in Pittsburgh, June 6, 1973.
⋅ Kurt Suzuki, Sunday: First Braves player to homer 10 innings apart in same game (T2 & T12) since Danny O'Connell went deep in the 1st and 11th against the Giants on August 27, 1955.
Did You Know?
Moosic is the only minor-league city on the personal stadium list that has two listings for the same site. Nearly the entire place was razed in 2011 (the team played all of the 2012 season on the road), and the resulting new stadium was so significantly different that we made an executive decision to give it two numbers (37 and 159).
By the way, here's where it is.
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