Grab Bag

Believe it or not, we've reached the final two weeks of the regular season, and it's pretty apparent that some teams are just going through the motions. This was the most interesting note we could get out of a rancid 3-1 AL West affair on Tuesday.

And we're pretty good at squeezing blood out of turnips, but a lot of games didn't even rise to "turnip" status this week. So we're falling back on an old standby format, the random mix of everything. Think of it as those cannisters of popcorn where one wedge is regular, one is cheese, one is caramel, etc.


Taylor-Turner Overdrive

The Dodgers started their week in extra-buttery fashion when Chris Taylor took the second pitch of the game and turned it into an inside-the-park home run thanks to a weird carom off the outfield wall. It was the first leadoff IHR by a Dodger since Dave Roberts hit one against the Cubs on August 9, 2003, but it was actually the second one in the majors this year. Denard Span legged one out on a similar carom at AT&T Park on August 19, making the Phillies the first known team to give up multiple leadoff IHRs in a season since the 1936 Pirates.

Three pitches later, while you're still watching replays, Justin Turner does this. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, the Dodgers had opened just one other game with back-to-back homers, regardless of which side of the fence they landed on. Tom Goodwin and Mark Grudzielanek did it in the first series of 2001, April 5 against Arizona.

But the last instance of a team opening a game with an inside-the-park homer followed by an outside-the-park homer was all the way back on July 13, 1911, and even that wasn't without controversy. Giants leadoff man Josh Devore hit a gap triple (because Polo Grounds, of course), and according to multiple newspaper reports at the time, either the cutoff throw was bobbled, the catcher dropped the ball at home plate, or both. Both the New York Sun and Pittsburgh Post reported a triple in their boxscores the next day, while the Pittsburgh Press says "the first two balls... were clouted for home runs" but doesn't list either a homer or a triple for Devore. And this is well before official scorers were required to announce their rulings. On the official ledger that was turned into the National League that year, Devore was credited with a home run, as opposed to a triple and an error. Number-two hitter Larry Doyle then followed with a non-controversial homer.

Composite of next-day stories from the three newspapers listed above. They're confused too. (via Google News Archive and Library Of Congress)

You Always End Up With Extra Sox

The Red Sox started the week with a 3-game lead on the Yankees in the AL East and facing the sputtering Baltimore Orioles who were coming off a series loss to those same New Yorkers. And the Yankees did in fact sweep Minnesota to theoretically gain back those 3 games. Or they would have if the Sox had not also swept Baltimore. We saw Yankee people on Twitter speculating that Buck Showalter would "throw" the series just to stick it to his old team; we have no idea if that's true or even possible, but if it was, he didn't do a very good job of it. Two of those Sox wins required extra innings, and that's where our notes begin.

Doug Fister started Monday's opener and it didn't go well. Fister allowed four hits and walked five before finally getting pulled with no outs in the 3rd. He became the first Red Sox starter to walk five and strike out zero since Andrew Miller did it against the Rays on July 15, 2011.

But after Boston erupted for 6 runs in the 4th off Dylan Bundy, Fister became sort of an afterthought. The Orioles led 8-7 when Xander Bogaerts lofted a game-tying solo homer in the top of the 7th. Bogaerts would finish the game with that home run, plus three walks, plus three runs scored, becoming the first Boston leadoff hitter with that line since Tommy Harper did it against the Yankees on September 7, 1972.

Monday, however, is now 8-8. And off to extras we go. In the 11th Orioles pitcher Miguel Castro walked the bases loaded, and with two outs Andrew Benintendi roped a two-run single for what would be a 10-8 victory. That was Benintendi's fourth go-ahead hit in extra innings this season, the most by any Red Sock since Clyde Vollmer also had four in 1951. And the 10-8 final marked Boston's 14th extra-inning victory this season, the most by the Red Sox since 1943. Oddly, both Boston teams won 14 extra-inning games that year.

But wait for it. If Showalter was in fact trying to throw the games, he didn't do so on Tuesday. Not only did his offense not score any runs, but his pitchers didn't allow any either. Drew Pomeranz scattered five hits and two walks, three relievers had perfect outings, and we are off to extras again-- but this time, instead of 8-8, it's still 0-0. It was only the second time in the past 15 years that the Red Sox played three extra-inning games in five days (including the 15-inning escapade we covered last week; the other was June 18 through 22, 2014.

And again in the 11th, back to your Showalter conspiracy theories, Brad Brach loads the bases and then with two outs uncorks a wild pitch that scores the only run of the game. The last 1-0 game where the run scored on a wild pitch was against the Red Sox, by the Orioles on June 9, 2015. Of course, it also happened at the end of the famous Henderson Alvarez no-hitter on the last day of the season four years ago.

But the last time the Red Sox won a 1-0 game with the only run coming via WP, was a similar "bounce-off" to end the game. Washington's Joe Boehling uncorked one to score Tris Speaker... on May 5, 1915.

Meriden (Conn.) Morning Record, May 6, 1915 (via Google News Archive)

Tuesday also marked the Sox' 15th extra-inning win this season, tying that record from 1943. The last time they won three extra-inning games in five days, as opposed to just playing them, was August 13 through 17, 1949. And the last time all three of those wins were on the road was in May 1940; they took one-run wins from the Yankees on the 10th and 11th, and then won a 10-inning game at the original Comiskey Park on the 14th.


Milwaukee's Worst

The Brewers hosted the Cubs this weekend in a series they desperately needed to win, if not sweep, to have any hope of claiming a playoff spot. They, um, didn't. After finally getting Jake Arrieta out of Thursday's game, Milwaukee got a tying single from Eric Sogard in the 7th, and a go-ahead single from Eric Thames in the 8th. Down to their final strike, but with Ian Happ on second base, Cubs 2B Javy Baez roped a single up the middle to make it 3-3. The Brewers then proceeded to load the bases with one out in B9 and not score.

Enter Oliver Drake for the 10th. Exit baseballs. Jon Jay double. Kris Bryant two-run homer. Anthony Rizzo very-near-homer that was replay-reviewed and made a triple off the top of the wall. The Cubs would not end up getting the single as well, but the damage was done and they won 5-3. Turns out the last team with a double, triple, and homer in the same extra inning also did get the single; that was the Nationals against Atlanta on September 6, 2008. The Cubs had not done it since May 2, 1980, when they hung an 8-run 12th in Cincinnati. And the home run was just the second one hit this year by the Cubs in extra innings; both have been at Miller Park. Jason Heyward cranked the other on July 29.

Friday's game had less late-inning drama, but once again we ended regulation tied and it took a 10th inning for the Cubs to come out on top 5-4. It was the first time the Cubs had played back-to-back extra-inning games and won both of them since April 18 and 20, 2011, against the Padres (the 19th was rained out). Tommy La Stella, pinch-hitting for Albert Almora, who had already pinch hit for Kyle Schwarber, worked a bases-loaded walk for what would prove to be the winning run. No Cubs batter had drawn a go-ahead pinch-hit walk in extra innings since Andre Thornton had a literal walk-off against the Astros on June 16, 1974.

Naturally, the memo that reminded these two teams that games are only supposed to be nine innings got lost, because guess what they did again on Saturday. This time it was 2-2 after nine, and rather than lead off the 10th with a double, Jon Jay waited until Ian Happ was already on second and then singled him in. That marked the first time that the Cubs had acquired an extra-inning lead in three straight games since May 31 through June 3, 1909.

For Milwaukee, however, the third time's a charm. Wade Davis stayed in for a second inning and, well, didn't finish it. He struck out Neil Walker, but then Ryan Braun doubled and Travis Shaw launched a two-run walkoff homer to center. That was the first extra-inning homer (walkoff or not) surrendered by the Cubs this year (the Royals are the last team to not allow one), and the Brewers' first walkoff when trailing since Aramis Ramirez beat the Marlins on July 3, 2012.

And for both teams, the last time they played three consecutive extra-inning games against the same opponent... was against each other. From September 17 through 19, 2001, these same combatants hooked up in a three-game, 34-inning series at Wrigley with the Cubs again winning two of the three.

Incidentally, that series ended Sunday not with extra-inning drama, but with Jose Quintana throwing a three-hit shutout as the Cubs won 5-0. Quintana was the first Cubs pitcher to throw a shutout, but also strike out four times as a batter, since Walter "Monk" Dubiel blanked the Reds 16-0 on July 2, 1950.


They Say It's Your Birthday

Our friends at Baseball Reference, whose resources provide the majority of our material and whom we do not mention enough (subscribe! it's $3 a month!), also have a section called "Frivolities". One of those pages is a "players born today" list where you can see all the major-leaguers with a certain birthday. We have it bookmarked and click it almost every day, just to keep in the back of our mind if one of those players goes off.

For September 21 the list turned up four active players, all pitchers, and you can debate how "active" Antonio Bastardo is given that the Pirates released him over the All-Star break. The others were Carlos Martinez of the Cardinals, Aaron Bummer of the White Sox (which we still think is an unfortunate name for a pitcher), and Milwaukee's Jeremy Jeffress. The Brewers even tweeted out Jeffress's request for sour Skittles earlier in the afternoon.

As it happens, Martinez started Thursday, the first time he's done so on his birthday. He went 6⅓ mediocre innings, scattering 9 hits and 4 runs, but escaped with a win. Bummer found his way into the 7th inning of the White Sox' 3-1 win at Houston and got one of those "holds" that people love to hate.

And Jeffress, well, he got something sour all right. Remember that Javier Baez single with the Cubs down to their final strike? Guess who. With one pitch he morphed from the third Brewers pitcher ever to get a save on his birthday, to the fourth ever to blow one. The rest of that dubious list is Will Smith (2014), John Axford (opening day 2013), and Chuck Crim in 1988. It also marked the first time since saves (and thus holds and blown saves) became official in 1969 that birthday pitchers got a win, a hold, and a blown save on the same day.

We must also give some love to the Astros' Carlos Correa, who turned in a 3-hit, 3-RBI performance on Saturday. The problem there is that he turned 23 on Friday. But he is still just the third Houstonian to put up those numbers on the day after his birthday (and maybe isn't that more impressive if you were out partying?). The others in that group are Bob Watson in 1974 and Bob Lillis in the team's inaugural season of 1962.


Intermission
Thought you were getting the Beatles song when you clicked that header, didn't you? Okay, here.


Houston, We Have A Pitcher

Raise your hand if you hear the name Justin Verlander and still think "Tigers". Yeah, well, he's not anymore. But he's already proven himself to a lot of Astros fans after only four starts. Only one other pitcher in Astros history has won each of his first four starts with the team, and that was Roger Clemens in 2004 when he won the Cy Young Award.

On September 12, Verlander took the hill in Anaheim, allowed a leadoff double to Brandon Phillips, and then retired 24 of the next 26 batters, going eight innings with only the one hit, a walk, and a hit batter as blemishes. The Astros won that game 1-0, reduced their magic number to 5, and finally clinched the division five days later when Verlander defeated the Mariners.

Then on Friday, facing those same Angels again, "JV" basically duplicated the earlier performance, allowing a leadoff single to Kole Calhoun, but then setting down 20 of the next 22 in order, with the others being walks. That's seven innings of one-hit ball. And no pitcher in Astros history-- not Clemens, not even Nolan Ryan-- had put up two such games (7+ IP, ≤ 1 hit) in a three-start span. Ryan is one of just four Astros to do it twice in a season; Verlander gets added to that club with Roy Oswalt (2008) and Pete Harnisch (1993).

We actually expected it to take quite a while to find the last pitcher to duplicate Verlander's coincidence of the lone hit in both games being by the leadoff man. It didn't. The last pitcher to have two outings of 7+ IP and exactly one hit, where the hit led off the game, was Shelby Miller for the Cardinals in 2013.

The Angels have been held to two hits as a team four times this season. Three of those are against Houston. Two of them are against Verlander (Mike Fiers, June 10).

And one additional quirk about Friday's game... Angels starter Garrett Richards also threw one-hit ball for six innings before Yusmeiro Petit lost the dueling shutouts in the 7th. That made it just the second game in the past 20 years where both starters went at least six innings while allowing one hit and no runs. The other was the Padres' combined near-no-hitter against the Dodgers on July 9, 2011.


Snakes On A Plain

There were a lot of very big numbers posted in Arizona this summer, but as summer turned to fall this week, we found ourselves watching a different type of big number. In the final game of their series in San Diego on Wednesday, the Diamondbacks unleashed 13 runs on the Padres, their most ever scored in San Diego (either stadium). That was despite Hunter Renfroe hitting three home runs, including a leadoff one in the bottom of the 9th to turn a 13-6 score into a 13-7 score. Renfroe became the first player in Padres history-- and first in the majors this season-- to hit three homers in a loss, and it was his third time this season hitting two homers in a loss. That tied the Padres record for such a thing; Nate Colbert also did it three times in 1970.

The Diamondbacks then made the long, hot trek across the desert (this is completely false; at the very least they took some cushy air-conditioned buses if not a private plane) back to Phoenix where they awaited a weekend visit by the Marlins. Miami starter Adam Conley probably could have waited another day; in Friday's opener he gave up seven runs while recording just five outs. That matched his "performance" from an April 28 game against Pittsburgh; Chris Hammond in 1996 is the only other Marlins pitcher to have two such games in a season.

Amazingly, however, he wasn't alone. The Marlins had tied the game by the middle of the 3rd inning and took the lead in the 4th when Marcell Ozuna launched his second homer of the game (already). That knocked Zack Greinke off the hill and earned him his third Arizona start allowing eight earned runs including three homers. No other Diamondbacks pitcher has even done it twice.

However, Greinke would become the first Arizona pitcher to give up 8 ER and 3 HR and not lose the game when the Diamondbacks rallied for five runs in the 6th. Four of those runs came on a grand slam by Chris Iannetta, which would be interesting enough, except that Iannetta also had a three-run homer off of Conley back in the 1st. No player in the D'backs' 20-year history had ever hit a grand slam and a three-run bomb in the same game, and Iannetta would finish with eight RBIs, second in team history only to Erubiel Durazo's 9-RBI game against the Phillies on May 17, 2002.

By the time this slugfest ended it was a 13-11 Arizona victory, just the sixth time in Marlins history they had scored 11 and lost (last July 3, 2012, at Milwaukee), and the third time the Diamondbacks had scored 13+ in back-to-back games. They did it in August 2015 against the Phillies and September 2001 against the Brewers, but never against different opponents.

Scroll ahead to the middle game of the series on Saturday. This time Miami takes advantage of four Arizona errors, hangs five unearned runs, and wins another mini-slugfest 12-6. That made it the Marlins' first time scoring in double digits in back-to-back games since the first week of the 2008 season (!), the longest drought in the majors by over two years. Their only other time scoring consecutive 11's was against two different opponents, the Astros and Braves on May 12-13, 1997.

Although a little bit of everyone got involved, Giancarlo Stanton-- who hit his 57th homer to extend his own team record and keep us talking about asterisks for another day or two-- and Justin Bour each recorded three hits, a home run, and four RBIs, becoming the first set of Marlins teammates ever to do so in the same game.

And speaking of everyone getting involved, Sunday's series finale featured Marlins starter Dan Straily hitting his first career double, followed the next inning by D'backs starter Patrick Corbin breaking up Straily's no-hitter (okay, it's the 3rd inning, but) with his third career triple. He joins Brian Anderson as the only pitchers in Arizona history to have three three-baggers. And that is not the Brian Anderson who played third base for the Marlins in this same series. Sunday's game was the first where one starting pitcher doubled, and the other tripled, since Orel Hershiser and Jamey Wright traded those hits on September 11, 1998.


Because Baseball

We always say that the beauty of baseball is that you start with 81 blank scoresheet squares and never quite know what's going to go in them. So depending on whether you went to Rogers Centre on Wednesday or Thursday,....

(Major League Baseball Advanced Media)
That first game very nearly became our first 15-4 score of the season until Kelvin Herrera gave up a solo homer in the 9th. (Had there been a runner on, it would also have been our first 15-6, but oh well.) Every Royals starter had at least one hit and one run scored, the second time they've pulled that off this month (September 6 at Detroit). Only five times in their history have they had two such games in a season, the previous of those being 2004 (also 1982, 1980, 1976). And the 15 runs were the Royals' most ever scored at SkyDome/Rogers, breaking the 14-2 they laid on the Jays to take a 3-1 lead in the 2015 ALCS. Their only Canadian game with more runs scored was a 16-12 win at Exhibition Stadium on August 6, 1979.

Whit Merrifield became the first Royal with three hits, three runs scored, and two stolen bases since Angel Berroa did it in Cleveland on September 16, 2003, but it was Mike Moustakas who grabbed the headlines by cranking his 37th home run of the season. Compared to Stanton and Judge and the MLB single-season record of 5,693 homers having been broken the night before (by Alex Gordon, no less), that's not a huge headline-grabber. But it broke Steve Balboni's team record of 36 homers; the Royals are famously the only team never to have a player hit 40 in a season. He's still stuck on 37 with a week to go.

Thursday's one run came in the 3rd inning when Gordon walked, Lorenzo Cain singled, and then Melky Cabrera's two out base knock scored Gordon. Melky, of course, was caught stealing three pitches later to end the inning, but he would go on to become the fourth player in Royals history to have three hits and the RBI in a 1-0 victory. Alcides Escobar did it earlier this year (April 16 vs Angels), and the others are "only" George Brett (July 11, 1985, at Cleveland) and Hal McRae (July 9, 1976, at Detroit).

Kansas City had never dropped 15 runs in one game, and then won a 1-0 contest in their next game, before this week; in fact the Jays were the last team to pull that off (August 7-8, 2010). And the Royals had posted only other 1-0 win over Toronto in the 41 seasons that both teams have existed. That was at Kauffman Stadium before it was called Kauffman Stadium. Jorge Orta's pinch-hit double in the 8th was the deciding factor on April 12, 1986.


Minor-League Minute

Because balks make everything funner. Not only did this force extra innings, and the extra innings force a Game 5, but that Game 5 got postponed another day by rain, and not only did Wichita lose that game (and the title), they lost it badly. But at least both teams got to celebrate.

Note: The Kernels Rules Desk thinks there might have been potential for a protest here. The balk wasn't signaled until after the out was recorded. One of our most favorite rules is that a balk can be declined (usually in the case where the offense gets a hit anyway), and thus it's still supposed to be called immediately. One thing to note, however, is that the catcher does not join the dogpile, so it's possible that the umpire did verbalize it during the pitch, which you can't tell from the video. We also didn't see an actual balk, but that part's not protestable.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Jed Lowrie, Tuesday: First Athletics batter to hit go-ahead grand slam with team down 3 in 8th inning or later since Eddie Joost's walkoff against the Browns' Satchel Paige on July 15, 1952.

⋅ Scooter Gennett, Friday: First Reds player to hit grand slam as fourth batter of a home game since Ted Kluszewski vs Braves, September 18, 1949.

⋅ Dodgers, Wednesday: First game with a pinch-hit triple (Chase Utley) and a pinch-hit double (Enrique Hernandez) since May 7, 1991 at Mets (Stan Javier & Gary Carter respectively).

⋅ Twins, Sunday: Scored 10 runs in Detroit for fifth time this season (third this series). Ties team record for most double-digit road games at same opponent in one season (1936 at Browns).

⋅ Adam Frazier, Wednesday: Second player in Pirates history with a triple, a walkoff homer, and 4 RBI. Infielder Gus Suhr did it against the Cardinals on April 23, 1932.

⋅ David Price, Friday: First Red Sox relief pitcher to get a base hit on offense (excluding position players) since Spaceman Bill Lee on September 27, 1972.

⋅ Francisco Lindor, Wed-Thu: First Clevelander to hit a go-ahead homer in the 5th inning or later of back-to-back games since Richie Sexson, August 29-30, 1998.

⋅ Dioner Navarro, Saturday: First Tiger to homer twice in a game he didn't start since Kirk Gibson against the Twins on May 28, 1994.

⋅ Rays, Tuesday: First time in team history that they were one-hit, and the one hit was a homer. Leaves the Padres as the only current team never to have that happen.

⋅ Phillies/Braves, Sunday: First game where both leadoff batters had three hits, but teams combined to score only two runs, since Pirates defeated Reds 1-0 on July 4, 1949. We told you they just want to go home.


Did You Know?
"Monk" Dubiel didn't get his nickname because he was really quiet and studious and/or randomly chanted Bible verses in Latin during infield drills. It's apparently because when he first got to the big leagues, the team accidentally issued him a uniform that was too small and reminded his teammates of an organ-grinder's monkey.

Your Call Is Important To Us

You may know 2-1-1 as the phone number to access local support services like housing, addiction treatment, and disaster assistance. (Some big cities also have 311 for non-emergency things like roadkill and noise complaints, but it's not universal.) On Monday night, even us baseball night owls needed some support (thanks, Twitter!) when the Giants decided to start their game, between raindrops, at 7:57 pm and the umpires decided to stop it at 7:58.

This has always been an interesting rules quirk. The home team gets to decide if it starts. The umpires get to decide if it continues.
It's also not the first time this has happened recently. The Nationals and Padres (May 14, 2015) were the last to have a rain delay after one batter, and Reds at Orioles (September 2, 2014) had both a pregame rain delay and another stoppage during the second batter of the game. The Pirates a few years ago had a game delayed twice in the 1st inning.

But the real weirdness started when, instead of wiping out Curtis Granderson's strikeout and just playing two the next day, the Giants waited nearly three more hours.

Just as the last other game in the majors (Arizona) ended at 10:20 pm, we got this, blaming the nebulous "MLB officials" because it was the last Giants/Dodgers series of the year.

Chris Stratton, whom we would not blame were he home and asleep by this point, wasn't about to return after a 3-hour delay, and thus became the first Giants starter to face exactly one batter since Trevor Wilson against the Cubs on August 12, 1995. Wilson, coming off shoulder surgery the season before, re-strained his "left posterior rotator cuff" and took himself out after only four pitches. On the up side, Bruce Bochy was able to sub in lefty Ty Blach and force the Dodgers to go to their bench, reminiscent of a famous Padres trick in 1971.

It appeared we were already destined for the latest finish in San Francisco baseball history, which had been 1:25 am on June 21 (actually 22), 1983. That was a 16-inning loss to the Reds in which the teams traded runs in the 14th. (Hold that thought, Red Sox fans.) Since AT&T Park opened, its latest clock time had been 1:10 am on May 29 (30), 2001, a game that was scoreless through 17 innings before Erubiel Durazo gave the Diamondbacks a 1-0 win. There hasn't been a longer 1-0 game in the majors since then.

Thanks to a bunch of pitching changes in the 4th and 5th innings, the game didn't become official until Denard Span singled in the go-ahead run at 12:36 am. The bad news is that the last BART train to the East Bay had already left four minutes before that. (We road-trippers do appreciate New York and Chicago for having 24-hour subways.)

Now remember, these are all Pacific times. On the East Coast it's already nearing 4 am. The latest finish in MLB history, in local time, still belongs to the Phillies, who finished a rain-delayed doubleheader at 4:40 am on July 2 (3), 1993. The famous Rick Camp Game in Atlanta on July 4, 1985, ended at 3:55 (and they famously shot off the Independence Day fireworks at 4:15), but again, that's Eastern Time. We know we're blowing through the San Francisco record at this point, but what about "ever"?

Happily, we don't have to worry about really old history since there weren't any lights. And the American League had a curfew for many years, even with the lights. Extensive research on this topic has been done by Phil Lowry of SABR, whose first major-league game in 1963 was a doubleheader that had rain delays and extra innings and ended at 2:30 am. That led him to a lifetime of research and an entire book on the subject which we reference often. And we have our own compilation of all the data since the book came out.

Our "favorite" from recent years has been the Cardinals game from May 30, 2013, in which the Royals took the lead in the top of the 9th, the umpires did not want to call the game and have it revert back without allowing the Cardinals to bat, so they waited over 4½ hours. It took about 9 minutes to play the bottom of the 9th, finally ending at 3:14 am. (We always remember it as "314 in the 314, since that's the original St. Louis area code. The same weather system hit Cleveland the next day and rain-delayed the end of their game until 2:53.)

The Padres had a game in 2011 with four rain delays before it was finally suspended at 1:38 am. That's 4:38 Eastern. But only one other game in MLB history has made it past 5 am Eastern Time, and that was also in San Diego. On September 24 (25), 1971, the Padres had a doubleheader with the Astros and the first game went 21 innings before being won on a balk. Padres starter Clay Kirby threw 232 pitches over 15 frames. The second game started at midnight, was delayed briefly by "morning fog", and when it had cleared just enough to resume, Jim Wynn immediately lost the first ball in the fog for a walkoff win. The official end time on that one was 2:29 am.

Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, the teams were scaring us with a 6-6 tie before Hunter Pence's RBI single gave the Giants the lead in the 6th and Buster Posey added an insurance run in the 7th. But it still took nearly 3½ hours of just playing time. And having lost their previous 10 games, the Dodgers gave us the handy mnemonic "L11 at 2:11"-- breaking the San Francisco mark by 46 minutes and missing the adjusted major-league one by 18.

With the game ending at 2:11, and it being about a 15-minute walk to The Embarcadero, the next BART train is in roughly an hour and 45 minutes.

And hey, unlike St. Louis, at least we didn't make it to San Francisco's original area code... which was 415.


For Cleveland, Press 22

Cleveland has been making a bunch of sports history the last few years, and for once it's the good kind. (Years ago we attended a tongue-in-cheek "Salute To Cleveland Sports" theme day at the Lake County (Ohio) Captains, and they reenacted a bunch of "historic moments" with the ending changed and their team actually winning.) So it was that the Indians started the week already in a tie for the longest winning streak in Cleveland pro sports history, matching the 18 wins from the NFL's Browns at the end of 1947 and through their undefeated 1948 campaign.

Win number 19 was an 11-0 shutout of the Tigers on Monday, their biggest against Detroit since May 29, 1954. (That season turned out, well, not ideal, but pretty good.) It was also their fourth double-digit shutout of the season, tying the Indians' record for a single season. The other time they had four such wins? 1902!

Win number 20 was another shutout of the Tigers, although this time only by a 2-0 count. The Indians hadn't blanked Detroit by any score in consecutive games of the same series since June 22 and 23, 1968 (Luis Tiant pitched the latter game), but once again, the Tigers made out okay that season.

Corey Kluber pitched his own shutout on Tuesday, striking out eight and walking zero. No Clevelander had thrown such a game since... Corey Kluber against the Orioles on June 19. That made him the Indians' first pitcher in (at least) the live-ball era with a pair of 0-BB, 8-K individual shutouts in the same season.

And of course, history (with an asterisk?) was made on Thursday when the Indians rallied for a tying double in the 9th and Jay Bruce walked it off in the 10th. Jose Ramirez, who scored that winning run, doubled to lead off the inning, his 50th two-bagger of the year. His is the first 50-double season by a Clevelander since Grady Sizemore in 2006. Only one other Indians hitter (Albert Belle in 1995) had done it since World War II. Ramirez's 13 games this season with multiple extra-base hits (he also doubled in the 8th) are the most since Sizemore in 2008.

Much has been made of the 1916 Giants and their streak of 27 games without a loss. But that was two mini-streaks of 12 wins, a tie, and then 14 more wins. In those days before lights and tarps and finishes at 2:11 am, most teams would have several ties per season; the statistics from those games all counted, but the game would be replayed later in the season such that each team still ended up with 154 decisions. Those 1916 Giants actually played 155 games, ending up 86-66-3 with two of the games not replayed (a tie with Boston during the final series, and a rainout with Cincinnati in their final scheduled game).

The practice of replaying the ties actually held until 2007 when MLB revised the rules about suspended games; instead of throwing out the 5+ innings that have already been played, the game just gets continued prior to the next scheduled game between the teams. The only remaining exception is for the final game of a season between two teams; this is actually what happened last year between the Cubs and Pirates. And as it relates to the winning streak, and whether a tie game "exists" or not?, well, Pittsburgh did not issue refunds last fall, nor free tickets to a non-existent makeup game, because five innings had been played and thus "the game counts". That's good enough for us. Follow the money. Congratulations Cleveland. :)

And by the way, those 1948 Browns? They tied their first game of 1949 and then won four more. So what's their streak?


For Chicago, Press 17

In a week that brought us a whole lot of low-scoring, uninteresting games (looking at you, AL West), the Mets were kind enough to give up 17 runs to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, including a 7-run 8th to make the score look even more ridiculous. That was after Joe Maddon had already cleared the September bench, and it meant that Albert Almora hit a 3-run homer in the 7th and then a bases-loaded triple in that unnecessary bottom of the 8th. That made him the first player (for any team) with a homer, a triple, and 6 RBI at Wrigley Field since Sammy Sosa did it against the Padres on May 16, 1997. And since RBI became official in 1920, only one other Cubs player recorded six of them in a game he didn't start. On August 26, 1925, Mandy Brooks replaced CF Tommy Griffith in the 3rd inning of a game against the Phillies and went 2-for-5 with a grand slam in a 19-10 slugfest. (We could find no info on why Griffith left the game, but the 35-year-old started just two more games after that and retired at the end of the season.)

Elsewhere in Wednesday's box score, Ben Zobrist and Kris Bryant combined for five hits, four walks, and eight runs scored, setting another Wrigley Field first. Only twice before since 1913 had the Cubs' number-one and -two hitters both reached base four times and scored four times in the same game, and the others were both on the road-- and both against the Braves, as it turns out. Tom Goodwin and Mark Grudzielanek did it in Atlanta on July 21, 2003; and Stan Hack and Don Johnson turned the trick in Boston on July 3, 1945.

Down at the bottom of the box we find Javier Baez, who also chipped in four hits and three runs scored. From the "fun with future managers" file, the last Cub to do that batting either 8th or 9th was Joe Girardi at San Diego on August 4, 2000. And the last 8 or 9 to do it at Wrigley Field was Larry Bowa, also against the Mets, on September 25, 1983.

Apparently the White Sox, who had a day game in Detroit on Thursday, saw last night's Cubs score in the morning paper and said, hold my beer. They piled up 17 runs on 25 hits, and Ian Kinsler's homer in the bottom of the 9th destroyed our chance at having 17-5 scores on back-to-back days for the first time ever. However, the 17-7 final was the exact opposite of the White Sox' 17-7 loss at Texas on August 19; they are only the second team in history to be on both sides of that exact score in the same season. The other was "only" the 1889 Louisville (Ky.) Colonels.

22-year-old Yoan Moncada is the first line to catch your eye; he collected four hits and scored five of those 17 runs. The last White Sock to post that line, at any age, was Tim Raines at Fenway Park on April 18, 1994. And throwing out the four hits for the moment, Moncada became the second-youngest player in the live-ball era to score five runs in a game. Garry Templeton of the Cardinals did it on April 27, 1977, about a month after turning 21.

At the risk of burying the lead, scroll down to Avisail Garcia's line. That would be "only" 5-for-5 with seven RBIs (and not even a grand slam involved). Carl Reynolds, at the Yankees, on July 2, 1930, is the only other player in Sox history to post such a line, but oddly Garcia is already the fourth to do it in the majors this season. Anthony Rendon, Scooter Gennett (the 4-HR game), and Nolan Arenado also had 5-hit, 7-RBI games, marking the most ever in a single season (1987 had three).

Your move, Cubs. Back at Wrigley for the Thursday night series finale with the Mets, they dumped 14 more runs on the New Yorkers, their first time scoring 14 in back-to-back games against the same opponent since sweeping a doubleheader from the Braves on May 21, 1944, by scores of 15-1 and 14-5. And Thursday thus marked the first time in history (which for this purpose goes to 1901) that the Cubs and White Sox had each scored at least 14 runs on the same day.


Intermission
Somebody call 911. (Note: We do not condone doing this except in case of an actual emergency.


Our Menu Options Have Changed
(or, For Chicago, Now Press 1)

Perhaps the White Sox should have banked some of those hits for Sunday. Even one or two would have been plenty. In their series finale back in Detroit, Matt Boyd retired the first eight Sox hitters before walking number-nine hitter Michael Brantley. The Tigers did their own version of piling up runs, scoring in their first six turns to burst out to a 9-0 lead. And it was almost like they never left the on-deck circle. Boyd got through innings 4 through 7 on 49 pitches and retired all 12 White Sox batters. If you're following along, you know what's happening here. The Tigers finally failed to score in the 7th, but a 1-2-3 top of the 8th set up Boyd's chance at history. Which had to wait while Jeimer Candelario cranked a 3-run homer to make it 12-0.

Adam Engel fouls out to start the 9th. Pinch hitter Kevan Smith replaces Rob Brantly (the only batter to reach, if you've noticed) and he grounds to second. Leadoff batter Tim Anderson cranks a 2-0 pitch down the right-field line.

Watching only the text version of this, we assumed the subsequent "coaching visit to mound" would involve Boyd's removal, but Brad Ausmus left him in to get the final out and the prestigious SHO-1. It's just the third this season (Dylan Bundy and Ervin Santana have the others), and the first by a Tiger since Justin Verlander just missed his third no-hitter on August 26, 2015, against the Angels.

The last Tigers pitcher to lose a no-hitter with 2 outs in the 9th was Jim Joyce on June 2, 2010. No wait, we're sorry, that's Armando Galarraga; it's the infamous game where umpire Jim Joyce admitted to missing the call on Jason Donald's grounder to second that would have completed the perfect game. The last Detroiter to lose a non-perfect no-hitter after 8⅔ was Walt Terrell against the Angels on August 20, 1986. And the last Tiger to throw an SHO-1 and have the team win by 12 runs was back on April 26, 1952, when Art Houtteman also lost a no-hitter with two outs in the 9th on a single by Cleveland's Harry Simpson. Detroit still won that contest 13-0.


For Boston, Press 15

Trailing 5-2 going to the 9th, Boston rallied for three runs without an extra-base hit to tie the game, and then promptly stranded two go-ahead runs to send us to extras. They had two runners on in the 11th and 12th, a replay review of a tag at the plate took another go-ahead run off the board, and finally with two more runners in the 14th, Rafael Devers singled home Mookie Betts for a 6-5 lead. Let's go home, it's already after midnight.

Mmmm, nope. You know how the guy who made the great play last inning, always leads off the next inning? Kiermaier, who had gunned down Mitch Moreland trying to go first-to-third on that same RBI single, deposited the third pitch of B14 into the right-field seats. It's now 6-6. His was the first-ever tying (not walkoff) homer in Rays history in the 14th inning or later; one Bob Smith (which may or may not be his real name) hit one in the 13th against the Orioles on April 19, 2002.

So okay, if one run isn't enough, let's see if seven will do. The Red Sox batted around, combining five hits, a walk, a hit batter, and two errors (it's now 1 a.m.) to suddenly be up 13-6. Finally the Rays gave in and did nothing in their half aside from a meaningless Corey Dickerson single.

The seven was the most runs the Red Sox had ever scored in an inning numbered 15 or higher. Their previous high had been a 5-run 16th against the Indians on July 28, 1951, and that was a home game! After surrendering an RBI single to Larry Doby in the top of the 16th, Ted Williams tied it with a double to score Johnny Pesky, and then Clyde Vollmer hit a walk-off grand slam off none other than Bob Feller. No, Feller didn't pitch a 15⅔-inning complete-game loss, although he probably wanted to; he came on in relief two innings earlier, replacing our old friend Snuffy Stirnweiss who had pinch-hit in the 14th.

The last time any team posted a 7 in the 15th or beyond was on July 3, 1993, in a game that still holds the record for scoring in any extra inning. The Rangers sent 16 batters to the plate against the Athletics and won a 16-4 contest that had been tied 4-4 after regulation. Needless to say, Oakland went 1-2-3 in the bottom half.

And since Tropicana Field doesn't have to worry about long rain delays (although once in a while the lights do go out there), Friday's 1:15 am final out was the fourth-latest finish in that stadium's history. They played an 18-inning game with the Orioles on September 20, 2013, that ended on a walkoff at 2:05 am. The two in between were a 16-inning game in 2011, and Game 2 of the 2008 ALCS which "only" went 11 innings but also didn't start until nearly 8:30 because of national TV. Those games, like Friday, were both against the Red Sox as well.

All told, the Red Sox collected 21 base hits, with only Moreland's 4th-inning solo shot leaving the yard. That hadn't happened since July 17, 1997, when Mo Vaughn hit the only homer out of 21 Boston hits in a 12-9 win over Baltimore. Xander Bogaerts chipped in four hits, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, making him the first Red Sox leadoff batter to reach base six times in a game-- any game, of any length-- since Wade Boggs did it against Oakland in an 11-10 festival on July 31, 1991.

And as we say around here, there's always one guy left out. Here's Dustin Pedroia's night: Grounder to the pitcher, fly to right, fly to center, fly to right, strikeout, liner to short, strikeout, reached on error, groundout to second to end that 7-run 15th. That's 0-for-9 if you're counting along. And he was the DH so he didn't even get to make any spectacular plays on defense. The only other Red Sock in the live-ball era to draw an 0-for-9 was Trot Nixon, who did so in a 19-inning loss to the White Sox on July 9, 2006. However, Pedroia managed to score a run after that reached-on-error play in the 15th. And only one other player in the live-ball era has pulled that off, for any team. Danny Thompson of the Twins went 0-for-10 but reached on a fielder's choice and scored in a 22-inning affair against the Brewers on May 12, 1972.


For the Bronx, Please Hang Up And Dial Queens

Among the impacts from Hurricane Irma was the pre-emptive moving of last week's Yankees/Rays series. Although several stadiums were offered as possible sites, MLB went with Citi Field in Queens since that meant only one team would have to travel instead of both. It was still a Rays home series, however; the only other "neutral site" game so far this year has been the Reds/Pirates Little League special at Bowman Field in Williamsport.

Kevin Kiermaier opened Tuesday's game with a leadoff home run, the first one ever hit by a Rays player in Queens. He then went deep again on Wednesday to become the first Ray with multiple homers in that fine borough. Neither of these is terribly impressive since Tampa Bay has only visited the Mets nine teams. But the Yankees visit the Mets every year (and vice versa). So it was a little surprising to find out that the Yankees hadn't given up a leadoff homer in Flushing since July 6, 1975. On that occasion they were the home team; it was the two years where they borrowed Shea during Yankee Stadium renovations. Chris Singleton of the Orioles was the one who hit it.

Meanwhile, Adeiny Hechavarria's homer on Tuesday made him the first player in Rays history to complete the career cycle in Queens. He had the single, double, and triple on Monday, and in so doing, became the first Ray to go 1B-2B-3B in a loss twice in the same season. He pulled if off from the ninth spot in the order at Chicago on September 3.


For San Diego, Press 0

Not even operator assistance could help the Padres this week. On Monday they went to Target Field and not only failed to score a run, but gave up sixteen of them. It was the third-largest shutout loss since the Padres got elevated to major-league status in 1969... and the others were both in 1969. They dropped a 19-0 to the Cubs on May 13 of the year, and then duplicated that "feat" against the Dodgers on June 28.

As for the Twins, Tuesday's game would have tied for their biggest shutout win in team history... except for the 17-0 score they dropped on the Royals 10 days earlier. No team in the majors had posted two shutouts that large in the same month since the Cardinals did it in June 1944. (And hey, their season turned out okay.)

Former New Britain Rock Cat Brian Dozier got the damage started early when he hit his eighth leadoff homer of the season, one behind George Springer for the major-league lead. It's also the most by a Twins player since Jacque Jones led the majors with 11 in 2002.

Then on Saturday the Padres went to Coors Field in Denver, which is famous for 16-run outbursts due to its altitude. One team had such an outburst... and the other was the Padres, who were no-hit by Tyler Anderson until Manuel Margot dribbled a ground ball "about nine or ten feet" in front of the plate, according to Rockies radio, and beat it out for an infield single. The Padres would finish with only three hits-- two of them in that inning-- and another 16-0 defeat, just five days after the first one.

Only five teams in MLB history have been on the wrong end of two 16-0 (or worse) shutouts in the same season, and none of them's done it in five days. We just mentioned one of the others... the Padres in their inaugural season of 1969. The others were the 1990 Red Sox and two 19th-century teams: The 1886 Brooklyn Grays (now the Dodgers) and the Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs), in the National League's first season of 1876.

On the Rockies' side of Saturday's game, they were already up 12-0 behind a home run and 4 RBI from Charlie Blackmon, so yeah, let's rest some starters and get that 40-player September roster involved. Enter Former New Britain Rock Cat Pat Valaika, pinch-hitting for Blackmon with the bases loaded in the 7th. Boom. The final 16-0 in grand-slam form. Valaika thus became the first player in at least the live-ball era-- and probably ever, though we haven't been able to prove that yet-- to crank a pinch-hit grand slam with his team already leading by 12 runs. And since RBI became official in 1920, he and Blackmon are the first teammates to each have a home run and 4 RBI out of the leadoff spot in the same game.

Only once before had the Rockies gotten 8 RBI from the leadoff spot, and that was on September 23, 2003, when Ronnie Belliard did it by himself in a 20-9 win over the Diamondbacks. And the 16-0 final was the largest shutout win in Rockies history, topping a 13-0 score against the Marlins... from exactly a decade earlier, to the day (September 16, 2007).

And while the Padres did succeed in scoring a run in Wednesday's game, they got walked off by another Former New Britain Rock Cat, Eddie Rosario, when he homered in the bottom of the 10th. It was the Twins' first walkoff hit (any value) in extra innings this season, leaving the Rockies, Tigers, and Royals still without one. And it was just the third extra-inning walkoff homer in Twins/Senators history against a National League opponent. The aforementioned Brian Dozier beat the Marlins with one last year, and the first was by Kirby Puckett in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series against Atlanta. That homer, of course, forced what has been called the greatest World Series game in baseball history.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Mookie Betts, Tuesday: First player for any team to hit two homers and a triple at Fenway Park since Dwight Evans did it against the Tigers on August 13, 1988.

⋅ Reds, Sat-Sun: First time in (at least) live-ball era that team has had four or fewer hits in consecutive games and won both of them.

⋅ Daniel Mengden, Friday: First visiting pitcher to throw an SHO-2 with no walks in Philadelphia since Jeff Fassero for the Expos on June 29, 1996.

⋅ Alen Hanson & Tim Anderson, Saturday: First White Sox teammates to each reach base four times and have two steals in same game since Julio Cruz and John Cangelosi at Minnesota, June 18, 1986.

⋅ Freddie Freeman, Tuesday: First player in Braves history to collect 3 hits and 3 RBI (official since 1920) on his birthday. Rays are only team left that's never had a player do it (though the Dodgers do go back to Duke Snider in the Brooklyn days).

⋅ Eddie Rosario, Sunday: Fourth multi-homer game this year, all at Target Field. Last Twins batter with four such home games in a season was Harmon Killebrew at Metropolitan Stadium in 1966.

⋅ Didi Gregorius, Saturday: 10th Yankee this season with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI in a game. Six of those have been against Baltimore. Most such games for Yankees as a team since 1939.

⋅ Matt Kemp, Wednesday: Second player in Braves history (1876) to hit a grand slam in Washington. Herman Long did it against the old National League Senators on April 12, 1892.

⋅ Justin Upton, Saturday: Seventh player in Angels history to hit multiple solo homers accounting for all the team's runs in a game. Second to do it in a win, joining Vlad Guerrero against the Marlins on June 18, 2005.

⋅ Matt Carpenter, Tuesday: First Cardinals leadoff batter to draw four walks in a game since Bobby Bonds at Montréal, June 8, 1980. First to also have a base hit since Lou Brock in 1974.


Did You Know?
One of the most famous phone numbers is actually still in service in many areas. Two plumbing companies waged a court battle over it, and we remember seeing the 201 version on billboards back when a New Jersey DJ had it for his business. But who else except Joe Maddon could shoehorn it into a lineup card?

And it was a completely-unrelated tweet earlier this week that got us to look up that three players this century have played all those positions-- and only those positions-- in the same season. (The DH is position "0" for this purpose, as it is in some scoring software.) They were Kris Bryant last year, Brian Bixler of the Nationals in 2011, and Clay Bellinger for the Yankees in 2001.

Every Day Of The Week

Unlike the NFL which is primarly concentrated on Sundays, and the NBA and NHL where teams average a game about every other day, MLB is an everyday grind for nigh on six months (seven if you count spring training), pausing only for a four-day All-Star break in July. And that means something different and wacky can happen on absolutely any given day. This happened to be one of those weeks where a different wacky thing seemed to happen on every day.


Monday: Holiday. Celebration.

Last Sunday night Matt Holliday went deep as the Yankees rolled over Boston 9-3 in the teams' final meeting of the year (until the ALCS, of course ☺). We made the joke on Twitter that Holliday really needed to homer on Monday to complete his slate of, well, holidays. He did not in fact homer on Monday. But J.D. Martinez of the Diamondbacks did. Martinez made it 2-0 Arizona in the 4th inning, and was largely forgotten while Robbie Ray perfect-gamed the Dodgers through 5 innings. Logan Forsythe finally shot that down with a leadoff single in the 6th, after which Martinez homered again in the 7th. And the 8th as the D'backs sent 14 batters to the plate, scoring seven times, in those two innings. He was thus due up fifth in the 9th in a game that Arizona was already leading 9-0. There's no way... right?...

Of course two of the first three batters reach, A.J. Pollock singles them both in to make it 11-0, and Martinez adds his name to the history books. Of the eighteen players to hit four home runs in a game, Martinez is actually the first one to do it in a game where his team shut out the opponent (by any score, to say nothing of 13-0). It's also the first time there have ever been two 4-HR games in the same season; Scooter Gennett memorably did it in June.

It was the first time the feat had been accomplished at Dodger Stadium, and no other visiting player had even hit four homers there so far this season. Combined with Adam Rosales and Brandon Drury, the Diamondbacks became only the second visiting team in the 55-year history of Dodger Stadium to hit six home runs in a game there; the Reds did it on August 2, 2001 (Dmitri Young and Jason LaRue each hit two). And for what it's worth, in the 4853-game history at Chavez Ravine (including those early Angels years), the home team's only done it four times.

Speaking of Brandon Drury, he had his own big game on June 21 when he collected four hits and six RBIs in a 16-5 thumping of the Rockies at Coors Field. Ignoring the base value of each hit, he and Martinez make just the second pair of Diamondbacks in team history to have a 4-hit, 6-RBI game in the same season. Erubiel Durazo and Chad Moeller each did it during the 2002 campaign.

And hey, remember Robbie Ray's perfect game? Obviously it ended, but he wound up recording 14 strikeouts and 0 walks before departing with two outs in the 8th. Only three pitchers in Diamondbacks history have ever thrown a 14-K game, and the other two (of course) are Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Johnson, on July 25, 2004, is the only other pitcher in team history to fan 14, walk 0, and not give up a run. And that wasn't his perfect game (which happened about two months earlier); in fact, Randy Choate pitched the 9th, blew the save, and Arizona actually lost that game 3-2.


Tuesday: Hey Nineteen
(R.I.P. Walter Becker. You certainly did reel in the years. It's a shame you can't go back, Jack, and do it again.)

Personally we were in Norwich, Conn., at the final home game for the short-season Connecticut Tigers. They won on a 10th-inning walkoff. On the way home we heard the 10th inning of the Red Sox game. Then the 11th. Then the 12th. And now it's getting interesting.

Although the Blue Jays had baserunners in the top of innings 16, 17, 18, and 19, it was the bottom of the 19th-- reliever Chris Rowley's fourth frame-- until Mookie Betts hit a leadoff double and then Hanley Ramirez walked us off in a game that lasted exactly six hours. By inning, it was the latest walkoff in Red Sox history (not just Fenway Park, not that those are much different), topping a game from (really) 90 years earlier to the day. On September 5, 1927, in a Labor Day doubleheader (which was very common then), Ira Flagstead's double with one out in the 18th brought home Buddy Myer to beat the Yankees 12-11. Myer had also doubled; the crowd that day was so large that it overflowed into the outfield and, by the rules of the time, any fair ball rolling under the ropes into the crowd was an automatic two-bagger.

The second game had to be shortened to five innings due to darkness (the "Murderer's Row" Yankees won 5-0).

Technically the rule about an overflow of spectators onto the field still exists.
One person who was not on the playing field at the end of the game was Josh Donaldson. He took exception to a called strike to start the 18th and got tossed in mid-at-bat. Miguel Montero finished it by grounding out. Donaldson became the first person ejected in an 18th inning or later since 1982, in a 21-inning affair at Wrigley Field. The game started on August 17, and was suspended after 17 innings because remember Wrigley didn't have lights until '88. Jay Johnstone and Cubs manager Lee Elia had already been ejected by that point, and when the game resumed the next day, bench coach John Vukovich-- still subbing for Elia-- got thrown as well. However, the "first since" mark goes to Ron Cey and Tommy Lasorda; the former was picked off first in the top of the 20th, bumped the umpire while arguing the call, and then Lasorda, well,...

Pedro Guerrero replaced Cey at third base, and then Fernando Valenzuela actually replaced Guerrero in right field. It was one of just two games in his long career where Valenzuela played any other position (the other was in 1989 at 1B).

For the Jays, meanwhile, it was their second straight season, and third of the last four, playing a 19-inning contest (or longer, though none of them were). Cleveland beat them 2-1 on July 1 of last season, and they walked off against the Tigers on August 10, 2014. Strangely those are the only three 19-inning games in Jays history. They became the first team to lose 19-inning games in consecutive seasons since the 1992-93 Indians, and just the fourth in the live-ball era (Padres 1979-80, Dodgers 1972-73).


Wednesday: Triples and Trifectas

Triples are the least common of all major-league hits; over the weekend we finally got the 700th one of the season out of just over 37,000 base knocks.

Will Middlebrooks of the Rangers decided to make triples a bit more common on Wednesday, and he had two games to do it thanks to a Tuesday rainout in Atlanta. In the day game which was already a 4-3 affair by the 4th inning, he pinch-hit for pitcher Miguel Gonzalez who was at 60 pitches, but with runners on second and third, Jeff Bannister rolled the dice and Middlebrooks came through with a two-run, go-ahead triple. The American League naturally uses fewer pinch hitters since they don't have that pesky pitcher's spot coming around every couple innings, and thus Middlebrooks' was just the third go-ahead pinch-hit triple in Rangers history, regardless of inning. The others were by Matt Treanor in 2010 and Geno Petralli in 1990.

In the nightcap, well, he went back, Jack, and did it again. Rookie Drew Robinson started the night game at 3B, moving Joey Gallo over to 1B and giving Mike Napoli a game off (although he pinch-hit as well), but with Middlebrooks capable of subbing at 3B (which he did), he was sent up to lead off the 6th with the Rangers trailing 5-3 and the pitcher's spot up next. And boom. Pinch-hit triple. He's the leadoff batter, so it wasn't a go-ahead hit this time, but he did score on Cole Hamels' groundout that followed.

Middlebrooks is only the third player in Rangers/Senators history to triple in both games of a doubleheader, joining Larry Parrish in 1983 and Fred Valentine in 1966. But he is the first player in (at least) the live-ball era-- for any team-- to have a pinch-hit triple in both halves of a twinbill.

As for the "trifecta" part of our header, here at Kernels we have a saying that "balks make everything funner". (Yes, we know funner isn't a word. But it's funner that way. Don't @ us.)

Baseball has so many stats that just adding one random thing can turn a note from "meh, that happened last year" to "wow, that last happened in 1952". We try not to do this excessively. But each boxscore has a little section for the possible gaffes by a pitcher: hitting a batter, throwing a wild pitch, and/or committing a balk. Very rarely does the same hurler show up in all three sections, to the point where we call this the Kernels Trifecta. And Tyler Skaggs of the Angels pulled it off on Wednesday.

Skaggs became the second pitcher this year with a wild pitch, a hit batter, and a balk in the same game; Jake Junis of the Royals did it back on June 23. The last Angels pitcher to pull off the trifecta was C.J. Wilson against the Astros on June 23, 2015. When you're that erratic, it's hard to also strike out nine batters, either because they won't swing, or because you don't stay around very long. But Skaggs also did that on Wednesday, making him just the second pitcher in Angels history with the entire line (9 K, WP, HB, BK) in one game. Frank Tanana was the other, against Milwaukee on April 24, 1977.

Forgetting all the other stuff, Skaggs still managed to strike out nine Athletics and lose. Teammates Alex Meyer (June 7) and J.C. Ramirez (April 19) also did that earlier in the year. The last time three Angels pitchers had such a game (9+ K in a loss) in the same season was 1976, by Tanana, Nolan Ryan, and Gary Ross.


Thursday: Thirsty For A Win

That J.D. Martinez four-homer game from Monday was the third straight loss for the Dodgers, which was rare enough in this season where it appeared they would threaten the all-time wins record. As mentioned, that was the first time ever that there had been a 4-HR game in a shutout, but unfortunately the Dodgers missed the memo about scoring runs again. Tuesday's final was 3-1, the lone run being a homer by Yasmani Grandal off former teammate Zack Greinke. Wednesday was also a 3-1 final, and the Rockies dropped a 9-1 on Los Angeles in the start of the weekend series on Thursday. Not only did that take the losing streak up to six (hold that thought), but it marked the first time the Dodgers had been held to 1 run in four straight games at Chavez Ravine since 2009 (June 30 to July 17, interrupted by a road trip and the All-Star break). The asterisk to that is that one of those games was a 1-0 win!

To find the last time the Dodgers lost four straight home games and scored no more than 1 run in each, you must journey back to June 1968. They were swept in a three-game series by the Mets (1-0, 3-0, 2-1), went on an absurd 14-game, four-city road trip, then lost to the Braves 3-0 upon their return. That turns out to be the only other such streak in Dodger Stadium history; the previous such occurrence was at Ebbets Field in 1913!

In Thursday's game Clayton Kershaw had the strange line (especially for him) of giving up four earned runs without finishing the 4th inning, but still striking out seven Rockies hitters (he only got 11 outs to begin with). Since earned runs were first kept by the National League in 1912, only four other Dodgers have done that: Chan Ho Park (2001), Fernando Valenzuela (1982), Don Sutton (1966), and Johnny Podres (1961).

And while the game was already in hand by this point, Edward Paredes was summoned for the 7th, faced four batters, and got none of them out. He was the third Dodgers pitcher this season with that line (4+ BF, 0 IP); the second was on Monday when Pedro Baez gave up the second of J.D. Martinez's four homers. But the first... was on Sunday! Fabio Castillo did it in their 6-4 loss at San Diego. And that made them the first trio of Dodgers pitchers in (at least) the live-ball era to pull that off within the same week.


Intermission
Title of our post is from a 1994 "hit" (it peaked at #20) by the female R&B group Jade, the lyrics to which consist of frequently listing the days of the week. (In case you didn't know them. At least they all rhyme.) Somewhere we have 3 minutes of a mix tape devoted to this.


Friday: Taylor-Made

Michael Taylor of the Nationals still insists on using his middle initial "A." to distinguish him from other major-leaguers named Michael Taylor. (There aren't any.) We insist Taylor can drop that initial after putting his name in the history books on Friday. The 3rd inning started with two walks and an error to load the bases, and then, well, this happened.

"This", if you didn't click on it, is an inside-the-park grand slam when Odubel Herrera mistimed his jump and the ball got all the way to the wall.

It is the second "IGS" (as we score it, not that we've ever seen one in person) in the majors so far this century, and believe it or not, the other one also came at Nationals Park in a game against the Phillies. That was September 25, 2015, when Aaron Altherr lined a ball just in front of a diving CF and it rolled all the way to the wall. That diving Nationals CF? Yep. Michael "A." Taylor.

The Nats/Expos franchise had only hit one other IGS in its history, by Jesús "Bombo" Rivera against the Pirates on June 26, 1976. And then in the 8th inning, Taylor proceeded to hit a triple to score what would prove to be the game-winning run.

The last player to hit an IGS and a triple in the same game? Why, that's none other than Pirates Hall-of-Famer Kiki Cuyler, against the Dodgers (actually the "Robins" that year) on June 20, 1925.

The Phillies rallied back to 11-10 on a Maikel Franco homer in the 9th, but Sean Doolittle struck out three straight to end the game. That marked the first time any Philadelphia team had reached double digits in Washington and lost since a 10-inning, 12-11 win by the old National League Senators on June 22, 1897. (That's one of the teams that got thrown out of the NL the following year and went on to start the "fledgling" American League.)

Taylor wasn't the only one hitting grand slams on Friday either. The Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in Toronto when Nick Castellanos cranked one in the top of the 3rd. He's the first Detroit batter ever to hit a slam at Rogers Centre, even when it was still called SkyDome. Their last one in "the 6" was hit by catcher Matt Nokes at Exhibition Stadium on September 26, 1987, in a game they ended up losing 10-9.

Three innings later the real fun started. Justin Smoak and Kendrys Morales (who seems to come up every week lately) singled with nobody out in the 6th. First and second, no out, always sends up that little flag of, hmm. But it never really ends up as a triple play, now, does it?

Candelario to Kinsler to Navarro doesn't have a ring like Tinker to Evers to Chance, but wham, ((5)-4)-3 TP to end the inning. With that the Tigers turned their first triple play on defense since retiring three Mariners at the same time on August 1, 2001; only the Angels and Cubs (who both had their last in 1997) had gone longer without turning one.

And the combination of GS+TP was something that had been done just six other times in major-league history. The Mets were the previous team to pull it off, on May 17, 2002, against the Padres. (Mike Piazza hit the slam, but the TP involved at least two players you forgot were ever Mets: Edgardo Alfonzo to Roberto Alomar to Mo Vaughn.) And one of those others was the famous unassisted TP by Cleveland's Bill Wambsganss in the 1920 World Series.


Saturday In The Park
(If only Taylor had waited a day, "Saturday Inside-The-Park" would have been so perfect. Sigh.)

Remember our post from a couple weeks ago explaining our "love" of no-hitters, and how a quirky one-hitter is infinitely more fun? (If not, bookmark it for later, shameless plug.) Luis Severino of the Yankees decided to oblige us. After four perfect innings, he walked Joey Gallo to start the 5th, and then Brett Nicholas roped a double down the right-field line to break a scoreless tie. And that would be the only hit for the Rangers the entire day. While the offense was off scoring three runs, Severino allowed another walk in the 6th, but threw a perfect 7th; David Robertson threw a perfect 8th; and Aroldis Chapman closed it out in the 9th.

The Yankees still haven't had a no-hitter since David Cone's perfect game on July 18, 1999, and they are pretty far up there on The List. But they hadn't thrown a one-hitter on the road since June 27, 2009, and that was only across town at Citi Field. Their only other one-hitter against either Texas team (home or road) was by Catfish Hunter on July 31, 1975; Cesar Tovar got the Rangers' lone hit in the bottom of the 6th.

And the weird part? Because it was still 1-1 when Severino came out, he did not get credit for the win despite pitching seven innings of one-hit ball and striking out 10. He's the first Yankee in (at least) the live-ball era to claim that dubious distinction, and just the second this season for any team. The other is Rich Hill-- in the no-hitter-breaking walkoff mentioned at the top of this section.

Meanwhile, over in Chicago, the White Sox were laying a beatdown on the Giants (which hasn't been all that difficult this season), while also recording another of our favorite baseball happenings: the cycle. Jose Abreu turned in the seventh one this season, the most since 2009 matched the record with eight (and there's still three weeks to go!). Four of those seven this season have "needed the triple"-- one of our most hated phrases since hundreds of players do it every year-- and actually gotten it last, in Abreu's case on a two-run job in the bottom of the 8th. It was the first cycle by a White Sock since Jose Valentin did it against Baltimore on April 27, 2000. Chicago "boasted" both the fourth- and fifth-longest droughts without a cycle; the Cubs haven't had one since 1993. The Royals go back to 1990, the Reds to 1989, and the Marlins have never had one.

Abreu's 1st-inning homer would only be the beginning of Saturday's 13-1 thumping. Tim Anderson made it 2-0 in the 2nd with another homer, Yolmer Sanchez went yard in the 4th (5-0), and Avisail Garcia kept the trend going in the 5th (6-0). In the 7th, Yoan Moncada and Nicky Delmonico both homered off Josh Osich, who became the first Giants pitcher to appear in a game, not record an out, and give up two dingers, since Matt Herges at Coors Field on July 18, 2004.

It was the first time in White Sox history that the top five hitters in the order had all gone yard, and just the second time in team history that six different hitters (regardless of position) had homered in one game. The other, naturally, was last year.

As mentioned, Abreu, Anderson, and Sanchez all homered, and Abreu tripled to finish the cycle, but darned if Anderson and Sanchez didn't triple as well. The Sox had recorded three triples in a game just twice in the past 15 years, and one of those was at Coors in July. But the combination of three players all recording a home run and a triple for the same team in the same game, well, that last happened on September 6, 1930! Johnny Frederick, Babe Herman, and Glenn Wright all did it for Brooklyn in a 22-8 win over the Phillies.

Of course Abreu turned right around on Sunday and hit two more homers as the White Sox won again 8-1. In doing so, he became the first player to hit for the cycle in one game, and then hit two homers in the team's very next game, since Sam Chapman of the Philadelphia Athletics did it on May 5 and 6, 1939. Honorable mention to George McQuinn of the St. Louis Browns, who did it on back-to-back days (July 19-20, 1941), but the 19th was a doubleheader and the nightcap was stuck in between (he went 1-for-4).


Sunday Funday Runday

Earlier this year the Nationals inspired us to finally create "the matrix" of all the score combinations in MLB history and when they last happened. Proving that everything's bigger in Texas, the Yankees got in on some big-number fun on Sunday by hanging a 16-7 score on the Rangers, the highest-scoring game of the week (either by one team or combined).

Aaron Judge reached the 40-homer plateau (and then 41 later in the game), while Gary Sanchez also went deep twice to bring his season total to 30. They were the first Yankee teammates to have two homers in the same game in Arlington since Jason Giambi and Tino Martinez did it on July 20, 2005. And while they didn't do it in the same game, the pair created another note alongside two more Yankee legends. Sanchez also doubled, was hit by a pitch, and scored four runs. That matched Judge's 3-XBH, 4-runs-scored game from June 11 against Baltimore. And two different Yankees haven't had such a game in the same season since 1948. That season it was only Joe DiMaggio (May 20) and the great Snuffy Stirnweiss (June 21).

Meanwhile, Didi Gregorius didn't homer on Sunday, but he did collect three singles, a double, and 4 RBIs. Only one other Yankee this year-- Aaron Hicks, June 1 in Toronto-- had a 4-hit, 4-RBI game, but Sir Didi had one gaping hole in his line: He scored zero runs himself. And no Yankee had posted that combination of lines since Nick Johnson in a 10-7 win at Fenway Park on August 30, 2003. Giambi and Bernie Williams, the two batters after him, combined to go 0-for-8.

In these slugfests we always say there's one guy left out. And on Sunday it was Starlin Castro, who went 0-for-6 and was the main source of Gregorius getting stranded all the time (he bats next). It's a little unusual to get six at-bats in a nine-inning game to start with, since it requires at least 19 extra baserunners (a combination of runs scored and left-on-base), but Castro took it one step further by grounding into a double play in the 3rd inning. (He also made an inconsequential error in the 1st, but those are hard to search, so we're letting him slide.) That made him the first Yankee to go 0-for-6, plus a GIDP, in a nine-inning game since none other than Snuffy Stirnweiss again. That was August 14, 1948, in a 14-3 win over the Philadelphia Athletics.

And as for the 16-7 score, our matrix already had that one checked off thanks to Houston's win over Toronto on August 4. But it's the first time there's been two of them in a season since 2006... and the Yankees posted one of those also, a July 2 win against the Mets.



Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Andrew Cashner, Monday: First pitcher in Rangers history (1972) to hit a sacrifice fly. The designated hitter, of course, came the following year and they haven't batted much since. Last for Second Senators: Camilo Pascual on September 5, 1968.

⋅ Josh Reddick, Friday: First player in Astros history to reach base five times and drive in four runs in a game the team ended up losing.

⋅ Anibal Sanchez, Tuesday: First Tigers starter to face just one batter (hit by Whit Merrifield comebacker) since Les Cain on May 28, 1972 (his last MLB game).

⋅ Yolmer Sanchez, Thursday: First player in White Sox history to hit leadoff homer with team already trailing by 4 or more.

⋅ Chase Anderson, Saturday: First Brewers pitcher with 2 hits, 2 RBI, and a run scored in a road game since Bill Parsons at Texas, September 2, 1972.

⋅ Royals, Wednesday: Defeated Tigers 13-2. Since the 2015 All-Star break, Kansas City has won five games by 11 runs or more. All are against the Tigers.

⋅ Athletics, Saturday: First team to score 11+ in both games of doubleheader since Twins at Baltimore, September 13, 2008. Last time A's did it was July 22, 1975, at Detroit.

⋅ Travis Wood, Tuesday: Third pitcher in Padres history to homer at the plate in back-to-back starts, joining Tim Lollar (April 1982) and Mike Corkins (May 1973).

⋅ Nick Williams, Friday: Second Phillies batter ever with a 4-hit, 3-RBI game on his birthday. Other is Joe Morgan, September 19, 1983.

⋅ Rob Brantly, Thursday: First White Sox position player to give up a home run (as a pitcher, obviously) since LF Ernie Carnett at Cleveland, August 25, 1944.

⋅ Jacob deGrom, Sunday: Fifth 10-strikeout game this season where he didn't get a win. Ties Mets' single-season "record" for such a thing; others are Dwight Gooden (1984) and Tom Seaver (1970).

⋅ Braves, Thu-Sat-Sun: First time with three walkoff wins in same series since July 20-21 versus San Diego (21st was a DH). Of their nine walkoff wins this year, five are against the Marlins, their most over one opponent in one season since 1949 (Reds).


Did You Know?
George Stirnweiss got his "Snuffy" nickname following his 1940 promotion to the International League's Newark (N.J.) Bears. (Then, as now, the IL was one level down from the majors.) He had attended the University of North Carolina, played in the minors in Norfolk, Va., and thus "produced an array of tobacco products" upon his arrival in Newark. A teammate remarked that the one product he didn't have was snuff. Stirnweiss tragically died in a train crash in 1958 along what is now an NJTransit commuter line.

Base Two

A mere three decades from now, binary fans the world over will be getting ready to welcome the year 100000000000. If you can't wait until 2048 (or are skeptical that it will even exist), we've got your 1's and 0's right here. Not to mention some "stars".


The Complete Dylan

Dylan Bundy must have read last week's post about one-hitters and said, hey, that looks like fun. Bundy, the Orioles' first-round pick in 2011, had shoulder surgery while trying to come back from elbow surgery and missed 2½ years, but made up for part of that on Tuesday with his first career complete game. And it wasn't just a CG, it was an SHO, and an SHO-1 at that. The lone hit was a 4th-inning bunt by Kyle Seager that Bundy himself ended up fielding.

The Orioles, who of course gave up five runs in nearly every game in June, hadn't even had a CG yet this year, and hadn't had an individual shutout since Miguel Gonzalez on September 3, 2014. That was the longest drought of any team in the majors, an honor which now passes to the Brewers (Kyle Lohse threw their most recent one three weeks later).

Bundy also struck out 12, becoming the second pitcher in Orioles history (1954) to throw an SHO-1 with a dozen K's. Mike Mussina did that against the Twins on August 1, 2000, with current Cubs broadcaster Ron Coomer breaking up the no-hit bid with a 7th-inning single.


Stephen's City

Interstate 66 runs from Washington, D.C., to Strasburg, Va. About 20 miles
before this sign is a place named Stephens City. He seems like a good fit.
[Google Street View, US 522 SB, Front Royal, Va.]
Just down the road in Washington, another top draft pick couldn't just sit by and watch. Stephen Strasburg said, if the number-four pick in 2011 can do it, so can the number-one pick in 2010. On Wednesday he threw just the second complete game of his career; the other was in 2013 and was also a shutout (four-hitter vs Phillies).

Although Strasburg "only" struck out eight, which is exactly his average this season, he did Bundy one better. Thanks to being in the National League, Strasburg got to bat at Nationals Park. And in the 5th inning he broke a scoreless tie with the third home run of his career.

One of those other homers came on May 5 in Philadelphia; Strasburg joins Livan Hernandez in the Nationals' inaugural year (2005) as the only pitchers with two in a season. And he was the first Nats pitcher to break a scoreless tie by going deep since Gio Gonzalez on April 3, 2013.

But by finishing out the remainder of the game, Strasburg became just the second pitcher in franchise history to throw an individual (i.e., complete-game) shutout and homer in it. Floyd Youmans did it for the Expos against the Phillies on June 8, 1986 (won 12-0).


Royal Front

Before Bundy and Strasburg, the Kansas City Royals finished off a shutout streak of their own early this week. And not the good kind. After having three of their pitchers last week take no-hit bids into the 5th inning, Kansas City hung a different kind of zero. Repeatedly. With Monday's 12-0 loss to Tampa Bay, on the heels of a shutout sweep by the Indians, they created the first occurrence in team history of being blanked in four straight games. Counting the last seven frames of their August 22 game, the Royals went 43 innings without scoring, tying the American League record set by the St. Louis Browns in the same week 104 years ago (August 24 through 31, 1913).

The Sunday and Monday games-- both 12-0 losses, though to different opponents-- made the Royals just the second team in the last 100 years to lose consecutive shutouts by 12 runs or more. The St. Louis Browns got, well, "swept" may not be the word for it, in a doubleheader by the Tigers on September 22, 1936, by a combined score of 26-0. The Royals also managed just two hits in that Monday loss, and both of them happened to be extra-base hits by the same player (Lorenzo Cain had a pair of doubles). Only once before in team history had that happened; Billy Butler had a double and a homer in a 4-1 loss to Seattle on July 26, 2012.

Only nine other teams in history have been blanked in four straight games, and no one had done it since the Cubs in April 1992. Three of those eight probably qualify as expansion teams as well; the Astros did it in both 1963 and 1966, and the Second Senators pulled it off in 1964 en route to losing 100 games (that's really one hundred, not four in binary). And those Cubs were the only other team to break the shutout streak by scoring 6 or more in their next game, as the Royals did on Tuesday against Tampa Bay.


The Edge Of Seventeen

However, somehow all those Royals shutouts paled in comparison to Saturday. Although the score probably felt like 10001 to 0 (and in binary, it was!), the Twins somehow posted the largest shutout in franchise history (including the Senators, to 1901) on Saturday as they dominated the Royals 17-0. Their previous high had been a 16-0 against Boston on May 25, 1990. It also matched Kansas City's largest shutout loss ever, which had been July 19, 1991, against Detroit.

As sometimes happens with these ridiculous games, it was mostly a team effort, with Brian Dozier, Joe Mauer, Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, and Eduardo Escobar taking turns scoring runs and driving each other in. Those top five starters in the Twins lineup all finished with at least two scored and two RBIs, a first in franchise history (at least since RBI were official-ized in 1920). Escobar's line did stand out just a bit; all he did was hit two homers and a triple. Only one other Minnesotan in the past 20 years has done that, Jason Kubel against the White Sox on September 23, 2008.

The occurrence before Kubel belongs to Rich Becker on July 13, 1996. That game was unique in that it was a 19-11 loss to Cleveland, but Becker had 6 RBI in addition to his two homers and triple. As did Escobar on Saturday. That brings to three the total number of players in Twins/Senators history to have that line; Hall of Famer Al Simmons also did it against the Red Sox on May 14, 1938.

The first four Minnesota runs came off Onelki Garcia who was making his first major-league start. He got one out. No Royals starter had done that combo in over a decade; Mark Redman gave up nine runs while getting just one out on September 23, 2006. But the reins were then turned over to Andres Machado who was making his first major-league appearance. That didn't go terribly well either; Machado got out of the 1st inning but then gave up six more runs to start the 2nd before departing. He became the first pitcher, for any team, to give up 6 ER and get two outs in his MLB debut since Warner Madrigal did it for the Rangers on July 2, 2008.


Dodger Ball

While only one was a shutout, the Dodgers had an unfortunate streak this week as well, losing not just one or two games (which has been uncommon enough), but five straight to the Brewers and Diamondbacks.

Los Angeles hadn't even lost two straight since July 20-21, and had been the only team in the majors not to do it just in August. The five straight marked their longest losing streak since April 2016; they had gone the longest of any NL team without such a slump (Boston and Cleveland go back two years in the AL).

Chris Taylor managed to drive in three runs in the 7-6 loss on Tuesday. Which happened to be his 27th birthday. Amazingly, no Dodger had posted a 3-RBI game on his birthday since Dusty Baker did it on his 28th (he's now 68), June 15, 1977.

The Dodgers did "rebound" with a 1-0 win (is that really a rebound?) on Friday over San Diego, a game where Justin Turner had three hits and scored the run. That duplicated Taylor's feat from July 18 against the White Sox, and marked the first time in (at least) the live-ball era that the Dodgers had two players do it in the same season.


Mil-Walker

As you probably picked up from the theme, that Dodgers game wasn't the only 1-0 contest of the week, or even of Friday. One of the day's most-hyped pitching matchups pitted Tanner Roark of the Nationals against Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers, who had no-hit the Dodgers for 5⅔ innings in his previous start.

Neil Walker, acquired from the Mets three weeks ago, launched a solo homer off Roark as the second batter of the game. From then on it was pretty much strikeout city. Roark fanned 10, Nelson fanned 11 (though he did give up two early hits this time), and neither allowed another run. Nor did their bullpens which worked the 8th and 9th. Walker's homer held up for Milwaukee's first 1-0 win, and Washington's first 1-0 loss, of the season. Roark became the third pitcher in Nationals history to strike out 10, give up one run, and lose; the others were also in much-hyped pitching matchups. Max Scherzer lost to Matt Harvey on May 1, 2015, and then-Pirate Francisco Liriano outdueled Stephen Strasburg on July 24, 2013.

Roark's 10 strikeouts matched the number by Dinelson Lamet in that Padres/Dodgers game; they are the first pair of hurlers to strike out 10, allow 1 run, and lose on the same day since Bob Moose and Dock Ellis did it on September 12, 1969. The keen eye may notice that both of them played for Pittsburgh at the time; that day was a doubleheader against the Mets and the Pirates lost both games 1-0. Those were games 8 and 9 of a 10-game win streak that propelled the Miracle Mets from 4½ back to 3½ up, and, well, you know the rest.

As for Nelson, he hooked up with Clayton Kershaw back on June 2 in one of the other two games this season where both starters fanned 10 and gave up no more than one run. He joins Zack Greinke (2012) and Ben Sheets (2004) as the only Brewers to have multiple such starts in the same season.

And it was just the third time in Brewers history that a solo home run in the 1st inning had held up for a 1-0 win. Current manager Craig Counsell hit one against the Cubs on July 5, 2004; and Don Money (who made about $90,000 that year, we've covered this before) did it against the Angels on April 26, 1976.


Intermission
Remember that "2048" game that took the Internet by storm a few years back? The one you haven't played in forever? Here's your chance.


I Wanna Schoop, Baby

Sometimes a 1-0 game is the sign of a great pitching duel, and sometimes it's, well, not. (We are told the same is true of soccer also, but we can't sit through an entire match to find out.) Kevin Gausman of the Orioles and Joe Biagini of the Rays took the hill Friday and "dominated" mostly in the sense that neither offense ever got anything going. They combined to allow 10 hits, nine of them singles, and four of them to the infield, as the teams snoozed their way to a 0-0 tie through nine innings.

Finally in the bottom of the 13th, just as we were looking up the last time the Orioles played 13 scoreless innings (it's in 1974, by the way), Manny Machado led off with yet another infield single and Jonathan Schoop hit a gap double for the 1-0 walkoff. That marked the first time in Orioles history (1954) that they had won a 1-0 game via walkoff double, and it was their latest walkoff double by inning since Earl Williams brought home Bobby Grich in the bottom of the 16th against Texas on June 17, 1973.

That leadoff single in the 13th was Machado's fourth hit of the game; he became just the third player in the past 40 years to have four hits and score the run in a 1-0 game. As mentioned above, Chris Taylor did it for the Dodgers back on July 18; the other was Evan Gattis for the Phillies on April 16, 2014. Prior to that, no one had done it since 1975; among those to do it earlier were Rogers Hornsby, Billy Southworth, Richie Ashburn, and Pete Rose.

Friday marked the first day with three 1-0 scores since September 28, 2014, which was the final day of that season-- which had the most 1-0 games (69) since 1976.


Ender's Games

Of course, they can't all be 1-0 games (I mean, they could, but) and into each week a few crooked numbers must fall. And it would be impossible to wrap up this week without Ender Inciarte. The Braves' usual leadoff batter started Wednesday's rainout-induced doubleheader in Philadelphia with a single to center, but then added RBI knocks in the 2nd and 3rd as Atlanta jumped out to an early 8-0 lead. The last Braves batter to have a hit in each of the first three innings was... Ender Inciarte, who did it in a 13-8 win over Cincinnati on June 4. He's just the fourth player in Atlanta Braves history (1966) to pull that off twice. The others are Chipper Jones, Marquis Grissom, and Ralph Garr, and none of them did it in the same season.

Inciarte would add a single in the 5th inning, a triple in the 7th, and a walk in the 9th. That marked the second time this season (the June 4 game again) where he'd reached base six times as the leadoff batter in a nine-inning contest. The last player for any team to pull that off twice in one season was Dom DiMaggio in 1950. And ignoring the "leadoff" part, he's only the third player in history to post multiple games of six times on base and four RBIs in one campaign. Phil Weintraub did it for the Giants in 1944, and Cubs Hall-of-Famer Frank Demaree did it in 1936.

Doubleheaders are often a chance for managers to use some lesser-known backup players, give the "first string" a day off, and especially when you had five hits in the first game. You've done plenty, go have a beer. But Inciarte started the second game as well, this time collecting three singles and an RBI, though the Philies did finally manage to get him out twice.

Inciarte thus became the first player to have eight hits in a doubleheader since Christian Yelich did it for the Marlins on the next-to-last day of the 2015 season, also in Philadelphia. And it was well-publicized that the major-league record for same is nine. But count up the RBIs as well. Two of his singles in the first game came with the bases loaded, giving him a total of five on the day. That made him the first player with eight hits and five RBIs in a twinbill since Tony Oliva did it for the Twins (he had 5 RBI on two homers just in the second game) against the Royals on June 29, 1969.


Break A Leg

Kendrys Morales will forever be remembered for this incident in 2010, but he added another notable game to his resumé on Thursday. Now with Toronto, Morales cranked three homers out of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and drove in seven of the Jays' runs in their 11-8 win. He's the fourth player in Blue Jays history with that line, joining Michael Saunders (who did it last June 17, also at OPACY), Edwin Encarnacion in 2015, and Otto Velez in 1980. Morales is the first of those batters to have a fourth hit in addition to the three homers (he singled home Ryan Goins for the other RBI).

Morales also scored four runs, making him the fifth player in the majors this season with a four-hit, four-run, seven-RBI outburst. The others are Anthony Rendon (remember his 10-RBI game?), Trea Turner, Nolan Arenado, and Scooter Gennett (of 4-HR fame). Since RBI were officially recorded by both leagues in 1920, that sets a record for the most players to post that line in one season. There were four-- Walt Dropo, Ralph Kiner, Gil Hodges, and Bobby Doerr-- in 1950.

Thursday's game also marked the first time the Orioles had 16 or more hits at OPACY and lost since a 13-11 slugfest with the White Sox on July 29, 2006.

And to bring the Morales story full-circle, Cliff Pennington hit a go-ahead grand slam in the 7th inning of the Angels' game on Wednesday to give them a 10-8 win over Oakland. That was the first such homer (go-ahead slam in 7th or later) by Anaheim at Angel Stadium since... yep. The Morales walkoff.


Minor-League Minute

It's not offiically Minor League Baseball™, so yes, asterisk, but the independent Atlantic League gets some love for its quirkiness (Pete Rose as guest manager, anyone?) and the fact that many of its teams are close by us here in Connecticut. (We maintain that the Long Island Ducks have a secret list of "major-leaguers you haven't heard from in six years" and throw darts at it once a month.)

Our local friends the New Britain Bees (the stadium's new tenant, replacing the "former New Britain Rock Cats" we are always dropping into this column) went to Central Islip on Friday to face a Ducks team featuring David Aardsma, Ruben Gotay, Quintin Berry, Nolan Reimold, John Lannan, Alfredo Simon, and 41-year-old Lew Ford. (See what we mean?) The Bees won 16-2, but it was the performance of one Craig Maddox-- who never made it above low-A in affiliated ball-- that got noticed. Maddox cranked two grand slams and 11-- that's actually eleven, not three in binary-- RBIs.

Naturally we can't verify whether this is a league record because they don't keep such things, at least not online, and they didn't even put out a recap about the game. Welcome to indie-ball. But of course, only four major-leaguers have ever had 11 RBI in a game, the most recent still being Mark Whiten's 4-HR, 12-RBI game in 1993.

And two grand slams in a major-league game has only been done 13 times, most recently by Josh Willingham in 2009. Only two of those 13 hit their first slam as the fourth batter of the game, which was the case for Maddox on Friday; those were Jim Gentile of the Orioles (1961) and Nomar Garciaparra (1999).

The only player ever to do both (2 GS, 11 RBI) is the famous game by Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees, who crushed the Athletics 25-2 on May 24, 1936.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Cubs, Wednesday: Scored 17 runs for first time since... well, last Saturday (August 26). First season with two such games since 1974. First time with two in five days since July 25 and 26, 1936 (beat Phillies 17-4 and 18-5).

⋅ Andrew Benintendi, Friday: Hit fifth homer of season at Yankee Stadium. Only other Red Sock ever to hit five in a season in road games at Yankees is Jim Rice in 1983.

⋅ Max Kepler, Thursday: First "plunk-off" (game-winning HBP) for Twins since Paul Molitor was hit by KC's Jeff Montgomery on May 1, 1996.

⋅ Adam Morgan, Sunday: First Phillies pitcher to throw 3+ innings of hitless relief and get a win since Mike Hartley at Montréal on September 22, 1992.

⋅ Ben Gamel & Danny Valencia, Monday: Second pair of Mariners ever to have a home run and an outfield assist in the same game. Other was Ken Griffey and Jay Buhner, August 7, 1994. (Also, that's Former New Britain Rock Cat Danny Valencia. ?)

⋅ Braves/Cubs, Saturday: First 14-12 score in the majors since June 15, 2009 (Brewers over Indians). Was the lowest score combo (except for ties) that hadn't happened yet this decade.

⋅ Rajai Davis & Andrew Benintendi, Tuesday: First Red Sox teammates with two hits and two steals in same game since Marty Barrett and Spike Owen versus White Sox, August 18, 1987.

⋅ Jose Abreu, Tuesday: Fourth time this year collecting four hits in a loss. Most such games by a White Sock in one season since Carl Reynolds had five in 1930.

⋅ Tigers, Friday: First time losing the first game of a doubleheader (by any score), and then getting shut out by 10 or more in the second, since August 12, 1947 (1-3 and 0-11 vs Indians).

⋅ Jose Ramirez, Sunday: Third Clevelander in live-ball era to have five extra-base hits in a game, joining Kelly Shoppach (2008) and HOF'er Lou Boudreau (1946). Indians are only team with three players on the list.

⋅ Chasen Bradford, Tuesday: Third pitcher in Mets history to give up 7+ runs without recording an out. Joins Jeremy Hefner in 2012 and Bobby Jones (that's "J.", remember there were two?) in 1997.


Did You Know?

Tony Lazzeri batted 8th in that 1936 game where he became the first to hit two grand slams. He also had a triple. No other player in the modern era (1900) has recorded 15 total bases while batting 8th or 9th. The 25-2 score remains a Yankee record for both runs and victory margin, as well as one of just two such scores in major-league history (the other is Pittsburgh over St. Louis on August 1, 1893).

Remember When?
...You finally managed to beat the game? Yeah, us too.