Right Back Where We Started From

Remember the wackiness that was the 2017 World Series? The one with the five extra-inning homers in Game 2 and a back-and-forth 13-12 score in Game 5 and everything else? Yeah, that one. Well, baseball didn't forget, and with a full slate of (scheduled) games for the first time in 50 years, Opening Day picked up right where we left off.


Ceremonial Second Pitch?

One of those "attention to detail" things that we've always enjoyed is the tradition of the umpire requesting the first pitch from the catcher and rolling it away to be authenticated by MLB and then sent to Cooperstown. Except Ian Happ interrupted their collection. We don't know what the protocol is for requesting it from a fan. Especially one in fair territory in the outfield, but that's where it ended up as Happ hit not only a leadoff homer, and not only a first-pitch-of-game homer, but a first-pitch-of-entire-season homer, the first one in 32 years. Dwight Evans of the Red Sox is the only other one known to occur (April 7, 1986), and Kaz Matsui of the Mets was the last player to homer on his team's first pitch of a season (April 6, 2004).

It soon became apparent that MLB's new limit on mound visits was in play, because an unsteady Jose Ureña was left out there by himself and-- obviously not heeding his mother's advice-- couldn't stop hitting people. (This is one of our favorite heckles when we're at a game in person.) As a result, the Cubs scored three times and had the bases loaded when pitcher Jon Lester grounded out to end the frame. In doing so, he became the first Opening Day starter to bat before throwing a pitch since Steve Carlton did it for the Phillies, also in 1986.

The Cubs weren't quite done; in the top of the 2nd Anthony Rizzo-- a graduate of nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School-- also homered for a 4-1 lead and a dubious Marlins record for Ureña. No Marlins pitcher before him had ever allowed two homers and hit three batters in a game. (Any game, not Opening Day.) The combination of Happ and Rizzo marked the third time in Cubs history (to 1876; MLB does not recognize the earlier National Association) that they've homered in their first two innings of a season. Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez did it in Houston in 2009, and Keith Moreland followed Bump Wills in the traditional 1982 opener in Cincinnati.


Very Superstitious

You probably remember who won that bizarre World Series last year. Do you remember how the Astros started the 2017 season? George Springer does. And it worked so well that he decided to do it again in 2018. Although not the first game of the entire MLB season, and not on the first pitch, Springer cranked the third offering from Cole Hamels down the right-field line for his second consecutive season-opening homer. Only one other player in MLB history has hit a pair of leadoff homers on Opening Day, and it was another Astro-- Terry Puhl in 1978 and 1980. But that also means Springer is the first ever to do it in consecutive years.

Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies was the other player to hit a leadoff homer to open 2017. (The Phillies, you might have heard, did not win the World Series. Or 70 games total.) And while Hernandez mustered only a leadoff single on Thursday, he did homer later in the game, the second straight year that a Phillie has had back-to-back Opening Day homers. Freddy Galvis did it in both 2016 and 2017 (he did not homer in 2018, though he did drive in San Diego's lone run Thursday).

And since leadoff homers get all the attention, we'll throw a little love to D.J. LeMahieu, who homered as the Rockies' second batter of the season after Charlie Blackmon struck out. The last second-batter homer in the majors was by Mike Trout in 2015, and the only other one in Colorado history was by Todd Walker against the Cardinals in 2001.

For those who were wondering (including the ESPN crew after Springer hit his), three leadoff homers has been done once. One of them's already been mentioned, Dwight Evans' first-pitch-of-season dinger in 1986. The others that year were by Bobby Grich of the Angels and R.J. Reynolds of the Pirates.


Tonight's Pick-4 Number Is

(Shutterstock)


Statheads will recognize that as the record number of home runs hit in the 2017 regular season. Based on the 30 season openers (small sample size!), we're "only" on pace for 5,508. But there was no shortage of taters in all those other innings Thursday either. Two of the loudest were hit by Giancarlo Stanton in his Yankees debut, linking him with Roger Maris as the only players ever to do that. Maris's debut also happened to be on Opening Day (after a trade with Kansas City that included Don Larsen and future Mets legend Marv Throneberry); they are two of the seven Yankees ever to go yard twice in an opener. Before Thursday, the title of "most recent" belonged to Joe Pepitone way back in 1963; the rest of the list is Mickey Mantle (1956), Russ Derry (1945), Sam Byrd (1932), and some guy named Babe Ruth (also 1932).

And then, of course, there are the White Sox, who were temporarily on pace to hit 972 homers just by themselves. After Jose Abreu started the scoring with a 4th-inning dinger, Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson both went deep later in the inning, marking just the second time the Sox have had a three-homer inning at Kauffman Stadium. The other was by Danny Richar, Jermaine Dye, and Josh Fields (!) on September 17, 2007.

As you probably know, they weren't done. Davidson and Anderson both homered again in the 5th, the first teammates with multiple homers on Opening Day since Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez of Boston in 2015. They also became just the second pair of Sox (heh) to homer twice in the same game in Kansas City. Bob Neiman and Sherm Lollar pulled it off against the Athletics at Municipal Stadium on April 23, 1955.

When Davidson went deep for a third time in the 8th, the rout was on and so were the #Kernels. It was the first three-homer game for the White Sox since Dan Johnson did it in the season finale in 2012, and their first ever in an opener. In fact, only three other players in MLB history had cranked three homers on Opening Day. Davidson joins Dmitri Young (2005 Tigers), Tuffy Rhodes (1994 Cubs), and George Bell (1988) in our early clubhouse leader for "eclectic list of the year". And three of the four (sans Tuffy) did it against the Royals. Davidson's final line of three homers, four runs scored, and five driven in has been matched only twice in White Sox history, by Pat Seerey against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1948 and Carl Reynolds at Yankee Stadium in 1930.

For his part, Anderson is the first player in White Sox history to hit two homers and get "upstaged" by a teammate hitting three. It's only happened twice before in the long history of Chicago baseball (which includes the Whales, mind you), by Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou at Coors Field in 2002, and by Adolfo Phillips and Randy Hundley against the Mets in 1967.


Panik! At The Ravine

Sometimes you don't need six home runs to win (though it doesn't hurt). Joe Panik of the Giants proved that in Thursday's opener with his 5th-inning solo shot. In a game that was humorously described online as "Ty Blach outpitches Clayton Kershaw" (though both were gone by the 6th inning), that lone round-tripper amazingly held up for a 1-0 win over the Dodgers. In their previous 135 seasons of existence, the Giants had never before won an opener by a 1-0 score (the Dodgers have lost five, though the previous one was in 1930), and they hadn't won any 1-0 game on a solo homer since Brandon Crawford topped the Marlins on August 10, 2016. More notably, it's been over 57 years since the Giants beat their old New York rivals with a solo homer as the only score. That happened September 3, 1960, at the newly-opened (!) Candlestick Park, and the home run in question was by Felipe Alou off Sandy Koufax.


Intermission
Disco break!


Fashionably Late

If you prefer your drama at the end of games, Opening Day had plenty of that for you as well. Brad Brach of the Orioles surrendered a two-run, game-tying bloop single to Minnesota's Robbie Grossman with two outs in the top of the 9th, but that was just all part of the plan. You see, Baltimore also played an extra-inning opener last year (with Toronto) and are the first team to do it in consecutive years in a decade (when Pittsburgh and Detroit both did). When Adam Jones launched a solo homer in the 11th, it gave the Orioles their third straight Opening Day walkoff-- and all of them were by scores of 3-2 (the Twins were also the victim in 2016). Regardless of the score, the O's are the first team in MLB history to win three consecutive season openers in walkoff fashion.


Gone Fishing

The Angels and Athletics also needed a couple extra frames (and mysteriously, no "free runners" at second base) before Marcus Semien deposited a game-winning single over a five-man infield for a 6-5 walkoff. Oakland hadn't won its season opener on a walkoff since 1984, and that was a Carney Lansford RBI groundout (vs Brewers). The last time the Athletics had a walkoff hit (any value) on Opening Day, they weren't in Oakland. They weren't even in Kansas City. The date was April 17, 1934, and pinch hitter Edmund "Bing" Miller hit a pinch-hit single for another 6-5 win, over the Yankees at Shibe Park.

Mike Trout drew the first 0-for-6+ of his career in Thursday's extra-inning affair, and combined with Justin Upton's line just below, they became the first pair of Angels' 2- and 3-hitters to go 0-for-5 with neither having an RBI since Howie Kendrick and Bobby Abreu did it against the White Sox on April 15, 2011... in a win.


Brave New Season

The Phillies took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th in Atlanta on Thursday, but thanks to the stylings of Adam Morgan and Edubray Ramos (and some help from a throwing error), they did not take that lead into the top of the 9th. When Nick Markakis strode to the plate with two runners on in the bottom of the 9th, not one but both teams had a "first time in two decades" note. Markakis's homer marked the first time Atlanta had won its opener in walkoff fashion since Javy Lopez stole second against Milwaukee in 1998. Yes, we know a steal of second does not itself result in a walkoff, but when catcher Mike Matheny airmails the ball into center field and Gerald Williams scores from third, it does. Markakis is also the first Braves batter in their history (to 1876) to hit a walkoff home run on Opening Day.

And it turns out 1998 was also the last time the Phillies lost their opener on a walkoff. Alberto Castillo of the Mets hit a bases-loaded single to win that year's opener at Shea Stadium.

By the way, MLB has officially started referring to Mr. Markakis as "Nicholas" now (usually they accede to players' wishes). We need at least one more walkoff homer before we'll go along with it.

Motown Mow-Down

Gregory Polanco's three-run shot in the top of the 13th propelled the Pirates to a 13-10 win over Detroit in one of two openers that got postponed to Friday. By inning, it was the latest home run Pittsburgh has ever hit against Detroit, although being in opposite leagues they don't play each other all that often. The runs were the most the Pirates have scored in a season opener since 1911 (14-0 at Cincinnati), and it was the first time the Tigers had ever scored 10 in an opener and lost.

Not only did Polanco homer in the 13th, he got clipped by catcher James McCann with two outs in the 9th to prolong the inning (this is not technically true, you can't assume an out on a CI, but roll with it) and allow two more runs to score. He was the first Pirate to hit a home run and receive a CI award in the same game since Dale Berra did it against the Cardinals on June 25, 1983. (More CI fun in a moment!)


Winless In Seattle

Love it or hate it, #bullpenning seems to be here to stay, at least for a while, and thus if anyone throws more than four or five complete games this season, we'll be impressed. So it seems fitting that of the 30 Opening Day starters, only one of them made it through the entire game-- and he lost. Corey Kluber of the Indians struck out eight Mariners and needed only 91 pitches, but he also allowed two early runs and the offense sputtered against "King Felix" Hernandez. It had been five years since any pitcher threw an Opening Day CG (that was the aforementioned Clayton Kershaw), and the last Clevelander to do it... was also the last Opening Day starter for any team to lose. That was Jake Westbrook against the White Sox in 2005.

Only one other Clevelander has taken a complete-game loss on Opening Day while also recording at least eight strikeouts; that was Herb Score, also against the White Sox, in 1957.

Mariners catcher Mike Zunino was a late scratch due to "minor stiffness", so Mike Marjama got his first Opening Day behind the dish instead. In the 2nd he got called for catcher's interference after making contact with Edwin Encarnacion's backswing. Now remember the Polanco play from above. As part of our bizarre obsession with this call here at #Kernels, we can tell you that the last Opening Day to feature two CI calls was in 1985-- by the Indians' Chris Bando and the Royals' Jim Sundberg.

But guess what. Marjama wasn't even the first one to commit the infraction on Thursday. That happened in the very first game of the day, by the Marlins' Chad Wallach. And while records before 1960 are imprecise because the leagues didn't officially report CI's, we can say that 2018 is the first known season where there were three such calls on Opening Day. As someone pointed out on Twitter, none of them involved Jacoby Ellsbury either.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Noah Syndergaard: Second Mets pitcher with double-digit strikeouts in a season opener. Pedro Martinez had 12 in 2005 at Cincinnati.

⚾ Khris Davis & Matt Olson: First Athletics to hit back-to-back homers in a season opener since Dave Henderson and Terry Steinbach in 1990.

⚾ Yolmer Sanchez: Hit three-run single because runners were going on a 3-2 pitch and the throw was cut off. First such play for White Sox since Chad Kreuter did it against the Tigers on May 28, 1998.

⚾ Zach Duke: First pitcher ever to have a four-strikeout inning on Opening Day. Also just the second in live-ball era to have a line of 1 IP, 4 K, and 2 WP, joining the Rockies' Bruce Ruffin (vs Cubs), July 25, 1996.

⚾ New York Yankees: First time holding Jays to two hits in Toronto since April 9, 2002, by Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera. Both hits were solo homers (because Rogers Centre).

⚾ Eduardo Nuñez: First Opening Day inside-the-park home run in MLB since Stephen Drew in 2010. First for Red Sox since Carl Yastrzemski in 1968.

⚾ Yadier Molina: Fourth career Opening Day home run (first since 2014), tying Albert Pujols for most in Cardinals history. Stan Musial had three.

⚾ Milwaukee Brewers: First opener in their 50-season history to go 12 innings or longer. Only other current teams to never have one are the 1998 additions (Rays and Diamondbacks).

⚾ Max Scherzer: Third pitcher in Nats/Expos history with double-digit strikeouts in opener, joining Stephen Strasburg (2014) and Steve Rogers (1982).

⚾ Jake Lamb: First player in Diamondbacks history to have 4+ RBI in a season opener.

The Grapefruit Diaries

(Sorry, Arizona fans, we flipped a coin. Maybe it'll be "The Cactus Diaries" next year.)

Another season of meaningless spring training games is in the books, and no, it's really not fair to compare boxscores from exhibition games to boxscores from regular-season games. Teams go through nine or ten pitchers, players you've never heard of start showing up in the 4th inning, the defense is kinda sloppy, the umpires don't always enforce all the rules. Oh, wait. (In other words, March is the new September.)

Anyhow, we did go through all those boxscores and turned up our favorite interesting feat from each day (and a few honorable mentions). And then applied the "regular season" filter to ask, what if that had actually counted? That regular-season part is in italics at the end of each day's Kernel.


February 21: The Arizona State Sun Devils kicked off the season with a game against the Diamondbacks in which the rules were relaxed to allow maximum involvement by the college kids. Some ASU hitters were permanent batters, never taking the field, and some returned every inning in the field and never batted. As a result, there are 14 pinch-hitting appearances listed in the boxscore (although they are only by seven different players). The regular-season record for pinch hitters in one game is 10, by Oakland in 1972. The non-September record is eight, and that's from 1959. Other than September and extra-inning games, the D'backs have never used more than five.

February 22: Yes, it's against college players again, but the Red Sox exploded out of the gate against Northeastern, hanging 7-3-5 in the first three innings (and all zeroes after that, for what it's worth). Only twice in their regular-season history have the Sawx scored 15 runs by the end of the 3rd. One was a 25-8 win over the Marlins on June 27, 2003, that featured a 14-run opener. The other was the sixth game in team history (and second win)-- May 2, 1901, when they started 2-9-10 to hand the Athletics a 23-12 loss.

February 23: Welcome to Canada, Curtis Granderson. The Blue Jays slotted Grandy into his familiar leadoff spot, and in Toronto's first plate appearance of 2018, he yanked a home run out of Dunedin Stadium. George Springer (HOU) and Cesar Hernandez (PHI) both pulled this off last season. But Toronto's only ever done it once: by Shannon Stewart against the Royals on April 3, 2000.

Honorable Mention: Scott Van Slyke, who signed with the Marlins as a free agent in January, cranked a grand slam and a solo homer in Miami's first game of the spring. Although neither led off the game as Granderson's did, only two players in the past 12 years have had two homers and 5 RBI on Opening Day (and no Marlin has ever done it): Hanley Ramirez in 2015 and J.P. Arencibia in 2011. Hanley also did it after playing the previous season for a different team-- also (like Van Slyke) the Dodgers.

February 24: Thanks to those creaky knees most of them have, catchers don't often hit third. But it's spring training, so why not. The Phillies plopped Jorge Alfaro there for their second game of the spring, and sure enough he went 2-for-2 with a grand slam. Carlos Ruiz was the last Phillies catcher to regularly hit in the top third of the order. But Chooch's only career slam was as a pinch-hitter. No catcher in Phillies history (to 1883) has ever hit a grand slam from any of the top three spots. Francisco Cervelli (July 9) was the only one in the majors last year.

February 25: The Giants collected 15 hits in their win over the Cubs. Not unusual. But with all those substitutions, all 15 hits... were by different players. In the live-ball era, the team record for such a thing is 12, held by the 1970 White Sox and matched by the Mets in 1977.

February 26: Seth Mejias-Brean, who reached triple-A with the Mariners last season, hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the 7th inning to give the Mariners a seven-run lead which they later relinquished. He would be the third hyphenated player in MLB if he makes it, and the Mariners (Ryan Rowland-Smith) had the only one ever until Austin Bibens-Dirkx's debut last season. It would also have been the third pinch-hit slam in Mariners history; the others were by Ben Broussard in 2007 and Franklin Gutierrez in 2015-- both on the road.

February 27: While we're on slams, Kyle Jensen blasted one of the walkoff variety to cap an eight-run comeback and give the Giants a 14-12 win over Arizona. The Giants haven't had one of those in the regular season since Bobby (yes, Bobby) Bonds took Jim Brewer of the Dodgers deep on September 3, 1973, at Candlestick. Arizona has never had a regular-season game where they scored 12+ and lost.

February 28: Cleveland's Richie Shaffer had his own pinch-hit slam on the 27th in a 16-8 win, but the Tribe then hung a 15-3 score on the Angels the next day. Only one team in the past nine seasons (2015 Red Sox) has posted back-to-back 15-run games, and the Indians have only done it once in their history. That was May 4-5, 1991, against the Athletics (20-6 and 15-6). The Spiders pulled it off in 1896.

March 1: The Rangers scored late to force a 9-9 tie with the Padres. There has never been a tie game in interleague play in the regular season (there were the 2002 ASG and three WS games). And 9-9 is the rarest of single-digit ties; it hasn't happened at all since September 3, 1949, between the Reds and Cardinals (all the others have occurred since at least 1981).

March 2: Remember that Giants game where 15 different players each had one hit? The Rockies pulled off a corollary to that, with 17 players combining for 20 hits against the Diamondbacks (this is a slightly different stat since a few guys had more than one). The regular-season record for players with a hit is 15, last done by the Braves in an 18-0 thumping of the Marlins in the last game of the 1999 season. The Rockies' record is 12, done three times (last in September 2015).

Honorable Mention to Tyler Austin of the Yankees, whose two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th gave them a walkoff against the Braves. Being in opposite leagues, those teams don't meet very often. Other than spring training, the Yankees have only hit two walkoff homers against the Braves in their history: Alex Rodriguez off Jorge Sosa on June 28, 2006 (12th inning), and Chad Curtis's solo shot to go up 3-0 in the 1999 World Series (they would finish the sweep the next day).

March 3: Remember last year's Mets stunt where Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis D'Arnaud changed positions almost two dozen times based on batter handedness? The Orioles pulled a smaller version of this with 2B Ruben Tejada and SS Luis Sardinas, switching them each inning and eventually stashing them both at 3B until they were pinch-hit for. The addition of a third infield position makes this just as rare. As far back as we have reliable position data (around 1908), only 66 players have ever been stationed at 2B, 3B, and SS in the same game. The Orioles/Browns have never had one. And it's never happened twice in the same contest.

March 4: Fernando Tatis (that's Junior) had a good day at the plate, collecting four hits and driving in five runs. He did not have a great day on the basepaths, getting stranded twice, doubled off once, and pinch-run for after his final hit. Ken Caminiti (September 19, 1995) is the last Padres batter to be a perfect 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs. But no San Diegan has ever done it while also scoring zero runs himself. The last in the majors was Cards catcher Yadier Molina on September 17, 2010.

March 5: Speaking of 4-for-4 days, Danny Santana had one for the Braves in their 7-5 win over Pittsburgh. Santana batted ninth because we're not far enough into the spring to make the NL pitchers hit yet. If this had been an actual NL game, Santana would have been the first Atlantan to collect four hits from the nine-hole since Steve Avery on June 12, 1991 (at Mets)... and the first to include a home run since Rosy Ryan in 1925. (Asterisk: Joe Mather did do both in an interleague game in 2011.)

March 6: Mets prospect Philip Evans, who got the final spot on the team's Opening Day roster when Michael Conforto went to the DL, hit a walkoff grand slam for a 9-5 win over the Astros. The Mets have amazin'-ly had seven walkoff grand slams in their history, the most recent on April 5, 2014, by Ike Davis (who was traded to the Pirates a week later and would become the first player to hit slams for two different teams by the end of April). But only one has occurred in the 9th inning of a tie game; it was by Jim Hickman against the Cubs on August 9, 1963.

Honorable Mention to the six hit batters in the Cardinals/Marlins game. The Cardinals were involved in the only game last season to collect 6 HBPs, August 23 against the Padres. Amazingly no one got ejected from that game either.

March 7: The Mets were not so fortunate when the Yankees came to Port St Lucie the next day, losing 11-4. If we said there were two Yankees who each hit either a three- or four-run homer, your first guess would probably not be Billy McKinney and Trey Amburgey, the latter of whom will reach double-A for the first time next week. Both entered as late-game subs. Gregor Blanco and Brandon Crawford of the Giants (July 18, 2012) are the last pair of teammates to each hit a three-run homer in a game they didn't start. The only Yankees to do it in the live-ball era are Johnny Mize and Andy Carey, who each hit pinch-hit three-run shots in a 12-inning win over the Tigers on July 25, 1953.

March 8: Yolmer Sanchez of the White Sox spends a lot of time at third base; it's his defensive position. On this day perhaps too much. Sanchez hit a pair of triples against to Texas, and if he hadn't been stranded at third base on both occasions, the 5-4 loss could have turned into a win. (Also cap-tip to Ryan Cordell who had three doubles but didn't score.) The last White Sock with two triples but zero runs scored was Alex Cintron against the Tigers on April 13, 2006. But that was a 13-9 win. Their last to do it in a one-run loss (where scoring both times would have flipped the outcome) was Patsy Dougherty-- known for hitting the only leadoff inside-the-parker in World Series history until 2015-- against the Browns on September 4, 1909.

March 9: Astros prospect Ronnie Dawson made it into the game in the 6th inning, but right after his spot had batted. It took until the 8th for him to come up... with the bases loaded. Nope. Drew a walk. But two batters later Kyle Tucker tripled home all three runners including Dawson. While seven players had the "0-for-0, RBI, run scored" line last season, no Astro has done it since Trevor Crowe against the Mariners on June 12, 2013.

March 10: David Olmedo-Barrera of the Rays (there's those hyphens again!) led off the 8th inning against Philadelphia with a pinch-hit homer. Thanks to four baserunners, he came up again with one out in the 9th. And of course he homered again. In regular-season Rays history, no player has ever had a pinch-hit homer in the 8th or later, and then a second homer later in the game (no matter how long it goes). Trey Mancini of the Orioles (June 7, 9th and 11th) was the only player in the majors to pull it off last season.

Which brings us to an Honorable Mention: Also March 10, Chad Kuhl did not get a warm reception from the Orioles, who greeted him with three home runs in the first five batters of the game. That same Trey Mancini and Manny Machado went back-to-back, Adam Jones hit a fly ball that stayed in the yard, and then Jonathan Schoop finished things off. While Baltimore did this against the Tigers last August (just replace Machado with Chris Davis), the Pirates haven't allowed three homers to the first five batters of a game since Jayson Werth, Milton Bradley, and Adrian Beltre went deep off Sean Burnett on August 5, 2004.

Another Honorable Mention to the Braves' linescore of 15 runs on 10 hits. They added seven walks, a hit batter, and two reached-on-errors (stranding only five of their 20 baserunners). The last team to post a regular-season linescore of ≥15-≤10-X was the Tigers, who received nine walks from the Orioles on August 10, 1993. The Braves haven't done it since at least 1900.

March 11: Spring training triple play! And not just any old TP, either... a fielder's choice triple play! With bases loaded, and thus everyone going on contact, Milwaukee's Travis Shaw sent a spinning liner right toward third, where Stephen Vogt was already a few steps off. Cleveland's Jose Ramirez fielded it and tagged Vogt as he passed, then ran to the bag and forced Christian Yelich who was coming from second. He then turned to Jason Kipnis and threw to second to force Jonathan Villar. Craig Counsell admitted it happened so fast that "they could have gotten four outs" on the play. But you don't need four (usually; don't start with the appeal plays). Instead it goes down as a ((5)-5)-4) TP, of which only six have ever occurred in the regular season. The last was turned *against* the Indians on August 17, 1950, by the Browns' Owen Friend and (speaking of friends) our old buddy Snuffy Stirnweiss. There have been two of the ((5)-5)-6) variety, but those both predate 1950 as well. The Brewers have not hit into a regular-season TP since 1986, the longest "drought" of any of the 30 teams.

March 12: Finally we're reaching the point of pitchers throwing meaningful-length outings, so let's bring in the Rockies' Antonio Senzatela. After Chad Bettis worked five innings of two-run ball, Senzatela entered for the 6th and got a four-inning save while allowing just one hit and no walks. The one hit came in the 9th and was promptly retired on a game-ending double play, so he faced the minimum as well. Marcus Stroman of Toronto (September 26, 2014) is the last pitcher to get a four-plus-inning save while facing the minimum; his lone baserunner was doubled off on a line drive. The only Rockies pitchers to ever do it are Keith Shepherd on June 8, 1993 (walk plus double play) and Kevin Ritz on September 12, 1995 (four perfect).

March 13: Other pitchers do not in fact get significant innings. The Cardinals unloaded on starter Jose Ureña for six runs and blew out the Marlins 11-4. Ureña got one out, and then St Louis added five more runs in the 2nd off Chris Mazza. The Cardinals last scored 11 runs in the first two innings on May 8, 2005, when they did it in the 1st inning alone en route to a 15-5 thumping of the Padres. The only starter in Marlins history to give up 6+ ER while getting one out is Carl Pavano... in a game that's already been mentioned. He was the victim of Boston's 25-8 eruption on June 27, 2003 (see February 22 entry).

March 14: Ryan Braun cranked a solo home run in the 1st inning, then Milwaukee piled up six runs in the 2nd including a grand slam when Braun's spot came around again. Only one player in the past three seasons has hit both a grand slam and a solo homer by the end of the 2nd inning; that was Bryce Harper last April 19 against the Braves. But how many hitters in Brewers (/Pilots) history have pulled that off? That, of course, would be zero.

March 15: Ryan O'Hearn of the Royals connected for a three-run homer in the 1st inning as Kansas City hit for the cycle in the span of four batters and knocked Rich Hill out of the game after six runs. O'Hearn came up again the next inning and hit a two-run homer, so like Braun, he had two homers and 5 RBI by the end of the 2nd inning. But it's what happened later that makes this one interesting. As usual in the spring, all the starters (eight of them in this case) got replaced in the 5th inning, with Frank Schwindel taking O'Hearn's place at first. And Schwindel proceeded to homer in both the 6th and 9th innings as the Royals ran up a 14-8 win over the Dodgers. So how many times has a starter hit two dingers, and a sub hit two dingers for the same team? At least since 1900, that would be seven-- most recently by Robin Ventura and Darrin Jackson of the White Sox on April 6, 1994. But how many of those seven were from the same spot in the batting order (i.e., one player replaced the other)? That, of course, would be none.

March 16: In case last year's season record of 6,105 home runs wasn't enough for you, the Braves and Pirates combined for 11 more in a 12-9 slugfest. In the past 10 seasons there's only been one 11-HR game in the majors; that was August 24, 2015, at Citizens Bank Park, when the Mets famously became the first team in MLB history to have each of their top seven batters in the order go yard. The Braves have never been involved in such a game, and the Pirates won the only one in their history: August 12, 1966, against the Reds, when their six homers were enough to outlast Art Shamsky's three (plus two others) for a 14-11 extra-inning win.

March 17: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We reported (see March 3) on the Orioles having two players all show up at 2B, 3B, and SS in the same game. Well today the Orioles' opponent, the Blue Jays, had three (Aledmys Diaz, Danny Espinosa, Yangervis Solarte). And if the Brewers can fall victim to a triple play (see March 11), well darn, they can also turn one. The top of the 2nd ended with your "traditional" ((5)-4)-3 around-the-horn version against the Rockies, who haven't hit into a TP in the regular season since September 12, 2007, against the Phillies.

March 18: With the Raiders leaving (again), we're running out of chances to say that Oakland won a game 14-0. Or maybe not. That was the Athletics' margin over the White Sox as Matt Joyce homered twice and they posted a 6-run 4th and a 7-run 5th. In the regular season, no Athletics batter has ever matched Joyce's line of a leadoff homer to start the game, and a grand slam later on in the contest. And the last time the A's hung six or more runs in back-to-back innings? August 16, 1910! Holding a tenuous 4-3 lead in Cleveland, they blew up for 8 in the 8th and 6 in the 9th to win by 15. (This is two days before Rickwood Field in Birmingham opened, if you know your old minor-league ballpark history.)

March 19: What we love about the game is that anything can happen from one day to the next. So not only can the White Sox lose 14-0 on Sunday, they can win 15-2 over Arizona on Monday. The last team to be shut out by 14+ in one game, and then score 14+ in its next game (whether or not the second was a shutout) was the 2005 Marlins, who took a 14-0 shiner from the Cubs on June 14 but then beat them 15-5 the next day. The White Sox have never done it.

March 20: Reliever Ranfi Casimiro of the Phillies headed out to the mound to begin the 7th inning. He retired one batter (Justin Smoak). He got the save. After a brief rain delay that was obviously not going to let up, the teams called the game with the Phillies ahead 2-0. That one out thus made Casimiro the "finishing pitcher" and satisfied the provisions of rule 9.19 to make him eligible for a save. In the past five seasons, only one pitcher has entered a regular season game in the 7th or earlier, recorded just one out, and gotten a save out of it: Bruce Rondon of the Tigers, in a similarly rain-shortened affair with Cleveland on August 30, 2013. (Rondon got the last out of T7 and the game was called in the bottom half.)

Honorable mention to Ryan Rua of the Rangers who recorded three (3) outfield assists, nailing White Sox catcher Kevan Smith at both second and third. We wish this was searchable but we can say that the single-game record is four, and Jose Osuna of the Pirates had a game with three last year.

March 21: Mike Zunino of the Mariners had the only three-homer game of the spring (as far as we know) when he unloaded in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th innings against Milwaukee. Meanwhile, while Zunino is busy catching, Gordon Beckham (who follows him in the order) is taking care of the other four infield spots. Beckham one-upped our Orioles and Jays from earlier by adding one inning at 1B to his standard 2B, 3B, and SS. The last Mariner with a 3-HR game was Jose Lopez in Toronto on September 22, 2010; and their only catcher ever to do it was Dan Wilson in 1996. Zunino would be alphabetically the last player in MLB history to have a 3-HR game. And outside of those all-nine-position stunts such as Andrew Romine did last year, no one in the live-ball era has played all four infield positions in a regular-season game.

March 22: If you thought Atlanta's 15 runs on 10 hits (see March 10) was worthy of an Honorable Mention (we did), what about 8 runs on 4 hits? That's what the Cardinals pulled off in beating those same Braves, with two of the hits being home runs and seven walks helping the cause. The 1997 Brewers (July 23 at Toronto) were the last to pull off 8+ hits on ≤4 hits, and in the past 100 years, only one team has posted the exact 8-4-1 linescore as St Louis did. That was the Orioles in beating the Tigers (5-8-2) on May 21, 1976.

March 23: Matt Wisler of the Braves was summoned to the mound in the 7th inning with Atlanta and Detroit in a 3-3 tie. When he left the mound it was 8-3, and by the end of the inning it was 10-3. Wisler faced seven batters, retired none of them, and all of them scored. Since earned runs were first tracked, only 26 pitchers have given up 7+ of them and not recorded an out. It's a good thing this one doesn't count, because none of those 26 have been Braves pitchers-- though the first person to do it, Earl Moore of the Phillies, did so *against* Boston on July 7, 1913.

Honorable mention to Oakland's Jake Smolinski, who posted a homer, a triple, and a double against the Angels, but never bothered to stop at first. There were a whopping 11 players who missed the cycle by the single last year (one was Oakland's own Mark Canha); while not a record, it's close. There were only three each in 2015 and 2016. And this reminds us we need to update our database of "near-cycles" before this season takes off on us.

March 24: If this were February 24, and the first or second game of the spring, you would be amused by a team committing six errors, but not surprised. On March 24, leave it to the Marlins. (It remains to be seen just how many errors they made over the offseason.) Not only did they post the rare 4-8-6 linescore against the Nationals... but they freakin' won! The Nats stranded 10 and scored just three times (all unearned, naturally). The Marlins have had just one regular-season game with six errors, September 21, 2007, against the Mets (and they lost). The last time a team won such a game was September 12, 2006, when the Cubs trailed the Dodgers 7-0 early but walked off with a 9-8 win in the 11th. Just 11 days after that, the Cubs defeated Cincinnati, with the Reds' "4-8-6" linescore being the most recent one in the majors.

March 25: Mookie Betts led off the game for the Red Sox with a solo blast, then added another homer later on and finished with three runs scored and three driven in. The last Red Sock to post that line in a regular-season game was... Mookie Betts, May 31, 2016, at Baltimore. But in their history, only two others did it before him: Dwight Evans in 1985, and Clyde Vollmer against the Browns in 1950.

Honorable mention to the Rays hitting six homers against the Yankees, which they've only done three times in their regular-season history, and never at home (although "home" in this case means Port Charlotte and not Tropicana Field).

March 26: The Athletics can't get enough of the crooked numbers. If the March 18 entry wasn't enough, they took a 10-3 decision from the Giants... in 10 innings. Yes, a 7-run top of the 10th was the difference, and it was all off the arm of D.J. Snelten, who faced seven batters and didn't retire any of them (*waves at Matt Wisler*). There were three 7-run extra innings in the majors last year, but Oakland hasn't had one since August 28, 1998, in a 14-6 win at Cleveland. The last Giants pitcher to give up 7 ER while getting nobody out was Gil Heredia against the Astros on June 4, 1992.

Best Kernel Of The Spring Award also goes to Snelten, however. As mentioned, he faced seven batters, didn't record an out, all seven batters scored... and he got credit for a strikeout. Leadoff batter Matt Chapman swung at a dirtball and reached on a wild pitch. And since earned runs were first kept in 1912, how many pitchers have had a line of 0 IP, 7+ ER, and a strikeout? That, of course, would be none.

March 27: Nothing quite like going out with a bang. The Jays ended their last game of the spring with a solo home run by Vlad Guerrero. (Again, that's Junior.) With two outs in the 9th and the score tied... at 0-0. You might remember the last time a team won its season finale on a 1-0 walkoff. It was in 2013-- and it was the incredible "wild pitch no-hitter" by Henderson Alvarez in 2013. But the last time that season-ending walkoff was a solo homer? As far as we can tell, it's never happened.

So what other interesting "it's never happened" phenomena will we get in 2018? We've got 2,430 games to find out. Let the season begin!