Repeat After Me

There have been somewhere north of 215,000 MLB games played since the 1870s (the exact number boils down to which of the early leagues you decide to count, and have fun with that). So it's inevitable that, even in a game with so many different stats and players and teams and potential outcomes on every pitch, the vast majority of events have repeated themselves by now. But it sure did feel like we were looking up the same things over and over again just this week.


Tiger Beat

We've already repeated this headline because we've repeatedly given the Detroit Tigers their own entire section of #Kernels already this year. That's largely because the MLB schedule-makers decided that spending all of April in the Great Lakes would be a good idea for the Tigers, for whom this weekend's series in Baltimore is the farthest from home they've ventured so far. That also means they've already played all six of their interleague games against the Pirates, including a 13-10 victory in the front half of Wednesday's doubleheader, caused when the series opener on Tuesday became the Tigers' seventh postponement already this season. Miguel Cabrera became just the third Tiger ever to have three doubles, three runs scored, and four RBIs in a game, joining Ivan Rodriguez (2006) and Charlie Gehringer (1929), while Jeimer Candelario scored five runs, the first Tiger to do so since Carlos Guillen in 2008 (July 21 at Kansas City), and the first ever against an NL opponent (including postseason). Leonys Martin homered in both games of the doubleheader, becoming the first Tigers leadoff batter to do so since Dick McAuliffe against the (second) Senators on May 19, 1968.

But something looked familiar about that 13-10 score, besides the fact that it should be between the Lions and Steelers (who oddly have never played such a game). It's not a rare score in MLB, happening about once a year on average (and exactly once in each of the previous three seasons), but the last 13-10 happened on Opening Day... between the Tigers and Pirates... with the road team winning... and was played after the original series opener, yep, got postponed by weather. Given that a 13-10 only pops up once or twice a year, it got us looking at the last time two teams traded that exact score (each winning a 13-10 contest against the other) in the same season. And it's only ever happened once before, between the New York Giants and the Chicago then-White Stockings (the NL team now the Cubs) on June 27 and July 16, 1889.

The Pirates did collect 10 runs of their own in that game, with six of them driven in by Francisco Cervelli including a three-run homer (he also "drove in" a Tigers run by committing a 9th-inning throwing error). Only eight Pirates have ever had 6 RBI in a loss, the previous being Jason Bay against the Cubs on September 19, 2003. Pittsburgh also had 14+ hits in both games of the twinbill; the Pirates hadn't amassed that total since doing it July 27, 1997, at Candlestick Park.


Christmas In April

But at the exact same time Wednesday, in Candlestick Park's replacement, Matt Adams was having his own 6-RBI day for the Nationals as they pounded the Giants 15-2. Only one other player in franchise history had driven in six against the Giants-- Sean Berry in a 12-1 win at Stade Olympíque on August 25, 1995. It's not uncommon for multiple players to have 3-hit, 6-RBI games on the same day, but the last time it happened (last September 26)... one player did it for the Pirates (Andrew McCutchen) and one player did it against the Giants (J.D. Martinez, who will come up again later also).

Adams may not have even been the headliner in that game; he collected most of those RBIs because Trea Turner had a five-hit day in front of him. Turner is the sixth visiting player with a five-hit game at AT&T Park (succeeding then-Oriole Matt Wieters in 2016), and combined with his effort last June against the Reds, Turner is the first Nationals leadoff hitter with a pair of five-hit games since Denard Span in 2014-15. Span was also the last Washingtonian, from any spot in the order, with five hits and a stolen base, doing so on May 20, 2014.

When Turner had that other five-hit game last June 24 in an 18-3 thumping of Cincinnati, there was also a player (Michael Taylor) whose four-hit game he overshadowed. Enter Andrew Stevenson on Wednesday. He had four hits and four RBIs, yet didn't lead the team in either category. Only one other player in franchise history had pulled that off, and he called Wednesday's game for MASN. F.P. Santangelo had four hits and five driven in, but Mark Grudzielanek had five hits, and David Segui had six RBIs, as the Expos beat up the Rockies 21-9 at Coors Field on April 28, 1996.

And would you believe the repeating isn't done? Look at the Nats' schedule from last season. On April 25, they went to Coors Field and won a 15-12 slugfest with the Rockies. On April 25 of this year they visited another NL West team and again scored exactly 15 runs. The last team to score 15+ in road games exactly a year apart was the Phillies of 1936 and 1937, doing so on consecutive May 22's (also 15 at Giants, but 19 at Reds). The Nats are the first team since at least 1900 to score exactly the same number 15 or higher in that situation.


Section 142, Row 1, Seat 0

Meanwhile, back in Pittsburgh, the Tigers and Pirates finished off their season series (on April 26!) with a 1-0 game, the kind the Tigers have become infamous for losing. Since the start of the 2016 season, they've been on the wrong end of 10 such games, while only the Padres (6) and Marlins (5) have even half that many. But look at that schedule again. After that 13-10 game on Revised Opening Day, the teams' third scheduled contest also got snowed out, and in an Easter Sunday doubleheader, the Pirates won the opener in Detroit by, yep, a 1-0 count on Gregory Polanco's 1st-inning double. While 1-0 is much more common than 13-10, and thus we must restrict this to Pirates history, it's the sixth time in the live-ball era that Pittsburgh has won a 1-0 home game and a 1-0 road game against the same opponent in the same season. Guess who they did it to last. Yep, the Tigers in 2013. Before that it was the 1988 Mets... and before them the 1978 Mets. The other two such teams they've victimized? The 1962 Reds... and the 1924 Reds.

And while it wasn't Gregory Polanco who came through with the 1-0 win on Thursday (that honor probably technically belongs to a fan in the front row in right field), it was Corey Dickerson who hit a solo homer for the walkoff. The Pirates' last such win is a game that won't soon be forgotten: Josh Harrison's 10th-inning shot to break up Rich Hill's no-hitter last August 23. For all their 1-0 losses, however, the Tigers hadn't been walked off on a 1-0 solo homer since August 26, 1992, when the Twins' Brian Harper went deep off John Kiely.


One Magnificent Mile

After seeing what their division-mates had done in Thursday's "getaway day" game, the Cubs decided to repeat the same feat in Thursday's night opener with Milwaukee. It wasn't a walkoff, but Kyle Schwarber's 6th-inning tater stood up for the Cubs' first 1-0 home win over the Brewers since Addison Russell's solo homer held up on May 1, 2015. Rondell White (May 25, 2001) is the only other Cub to singlehandedly beat the Brewers with a solo homer at Wrigley, and in a neat twist caused by them switching leagues, the Brewers also lost one such game on the South Side. Ed Herrmann's solo homer gave the White Sox a 1-0 win over Milwaukee at Comiskey Park on July 11, 1971.

And speaking of 1-0 games in Chicago, the Mariners took one at the new(er) version of Comiskey Park on Tuesday, their second such win in team history. On September 18, 1987, Mark Langston and Floyd Bannister hooked up in a double complete game, with the lone run being unearned after Seattle's John Christensen reached on an error in the 5th. The Mariners hadn't won any 1-0 road game, in any ballpark, since doing so at Target Field on August 27, 2012! That was, by over a year, the longest drought of such a thing in the majors; the "honor" now passes to Oakland.

Lest you thought we were done with Chicago, Yoan Moncada cranked a leadoff homer to open Wednesday's game with the Mariners... and then repeated it on Thursday in the series opener in Kansas City. He's the fourth player in White Sox history to hit leadoff homers in back-to-back games, and amazingly no one did it before 2002. Kenny Lofton was the first, followed by Alejandro De Aza in 2013 and Adam Eaton in 2015. Adam Eaton, by the way, and bringing this full-circle-- had the Nationals' last 5-hit game (March 31) prior to Trea Turner repeating that line on Wednesday.


Dirty Dozens

While there were no exact repeats of scores, a whopping six teams scored at least 11 runs on Saturday, the most in exactly three years (to the day, April 28, 2015). Unlike that day three years ago, all of them won, and all of them big. The Astros dropped an 11-0 score on Oakland as part of a series that saw multiple no-hit bids get to the 5th inning (insert AL West wisecrack here); Houston also shut out the White Sox by a 10-0 count last week and is the only team to have a pair of double-digit shutouts this season. In fact, the rest of MLB only has one (by the Royals over the Mariners). Houston's never even two before the end of May, let alone April.

Meanwhile, out in Anaheim, Zack Cozart's solo home run was the only dent in another 11, this one posted by the Yankees for their eighth straight victory. The Yankees batted around in each of the first two innings, scoring five times in each, the first game where they've done the latter since beating Tampa Bay 17-3 on September 13, 2005. In their 293 games at Anaheim Stadium since 1966, the Yankees had never before scored 10 runs by the end of the 2nd inning there. More impressively, Cozart hit the only homer of Saturday's game, meaning the potent Yankees offense tallied 11 scores without going deep, which they hadn't done in a victory since May 25, 2009 (at Texas), and hadn't done in Anaheim since a 13-11 slugfest on April 9, 1997. Garrett Richards got the dubious honor of being the second starter in Angels history to give up at least nine runs without getting through the 2nd inning; the other was Ramon Ortiz against the White Sox on September 3, 2000.

While Richards was giving up nine runs to one New York, the other New York team was also involved in a pitcher meltdown-- except it was their own. Jason Vargas, signed to a two-year deal in February, made his Mets debut after breaking his non-throwing hand in spring training. Unfortunately, his throwing hand looked a bit broken also as the Padres pounded him before his removal in the 4th inning. He becomes the third hurler to give up at least nine runs in his first start as a Met; the others are Steve Trachsel in 2001, and David Cone in 1987 (Cone made several bullpen appearances early that year before the fateful first start). San Diego walked over the Mets 12-2 as Austin Hedges drove in five of those runs batting in the eight-hole. Only six players in Padres history have done that, and Hedges is the first at home (either stadium). The last was Gary Bennett at Coors Field on September 20, 2003. Four of the six are catchers.

And repeating the Reds' 15-run outburst from Friday, Saturday's highest-scoring game was the day game of the Dodgers/Giants doubleheader (caused by the rare rainout we discussed a few weeks ago). Los Angeles went a whopping 12-for-27 with runners in scoring position and beat up the Giants 15-6. It's only the second 15-6 score in the 2,461-game series between the two; the other one was the reverse (Giants over Dodgers) at the Polo Grounds on May 30, 1929. Three different Dodgers had three hits, three runs scored, and multiple RBIs, and that doesn't even count Joc Pederson's 4-for-5 day (he didn't score). The team hadn't done that since July 21, 2001, when Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green, Gary Sheffield, and Adrian Beltre led a 22-7 outburst at Coors Field. Chase Utley recorded three doubles, the first Dodger to do that at AT&T Park in exactly nine years (Manny Ramirez, April 28, 2009), and also scored four runs. Since the move to the west coast, only two other Dodgers have hit three doubles and scored four times in a game; the others are Kirk Gibson (1988) and Steve Garvey (1977). And combined with Chris Taylor's four runs out of the leadoff spot, it marked the first time the Dodgers' one- and two-hitters both crossed the plate that often since Johnny Frederick and Eddie Moore did it against the Phillies on September 6, 1930.


Intermission
We originally thought of titling this one Déjà Vu All Over Again, but it didn't quite capture the spirit of having very similar things happen twice (as opposed to the exact same thing). So we changed it because, well, if you can't imitate him, don't copy him.


Connect The Dots

Regular readers have probably noticed that we tend to use ellipses... for dramatic effect, and frequently when a player is both the subject and object of his own note. That sure happened a lot this week, with players repeating their own stellar (or not so much) performance from earlier in the year, last year, or even further back.

Cole Hamels hit three batters in the Rangers' 3-2 loss to Oakland on Tuesday. It had been just over two years since a Texas pitcher plunked three opponents, and naturally, the last one to do it was Cole Hamels (April 20, 2016, vs Astros). Only two others in franchise history have had two such games; knuckleballer Charlie Hough did it in back-to-back starts in 1987, and Ted Broberg managed to do it across the move-- once in 1971 in the team's final season in Washington, and again in 1972 as a Texas Ranger.

The Rangers came back to win Wednesday's game against Kendall Graveman, who saw his record drop to 0-5 on the season after an Opening Day no-decision. Graveman is the first A's pitcher to lose five straight starts, with no ND's in between, since (of course) Kendall Graveman did it in April and May of 2016. The last Oaklander to have two such "streaks" was Rick Langford who did it in 1980 and again in 1983.

The Diamondbacks held on for a 5-4 win over Washington on Friday despite Zack Godley allowing 10 hits and three walks (the Nats stranded 10 runners). The last Arizona pitcher to give up 10 hits and 4 ER and get the win? Why that's Zack Godley, July 24, 2016, at Cincinnati. Only one other pitcher in team history has done it twice, and that was complete-game machine Randy Johnson.

In that same game Friday, A.J. Pollock became the ninth player this season (already!) to miss the cycle by the double. But he's the first Diamondback to do it since... A.J. Pollock against the Phillies on August 10, 2015. Pollock has actually pulled off that "feat" three times (also once in 2014), the first player in Arizona history to do so (Jay Bell and Mark Reynolds are among those with two).

Alex Cobb got tagged for 10 hits and five runs in the Rays' 8-4 win over the Orioles on Wednesday. He also had the seldom-seen-anymore zero strikeouts despite retiring 14 batters. Well, for most pitchers it's seldom seen. Cobb, however, is the first Orioles pitcher to give up 10 hits and strike out 0 since... Alex Cobb did it two starts ago (April 14 at Boston). The Orioles/Browns franchise hadn't had a pitcher do that twice in a season since Al Papai in 1949, and their last to pull it off twice in a month was Vern Kennedy in June 1940.

Jacob deGrom appeared to be the deGrom of old this week (although he was facing the Braves and Padres, so). After throwing seven scoreless innings and fanning 10 Braves last Saturday, deGrom threw another 7⅓ on Friday in San Diego while striking out eight. In so doing, he became just the third pitcher in Mets history to have back-to-back starts, both on the road, with 7+ scoreless innings and at least 8 K's in each. If you guessed one of them was Tom Seaver, you're correct (August 1971, both in southern California). The other was longtime Royal Kevin Appier, who played his lone NL season in 2001 with the Mets and did it in June of that year while visiting the two Florida teams.

Speaking of Florida teams, the Marlins were on the wrong end of the 20th 1-0 win in Colorado Rockies history on Friday (as you might expect based on their home field, that's the fewest in the majors since 1993). Jose Ureña threw seven innings and struck out five Rockies, but did allow the one run and thus ate the loss. No Miami pitcher had done that since... Jose Ureña, in another 1-0 loss last July 31 (to Washington). The only other Marlins to have two such games in their history are Kevin Brown and Josh Johnson.

Josh Tomlin gave up four homers in losing to the Cubs 10-3 on Tuesday. Kyle Schwarber hit two of them, becoming the first batter in Cubs history to have a multi-homer game in Cleveland. (Derrek Lee on June 19, 2009, remains the only one to do so against the Indians at home.) But at least Tomlin isn't alone; he's the second Indians pitcher this year to give up four dingers in a game. And the other-- oh, wait, he is alone. It's Josh Tomlin, who did it on April 3 in Anaheim. Cleveland's last pitcher to do it twice in a season (although he managed it in back-to-back starts) was Carl Pavano in July 2009.


Anything You Can Do,

With the bar for the week set at four homers, Jakob Junis of the Royals said, watch this. Anyone can give up four, but it takes talent (and a very stubborn manager) to give up five. The White Sox scored all six of their runs in Thursday's win via longballs off Junis, making him the third pitcher in Royals history to give up five homers in a game (and the first at home). Chris Young did it at Yankee Stadium on May 9, 2016; and Sean O'Sullivan allowed five at Texas on May 28, 2011. Junis also uncorked two wild pitches; since 1900, only he and the Giants' Allen Watson (April 19, 1996, at Wrigley) have posted a 5-HR, 2-WP game. As for the White Sox, it was their second time this year collecting five homers at Kauffman Stadium (also Opening Day). In the previous 61 seasons of baseball in Kansas City, they'd done it twice-- total (vs Royals in 2003 and A's in 1955).

On Friday the Mariners' Erasmo Ramirez jumped on the five-homer bandwagon, surrendering all solo shots to the Indians in their 6-3 win. Chris Young, mentioned above, was the last pitcher to allow five solo homers in a game, but Ramirez joined Jason Vargas (2012), Jamie Moyer (2006), and our friend Mark Langston (1988) in the Royals' 5-HR club. Ramirez is the first of that group to allow three additional extra-base hits in addition to the five homers.


If You Can't Beat 'Em...

And when it wasn't one player repeating his own performance, it was someone teaming up with another player to do the exact same thing.

On Monday, Cody Bellinger gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win over the Marlins with an 8th-inning otherwise-uninteresting sacrifice fly. Except that it came one day and one inning after Corey Seager hit one to beat the Nationals 4-3 in last weekend's series finale. The last time Los Angeles hit a go-ahead sac fly in the 7th or later of consecutive games, both were against the Nationals. Those were by Andre Ethier and Shea Hillenbrand (who had a walkoff) on August 28 and 29, 2007.

On Wednesday the Twins and Yankees hooked up in a 7-4 affair, with Miguel Sano starting the scoring with a 2-run homer in the 1st. Didi Gregorius answered that with an RBI single and then a solo homer in the 3rd. Sano walked. Didi singled. Sano singled. Didi walked. And so forth. By the end of the game, each of them-- both hitting third in their team's order-- had collected two hits, two walks, two runs batted in, and a home run. And since RBI became an official stat in 1920, only two other pairs of number-three hitters had matched that line in the same game. Atlanta's Chipper Jones and Philadelphia's Scott Rolen did it on April 13, 1998, while Pat Seerey of the Indians matched wits with the Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams, on May 3, 1946.

J.D. Martinez (we told you we'd get back to him later!) hit a three-run homer in the 5th inning that ultimately gave the Red Sox a 5-4 win in Toronto on Thursday. That scene was reminiscent of one just 24 hours earlier, when Mookie Betts's second dinger of the game put Boston out in front 4-3 in the 7th. It had been nearly 13 years since the Red Sox had homered to turn a deficit into a lead in back-to-back road games... and back then it was the same player. Trot Nixon hit both dingers himself in a series in Seattle on May 13 and 14, 2005.

The breakout story of the week was clearly Ronald Acuña of the Braves, the 20-year-old from Venezuela who made his major-league debut and finished the week batting .421 with five extra-base hits in five games. In Thursday's game he got his first major-league hit, and they couldn't exactly save the ball for him. It was a home run to left field as Atlanta beat Cincinnati 7-4. (He did eventually get the ball.) Three innings later, Ozzie Albies, less than a year his senior, would also go deep, and the pair drove in two of the final three Braves runs with RBI doubles. Those doubles gave them a special place in major-league history. In the live-ball era, the only other set of teammates to homer and double in the same game, at a younger age than Acuña and Albies, are two guys you've seen if you've ever been to Fenway Park. They're retired on the right-field bleachers: Bobby Doerr and Ted Williams, July 4, 1939, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

The Mariners were one of those teams that erupted for 12 runs on Saturday (okay, retract AL West wisecrack), largely on the back of Jean Segura (although Nelson Cruz also chipped in four hits). The Seattle shortstop finished with three hits, three runs scored, four driven in, and a stolen base-- the first Mariner to post that line since Edgar Martinez did it at Comiskey Park on August 30, 1999. On Sunday the Mariners repeated their double-digit performance-- the first time they'd ever done so in Cleveland-- with a 10-4 victory and another line of three hits, three runs scored, and four driven in. This time it was Ryon Healy, and it marked the first time-- minus the stolen base-- that two Mariners had repeated that line in back-to-back games since Edgar followed Alex Rodriguez against the Blue Jays (April 16) and White Sox (April 18) in 2000. (Though partial credit to Justin Smoak and Jesús Montero who did it in the same game in 2012.) In Sunday's game Mitch Haniger pulled a repeat of his own, with a homer, a triple, and three runs scored. He was the first Mariner to do that since... Mitch Haniger, last September 9 against the Angels. And the other two Seattle hitters to have two such games in team history have already been mentioned-- Edgar and A-Rod.

And finally, reliever Greg Holland of the Cardinals faced four batters on Friday. He retired none of them. Three hits, an error, and three runs later, Holland had blown the save and the Pirates would walk off on Starling Marte's single in the 11th. Turns out the previous Cardinals reliever to face four batters, retire zero, and blow a save... was Tyler Lyons who did it just six days earlier (April 21). Since saves became an official stat in 1969, they are the first pair of Cardinals to pull that off within a week of each other.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Mets, Sunday: First time in team history that nine different batters had multiple hits in a game. Also first time eight different Mets had two hits and a run scored (sorry, Michael Conforto).

⚾ Reynaldo Lopez, Friday: First White Sox pitcher to allow 10 hits, strike out ≤ 2, hit two batters, and not take the loss since "Doc" White did it in the first season at Tiger Stadium, June 28, 1912.

⚾ Jay Bruce, Tuesday: First Mets batter with a homer and a triple in St. Louis since Kevin McReynolds hit for the cycle on August 1, 1989.

⚾ Didi Gregorius, Friday: Hit Yankees' first extra-inning home run in Anaheim since Tino Martinez on August 21, 1997.

⚾ Ryan LaMarre, Monday, to Tyler Austin: First position player in Twins/Senators history to give up a home run (while pitching) in the Bronx.

⚾ Scooter Gennett, Tuesday: Second player in Reds history with 3 hits and 4 RBI including an extra-inning walkoff homer. Adam Dunn did it against Montréal on June 5, 2004.

⚾ Nick Kingham, Sunday: Third pitcher in live-ball era to throw 7+ innings in MLB debut and allow no more than one baserunner. Joins Johnny Cueto (2008) and the Padres' Jimmy Jones in 1986.

⚾ Gary Sanchez, Thursday: First Yankee to "redeem" himself for an earlier fielding error by hitting a walkoff homer since Alex Rodriguez vs Indians, April 19, 2007.

⚾ Antonio Senzatela, Friday: First relief pitcher to drive in the lone run in a 1-0 victory since Joe Niekro's 17th-inning walkoff against the Cubs on August 23, 1980.

⚾ Matt Chapman & Jake Smolinski, Monday: First Athletics teammates to triple in the 9th inning or later of same game since Ed Charles & Tim Talton vs Indians, July 9, 1966.

⚾ Dexter Fowler, Thursday: Cardinals' latest walkoff hit vs Mets since Ray Lankford singled off John Franco in the 14th on August 12, 1998.

⚾ Jesse Biddle, Sunday: First Braves relief pitcher to strike out 5+ batters and record an extra-base hit on offense since Ron Reed (seven innings and a triple!) at Mets, September 3, 1968.

⚾ Reds, Friday: All nine starters had at least 1 RBI, first such game for Cincinnati since August 6, 1975, in a 12-5 win at Candlestick Park.


Did You Know?

The Reds' win on Friday by the bizarre score of 15-9 was just the third in their history, and all have been on the road. They last did it on September 27, 1941, in Pittsburgh in the next-to-last game of that season. The other was in the final game of the season-- in 1891, and was played at the second incarnation of South Side Park in Chicago. That stadium on 35th Street had been home to the Chicago Pirates of the Players League in 1890, a team which featured Charles Comiskey. South Side II was abandoned by the National League team after 1893, but the land would later become the site of the original Comiskey Park.

-Teen Talk

At #Kernels we know there comes a time when every young baseball season starts to change. It can be difficult and full of questions, and so we're here to help. Not with social pressure or family issues or the "birds and the bees", that's a different website. We do have some birds however. And some "BB"s (walks).


Ocean's Thirteen

The Tigers have been in sort of an awkward phase lately, setting dubious records for 1-0 losses and low-hit games, and that's when they even manage to play (considering the weather this month). This week felt like the Tigers might be starting to discover themselves; they sandwiched two walkoff home runs around a 13-run breakout against the Orioles on Thursday.

John Hicks's three-run blast in the 8th inning Wednesday turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead, and was the first such Tigers homer (go-ahead HR when down by 2 in the 8th or later) since J.D. Martinez took Glen Perkins of the Twins deep on September 16, 2014. Naturally Shane Greene gave that lead right back when Luis Sardinas led off the top of the 9th with a solo shot. It had been 13 years since a Baltimore pinch hitter hit a game-tying homer in the 9th inning of a road game; Rafael Palmeiro did it in Boston on September 22, 2004. But then Dixon Machado led off Detroit's half of the 9th with a walkoff dinger, the first of his career and the Tigers' first against Baltimore since Johnny Damon on July 6, 2010.

That Johnny Damon walkoff in 2010 capped a big game by Miguel Cabrera who had a homer and a triple out of the cleanup spot. That remained the last such performance by a Tiger... until Saturday when Nicholas Castellanos did it in a 12-4 romp over the Royals. Castellanos threw in 3 RBIs (to Miggy's 2) and thus became Detroit's first cleanup hitter with that line since Dmitri Young had two of each hit in Baltimore on May 6, 2003.

But for Detroit it was Thursday's game that fits the "13" category; it was the first time the Tigers had piled up that many runs against Baltimore since September 15, 2006 (W 17-2). Leonys Martin, who had been the lone adult in the room for the first several weeks of Detroit's schedule, hit a triple and a grand slam in consecutive innings, the first Tiger to do so since Steve Kemp against Cleveland on September 20, 1980. (Shout-out, however, to Brandon Inge who did it in the same inning in 2004.)

Jose Iglesias collected a single, a double, a triple, and 3 RBIs while batting 8th; Omar Infante (May 8, 2007 vs Seattle) had been the last Tiger to do that. And adding Jeimer Candelario and Miguel Cabrera to Martin's leadoff prowess, it marked the first time Detroit's top three batters had combined for 10 hits since May 4, 2013. That group was also anchored by Miggy, with Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter as his leadoff acts.

Friday brought the Royals back to town for a makeup doubleheader, and in the day game the Tigers once again got their walkoff homer, this time off the bat of JaCoby Jones. Combined with Machado, it was Detroit's first occurrence in over 13 years of two walkoff homers in a three-game span. It last happened from June 26-29, 2004, when Eric Munson, Carlos Peña, and Dmitri Young hit them in three straight games.

Jason Hammel threw a "complete game", except he didn't because it was a 2-2 tie and Brad Keller was needed to give up the walkoff homer in the 10th. Hammel was the first Royals pitcher to toss 9+ innings, allow 2 or fewer runs, and not win the game since Jose Lima was on the wrong end of a 1-0 score, also against the Tigers, on August 14, 2005. When Jakob Junis went eight innings in the night game, it marked the first time Royals starters had gone 8+ in both games of a DH since Kevin Appier and Luis Aquino did it on July 20, 1990.

And as for JaCoby, he legged out a three-bagger in the night game, the first Tiger to homer in one game and triple in the other (either order) since Billy McMillon did it against the Red Sox on September 16, 2000.


I'm Just Mad About Fourteen

You could say Wednesday's scoreboard had an early growth spurt when the White Sox and Athletics raced to a 6-4 game after two innings and a 9-8 score after four. Like John Hicks above, Jed Lowrie hit a two-run homer in the 8th to turn a 10-9 deficit into an 11-10 Oakland lead, the team's first such longball in a home game against Chicago since Miguel Tejada on August 5, 1999. So when Tim Anderson singled to left in the 9th and Tyler Saladino beat the play at the plate, well, we're regressing back to those pre-teen years where the inning is 10, and both teams are 11 but really want to be 12.

However, despite multiple baserunners in the 10th and 12th innings, it would take what seemed like forever for somebody to turn 12. That finally happened in the 14th inning when a single and two walks loaded the bases, and then Matt Olson's fourth hit of the afternoon scored Marcus Semien with the walkoff. The last Oaklander to have 4+ hits including a walkoff was Kurt Suzuki against the Marlins on June 20, 2008; and less than a month after that was the last time the White Sox talled 11 runs and 17 hits in a loss (July 13, 2008, at Texas).

And while it was only five years ago, that will seem like an eternity when we tell you that the last time the Athletics walked off in the 14th or later, the pitcher who gave it up was Mariano Rivera. Nate Freiman's bases-loaded single made legal the Yankees' 18-inning loss on June 13, 2013.

The A's got in on the "13" category in their previous game on Tuesday when Mark Canha, Steven Piscotty, and Jonathan Lucroy combined for eight hits and eight RBIs in their 10-2 win over the White Sox. The catch being that those players are 7-8-9 in the batting order, and it had been over three decades since the bottom third of the Oakland order did that. Mike Davis, Donnie Hill, and Alfredo Griffin combined for nine hits and 10 RBIs in a 19-3 beatdown of Milwaukee on May 15, 1985.


You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful...
We know, we skipped one. Hold that thought. Besides, we all wanted to fast-forward to 16 anyway.

In stark contrast to the Chicago/Oakland game, Cleveland and Minnesota just refused to grow up on Wednesday, with neither team scoring in the first nine innings and only one of them even getting to third base. By the end of the 13th, still neither team had scored, the first 0-0 game to reach that point since the Red Sox and Rays did it on July 17, 2011.

Edwin Encarnacion for the Indians stepped up and hit a solo home run in the top of the 14th, the first time a tater had broken a scoreless tie that late in a game since August 7, 2009, when Alex Rodriguez walked off against then-Bostonian Junichi Tazawa. But not so fast, the Twins get to bat too. And when Miguel Sano also homered in the bottom of the 14th, we had a first in major-league history (to say nothing of two more innings to play). No two teams had ever before traded homers after going scoreless through 13, and finally in the bottom of the 16th, Ryan LaMarre delivered a bases-loaded walkoff single. That was the second-latest walkoff in Twins history (1961); Pedro Muñoz went yard, also against Cleveland, on August 31, 1993, to start the bottom of the twenty-second inning.

The Cubs had their own "sweet 16" on Friday, and like many teams, they held their party at Coors Field in Denver. They broke the game open with a seven-run 6th, five of those scoring on home runs by Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber. Baez finished with four hits and four driven in, the first Cub not named Kris Bryant to do that in almost six years (Alfonso Soriano, July 13, 2012). Leadoff man Albert Almora, whom Baez was always driving in, finished with four hits and four runs scored; it was the first time two Cubs teammates had posted those lines in the same game since Aramis Ramirez and Kosuke Fukudome did it in Houston on April 8, 2009. Baez also scored twice, making him and Almora the first set of Cubs 1-2 hitters to each have four hits and two runs since Tom Goodwin and Mark Grudzielanek against the Braves on July 21, 2003.

The Cubs hadn't won a 16-5 game since the front end of a doubleheader with Cincinnati on June 28, 1961. But amazingly, there have been four 16-5 scores in the majors in the past year, and the Rockies were on the wrong end of three of them. That exact score hadn't come up that frequently since an 11-month window from September 1893 to August 1894.


Intermission
Original working title for this post as of about Thursday night. We couldn't sustain a narrative about building a fort out of sheets though.


Fifteen Minutes Of Fame

Like a lot of kids, the Blue Jays went from 11 to 15 seemingly overnight. Although in this case it was literally overnight; after beating the Royals 11-3 on Tuesday, they came back with a 15-run, 15-hit attack on Wednesday including a totally unnecessary six-run 8th. The last time the Jays ran up 15 runs on Kansas City was May 16, 2003, and the last time they did it at home (15 Canadian runs is still like 12 U.S. runs) was April 20, 1990, in the first full season at Skydome.

While Curtis Granderson hit a grand slam in that 8th inning-- his first with the Blue Jays-- it was Teoscar Hernandez who stole the show with four hits including a homer and triple, plus four runs driven in. No Blue Jay had put up that line since Vernon Wells did it against Baltimore on September 24, 2002. And the Grandy/Teoscar duo became the second pair of 1- and 2-hitters in Jays history to each have 4 RBIs in a home game. Devon White and Alex Gonzalez did that on "Opening Day" 1995 (which was not really supposed to be Opening Day, but the season started three weeks late because of the strike.)

Alas we can't do any kind of back-to-back 11-run-game notes for Toronto because that 11-3 game on Tuesday was the first half of a straight doubleheader, necessitated when stuff falling from the CN Tower next door caused Monday's game to be "iced out" over safety concerns. The only other postponement in Skydome history was on April 12, 2001, when parts of the roof came crashing down onto the field during a test closure. The last doubleheader there was on October 5, 2001, and was not a makeup of the April contest. The Jays' final game of the year in Cleveland got rained out the week before, but they still had a series left in Toronto, so MLB invoked the rule that says it can be made up at the opposite site. Oddly, that doubleheader was also won on a walkoff single, by Alex Gonzalez (Luke Maile recorded the one on Tuesday to complete the sweep).

Justin Grimm gave up three runs and didn't record an out in that second game on Tuesday, and then got shelled for all six runs on one out in Wednesday's 8th inning. He is the first pitcher in Royals history to post a line of ≤ 1 out and 3+ earned runs on back-to-back days; Aaron Crow is the only other one to do it in back-to-back games, but with an off-day in between (April 18 & 20, 2014).


Sox-y And Seventeen

We spent most of our first few columns lamenting teams that couldn't get out of the gate this year. Which means we really haven't said much at all about the Boston Red Sox. Just saying they're in first place would bury the lead.

Alas, the week started with the annual Patriots' Day game-- along with July 4 in Washington, one of just two "a.m." starts on the schedule each year-- getting rained out. Although there have been some memorably long delays, the game hadn't been flat-out postponed since 1984. But maybe that's somehow fitting.

The 1984 Tigers own the record for the best 40-game start to a season, going 35-5 that year and 16-2 through their first 18 contests. When the Red Sox went to Anaheim and swept the Angels in midweek, it ran their record to-- you guessed it-- 16-2. Tuesday's 10-1 beatdown featured six home runs, the most the Sawx have ever hit against Anaheim, and three of them were by Mookie Betts, the first visiting player to do that at The Big A since Andruw Jones of the Rangers on July 8, 2009. Wednesday's 9-0 shutout was the biggest ever for the Red Sox against Anaheim, who had been the only remaining AL team that Boston had never shut out by 9 or more. And while their run production dropped to only 8 in the finale on Thursday, Mookie hit another leadoff homer, the first visiting player ever to hit three of them in the 53-year history of Anaheim Stadium. It also marked the third straight game where the Sawx had posted 8+ runs, 14+ hits, and won by at least 6. They hadn't done that on the road since June 20-22, 1912... in Manhattan! That's back when the Yankees were still the Hilltoppers because they played on the cliffs of Washington Heights.

By the way, you probably know those '84 Tigers won the World Series.

The '88 Dodgers also won the World Series. And if you're wondering what their connection to the Red Sox is, well, fast-forward to their weekend series in Oakland which started innocently enough. They won the opener on Friday, thanks mostly to Kendall Graveman giving up a three-run tater to Jackie Bradley in the 2nd and then loading the bases in the 6th before getting pulled-- just in time for Mitch Moreland to hit Boston's first grand slam in Oakland since Creighton Gubanich (who was a real player) did it on May 3, 1999. Since earned runs were first tallied in the American League (1913), Graveman is the second A's hurler to give up at least four of them in each of his first five starts of a season. The other was Lee "Buck" Ross in 1936.

It was of course Saturday's game that was the big story of the weekend, when the 17-2 Red Sox went four innings without managing a hit against Sean Manaea. And then five when Marcus Semien tried to make a running over-the-shoulder catch on a Sandy Leon pop-up but it clanged off his glove. (Even the Oakland radio guys cited the "ordinary effort" rule and said it might get revisited. They didn't mention that afterwards though.) And then six when Andrew Benintendi appeared to beat out an infield single up the first-base line but Bob Melvin successfully argued that he was out of the baseline and the hit got taken off the board (again). And you know where this is headed.

We should have seen it coming; the last three no-hitters thrown in the month of April have all been on the 21st-- two years ago by Jake Arrieta, and six years ago in the form of Philip Humber's perfect game (which is still a thing that really happened). And the last April no-hitter thrown in the state of California was by Atlanta's Kent Mercker on April 8, 1994, at Dodger Stadium. Mercker and Manaea share a birthday, February 1. And putting cart before horse, it was not the 1994 Dodgers, but the '88 squad, that was the last team to get no-hit and also win the World Series that same season.

Lost in the madness that is every no-hitter was Chris Sale's 7-inning, 10-strikeout game; it was the first game this season where both starting pitchers hit double digits in K's. And Marcus Semien scored all three Oakland runs, the first Athletics leadoff hitter to do that (3 or more) since the great Bert Campaneris in a loss to Detroit on September 2, 1968.

But the saddest trombone may be for the Mariners' Chris Bosio, who threw the previous no-hitter against the Red Sox. That was at the Kingdome on April 22, 1993-- twenty-five years minus one day before Manaea did it. No word on whether the planned anniversary celebration at the Bosio house went ahead anyway (you can't get your deposit back on some of those party tents and stuff).


Late Bloomers

We've talked about them before, but there are still a few teams out there who are lagging a little bit behind their classmates. But we're sure that soon enough they'll catch up and be just fine. Actually, no, we're not sure of that.

The Reds, who are already on their second manager of the young season, got their third (!) win of the year on Monday to start a series with Milwaukee. Somehow, at homer-happy Miller Park, they still managed to do it without going deep, just the second time they've ever scored 10 runs there without one (won 12-4 on July 27, 2010). Likewise, the Brewers managed just one extra-base hit in the game, and it was by relief pitcher Jorge Lopez batting for himself. He doubled and drove in two runs, just the second RP in team history with an XBH and multiple RBIs. And the other might not really count; it was converted outfielder Brooks Kieschnick in 2003.

Not to worry, the Reds would soon regain their old form, losing back-to-back 2-0 shutouts Tuesday and Wednesday with only three hits in each game. They've been shut out on ≤ 3 hits in consecutive games just six times in the live-ball era, and the only other occurrence in the past 30 years was in September 2014 at Wrigley Field. The Brewers pitching staff, in franchise history, had never done that to the same opponent in consecutive games. Together with April 8 and 10, it was the first time since at least 1907 (full linescores aren't readily available before that) that the Reds had been held to ≤ 3 hits four times within their first 18 games of a season.

It didn't get any better when the Reds went to St Louis for the weekend, getting swept by counts of 4-2, 4-3, and 9-2. Joey Votto did walk four times in Saturday's contest, the third time he's done it in a team loss. That's the most on record in Reds history. The 3-18 start also sets a dubious record as the Reds' worst start ever, surpassing their 4-17 mark in the 1931 campaign (they would finish 58-96, in last place and 43 games behind the Cardinals).

Meanwhile, after an 11-4 start, the Pirates managed to get swept in Philadelphia over the weekend, scoring five runs total in the four-game set and getting walked off in the 11th inning on Sunday. Thursday's opener saw them collect just one hit against Jake Arrieta (plus one off the bullpen), Pittsburgh's first time ever held to two hits at Citizens Bank Park. They last did it at the Vet on September 15, 2002, which was also the last game where any Phillies pitcher (in this case, Randy Wolf) allowed exactly one hit (not an NH) and struck out 10 opponents. When the Pirates followed that up with only one run on Friday, it also invoked that September 2002 series as the last time they scored that little in back-to-back games in Philly. And Aaron Altherr's single on Sunday marked the first time the Phillies walked off to complete a four-game sweep of their in-state rivals since June 25, 1975, when a bases-loaded walk to Mike Schmidt meant a 7-6 loss. Schmidt received only two servings of "shrimp" (as a game-ending walk is known to baseball Twitter) in his whole career; the other was in 1980.

And a couple of teams we haven't mentioned in this sense, the Nationals and Orioles, both got shut out on two hits Saturday against the Dodgers and Indians respectively. The last time the Nats/Expos franchise managed that against the Dodgers was on July 26, 1991, against Orel Hershiser and two relievers. Meanwhile, Mike Clevinger became just the second Clevelander to throw a two-hit shutout (or better) at Camden Yards. Charles Nagy one-hit the Birds on August 8, 1992, in Oriole Park's first season. By virtue of Baltimore not having a team for the first 51 of these seasons, it was the first time since at least 1902 (and again, we don't have complete hit totals before that) that Washington and Baltimore got shut out on ≤ 2 hits on the same day.


'18 And Life

Although they started to pick things up in their weekend series with Anaheim, the Giants were shut down by Arizona, with their only win of this week's series requiring extra innings (and even then they gave up a run; fortunately they were leading by 2). Patrick Corbin gave us another no-hitter scare by taking one into the 8th before Brandon Belt dribbled an infield single to short and beat the throw. That would be the only hit of the game off Corbin, who joined Brandon Webb (2006) and Randy Johnson (2003) as the only Diamondbacks to throw an SHO-1 at Chase Field. (The D'backs are one of five teams who've never thrown a no-hitter at home.)

That also meant Arizona needed only three singles of their own and one run to win the game; they'd done that just once before in their history (September 19, 2004, at St Louis). Corbin, for his part, would strike out 11 Padres on Sunday and become the first pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 2005 to record at least 8 K's in each of his first five outings of a season.

And between the 1-0 loss on Tuesday and another 3-1 defeat on Thursday, San Francisco scored either 0 or 1 runs a whopping 10 times in its first 18 games of 2018. The only other team in the live-ball era to pull that off was the 1988 Orioles, who of course started the season 0-21. But at least when you get to 21, you (legally) have the option to drown your sorrows.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Ryan Zimmerman, Wednesday: First player (for any team) with two homers and a triple at Citi Field. Last to do it at Shea was Rico Brogna against the Cubs on May 11, 1996.

⚾ Miguel Andujar, Sunday: Youngest Yankee with four hits, including two for extra bases, in a home game since Mickey Mantle against the Red Sox on May 22, 1954.

⚾ Yasmani Grandal, Monday: Fourth player to hit a grand slam for the Padres and also against the Padres. Others are Jack Clark, Ray Lankford, and Gary Sheffield.

⚾ Lucas Giolito, Saturday: First White Sox pitcher to issue 7 walks while getting ≤ 6 outs since Thornton Lee did it at Tiger Stadium on May 13, 1946.

⚾ Paul DeJong, Tuesday: Second Cardinal in live-ball era with a home run, four strikeouts, and no other hits in a game. Ron Gant did it on September 28, 1996, against the Reds.

⚾ Caleb Smith, Sunday: First pitcher in Marlins history to allow ≤ 2 hits, strike out 10+, and lose. Only other to not get the win (i.e., no decision) was Al Leiter against the Reds on July 28, 1997.

⚾ German Marquez, Monday: 13th starter in live-ball era to give up multiple hits in a game and have all of them be triples. Last was the Braves' Mike Bielecki at Wrigley Field, May 5, 1992.

⚾ Lourdes Gurriel, Friday: 3 RBI in MLB debut, becoming fourth player to do that in a Jays uniform. Others were J.P. Arencibia (2010), Eric Hinske (2002), and Pat Borders (1988).

⚾ Nationals, Monday: Trailed by 5 after seven innings and rallied to win. First such game in franchise's Washington history; had lost previous 236 games in that situation.

⚾ Josh Reddick, Saturday: First Astro to have two homers in a game, with one being a grand slam, since... Josh Reddick on April 3 vs Orioles. First in franchise history to accomplish the feat twice (not just in the same season, but ever).

⚾ Yankees, Monday: Six different batters had at least two hits and one walk in win over Marlins. First time that had happened since May 25, 1947, against the Red Sox. (Snuffy Stirnweiss sighting!)

Hey, Wait For Me

Over the life of #Kernels, an oft-seen phenomenon is that we post about some theme on Sunday night and a couple teams read it (roll with us here) and say, hey, that's a good idea, we should get in on that theme too, and then end up doing it on Monday or Tuesday. So while last week's post "showcased" some of the dreadful offensive performances taking place in the cold, snowy, dreary first half of April, it was not our intent to have more teams duplicate it.


Tiger Beat

The Detroit Tigers were one of the teams we added to our lineup of futility last Sunday when they managed just two singles (both by Leonys Martin-- more in a moment) against the White Sox and won. Pssst. Hey Tigers. It's supposed to be a one-time thing. On Monday they managed just two singles and struck out 13 times against Corey Kluber, marking the first time in (at least) the live-ball era that Detroit had been held to 2 total bases in consecutive games.

Kluber became the first Indians pitcher to tame the Tigers in such fashion (≤ 2 hits and 13+ strikeouts, no matter how many innings) since Bob Feller did it on June 27, 1939. And Cleveland needed that, because they managed just four hits of their own but still won 2-0.

On Tuesday the Tigers' bats broke out for a whopping six hits but still lost to the Indians 2-1. And for the third consecutive game, Cleveland had only four hits in the win, the decider being Roberto Perez's leadoff homer in the bottom of the 8th. Since 1920 only two other teams have collected four hits or fewer in three straight games and won all of them; the 1986 Rangers (in September, starting the day after they were eliminated, so it didn't really matter) and the 1963 Giants (June 13-15).

Wednesday was Cleveland's turn to break out with a 5-1 win that borders on "slugfest" status in the AL Central so far this season. Carlos Carrasco threw the Indians' first complete-game three-hitter against Detroit since "Fausto Carmona" did it on August 21, 2007 (if you don't know why that's in quotes, click here). And while the Tigers' one run was a solo homer by our friend Leonys Martin, the other two hits were singles... by our friend Leonys Martin.

The Tigers' 1-0 win last Sunday was briefly mentioned in the famous "Bottom Of The Bag" section as being Detroit's third such win already this season, but the part we didn't have room for? Guess who had both hits in that victory. Yep, Leonys Martin. Ian Kinsler, on May 6, 2016, was the only other Tiger in the past decade to have multiple hits accounting for the entire team total. And so with Wednesday's three-hit performance-- also accounting for the entire team total-- Leonys currently holds both "records". The 3-hit "record" previously belonged to Edgar Renteria against the Royals on April 2, 2008.

And it seems like Martin might be the only member of the Detroit lineup who enjoys the cold and snow. In Thursday's series finale, he again had three hits (although other Tigers got on the bandwagon this time), becoming the team's first leadoff batter with consecutive three-hit games on the road since Austin Jackson did it in Arlington on June 6 and 7, 2011.


Resistance Is Futile

The Giants famously started their 2018 season with back-to-back 1-0 wins off the bat of Joe Panik. Those do count as wins, so it's something, but the offense is still searching for the next gear. On Friday they collected 10 hits against the Padres, but all of them were singles and they only scored one run. It was San Francisco's first game of that variety (10+ hits, 0 XBH, and ≤ 1 run scored) since July 8, 1985, at St Louis. In Monday's one-run "outburst" against the Diamondbacks, Zack Godley became the first visiting pitcher in the history of AT&T Park (2000) to allow 0 runs, 0 walks, and 9+ strikeouts (in any number of innings); the last to do it at Candlestick was David Cone on May 24, 1992. And the Giants wrapped up the week with, you guessed it, another one-run show, and this time the "10" belonged to San Diego (in the Runs column). Through 15 games of their season, San Francisco has posted six 1's and two 0's, setting a team record for such a thing (they had seven "binary" games out of their first 15 in both 1968 and 1909). The last team in the majors to do it was the 2013 Marlins.

Speaking of futility, we enjoy making fun of the AL West, and with good reason: If you take the last five seasons (2014-18) and count up how many times each team has been held to two hits, the five ALW teams are all in the top nine. The Mariners extended their lead in the category (21 times!) by bookending their week with two more such games. On Monday Jakob Junis of the Royals one-hit them for seven innings. The most recent Kansas City pitcher to throw 7+ innings of scoreless, one-hit ball at Kauffman Stadium had been (really!) Hipolito Pichardo against the Red Sox on July 21, 1992. And back at Safeco, Sean Manaea of the A's two-hit them to end the week on Sunday, although one of the hits was a solo homer. The last Oaklander to throw 7+ innings of two-hit ball at The Safe was Gio Gonzalez, whom frankly we forgot was ever with the Athletics, on September 28, 2010.

The A's weren't immune from the no-hit bug this week either. They went to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and got shut out on just five hits. That was a feat they'd accomplished just twice before, once on June 10, 1998, in a 1-0 interleague loss... and once on June 26, 1964. If that seems curious, remember that the Angels played at Dodger Stadium (renamed "Chavez Ravine" for their games) for four years before completion of the Big A, and the then-Kansas City Athletics lost a 6-0 decision there.

Yes, we know about the 16-6 game. Hold that thought.


Everything's Smaller In Texas

Obviously a lot of this post is already written before Sunday's games have even started, and in the ESPN days, they were limited to about 700 words. So it used to be worrisome when something big would happen on Sunday that didn't fit the theme and a hasty rewrite (or deletion of some other good stuff) became necessary. But the AL West never lets us down. In what was finally an actual pitching duel instead of just a snoozefest, Sunday's final game involved Justin Verlander and 44-year-old Bartolo Colón matching zeroes for seven innings with the exception of a Robinson Chirinos leadoff homer in the 3rd. Until the 8th that was the only hit of the game. No, for either team. JV added one walk while Bartolo retired the first 21 straight before walking Carlos Correa. When Josh Reddick doubled, Nolan Ryan retained his status as the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hiter, and soon the one-hitter notes vanished as well, and so forth. However, Verlander-- not Colón-- joined Ryan in a club with his 11 strikeouts and only one hit allowed. They are the two pitchers in Astros history to post that line, Ryan doing so against the Expos on July 22, 1986 (Mike Fitzgerald 5th-inning double).

With the game tied 1-1 when they left, JV and BC also formed their own special bond. (Editor's note: This is where the accent on Bartolo's name becomes important, because Colon-bonding sounds painful.) Sunday's affair was the first game in (at least) the live-ball era where both starting pitchers went 7+ innings, neither of them gave up more than one hit, and neither one of them got a decision. That was left to Chirinos, who plated the final two Rangers runs with a 10th-inning double. Only one other player in Rangers/Senators history had recorded at least 3 RBI and driven in every run in an extra-inning victory. That was Don Lock, whose walkoff three-run homer put the cap on a win over the Indians on July 29, 1964.

Sunday, of course, was also Jackie Robinson Day, on which every player wears jersey number 42. Had Bartolo Colón chosen (or been given) 42 instead of his usual 40 when he first reached the majors, he would be the last player-- not Mariano Rivera-- to wear it every day. Colón's MLB debut was on April 4, 1997-- eleven days before MLB retired Robinson's number leaguewide but allowed existing wearers to be grandfathered in until they retired.


Pitchers Who Rake

Last week we brought you the fun story of Earl Yingling of the 1914 Cincinnati Red Stockings, who (until now) had been the last Reds pitcher to record the team's only hit. So imagine our surprise when that game came up again less than a week later.

We chuckled when Clayton Richard-- yes, the Padres' pitcher-- broke up Thursday's final no-hit bid in the 3rd inning. The catch being, it wasn't his day to pitch. He was summoned to pinch hit for starter Bryan Mitchell after the latter gave up four hits and five walks on 61 pitches.

Six innings later, neither the Padres (nor we at Kernels) were still chuckling. Richard's single ended up being the only hit for the Padres in the entire game against the Giants' Chris Stratton and Derek Law. So once again we set off on a slightly different search, this time for a team's lone hit being by a pitcher who was himself pinch hitting. We didn't find one. We did find that same game from 1914 because Earl Yingling was listed as "PH-P" and thus the boxscore satisfies both searches. Happily we knew right away (from last week) that Yingling's hit in that game was not in the PH appearance, but after he stayed in to pitch and came around again.

Forgetting the "pitcher" part for a moment, it was just the third game in Padres history where their only hit was by a PH. Melvin Upton did it three years ago in San Francisco, and Bill Bean-- not the Moneyball guy, he is Beane with an E-- did it against the Reds on September 29, 1993.

Thursday's pinch hit was the third of Clayton Richard's Padres career, trailing only Adam Eaton-- not the White Sox outfielder, and yes there were two of them-- who had four total from 2000 to 2009. Fernando Valenzuela, with two, is the only other San Diego pitcher with multiple pinch hits.

Richard may have been selected to pinch hit based on his three-run homer at Coors Field on Monday when it was his day to pitch. The only other visiting pitcher to crank a three-run homer (or grand slam, though it wasn't) at Coors Field was Madison Bumgarner on September 11, 2012. And when Carlos Asuaje followed Richard with his own tater on Monday, it marked the third occurrence in Padres history of back-to-back homers by the pitcher and the leadoff hitter. Valenzuela and Steve Finley did it in 1995, while Dave Roberts teamed with Dave Campbell on July 9, 1970, in the 11th game played at Riverfront.


Cole Slaw

In what is either a very bad game of "Password" or a violation of the space-time continuum, Houston hosted Texas this weekend, and the first game's starting pitchers were even stranger: "Hamels, Cole". Yeah, but who's the other one? Cole. No, we know Cole, he's Hamels. The other one is Cole. What? I don't know. Third base! Although one of them is indeed "Hamels, Cole", the other one is "Cole, Gerrit", and at least in Friday's game, Gerrit shredded Hamels by holding the Rangers to three hits, one walk, and an MLB-season-high 14 strikeouts in a 3-2 victory. Only three pitchers in Astros history have posted that line, and the others needed the entire game. Wade Miller threw a three-hitter against the Cubs on May 30, 2003; and Mike Scott stretched his over a 10-inning complete game with the Reds on June 8, 1990. (Remember 10-inning complete games? Anyone?)

After hanging 11 K's in each of his first two starts of the season, Gerrit is up to 36 strikeouts in his three games with the Astros. According to Elias, that's the most ever by any pitcher in his first three games with a new team, breaking Randy Johnson's mark of 34 (9-15-10) set with the Diamondbacks in 1999. The only other pitcher with three 11-K outings to start any season, new to the team or not, was future Astro Nolan Ryan, then with the Angels, in 1973.

And only three other Houston pitchers have had three 11-K games in a row at any point of a season or their Astros tenure. Two of them-- Johnson and Scott-- have already been mentioned; the other is J.R. Richard, who had three separate three-game streaks in the 1978 and 1979 seasons.

Charlie Morton followed Gerrit's performance on Saturday with a 12-strikeout game... and Houston didn't win that one either thanks to a 10th-inning infield single by Ronald Guzman. It was the first time in over three decades that Astros starters recorded a dozen whiffs in consecutive games; Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott each did it against the Giants on September 24 and 25, 1986 (the latter being a no-hitter that clinched the division). But to have neither one of them get a win out of the deal? That's only happened-- to any team-- three times in the live-ball era. Back when both of them were Tigers, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander did it in April 2013, and in September 1952, Marv Grissom and Saul Rogovin pulled it off for the White Sox.

By the way, Friend Of Kernels Diane Firstman did her own deep-dive into the Gerrit Cole Hamels situation. You should read it. After you finish this one. ☺


Intermission
"I don't know. Third base!"


Triple Threat

You can find people who say a triple is the most exciting play in baseball. (While "ball go far" is also fun to watch, a homer doesn't have the drama of whether the runner's going to make it or not.) And like spring flowers trying to poke their way through the snow, three-baggers kept popping up this week, especially in combination with other things.

Mallex Smith started our parade with his second career four-hit game on Monday against the White Sox. Hit number two was the elusive triple, and it made him the first player in (Devil) Rays history to collect four hits including a triple and a double while batting 8th or 9th in the order. In fact, only one other batter had done it from 6th or lower; that was Melvin Upton on October 2, 2009. Smith also had two steals, joining Carl Crawford (seven times) and the great Julio Lugo (July 7, 2005) as the only Rays ever to have a four-hit, two-steal game.

Speaking of games with two steals, Jean Segura, who will forever be associated with baserunning escapades, covered all the bases on Tuesday, hitting a single, double, and triple in Seattle's 8-3 win over the Royals. In 42 seasons of playing at least one series a year (more when both teams were in the AL West), he's only the second Mariner to record all three of those hits at Kauffman Stadium. That club had been exclusively occupied by Ken Griffey Jr. (May 23, 1993).

As for near-cycles (¾ of it, which is a thing we actually track here), Kyle Schwarber recorded the second one of his career on Thursday, missing the double as the Cubs lost to Pittsburgh. The 6-1 score meant that Schwarber's homer was the team's only run, making him the first Cubs batter to pair such a hit with a triple in the same game since Ryne Sandberg did it at Candlestick on May 8, 1985 (in a 1-0 win!).

And Schwarber was the first North Sider to miss the cycle by the double since way back on... last Saturday when Kris Bryant did it. It was the first time two Cubs had posted that line within six days of each other since 1962... and the players who did it then were "only" Lou Brock (April 13) and Ernie Banks (April 18).

Miguel Andujar of the Yankees did a Mallex Smith impression on Friday, also collecting a triple and a double out of the 8-hole. Then-rookie Didi Gregorius was the last Yankee to do that, in the 2015 season finale at Baltimore. Only three Yankees have ever done it at Comerica Park since its opening in 2000; the others are Raul Ibañez (August 9, 2012) and Melky Cabrera (May 30, 2006).

And since there must be a Shohei Ohtani note every week until further notice, his bases-loaded three-bagger gave the Angels a 7-1 win over Kansas City on Thursday. The team hadn't hit a three-run triple since September 9, 2014, when Collin Cowgill did it at Texas; the Brewers had been the only team to go longer without one. And since that 2014 contest, the Angels have had four games where they recorded multiple triples as a team; all four of them have been played in Arlington.


East-Coast Bias

Much attention is paid to every Yankees/Red Sox series (many people say too much), but the initial meeting of 2018 didn't disappoint, at least in the "Kernels" department. Yankee fans were, well, "disappointed" may be the wrong word, with Tuesday's 14-1 thumping in the opener, including Boston's first nine-run inning against the Bronx Bombers since May 31, 1998. Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts went 4-for-4 plus a walk, scoring on all five trips around the diamond, and one of those hits was a grand slam. Since RBIs were first officially counted by MLB in 1920, only one other player has scored five runs and driven in four against the Yankees; that was Ken Griffey Jr. on May 24, 1996. And Betts is the first player in Red Sox history to score five times and hit a grand slam in the same game.

The Yankees, um, fought their way back to a 10-7 win on Wednesday, although an 8-1 score in the 5th became much closer when J.D. Martinez hit his sixth career grand slam. Boston hadn't hit grand slams in consecutive games against New York since Luis Rivera and Mike Greenwell did it on August 31 and September 1, 1990 (though the Sawx did hit two in the same game in 1995). Gary Sanchez accounted for four of those first eight Yankee runs with a pair of homers and a double; he joins a short list of seven Yankees who have recorded 10 total bases, scored three runs, and driven in four at Fenway Park. Mark Teixeira did it twice; the others are Alex Rodriguez (2007), Graig Nettles (1976), Andy Carey (1958), and some duo named Ruth & Gehrig (both in 1927).

Sanchez was active again Thursday, hitting a three-run double in the 9th that would prove to be the Yankees' only runs of the game. Teixeira was also the last Yankee to have a hit of that variety; he provided all the offense in a 4-3 loss to the Rays on May 6, 2009. Rick Porcello shut New York down for the first seven innings-- including a 45-minute rain delay-- allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out six. The last Sawx pitcher with that line against the "Evil Empire" was Greg Harris on June 7, 1990. And while only one run was affected (the others would have scored regardless), Sonny Gray became just the second Yankee pitcher in the live-ball era to uncork three wild pitches against the Red Sox, joining Charles Hudson who did it on September 17, 1988.

The Yankees then wandered off to Detroit to watch it snow all weekend, and in Friday's opener (which was the only game of the series that they got in), Aaron Hicks couldn't decide whether he preferred his home runs inside the park or out of it. So he hit one of each. No Yankee had done that in the same game since Hank Bauer did it against the original Washington Senators on May 30, 1956. The inside-the-parker was the Yankees' first against the Tigers since June 4, 1967 (Bill Robinson), and their first in Detroit since May 18, 1966 (Roy White). Both those previous IHRs came off Mickey Lolich.


Sweet Sixteen

Still holding that thought? Because we will recognize the AL West when they do something interesting, and the A's definitely gave us that on Wednesday. On a rare visit to Dodger Stadium, they piled up 16 runs and 21 hits, in both categories their most ever in a National League ballpark (including postseason). Only one other American League team ever reached the 20-hit mark at Chavez Ravine, and as discussed earlier, the Angels played there as the home team from 1962 to 1965. But it didn't happen in those four years; it was nearly 40 years later (June 25, 2004) when the Angels banged out 22 hits in a Freeway Series game. And in the 57-season history of Dodger Stadium, only 15 teams have hit the 16-run plateau there. The Dodgers as home team are 11 of them. The Giants have done it twice, along with the Phillies in 2013, and now the 2018 Athletics.

Oakland leadoff batter Marcus Semien drove in four runs without hitting a home run, an accomplishment that's more interesting because there was no designated hitter and the pitcher hit in front of him (at least for most of the game until the double-switches started). The last A's batter to pull that off was Wayne Causey against the Red Sox on May 4, 1963.

And just when it looked like we'd exhausted the notes from that game, the Kernels "WPA" (win probability added) Desk alerted on Enrique Hernandez's solo homer in the bottom of the 9th. It was the first solo shot hit by a Dodger when trailing by 11 or more in the 9th inning since Bill Russell went deep off Philadelphia's Ken Brett on June 13, 1973. But it did change the final score from 16-5 to 16-6-- the first-ever 16-6 game played at Dodger Stadium.

1,132 miles up Interstate 5, the A's did not fare quite as well over the weekend at Safeco Field. They did homer three times in each game, but fell victim to a 7th-inning rally on Friday and were outslugged 10-8 on Saturday. It marked the third time in A's history that they'd homered thrice in back-to-back road games and lost both, and the first time those games were against the same opponent. (And then they won Sunday's game 2-1, so stick to what you know, AL West. ☺)

Meanwhile, back at Dodger Stadium, Rich Hill would duplicate Alex Wood's "feat" from that 16-6 Wednesday game by giving up seven earned runs to the Diamondbacks on Saturday. The Dodgers haven't had two pitchers do that in the same homestand since Mark Hendrickson (vs Phillies) and Derek Lowe (Mets) on July 17 and 19, 2007.



Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Jeimer Candelario, Tuesday: First Tiger to have 3 doubles and 0 runs scored in a a road game (Miggy's done it a few times at Comerica) since Gerald "Gee" Walker at White Sox, June 27, 1932.

⚾ D.J. LeMahieu, Thursday: First visiting player to Washington with four extra-base hits including two homers since Joe DiMaggio against the Senators on September 10, 1950.

⚾ Paul Goldschmidt, Tuesday: Third career tying or go-ahead homer (so, includes walkoffs) when down to team's final out. Most in D'backs history (Chris Iannetta and Ryan Roberts each had two).

⚾ Starling Marte, Sunday: First Pirate to have 5 hits and 4 runs scored in a game, but only 1 RBI, since HOF'er Arky Vaughan against the Phillies on August 27, 1941.

⚾ Kurt Suzuki, Wednesday: First Atlantan with a go-ahead HR in regulation and a go-ahead HR in extras since... Kurt Suzuki, last July 2 at Oakland. First player in Braves history (1876) to do it twice.

⚾ Chris Taylor, Tuesday/Friday: First Dodger with two leadoff homers in four-day span since Rafael Furcal, September 16 (vs SD) and 19 (vs PIT), 2006.

⚾ Jaime Barria, Wednesday: First starter to give up 1 hit and win in his major-league debut since Arizona's Archie Bradley on April 11, 2015. First ever to do it in an Angels uniform.

⚾ Andrew Benintendi, Sunday: Singled, doubled, tripled, and stole a base, but never scored a run. First Red Sox hitter to do that since Tommy Harper at Kansas City, June 3, 1972.

⚾ Phillies, Phriday: Fifth time in team history scoring ≤ 2 runs in an American League park (Tropicana Field) and still winning the game. Previous was June 13, 2004, also in a dome (Minnesota).

⚾ Javier Baez, Tuesday/Wednesday: First Cubs batter with back-to-back multi-homer games since Alfonso Soriano in 2008. However, first in Cubs history (1876) to do so while hitting 6th or lower in both games.

⚾ Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Saturday: Hit first home run in MLB history by a player with a hyphenated last name (there have only been three; the others are pitchers Ryan Rowland-Smith and Austin Bibens-Dirkx).

⚾ Max Scherzer, Monday: Third career SHO-2 (or better) with no walks and at least 10 strikeouts. Only other pitcher in Retrosheet era (1908) to do that three times also played for Washington... Walter Johnson.

⚾ Sunday, April 15: Second day this century with six postponements (excluding the cancellation of an entire week after the 9/11 attacks). September 12, 2008, had five East Coast rainouts and a rare postponement in Houston as Hurricane Ike approached (the later games in the series were moved to Milwaukee).

⚾ Yu Darvish, Friday: First Cubs pitcher to commit a wild pitch, a balk, and a fielding error in same game since Steve Trout at San Diego, July 3, 1984.

⚾ Brian Dozier, Tuesday: First Twins leadoff batter to draw 4 walks in a game since Denard Span vs Boston, April 14, 2010 (the second game at Target Field). First in Twins history (1961) to also have a base hit.


Did You Know?
Google's directions from Dodger Stadium to Safeco Field literally tell you to get on I-5 at Stadium Way (which surrounds the park) and get off at Edgar Martinez Drive. Even your self-driving car might be able to handle that.

Low Bat-tery

Every February pitchers and catchers report a week earlier than everyone else, pitchers because they don't throw every day, and catchers because the pitchers got tired of chasing down the balls themselves. (You're being used, catchers!) However, the first full week of the 2018 season suggests that other players might want to show up earlier too. Because-- with a few notable exceptions which we'll get to-- hits have been fairly hard to come by so far.


Feller? I Hardly Knew Her!

While Bob Feller's claim of throwing the only Opening Day no-hitter remains intact for a 79th season, we learned about second-day no-hitters early and often last weekend. Feller's November 3 birthday falls 11 days after Kyle Gibson's, which he shares with Al Leiter, Jim Bunning, Bud Smith, and Ewell Blackwell. That put October 23 just three innings from joining June 1 in the "five no-hitter-throwers" club. As it was, Gibson walked a bunch of people and was pulled after six innings, five walks, and 102 pitches, leaving Ryan Pressly to surrender the Orioles' first hit in the 8th. The only other Twins/Senators starter since 1910 to leave with a no-hitter intact that late in a game was Kevin Slowey, who needed 106 pitches to get through 7 against Oakland on August 15, 2010.

As months go, three of the ones that fall during baseball season don't have a 31st day, and thanks to Jonathan Schoop (but late enough that we had already looked it up), there hasn't been a no-hitter thrown on the 31st since Vern Kennedy of the White Sox did it against Cleveland in August 1935. And also still true, the only no-hitter ever thrown in the 26-plus seasons of Oriole Park At Camden Yards was by Hideo Nomo of the Red Sox on April 4, 2001-- also the second game of that season.


Stop Us If You've Heard This One

Of course, we had that Hideo Nomo factoid handy because the day before, the Dodgers and Giants played a 1-0 game that was ultimately decided by a Joe Panik solo homer. To which you might be saying, hey, you already covered that in your Opening Day post. Yep, we did. Pssst, it happened again. Number-two starters Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood combined to give up one hit in the first six innings, which mathematically means one of them was also on no-hitter watch. In this case it was Cueto, and it turns out that for as many times as they've played, the last time the Giants no-hit the Dodgers was April 15, 1915, when Rube Marquard did it at the Polo Grounds, also in the second game of the season. (Marquard, for his part, asked for his release and then negotiated his own contract with Brooklyn later that season.) The only other second-game-of-season NHs (besides Nomo) were thrown by Bob Forsch in 1978 and Burt Hooton in 1972 (when the season started a week late due to a strike).

Although Chris Taylor finally led off the 7th with a single, this game marked the first one in the "Retrosheet Era" (which indicates full boxscores and dates to 1908) that two starters had both gone seven innings with one hit and zero walks allowed in the same game. To say nothing of Taylor getting retired on a double play, making it the first time that the Giants have faced the minimum 27 batters in a nine-inning game and not thrown a no-hitter since June 7, 1988 (two Braves hits retired on a DP and a CS). (Also, we did a Venn diagram of all the pitching feats last season; "FM" is still our favorite.) And the Dodgers earned another nugget by committing four errors, thereby posting the first "0-1-(4+)" linescore in the majors since the White Sox (0-1-5) did it on August 26, 1992.

And don't Panik, we'll get back to Joe. As reported in the Opening Day post, the Giants hadn't ridden a solo homer to victory over the Dodgers since 1960. Then they did it two days in a row. Only two other teams in the live-ball era have done that, the 1964 Angels (Bob Perry July 15 and Felix Torres July 17) and the 1960 Tigers (Rocky Colavito May 10 and Al Kaline May 11). Notice those homers were by different players. According to Stats Inc., Panik and the Giants are the first team ever to win back-to-back 1-0's on solo homers by the same player.

The 2018 Giants also join the 1943 Reds as the only teams to win each of their first two games by a 1-0 score (regardless of how the run scored).


It's Dry In The Desert
("Big, if true", as they say.)

After shutting out the Giants in the last two games of the series (joining the 1915 Phillies as the only teams to allow ≤ 2 runs through their first four games of a season), the Dodgers then went to Arizona and got one-hit again, this time on Wednesday by Patrick Corbin and a couple of his bullpen friends. The one hit was a 5th-inning double by Matt Kemp, so we narrowly missed trotting out some Randy Johnson perfect-game notes. We ended up with others, though. Wednesday's game was the fifth one in D'backs history where they allowed one hit and struck out 15 opponents; the others were all thrown by either Johnson or Curt Schilling in 2001 and 2002. It was the first time in Los Angeles Dodgers history (1958), and probably Brooklyn as well-- though we can't prove it-- where their offense had sputtered in such fashion. The last time the Dodgers' lone hit was an XBH was May 31, 2005, against the Cubs, when a Cesar Izturis double drove in the great Hee-Seop Choi (who had reached on a dropped third strike, of all things).

Corbin, meanwhile, went 2-for-2 at the plate with a double and a single. In so doing, he became the fifth pitcher in Arizona history to produce more hits than he allowed. The others are Ian Kennedy (2010), Dan Haren (2009), Micah Owings (2007 in his 2-HR game), and Randy Johnson (2003 one-hitter vs Rockies).

Combined with their struggle on Opening Day, it marked the first time the Dodgers had been one-hit twice in a six-day span since September 4 and 9, 1915, in a home-and-home series with the Boston Braves. And the second game... they won! See below for exactly how.

The D'backs then played a midweek series in St Louis, and in Thursday's finale Robbie Ray (and four relievers because #bullpenning) held the Cardinals to two hits and recorded 13 strikeouts. The Cardinals have only reached that level of futility in a home game four times in the live-ball era, the last being across the street at the previous Busch Stadium (September 29, 2000, vs Reds).

Game story from the New York Tribune, September 10, 1915 (via Library of Congress)

Pitchers Who Rake

Reds starter Tyler Mahle "broke up" the Pirates' no-hit bid on Sunday with a 3rd-inning single in his first plate appearance. Little did he (or anyone else) know that, six innings later, he would still be the only thing standing between Jameson Taillon and a no-hit bid. Taillon walked two and plunked one, but never allowed another base knock in throwing a 110-pitch, one-hit shutout. It was the Pirates' first SHO-1 since A.J. Burnett threw one at Wrigley Field on July 31, 2012, and their first at home since Todd Ritchie lost his no-no with one out in the 9th on July 13, 2001 (to the Royals' Luis Alicea).

More notably, it marked the first time in over a century that the Redlegs had gotten only one hit in a game and it was by the pitcher. On September 19, 1914, they played a doubleheader with Brooklyn, and it was a reliever-- rare for that time to begin with-- who broke up Jeff Pfeffer's bid in the 8th. According to the New York Sun, Earl Yingling "was mean enough to cheat him of such distinction [the no-hitter] through a very useless hit with two out in the eighth", followed by some trolling of the umpire for not ringing up the previous batter on what appeared to be strike three. If only they had robot umps.


The Dirty Dozen

You can't spell Ohtani without "no hit". (Actually maybe you can in Japanese; we'll send that over to the Kernels Translation Desk just as soon as we create same.) And the two-way phenom that is Shohei Ohtani nearly broke the Internet on Sunday by retiring the first 19 Oakland batters he faced, throwing anything from 68-mph first-pitch curveballs to 98- and 99-mph gas. He recorded six strikeouts the first time through the order, and 12 total-- all of them swinging. The Internet survived thanks only to Marcus Semien's seeing-eye single to left with one out in the 7th. He then walked Matt Olson on four pitches, was removed, the Athletics homered in the 9th, and years from now this will look like another boring AL West game.

The Athletics haven't been no-hit since July 13, 1991, when the Orioles threw a combined one at them at (really) Memorial Stadium (its final year, that's how long ago this was). That 26-plus-year drought is the longest in the majors; i.e., all 29 other teams have been no-hit at least once (and usually multiple times) since then. And speaking of no-hitters, that Ohtani line from Sunday? Twelve strikeouts and only one hit allowed? In Angels history that's only happened seven times. And the other six are all by Nolan Ryan (including three of his NHs).


Mo' Nomo

In other "low hit" news, the Indians got a 1st-inning homer from Jose Ramirez to grab a quick 2-0 lead in Anaheim on Tuesday. Unfortunately there were eight more innings left, and while the Angels piled up 13 more runs and 13 hits, the Indians, well, didn't. It marked just the second time in the live-ball era that Cleveland's only hit of a game was a 1st-inning homer, and the other was last year. On August 22, Francisco Lindor led off the game against the Red Sox with a dinger and then Doug Fister retired 27 out of 30 (and got two of the others on double plays).

Remember that part about Kyle Gibson getting removed after six innings with the no-hitter still intact? Every time we think we've reached peak #bullpenning, it turns out, nope. The Pirates' Trevor Williams got through six innings last Sunday on 85 pitches with five walks and no hits. So guess what, he's done. In comes Michael Feliz to give up the Tigers' first hit in the 7th. The last time that happened (pitcher removed from game after 6+ no-hit innings) on back-to-back days was July 11 and 12, 1997. Ben McDonald of the Brewers was pulled after six, and another Pirate, Francisco Cordova, actually threw the full nine no-hit innings, but the game was a scoreless tie. After Mark Smith homered in the 10th, Ricardo Rincon came on to finish the combined no-no against Houston (who would throw their own historic combined no-hitter six years later).

And adding to the legend that is Philadelphia sports fans, new manager Gabe Kapler was already booed in his first home game after the Phillies went 1-4 with a rainout on their opening road trip. That included Tuesday and Wednesday at Citi Field, where the club managed just nine hits total. The last time the Mets held the Phillies to five hits in back-to-back games was July 17 and 18, 1998, when their starting pitchers were Al Leiter and, yes, Hideo Nomo.


Seattle, San Francisco Too

Meanwhile, back at AT&T Park, the Giants stymied the Mariners in an interleague game on Wednesday, despite Johnny Cueto giving up eight times as many hits as he did in his first start. He became the first Giants pitcher to allow eight hits, strike out only one batter, yet give up just one run, since Ryan Vogelsong did it against the Dodgers on May 8, 2012. It was the third time since the start of last season that Seattle had converted 10 or more team hits into only one run; the other 14 American League teams have combined to do it twice. And the Mariners went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, their worst "RISP" line since an 0-for-17 against the Orioles in September 2012... in a game that took 18 innings.


Intermission
In case you didn't get the reference in the last header. It's at 2:46.


Last Friday Night

Opening Day treated us to three walkoffs, but none of those games went longer than 11 innings. In a development that may make us rethink our stance on the minor-league "free baserunner" rule, this week's lack of offense didn't last only nine innings. The Marlins essentially played their third game of the season as an extension of their second, needing 17 frames and 12:28 am to beat the Cubs on a Miguel Rojas walkoff. Brian Anderson began the "rally" with a two-out single, making Rojas's hit the latest walkoff in Marlins history, surpassing by one out Todd Zeile's single to beat Toronto on June 8, 1998. The Marlins have played just two longer games in their history, both 20-inning affairs won by the visiting team. Catcher Chad Wallach became the first Marlin ever to strike out five times in a win, and the 12:28 ending time was the fourth-latest in the seven-season history of Marlins Park. That record, 22 minutes later, is held by a 16-inning, 9-8 loss to the Mets last April.


This Friday Night

The Orioles bunched some hits into a five-run 7th inning on Thursday in their series opener at Yankee Stadium, then found themselves locked in a 3-3 extra-inning affair on Friday. After a controversial call in the 11th that was eventually confirmed (and btw, the Kernels Rules Desk points out that the plate-block rule still only mentions the catcher, not a pitcher who is covering), the teams played three more innings before another bunch of Baltimore hits, one intended as a sacrifice but turned into a bases-loaded situation by an error. Cue Pedro Alvarez. You probably know what happened.

The current Baltimore franchise had never hit a grand slam in the 14th or later, and the Yankees had never given one up. (The Cubs' Javier Baez had the most recent one in the majors, in June 2016.) It was the sixth-latest (by inning) home run hit at the current Yankee Stadium, and the first not hit by the Yankees or Red Sox. In fact, in their 115 years of playing each other, the Orioles/Browns had never hit any home run against the Pinstripes after the 11th.

Manny Machado, who homered twice in regulation, was on second for the grand slam, and was the first Oriole with the combination of four hits and two walks in a game since Frank Robinson at Oakland on August 24, 1969. No Baltimore hitter had reached base six times in a game, in any combo, since Mark Reynolds did it in a semi-famous 17-inning Sunday afternoon game with Boston on May 6, 2012.

And as we say around here, there's always one left out. Tim Beckham drew an 0-for-6 and was the first Oriole to strike out five times in a game since Chris Davis did it in that same 17-inning fest. But at least Davis got to be the winning pitcher.


Time Passages

Earlier we mentioned the Dodgers getting one-hit in Arizona on Wednesday. On Monday they managed seven runs and 19 hits, but only five singles in six extra innings before Nick Ahmed and Jeff Mathis combined for a walkoff victory for the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the 15th. Arizona's never had a walkoff after the 16th, and of the six in their history to come in the 15th or 16th, four have been against the Dodgers. (Yes, they're in the division, but that still makes up only 12% of their games.)

The contest set a length-of-game record for Chase Field (5:48), and just as we were starting the petition to make Arizona adopt Daylight-Saving Time, it also set a "latest finish" record by ending at 12:25 am MST. Thanks to the roof (no rain delays) and a usual start time of 6:40 (instead of 7:10), the Diamondbacks have had only four occurrences of #WeirdBaseball (after midnight local), with three of those being in the last four seasons. The older game was the one that lost the finish record; Dante Powell's double was one of those 16-inning walkoffs against the Dodgers on April 13, 1999.

Ketel Marte also became the ninth player in D'backs history with multiple triples in a game; in what is probably not a coincidence, all nine of those games have been in Phoenix.


McC(l)utch

The week didn't get much easier for the Dodgers, who had to go to San Francisco for the weekend. It may be dry in the desert, but it was wet in the Bay Area, causing the first rainout at AT&T Park since April 12, 2006. The schedule says that game's being made up on the 28th, but they basically made it up on Saturday with yet another marathon that looked like it was ending when Logan Forsythe singled home a run in the 14th.

Andrew McCutchen, on the other hand, said, wait, I've seen this movie before. After Wilmer Font gave up two singles to start the 14th, Cutch cranked the 12th pitch of his at-bat to left field for a walkoff three run homer which was also his sixth hit of the game. Friend Of Kernels Mark Simon beat us to the nugget that Jim Northrup of the 1969 Tigers was the only other player to have six hits including a walkoff home run, and his was only in the 13th inning. The Giants' last walkoff against the Dodgers that far into a game came on May 2, 1995, and was equally as dramatic: Los Angeles scored three times in the top of the 15th, Robby Thompson tied the game with his own three-run homer, and then Matt Williams doubled home Barry Bonds with the winning run two batters later.

McCutchen became the first player in Giants history (1882) to hit a walkoff home run in the 14th or later while the team was trailing. But as for seeing that movie before, the last player in the majors to do so... was Andrew McCutchen! As a Pirate on July 11, 2015, he hit a two-run walokoff in the 14th after the Cardinals had scored 1 in their half. We have not yet found any other player in baseball history to pull this off twice.

And since RBI became official in 1920, only one other Giant has had four of them and also six hits in a game, and he's in the Hall Of Fame. That was Frankie Frisch against the Boston Braves on September 10, 1924.

We here at Kernels were supposed to be at that April 12, 2006, game in San Francisco. They called it off early enough in the day that we headed inland to Modesto (where it wasn't raining) and made our first dive into the single-A level of the minors. And the rest is history.

We then got a split doubleheader the next day, and there's
worse places to spend 11 hours than AT&T Park.

By The Way

We accept that we may be comparing different fruits here because the strategy would change, but we do that for unearned runs, so what the heck. Anyway, if those four games above (which all went 14+ innings) had been played with the new minor-league rules and a "free runner" at second base, and all the subsequent plays had occurred just as they did in real life (instead of bunting the guy to third and then the intentional walk to set up the inning-ending double play), each game would have had the same result and been three innings shorter (except the Orioles' win, which would have been in 10 instead of 14).


Exceptions

The Yankees' series with the Orioles may not have gone quite the way they wanted, but their snow-shortened opener with the Rays showed the Yankee Stadium fireworks that everyone was expecting. Just not from Stanton and Judge. In Tuesday's de facto home opener, Stanton whiffed five times, earning him some hearty Philadelphia-style boos in his Stadium debut. Instead it was Didi Gregorius who picked up the heart of the order with a pair of three-run homers and then an 8th-inning double to finish with four hits and eight runs batted in. Only one other Yankee had ever hit two taters in a home opener, Russ Derry against the Red Sox in 1945. And only one other Yankee had ever gone a perfect 4-for-4 (or better) with 8 RBI in any game. If you guessed that was Danny Tartabull in 1992,-- no you didn't, put your hand down.

Since RBI became an official stat in 1920, no player, for any team, had ever collected eight of them in a home opener. And Tuesday was the first game in Yankees history (opener or not) where one player had two homers and another had five strikeouts.

In Wednesday's 7-2 win, Stanton quieted the boos with a two-run homer in his first at-bat. By the 4th inning, Aaron Judge (who hit before Stanton) had also hit a two-run shot, as had Gary Sanchez (who hit after him). That made it the first game in 18 seasons that the Yankees' 2-, 3-, and 4-hitters all had a multi-run homer in the same game. On July 25, 2000, at Camden Yards, the trio was Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, and Bernie Williams.


20/20 Hindsight

The Marlins may be rethinking that decision to let Stanton (and lots of others) go. But on Saturday even his offense probably wouldn't have been enough as the Phillies literally doubled their season run total (which was 19 in six games) by dropping the majors' first 20-1 score since May 21, 2009 (Twins over White Sox). The Phils hit four homers (also doubling their season total) including two grand slams, their first contest with multiple salami(s?) since April 27, 2009, when Raul Ibañez and Ryan Howard hit them against the Nationals.

Dillon Peters, who started for the Marlins, got tagged for nine runs before leaving in the 3rd. Jacob Turner didn't fare any better, giving up all eight Phillies runs in the bottom of the 4th. Since earned runs were first officially kept in 1912, they are just the sixth set of teammates to each allow 8 ER in less than 3 IP. The previous was Michael Lorenzen and Dylan Axelrod of the Reds at (of course) Coors Field in 2015. Only one of those occurrences is before the year 2000.


And The Home Of The Braves

This week's Washington/Atlanta series didn't lack for offense, with 36 runs and 51 hits recorded over just three games. The Nats started early on Monday as leadoff hitter Trea Turner reached on one error, went to third on another error, and then scored on Anthony Rendon's groundout. And when the Nats collected three runs, including a Ryan Zimmerman homer, in the 1st inning Tuesday, it made them the second team to record a 1st-inning run in each of their first five games of a season. The other was the 1944 Browns, who of course made their only World Series appearance that season.

Zimmerman's homer would be followed with taters by Preston Tucker in B1, Nats pitcher A.J. Cole in T2, Freddie Freeman in B2, and Bryce Harper in T3. That made Tuesday the second game in the last 30 years where homers were hit in each of the first five half-innings... and the other was last year (Cardinals/Pirates, August 18). Before that it hadn't happened since 1984. Around those homers the Braves piled up 10 earned runs against Cole, making him the first pitcher to allow 10 ER but also hit a home run since then-Royal Zack Greinke (yes, an AL guy!) did it in Arizona on June 10, 2005. Atlanta's 2 through 5 of Freeman, Tucker, Ozzie Albies, and Nick Markakis combined for 10 hits and 10 RBI, a first for the team since July 1, 2009.

And as for that homer on Monday, that was pretty much the only strike Bryce Harper saw. He walked in all four of his remaining plate appearances, becoming the third player in franchise history with that line. Ron Fairly (June 5, 1973, also against Atlanta) and the recently-departed Rusty Staub (May 8, 1970, vs Padres) were the two Expos with a homer and four walks. Harper now has five career four-walk games, equalling the total of all other Nationals combined since the 2005 move. Harper would homer again on both Saturday and Sunday against the Mets, making him the first player in the 50 seasons of Nats/Expos lore to go deep five times in the team's first eight games of a season, and/or six in their first nine.

On Friday the Braves headed to Coors Field, which is an exception to everything, and Dansby Swanson became just the second Atlantan to go single-double-triple in Denver. The other was Kenny Lofton, who did it way back on April 19, 1997.


Beer Batters

In addition to Coors Field, the other two major domestic breweries have stadiums also: Busch Stadium in St Louis and Miller Park in Milwaukee. And guess which two teams also played a series with each other this week. Former Padres prospect Miles Mikolas made his return to MLB after three years in Japan, and while he did allow three homers, his offense bailed him out by scoring eight times for the win. Mikolas even helped his own cause with his first MLB hit, a two-run homer. That made him the first Cards hurler to give up three bombs but also hit one since Woody Williams did it against the Dodgers on July 20, 2003 (he got the win as well). And only one other pitcher in the live-ball era has homered in his first appearance with the Cardinals; that was Glen Hobbie on June 5, 1964 (Hobbie had been traded from the Cubs in exchange for Lew Burdette, who had been MVP of the 1957 World Series with Milwaukee). Since the start of 2011 Cardinals pitchers have hit 10 home runs-- five at home at Busch Stadium and four at Miller Park. Alas, the other one is not at Coors (which is never a bad guess), it's Adam Wainwright in Cincinnati.

If you were still tailgating at Miller Park (it's big there) when Tuesday's game started, you might want to shut off the grill and run inside. Dexter Fowler just led off the game with a homer. Guess what, while you're waiting for it to cool, Tommy Pham just homered too. Which means you missed just the second occurrence in Cardinals history of leading off a road game with back-to-back homers. (If you're tailgating, you're probably a Brewers fan, so you don't care, but roll with it.) The other such game was at Dodger Stadium on August 17, 1958; Curt Flood and Gene Freese went deep off none other than Sandy Koufax.

By the 8th inning, you might be getting restless to get back to that tailgating. The Brew Crew is trailing 4-1, Bernie hasn't gotten to go down the slide, and while a two-run 8th to get within one might be enough to keep you in the stadium, you're probably working toward the exit. Two quick outs in the 9th and, okay, let's leave.

Never leave.

That eruption while you're walking to the parking lot? That's Christian Yelich tying the game with a solo homer. And before you can get to the car and turn the radio on, Ryan Braun deposits the very next pitch over the wall in left-center for the walkoff. It's Braun's fourth walkoff homer, trailing only Robin Yount's six in Brewers history (others also have four). Only once before had the Brewers hit a tying home run with two outs in the 9th and then a go-ahead homer still with two outs in the 9th, and those weren't back-to-back. Paul Molitor and Ted Simmons did it against the Tigers on April 25, 1985. And it's been almost 14 years since any team hit a tying homer with two outs in the 9th and then a walkoff on the very next pitch. Nick Green and J.D. Drew, then of the Braves, did it against the lame-duck Montreal Expos on June 1, 2004.

More notably, it's the first game in major-league history to start with back-to-back homers and end with back-to-back homers.

And you missed all four of them. The brats were good though.

By the way, the Brewers also walked off against the Cubs on Friday (Orlando Arcia RBI single), the first time in team history that they've had two walkoff wins within their first eight games of a season.


Bottom Of The Bag
Or, Other Stuff You Shouldn't Miss

⚾ Christian Villanueva, Tuesday: Third player in Padres history to go deep three times in a home game. Hunter Renfroe did it at Petco last September, while Phil Nevin (October 6, 2001) was the only one in the 35-year history of Jack Murphy/Qualcomm.

⚾ Kevin Pillar, Mar 31: First player in Jays history to steal second, third, and home in the same *game* (much less the same trip around the bases).

⚾ Welington Castillo, Monday: Eighth player ever to have a multi-homer game for both the Cubs and the White Sox. Joins Ron Santo, Geovany Soto, Vance Law, Jay Johnstone, Darrin Jackson, George Bell, and Sammy Sosa-- the last two of whom were traded for each other.

⚾ Jay Bruce, Thursday, and Adrian Gonzalez, Sunday: First two Mets ever to hit a grand slam at Nationals Park. David Wright (September 24, 2005) had the only one at RFK.

⚾ Gerrit Cole, Apr 1: First pitcher in Astros history to strike out 11 and allow ≤ 2 hits in his first appearance with the team. (Collin McHugh, Randy Johnson, and J.R. Richard got the 11 but not the 2.)

⚾ JC Ramirez, Saturday: First Angels starter to walk 5+ batters in first 2 innings and not emerge for the 3rd since Al Levine at Oakland, September 27, 2000.

⚾ Tigers, April 1/3/8: Fourth team in live-ball era to play three 1-0 games (win or lose) within their first eight of a season. Others were 1920 Braves and both the Reds and Cardinals in 1943 (against each other in their opening series).

⚾ Yoan Moncada, Thursday: First White Sox leadoff hitter to go 0-for-6+ with 4+ strikeouts since Ray Durham against the Cubs (which just makes it that much worse) on June 5, 1998.

⚾ Royals, Tuesday/Friday: Second time in team history recording a pair of 1-0 road victories in the same week. Other was July 2 (CLE) and 4 (TEX), 1977. Team record for a season is three.

⚾ Scooter Gennett, Mar 30: First Reds batter to have 4 hits in a game where the team got shut out since Cesar Geronimo vs Braves, June 21, 1974.

⚾ Josh Reddick, Tuesday: First Astro to have a grand slam and another multi-run HR in same game since Lance Berkman at the Metrodome, June 14, 2001.

⚾ Astros, Saturday: First 1-0 walkoff since August 30, 2006 (over Milwaukee). Had the longest drought of such a thing by any of the 30 teams (that "honor" now passes to the Red Sox).


Did You Know?
...that the previously-discussed Miles Mikolas is nicknamed "the Lizard King"? And if so, do you know why? (If you're squeamish, you may want to Google it first.)