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.