-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!)