Three is a fundamental number in this fine game of baseball that we all enjoy. Three strikes and you're out. Three outs and it's the other team's turn to bat. A three-game series. A three-team trade. The most important number in the game, nine, is of course three threes. So come and knock on our door, this week's Kernels have been waiting for you.
Stealing: Class 3 Misdemeanor
Mookie Betts found himself attached to several 3's this week, beginning on Thursday when the Red Sox leadoff batter collected three singles in a 6-2 win over Baltimore. Mookie regularly leads the team in three-hit games, so that part wasn't surprising. But when Betts also had a 3 next to "stolen bases", well, now we have something. Jacoby Ellsbury was the last Bostonian with a three-hit, three-steal game, and he did it twice-- exactly five years apart on May 30, 2008 (at Baltimore) and 2013 (at Philadelphia). But before that it hadn't been done since 1934. And the Red Sox hadn't had a player do it at Fenway since Charles "Buddy" Myer against the Yankees on July 24, 1928.
Mookie didn't need to steal three bases on Friday, mainly because he was already at second. Despite losing to the Orioles 7-4, Mookie cranked out two doubles and his team-leading 14th homer of the year to not only post another 3 in the hit column, but a 3 under "extra-base hits". It was his 14th such game, passing Red Sox great Bobby Doerr in that category. The team's only hitters with more such games are David Ortiz (21) and Ted Williams (19).
Although only one Bostonian had done the three-hit, three-steal combo in 70 years, Jean Segura, also known for his baserunning adventures, pulled it off for the Mariners on Tuesday. Seattle's had 10 players post that line in their 42-season history, but Segura took it one step (or 90 feet) farther and swiped a fourth bag. And only two other Mariners have ever done that: Ichiro Suzuki (twice) and outfielder Henry Cotto against Texas on June 23, 1990. And while he was not involved in the Mariners' walkoff run, Segura did score three runs before that-- the first in Seattle history with three hits, three runs scored, and three stolen bases in the same game.
In that same game on Tuesday, opposing catcher Robinson Chirinos also had three hits for the Rangers while driving in three runs. Alas, he was stranded at second on every trip around the bases, making him the first Rangers catcher with three hits and three RBIs, but no runs scored himself, since Sandy Alomar also did it in Seattle on April 9, 2005.
Because things must come in threes, Whit Merrifield of the Royals-- who are also known as a base-stealing squad-- dared to match the three-hit, three-steal line in Friday's win over the Yankees. He was the first opponent to post that line against the Bronx Bombers since Cleveland's Jason Kipnis on August 26, 2012. But Merrifield also had a three-hit, three-steal game against the Twins last July, making him one of just five Royals ever to do it twice. Amos Otis pulled it off six times, still good for a top-10 rank in the majors over the last 50 years. The others with exactly two such games are Vince Coleman, Freddie Patek, and Willie Wilson-- and all four of them (including Merrifield) led off. Those eight games, plus one of Otis's, account for all nine times where a Royals leadoff hitter has done it.
In writing that Jean Segura paragraph, we actually did a search for three-steal games by the Brewers since we still haven't adjusted to him being in Seattle. (This is true of a lot of current Mariners, it's nothing personal.) But handy segue to Jesús Aguilar's game on Friday which featured three hits, three runs scored, and three driven in. He became just the second Brewer with a multi-homer game at Target Field since it opened in 2010; Ryan Braun (June 16, 2012) is the other. But remember that the Brewers and Twins were both in the American League for nearly 30 years and played each other on the regular. So how many Milwaukee hitters have posted a 3-hit, 3-run, 3-RBI game in Minnesota? Amazingly, only three. Before Aguilar was Nyjer Morgan (July 2, 2011), and the only one ever to do it at the Metrodome was Jim Gantner on July 27, 1983.
Walk Three Times On The Ceiling If You Want Me
If hitting stuff and running aren't your things, there's always walking, and the Cubs certainly got their steps in this weekend.
In a non-Joe-Maddon move, Ian Happ was slotted eighth for this weekend's series with the Reds, with the pitcher in the old-school ninth spot. The first two times Happ came to bat, it was with two outs and first base empty. The third time Happ came up, it was with one out and first base empty. So it's a pretty obvious move for the Reds to pass him and get to Jon Lester and his career batting average of .088. Happ thus became the first Cubs batter to receive three intentional walks in one game since Andre Dawson received five of them from the Reds on May 22, 1990. Except that was in a 16-inning game and three of them came in extras. The last to do it in a nine-inning affair was Bobby Thomson (yes, that Bobby Thomson) against the Phillies on June 4, 1958.
Thanks to all those walks (and remember, there were baserunners ahead of Happ every time), the Cubs stranded 14 runners and still won the game 8-1. It could have been a lot worse. But the last time the Cubs left 14 on and still won by at least 7 was in Pittsburgh on July 2, 1996. It was also the Cubs' first time collecting 15 hits at the homer-happy Great American Ball Park without any of them actually being homers. In fact, the Cubs hadn't done that in Cincinnati and won since July 12, 1979, at Riverfront.
In the day game of Saturday's doubleheader, however, the Reds took an entirely different approach when confronted with Kyle Hendricks' .095 career average. In this case Happ came to the plate five times, all with the bases empty (he actually led off three innings). So the Reds pitched to him. Oops. Double, walk, triple, homer, strikeout. He thus became the first Cub to miss the cycle by the single (which of course is the hardest to do) since Aramis Ramirez on July 1, 2006, and the first in (at least) the live-ball era to do it batting 8th or 9th. Only one other player in the majors has missed by the single this year, and it's another Chicagoan-- Yoan Moncada of the White Sox.
Happ then homered again in the night game, the first Cub to go deep in both games of a twinbill since Chris Coghlan, also in Cincinnati, on July 8, 2014. Before that no Cub had done it in the Queen City since Ron Santo at Crosley Field on June 20, 1965. With three more walks in Sunday's finale, Happ became the first Cub to have multiple three-walk games in the same series since Carlos Peña did it against Pittsburgh on September 3 and 4, 2011.
And as for those unusual feats (3 IBB and missing by the single) back-to-back? Never "Happ"-ened. In fact, since intentional walks were first officially split off in 1955, nobody's even done it in the same month. And the number of players who'd done it in the same season is, of course, three: John Olerud in 1991, Jeff Bagwell in 1997, and Garrett Jones in 2009.
Instead of Happ it was Kyle Schwarber who played the intentional walk game on Saturday, drawing two of those plus two other "unintentional" walks (i.e., pitching around him) with the bases empty. In his case it worked; Schwarber got forced at third, forced at second, and stranded at first twice. Jorge Soler (vs Pirates, May 15, 2015) was the last Cubs batter to draw four walks in a game but not score a run. That, however, was in a win. Cincinnati literally walked off in the 11th on Saturday when Billy Hamilton took a bases-loaded pass. (Hold that thought.) The last Cub with four walks and zero runs scored in a loss, also happened to be in a 1-run game. And that gives us our second Ron Santo reference; he did it against the Phillies on June 1, 1966 (lost 4-3).
And as for the Reds, they had gone the longest of any team, by over a year, without a helping of "shrimp" (as has become the phrase for a game-ending bases-loaded walk). Their last one was issued by the Padres to Ruben Mateo on April 26, 2003. (The Mariners had one in mid-2004 and now inherit the seafood allergy.) And their last one in the 11th inning or later was against the Giants on August 8, 1992. Bill Doran was the batter, Reggie Sanders was the runner who scored, and the walk was issued by Michael Jackson.
Two other players got an honorable mention with their three-walk games this week; on Friday Adam Frazier became the first Pirates leadoff batter with zero hits, but three walks and two runs scored, since Orlando Merced did it against the Phillies on September 22, 1991. And Curtis Granderson of the Jays also had the 0-hit, 3-walk line, but one of his came with the bases loaded and he got an RBI. The last Torontan to pull that off was... Curtis Granderson on April 30. He's the first in Blue Jays history to do it twice.
Intermission
You know we weren't going to let that reference to Michael Jackson and walking just go by, right? Also, this first public performance originally aired May 16, 1983-- thirty-five years ago this week.
Pitch Perfect 3
A three-hit game is pretty good if you're a batter. It's also quite good if you're a starting pitcher. Unless it's peppered with all those other strange non-hit things you could give up. Enter Carson Fulmer of the White Sox. On Friday he faced 17 Texas batters and allowed just three hits. Except the other 14 weren't outs. He walked five, hit two, and had one reach on a failed fielder's choice before leaving with nobody out in the 3rd. Eight of those baserunners scored, all earned. How tricky is that to pull off? Since earned runs were first kept by the league offices in 1912, only six pitchers have given up eight of them while allowing three or fewer hits, and it's actually not a bad list. Then-Tiger Dontrelle Willis was the last to do it, on June 9, 2008. Before him came Kerry Wood (2002) and Randy Johnson (1992). The remaining two are Ron Necciai, who pitched just 12 games for the Pirates in 1952, and the Athletics' Lou Brissie in 1950 (he would later be part of a three-team trade for Minnie Minoso).
Combined with Lucas Giolito's 6-out, 8-run adventure on April 21, it's the first season in White Sox history where two pitchers have both posted that line in a home game.
On the other hand, if you're a relief pitcher who's conditioned to only working one inning, a three-strikeout game seems ideal. Seattle's Marc Rzepczynski did that in the 9th inning on Wednesday, didn't allow a hit... and gave up three runs. After fanning Nomar Mazara and Joey Gallo, it went intentional walk, error, and then a third strikeout-- but with a passed ball on strike three allowing Ronald Guzman to reach and two runs to score. Guzman would eventually also come around before Dan Altavilla stopped the bleeding by getting the third out. So Rzepczynski's weird line: ⅔ of an inning, 0 hits, 3 runs, 0 earned, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. Since earned runs were added to the equation (again, in 1912), it's the first such line in major-league history, and Rzepczynski's the first over that span to allow 0 hits, have more strikeouts than outs recorded, and give up three runs (be they earned or unearned).
Three-Cards Monte
Three-hit games are also not ideal if you're a relief pitcher. Jordan Hicks of the Cardinals faced three batters in Thursday's loss; all of them got hits and all of them scored. Although it was just three years ago, no St Louis reliever had done that since the Randy Choate era way back on July 7, 2015. The Cards did however have two batters with three-hit games on offense, Jose Martinez and Francisco Peña. The problem there was that neither of them scored a run, and neither of them drove one in. Two Cardinals hadn't done that in the same game since Felipe Lopez and Cesar Izturis against the Diamondbacks on September 22, 2008.
Martinez and Peña came right back on Friday with three more hits each, the first St Louis teammates to do so in back-to-back games since Aledmys Diaz and Jedd Gyorko on April 23-24, 2016. But those hits also came in the form of a homer, a double, and a single for each of them, making the first Cardinals teammates to miss the cycle by the triple in the same game at the current Busch Stadium. The last to do it anywhere were Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in Pittsburgh, July 22, 2011.
Meanwhile, at the top of the order, Tommy Pham got in on the party with three hits, two walks, and three runs scored. No Cardinals leadoff batter had reached five times and scored thrice since Skip Schumaker did it against the Mets on July 26, 2008. And Martinez wasn't done. He actually had two singles for a four-hit game that also drove in five runs. And the last Cardinal to do that in a game was... Jose Martinez on April 12. Since RBI became official in 1920, only three other St Louis hitters have had a pair of 4-hit, 5-RBI games in one season, and the one who's not already in Cooperstown is surely headed there. They are Jim Bottomley (1929), Chick Hafey (1931), and Albert Pujols (2009).
Three Of Diamonds
Three-hit games for an entire team are also not all that great, but somehow the Diamondbacks have made the most of them. On Tuesday they pieced together three singles, four walks, two sac bunts, and a throwing error to score two runs, including a Daniel Descalso go-ahead hit in the 8th. They then held Milwaukee to only five hits and won 2-1. It was the third time in Diamondbacks history that they'd had three or fewer hits, with none of them for extra bases, and won the game-- and two of them are this season. On April 17 they beat the Giants 1-0 when Patrick Corbin took a no-hitter into the 8th. (The other game was September 19, 2004, against St Louis; all three hits, plus two walks, came in the same inning and they won 3-2.) The last team in the majors to win two such games in a season was the 2014 Padres.
On the other hand, the Reds struggled to hit their way out of a paper bag this weekend, in that series with the Cubs where J.A. Happ and Kyle Schwarber drew all the walks. They did reach eight hits in the day game on Saturday, but that took extra innings. Their three losses featured eight combined hits and just two runs, and they've already had seven games this season where they've been held to three hits or fewer. That's tied with the Tigers for most in the majors, and last season they had just five the entire year. And while we can't say three games in a row because of Saturday's doubleheader, this weekend marked the first time in at least the live-ball era that the Reds had three hits or fewer on three consecutive days. They last "achieved" it in a four-day span from August 3 through 6, 1984, against the Dodgers and Padres (and they won one of those games).
For Starters
(This is the last section, that's the joke.)
Ever since his glory days with the Long Island Ducks, Rich Hill has been a gift that keeps on giving. Last year's 10-inning escapade where he lost a perfect game in the 9th and then lost a no-hitter on a walkoff homer will forever be known as "The Rich Hill Game" (cf. The Rick Camp Game). But Hill developed a blister on Saturday during warmups and ended up leaving his start against the Nationals after only two pitches. With the count being 0-2 at the time, the at-bat was going to count toward reliever Scott Alexander regardless, meaning Hill became the first Dodgers starter on record (to at least 1908) to not officially face a batter. Which begs the question, who was the last to do it for any team? Glad you asked. Because believe it or not, that's Rich Hill. As an Oakland Athletic in 2016, he made a July 17 start against Toronto and-- yep-- developed a blister five pitches into the game. In that trove of data back to 1908 (thanks, Retrosheet), no pitcher has ever done it twice. (The last before that was another current Dodger, Alex Wood, thanks to a rain delay.)
Meanwhile, the Rays rolled out an unorthodox pitching strategy over the weekend, bringing in closer Sergio Romo... in the 1st inning. Rather than having him enter in the 9th at whatever point the lineup sits, Romo already knows he's facing the top three or four in the opposing order and then the actual starter doesn't get them a third time until the 8th or 9th inning (if he's even still around). As a result, Romo "started" Saturday's game and retired the Angels in order before turning things over to Ryan Yarbrough for six more frames. Yarbrough also had a five-inning, one-run relief appearance on May 4, and is the first Rays pitcher ever to do that twice.
But wait, thanks to only throwing one inning, Romo-- like most relievers-- can easily come back the next day and "start" again. He became the first pitcher to start consecutive team games since Zack Greinke in 2012, but that was on either side of the All-Star break. And it's also happened after rain delays and when the pitcher gets ejected in the 1st inning. The Athletics' Steve McCatty, in April 1980, was the last to start back-to-back games and pitch at least one inning in both; he gave up eight baserunners at the outset of the first game but came back the next day to throw eight full frames. And again on Sunday, Romo recorded four outs and allowed two walks before departing in the 2nd inning. Technically that means he left back-to-back games with a no-hitter intact. Which made our inner Johnny Vander Meer ask, when's the last time that one happened? Well, it's been done fairly recently by several relievers who were, like Romo, making spot starts due to injuries or doubleheaders or whatnot. But those games were all months apart with a bunch of relief appearances in between. The last to do it in back-to-back games where both were starts was Mike Moore of the Mariners in 1985. Moore left his May 30 start against Baltimore in the 2nd inning after pulling a groin muscle, thought he could make his next start on June 4 against the Tigers, but after three walks to start the second inning, he (and his groin) got pulled again, eventually landing on the disabled list.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Braves, Sunday: Scored 10 runs (and walked off, just as a bonus) without an extra-base hit. Last time they pulled that they were in Milwaukee. August 23, 1953, had 17 singles in a 10-2 win over the Cubs.
⚾: Dansby Swanson, Sunday: First player in Atlanta Braves history (1966) to lead off inning with an out, then bat again later in same inning and hit a walkoff of any type.
⚾ Charlie Morton, Friday: First pitcher in (at least) live-ball era to start a season 6-0, where all games were starts and he allowed =4 hits and = 1 run in every game.
⚾ Khris Davis, Thursday: Second Athletics batter in live-ball era with four hits and a hit-by-pitch in same game. Other is Sal Bando at Kansas City, September 1, 1973.
⚾ Yankees, Saturday/Sunday: First time hitting at least four homers in back-to-back road games in the same city since June 17 and 18, 1961, at Tiger Stadium. (You may have heard a thing or two about the '61 Yankees.)
⚾ Tyler Saladino, Monday: First pinch-hit inside-the-park home run in Brewers/Pilots history. Last for any team was by the Nationals' Stephen Drew on May 31, 2016.
⚾ Ozzie Albies, Wednesday: Third career game with both a double and a triple. Joins Hank Aaron as the only Braves players since 1900 to do it three times before turning 22.
⚾ Jake Cave, Saturday: Third player in live-ball era (and stolen-base rules changed a lot before that) with a multi-run homer and a steal in his major-league debut. The others are "only" Len Dykstra (Mets 1985) and Bert Campaneris (Athletics 1964).
⚾ Orioles, Sunday: First team in majors with 13 hits but zero runs scored since the 2008 Dodgers. Only other time Baltimore did it was May 14, 1961, at Cleveland.
⚾ Justin Verlander, Wednesday: With Gerrit Cole May 4, first time two Astros have thrown shutouts on the road in same season since Randy Wolf and Roy Oswalt in 2008.
⚾ Dodgers, Saturday: First time sweeping a doubleheader from "Washington" since May 13, 1899 (scores of 12-1 and 7-3 vs the old National League Senators).
and zoom in on the first column.)
Did You Know?
Our buddy "Buddy" Myer from the first section is in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. There's one problem: While his father was ethnically Jewish, neither he nor Buddy practiced the faith at all, and Buddy's mother was Baptist. His name and heritage also got him into several brawls during his playing days, including one of the all-time "greats" between him and the Yankees' Ben Chapman in 1933. But apparently no one bothered to ask him until the 1970s when he was quoted by Esquire as saying, "I'm not Jewish, I'm German."
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