Last week we brought you stuff that happened repeatedly, usually in quick succession. This week featured a bunch of stuff that hadn't happened before, at least not in a particular team's history. Also, that basketball team from Portland got swept in the first round.
South Of The Border
The Padres, back in 1996, were the first major-league team to throw a regular-season pitch outside the U.S. or Canada (trivia: who threw it?), and of course they are still setting a trend as the only active team to never throw a no-hitter. So when the Padres returned to Mexico on Friday, against the Dodgers in Monterrey, it seemed perfect that those worlds would collide. Instead of throwing the no-hitter, the Padres became the first team ever to get no-hit outside the U.S. or Canada, losing 4-0 and striking out 13 times versus Walker Buehler and three other Dodgers hurlers. (Trivia answer: Think Dodgers hurlers, Mexico, and trail-blazers. Mm-hmm, a late-career Fernando Valenzuela.) Only one other no-hitter has been thrown in a neutral-site game, that being by Carlos Zambrano in a 2008 game that should have been in Houston, but was moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee due to hurricanes. (Oddly, that's still the only NH at Miller Park; there's never been one in a Brewers game.) The Padres also became the first team to get no-hit and strike out 13 times, but also manage to draw five walks, since the Twins did it in Nolan Ryan's third NH on September 28, 1974.
It was the first combined no-hitter in Dodgers history, and Buehler was the team's first starter to throw at least six no-hit innings and be removed since Rich Hill did it on September 10, 2016. That's not the Josh Harrison walk-off game from last season, although you could certainly make the case that Hill should have been pulled from that one with the NH still intact. And Hill, of course, paved the way for pitchers in their mid-30s to experience a triumphant comeback by way of the Long Island Ducks.
Turn Around, You Just Missed It
Gerrit Cole, meet Jason Schmidt. The Dodgers' no-hitter, as such things always do, overshadowed almost anything else that happened in baseball on Friday (Editor's note: Still bitter.), including Albert Pujols' 3,000th career hit. That might have even bumped Cole's game to third place, so you're forgiven if you didn't catch his complete-game one-hitter with 16 strikeouts against the Diamondbacks. Chris Owings' 5th-inning double-- hit while the Dodgers' no-hitter was moving through the 7th-- and a walk to David Peralta were the only blemishes on Cole's game. In the live-ball era, only two other pitchers have thrown a one-hit shutout (not an NH) while allowing only one walk and striking out 16. Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game, the 20th anniversary of which is the day this column is being posted, is one of them. The other was a Nolan Ryan outing against Boston on July 9, 1972, in which he allowed the hit and the walk in the 1st inning and then retired 26 Red Sox hitters in a row.
Cole also had an interesting strikeout line... on the offensive side. He went 0-for-5, which is unusual for a pitcher to start with, but guess how all five of those plate appearances ended. Yes, the old "platinum sombrero" which has been achieved just five times in Astros history (strangely, all in victories). Colby Rasmus had the previous one on July 6, 2016. But the last pitcher, for any team, with a 5-K game at the plate was Ted Lilly of the Cubs on June 30, 2008. And the last American League pitcher to pull it off (remember, we're playing NL rules in Arizona) was Boston's Ray Jarvis, who made just 12 starts for the Sawx over two seasons. But his first MLB victory came against Cleveland when Ken Brett gave up three hits and three walks to the first seven batters of the game, and Jarvis proceeded to throw 8⅔ innings of relief. That was at Fenway on the 57th anniversary of its opening-- April 20, 1969.
And if you were wondering about the Jason Schmidt reference, well, that harkens back to May 18, 2004. Many fans still recognize that date as belonging to Randy Johnson's perfect game for the Diamondbacks in Atlanta. Many fans do not remember that there was also a one-hit shutout that day. Schmidt threw it for the Giants at Wrigley Field in Chicago; that was the last time multiple teams were one-hit and fanned 13+ times on the same day.
And we would be remiss without one paragraph of love for James Paxton's 16-strikeout outing for the Mariners on Wednesday against Oakland. More impressive is that it came in only seven innings (come on, leave him in and try for 22!), the first of those since Michael Pineda of the Yankees fanned 16 Orioles on May 10, 2015. But it was only the third 16-K game in Mariners history, and guess who threw the other two. They're both Randy Johnson shutouts as well-- a five-hitter with 19 K's against the White Sox in 1997, and a 3/16 against Toronto in 1995.
Colónoscopy
Of course, not all of Randy Johnson's games were complete gems, and nine days before his 45th birthday, he gave up four homers to the Cardinals. Bartolo Colón, who continues to inspire 40-somethings throughout the baseball universe, accomplished the same "feat" on Friday, just twenty days before his 45th birthay. Only three others have done it at 44 or older: Gaylord Perry, Charlie Hough, and the most recent, Jamie Moyer, who on May 27, 2012, finally concluded that was the proof he should hang it up-- and did, the next day.
Meanwhile, two pitchers made their major-league debuts this week who weren't even born when Bartolo's pro career began. Fernando Romero of the Twins went 5⅔ scoreless innings on Wednesday, struck out five Blue Jays, and got the win when Eddie Rosario's 2nd-inning homer held up. He thus became the first Twins/Senators pitcher since at least 1920 to do that in his debut, though two pitchers (Doug Corbett and Jeff Holly) threw five scoreless with five strikeouts in relief. And Mike Soroka of the Braves-- not born until four months after Colón's MLB debut in 1997-- threw six innings and gave up just one run on Tuesday, the youngest pitcher in Atlanta history to do that in his debut. Scott Kazmir, in 2004, was the last in the majors, and the previous such outing in Braves history goes way back to Boston; James "Lefty" Wallace threw a 1-run, 6-hit complete game in his debut on May 5, 1942, when he was four days younger than Soroka.
Incidentally, that Braves win on Wednesday featured the odd line of 3 runs on 15 hits, the team's first such game since June 10, 1996 (also against the Mets). They hadn't won such a game since 17 years after Wallace's debut-- May 5, 1959, against the Dodgers at County Stadium in Milwaukee. And on Wednesday, another relative Newcomb-er (that's pitcher Sean who debuted last June) became the second Atlanta pitcher to go 7+ innings, give up no runs on two hits, strike out eight, and also have an extra-base hit on offense. Another long-tenured hurler, Tim Hudson, did it against Toronto on June 20, 2011.
Trust The Gordon's Mariner
In other "40-something" news, Ichiro Suzuki transitioned into a "front office role" with the Mariners this week, although we're not sure if he's formally retired yet or not. (Fool us once,...) One of the trailblazers for MLB's Japan pipeline, not to mention the "popularity" of infield singles, was honored by Dee Gordon on Thursday both on his cap and in the stat column. Gordon had three hits and stole two bases in the Mariners' win over Oakland. It was the fourth time Gordon had posted that line... this season. That's a full third of the major-league total of 12 such games; one of the other eight is by his teammate Jean Segura. It also topped Ichiro's 2010 and 2011 seasons in which he had three such games, and chances seem good for Gordon to match or exceed the Mariners' single-season record of six... set by Ichiro in his first season in the States, 2001.
That wasn't Gordon's only Ichiro tribute this week. On Tuesday he collected five hits and stole two bases, the first Mariners leadoff hitter with a 5-hit game since... Ichiro did that in San Diego on June 29, 2008. Guess who was the last to do it at Safeco. Yep, May 15, 2007, against the Angels. And the last player in the majors with five hits and two steals? Nope. But he's nearby. Jean Segura, who hit right below Gordon on Tuesday, did that as a Diamondback on August 19, 2016. (And no, that was not the game where he stole second base twice.)
Cub Scouts
Wrigley Field has a long and storied history spanning 105 seasons. So surely everything has happened there, right? Ah, baseball. Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies opened Tuesday's game with a leadoff homer. That part wasn't unusual; while it's his first one this season, Blackmon leads the majors in leadoff homers over the past five seasons, and he and George Springer often swap the leaderboard. But two pitches later, when David Dahl also went deep and blazed the way to a 3-1 Rockies victory, well now we're talking. Only once before in Wrigley Field history had a visiting team begun a game with back-to-back dingers; Roy Johnson and Harold "Rabbit" Warstler did it for the Braves on August 6, 1937.
We weren't done. That one run that the Cubs scored in the game? Why, that came in the bottom of the 1st when Anthony Rizzo led off the Chicago order with a first-pitch homer. And that wasn't unusual either, nor was the leadoff homer ending up as the only run the Cubs scored. Kosuke Fukudome was the last to pull that off, on June 1, 2011. But the combination of both teams hitting a leadoff home run? That was indeed a first among over 8,200 games played at Wrigley.
You First. No, You First.
The Rays and Tigers opened a series on Monday by not being able to decide who would score first. With zero runs and just five hits between them after eight innings, Tampa Bay finally unloaded two homers off Shane Greene in the 9th to take a 3-0 lead. The Tigers then said, oh, that looks fun, scoring two runs in the bottom half on a Victor Martinez single but leaving the bases loaded to end the game. It was the first time in Rays history that they'd had ≤ 4 hits in Detroit and won, and Chaz Roe-- who did the aforementioned loading of the bases-- became the first pitcher in team history to hit two batters, give up two runs, and still get credit for the stat everyone loves to hate, a "hold". Only 14 pitchers in the majors have gotten one in that situation since it became an official thing in 1969.
Milwaukee's Josh Hader entered Monday's game in Cincinnati hanging on to a 6-5 lead with 1 out in the 7th. He worked the remainder of the game, facing nine batters. He walked Tucker Barnhart. The other eight struck out-- all of them swinging, including Billy Hamilton on a bunt attempt. That set a live-ball-era (and likely an all-time one, though we can't verify) for the most outs recorded by a reliever with all of them coming via the K. Dylan Bundy of the Orioles (July 6, 2016) had been the last to get seven such outs.
Cole Hamels also struck out eight batters on Monday; he of course was the Rangers' starter on the other side of Ohio in Cleveland. It took him 104 pitches to get through five innings, but he left with a 2-1 lead (which the bullpen promptly blew). Along the way Hamels uncorked three wild pitches and a hit batter, becoming the first pitcher in (again, at least) the live-ball era to post that entire line (8 K in ≤ 5 IP, but 3 WP and an HBP). The three wild pitches by themselves hadn't been done by a Rangers pitcher in a road game in over a decade, and that was also in Cleveland. Kason Gabbard pulled that off on August 2, 2007.
Cleveland made their own team history on Tuesday when they took a 6-2 deficit into the bottom of the 9th, but loaded the bases against Keone Kela and then turned things over to Michael Brantley. With two outs and two strikes, Brantley unloaded the bases with a grand slam. Although the Indians have had multiple walk-off grand slams over the years (last by Nick Swisher on June 19, 2014), Brantley's shot was the first tying grand slam hit with the Indians down to their final out. It was the first one by any team when down to their final strike since Kyle Seager did it for the Mariners on June 5, 2013.
The Rangers then re-opened that game when Joey Gallo and Isiah Kiner-Falefa both went deep in the top of the 12th and ultimately an 8-6 victory. Only twice before had the franchise hit back-to-back homers in an extra inning, and one of those was in its second season. Jim King and Harry Bright did it at Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis (against the Twins, whom the Rangers/Second Senators had replaced in Washington) on July 12, 1962; the more-recent pair was Chris Davis and David Murphy in Arizona on June 25, 2009. Kiner-Falefa's homer was his fourth hit of the game; Davis also did that in the 2009 game, and the only other player in Rangers history with four hits including an extra-inning dinger was Mike Hargrove in August 1977.
Cleveland Rocks
Since we're on the Cleveland topic, let's veer off into that weird doubleheader they played on Thursday. The one where the rest of the baseball world (at least those who were not Former New Britain Rock Cats fans) learned how to pronounce "Yangervis Solarte". (He is the first "Yangervis" in major-league history if that counts as trail-blazing.) The first game of the twinbill, listed as a 1:10 start, didn't end until (really) 7:50 thanks to a two-hour rain delay, and oh yeah, the fact that it was a 13-11 game that took 11 innings. Solarte stepped to the plate in the 11th with four hits and two RBIs under his belt, but with the bases loaded. You know where this is going (and where the ball is going). Only one other player has ever collected five hits, six RBIs, and an extra-inning grand slam, and he's the poster child for squeaking into the Hall of Fame on the 15th ballot (and the last ever to do so now that the rules have changed). Jim Rice hit a walkoff slam against the Athletics for his fifth hit on July 4, 1984. The only other player in Toronto history with 5 and 6 (never mind the slam) was Roy Howell on September 10, 1977, at Yankee Stadium. And only Gregg Zaun (2008) and George Bell (1985) had hit slams for the Jays in the 11th inning or later. The game would also be the first time in Jays history they collected nine extra-base hits in a game in Cleveland (either stadium).
And while they did not win the night game thanks to 11 more Indians runs, Yangervis had a homer, double, and single in the nightcap, falling one shy of the doubleheader hits record last done by Lee Thomas in 1961, the first season of the Expansion Era for the newly-created Los Angeles Angels. Solarte did become the first player in Jays history to homer and double in both games of a twinbill, and the first with just the homer since Shawn Green (who would go on to have a four-homer game a few years later) on September 4, 1995.
Speaking of four-homer games, Thursday was the first time in Indians history that they had scored 11+ in both games of a doubleheader and not swept it. In fact, no team had managed that since the Cardinals did it on September 7, 1993. If that date looks familiar, it's because the second game of that DH was Mark Whiten's four-homer, 12-RBI game which still shares both records (but is the only game with both).
this weekend, making for the perfect scoreboard shot to accompany this section.
And yes, we got the "tropical shirt" too.
Apple Jacks
Unfortunately for Cleveland, their weekend was destined to be spent in New York, and not playing the dysfunctional Mets either. Instead they met the completely functional Yankees, who not only swept the Indians in dramatic fashion, they went 6-1 on a road trip to Anaheim and Houston, and as of this writing, have won 15 of their last 16. That's the winningest stretch for the Bronx Bombers since rattling off 15 straight wins to finish the 1960 regular season (en route to getting walked off by Bill Mazeroski in the World Series).
After Monday's 2-1 loss, the Pinstripes started May with back-to-back 4-0 wins over the Astros. In Tuesday's contest, Gary Sanchez hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 9th to break what had thus far been a scoreless tie; it was the first such hit for the Yankees (3-run or grand slam) since May 31, 1959, when they were 0-0 with the Senators after 8, and Bill Skowron's 3-run shot in the 9th scored Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra for the win. That fourth run on Tuesday scored on a passed ball later in the inning, giving Sanchez all 3 RBI for the team in the game. (Remember this part.)
Wednesday's game was dominated by Luis Severino, who allowed five hits, struck out 10, and came within a dozen pitches of the fabled "Maddux" (an individual shutout on under 100 pitches). It was the Yankees' first SHO-5 (or better) in over a year, since Masahiro Tanaka did it at Fenway last April, and their first to also feature double-digit shutouts since Mike Mussina fanned a dozen Devil Rays on September 24, 2002. On offense, however, it was Giancarlo Stanton 4, Astros 0. Stanton homered twice, becoming the first Yankee ever with 2 HR and 4 RBI in Houston (either stadium), and the second to do it against Houston (Derek Jeter at YS in 2010).
But combined with Sanchez's game on Tuesday, that means each of those games featured at least 3 Yankees RBI, with a lone batter responsible for driving in all of them. That hadn't happened since May 5 and 6, 2009, when Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira did it... but they lost both those games. The last occurrence of that phenomenon in back-to-back games, where the Yanks won both, was on August 2 and 3, 1945, when Nick Etten (at Fenway) and Oscar Grimes (at Shibe Park) pulled it off.
While Gleyber Torres didn't have all the Yankees' RBIs in Thursday's win, he did have three of them despite recording only one single. (It was a two-run job and he also had a sacrifice fly.) Only seven number-9 hitters in Yankees history have driven in three runs with one non-extra-base hit; the previous had been Melky Cabrera on September 18, 2007. And when Torres ended the weekend with a walkoff homer, he not only became the first Yankee to hit one against Cleveland since Alex Rodriguez on April 19, 2007, but he became the youngest Yankee ever to hit any walkoff homer-- besting Mickey Mantle (April 23, 1953 vs Red Sox) by 41 days.
Trail Mix
Much like the argument about "can you have a one-game streak", can you really have a trail with only one data point?
Orioles fans may (or may not want to) remember last June when almost every starting pitcher got rocked for at least five runs. Chris Tillman was the first one to that party on Thursday, giving up seven earned to the Angels and being pulled before recording an out in the 2nd inning. He was the first O's starter to do that since... Chris Tillman in Pittsburgh, May 21, 2014. Since earned runs were first recognized by the American League in 1913, he's the first pitcher in Orioles/Browns history to do it twice.
Meanwhile, Jace Peterson capped a five-run 9th inning for the O's on Wednesday (although they trailed by 8 at the time, so oh well) with a pinch-hit bases-loaded triple. The last Oriole to hit one of those in any inning was Harold Baines on April 16, 1994, and Peterson's was the first one for the Orioles/Browns in the 9th inning or later in the live-ball era.
Chad Kuhl of the Pirates got taken deep four times in Tuesday's loss to the Nationals. The last Pittsburgh hurler to allow four homers in a game? Of course that's Chad Kuhl, last September 15 against Reds (all were solo shots). The Pirates' previous pitcher to do it twice was Oliver Perez; both of his games came in 2004.
The name William Hayward Wilson probably doesn't do much for you. But thanks to some creative grandparents in South Carolina, baseball was treated to "Mookie" Wilson for 12 seasons (and the Mets were indirectly treated to a World Series championship). The only other "Mookie" in MLB history, though not named for Wilson, is currently playing for the Red Sox, and Betts made some history this week also. On Wednesday had a four-hit, three-homer game against the Royals, the first for Boston since... Mookie Betts did it on August 14, 2016, against Arizona. Mo Vaughn is the Red Sox' only other player with two such games. And on Thursday, Betts drove in four runs from his perch at the top of the batting order, even though it wasn't enough to overcome an 11-5 Texas win. The last Sox leadoff hitter with 4 RBI in a loss was, of course, Mookie Betts, last May in Milwaukee. And he's the first in team history to do that twice.
Let's Rap Some Knuckles
Phil Niekro didn't invent the knuckleball, but he (along with brother Joe) certainly popularized it in the '70s and '80s, likely influencing some younger pitchers. Julio Teheran doesn't throw a knuckler, but on Thursday he pulled off something only Niekro had done before in Braves history-- and it was on offense. Teheran collected two hits, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly in an 11-0 beatdown of the Mets. Keith Lockhart in 2000 was the last Atlantan to do all that in one game, but the only previous pitcher was Niekro, also against the Mets, on August 28, 1979. Jason Vargas, meanwhile, became the third pitcher in Mets history to give up 9+ hits and 6+ runs in each of his first two appearances in a season, joining Bill Pulsipher in 1995 and Al Jackson in 1962. It also marked the third time in Mets history they had been shut out on ≤ 3 hits in consecutive games, and strangely, all of them have been on the 2nd and 3rd of a month. The Braves also did it to them in July 1999, as did the Reds in September 1963.
When Zack Wheeler also gave up 10 hits, six runs, and two homers in Friday's loss, he and Vargas became the first Mets to have that line in back-to-back games since Eric Hillman and Mike Birkbeck pulled it off in a doubleheader on August 31, 1992. And the Mets were shut out on six hits again Saturday, the first time they'd had three such games in a four-day span since a dreadful series with the Cubs from April 17-19, 1973.
Before the Niekros, the most popular knuckleballer may have been Hoyt Wilhelm, who started with the Giants but is inducted in the Hall of Fame with a White Sox cap. In between, however, he played for the Orioles for several years, and on Saturday, Mychal Givens harkened back to his greatness (briefly). After Kevin Gausman and Trevor Cahill battled to a scoreless tie through nine innings, Givens worked a perfect 10th and 11th, striking out five of the six batters. While Gausman became the first Oriole to go nine scoreless on two hits and not get a win since Mike Morgan in 1988, Givens became the first Oriole since Hoyt Wilhelm to post a 0-hit, 5-K line entirely in extra innings (versus pitching, say, the 9th and 10th). Wilhelm did that against the Angels at Memorial Stadium on September 9, 1962.
And while we're dropping knuckleballs, Nick Kingham of the Pirates got a win in his second MLB game on Friday, a 6-4 victory over Milwaukee. Kingham, of course, gave us a no-hitter scare in his debut last weekend, so he thus became the first Pittsburgh pitcher to win each of his first two MLB games, while striking out seven in each game, since Tim Wakefield in 1992.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ JaCoby Jones, Wednesday: First Tiger to hit a leadoff triple in the 12th inning or later since Walter "Hoot" Evers at CHW, September 10, 1950.
⚾ Xander Bogaerts, Monday: First player to hit two grand slams at Fenway in same month (also April 7) since Carl Everett, April 24 & 27 2001.
⚾ Brewers, Sunday: Third time in nine days being shut out on ≤ 2 hits. Last team in majors to "accomplish" that: 1991 Indians (June 7, 12, 13). First in Brewers history.
⚾ Ryan Yarbrough, Friday: Second reliever in Rays history to throw 5+ innings and allow only one baserunner. Esteban Yan did it against the Twins on April 13, 1998, in the first extra-inning game at Tropicana Field.
⚾ Dexter Fowler, Sunday: First player in Cardinals history to hit a walkoff home run in the 14th inning or later with the team trailing at the time (i.e., multi-run dinger).
⚾ Bryce Harper, Friday: Second player in Nats/Expos history to lead off game with a home run and then go deep again in the 2nd inning. Ron LeFlore at Dodger Stadium, June 18, 1980.
⚾ Nick Hundley, Monday: Walkoff pinch hit for Giants against Padres. Also had walkoff pinch hit for Padres (May 30, 2010, vs Nats). Only other player with one for both teams is Jack Clark.
⚾ Wilmer Difo, Sat/Sun: First in Nationals history (2005) to make a game's final out while representing at least the tying run, and then end the next game with a walkoff.
⚾ Jorge Soler, Tuesday: Latest homer (by inning) the Royals have ever hit at Fenway, surpassing Jeff Keppinger's 12th-inning shot on September 9, 2006.
⚾ Yankees, Saturday: First time scoring 5+ runs on ≤ 4 hits, where none of the hits was a homer, since September 19, 1995, when they beat Toronto with three hits and 10 walks.
Did You Know?
Like other players named "Rabbit" (Maranville being the most famous), Harold Warstler got his nickname because of his quickness in the field and his small size at just 5'7", 150. He was a last-minute fill-in on the American League All-Star tour of Japan in 1934 when Joe Cronin broke his wrist; he played alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and many others under the watchful eye of Connie Mack. His son was nicknamed "Buddy". (This article has a few more facts and photos from the tour.)
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