With the summer solstice (and the "longest day of the year") coming up on Thursday, it felt totally appropriate that much of this week's action came either very early or very late. Who needs those boring middle innings anyway?
Sun Over Miami
The sun came up at 6:29 am in Miami on Thursday, so it must have felt perfectly fine for the MLB schedule-makers to start a game at noon, just as they had in Atlanta the day before. If you're an east-coast night owl (ahem), or a west-coaster at all, that's an unusually early start, behind only the two annual "a.m." games-- Patriots' Day in Boston and Independence Day in Washington.
As it turns out, in both cases, they forgot to reschedule the daily delivery of bats from much later in the afternoon. Totally defeating the purpose of the noon start for "getaway day", the Marlins and Giants ended up playing 16 innings on Thursday, with the game still not ending until after 5:00. Although Marlins Park opened in 2012, its three longest games have all come in the last two seasons; Miami lost a 16-inning game to the Mets last April, and this year's opening series with the Cubs featured a 17th-inning walkoff by Miguel Rojas.
Thursday's game finally came untied when Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run, bases-loaded single in the top of the 16th. By inning, that was the latest such hit in San Francisco Giants history (1958); although Stan Javier did have a "two-run single" in the 17th, he was attempting to bunt and the runs actually scored on an error. That game (May 24, 1998) was also the last time the Giants scored 3 or more runs in an inning numbered 16 or higher.
Starter Dereck Rodriguez worked the first 6⅔ innings for the Giants, not knowing there were still nine more innings to go. It fell to occasional starter Ty Blach, out of the bullpen, to throw innings 10 through 16, and he did so without allowing a run (thanks in large part to Sam Dyson getting the final out for the win). Blach became the first Giants pitcher to throw 6⅔ innings of scoreless relief since Ryan Jensen did so against the Reds on May 4, 2002. Starter Jason Schmidt experienced "shoulder tightness" after retiring the first four batters, and Jensen ended up taking a combined no-hitter into the 8th. Blach and Rodriguez combined were the first pair of Giants pitchers to throw 6⅔ innings in the same game since Bobby Bolin and Gaylord Perry did it in a still-famous 23-inning game with the Mets on May 31, 1964. For his part, Elieser Hernandez threw innings 12 through 16, becoming the first pitcher in Marlins history to throw 5 innings in relief and take a loss. Combined with Tyler Cloyd (May 17) and Jarlin Garcia (March 30 in the 17-inning game mentioned above), it's also the first time three Marlins pitchers have had five-inning relief outings in one season.
The Marlins did walk off in Wednesday's game when Brian Anderson hit a 9th-inning sacrifice fly, but that was set up-- multiple times-- by Justin Bour's efforts. In the 6th inning he drove in J.T. Realmuto with a game-tying single, and in the 8th-- after the Giants had retaken the lead-- Bour clubbed an RBI double to score Anderson and tie the game again. He's the third player in Marlins history to have two game-tying hits in the 6th or later of the same game. Greg Dobbs did it against the Dodgers on May 27, 2011, and Mike Lowell accomplished it in his three-homer game against the Phillies on April 21, 2004.
Bour then went on to clobber two home runs in Sunday's game at Camden Yards, becoming just the second Marlin ever to do so (since they don't play very often). The first... was J.T. Realmuto on Saturday. That's the first time that different Marlins (looking at you, Stanton) have had back-to-back multi-homer games on the road since Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez did it in Atlanta on June 3 and 4, 2008. And by virtue of the Orioles finally winning a game Sunday, Bour joined the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman as the only NL players with a 2-HR, 4-RBI game in a loss at OPACY. Zimm did it in a 9-6 defeat on May 29, 2013.
Rays Early, Rays Late
Speaking of Wednesday walkoffs, if you didn't arrive to the 1:00 game between Toronto and Tampa Bay until 4:00, you didn't miss much. In a battle of sputtering offenses, the game was scoreless through eight innings, and mercifully ended on Matt Duffy's RBI single in the bottom of the 9th. The Rays have only had four 1-0 walkoff wins in their history, the previous being a Ben Zobrist single to beat the Yankees on September 15, 2014. That was also the last time-- in any game-- that the Rays had five or fewer hits, scored one run, stranded 10 baserunners, and won.
The Rays then went to Yankee Stadium on Thursday. And when last we left our hero Matt Duffy, he was hitting a walkoff single. Apparently muscle memory is really a thing, because exactly 27 hours later, on the very next pitch seen by a Rays batter, Duffy hit a leadoff homer for a 1-0 lead. Not surprisingly, Duffy is the first player in Rays history to hit a walkoff anything in one game and then a leadoff homer (first pitch or otherwise) in the following game.
If you're keeping track, this means we took the lead on consecutive pitches... to the same hitter.
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 14, 2018
🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/8YDlUSdubZ
Alas, the Rays would not hold that lead in Thursday's game after Gleyber Torres woke up. He clobbered a three-run homer in the bottom of the 5th to turn a 2-1 deficit into an eventual win. That followed a game-tying solo shot in the 5th inning on Wednesday against the Nationals, although Washington eventually got that lead back and went on to win. Torres comes up in a lot of "youngest player since" contexts, especially this year with counterparts such as Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuña, Franmil Reyes, and, oh, Juan Soto. Who also homered in that win on Wednesday... not once but twice. Soto was the youngest player to homer at Yankee Stadium since Andruw Jones went deep in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series, and the youngest in the regular season since Ken Griffey Jr. on May 30, 1989. But in hitting the second one, Soto became the first "Washington" player-- any age-- with a multi-homer game in the Bronx since Harmon Killebrew on May 9, 1959.
Torres, for his part, became the youngest Yankee to go deep in back-to-back home games since Mickey Mantle homered in both games of a doubleheader agains the Tigers on July 13, 1952.
Back to the Yanks/Rays series for a moment, CC Sabathia was clearly leaving it over the plate in Sunday's finale. In these days of #bullpenning most pitchers aren't around long enough to give up 10 hits unless they're very well scattered. And his were... because he also recorded 10 strikeouts. Sabathia became the first Yankee with 10 of each in the same game since... CC Sabathia on May 14, 2013, against the Mariners. And that was the first such game since... CC Sabathia did it at Fenway on August 30, 2011. In the live-ball era, only one other Yankee has spun three such pitching lines, Red Ruffing from 1932 to 1936 (and one of his came in the World Series).
And in a continuation of the Rays' "reliever as starter" experiment, Ryne Stanek worked two perfect innings in Tuesday's game against Toronto and then departed in favor of Austin Pruitt. Combined with a couple of Sergio Romo outings, he's the third Tampa Bay "starter" this season to depart a game before allowing a baserunner. And that ties the 1996 Dodgers for the most such starts in the live-ball era; that team had two pitchers leave in the 1st inning with injuries, and then Ramon Martinez was pulled from a game in the final week of the season to set up their playoff rotation.
Indians Summer
Matt Duffy wasn't the only one mashing leadoff homers on Thursday. In fact, if you had tickets to this week's Indians/White Sox series, you'd have done well to show up early for every game. Monday's opener was scoreless until the 4th inning, but if you got to the park then, you didn't even get to see the home team get a hit. The White Sox recorded just two singles, and they were both in the 2nd. But you did get to see history. Carlos Carrasco and friends mowed down 21 of the final 23 batters, giving the White Sox their first game at either Comiskey Park (so we're talking 1910 here) where they were shut out on two hits and struck out at least 13 times.
On Tuesday you also missed two hits if you got there late, and those would be the back-to-back leadoff homers by Yoan Moncada and Yolmer Sanchez. For Moncada it was his fourth of the year, and June 12 is the earliest date on which any White Sox batter has hit a fourth one. Some of that is of course due to "season creep" and March start dates, but the previous mark was by Alejandro De Aza on June 19, 2013. But Sanchez gave us a much better note: Although the White Sox hit back-to-back homers to start a game as recently as last season (Sanchez again, plus Alen Hanson), the Indians hadn't allowed such a thing in over three decades! Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell of the Tigers were the last to do it, on August 5, 1986. The honor of having done it least recently now jumps by eight years; the last time the Giants allowed back-to-back homers to start a game was August 3, 1994, to Jacob Brumfield and Bret Boone of the Reds (the pitcher, by the way, was Rockies manager Bud Black).
Wednesday's game, while not full of runs (3-2), was full of hits. In fact the Indians had 14 of them. And yes that score is right. Cleveland became the first team to turn 14+ hits into only two runs since... mm-hmm, the Indians did it last July in San Diego. And they also pulled it off in a Canada Day game in Toronto in 2016. Only two other teams in the live-ball era have had such a game in three straight seasons, the Pirates from 1968-70 and the Browns from 1920-23. If you prefer weird pitching lines, Sox starter Dylan Covey gave up 10 hits and got the win. Trevor Bauer struck out 12 batters and lost. The only other game in the past 20 years with that quirk was a Yankees/Red Sox tilt between Josh Beckett and Joba Chamberlain on May 5, 2009.
And as mentioned, Matt Duffy wasn't the only leadoff homer on Thursday. Francisco Lindor got the scoring started in the series finale, the first Clevelander to hit one in Chicago since Grady Sizemore off Mark Buehrle on April 5, 2007. He then hit another one on Saturday when the Indians returned home against the Twins. Sizemore was also the last to accomplish that feat, of hitting two in three games; he had one in the season opener against the White Sox earlier that same week. But thanks to that off-day that's always scheduled in the opening series, Lindor is the first Clevelander with two leadoff dingers in three days since Billy Harrell did it on July 27 and 29, 1958.
Last Call
The Milwaukee Brewers wanted to make sure you got every last entertainment dollar out of your ticket to Sunday's game with the Phillies. Or at least Eric Thames did. You were probably still finding your seat (or your way in from the parking lot) when the Phillies' second batter of the game, Rhys Hoskins, blasted a two-run homer. But don't worry if you missed that, there'll be plenty more. Thames promptly led off the bottom of the 1st with just the second leadoff dinger for the Brewers this year (Lorenzo Cain, May 10) to make it 2-1. And then back-and-forth we go. 2-2, 4-2, 4-4, 6-4, 6-5, 8-5, with the teams combining to pile up 15 extra-base hits among their 25 total base knocks. Trailing 10-6 in the 9th, guess who's up again with the Brewers down to their final out. Yep, Eric Thames again. Obviously he cannot hit a walkoff as well, but with two runners on he can make it a one-run game. Which he did. And then Christian Yelich lined out to end it. But still Thames became the first player in Brewers/Pilots history to homer with 0 out in the 1st inning (not necessarily a leadoff) and again with 2 outs in the 9th inning. It was also the first game in Miller Park history where the Brewers collected nine extra-base hits and lost. They only did it once at County Stadium, an 18-9 thumping by the Royals on August 21, 1995. And seven different Brewers accounted for those 9 XBH, the first time that's happened in a loss since May 14, 2007-- also against the Phillies (but at CBP).
Odubel Herrera, meanwhile, had three hits and three runs scored in Sunday's win, the first Phillies batter with that line this year. That leaves only Tampa Bay and Texas without a player to do it yet. Herrera also had a 3-hit, 3-run game at Miller Park on April 23, 2016, in a 10-6 victory; he's the first Philadelphian ever to do it twice in Milwaukee (yes, including the Braves years).
Everything's Bigger In Texas
Milwaukee wasn't the only place with a lot of back-and-forth late action on Sunday. Enter the unusual Rockies/Rangers interleague matchup, which moved along fairly calmly with a 5-1 score into the 6th. Jurickson Profar flipped that around with a three-run homer to cap a five-run frame and make it 6-5 Texas. But of course the Texas bullpen couldn't hold 'em; the Rockies called their 5-spot with another 5 of their own in the top of the 7th on six hits including a bases-clearing double by Gerardo Parra. Now it's 10-6. Profar capped another three-run inning with a double to make it 10-9 but he was left stranded at second. Trevor Story makes it 12-9 with a two-run homer in the 9th and then the wheels come off. Wade Davis issues four walks and Jose Trevino unloads a bases-loaded single for the 13-12 walkoff. It was the second road game in Rockies history where they scored 12 and lost; the other was also a 13-12 walkoff, by the Cubs on May 4, 1999. Six different Rockies had multiple hits, which they've only done three other times in a road loss (last at Toronto, June 22, 2007). And Wade Davis joined Shawn Chacon in 2004 (June 20 vs Orioles) as the only pitchers in Rockies history to issue four walks when entering the game in a save situation.
Trevino, meanwhile, was playing in just his third major-league game after Robinson Chirinos was shaken up in a collision earlier in the week and he got the callup. That's the quickest into a big-league career that any Rangers player has had a multi-run walkoff since Monty Fariss homered in his third game to beat the White Sox on September 8, 1991.
But the most interesting line from Sunday belonged to the junior Delino DeShields, who had a single, walked twice, and reached on an error, but stole two bases and scored on all four of his trips around. He's also a "second" in Rangers/Senators franchise history on multiple counts; the only other player with four runs scored on only one total base was Elliott Maddox against the White Sox on May 22, 1972 (walked and reached twice on errors). And their only other player to score four runs and steal two bases in a game was Dave Nelson against Cleveland on September 21, 1971. That's the fifth-to-last game they played in Washington, and of course we know how that homestand ended.
Intermission
There were a LOT of "sun" references we considered here. Or songs about "daylight" (it come and me want to go home) or "summer" or just do a search and you'll have playlists for days. But we settled on this classic piece of Americana from 1973.
Sleepy In Seattle
The Mariners had an unusual 1:00 start on Wednesday, especially given that they had a west-coast opponent and the Angels had Thursday off. But again, if you forgot and didn't get there until like 3, you still got to see the best part. Sure, you missed a Nelson Cruz homer, but that's long since been erased and the Mariners now trail 6-4 at the stretch. But then Ryon Healy ties it with a homer in the 8th and who else but Mitch Haniger hits a two-run shot in the 9th and as they say, that's a walkoff winner. Not only do you go home happy, you got to see a very rare occurrence in Mariners history. Only twice have they hit a tying homer in the 8th, followed by a walkoff homer in the 9th (not in extras). Dave Henderson and Phil Bradley were the other players to do it, also against the Angels, on August 12, 1985. And you might have been here two weeks ago when Haniger had another walkoff homer to beat the Rays. He joined Steve Balboni (1988), Alvin Davis (1986), and Tom Paciorek (1981) as the only Mariners with two walkoff homers in a 13-day window (the last two above did it in back-to-back games).
Oh by the way, Haniger and Healy also went deep in Tuesday night's win over the Angels. Twice. And that made some history as well. It was the first time since Safeco Field opened that two Mariners teammates had multiple homers in the same game. The last time it happened at the Kingdome was 18 games before its closure; Edgar Martinez and Butch Huskey did it against the Twins on May 17, 1999.
Mariners pitching treated us to a non-boring middle inning on Friday, giving up a 6-spot to the Red Sox in the top of the 3rd. However, by doing it early, they left seven more chances for Seattle to bat, and sure enough, the M's eventually clawed all the way back and won 7-6 after Denard Span's pinch-hit double drove in the final two runs in the bottom of the 8th. Span's two-bagger was the Mariners' first pinch hit to turn a deficit into a lead in the 8th or later since Adam Lind hit a walkoff homer against the White Sox on July 18, 2016. But it was the first such hit that wasn't a homer since Dave Hansen hit a two-run single against Tampa Bay on June 4, 2005.
And those six runs for Boston? It had been just over three years (June 7, 2015, versus Oakland) since they scored six runs in a game with all of them in the same inning. But the last time they did and lost? That took us all the way back to September 20, 1952!, when they trailed the Senators 10-0 at Griffith Stadium but then posted a six-run 8th just to make it look respectable.
Too Late For Hellos
At some parks, especially in the minors, the team stops taking tickets after the 5th or 6th inning and really late stragglers can just come in and watch the end of the game for free. (At some point, paying the ticket-taker(s) costs more than the handful of people still showing up.) If you were able to wander into Camden Yards in Monday's 7th inning, a pretty boring linescore greeted you: 0-2-0 over 0-3-0. Five hits, all singles, and not really a "pitcher's duel" either, just two offenses not doing anything except grounding out to the infield. The Orioles had a shot in the 7th, but Adam Jones struck out with the bases loaded to keep it scoreless. The Red Sox had a shot in the 11th, but Mitch Moreland struck out with the bases loaded to keep it scoreless. Finally in the 12th, Boston put together the only half-inning of the game with multiple base hits, with Xander Bogaerts scoring on a sac fly, Rafael Devers advancing to third on the throw home, and then Jackie Bradley hitting another "dramatic" sac fly for the final 2-0 margin. Since sacrifice flies were split off into their own category in 1954, it's the first time the Red Sox have ever hit two of them in extra innings in one game (last by any team was the Brewers in April 2011). It's also the sixth game where the Red Sox had multiple sac flies that accounted for all their runs. The last of those games was April 24, 2004, against the Yankees (won 3-2).
The Orioles also played a 12-inning game with Oakland on May 5 and failed to score. (They've failed to score a lot this year, maybe you've heard.) It's the first time in team history (to 1901) that they've had two such games in a season. And the "scoreless after 11" part was the longest the O's and Sawx had played without a run since July 14, 1916! Ernie Koob (who famously backed into a no-hitter the following May after a scoring change) threw a 14-hit complete-game shutout in a game that was called after 17 innings due to darkness. As they did back in those days, the tie was replayed from the beginning the next day and Boston won 17-4. Because baseball.
Twilight Time
The sun may go down really late this week, but inevitably it does go down. And in baseball's case, that's usually the 8th or 9th inning when we realize there are only so many chances left. A few teams this week refused to go gently into that good night.
The Cubs tied Monday's game in Milwaukee on a Jason Heyward single in the top of the 8th. However, Kyle Schwarber grounded out with the bases loaded and we ended up in the top of the 11th just hoping someone would score before we lost the final tiny vestiges of daylight. (We know there are artificial lights now, just roll with it.) When Anthony Rizzo homered on the first pitch of the 11th, it appeared we might make it out of Miller Park before darkness fell and the game was declared a tie. But for some reason that one run wasn't enough for the Cubs. With two outs they loaded the bases on a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and two singles, eventually scoring 5 runs to defeat the Brewers 7-2. You may remember that the Cubs had a 6-run extra-inning (the 14th!) just nine days ago against the Mets. And thus Monday made them the first team with multiple 5-run extra innings in the same season since the 2011 Reds. The last time the Cubs did it was way back in 1927, when they hung a 5-spot in the 18th at Braves Field in May and then did it again in the 10th at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl on August 27.
The Reds played an unusual interleague series in Kansas City this week, and those bats did finally show up late in the game. On Tuesday the Royals led 1-0 after 8 thanks to a Hunter Dozier home run, but Tucker Barnhart spoiled that with a solo homer. It was the top of the 10th where things got interesting. After two singles and an unsuccessful fielder's choice attempt, Joey Votto wandered up to the plate and unloaded the bases with a three-run triple. The Reds hadn't hit one of those in extra innings since Barry Larkin did it in the 11th on Opening Day 1990 against Houston. And remember where we are playing. Votto was the designated hitter because we're in an American League park. He thus became the first-ever National League DH to hit an extra-inning triple, regular or postseason, bases loaded or otherwise. When Eugenio Suarez then drove Votto in, it marked just the second game in the last 15 seasons where the Reds scored at least 5 runs with all of them in the 9th inning or later. The other was a 7-3 win at San Francisco on June 28, 2014, that also featured a four-run extra frame.
And no worries if you missed Tuesday's game, the Reds are happy to repeat that twilight performance on Wednesday. Tied 0-0 after six innings, Cincinnati scored twice on errors in the 7th, added a run in the 8th, and then Adam Duvall hit an unnecessary grand slam in the 9th. Final score 7-0. Duvall became the first Reds batter ever to connect for a slam against the Royals, and if you guessed that this year's team leaderboard was a three-way tie between the Yankees, Reds, and Orioles (4 each), well... no you didn't. For the Royals it was the third straight home game where they had scored no more than 1 run on no more than 5 hits, the second-longest streak in Kauffman Stadium history. The only time they did it in four straight was near the end of the 2004 season, and let's just say the fourth game in that streak was loss #100 for the year.
And the Diamondbacks brought you tales of late heroics on Monday when they trailed the Pirates 5-0 at the stretch, but then knocked started Joe Musgrove out in the 7th and unloaded on the bullpen. Five runs in the 7th and four in the 8th later, it's an easy D'backs victory. It was only the second game in Arizona history where they scored at least nine runs in a game with all of them coming in the 7th inning or later. The other such contest was, predictably, at Coors Field on September 28, 2000 (a 12-3 win). As part of the rally, Daniel Descalso collected an RBI single, a two-run triple, and scored two runs himself. Only six leadoff hitters have had that line (triple, 2 runs, 3 RBI) for Arizona; the previous one was Ender Inciarte in April 2015. Before departing, Musgrove managed to hit three batters and throw a wild pitch, the first Pirates hurler to achieve that since Bob Veale against the Cardinals on July 1, 1965.
On Wednesday it was newly-acquired Jon Jay who tried to provide some late life in the series finale. Trailing 5-2 but with the bases loaded (so he's the winning run), Jay came to the plate with two outs in the 9th. He did hit a single to left, but that meant only two runs scored and the tying one had to stop 90 feet away. We'll give him some credit, though; only four players in D'backs history have hit a two-run bases-loaded single with the team trailing by three and down to its final out. Ryan Roberts did it at AT&T Park on August 25, 2009; the others were by Chad Tracy (2006) and Kelly Stinnett (2000). Alas Jake Lamb then struck out swinging for the final sunset on that game.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Evan Gattis, Tue-Fri: First player in Astros history with three 4-RBI games in a four-day span. Previous team record for closest together was eight days by Glenn Davis, May 26 to June 1, 1990.
⚾ Nationals, Tuesday: Second time in franchise history (including Expos years) being shut out at Yankee Stadium. The other was David Cone's perfect game (July 18, 1999).
⚾ Didi Gregorius, Tuesday: First Yankee to hit two homers off same Washington pitcher since Mickey Mantle took Mike McCormick deep on July 2, 1966.
⚾ Caleb Ferguson, Sunday: First Dodgers starter to give up multiple hits, all of them homers, and take the loss since Don Sutton at Cincinnati, May 27, 1980.
⚾ Manuel Margot, Wednesday: Second batter in Padres history with 3 hits including an RBI triple in St Louis. Other is only Tony Gwynn (May 31, 1992).
⚾ Chad Pinder, Saturday: Missed cycle by the double but still scored three runs. Last Oaklander to pull off that combination was Rickey Henderson against Texas on July 4, 1982. Every other team had someone do it at least since 2006.
⚾ Chris Young & David Fletcher, Wednesday: First Angels teammates with 3 hits including a triple since Gary Pettis & Dick Schofield at Yankees, May 20, 1984.
⚾ Michael Wacha, Friday: First Cardinals pitcher to give up 9 runs including 3 homers to the Cubs since Dizzy Dean at Sportsman's Park, April 14, 1936.
⚾ Cubs, Tue-Wed: First time ever shut out in back-to-back games against Brewers. But second time ever shut out in B2B games in Milwaukee. Remember the Braves. July 6 and 7, 1956 (both by 5-0 scores).
⚾ Michael Taylor, Sunday: Fourth player in Nats/Expos history to steal four bases in a loss. Trea Turner did it last June against the Mets. The other two are Tim Raines (1981 & 1983).
⚾ Brent Suter, Friday: First pitcher in Brewers/Pilots history to be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
⚾ Ozzie Albies, Tuesday: Youngest player in Braves history with two grand slams (also May 10 at Marlins), topping Eddie Matthews (who hit two in July 1953 while still 21, but older than Albies).
Did You Know?
Neither of them hosts affiliated ball anymore, but there are two minor-league stadiums that are famous for facing west and causing "sun delays" as it sets and the batters can't see baseballs hurtling at them. Both, of course, were built before artificial lighting and night games became a thing; when games would start at 1:30 every day, it never mattered in the stadium design. One is Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, Calif., which has a 50-foot batter's eye in left-center to try and alleviate the issue, but still ends up with "7:00" games beginning as late as 7:45 around this time of year until the sun gets behind the screen. The other is Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass., where they just say, okay, we'll stop playing for a while and wait. At least, unlike a rain delay, you know exactly how long it's going to be (science!) and there's no cleanup involved. Merchandise trailer doesn't sell sunglasses though.
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