Beni And The Jays
In last week's episode, Andrew Benintendi had just become the first Red Sox hitter in eight years to miss the cycle by the double. That happened last Saturday against the Braves. Obviously he read our post on Monday morning, because he opted not to wait another eight years to do it again. He didn't even wait eight hours. In a Memorial Day matinee with the Blue Jays, Benintendi once again went homer-triple-single, becoming the first Bostonian to do that twice in a season since Dwight Evans in 1988. However, doing it twice in three days did set an all-time Sox record; until now the shortest span encompassing two "missed by the double" games had been 10 days-- by none other than Ted Williams on August 13 and 22, 1939.
Benintendi then got his double in Boston's 8-3 win on Tuesday. As did a whole bunch of other people. The Red Sox legged out six of them, plus two homers, giving them their first 8-XBH game since last August 1 against Cleveland. That doesn't seem like much, but 27 of the other 29 teams had done it since then (Padres and Mariners are the outliers). Sandy León, batting eighth, had two of those doubles and one of the homers, the first Red Sox catcher with 3 XBH and 3 RBI in a game since Jason Varitek did it at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 2003.
Something Fishy
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Mike Trout gave the Angels a quick lead with a 1st-inning homer, then tacked on a 3rd-inning triple and a 6th-inning single. Like Benintendi earlier in the week, that means Trout missed the cycle by the double, joining Kole Calhoun on Opening Day as the only "Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim" to do it this season.
It's the fourth time in his career that Trout has missed the cycle by the double, and that gives him sole possession of the Angels record for such a thing. Howie Kendrick did it three times. But Trout also did it once in a loss (July 31, 2015, to the Dodgers), and when the Rangers took Saturday's game in extra innings, Trout joined Tim Salmon (of course!) as the only players in Angels history to miss the double in two losses.
But wait. In addition to that 2015 game against the Dodgers, Trout's other "missed by the double" games were on September 3, 2016 (at Seattle) and August 30, 2017 (vs Oakland). That means he's had a "missed by the double" game in four consecutive seasons. And the last player, for any team, to pull that off was "only" Roberto Clemente for the Pirates from 1969 to 1972.
California
The Phillies made a road trip to California this week, and it's probably safe to say they're glad they don't have to come back (aside from a weekend in August, and that's to San Diego).
Although Vince Velasquez was probably not a fan of the bullpen blowing a 4-2 lead in Monday's opener, the Phils rebounded on Tuesday with six doubles in a 6-1 victory. That was just the second time that they'd recorded that many two-baggers at the venerable old Dodger Stadium (July 17, 2007, was the other), and five different Phillies collected one (Jorge Alfaro had two). The last time five different Phillies doubled in a road game with the Dodgers wasn't at Dodger Stadium. It wasn't even at the Coliseum. It was September 22, 1951, at Ebbets Field.
Cesar Hernandez had one of those doubles, plus a single, plus three walks. He became the first Phillies leadoff batter to reach base five times in a nine-inning game, and also steal a base, since... Cesar Hernandez did it on April 5 against the Marlins. Only four other Phillies in the live-ball era have done that twice in a season: Len Dykstra (1994), Lonnie Smith (1980), Richie Ashburn (1958), and Chick Fullis (1933).
The Phillies salvaged a four-game split with the Dodgers thanks to a combined two-hitter on Thursday, the first one they'd thrown at Chavez Ravine since Mark Portugal and Al Leiter did it it on May 14, 1998. For the weekend, the Phillies then took a leisurely bus ride up the PCH (this is almost certainly not true) to AT&T Park, where they got swept up in the scenery and pageantry and history of San Francis-- okay, they just got swept. Badly. Friday's 4-0 loss, while not a blowout by any means, was their second-worst shutout ever at AT&T, behind a 5-0 loss to Noah Lowry and friends on August 22, 2005. Hector Neris, while only giving up one run, managed to allow three hits and throw three wild pitches. But somehow he also struck out three batters to retire the side. No Phils reliever had put together all those threes since Wayne Twitchell against the Pirates on September 17, 1975.
And Friday's six hits were a gold mine compared to Saturday's three, although Alfaro did triple for one of them. (He still didn't score.) The Phillies also didn't draw a single walk, giving them only three baserunners against the Giants for the first time since Rick Reuschel and Jeff Brantley threw a combined one-hitter against them on May 17, 1989. And the two games together marked the first back-to-back road games where the Phillies had been shut out on ≤ 6 hits since a visit to Shea Stadium on July 17 and 18, 1998.
The Phillies did avoid getting shut out in all three games in San Francisco, but that's only through last winter's trade for one of the better-hitting pitchers in the National League, Jake Arrieta. Who provided the entire offense with a solo homer in his first at-bat. He was the first Phillies pitcher to go yard in San Francisco since Steve Carlton at Candlestick on May 4, 1982. And when the Phillies ended that game (and the series) with just that one run, it made Arrieta the second pitcher in team history (all of it, to 1883) whose solo homer provided the team's only run in a road game. The other was Jim Bunning (of Senator and/or perfect-game fame) at Shea Stadium on May 5, 1965.
Double Doors
The "door" part is because we're talking about home in this section. Or at least home runs. And it seemed like everywhere we looked this week, there was a batter with the "homer and a double" line. Nowhere were there more of them than in Tuesday's Cubs game, where Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, and Ben Zobrist all did it in the same game. Amazingly, it's the third time in the past two seasons that the Cubs have had a trio of batters do that in the same game; the other 29 teams combined have just six such trios. And before last season, the Cubs hadn't done it yet this century.
It's also just the second time the Cubs have had a trio of teammates post that line against the Pirates, despite both teams existing since 1882. The other game was May 15, 1993, at Wrigley, and the teammates in question were Ryne Sandberg, Derrick May, and (batting seventh!) Sammy Sosa. (It's worth noting that leadoff batter Dwight Smith had a homer and a triple in that game as well.)
Two days later the Cubs moved on to New York, where leadoff batter Zobrist posted that line again. Across the field, Mets leadoff batter Brandon Nimmo also found himself with a homer and a double. Only one other game in the past five years saw the leadoff hitters for both teams homer and double; that pair was the Rays' Corey Dickerson and Toronto's Kevin Pillar on April 28, 2017.
And if you like Cubs "odd"-ities, they piled up 17 hits in Friday's win at Citi Field, including four players-- Zobrist, Kris Bryant, Albert Almora, and Addison Russell-- who had three each. Where in the order do those guys bat? Why, 1, 3, 5, and 7, of course. The last time the Cubs had that happen was actually more recent than we expected-- in Pittsburgh on August 25, 2008 (Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Jim Edmonds, Kosuke Fukudome).
Before we leave Chicago, let's head down the Dan Ryan to Comiskey Park (or whatever it's called this year), where on Saturday the Brewers' Jesús Aguilar joined our group with a homer and a double in the same game. He was the first Brewer to do that on West 35th Street since Charlie Hayes in an 11-2 win on July 17, 2000. Milwaukee collected a total of four homers in Saturday's 5-0 win, their most against the White Sox since doing it across the highway at the old Comiskey Park on June 12, 1988 (Robin Yount, Rob Deer, Dale Sveum).
Double 'Dors
If just a homer and a double isn't enough for you, then meet Francisco Lindor of the Indians, who on Thursday took that line and doubled it again. Lindor cranked two homers and two doubles in Cleveland's 9-8 win over Minnesota, with his second homer proving to be the winning run after the Twins erased an 8-0 deficit. Lindor became the first Indians batter with four extra-base hits in a game since... Francisco Lindor did it just three weeks ago (May 12) against the Royals. But the last Clevelander to do it twice in a season was first baseman (and AL batting champion) Lew Fonseca way back in 1929.
No leadoff batter in Indians history had ever had 4 XBH and 4 RBI in a game. And the last leadoff hitter for any team to do that and also score three runs, as Lindor did, was Charlie Blackmon's famous six-hit game (we told you, it comes up about every other week!) in the first week of the 2014 campaign.
As for that 8-0 lead the Cleveland gave up, that was courtesy of Jake Odorizzi, who not only gave up a homer and two doubles to Lindor, he doubled that by also giving up a homer and two doubles to the rest of the Indians' lineup. The last Twins pitcher to surrender 6 XBH in a game was... Jake Odorizzi on April 17, and also against the Indians. Michael Brantley was the "homer-double" batter in that one; Lindor had only the homer. No Twins pitcher had done it against the same opponent twice in a season since Brad Radke versus Toronto in 1996.
Odorizzi's 8-run outing followed Fernando Romero's eruption on Wednesday in Kansas City, where the Royals took him for nine hits (incredibly, all singles) in the first two innings. Together they became the first back-to-back Twins starters to work less than four innings and give up at least eight runs since Eric Milton and Sean Bergman did it in Seattle on May 15 and 16, 2000.
And thanks to the Twins tying the score at one point, even though they still ultimately lost, Odorizzi gave up those eight runs in under four innings and didn't get tagged with the individual loss. No Twins starter had pulled that off since Francisco Liriano against the Indians on September 16, 2008.
Intermission
You've gotta think this happened all the time in the minor leagues, but when that Twins comeback ultimately knocked Shane Bieber out of his major-league debut in the 6th inning, the Target Field music folks had it ready. We're sorry you clicked on that.
Double O-dors
(It just keeps going, doesn't it? We even got O-dor-izzi into the last section.)
The Mariners tied up Tuesday's game against Texas at 5-5 with a run in the bottom of the 8th. In the top of the 9th, following two singles and a walk, Rougned Odor quickly untied it with a bases-clearing double to propel the Rangers to victory. It was the first time Texas had hit a go-ahead three-run double in the 9th inning or later since Hank Blalock had one at Yankee Stadium on May 16, 2003.
Odor then scored the Rangers' ninth and final run when the next batter, Ronald Guzman, also doubled. That was Guzman's fourth hit of the game, and wouldn't you know it, he batted 9th. The last Rangers hitter with four hits and three runs batted in, batting either 8th or 9th, was none other than Rougned Odor, on May 24, 2014, shortly after his MLB debut. However, of all the Rangers to post that line from the bottom two spots in the order, only one before Guzman had failed to score a run himself. That wasw Ramon Vazquez, also against the Mariners, on July 29, 2008.
On Wednesday the Rangers rode a four-run 7th to victory, and this time it was Robinson Chirinos who had the go-ahead bases-loaded double. While his only scored two runs, it was enough to mark the first time in almost 14 years that Texas hit a go-ahead double in the 7th or later of consecutive games. Rod Barajas and Michael Young did that at home on July 20 and 21, 2004. Chirinos would end up with three hits and three RBI, but like Guzman the day before, didn't score a run himself. Texas has had four players with that strange line this year; the other 29 teams combined have had seven.
Despite losing Wednesday's game, the Mariners did collect seven doubles, their most ever in a game at Safeco Field. Their last seven-double home game was April 14, 1999, in the final half-season of the Kingdome, but also against Texas.
Ambassa-dors
The Tigers cobbled together a 6-1 win over Anaheim on Wednesday, not so much with their offense, but by making Shohei Ohtani throw 83 pitches in five innings and then jumping on Cam Bedrosian for four runs. Detroit had only nine hits, and the only ones for extra bases were a pair of doubles by Nicholas Castellanos. And even though Bedrosian was the first Angels pitcher this year to give up four runs while getting one out and losing, we haven't hit the unusual part yet.
That came on Thursday when Detroit also beat the Angels, this time 6-2 behind 12 hits. While half of those went for extra bases, none was a homer. That made it the first time in Comerica Park's 19-season history that the Tigers scored six runs in back-to-back games against the same opponent, without going yard in either game. (It did happen once in 2010 against different opponents.)
23-year-old rookie Victor Reyes picked up one of those doubles, and also added the sixth extra-base hit with his second career triple. He finished with three hits and three runs batted in. Although Jose Iglesias also had a single-double-triple game while batting eighth back in April, Reyes became the youngest Tiger to do it, from any spot in the order, since Lou Whitaker in Toronto on June 28, 1980. Tack on Reyes's stolen base, and since RBI became official in 1920, he's the youngest Tiger ever to have a game where he singled, doubled, tripled, drove in three, and swiped a bag.
For the weekend, the Blue Jays hopped across the Ambassador Bridge (again, this is almost certainly false) to play the Tigers in a three-game set at Comerica. And in their game on Saturday, not one but two hitters posted the homer/double line, and yet they still lost 7-4. Catcher Luke Maile and Former New Britain Rock Cat Yangervis Solarte became just the sixth pair of Jays teammates to post that line in a loss, and the first to do it against Detroit (win or lose) since John Olerud, Joe Carter, and Shawn Green all posted that line at Tiger Stadium on July 6, 1996.
So of course it happens again Sunday. Two different Jays-- Justin Smoak and Randal Grichuk-- each went homer/double as Toronto took the finale 8-4. That marked just the second time in franchise history that Jays teammates had posted that line in back-to-back games. Pat Borders was part of both pairings back in 1990, with Tony Fernandez (May 5) and Fred McGriff (May 6), also against the Tigers.
Maile batted ninth in Saturday's game, and while his fellow number-nine batter, Detroit's Dixon Machado, didn't homer, all he did was collect two of those lovable doubles. By the end of the contest, they had become only the second pair of starting number-nine hitters ever to have 2 XBH, 2 runs scored, and at least 1 RBI in the same game. The other game happened not too far away, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. Mark Salas and the Royals' Bill Pecota matched boxscore lines in a 15-3 Kansas City win on July 5, 1990.
Seven And Seven
(We had a college roommate who liked this drink. We also had college roommates who liked any drink, so.)
In slot machines, as in baseball, it's an unusual sight to see two 7's come up. (Actually, in slots you get the first two a lot, and then the third reel always ends up on the stupid cherry and you get your one credit back. But we digress.) Large crooked numbers are especially hard to come by in the AL West for whatever reason, so when Oakland hung a 7 in the top of the 2nd in Kansas City on Friday, it already made news. They hadn't had a 7-spot at Kauffman since August 6, 2005, as part of a 16-1 beatdown.
So even with a 9-0 lead going to the 9th, Oakland couldn't let it go, hammering reliever Brian Flynn in his third inning of work, then getting three more extra-base hits off Jason Adam before finally putting the cap on a 16-0 victory. It matched the largest shutout in franchise history, which oddly has been done six times (but never a 17 or higher). The previous 16-0 was July 25, 2012, at Toronto. It was the fourth time the Royals had been shut out by 16 or more, and they probably hadn't forgotten the last one. The Twins did it to them at Target Field last September.
Matt Olson and Dustin Fowler doubled each other up by both homering twice; the last time a pair of A's teammates did that in the same game was also at Kauffman Stadium. Dan Johnson and Jack Cust pulled it off on May 10, 2007. The Mariners and, as fate would have it, the Royals are the only teams to go longer without a pair of multi-homer games.
And as for the double-7's? Oakland hadn't done that in a game since September 30, 2000, against the Rangers. That game, a 23-2 affair, remains the second-biggest win in team history. And the last time any team had a pair of 7's was last June 13 when the Twins blew out Seattle 20-7. In that game Eduardo Escobar had two homers and drove in four runs.
Stop Us If You Know Where This Is Going
It's great fun when two different, seemingly unrelated notes end up at the exact same spot. While Oakland was becoming the first team to hang two 7's since that Eduardo Escobar game, guess what Eduardo Escobar was doing. Yep, hitting two homers and driving in four runs to beat the Indians 7-4. He thus joined Jim Thome as the only players with two such games at Target Field since its opening in 2010. And then on Sunday he did it again. And added a little twist. After two solo shots, Escobar stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 9th with Brian Dozier on first base. Four pitches later, that's not just his third home run of the game, that's a walkoff for his third home run of the game. It's only the 11th 3-HR game in Twins/Senators history, and Escobar is the only repeat on that list. He's also the first on the list whose third homer was a walkoff (Manny Machado did it last year for the Orioles, if you're curious). And the Friday/Sunday combination? Those three days set a franchise record for the quickest time between a pair of 2-HR, 4-RBI games. The player who did it in four days was none other than Harmon Killebrew in May 1959.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Marcell Ozuna, Sunday: First Cardinal to hit a grand slam as team's fourth batter of a game since Albert Pujols against the Mets on August 10, 2002.
⚾ Matt Boyd, Monday: First Tigers pitcher to win a game where he walked three, hit a batter, and committed a balk since Jack Morris vs Yankees on September 27, 1980.
⚾ Whit Merrifield & Salvador Perez, Saturday: First teammates in live-ball era (any team) with a double, a hit-by-pitch, and a caught-stealing in same game.
⚾ Yankees, Tuesday: First team in (at least) live-ball era to strike out 17 times, commit 5 errors, and win. The 1970 Royals (May 2) and 1969 "Miracle Mets" (September 15) both did it with 4 errors.
⚾ Eddie Rosario, Sunday: 11th player in Twins/Senators history with a three-homer game. First to do it twice. First whose third homer was a walkoff.
⚾ Nationals, Friday: Second time (including Expos years) that the franchise was shut out by Atlanta on ≤ 2 hits. Other was June 4, 1976 à le parc Jarry!
⚾ Trea Turner & Bryce Harper, Saturday: Second pair of 1- and 2-hitters in live-ball era to each strike out four times in a game their team won. Kurt Abbott and Edgar Renteria did it for the Marlins on April 8, 1997.
⚾ Charlie Culberson, Mon/Sun: First player in Braves history to hit multiple pinch-hit walkoff homers in same season. Only other with two since 1900 is Brian Hunter (his were eight years apart).
⚾ Greg Allen, Saturday: First Indians baserunner to steal home on a strikeout ('twas part of a delayed double steal) since Jeff Kent at Detroit, August 27, 1996.
⚾ Athletics, Wednesday: Committed four errors, threw two wild pitches, and hit three batters. (To say nothing of getting one-hit on offense.) Athletics were also the last team in the majors to do all that... but they were in Philadelphia at the time. First team to do that on defense since the Athletics did it... in Philadelphia. Lost to the White Sox on August 26, 1954.
⚾ James McCann, Monday: First Tigers catcher to hit a grand slam while batting cleanup since Lance Parrish vs Red Sox, June 18, 1985.
⚾ Cubs, Saturday: First time in team history (1876) scoring 6 or more runs in an inning numbered 14 or higher. Javier Baez was first Cub to hit an extra-inning homer with team already leading by 4 since Lenny Randle at Cincinnati, May 2, 1980 (top of 10th).
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