Finish What Ya Started

After 185 days and 2,429 games (miss you, Marlins/Pirates), Sunday was originally supposed to close the book on the 2018 regular season. For some teams it closed a long time ago (the Orioles were eliminated, seriously, on August 20). And four teams couldn't even be bothered to stick to the schedule and end the season on Sunday; thanks to three shutouts of 11-0 or more (the most on a single day since July 7, 2004), we are headed for two tiebreaker games on Monday. Which might either amend this post or generate a special one later in the week. But regardless of when your team's season ended (or will), there were still some fun moments to be had this week, by playoff teams and non- alike.


Zero Hour

One of our favorite quirky boxscore lines, mostly because it doesn't happen often (that's what makes it quirky, right?) is the rare hitter who can go an entire game without an at-bat. There are of course several things that are completely ignored for batting-average purposes, walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifices being easily the most common. So when a batter can achieve one of those things every time up-- four, sometimes five in a game-- he's played the entire game and, at least according to the boxscore, done absolutely nothing.

There were only six such games the entire season, and naturally one of them was brought to us on Wednesday by Christian Yelich of the Brewers, who finished off an MVP-worthy September (and maybe even a season) by drawing five walks against the Cardinals. And while none of them was officially listed as "intentional", Yelich didn't swing at a single pitch after fouling off four of them in the 1st inning. He'll just stand there, bat in hand for some reason (remember last week we discussed that there's actually no rule requiring you to take one), and trot down to first base. He'd later end up scoring on two of those trips. Only one other player in Brewers/Pilots history had drawn five walks in a nine-inning game, and it's not Ryan Braun. It dates to their first season in Milwaukee; Danny Walton did it against the Royals on May 22, 1970. And the only other starter (read, not a pinch runner) in team history to have zero at-bats but still score twice was the great Sixto Lezcano against Baltimore on April 8, 1978.

Now check the score of Wednesday's game. Yelich-- er, we mean Brewers-- 2, Cardinals 1. In the "Retrosheet" era (1907) there is no other player who had zero at-bats in a game, yet still scored multiple runs and scored every run for his team.

Perhaps the reason the Cardinals didn't want to deal with Yelich on Wednesday was because of Tuesday's contribution to the "quirk" department. He only scored one run in that game, and it was a fairly meaningless one in the 9th with Milwaukee already up 11-4. Tuesday's antics were about how he drove runs in; that 9th-inning run was the final one of a three-run homer, which came after his bases-loaded triple in the 4th started to blow the game open. That's six RBIs (half of the Brewers' runs) and the first time a visiting player has homered, tripled, and driven in six at the new Busch Stadium which opened in 2006. (Colby Rasmus, in 2011, is the only Cardinal to ever do it.) That line has only been done by five players in Brewers history, and one of them is Ryan Braun (April 30, 2012, at San Diego). The others before that were Richie Sexson (2002), Greg Vaughn (1995), and Mike Hegan (1976), and none of them did it with the combo of a three-run homer and a three-run triple (they all got at least one RBI in some other fashion).


You Complete Me

The 2018 season will largely be remembered as the year of the "opener", a logical extension of the "bullpenning" trend in which teams either piece together games an inning or two at a time, or throw a reliever out there for the first few hitters and then switch him out for the guy who you would have called the starter last year. (In other news, maybe "long relief" is back?) Thus for pitchers the complete game has easily become the exception rather than the rule it once was. This was the first season in baseball history in which no pitcher threw four complete games, and when Trevor Bauer relieved Carlos Carrasco on Sunday, it also meant no pitcher in 2018 even tossed three.

So it was that on Monday, Bryan Mitchell of the Padres went to the 9th inning with a 5-0 lead and having thrown "only" 97 pitches. It (probably) wasn't the Brandon Crawford leadoff double that did him in, it was the two walks after that. With that all-important "pitch count" now at 118, it is now time to delay the game for four more minutes and make a two-out pitching change so that Kirby Yates can end things four pitches later. Because none of those runners ended up scoring, Mitchell ended up as the third pitcher in Padres history to work exactly 8⅔ innings and give up zero runs. And the others both did it in 1-0 games where they put two runners on in the 9th and suddenly stood to lose. For the record, they were Bruce Hurst on May 29, 1989, against Philadelphia, and Dan Spillner versus the Astros on September 12, 1975.

Yates, meanwhile, became the 51st pitcher this season to "earn" a save while facing only one batter; that's actually fairly in line with recent years and exactly matches last season's total, but four of those 51 did it for San Diego. That's more such saves than the Padres recorded in the previous five seasons combined.

And an honorable mention in the "finishing" department to Sergio Romo, now of the Rays, who (probably not intentionally) exploited every loophole in the save rule in Wednesday's 8-7 win over the Yankees. Romo entered as the eighth pitcher of the game (did we mention "#bullpenning"?) after Hunter Wood got the first two outs of the 8th but was apparently spent after eight pitches. Former Yankee Vidal Nuño came on, threw one pitch, hit Neil Walker with it, and so obviously he's got nothing, pitching change! Romo gets the last out of the 8th to preserve a 4-3 lead, after which the Rays offense goes on a spree and scores four runs. Now holding an 8-3 lead, Romo gets the first out of the 9th and then gives up five straight singles to make it 8-7 with the go-ahead run suddenly at the plate. Romo hung on to get the last two outs, and because it was a one-run game when he came in, and still a one-run game when it ended, it doesn't matter that the teams traded 4's in between. The Rays never lost the lead, and thus Romo became the first pitcher in Tampa Bay history to "earn" a save while giving up four runs. There is, of course, the "three-inning" save loophole, but if you exclude that, no pitcher in the majors had gotten a four-run save since Mike Timlin of the Mariners did it against Chicago on August 24, 1998. And for even more coincidental fun, Willie Banks of Arizona also had a four-run save on that exact same day in 1998, but at Shea Stadium about 2½ hours earlier thanks to the rotation of the earth. Banks's game included unearned runs as well, so if you add the qualifier of four earned runs in a save of under three innings, it's Romo, Timlin, and Mark Clear of the Angels on July 25, 1979. That's the list.


Hold On For One More Day

Logically, the only pitcher who can get credit for a complete game is the one who starts it, and by rule, the only pitcher who can get credit for a save is the one who finishes it. So what about all those guys in the middle who do neither? Well, for them, someone created one of those stats people love to hate, the "hold". Where you would have gotten a save if you had been able to make it to the end of the game, but you couldn't (or your manager wouldn't let you because #bullpenning), so here's a ribbon for trying.

Enter Robert Gsellman of the Mets in Tuesday's game with the Braves. Noah Syndergaard departs after six innings with a 3-0 lead (save situation!), and Gsellman promptly gives up two hits, a walk, and gets burned when Austin Jackson boots a line drive to center. So it's 3-1 with the bases loaded, but the Mets still haven't lost the lead. So it's still a save situation when Gsellman leaves, hence the great "hold". And one of the fun parts about holds is that it doesn't matter what the next pitcher does. Or gives up. Drew Smith, on back-to-back pitches, bounces one to score a second run, then surrenders a two-run single to Ronald Acuña and the Mets now trail. Like Romo before him, Gsellman thus gives up four runs despite entering in a save situation and still leaving in a save situation. Only six Mets pitchers have ever done that, and it hadn't happened since Randy Myers did it against Milwaukee on September 24, 1989. And only 17 have ever gotten a hold and a loss in the same game (which is only possible when a following pitcher allows inherited runners to score). A.J. Ramos also pulled that off against Washington on April 16; the last season where two Mets did it was 1995.

Acuña's single, by the way, was only the second one the Braves have ever hit at either Shea or Citi Field to turn a deficit into a lead in the 7th or later. Orlando Cepeda had the other one, on May 22, 1971.

And honorable mention here to Monday's Astros game where they "needed" six pitchers to protect a 4-3 lead against Toronto. None of them threw more than 13 pitches. Only the last one (Roberto Osuna) can get the save, so the five in the middle-- who scattered three hits and no runs between them-- all get credited with a "hold". It's the first game in Astros history where they had five holds, and the fourth in the majors this season. Three were in September when all the teams have ridiculous 17-man bullpens.


Sleepless In Seattle

Most nights throughout the season (getaway Thursdays being a welcome exception), we await the finish of some sluggish AL West game that somehow takes 3½ hours despite the score being 2-1. That was true on Tuesday as well, but between Oakland and Seattle it became clear very early that nobody would be finishing what they started. Brett Anderson got tagged for seven hits including two homers before leaving in the 3rd inning, outdone only by Mike Leake who gave up six runs and got only four outs. Only one other game this season (Twins/Royals, September 7) saw both starters give up five earned runs while getting no more than seven outs, and for each team it had been two seasons since any starter had posted their respective lines.

After the teams added their standard one or two runs that they usually score in each game, we headed to the 8th with Oakland up 8-5 and Fernando Rodney coming on as the thirteenth pitcher of the game between both teams (does anyone really enjoy this?). Rodney walks leadoff batter Ryon Healy, then bounces three straight pitches to Daniel Vogelbach, walking him and sending Healy around to third. Denard Span then doubles in both runs before Rodney gets out of the inning. Meaning he gets credit for an unusual "hold" as well; he allowed three baserunners, two runs, and threw two wild pitches, but the A's still lead 8-7, so here's your ribbon. Only two other Oakland pitchers had ever posted that line and "earned" a hold: Fautino De Los Santos at Texas on September 10, 2011, and Bob Lacey in Detroit on September 3, 1977.

It would be the game's fifteenth pitcher, Blake Treinen, who ended up with the blown save when Matt Chapman's two-out error extended the bottom of the 9th and Kyle Seager singled home the tying run. Seager also had a game-tying (not go-ahead) hit on August 25 in Arizona when the Mariners were down to their final out; Ichiro Suzuki is the only other player in team history to hit two in a season (2001), and the only one with more than Seager in his career (five to four).

Finally in the bottom of the 11th, now on our eighteenth pitcher, Ben Gamel draws a one-out walk and then Former New Britain Rock Cat Chris Herrmann slams a pinch-hit walkoff homer. His was the first such dinger in team history in the 11th or later, and Seattle's latest-ever walkoff homer against Oakland (pinch-hit or otherwise).

And we'll reserve an honorable mention for Gamel, who entered in the 9th as a pinch runner and thus does not qualify for complete-game 0-for-0 greatness. But he scored that tying run on Seager's single, and then technically the go-ahead run in advance of Herrmann's homer. Only seven players in Mariners history have gone 0-for-0 in a game and scored multiple runs, and the last three have all scored the winning run in a walkoff as well. Seth Smith in 2015 and Michael Saunders in 2013 were the ones before Gamel; the rest of the list (non-walkoff category) includes Trayvon Robinson (2012), Rickey Henderson (2000), Alex Rodriguez (2000), and Charles Gipson (1999).


It's the last post of the regular season. You've made it this far. Still more fun stuff ahead, we promise. Intermission!


I'm Into Something Good

Chris Herrmann wasn't the only one this week to finish off what someone else started. As always, we had our fair share of walkoffs, but in September, with expanded rosters and so many teams having nothing left to play for, well, why not have a little fun with the lineup?

The Brewers and Cardinals were locked in a 4-4 tie going to the 8th inning on Monday when Eric Thames was sent up to pinch-hit in the pitcher's spot. Thames, who had an epic journey back to the major leagues after spending years in triple-A and then Korea, connected for his third triple of the season and then scored what would prove to be the winning run when Bud Norris airmailed a pickoff attempt. Only three players in Brewers/Pilots history have recorded a pinch-hit triple in a tie game and then scored a go-ahead run on the same trip around the bases; the others are Dan Thomas on April 19, 1977, and-- finally making that "Pilots" reference relevant!-- Jim Gosger on May 16, 1969. Incidentally, Dan Jennings "started" Monday's game for the Brewers for the sole purpose of retiring leadoff batter Matt Carpenter. He did so on three pitches and then real starter Freddy Peralta was subbed in. That made Jennings the first Milwaukee "starter" to leave after one batter since Jamie McAndrew blew out his knee after four pitches on August 28, 1995 (he had surgery and missed all of the '96 season).

Meanwhile, the Angels and Rangers were fighting another epic AL West battle, with Anaheim clinging to a 4-3 lead in the 9th. After Ty Buttrey got the first two outs, Ronald Guzman doubled, was pinch-run for by Delino DeShields, and then Elvis Andrus was sent up to hit for Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Andrus, of course, shoots a ground ball into left for the tying run, the Angels challenge whether DeShields touched third, but ultimately we end up in extras. In Rangers/Senators history it was only the third time that a pinch hit had driven in a tying or go-ahead pinch runner when the team was down to its final out. On September 10, 1987, also against the Angels, PH Darrell Porter singled home PR Greg Tabor to tie the game in the 9th, though the Angels walked off in the 10th. And on August 6, 1976, it was Mike Jorgensen-- pinch-running for Mike Hargrove-- who scored on Gary Gray's pinch-hit walkoff homer against Cleveland.

This one took two extra frames, but Monday's game ended in yet another walkoff when Matt Moore trotted out for the bottom of the 11th, Jose Briceno was announced as a pinch-hitter, and then Jose Briceno was announced as the [insert sponsor name here] Player Of The Game for hitting a walkoff homer on the third pitch. In team history the Angels have only had two other pinch-hit walkoff homers in extra innings, and it's been a while. The others came from Daryl Sconiers against Boston on April 30, 1983, and Adrian Garrett to beat the White Sox on September 22, 1975.

And it was somehow fitting that in David Wright's final game on Saturday, the Mets-- or more specifically Austin Jackson-- would find a way to get him into this post. After fouling out in his second plate appearance, Wright made an emotional journey off the field at the start of the 5th inning. His replacement, Amed Rosario, probably wasn't expecting to play nine innings. But it's a meaningless Mets/Marlins game on the final weekend of the season, so let's have a staring contest to see if either team can score. Nope. Maybe in the 10th? 11th? Keep going. The Marlins hadn't played a game that was scoreless through 12 since May 23, 2015, when Martin Prado walked off in the 13th against the Orioles. The Mets hadn't done so since July 19, 2015, against the Cardinals, when they traded runs in the 13th and it took an error by Carlos Martinez in the 18th to finally break the deadlock. On Saturday "Jarlin the Marlin" Garcia gave up a single and a walk in the 13th to bring up Jackson. Enter Javy Guerra, presumably for lefty/righty purposes, but exit his first pitch and enter here for the 7-train. Guerra is just the second pitcher in Marlins history to give up a walkoff anything on the first pitch he threw in a game; Cincinnati's Aaron Boone homered off Dan Miceli on May 26, 2000.

And the Wright connection? Well, it turns out the Mets have had just three walkoff doubles in their history in the 13th inning or later. Weirdly, two of them have been hit on September 29 (Jeff Kent in 1993). The other was May 5, 2006, by David Wright to beat the Braves.


Snake, Bit

The walkoff giveth, the walkoff taketh away. Just ask your local Diamondbacks fan after they gave up a game-tying double to Chris Taylor in the top of the 9th on Tuesday, only to watch Eduardo Escobar lead off the bottom half against Kenta Maeda with a walkoff tater. Taylor's double, which was of the automatic ("ground-rule") variety when it bounced into the Chase Field pool, was the first tying or go-ahead hit of that type for the Dodgers since Manny Mota hit a walkoff "ground-rule" double against the Reds on September 4, 1972, with Bill Russell on second. The strange irony about the walkoff homer is that Escobar had been intentionally walked to load the bases back in the 7th, a strategy that backfired when Ildemaro Vargas hit a go-ahead single that gave Taylor the opportunity to come back. Only two other players in Arizona history had received an intentional walk and then later hit a walkoff homer, making us wonder whether they maybe should have walked him again?. Those other two are Steve Finley against the Mets (August 9, 2003), and Reggie Sanders, also against the Rockies, on July 1, 2001.

Arizona would then head to San Diego for a season-ending weekend series, and as the visiting team, the only walkoff you can be involved in is one you lose. Yeah, they did.

We'll concede it did take a while; this season the NL West has been just as bad about scoring as the AL West has historically. So when Jose Pirela homers in the 7th to make it 1-1, ugh, we're gonna be here a while. And we were. Oh, it looked promising when Ketel Marte doubled to lead off the 12th, the Dodgers issued two intentional walks to load the bases, and then that backfired when Nick Ahmed hit the first D'backs sacrifice fly in the 13th or later since Martin Prado "walked off" against the Cardinals on April 3, 2013. But nope. Continuing our pinch-hitter theme, Hunter Renfroe wanders to the plate with two outs and boom, game-tying solo homer to keep us here even longer. The Padres had seen eight other extra-inning pitch-hit homers in team history, but only one when trailing-- and even that was a walkoff. Mark Parent hit a two-run shot to turn a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 win against the Dodgers, exactly 30 years to the day before Ahmed's tater.

It would finally be Freddy Galvis who ended this thing by doubling home Javy Guerra in the 15th after the latter drew a leadoff walk. By inning it was the latest walkoff double in Padres history, coming one frame later than the one Brian Giles hit to beat the Mets on April 21, 2006. And the Diamondbacks hadn't allowed one in even the 11th inning or later until Friday. For the Padres, Eric Hosmer also had a walkoff double against St Louis on May 12, the first time they've had two in a season since Champ Summers and Luis Salazar hit them in 1984.

Galvis knows a little something about walkoffs giveth-ing and taketh-ing as well; more on that in a moment.

And Adalberto Mondesi of the Royals actually did end up finishing what he started on Thursday when he drew a two-out walk in the 10th inning against Cleveland. One pitch later he had stolen second. Five pitches later, already running on a 3-2 offering with two outs, he had stolen third. And then Sal Perez rolls the first ball from Neil Ramirez into left field for a walkoff. Only three other players in Royals history have stolen two bases and then scored the winning run all in the same inning; Gregor Blanco did it on August 22, 2010, against the White Sox, and the others are only Kansas City legends Tom Goodwin (1996) and George Brett (1976; his second steal was of home to win the game). And that 1-1 score that sent us to extras? Well, that's thanks to a solo homer by Mondesi way back in the 3rd. He's the first player in Royals history to homer, steal two bases, and score every run for the team in a game they won (including 1-0 scores).


Pitchers Who Rake

If the era of complete games is in fact coming to an end, then at least some pitchers are finding other ways to put the finishing touches on their starts. Cole Hamels lost Monday's game against Pittsburgh after giving up an early two-run homer to Francisco Cervelli. But when the first time around the lineup couldn't get a hit, Hamels had to take matters into his own hands, leading off the 3rd inning with a solo homer to break up the no-hitter and the shutout. It was the second longball of his career; the other came July 21, 2012, at San Francisco, in what is still the last game where both starting pitchers homered (Matt Cain was the other). Unfortunately Hamels didn't spark the Cubs' offense; they collected only six more singles in the game after that, and half of those were slow rollers to the infield that they managed to beat. So when the final score remained 5-1, Hamels also became just the second Cubs pitcher whose solo homer ended up as their only run of a game at Wrigley Field. Travis Wood was the other; he did it in a 4-1 loss to Milwaukee on August 28, 2012.

We've covered the hitting stylings of Cincinnati's Michael Lorenzen in the past, especially around the end of June when he homered in a pitching start, then showed up as a pinch hitter the next day and busted a grand slam. On Saturday it was pitching time again, and in the 4th inning Lorenzen drove in Dilson Herrera who had doubled in front of him. That would prove to be the Reds' last run of the game, but also all they needed, in a 3-0 win over the Pirates. That also gave Lorenzen 10 RBIs on the season, just the second Cincinnati pitcher in the past 40 seasons to hit double digits (the other was Micah Owings in 2009). And thanks to that grand slam, five of his RBIs have come as a pitcher and five others as a pinch hitter. The only other Reds batter who can make that claim is Charles "Red" Lucas who pulled that off in six different seasons, but most recently in 1933.

Earlier in the week it was the Kansas City Royals who paid a rare interleague visit to Great American Ball Park, and that means that not only do the Reds pitchers get to hit, but the Royals' do too. Rookie Heath Fillmyer threw seven innings of one-run ball on Wednesday and ended up getting the victory, but it was an offense where he caught our attention. Fillmyer came up through the Oakland system and thus never had a plate appearance in the minor leagues either. He struck out in his hitting debut in Pittsburgh earlier this month. But in the 4th inning on Thursday he successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt to put two men in scoring position for Whit Merrifield (who promptly popped up and didn't score them), and in the 6th, after Alcides Escobar reached on a two-out error, Fillmyer roped his first major-league hit, an RBI double to center to give the Royals a 5-1 lead. The bunt wasn't all that notable; Jason Hammel hit one at Dodger Stadium last July. The RBI double was a little better; James Shields was the last Royals pitcher to hit one of those, doing so in St Louis on June 3, 2014. But Fillmyer is just the second pitcher in Royals history with both of those things in the same game, and the other was in their first season of existence-- against another team in its first season of existence, and prior to the designated hitter. Dick Drago did it at Sick's Seattle Stadium (that's another Seattle Pilots reference!) on September 4, 1969.

Lorenzen may have stolen the show when it comes to pitchers hitting this season, but Madison Bumgarner wouldn't let it end without one last reminder that he's still around. The guy who once batted for himself in an AL interleague game (declining the use of the DH, which you can do), and who lobbied for a spot in the Home Run Derby, didn't pitch Tuesday. But seven other Giants did. And they used up four bench players in retaking the lead from San Diego in the 7th, only to see Wil Myers double and score in the 9th to send us to extras. So when Gorkys Hernandez leads off the bottom of the 12th with a triple, and the pitcher's spot is up next, well, send up a pitcher. (Sidebar: Evan Longoria also had a leadoff triple in extra innings on July 31; it's the first time the Giants have had two in a season since Gary Matthews and Mike Phillips hit them in 1973.) Except that pitcher wasn't Mark Melançon who was in the game. It was Madison Bumgarner, and two balls later, that pitcher got a win. Actually both of them did. MadBum's single was the third pinch-hit walkoff in extra innings against the Padres in Giants history, joining a Kevin Bass 11th-inning single in 1992 and a Bengie Molina double in the 10th on April 22, 2009. Nick Hundley also beat the Padres with a pinch-hit walkoff on April 30, the first time the Giants have recorded two against the same opponent since Rikkert Faneyte and Glenallen Hill both walked off against the Mets in 1995. And at the risk of burying the lead, MadBum's hit was the first walkoff anything by a Giants pitcher-as-pinch-hitter since Don Robinson beat the Astros on July 31, 1990.

Yep. It will be.

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Yankees/Red Sox, Sunday: First regular season game where both teams had 100+ wins coming in since the Giants and Dodgers played MLB's last three-game tiebreaker series in October 1962.

⚾ Red Sox, Wednesday (day game): Second team in live-ball era to have nine different players hit a double (Indians at Twins, July 13, 1996). First time Boston had 14 extra-base hits since a 29-4 win over the Browns on June 8, 1950.

⚾ Trey Mancini, Wednesday: First Orioles batter to homer in one game of a doubleheader and triple in the other (either order) since Rafael Palmeiro, also at Fenway, June 10, 1997.

⚾ Justin Verlander, Saturday: Third game this year where he struck out 10, allowed 0 runs, and didn't get the win. First pitcher in live-ball era to have three such games in a season.

⚾ Indians/Royals, Friday: First game in the history of Kauffman Stadium (1973) where multiple grand slams were hit (regardless of team).

⚾ Angels, Sunday: Fifth time in team history winning their last game of the season via walkoff. The previous one was a Gary Disarcina single, and it wasn't supposed to be their last game. It was August 10, 1994, before the strike. (The other years were 1982, 1974, and 1970.)

⚾ Matt Wieters, Monday: Second catcher in Nats/Expos history with a homer and three walks in same game. Gary Carter did it against the Reds on May 28, 1982.

⚾ Freddie Freeman, Friday: Second Braves hitter in live-ball era to reach base five times, have at least three extra-base hits, and never score a run. Max West did it against Brooklyn on July 5, 1940.

⚾ Luis Severino, Tuesday: First Yankees pitcher to give up 4+ hits with all of them being doubles since Dave Pavlas against the Angels on August 29, 1996.

⚾ CC Sabathia, Thursday: First Yankees starter to give up 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 walks, and get a win (so minimum 5 IP) since Mike Mussina at Fenway on September 2, 2001-- when 27th batter Carl Everett broke up his perfect game.

⚾ Mets, Sat-Sun: Third time in team history winning back-to-back games by a score of 1-0. Did it in a doubleheader with Pittsburgh on September 12, 1969 (pitchers drove in both runs!), and also in September 1966 against two different opponents.

⚾ Jacob deGrom, Wednesday: Second career game (May 21, 2015 vs Cardinals) where he struck out 10 and allowed no more than two baserunners. Only other Mets pitcher to do it twice is Tom Seaver, and he allowed a run in one of the games.

⚾ Tucker Barnhart, Friday: First Reds batter with a five-hit game that included a triple and a homer since Cesar Geronimo at San Diego, June 29, 1976.

⚾ David Dahl, Mon-Thu: Fourth batter in Rockies history to have a homer and multiple RBIs in four straight games, joining Larry Walker (1999), Vinny Castilla (1998), and Dante Bichette (1995).

⚾ Charlie Blackmon, Sunday: Third player in Rockies history to hit for the cycle and score at least three runs. Others are Michael Cuddyer (August 17, 2014) and Mike Lansing (June 18, 2000).

⚾ Victor Robles, Wednesday: Second leadoff batter in Nats/Expos history with 4 hits and 5 RBI in a game. Alfonso Soriano did it against the Braves on April 21, 2006.

⚾ Austin Davis, Monday: First Phillies pitcher to issue two bases-loaded walks and a wild pitch in same game since Toby Borland against the Yankees on June 30, 1998.


Did You Know?
Before the Pilots, Sick's Stadium had hosted the triple-A Seattle Rainiers for decades. That's a different team from the current Tacoma Rainiers; both existed for a time in the 1960s, though the Tacoma team was named either Giants or Cubs depending on its affiliation. The park was named after Emil Sick, owner of the team, and was eventually purchased by the City of Seattle after his death-- not for baseball, but because the city wanted the land for a freeway (which was never built). After the Pilots left a short-season Northwest League team played there in the 1970s before the expansion Mariners came along. The park was demolished in 1979 and is now home to a Lowe's store. There's a home-plate marker in the parking lot and a pitching rubber near the cash registers. One of its neon signs still lives at Safeco Field, in a gallery devoted to the history of baseball in the Pacific Northwest.

The Sporting Life

You probably notice we spend a lot of time talking about baseball here. But we know there are fans of other sports who might happen along, so let's check in on some of them, Olympics-style, that only get their big stage every four years.


Cycling

Christian Yelich of the Brewers put this bug in our heads on Monday, and it's fun when the rest of the week kinda fits the theme. In the opener of their series with Cincinnati, Yelich broke up the no-hitter with an innocent-looking ground-ball single. In the 3rd he doubled down the right-field line on a ball that was deflected by a diving Joey Votto (and would probably have stayed a single otherwise). Yelich then homers to make it 4-0 in the 5th, and completes both the scoring and the cycle by legging out a two-run triple ahead of the arm of Billy Hamilton (who knows something about triples himself). His spot comes up again with two outs in the 8th, but it's 8-0 and it's September, what more does Yelich have to prove, so we'll pinch hit for him with Hernan Perez (who promptly gets popped up for the Brewers' final out of the game).

If it feels like you just saw this same cyclist on this same track not too long ago, it's because, yes, he's doing laps. And the Reds aren't seeing things either; Yelich also had a cycle against them as part of his six-hit game on August 29. That actually was sort of a footnote to that 13-12 extra-inning carnival, so Monday belonged solely to Yelich. He's just the fifth player to record multiple cycles in a season, and the first for whom they were both against the same team. Aaron Hill of the Diamondbacks (2012) is the one most fans remember; a few were probably around when Babe Herman of the Dodgers did it in 1931, though cycles weren't really held up as a huge achievement back then. They certainly weren't in 1887 when "Tip" O'Neill (who would not later become Speaker Of The House), nor in 1883 when Cincinnati's John Reilly did it twice.

Yelich was the fourth player in Brewers history to have a cycle and drive in four runs, joining Jody Gerut (2010), Chad Moeller (2004), and Mike Hegan (1976). And just four hits and four RBI hadn't been done by a Milwaukee player in over three years, the longest drought of any team. Adam Lind, in Cleveland on July 22, 2015, had been the list Brewer with that line. That 8-0 score was the Reds' second-largest shutout ever in Milwaukee, including all the visits they paid to the Braves. Dave Bush threw a four-hitter against them and won 11-0 on April 22, 2006.

Overshadowed, of course, by the cycle was that Domingo Santana had a pinch-hit homer on Monday-- just like he did on Sunday against the Pirates. Only two other players in team history have launched a pinch-hit homer in consecutive team games (not their own consecutive times pinch-hitting, which could be weeks apart); they are Gabe Gross in April 2006 and Jeromy Burnitz in August 1997.


Tennis

You can apply the term "grand slam" to golf's four (or five) majors as well, but you most often hear it in tennis. Of course it's the process of winning all four major tournaments-- the Australian, French, and US Opens, plus Wimbledon. We're pretty sure that if you made it this far, you know what it means in baseball. And there was some winning to be had this week.

The Indians were stymied by Dylan Covey of the White Sox on Wednesday, managing just two hits in six innings, and with those two hits being the only balls that got out of the infield. Aside from getting four outs via K's, Covey induced 13 ground balls and a foulout to the catcher. Jace Fry did almost the same thing, although Michael Brantley did finally line to center to wake up the outfield. So it was only appropriate that in a 1-0 game, Josh Donaldson leads off the 9th with an infield single. After another actual single and a hit-by-pitch, here comes Jason Kipnis with the bases loaded and needing only a solid hit to tie the game and at least force a play at the plate to win it.

He did get his solid hit, at least. 'Twas a walkoff grand slam to right field, and if it sounds like you've heard this before, well, you must have been paying attention last week also. Kipnis's shot was the ninth walkoff slam across the majors this season, setting a new record, and the third in under a week. Salvador Perez of the Royals (14th) and Francisco Mejia of the Padres (last Sunday) also hit them. Surprisingly, it's not the first time there have been three within six days; that even happened during the last week of July last season, and again in 2012 when Joey Votto and Giancarlo Stanton hit them on the same day.

Did we mention Kipnis began that at-bat sitting on 999 career hits in his eight seasons? So he also became only the second player to hit a walkoff slam for career hit number 1,000. The other-- and he will come up again by the time this post is done-- is Davey Lopes of the Dodgers on September 2, 1979. And it was 1-0 at the time, so not only did Kipnis win the game, he also broke up a shutout. Recall (this may be painful if you're a Nats fan) David Bote's walkoff slam on Sunday Night Baseball a few weeks back. That was with the Cubs down 3-0. So 2018 is also the first season in history where there have been two walkoff slams that each broke up a shutout at the same time.

It wasn't always the walkoff variety that provided the note, however; on Monday, Daniel Vogelbach of the Mariners had been asleep on the bench for seven innings, which is a common reaction to a 1-0 AL West game. (We have no proof of this, don't @ us.) In the 8th, however, he was finally called upon to take a bat up there and try to do something. That "something", of course, would be to hit a pinch-hit grand slam and turn that 0-1 deficit into a 4-1 lead and a Mariners victory over Houston. It was just the third pinch-hit slam in Mariners history, joining one that Franklin Gutierrez hit in 2015 in Detroit, and Ben Broussard's shot in Anaheim in 2007. It was also the first pinch-hit homer of any value for Seattle this season; the Tigers are the last remaining team without one (and a week to go!). Vogelbach became the seventh player in Mariners history whose grand slam (pinch-hit or otherwise) accounted for all four runs the team scored in a game; Henry Blanco (at Oakland, June 15, 2013) was the last to do that.

Kaleb Cowart of the Angels provided the game-changer on Tuesday with a 6th-inning slam. Granted, they're in the same division, but it was the 19th one the Angels have ever hit against Oakland, their most against any opponent (18 vs Indians). Cowart later added an insurance-run triple in the 8th, which they ended up needing when Oakland got three runs in the bottom half. Only five players in Angels history have hit a grand slam and a triple in the same game; the previous one was Chone Figgins at Baltimore on May 14, 2004. The others to do it were David Eckstein (2002), Adam Kennedy (2000), and Gary Pettis (1984).

And on Thursday the Yankees tried their best to keep the Red Sox from celebrating an AL East title in their stadium (they failed), with Giancarlo Stanton's 4th-inning grand slam temporarily giving them a 6-4 lead (which Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman then gave back). It was Stanton's second slam of the season (August 8 at Chicago), and the eighth of the season for the Bronx Bombers. But check out the list. Stanton has two. Greg Bird has two. Miguel Andujar has two. And Didi Gregorius, you guessed it, has the last two. Although the eight total slams are not a record, it is the first season in Yankees history where four different players had two of them.

Since we're here, we can't not mention Mookie Betts in that AL East-clinching win on Thursday; he compiled four hits, including two doubles off Masahiro Tanaka, and then hit the three-run homer off Chapman which would provide the final 11-6 margin. He's the first Red Sox batter to have three extra-base hits at the new Yankee Stadium, and the first ever to have four hits and five RBIs at any of them. Only two other Bostonians posted 4-and-5 against those hated Yankees: Mike Greenwell (September 1, 1990) and Carl Yastrzemski (June 18, 1977), and they were both at Fenway. It's the fifth time Mookie's had a 5-RBI game out of the leadoff spot (which is, in theory, tough to do since the guys at the bottom of the order usually aren't on base as much); that's now the most in Red Sox history, surpassing Wade Boggs's four.


Archery

Whether you believe Babe Ruth's famous "called shot" or not, it's hard for hitters to really aim the ball. Most of them just kind of hit it and hope it goes somewhere good. Pitchers, on the other hand, always have a target to aim at; we've even seen minor-league pitchers practice and warm up using padded targets divided into the nine sectors of the strike zone.

Max Scherzer certainly doesn't need any extra practice at finding the strike zone; he gets it every five days. On Thursday he spaced out for just a couple minutes, giving up back-to-back homers to Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce of the Mets around striking out the side in the 3rd. And the 5th. And two in the 2nd and 4th and 7th and 13 total for the game. We can only do so many Max Scherzer leaderboards, partly because he already owns most of the franchise records for eye-popping-strikeout games, and partly because he just leapfrogs with Stephen Strasburg every few days. But only three pitchers in Nationals history (and no Expos) have struck out 13 opponents but also allowed two homers. Scherzer is two of them and Strasburg (September 9, 2015) is the other. Max's other outing of that type was his famous 20-strikeout game against Detroit on May 11, 2016.

After leaving Thursday's game Scherzer actually got bailed out by his offense when Juan Soto connected for a game-tying double in the bottom of the 8th. That at least got Max off the hook, but Jose Lobaton put away his former team with a sacrifice fly in the 12th. Counting their whiffs against the bullpen, it was the third time in Mets history that they struck out 19 times and won; one was a 16-inning game in San Francisco in 2013, and the other was against an up-and-coming Steve Carlton in St Louis on September 15, 1969.

And as for Max? Well, he didn't get stuck with the loss, but he also didn't get the win despite fanning 13 Mets. It's the third time this season he's struck out 13 and not won, and only three other pitchers in the live-ball era have had a season where that happened. Randy Johnson had six such seasons, Nolan Ryan four, and Dennis Eckersley did it for Cleveland in 1976.

In other "big strikeout" news this week, Gerrit Cole of the Astros fanned 12 Angels in winning Friday's game 11-3 (more on the offensive side in a few minutes). It was Cole's fifth game this year with at least a dozen K's, tied for the second-most in a season in Astros history (J.R. Richard did it eight times in 1979). One of the others with five such games is Don Wilson in 1969; until Cole did it on Friday, Wilson (who did it twice) had been the only pitcher in Astros history to strike out 12 but also give up one of each base hit (a "pitcher cycle" if we may coin a phrase).

It's hard to top the one-two punch(out) of Cole and Justin Verlander, who then faced the Angels on Saturday and beat them 10-5. Verlander faced 20 batters and allowed just two of them to reach, a leadoff single by Justin Upton in the 2nd, and a 1st-inning pitch that hit Jose Fernandez in the hand and knocked him out of the game (he is listed as "day-to-day", to which our standard reply is, "aren't we all?"). That HBP actually came on the fourteenth pitch from Verlander, and in the 30 years of complete pitch-count data available, it's the longest plate appearance ending with an HBP. And one of several 13th-pitch HBPs happened just 11 days earlier (Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies).

Back to JV though, Saturday's performance of 11 strikeouts and one hit allowed matched his line in an eight-inning start against the Rangers on April 15; he joins Nolan Ryan in 1986 as the only Astros pitchers to repeat that feat within the same season. Cole also had such a game this season (May 4), as did Lance McCullers (April 17); it's the first time the Houston staff has ever combined on four of them in a season. And it's Verlander's fourth career start with 11 K's and no more than 1 hit allowed (including his no-hitters).

Mike Trout did manage to homer off Cole on Friday, and off reliever Joe Smith on Saturday, after also doing so in Oakland on Thursday (yeah, we'll get there). No Angels batter had homered in three straight team games, and had the team lose all of them, since Mo Vaughn in May 1999.

And we must throw Chris Archer into the "archery" section because wordplay! He went seven innings on Wednesday, fanned eight, and allowed only a solo homer to Adalberto Mondesi in sending the Royals to their 100th defeat of the year. He became the first Pirates pitcher to allow at least six hits, but limit the damage to one run, strike out eight, and also get a win, since our friend Gerrit Cole did it against the Nationals on July 26, 2015. It was also the fourth time this year that Mondesi's solo homer represented the only run Kansas City scored in a game; George Brett in 1982 is the only other player in Royals history to do that four times in a season. Pat Sheridan (1983), Kevin Seitzer (1987), and Dean Palmer (1998) had three such games.


Volleyball

Ask 100 people to name a volleyball, and you'll get 98 "Wilson"s because of the movie. But the first company to make and patent the "rubber bladder" now used in sports balls the world over was a place called Voit Manufacturing of Worthington, Indiana. You may remember them from your or your kids' grammar school, too; they also made those classic red balls that were either for kicking or dodging. (Voit is still around, too, though now based in Mexico.)

Rather than hit balls filled with air, Luke Voit of the Yankees opted to hit them through the air this week, most notably in Wednesday's 10-1 clobbering of those evil Red Sox to stave off their celebration for one more night. Voit connected for two homers off suddenly-homer-prone David Price; he also chipped in two singles and scored on both of those trips as well. That's four hits and four runs scored, a line which no Yankee had done against Boston since Luis Polonia on May 12, 1995, and hadn't done at home since Hank Bauer on May 10, 1952! The last to do it while also homering twice was Graig Nettles at Fenway on September 29, 1976. And Voit-- who batted eighth-- was only the fourth player in Yankees history with four hits, four runs, two homers, and three RBIs while batting anywhere sixth or lower. The others on that list are Shane Spencer (August 7, 1998), Babe Dahlgren (August 12, 1939), and Tony Lazzeri on May 24, 1936-- the game where he had 11 RBIs and became the first player to hit two grand slams in a game.

As for Price, he was the first Red Sox pitcher to give up three homers (Miguel Andujar also hit one) at Yankee Stadium since... oh yeah. David Price did that back on July 1 when he got smoked by an 11-1 score. In Boston baseball history (we're including the Braves here) only one other pitcher has had two such games in New York City in the same season-- Curt Schilling in 2006.


A certain '60s classic (actually written by Paul Simon) came to mind while writing that previous paragraph about red rubber balls. Plus we tend to see the morning sun entirely too much (thanks, 4-hour NL West games). Intermission!


Fencing
(Alternate title here was "Golfing", but we went for the "swinging for the fences" reference. You may choose.)

Joc Pederson of the Dodgers opened Monday's game against Colorado with his sixth leadoff homer of the season, which, given the cavernous nature of playing half their games at Chavez Ravine, is tied for the Dodgers' second-most ever in a season (including Brooklyn years). Davey Lopes had seven in 1979, six more in 1980, and the other folks with six since then are Todd Hollandsworth in 2000 and Rafael Furcal in 2006. But he went on to hit a leadoff double in the 3rd and homer again in the 4th as Los Angeles cruised to an 8-2 win. That's three extra-base hits, and at least one homer, out of the leadoff spot, and no Dodgers hitter had done that since... oh. Joc Pederson did it on June 7 in Pittsburgh. Amazingly, in the live-ball era, only one other Dodgers batter has done that twice, and his weren't in the same season. It was Brooklyn outfielder Johnny Frederick in 1929 and again in 1931. Pederson is also only the sixth player in Dodgers history to have multiple 3-XBH, 3-run, 3-RBI games in the same season, joining Hee-Seop Choi (2005), Shawn Green (2002, including his four-homer game), Mike Piazza (1995), Gil Hodges (1951), and Duke Snider (1950).

So of course what does Pederson do on Saturday but crush another one off Padres starter Jason Nix, surpassing all the 6's and, at least for the moment, leave him and Lopes atop the team's leadoff leaderboard. And remember Monday's game when Pederson hit that double to start the 3rd, which also happened to be off Jon Gray? On Saturday, he came up against Nix for the second time and cranked an automatic double that bounded over the fence in left-center. So that's two games this week where Pederson led off the first time through the order with a homer, and then led off the second time through the order with another extra-base hit against the same pitcher. In the live-ball era we couldn't find another Dodgers player to do that twice in a season (much less a week).

We promised you more on the offensive side of that 11-3 Astros win on Friday, and that side is completely dominated by Yuli Gurriel, who crushed a two-out grand slam off Andrew Heaney in the 1st inning to start the Houston rout. Returning in the 3rd after Marwin Gonzalez drew a walk in front of him, Gurriel went yard again, effectively knocking Heaney out of the game (he got through the inning but didn't emerge for the 4th). Alex Bregman hit the Astros' previous 1st-inning slam last May, but there have only been 16 in their history, so it also stands to reason that not many of those 16 also followed up with a second homer later in the game. If by "not many" you mean two-- Gurriel on Friday and Brad Ausmus, who did it against the Cardinals on April 4, 2003. Yuli would throw in an RBI single later to drive in seven of the 11 Astros runs, joining Jeff Bagwell (August 13, 2000) and Pete Incaviglia (June 14, 1992) as the only players in Houston history with two homers and seven RBIs in a game.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, the younger brother is always trying to emulate the older brother. Lourdes Gurriel couldn't hit a 1st-inning grand slam because he bats second (okay, he could, but it would take a group effort), so he settled for a solo shot to open the Jays' scoring in what would eventually be a loss to Tampa Bay. After the next eight hitters were quickly retired, Lourdes comes up again to lead off the 4th. Which means he can't hit a grand slam this time either, but he can crank his second solo shot of the night. And together, according to the fine folks at Stats Inc., they are the first pair of brothers (including Uptons, Alous, Molinas, you name it) ever to have a multi-homer game on the same day as each other.

Lourdes also combined with Justin Smoak to cap off a seven-run, 9th-inning rally on Thursday to beat the Rays. It marked the third time in Toronto history that they'd hit back-to-back homers to tie a game and then walk it off; Smoak was the first part of that combo last July 26 against Oakland (Kendrys Morales hit the walkoff). The other pair was Cliff Johnson and Buck Martinez, also against Oakland, on June 14, 1986.


Handball

In any sport involving a ball, the players have to propel it in some way, because otherwise you're just sitting there staring at a ball, and that's really only fun for a couple of hours. In baseball the defense gets to touch the ball (how else would they throw and catch it?), but the offense doesn't, presumably because they are armed with giant sticks of treated lumber.

(Sidebar: Possibly our favorite rules quirk is that there is no requirement that the batter actually take a bat with him. If he does take one, it has certain specs, he can't go up there with a tire iron, but the only rule is that he "take his position in the batter's box". Doesn't say he has to bring anything with him. We really want to see someone try this, especially if a pitcher is struggling to find the zone. Just stand there and see if he can get three out of seven over the plate. Of course, the obvious result is that he'd get plunked in the back with the first pitch, but dare to dream.)

Anyway, the offense isn't supposed to touch the ball, but occasionally it happens, and thus the rules must prescribe some penalty. In baseball's case, when a runner makes contact with a ball hit by his teammate, the ball is dead and that runner is out. The batter, if he's not out for being the one who touches it, gets to take first base and thus also gets credited with a single. It's a bizarre play, and not one that happens too often, but it came up twice this week, once in a crucial situation.

It got stuck in last week's "Bottom Of The Bag" because it happened so late on Sunday afternoon, but Robbie Grossman of the Twins was on the wrong end of this play when Logan Forsythe made him the first Minnesotan called out on such a play since Matt LeCroy got doinked by Justin Morneau on August 6, 2005. The Twins had gone the longest without such a play by over six years!; the Indians (Jim Thome in September 2011) now have the honors.

More notably, the Indians and White Sox went to extra innings in a 4-4 tie on Thursday night, with Cleveland avoiding a slight jam in the top of the 10th after Adam Cimber hit two batters and threw a wild pitch, but struck out Yoan Moncada without a run scoring. Now it's the Indians' turn. Two walks have Rajai Davis and Brandon Barnes on base with two outs. A base hit most likely wins the game. And Jason Kipnis sends a ground ball through the right side for what should be his second straight walkoff hit (remember the grand slam from Wednesday). Except it doesn't get through the right side. It hits Barnes between first and second. Dead ball, he's out, inning over, "we go 11" (as a local baseball buddy of ours likes to say).

We believe that some older occurrences of this play are lost to scoresheet history, since it's scored as a single, and the putout is automatically credited to the closest fielder (usually the 2B). So if it's not specially marked (we use "HBB" ourselves), it could just look like a weird tag play of some type, maybe one where the lead guy overruns second base. But with that caveat, Barnes is the first known Indians runner to get hit with a batted ball in extra innings since Woodie Held got doinked by Don McMahon in Kansas City on July 16, 1964.

And as for the "two outs, let's go another inning" part? We hadn't seen an instance of that-- a hit-by-batted-ball with two outs in extras of a home game-- since Mike Cubbage pinballed one into Twins runner Jerry Terrell against the White Sox on June 6, 1977.


American Football

Okay, not an Olympic sport, but its season is now three weeks old and its scoreboard bled over into the baseball land a few times this week.

It began somewhat normally, with a 7-0 win by the Astros against the Mariners on Tuesday where Marwin Gonzalez's homer trumped Robinson Cano's two doubles. As we tend to do in such situations, we went to find the biggest shutouts in series history, and it turns out the Astros have posted a 7-0 or higher against the Mariners three times now. The two larger shutouts, both in the same series in June 2015, were by scores of 10-0 and 13-0. Sure looks like more football scores to us. Houston and Seattle both have NFL teams. Have for a while. And it turns out that while the Mariners have now lost to Houston 0-7, 0-10, and 0-13, in Seahawks history they've never lost to Houston (either the Oilers or Texans) by any of those shutout scores.

Someone say 13-0 and Seattle? Well, if we hadn't already, the Mariners certainly did on Saturday, heading up I-45 to the other Texas-based MLB team (which shares its stadiumplex with the Cowboys) and dropping their own 13-0 score on the Rangers. That matched Seattle's largest win ever against Texas (21-8 on May 30, 2012), and came one shy of their largest shutout against anyone (they're had three 14-0's and now four 13-0's, the most recent of which had been against Oakland on July 2, 2013). Robinson Cano became the first Mariners batter with a 3-hit, 4-RBI game in Arlington since Kendrys Morales did it in that same 2013 contest. Mitch Haniger also had two doubles and scored three runs, but didn't drive in any (so also no homers), the first Seattle leadoff batter to hang that strange line since Ichiro Suzuki did it in Toronto on May 13, 2001. The Rangers were also shut out on no more than three hits (actually two) by the Rays on Monday, the first time in the history of the current stadium (1995) that's happened twice in a week. And continuing our theme, while the Mariners now have four wins in their history by the exact score of 13-0, the Seahawks... have exactly zero.

Los Angeles and San Diego have clashed over a certain NFL team in the past couple years, so it's appropriate that their baseball teams would clash on a football Sunday in September and promptly chuck up a football score, this one being 14-0 in favor of the Dodgers. (San Diego just can't win, huh?) Manny Machado and Matt Kemp hit solo homers off Joey Lucchesi in the 2nd, but otherwise it looks normal. Until the Dodgers go off for six runs in the 4th (Kemp had two hits in the inning), two more on a Max Muncy pinch-hit single in the 5th (we're now at 10-0 and the starters are quickly getting pulled), and a four-spot when September callup Colten Brewer couldn't get an out in the 8th. Muncy hit another two-run single as part of that outburst, thus becoming the first Dodger ever to have four RBIs in a game he didn't start, without also having at least one extra-base hit. Heck, even Hyun-Jin Ryu got into the act, the first Dodgers pitcher with a three-hit game since Zack Greinke did it in Philadelphia on August 6, 2015.

The 14-0 score was not the largest shutout win in Dodger history, nor the largest shutout loss in Padres history; that's 19 in both cases. But in their Los Angeles history, the Dodgers have seven shutout wins by a margin of 14 or more-- and five! of them are against San Diego. If you take every 14-0 or larger shutout in the majors since the Padres were elevated in 1969, no other combination of teams occurs more than twice. And Sunday's game also tied for the largest shutout in Dodger Stadium history. It's happened three times, two of them are this year, and one was by a visiting team-- the Astros blanked the home club by that score on August 4. The other 14-0 was, surprise surprise, against the Padres on April 15, 1969-- San Diego's seventh game as a major-league franchise.

We can at least say that there's never been a 14-0 football game played at Dodger Stadium-- or any football game at all, actually. That's all played over at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Which of course is where the Dodgers also played for four seasons before their little ravine was finished. And while the Chargers don't play there now, a previous NFL team did-- the Raiders during that weird sabbatical they took to L.A. in the 1980s. They are now back in Oakland (for the moment), where they play in the last remaining shared NFL/MLB stadium. Which brings us to that Oakland elephant, the game you knew we had to get to. It was a 12:30 pm start on a Thursday, and not lot of interesting things usually come out of day games because the players are tired and they have to travel after the game and everyone just wants to move on. In fact, we saw Josh Phegley lead off the 3rd with a single to break up the no-hit threat and then we put it away for a while. Never leave early? Turns out Phegley's was the first of four straight hits which were later followed by a three-run homer from Stephen Piscotty to make it 5-1 already. Jim Johnson comes out for the 4th and a two-out error opens the floodgates. Five straight hits and four runs (all unearned) knock Johnson out of the game. Junichi Tazawa gives up two more hits and it's 12-1 and what have you done with the AL West? By the 6th we've hit peak September baseball, all the Angels' callups are in the game, Miguel Almonte gets pounded for five more runs, and oh boy, which position player's going to pitch in this one? Well, that would be Francisco Arcia who gives up back-to-back homers to Nick Martini and Chad Pinder before we limp to the finish line with a score of 21-3.

Where to begin? For starters, it was the worst loss in Angels team history, beating a pair of 16-run defeats in 1993 and 1996 (the latter was to Oakland). They had only given up 21 runs in a game once before, to the Mariners in the next-to-last game of 2000 (they scored 9 of their own though). And ten different Oaklanders recorded at least one hit, at least one run scored, and at least one RBI. That's happened just 20 times in the 99 seasons since RBI became an official stat; the last was when the Yankees hung 21 on the Rays on July 22, 2007. The A's had done it once before, in yet another 21-3 win, this one June 18, 2000, over Kansas City.

Turns out that 2000 game was also the last 21-3 score (exactly) in the majors; there have been only 11 all-time and the A's have won three of them (the other was in 1929). And while they weren't in order and weren't consecutive, the A's did have a 5-run, a 6-run, and a 7-run inning in Thursday's beatdown, the first team to do that in one game since the Reds blew out the Phillies 20-6 on August 22, 1943.

And good old Francisco Arcia, it certainly wasn't his fault that it was already 18-2 when he took the mound, although you can argue that he had been catching and thus calling the signs before that. In fact he's the first player in Angels history to pitch and catch in the same game, and also their first position player ever to give up a home run while pitching. (This has an asterisk depending on how you count Shohei Ohtani, but he hasn't pitched and hit in the same game yet.) But there's no clock (for now). So at least, down by 19 in the 9th, Arcia didn't give up trying. He hit a 3-2 pitch into the seats for the third and final Angels run and several more footnotes in history. In that 30 years of pitch-count data we keep mentioning, no one had bothered to hit a home run with his team trailing by 19 and down to its final strike. The previous high had been 15 by the Rays' Rene Rivera three seasons ago. And the Angels had never hit any homer while trailing by more than 17 (George Arias at KC, August 10, 1996).

But remember that Arcia pitched in the bottom of the 8th. So when he homers in the 9th, he's technically still in the game as the pitcher (the Angels have given up the DH at this point). And that makes him the first Twins "pitcher" to homer since Clyde Wright (who was actually a pitcher) did it at Comiskey Park on September 8, 1972, the final month of play before the DH was added to the American League rulebook. Thanks to interleague play, the only team remaining without a pitcher home run in the DH era... is Thursday's opponent, the Athletics.

Sandwiched between Wednesday's 10-0 loss and Friday's 11-3 loss in Houston (remember Gerrit Cole and Yuli Gurriel?), it's the first time in Angels history that they've lost three straight games by at least an 8-run margin. Tack on Saturday's 10-5 loss to Justin Verlander also mentioned above, and it's the first time they'd ever allowed 10+ runs in four straight games.

And numerology fans, you have your Scorigami-- just not on the football side. Wednesday's game was the first-ever 21-3 final to a game played at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum under any of its names-- baseball or football.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Astros & Rangers, Monday: First time since 1972 (when the state of Texas acquired a second MLB team) that both of them have been held to three hits or fewer in home games on the same day.

⚾ Aaron Hicks, Saturday: First walkoff double for the Yankees since Bobby Abreu on July 9, 2008 (so also first one in new stadium). Tigers are last remaining team without one this decade.

⚾ Jorge Lopez & Matt Boyd, Thursday: First opposing starters in live-ball era to each give up six hits, five runs, and two homers while getting no more than four outs.

⚾ Steven Matz, Tuesday: Third pitcher in Mets history to homer (at the plate) in consecutive starts. Others are Ron Darling in 1989 and Tom Seaver in 1972.

⚾ Khris Davis, Friday: Third player in Oakland history (1968) to hit multiple go-ahead homers in the same game, where the second one was a walkoff. Others were Miguel Tejada (September 1, 2002, vs Twins) and Gene Tenace (June 15, 1976, vs Boston).

⚾ Ender Inciarte, Wednesday: Braves' second steal of home this season (Ozzie Albies, April 27), first time they've done it twice in a season since Gerald Perry, Ken Griffey, and Jeff Blauser all stole home in 1987.

⚾ A.J. Cole, Sunday: First Yankees pitcher to face three or more batters, have all of them score, and blow a save in the process, since Scott Proctor at Boston, April 22, 2007.

⚾ Blake Snell, Tuesday: Fifth start this year where he gave up no more than one hit and got the win. First in live-ball era with five such games in a season (Matt Cain 2016 and Nolan Ryan 1990 only ones with four).

⚾ Athletics, Saturday: First "bounce-off" win (game-ending wild pitch) since April 26, 1997 against Kansas City (thrown, naturally, by "wild thing" Mitch Williams). Only three teams (PHI, SD, BOS) had gone longer without such an ending.

⚾ Chris Stratton, Wednesday: First Giants pitcher to hit a three-run double since Brett Tomko at Shea Stadium on June 5, 2005.

⚾ Mets, Sat-Sun: First time they had no more than one hit in a game, and then collected 14+ hits in next game, since September 1993. Houston's Darryl Kile no-hit them and they took it out two days later on Cubs starter Mike Morgan.


Did You Know?

19th-century player James O'Neill was reported to have gotten the nickname "Tip" from his teammates because he was so huge in stature that he only had to tip the ball to get a base hit ("the ball would shoot like lightning"). The 20th-century politican, born in 1912, was nicknamed "Tip" after the baseball player (having the initials T.P. doesn't hurt either). Since 1984 the Canadian Baseball Hall Of Fame has annually presented the Tip O'Neill Award to a Canadian player (O'Neill was from Woodstock, Ontario) who "excels in individual achievement". Proving that there aren't many to choose from, Joey Votto's won it seven times.

Dog Days Of September

Incredibly there are only two weeks left in the regular season and you've known for a while now where your favorite team stands. So have they. Lots of players and managers and front offices try to put spin on "we don't look at the standings", but they know. (Heck, the buzzword going into this season was "tanking".) So if it feels like there are a lot of teams who seem to just be going through the motions lately, well, don't be surprised if it gets worse.


Putting The O In Halo

No less than four teams put the no-hitter watch back on high alert this week after all those offensive explosions in late August. We are still hopeful that the baseball gods will save Row 300 in the no-hitter list for the Padres on May 16 (at Dodgers, get your tickets now), as that would be the game that exactly ties the Mets' record for never throwing one (8,019 games before Johan Santana in 2012).

Until then, however, we must stumble through the Angels trying to piece together a no-hitter Tuesday on "bullpen day", which along with the "opener" phenomenon started by the Rays, is the latest pitching rage since rosters expanded over Labor Day. (We rage about it every night ourselves.)

"Starter" Jim Johnson managed to get four outs, but after 25 pitches and a second walk, well, pfft, he's done. Cue Noe Ramirez for three strikeouts and 27 pitches, but no hits. Hansel Robles. Cam Bedrosian. Justin Anderson. Jose Alvarez. By now the Rangers radio broadcast is expressing their sympathies for Angels official scorer Ed Munson (who's had a few no-hit predicaments of his own this year), because what happens if nine relievers throw an inning each and nobody gives up a hit? Who do you give the win to under the "most effective reliever" rule? (This actually would not have been an issue, more in a moment, but it's fun to ponder.)

No worries, Blake Parker will bail us out. He's number seven in this parade, and finally our latest hyphenated wonder, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, ropes a solid single to right. Rougned Odor then singles him around to third, which is clearly a sign that Parker needs removed after 13 pitches. Jurickson Profar grounds out to end the inning, Ty Buttrey works a perfect 9th, and let's see who ends up with that pitcher win. Well, that was actually decided for Mr. Munson (it's Noe Ramirez) because it was still a 0-0 tie when "starter" Johnson left in the 2nd inning. So as soon as the Angels take the lead, whenever that is, there's your pitcher of record. And that happened in the bottom of the 2nd when Jose Miguel Fernandez, the 30-year-old Cuban defector, finally connected for his first MLB home run. And speaking of bullpens not giving up any hits, that 2nd-inning tater was the second and final hit given up by Texas in the game as well. Adrian Sampson polished off innings 3, 4, and 5 with no further damage, C.D. Pelham unfortunately did not have a 1-2-3 inning (he walked Mike Trout), but Eddie Butler did in the 7th, as did Martin Perez in the 8th. Count 'em, it's a 1-0 final with the run being Fernandez's homer and both teams finishing with only two hits in one of the most AL-West-ian games ever.

Amazingly (or maybe not in this season), it was the third game of 2018 in which neither team had more than two hits. The others were a Mets/Phillies snoozefest on July 9, and the second-game-of-season duel between Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood. The only other season in the live-ball era with three such games is 1964, right around the time the rumblings started about ways to increase offense (lowering the mound and adding the DH both happened within the next decade). It was also the first such game ever played at Anaheim Stadium, which opened in 1966.

Fernandez's homer was the first to win a 1-0 game for the Angels since Carlos Perez hit one against the White Sox on August 19, 2015. And as for peak #bullpenning, seven different Angels pitchers appeared in the game without allowing a hit (remember, both were off Blake Parker). Only nine times in the live-ball era (and we have to assume ever, but can't prove it) has a team done that, regardless of how long each pitcher went. All nine of those games have been in September, all of them have been since 2006, and six of the nine were extra-inning contests.


Snell's Pace

Barely 12 hours later, Blake Snell was busy interrupting Wednesday afternoon's slate by starting the 7th with only two walks against the Indians. Snell's pulled this stunt before, and has quietly put up some of the best numbers in the AL this season (19-5, 2.03 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, +6.2 WAR, 195 strikeouts). Longtime play-by-play voice Tom Hamilton, observing that Snell's ERA briefly dipped below 2, suggested that his own team might need to get no-hit in order for anyone to notice.

That, of course, didn't quite happen, because after going 3-0 to Jose Ramirez to start the 7th, the Cleveland extra-base-hit wonder (he has 78 XBH versus 73 singles) crushed his 38th homer of the year to erase two of the zeroes from the scoreboard. Snell got the next three outs and left after 7 innings and 104 pitches, but then Chaz Roe and Jose Alvarado also gave up no hits in the 8th and 9th-- leaving Ramirez's two 1's up there as the only Cleveland offense in the game. It's actually the second time this season that the Indians have had only one hit in a game and it was a homer. The other was way back on April 3 against the Angels, and care to guess who hit it? Yep, Jose Ramirez. They also did it once last season, August 22 against the Red Sox. Care to guess who hit that one? Wrong. Francisco Lindor. But in the Retrosheet era (1907, from where we have full boxscores), Cleveland pulled the only-hit-is-a-homer stunt exactly once in 110 seasons before doing it three times in 13 months. For their part, it was the fourth time in Rays history that they'd allowed one hit in a game and it was a home run; Starlin Castro of the Yankees hit the previous one on May 29, 2016.

And for not-Cy-Young-winner Blake Snell, remember we said he's pulled this stunt before. Wednesday was the third time this year, regardless of innings, that he'd given up exactly one hit in a game and struck out at least nine. He blanked the White Sox for four frames on April 10 before Tyler Saladino doubled, and then on June 25 against Washington, Snell got through another six no-hit innings but stumbled on the first batter of the 7th (Anthony Rendon double followed by two walks). He's the first pitcher in Rays history to have three such games in a season.


Cashner Cab

Ramon Laureano of the Athletics, now batting leadoff after shooting out of the gate in his rookie season, began Wednesday's game in Baltimore by beating out an infield single. In the bottom of the 1st, Trey Mancini rolled a two-out ground ball into left field, and excellent, our no-hitter watch can move on. Oakland, meanwhile, blows up for eight runs against Andrew Cashner (the line "Cashner pitched to 8 batters in the 3rd" appears in the boxscore, which is remarkable in itself because that line means he started the inning but didn't record an out. Eight batters.) So we know the A's are cruising to a win in this one. But hang on a second. Jace Peterson drew a walk for the Orioles in the bottom of the 3rd. And then twenty straight Baltimore hitters were retired by four different Oakland pitchers. That Trey Mancini single in the 1st? Only hit the Orioles got the whole game. In our humble opinion, it's the best kind of one-hitter, where there's no drama and suspense going to the 6th and 7th and 8th. In fact, the last time the Orioles got one-hit in a game, and that hit came in the 1st inning, was August 28, 1991, against Toronto (Joe Orsulak singled off Tom Candiotti).

Not only did Andrew Cashner give up those eight runs in the 3rd, Cody Carroll, sent to the mound with the supposed mission of getting out of this, gave up two more after that. That makes our final score 10-0 with all the runs in one inning. The A's hadn't done that since May 9, 1972, when they dropped a dime on Milwaukee in the bottom of the 4th and cruised to a 10-2 victory.

Sean Manaea's no-hitter in May (that's number 299, since we're still holding there) messes up a lot of Oakland notes, but it had been 13 years since the A's scored in double digits while also allowing only one hit. Deivi Cruz of the Giants had the only hit against Rich Harden in a 16-0 win on June 26, 2005. The last time the Orioles did the reverse (had ≤ 1 hit and gave up 10+ runs) was in Clay Buchholz's no-hitter for Boston on September 1, 2007. And remember Ramon Laureano's infield single to start the game? He went on to double and triple later (though strangely not in the 10-run inning), becoming the youngest A's hitter with all three hits and a stolen base since Luis Polonia did it against the Brewers on July 9, 1987.


Izzi Gonna Give Up A Hit?

It's handy that Trey Mancini removed our no-hitter drama from that game early on Wednesday, because at the same time, Jake Odorizzi of the Twins was offering up plenty of his own. Giancarlo Stanton (2nd) and Gary Sanchez (5th) both drew walks, but Odorizzi kept the Yankees at bay through five and six and then seven innings, causing everyone to send out the warning flares. When Sanchez struck out to start the 8th, drawing a huge ovation from the crowd at Target Field (he's now five outs away!), John Sterling even quipped that he didn't know why they're so excited, it's not a perfect game, after all.

Happily, after Luke Voit walked, Greg Bird-- who hadn't had a base hit since August 29-- deposited a solid double down the left-field line and triggered another huge ovation from #TwinsTerritory. That would be the last of Odorizzi's 120 pitches, and also generated the only Yankees run in their 3-1 loss. Miguel Andujar added a meaningless single in the 9th, sparing us from looking up the last team three teams were one-hit on the same day (it's August 29, 2000, by the way). But still, since the Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961, it's only the second time the Yankees were held to two hits there, at any of the three stadiums. The other was July 29, 2000, by Eric Milton and future Yankee LaTroy Hawkins. It was the third game this season where the Yankees had ≤ 2 hits but still managed to score a run, their most since doing it four times in 1990.

And as for Jake Odorizzi? He became the first Twins starter to throw 7+ innings, allow only 1 hit, but also give up an earned run, since Scott Erickson did it against the White Sox on September 24, 1991. His lone hit was a home run by Dan Pasqua.


Where Every Day Is Bullpen Day

So if the Twins can do it with one pitcher against the Yankees on Wednesday, and the Angels can do it with seven pitchers on Tuesday, well, why not combine the two and have the Twins do it on their own "bullpen day" the very next night? On Thursday at Kauffman Stadium, the combo of Gabriel Moya and Stephen Gonsalves no-hit the Royals for another five innings before Alan Busenitz came on in the bottom of the 6th. That caused us to think, hey wait a minute, isn't he the pitcher who gave up four runs on Monday without recording an out? Yep, he is, although apologies for spelling his name wrong at the time. Four pitches later, Hunter Dozier had doubled to left to stand down another threat. We actually turned the game off at that point, missing (until later) the fact that Salvador Perez and Jorge Bonifacio promptly hit back-to-back homers off Busenitz before he got pulled.

So hang on here. On Monday, Busenitz became the first Twins pitcher to face four batters and have all of them score since Casey Fien did it against Milwaukee on June 28, 2015. He was the first to do it against the Yankees since Ken Schrom on July 20, 1985. And then Thursday, in his very next appearance, he faces three batters and all of them score too. If that feels pretty odd to you, you're right. The last pitcher for any team to pull that off (3+ BF) in back-to-back outings was Scot Shields of the Angels in April 2009. And since that move in 1961, no Minnesota pitcher had ever done it. The most recent to even do it twice in a season was Bobby Keppel in 2009. But at least we got a do-over at spelling his name right.

Gonsalves, meanwhile, didn't give up a hit but did walk four batters in his three innings of Bullpen Day, probably contributing to his removal. An error by Jorge Polanco after one of those walks led to him also giving up a run, albeit unearned. It had been half a century since any Twins pitcher gave up 0 hits, but walked 4, threw a wild pitch, and allowed a run, since Dean Chance did it in his no-hitter in Cleveland on August 25, 1967.


Goose Eggs, Half-Dozen, 99¢

Friday only brought more teams going through the motions, with a season-high six shutouts, none of them particularly pretty (at least if your team has the 0).

We begin in Boston, where the Red Sox tried a little #bullpenning against the Mets and Noah Syndergaard, and, well, yeah. William Cuevas made it around the order once before Robby Scott gave up a three-run homer to Jay Bruce and the rout is on. Brian Johnson, who actually has started games and gone several innings, got through 4&8532; on only one run, but two more homers in the 8th off Tyler Thornburg put the Mets' total at 8. Bruce's blast was the first 3- or 4-run homer ever hit by the Mets at Fenway Park (Brandon Nimmo hit the second on Saturday); Bruce also had an RBI double to become the first Met ever with a 4-RBI game against Boston (home or road). And Syndergaard became the third Mets pitcher ever to throw seven or more scoreless innings against the Red Sox while allowing no more than three hits. The others were Glendon Rusch in a 2-0 win at Shea on July 14, 2001; and Bobby J. Jones in a 1-0 win at Fenway on June 6, 1998. Those three games turn out to be the only three shutout wins in Mets history over the Red Sox.

Of course, the Mets can't do something without the Yankees trying to outdo it, so let's head to the Bronx and see how that's going. Oh look, they've got eight runs also-- but that's just off Toronto starter Marco Estrada who didn't escape the 3rd inning. Turns out Estrada did that same thing last September in Boston; the only other starters in Jays history with a pair of 8-runs-in-under-3-innings games are Ricky Romero and Juan Guzman. Meanwhile Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka threw six scoreless innings, allowed four hits, and struck out eight-- his fourth game this year hitting all those marks or better. The last Yankee with four such games in a season was Ron Guidry in 1976.

And our final score ends up at 11-0 after Didi Gregorius connects for a homer in the 8th, the largest Yankees shutout of anyone since they slammed 15 on (who else?) the Mets on June 14, 2009. Along with the Padres (whose last is in 2007), they had been the only teams not to have an 11-0 shutout (or better) this decade. And combined, Friday was the first time ever that the Mets and Yankees both shut out their opponents by eight or more on the same day.


All this talk of zeroes and halos and goose eggs and we're running out of synonyms has us going in circles. Intermission!


Friday On My Mind

If you called it a night early on Friday and didn't wait up for those pesky west-coast games, you didn't miss much. All three of them ended up in shutouts, one of the individual variety by Chris Stratton of the Giants, who allowed just two hits to the Rockies and struck out seven. If you skip over the "Madison Bumgarner" section of ledger, he's the first Giants pitcher to throw an SHO-2 with at least seven K's since Chris Heston tossed his no-hitter at Citi Field on June 9, 2015. The last non-Madison to do it at home was Yusmeiro Petit against Arizona on September 6, 2013.

The Padres, meanwhile, suffered a 4-0 loss to Texas, their sixth home interleague game where they were shut out on five or fewer hits with none of them for extra bases. Texas did it to them last year as well (May 9). On Friday Jurickson Profar became the first Rangers hitter ever to have a 3-hit, 3-RBI game in San Diego (at either park). And not too far up "the 5", the Mariners were busy blanking the Angels 5-0 behind two-run singles from both Ryon Healy and Dee Gordon. For both players that was their only hit of the game; they are the first Mariners teammates to have multiple RBI with only a single (and no other weird stuff like a sac fly or bases-loaded walk) in a victory since Kenji Johjima and Franklin Gutierrez did it in Oakland on April 11, 2009. And it turns out that back on July 11, Seattle also shut out the Angels on six hits or fewer (actually two); it's the first time they've ever posted two such games in Anaheim in the same season.


Meet Me In St Louis

Of course, it's not entirely about the coasts. We have some love for the heartland also, and apparently so do the Dodgers. Especially Yasiel Puig, who is your friend anyway, and Busch Stadium returned the favor. In Friday's series opener he greeted Jack Flaherty with a solo shot, and then added another in the 9th to become the second Dodgers hitter with a multi-homer game at the current park. The other, really, is Rod Barajas on August 23, 2011. That first run would be the only one allowed by Flaherty, but it was enough, given that Walker Buehler-- who of course started the combined no-hitter against the Padres in May-- took us into the 5th again before Paul DeJong and Harrison Bader both connected for singles. And that's it. Buehler issued two more walks but the Cardinals never got another hit, finishing a home game with 0 runs on 2 hits for the first time since... well, September 1 against the Reds. That hadn't happened twice in a season since 1995, and not in a month since they did it twice in the same series against Pittsburgh in May 1991.

If you looked at Buehler's line of eight scoreless innings, two hits, and nine strikeouts, and guessed that the last Dodger to throw that was Clayton Kershaw, well, you'd be right, because Kershaw's an acceptable guess for anything Dodger-pitching-related. That was September 29, 2015, at San Francisco. But only two other Dodgers have ever recorded that line in St Louis: Orel Hershiser (who is always another good guess) on July 19, 1984, and Ismael Valdez (who is not) on September 17, 1995.

The good news for the Cardinals is that they ended up scoring four runs in Saturday's game, which, if they had done that Friday, would have been enough to win. On Saturday, uh, not so much. Fourteen would not have been enough as John Gant gave up another Puig homer, got into a mess in the 5th inning and got pulled after six runs before having to face Puig again. Let's send Mike Mayers out there instead. Puig your friend. Puig not care. Home run number two and it's 8-4. He's the first Dodger this season with consecutive multi-homer games (Cody Bellinger did it last June), and the first ever to do it in St Louis.

Puig not done. By the 8th inning Luke Weaver is out there, the score has mushroomed to 10-4 on Bellinger's third RBI of the day, and mash. Another three-run shot for 13-4, seven driven in, and the fourth three-homer game at this edition of Busch Stadium. Then-Giant Aubrey Huff did it on June 2, 2011, and the others were both by Albert Pujols in its inaugural season of 2006.

Turns out Bellinger's not done either. Nor is Weaver. After an error by Patrick Wisdom extends the inning, Bellinger finds himself at the plate unexpectedly, now with it 14-4 and two more runners on base. Wham. 17-4, which will mercifully be the final, but remember Bellinger already had three RBIs also. Now he's got six. Combined with Puig's seven, they're the second Dodgers ever with a half-dozen in the same game; the others were Gil Hodges and Billy Cox against the Reds on June 12, 1949. And only eight pairs of teammates (since RBI became official in 1920) have had six each, plus three hits, plus three runs scored, plus a homer. The previous set was Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ramon Vazquez in the Rangers' famous "30-3 Game" in Baltimore in 2007.


End-Of-Summer Blowout!

If 17-4 isn't your style, well, we have a variety of lopsided scores to choose from as we start to see which teams are still interested. The Phillies are still technically clinging to life in the NL East, but need all the wins (and Braves losses) they can get to have any chance. Unfortunately they can't save any of Friday's 14 runs to use again later.

Yes, 14, versus the Marlins' 2. And 5 home runs, from a team that had combined for just 17 and 5 in the five-game mini-losing streak preceding that game. The Phillies also hung a 20-1 game on Miami back in April; the last team they beat by 12 or more twice in the same season was the 2003 Braves. Two of those taters were from Aaron Altherr, who became just the third Phillie to have a four-hit game that included two homers at Citizens Bank Park since it opened in 2004. The others were both named Ryan Howard. Altherr also had five RBIs, his second career 4-hit, 5-RBI outing (the other was in Washington in September 2015). Only four other Phillies have had two such games: Rico Brogna (within a week of each other!), Don Demeter, Chuck Klein, and Mike Schmidt.

That, of course, wasn't the only time this week that the Marlins got blown out. Their scheduled game on Monday got blown away by the remnants of Hurricane Gordon, and you can understand a New York team not wanting to play a doubleheader on 9/11 (the Yankees' farm team on Staten Island is still forbidden from playing on that date). The problem with Wednesday is that it was going to rain all day. And it did. From 4:10 they waited. And waited. At this point of the season the decisions about games are in MLB's hands, not the teams, since it's usually the last series between the combatants. So even the Mets were helpless (write your own joke). Finally at 9 pm they decided play could start at 9:45, and mercifully also announced there would only be one game and the doubleheader would be Thursday now.

The Marlins were probably grateful there was only one game. Two doubles and a triple plate three runs in the 2nd. Still plenty of time. Amed Rosario, three-run homer in the 4th. Welp. And then in the 11 o'clock hour, let's just have Ben Meyer take one for the team. Jay Bruce grand slam and a two-run shot by Dominic Smith and your final (at 12:15 am for a 4:00 game) is 13-0. We mentioned Bruce's antics at Fenway later in the week, but it turns out he also hit a grand slam in the 7th inning in Washington on April 5. He's the first Mets batter with two in the 6th or later in the same season since Carlos Beltran in 2006. It was the ninth time in Mets history (last in 2016) where they hit a 2-, 3-, and 4-run homer in the same game. Meyer was the third pitcher in Marlins history to give up seven runs and two homers while recording no more than two outs; Matt Lindstrom did it against the Phllies on April 24, 2009; and Chris Hammond pulled it off in a start on May 4, 1996, although that was at Coors Field. Combined with Friday's 14-2 in Philadelphia, and some from earlier in the season, this week set a new Marlins "record" with five 12-run losses (four in 2006) and marked the first time they'd ever done it twice in three days.

Cleveland and Detroit have a fairly decent rivalry just based on geography; they could basically wave across Lake Erie at each other if the lake were smaller or they had really big hands. (We know Detroit's not technically on the lake, don't @ us.) And they're both original members of the American League from 1901, so is it possible they could still make history in 2018? Of course it is.

The Indians had a chance to clinch the AL Central title against the Tigers on Friday, but stranded the tying run on second to end the game. On Saturday the biggest drama was which position player would pitch for Detroit, and how soon. Cleveland opened with back-to-back homers off Michael Fulmer, their first time doing that since Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis took Chad Green of the Yankees deep on July 8, 2016. Fulmer then abruptly departed citing "knee inflammation", making him just the second starter in the live-ball era to face two batters, give up two dingers, and leave. Chris Archer did it against the White Sox last September in a game that came up on Friday night as well when Archer gave up two more 1st-inning homers. So on comes Matt Hall, likely not expecting to pitch today, and well, that showed. He ends up facing 15 batters, getting three of them out, and you can start rolling in those champagne carts. No Tigers reliever had given up 9+ runs while getting ≤ 3 outs since Steve Gromek did it in Boston on June 18, 1953, and Cleveland hadn't gone through 21 batters in the first two innings since they opened with an 8 and a 6 at Houston on April 20, 2013.

Detroit managed only two measly singles and committed four errors; the final score of 15-0 was their largest shutout loss since Toronto did it to them on July 6, 1996. The Indians' last 15-run shutout was also the largest shutout loss in Yankees history, a 22-0 in the Bronx on August 31, 2004. And that history we mentioned? 15-0 was the largest shutout ever by Cleveland over Detroit, including the 1880's when both cities had NL teams (go Wolverines!). The previous record on that front was 14-0... on May 17, 1902.

The fledgling American League, in only its second season, didn't merit full boxscores in most newspapers yet. This linescore, from our old pals The Sun of New York, is the best we could do. (Via Library of Congress)

Young-Adult Forum

It's always the kids who have the most energy, isn't it? Among the teams who did not let off the gas pedal this week were the Atlanta Braves, who are within a few days of eliminating those Phillies and winning the NL East for just the second time in 13 years (after that stretch of winning it 11 straight years before that). On Monday Ozzie Albies got them out of the (Golden) gate with a leadoff double in the 7th; he would become the game-winning run when Dansby Swanson hit a sac fly later in the inning. Albies then tripled in another run in the 9th, his fifth career game with both a two-bagger and a three-bagger. He's just the second player in the live-ball era to have five such games before his 22nd birthday (which is in January); Buddy Lewis of the Senators did it in 1936-37.

On Tuesday "old man" Mike Foltynewicz (who will be 27 in a few weeks) tossed a six-hitter for an identical 4-1 win to Monday, the only Giants damage being when Evan Longoria singled with two outs in the 9th, the Braves gave him second, and then Brandon Crawford drove him in. Folty threw a two-hit shutout against the Nationals back in June, and his two (two!) complete games are tied for the major-league lead because it's 2018. He is the first Braves pitcher to have multiple CGs with seven (or fewer) baserunners and seven (or more) strikeouts in each since Javier Vazquez in 2009. And it was the first time a Braves pitcher had thrown any complete game in San Francisco since Tom Glavine hurled a three-hit shutout at Candlestick on August 7, 1998.

Speaking of the Nationals, after the Braves finished the sweep on Wednesday thanks to a Tyler Flowers pinch-hit single in the 9th, it was on to Washington and another play date between youngsters Albies, Ronald Acuña, and Juan Soto. They've hung out at the kids' table a few times before since they're in the same division, but they were full of excitement this weekend.

In Friday's opener, you didn't have to scroll down very far in the boxscore to see the big headline. Acuña, hitting leadoff for the Braves as he usually does, had four hits including a triple and a double. He's the youngest Braves player to do that since Milwaukee's Hank Aaron posted that line in Cincinnati on September 5, 1954. Throw on two runs scored and two RBIs (which, as discussed frequently, became official in 1920), and he's the second-youngest player for any team to do that. Nineteen-year-old Travis Jackson of the Giants pulled that off at Wrigley Field on July 29, 1923.

Gosh, so close. Acuña had the single, double, and triple, but couldn't complete the cycle. No worries. Look at the other side of the boxscore. Juan Soto, who will turn 20 at the end of October, mashed his 20th homer of the year-- not just joining Bryce Harper and Tony Conigliaro as the only teenagers to hit 20+ major-league homers, but also providing the perfect match to Acuña's game. Together they are the first players under the age of 21 to hit for a combined cycle in the same game since Boston's two Tonys (Conigliaro again, plus Horton) did it on August 21, 1965. And hey, over here, Albies-- batting below Acuña-- scored three runs of his own as the Braves won 10-5. That's already the seventh time Albies has scored three runs in a game, tying HOF'er Eddie Mathews for the most by any Braves player before reaching his 22nd birthday. Watch out, though; Acuña has already done it four times also-- and has all of next year to add to his total.

Saturday's game would be a complete flip of Friday's, with the Braves scratching out only two singles against Jeremy Hellickson-- who injured himself while batting (DH in the NL, please?!)-- and then Jefry Rodriguez. Juan Soto, apparently on a mission to make us figure out what he hasn't done yet, only had one single, but also drew three walks and then stole three bases as the Nationals cruised to a 7-1 win. As previously reported by many other sources, Soto is the youngest player in MLB history to steal three bases in a game, breaking Rickey Henderson's mark by nearly a year. But he's also the first player in Nats/Expos history to have three walks and three steals in a game. And those three walks were only part of a much-larger fourteen-walk campaign ("Stop walking people!") by the Atlanta pitching staff. In a nine-inning game, the Braves had never issued 14 walks before, and the Nationals/Expos had never received them.

We hinted that Jefry Rodriguez ended up battening down the hatches for the Nationals after Hellickson got hurt; he actually went 4⅔ innings (getting the Nats into the 7th) without allowing a hit. Only two other pitchers in franchise history (both Expos) had done that: Dan Schatzeder on June 11, 1979 (also against the Braves), and Jackie Brown in an 18-inning marathon with the Padres on May 21, 1977.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Didi Gregorius, Tuesday: First player in Yankees history to hit a triple and a grand slam in a loss.

⚾ Scott Schebler, Sunday: Hit leadoff home run against Cubs. Also hit leadoff home run against White Sox back on July 2; is first player in MLB history to do it against both clubs in the same season.

⚾ Tyson Ross, Thursday: First Cardinals relief pitcher to hit a home run since Mark Worrell at Washington, June 5, 2008.

⚾ Lorenzo Cain, Monday: First leadoff batter in Brewers history to have a 4-hit game at Wrigley Field. Last for "Milwaukee" was Felipe Alou on August 15, 1965.

⚾ Billy Hamilton, Wednesday: First Reds number-nine hitter with a triple and a double in the same game since pitcher Gary Nolan at Houston, September 21, 1969.

⚾ Yankees, Saturday: Second time in team history they hit four homers, including a grand slam, in a game and lost. The other was a 14-12 slugfest with the Browns on July 24, 1940 (Bill Dickey had the slam).

⚾ Felipe Vazquez, Sunday: Second Pirates pitcher since 1969 (when they became official) to give up two homers and still "earn" a save. Dave Giusti did it in Atlanta on August 2, 1970.

⚾ Salvador Perez, Friday: Fourth player in Royals history with 5 RBI including a walkoff homer. Joe Randa in 2001 also hit a walkoff slam. Others were George Brett in 1993 and Frank White in 1986.

⚾ Devon Travis, Tuesday: Became third player in Blue Jays history to steal home twice (also did it once last year). Others are Lloyd Moseby and Alfredo Griffin in the early 1980s.

⚾ Joey Votto, Monday: First Reds batter with a multi-run double (not a homer) on his birthday since Tony Perez on May 14, 1972.

⚾ Robinson Chirinos, Saturday: Three-run double to turn deficit into a lead. Also had one against the White Sox on June 30. Only other player in Rangers history with two is Ivan Rodriguez, and his came in different seasons.

⚾ Athletics, Friday: First time they had ≤ 3 hits in an extra-inning game and won it since a 1-0 win at Kansas City on April 16, 1992.

⚾ Scooter Gennett, Monday: Second game this season with 4 hits and 3 RBI (also May 11 at Dodgers). First Reds batter with two in same season since Rich Aurilia in 2006.

⚾ Francisco Arcia, Wednesday: Second player in Angels history to have 3 XBH and 4 RBI batting 9th. Gary DiSarcina did it at Texas on June 13, 1998.

⚾ Robbie Grossman, Sunday: First Twins baserunner out for being hit by a batted ball (yes, we have a list) since Matt LeCroy versus Boston on August 6, 2005. Every other team's had it happen since 2011.


Minor-League Minute

We love and follow the minor leagues with great interest around these parts, so a brief congratulations to all the teams who claimed their league championships over the past week or so. And a reminder that Durham and Memphis will square off in this year's triple-A title game in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday. You might even see the next guy to throw a major-league no-hitter (Jake Odorizzi started the 2013 edition for Omaha).
🏆 AAA International: Durham (N.C.) Bulls (TB)
🏆 AAA Pacific Coast: Memphis (Tenn.) Redbirds (STL)
🏆 AA Eastern: (Manchester,) New Hampshire Fisher Cats (TOR)
🏆 AA Southern: Jackson (Tenn.) Generals (ARI)
🏆 AA Texas: Tulsa (Okla.) Drillers (LAD)
🏆 High-A California: Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Quakes (LAD)
🏆 High-A Carolina: Buies Creek (N.C.) Astros (HOU)*
🏆 High-A Florida State: Fort Myers (Fla.) Miracle (MIN)
🏆 Low-A Midwest: Bowling Green (Ky.) Hot Rods (TB)
🏆 Low-A South Atlantic: Lexington (Ky.) Legends (KC)
🏆 Short-Season New York-Penn: Tri-City (Troy, N.Y.) ValleyCats (HOU)
🏆 Short-Season Northwest: Eugene (Ore.) Emeralds (CHC)
🏆 Rookie Appalachian: Elizabethton (Tenn.) Twins (MIN)
🏆 Rookie Pioneer: Great Falls (Mont.) Voyagers (CHW)
* - "Lame-duck" team, moving to nearby Fayetteville in 2019