Potpourri

Sometimes we have a nice little theme that ties the whole post together, and sometimes a week is just sort of weird. It's like one of those multi-episode TV shows where there's several different plot lines going but we haven't tied the whole thing together yet. (This is not a "Game Of Thrones" reference. Unless you want it to be.) So we'll just jump around a little bit. Maybe add a little soundtrack along the way.


Raking The Band

Has it been raining for all of April to where you still haven't gotten that spring yardwork finished? Well, if you need it done at 100 mph on the one day it isn't raining, might we suggest the services (again) of #PitchersWhoRake.

(This needs to be a real company. Picture Carlos Zambrano, Micah Owings, and Mike Hampton rolling up to your house in a landscaping truck to "mow down" some grass or take a "cutter" to those tree branches. We'd absolutely pay for this. But we digress.)

Last week we couldn't avoid Steven Matz's 0-out, 8-run start for the Mets; he actually rebounded nicely in his next outing on Monday, allowing only a 4th-inning homer to Rhys Hoskins as the Mets beat the Phillies 5-1. We mentioned that Matz was only the sixth starter in the live-ball era to have a 0-out, 8-run outing, and he's just the second of those six to then come out and get a win in his next start. The other pitcher to do it was the other Met in the group of six, Bobby J. Jones on September 22, 1997.

But that's not why we're in this category. Matz, of course, has his own piece of baseball history, that of being the first pitcher ever to have 4 RBIs in his major-league debut (June 28, 2015). Instead, we're here because of Zack Wheeler, who doubled home two runs in his first plate appearance on Tuesday and then hit a solo homer two innings later. Only one other Mets pitcher has ever homered and doubled in the same game, Walt Terrell in San Diego on August 23, 1983. (Terrell, earlier that same month, also became the first Mets pitcher ever to homer twice in a game.) And just as we were starting to root for the first-ever cycle by a pitcher, and/or the first one ever at Citi Field, check out what Wheeler was doing on the mound also. He fanned 11 Phillies and walked none in seven scoreless innings. Only four other Mets hurlers have struck out 11+ and gone yard in the same game; the list includes Jacob deGrom three weeks ago, plus Shawn Estes in 2002, Sid Fernandez in 1989, and Tom Seaver in 1973. And combined with Todd Frazier's grand slam to put the game away in the 5th, it was the second time in Mets history they'd gotten a grand slam and a pitcher home run (by different players) in the same game. Seaver teamed up with Ron Swoboda to do that against Montréal on July 9, 1970.

If "Pitchers Who Rake™" ever does become a real company, there will be plenty of franchise opportunities for Felix Hernandez, Madison Bumgarner, and Bartolo Colón if they do ever retire. This week we had our eye on franchisee Zack Greinke, who, on Thursday, became the first pitcher in the majors this season to leg out a triple. Amazingly, on April 28, the only "position" to not hit a triple so far this season is the... um... "designated hitter". So begin your argument over the National League DH now.

But you might remember that Greinke joined The Micah Owings Club by homering twice against the Padres back on April 2. Thursday's triple thus makes him the second pitcher in D'backs history to compile a cycle over the course of an entire season, and naturally, Owings is the other one of those as well. His lone triple in 2007 (to accompany 4 HR, 7 doubles, and 8 singles) was in Philadelphia on May 29. Only four other Arizona pitchers have tripled in a road game; they are Patrick Corbin (2016 at Atlanta), Trevor Cahill (2013 at Dodgers), Brian Anderson (2001 at Giants), and Amaury Telemaco (1998 at Mets).

While the crowd in Pittsburgh was still digesting Greinke's triple to lead off the 5th, Jarrod Dyson promptly hit another one six pitches later. The Diamondbacks had not recorded back-to-back triples since A.J. Pollock and Chris Owings did it against the Dodgers on May 17, 2014.

In addition to his three-bagger, Greinke threw 7 scoreless innings with 7 strikeouts and only 2 hits allowed. No D'backs pitcher had done that in a road game since... Zack Greinke in San Francisco, on September 16, 2017. Honestly that's only two seasons ago, so not really impressive... until you consider that the only other pitchers in Arizona history to do it twice on the road are named Curt and Randy.


Triple Threat

Hey, if hitting triples is good enough for Zack Greinke, it's good enough for the other 749 players on active rosters. Okay, not all of them. But enough of them that we had a wide array of "triple" notes to jam into this section.

Much more on this week's Yankees/Angels series in a bit, but Brett Gardner powered Tuesday's 7-5 win with a triple and a double, joining Alex Rodriguez (2004), Derek Jeter (1997), and Bill Robinson (1968) as the only Yankees to have both hits in the same game at Anaheim Stadium. And while Gardner did score a run, he never drove one in, mostly because Luke Voit, batting ahead of him, couldn't stop homering. So Gardy also became the first Yankee player, in any game, with four hits including a triple and a double, but zero runs scored, since Luis Polonia did it at Fenway on May 12, 1995.

Adam Eaton of the Nationals recorded a three-bagger at Coors Field on Tuesday, although it was with two outs and he promptly got stranded. Eaton also tripled there on nearly the same day two years ago (April 24, 2017), joining Emilio Bonifacio, F.P. Santangelo, and Trea Turner (3) as the only Nats/Expos players with multiple triples at Coors Field. But remember Eaton played his first two years in the bigs with Arizona. Who is in the division. And he had two triples there with the Diamondbacks as well. There's a long list of visiting players with four triples at Coors Field, but with his next one he'll become just the seventh player with five-- joining Matt Kemp, Juan Pierre, Chase Utley, Will Venable, Shane Victorino, and the far-and-away all-time leader, Steve Finley with 12.

Despite a late rally, the Braves fell one run short in Cincinnati on Tuesday when Freddie Freeman's game-ending groundout failed to score the tying run from third. Dansby Swanson, however, drove in the Braves' final run in the 8th with a one-out double, and then stole third to also represent the tying run. That was after he started the 5th inning on third with a leadoff triple. He's the first Braves batter with a triple and a double in the same game in Cincinnati since Deion Sanders did it at Riverfront on April 13, 1992. And only three Braves in the live-ball era have had a triple, a double, and a stolen base in a loss; the others are Jason Heyward in 2014 and Dale Murphy in 1982.

And as usual, some of our "triple" notes come out of Kansas City, which not only has a park with deep alleys conducive to them, but a couple of speedster players who will try for third any chance they get. It's hard to say which group Ryan O'Hearn is in, but he took advantage of the turf and deep alleys at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, hitting both a double and a triple to become the first Royals player ever with that combo in St Petersburg. And then on Wednesday Billy Hamilton became the second-- but like his early days in Cincinnati, he's taken a liking to batting 9th, what's been described as a "second leadoff batter". So he was the first Royals batter to triple and double in any road game out of the 9-hole since Christian Colón at Cleveland on July 4, 2014. Hamilton also drove in two runs, the first Royals #9 to also do that since Rey Sanchez at the Metrodome on May 9, 1999.

The Royals were back home at "The K" for the weekend, and in Friday's opener with the Angels, leadoff batter Whit Merrifield collected a triple and two walks. He also scored a run-- but (sad trombone) the only Royals run as they lost 5-1. Turns out he had a similar game last September in Detroit when Kansas City lost 5-4. And the only other leadoff batter in Royals history to twice collect a triple and two walks in a loss is David DeJesus, who pulled it off three times between 2008 and 2010.

And when the Royals finally found their way back to the win column on Saturday, it was behind four hits-- including two triples-- from cleanup batter Hunter Dozier. In a rare moment of sarcasm from an Associated Press recap, Saturday's game story leads off with Dozier fighting a back flareup that only bothers him when he runs, and suggests "[m]aybe he should stop hitting triples." Lumbar support or not, Dozier became just the sixth player in Royals history to have a 4-hit game that included two triples, and the first of those six to also drive in four runs. Johnny Damon had the previous game against Texas on September 8, 2000; the others are Vince Coleman (1994), Darrell Porter (1978), and George Brett (twice).


Can You Hear Me Now?

As you know, we enjoy giving the AL West a hard time because all of their games seem to be 3-1 snoozefests where the "star of the game" went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. But, having re-sold their stadium rights to a cell-phone company, the Mariners finally decided to try out their new "unlimited" plan on Thursday.

Taylor Hearn made his major-league debut for the Rangers, and over the last few years these are largely a coin flip. Sometimes the opposing team has no idea what to expect because they've never seen this pitcher before, and the guy will take a no-hitter much further than he needs to (hi, Nick Kingham and Daniel Poncedeleon). This, however, was not that debut. Hearn walked the first three Mariners, the third time in Seattle history that they've opened a game with three free passes. Credit Rangers manager Chris Woodward with trying to give Hearn a chance to work out the butterflies, but after three more hits, another walk, and five runs, it just couldn't go on. Hearn was the first pitcher to give up 5+ runs while getting ≤ 1 out in his major-league debut since another Ranger, Warner Madrigal, did it in relief on July 2, 2008. The last starter to do it was Bruce Berenyi of the Reds on July 5, 1980.

Brett Martin rescued Hearn and had three decent innings of his own, but gave up 2 more in the 4th. Jeffrey Springs, 2 more in the 5th. Tim Beckham, 6th-inning homer off Jeanmar Gomez. And eventually the Mariners are up 14-0 and catcher Jeff Mathis is pitching the 8th. This being the last game of the night on Thursday, we really wanted to start looking up 14-0 shutouts, but knew that as soon as we started, the Mariners would mess it up somehow. Sure enough, an error in the 8th and a two-out single by Nomar Mazara to get rid of that zero. Elvis Andrus, at Comiskey on July 3, 2012, was the last Rangers batter with an RBI hit to break up a shutout of 14 or more in the 8th or later. And two batters later, Logan Forsythe became the first player in Rangers history to draw a bases-loaded walk with the team trailing by 13 or more. The previous "record" for such a thing had been on May 24, 1980, when Jim Norris did it against Oakland in an 11-run game. Roenis Elias also became the first pitcher in Mariners history to issue such a walk; their previous high-water mark had been by Greg McCarthy to the Yankees' Wade Boggs on August 28, 1996, with Seattle leading by 9.

Now unfortunately, the Mariners forgot to specify that the "unlimited" plan is only for them. Because by Saturday the Rangers had hacked the wifi password and decided that "message and data rates" do NOT apply.

Elvus Andrus, 3-run homer in the 1st off Mike Leake. Not great but it's still early. Heh. Domingo Santana does homer in the bottom half to make it 3-1... and then Rangers starter Mike Minor decides to set down 20 out of the next 24, scattering just two singles, a walk, and a hit batter. Meanwhile, the other Mike has "sprung a" Leake, surrendering another 3-run homer in the 2nd, this one to Rougned Odor. It was only the fifth time in Rangers/Senators history that they'd hit a 3- or 4-run homer in both the 1st and 2nd innings; Andrus teamed with Adrian Beltre on the previous set, in Cleveland on June 26, 2017.

Four more hits equals two runs in the 3rd. Finally, by the time the Leake gets plugged, as it were, it's 9-1 and Minor is still mowing down Mariners batters. Rookie infielder Dylan Moore finally gets the "honor" of pitching the 9th for Seattle, and well, that can only mean Moore runs. Four of them, in fact, on five hits and two walks, making him just the second position player in Mariners history to give up four runs on the mound. Infielder Manny Castillo did it in a 19-7 blowout by Toronto on June 26, 1983 (his only major-league pitching appearance).

Your final score of 15-1 marked the Rangers' largest-ever win in Seattle, their 20 hits were their most ever there, and the 15 runs tied their high from a 15-6 victory in one of the final games at the Kingdome, April 13, 1999. Logan Forsythe, who had two doubles and drove in three more runs, teamed with Elvis Andrus to be the first Rangers teammates with 3 hits, 2 XBH, and 3 RBI in the same game since Josh Hamilton and Marlon Byrd did it in Baltimore on August 10, 2008.

And remember those 20 out of 24 batters that Minor retired? (Which was actually 21 out of 26 around Santana's 1st-inning homer.) Well, a full half of those 26 were strikeouts. No Rangers pitcher had recorded a 13-K game since Yu Darvish did it in Houston on August 12, 2013. Yu actually has the team's last five such games, another of which was "The Marwin Gonzalez Game". In Darvish's first start of 2013 he had a perfect game with two outs in the 9th before Gonzalez broke it up and Darvish was actually pulled. Before that only four Rangers pitchers had ever struck out 13+, allowed ≤ 3 hits, and gotten a win in a road game. Three of them were Nolan Ryan, and the other was Jim Bibby, in his no-hitter in Oakland on July 30, 1973.


2 Unlimited

Along comes Sunday, (naturally after the rest of this section was already written,) and still nobody's tipped off the Mariners that they might want to change their password. Because that "unlimited" plan is still in effect, and the Rangers are still within wifi range. By the 5th inning it's 9-1 again, all the runs off Erik Swanson, although three of them unearned. He and Leake became just the third pair of consecutive starters in Mariners history to allow 9+ runs each; Mike Montgomery and Felix Hernandez did it in Boston in August 2015, while Paul Spoljaric and Ken Cloude had the Yankees rain on their parade in August 1998. And if they had stopped there we might have been able to ignore the rest of the game. But nope, 3-run homer by Forsythe in the 8th, all unearned because of yet another Seattle error. Tack on a Shin-Soo Choo homer in the 9th (at least it's against an actual pitcher this time) and we thud our way to a 14-1 final, this is not a misprint, on the heels of your 15-1 from Saturday. It is the first time in either team's history that they'd won/lost (depending on your perspective) consecutive games by 13 or more. Only once before had the Rangers scored 14+ in back-to-back games, both against the same opponent; that happened in Milwaukee on August 2 and 3, 1991. The Mariners had allowed it twice before, once to Boston in those Monty/Felix starts above, and the other to the White Sox in May 1994.

Hunter Pence put up the biggest line of the day (but not by much), with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBIs. Only two other Rangers had ever done that in Seattle (and yes, we include the '69 Senators against the Pilots for this purpose)-- Rafael Palmeiro on April 16, 2001, and Ivan Rodriguez in a 14-4 win on June 25, 1999, to open the final series at the Kingdome. Combined with Choo, Forsythe, and Elvis Andrus again, there were four Texas batters who each had multiple hits including a homer and multiple runs driven in. That's only happened seven times in franchise history, the previous also being on the road. Michael Young, Alfonso Soriano, Laynce Nix, and Rod Barajas pulled it off in a 14-9 win at Kansas City on June 4, 2005.



This next section header has been rolling around in our heads since about Thursday. But so has a very similar opening lyric that goes "Early in the evening / Just about suppertime". And occasionally the two combine themselves into a Paul Simon x CCR mashup, and nobody needs that. So intermission! Then click the next header when you're ready to move on. :)


Late In The Evening

We apologize for interrupting your usual AL West fare; you were maybe expecting a game where the teams trade homers in the first two innings, the Angels screw up and actually catch a foul ball that results in a tying sacrifice fly in the 3rd, and then it's three hours before another inning lasts more than four batters? Got you covered. That would be the opener between the Yankees and Angels on Monday; Luke Voit (solo) and Jonathan Lucroy (two-run) hit the homers, and then Kole Calhoun, for whatever reason, decides to catch a foul ball down the right-field line and allow Kyle Higashioka to score from third. Yeah, it's only the 3rd inning, but you have forgotten which division we're in. Four singles-- two erased on double plays-- and five walks remain the only baserunners until the top of the 12th, by which point this has been the only game still going for well over an hour.

There is hope when Clint Frazier gaps a leadoff double in the 12th and scores on Gio Urshela's sacrifice fly. All Aroldis Chapman has to do is get these last three outs and-- oh. Leadoff single, stolen base, hit-by-pitch, Brian Goodwin RBI single to make it 3-3. Now there are still two runners on and maybe the tables will flip into an Angels walkoff. Pinch running at second, representing the winning run... um. Pitcher Felix Peña? Seems that Zack Cozart had come out of the game, not necessarily because of the HBP, but after a collison with DJ LeMahieu on a dive back into second. And the Angels had already burned their last position player as a PR for the tying run earlier in the inning. So Peña thus took his place as the first Angels pitcher to be used as a PR since Steve Sparks was summoned against Arizona on June 13, 1999. Needless to say, he didn't score.

No, that would have to wait until the 14th when Gleyber Torres struck out, but then reached on a dropped third strike when the ball bounced halfway up the baseline, and Lucroy decided to make a 60-foot throw despite only being about 40 feet away. So after Frazier and then Mike Tauchman struck out, the inning should be over. Instead Torres is on third and look, Gio Urshela is up again. This time it sticks. RBI single to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead before Higashioka strikes out to retire the side. As in, make four "outs", all via strikeout. It was the first 4-K inning for the Angels since Zack Greinke did it on September 25, 2012. But in MLB history it was the first known four-strikeout inning ever to occur in the 14th or later. The previous mark had been held by Toronto's Mike Bolsinger, who did it two seasons ago at Fenway in the bottom of the 13th.

As for Urshela, remember he also had that go-ahead sac fly in the 12th. The last Yankees batter to have two separate go-ahead events in extra innings of the same game was Andre Robertson, who drew bases-loaded walks in both the 11th and 13th against Toronto on June 2, 1982. And Trevor Cahill (remember, the Angels were out of position players) became the first American League pitcher since the designated hitter was adopted in 1973 with a game-ending strikeout in the 14th inning or later.

Then, in the series finale on Thursday (which was a 6:00 start that still managed to not end until 10), the Angels trailed 4-0 before Tommy La Stella and Kole Calhoun both hit two-run homers off Masahiro Tanaka in the 5th to tie things. Tanaka gave up two more runs in the 6th before being pulled, and two Yankees relievers combined for a 5-run 7th for an eventual final of 11-5. There were seven walks thrown in (helping that 3:49 game length), making it the first game in Angels franchise history where they scored 11+ runs on ≤ 9 hits. David Fletcher, who drove in five of those last seven runs, including a bases-loaded triple in the 7th, became the first Angels batter to have 5 RBI without a homer since C.J. Cron did it against Texas on September 4, 2015. Only two other Angels have ever done it while batting 8th or 9th: Art Kusnyer on June 29, 1972, at Texas; and Buck Rodgers (in the 20th century) on May 4, 1966, against the Athletics.

One more bit of AL West excitement came out of Houston on Saturday night when the Indians rallied for two runs in the 7th and sent the game to extras. Gosh, what could happen in an AL West game in extra innings? Well, in this case Tony Kemp and Adam Cimber happened. Both players entered the game "fresh" to start the bottom of the 10th, and clearly pinch-hitter Kemp was a little fresher than relief-pitcher Cimber, whose fourth pitch got deposited into the right-field seats for the first walkoff anything of Kemp's 187-game MLB career. Only three other Astros had ever hit a pinch-hit walkoff homer in extras (all in the 10th): Ray Montgomery in 1996, Glenn Wilson in 1990, and Harry Spilman in 1982. If you go back and include the 9th, the Astros' last pinch-hit walkoff homer at all was a grand slam by Brian Bogusevic off Carlos Marmol on August 16, 2011. And by giving up the walkoff homer to the first batter he faced, Cimber became the first Cleveland pitcher to pull that off since... oh. Adam Cimber did it last September in Toronto when Kevin Pillar walked him off. His little page of the dubious record book is that he's the first Indians pitcher in the live-ball era to do it twice.


Earlier In The Evening

It's always a little earlier in the evening in Arizona since they don't observe Daylight-Saving Time, but thank goodness for 1:00 starts on a Sunday. Because they very nearly became the last game of the "night" after getting trapped in a 3-3 logjam with the Cubs in their series finale. The first six runs-- all in the first six innings-- all scored on home runs, Arizona's both by Eduardo Escobar. Then it got interesting. Ketel Marte legged out a two-out triple in the 10th. Escobar failed at launching his third homer of the game, and thus also created the first extra inning in team history in which the D'backs had gotten a triple and not scored at least one run.

Top 12, single, walk, hit-by-pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Strikeout, infield fly, fielder's choice. Top 13, hit-by-pitch, stolen base, walk, wild pitch, first-and-third with one out. Strikeout and a bizarre play where Willson Contreras attempted a delayed steal as Carson Kelly returned the ball to his pitcher. We did actually find an instance of a Cubs runner being "caught stealing home" that late in the game, although it was a pickoff at third where Brant Brown ended up in a rundown. That was in the 15th at San Diego on June 22, 1996.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks get three straight walks with two outs in the 13th but pinch-hitter John Ryan Murphy whiffs. In the 14th, thanks to two errors (we're all tired now), the Cubs again load the bases with one out, but a force at home and a Jason Heyward strikeout. If you look up the chance of scoring at least one run in each of those three Cubs innings, and multiply them together, there's barely a 2% chance that they would fail all three times. Or, in 47 out of 48 games, we wouldn't have even gotten to the 15th.

This is the 48th game. Finally pitcher Tyler Chatwood, batting for himself, smokes a double to center, the first XBH by a Cubs pitcher in extra innings since Scott Sanders doubled off Pat Mahomes of the Mets on August 1, 1999. Ben Zobrist later cranks a two-run double, the Cubs' first go-ahead two-bagger in the 15th since Jerry Mumphrey walked off against the Braves on May 23, 1987. Kris Bryant adds a sac fly to score Zobrist, which proves to be the winning run when Caleb Joseph knocks in two runs for Arizona in the bottom half. Joseph joined Miguel Montero, who on June 25, 2009 against Texas, hit a similar 2-run single with the D'backs trailing by 3, as the only Diamondbacks ever to have a multi-run hit in the bottom of an extra inning that didn't at least tie the game.

Arizona's now played eight home games in their history that lasted 15 innings or more; after winning the first six, they're now on a two-game losing streak. The Padres beat them last July 8 on Wil Myers' solo homer in the top of the 16th.


Blurred Lines

Usually your dominating pitchers will spin a line of 10 or 12 strikeouts, 0 or 1 walks, and maybe like 1 run on 3 hits because they accidentally hung a meatball homer. We mentioned Mike Minor's 3 hits and 13 strikeouts. Zack Wheeler's 11 strikeouts came with only 5 hits and 0 runs. This is the norm. You don't see a whole lot of pitchers just dare to leave it over the plate all the time and say, here, hit it. Except this week, when an inordinate number of hurlers racked up those big strikeout numbers while also giving up a bunch of hits (and frequently runs).

Jack Flaherty of the Cardinals begins our week of pitching weirdness on Monday by striking out 10 Brewers. This by itself wasn't that unusual, in his brief three-season career, Flaherty's had four 10-K games, and he fanned 13 Brewers back on June 22 of last season. The anomaly in that start was that he gave up only one hit, but it was a Jesús Aguilar home run and he took the loss. On Monday he did basically the opposite, giving up three home runs-- to Ryan Braun, Hernan Perez, and Yasmani Grandal-- and getting the win! No Cardinals pitcher had reached both the 10-K and 3-HR thresholds in the same game since the late Darryl Kile did it against Houston on July 2, 2000... and no Cards pitcher had ever done it and also gotten credit for a win.

Last Sunday we brought you the tales of Jerad Eickoff, Aaron Nola, and Vince Velasquez, three Phillies who just happened-- three days in a row-- to give up 7 hits while also striking out 7 batters (actually 8). Well, the new kid, Jake Arrieta, decided he wanted to eat lunch at this table too, and in Monday's opener with the Mets, that game where Steven Matz rebounded from his 0-IP, 8-run start to beat the Phillies 3-1, Arrieta yet again gave up 7 hits and lost despite fanning 7 Mets opponents. It marked the first occurrence in (at least) the live-ball era where four consecutive Phillies starters had posted a "7 and 7" line in each game.

Remember that Yankees/Angels series from earlier? There's still one game we haven't mentioned yet, that being Wednesday's 6-5 New York victory which was only made possible by DJ LeMahieu's 9th-inning single after Luis Garcia walked the bases loaded and Ty Buttrey let two of them come in. Before those late innings, however, it had been all about the longball; Andrelton Simmons hit two solo taters off CC Sabathia, and then Kole Calhoun added a three-run shot in the 4th for a 5-0 lead. Although Sabathia didn't get the win because he was gone by the time the lead flipped and flipped back, he became just the second Yankees pitcher to allow three homers in Anaheim in a game the Bronx Bombers still ended up winning. Jim Abbott is the other, doing so in a 6-4 win on July 24, 1994. For "asterisk" purposes, we must mention Whitey Ford, who also did it in a road game with the Angels in their first season, on June 26, 1961. Except Anaheim Stadium didn't open until 1966. In '61 the expansion Angels still played at their original triple-A stadium, "the other" Wrigley Field-- which was in Los Angeles and not Anaheim.

One of our early ideas for this week involved teams who couldn't seem to hit the side of a barn. There were a bunch of low-hit games, the Marlins and Reds have each been held to five or fewer at least 10 times already, but much like no-hitters and the AL West, it's hard to find interesting stuff about something that didn't happen. One game that might have qualified, but instead ended up here, was Thursday's Indians/Astros tilt. Both teams have invested heavily in pitching, and most any starter for either one has the potential to threaten us with a no-hitter. The problem this year is that neither offense has really gotten going yet. So this game ending 2-1, with both teams getting only 4 hits, wasn't really a surprise. (Can we realign Cleveland into the AL West?) The surprising part is that if we said one pitcher would walk six and only strike out three, while the other would give up just three hits and strike out 10, well, you expect the win and the loss to fall in line-- or at least not reverse themselves.

The six walks? Those were by Trevor Bauer who got the W (not the S) when Jake Bauers homered in the 5th. No Indians pitcher had done 6-and-3 and won since Ubaldo Jimenez against Detroit on May 22, 2012, and no Clevelander had posted that line but still lasted 8 innings (win or lose) since Tom Candiotti against the Red Sox on Jun 17, 1987. Naturally, you now know the 10 strikeouts belong to Gerrit Cole, who lost the game because of that Bauers homer in the 5th. Only five Astros pitchers have ever struck out 10, given up ≤ 3 hits, and lost; Mike Scott (twice in 1986) and Nolan Ryan (1985) predictably account for three of them. The other was Erik Bedard on July 20, 2013, against the Mariners, who was pulled in the 7th inning with a no-hitter intact, but after walking five and giving up two runs.

Collin McHugh joined our club of weirdness on Friday by striking out nine Indians batters in his 5⅔ innings of work. The problem there is that he also allowed three home runs, though all were solo shots and he left with the game still tied (and thus the bullpen took the loss). Only nine pitchers in Astros history have fanned 9+ but given up 3 dingers, and McHugh did it once before-- August 3, 2016, against the Jays. The only other name to appear on the list twice is Dallas Keuchel. For his part, Francisco Lindor hit one of those homers off McHugh, then another off Josh James in the 9th, joining Roberto Alomar (July 16, 2001) as the only Cleveland batters ever to have a multi-homer game in Houston.

And to round out our little section here, we turn to Luis Castillo of the Reds, who faced the Braves on Thursday and surrendered eight hits over six innings. He only struck out two. But he stranded two in scoring position, retired two others on the bases, and he got David Hernandez to bail him out of a bases-loaded-nobody-out jam after giving up three straight singles in the 7th. He thus mysteriously became the first Reds pitcher to allow 8 hits and strike out 2, but not get charged with any runs, since Chris Reitsma won a similar game against the Dodgers on April 23, 2003.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Rays, Monday: First team to collect exactly 8 hits in the form of 2 singles, 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homers since the Astros did it at Wrigley on July 30, 1970.

⚾ Carter Kieboom, Friday: Third player in Nats/Expos history to homer in his MLB debut while batting 9th. One was a pitcher (Tommy Milone, September 3, 2011) and the other was as a pinch-hitter (Brad Fullmer, September 2, 1997).

⚾ Grayson Greiner, Tuesday: First Tigers player to homer and commit a catcher's interference in same game since Marty Castillo vs Toronto, September 16, 1984.

⚾ Max Kepler, Sat-Sun: Fourth leadoff batter in Twins history with multiple extra-base hits, including at least one homer, in consecutive games. Others are Brian Dozier (2016), Chuck Knoblauch (1996), and Kirby Puckett (1986).

⚾ Dodgers, Thursday: Had only 4 hits vs Cubs, struck out 10 times, and won. First time doing that in a game at Wrigley Field since August 19, 1973. Rick Reuschel took a no-hitter into the 8th against them but Joe Ferguson belted a 2-run homer in the 9th.

⚾ Andrew Benintendi, Tuesday: First Red Sox leadoff batter with 3 hits and a hit-by-pitch in a loss since Dom DiMaggio against the Yankees (and brother Joe) on May 30, 1950.

⚾ Tim Anderson, Friday: Sixth player in White Sox history with 4 hits including a walkoff homer. Rest of club is Jose Valentin (2004), Robin Ventura (1991), Luis Salazar (1985), Harold Baines (1984), and Shano Collins (1914).

⚾ Brewers, Mon-Tue: Second team ever to record back-to-back games of ≤ 5 total hits but where 3 or more of them were homers. Cardinals did it on September 7, 1998, against the Cubs-- yes, the games where Mark McGwire hit home runs #61 and 62.

⚾ Padres, Saturday: First time scoring 6+ runs in an extra inning since May 28, 1995 at Philadelphia. Also first game in team history where they hit multiple sacrifice flies in extra innings.

⚾ Tigers, Sunday: Second team in live-ball era to have ≤ 2 hits and strike out 20 times in a nine-inning game. Other was Kerry Wood's 20-K game against the Astros on May 6, 1998.

⚾ Padres, Wednesday: Second time ever winning an interleague game 1-0 on a solo homer. Other was also against the Mariners, on June 13, 2012 (Yonder Alonso off Hector Noesi).

⚾ Gary Sanchez, Saturday: Fourth Yankee batter ever to hit a grand slam against the Giants. Alex Rodriguez (September 20, 2013) is the only other in the regular season. Gil McDougald (1951) and Tony Lazzeri (1936) hit them in the World Series.

⚾ Blue Jays, Friday: Fourth game in team history to begin with a leadoff homer and end with a walkoff homer. Previous was July 30, 2017, against the Angels (Ezequiel Carrera, Steve Pearce).

⚾ Blue Jays, Sunday: First team to give up 3+ runs in the top of an extra inning and then walk off in the bottom of the same inning since the Tigers did it to Cleveland on August 5, 2012.

Egg Hunt

Continuing the "food" theme that brought you lots of taters last Sunday, the Easter Sunday post is perfectly timed for some eggs. Which resemble a lot of round things put up on scoreboards this week. Now all we need next week are some big games from the "meat" of the order.


Don't Go Outside The Yard

No matter how many times the adults guaranteed you there were no eggs hidden outside the fence, there was always one kid who didn't believe them and went out there anyway. (This is the same kid who did believe them when they said there was a magical bunny who lays eggs and brings them candy, but we digress.) So even if it wasn't technically part of the hunt, we sure did find a lot of round white things outside the fence this week. And we don't know if Christian Yelich is in fact Christian (and honestly, it doesn't matter), but he certainly did a lot during the most important week in the Christian calendar.

Yelich's biggest game, of course, was in Monday's 10-7 win over the Cardinals, in which he went deep three times and drove in seven of the 10 runs. Only three other Brewers have ever posted a 3-HR, 7-RBI game; they are Aaron Hill (2016), Ryan Braun (2014), and Corey Hart (2011). Hill and Cecil Cooper (July 1979) are the only others to homer off three different pitchers in one game. Only two other Brewers have hit multiple three- or four-run homers in the same game at Miller Park; Khris Davis did it in 2015, and Jose Hernandez pulled it off on April 12, 2001, in the sixth game played there.

One more dinger on Tuesday meant that eight of Yelich's then-nine home runs on the season had come against the Cardinals. Since the first round of NL expansion in 1962 (i.e., when there were more than seven other opponents to face), Yelich is just the fourth player to hit eight longballs against St Louis in one season. He joins Richard Hidalgo of the Astros (2000), Greg Luzinski of the Phillies (1977), and Willie Mays (1964) in that club. And by the way, thanks to the famous "unbalanced schedule", look at where the Brewers play again this week.

Yelich took a break from homering on Wednesday, but when he went yard against the Dodgers on Thursday, he broke Rob Deer's team record of getting to 9 home runs in 20 games in 1987. Then on Friday he became just the 12th player to collect 11 or more homers in any team's first 21 games of a season. That list includes luminaries such as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Willie Stargell, Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, and the most recent to do it, Justin Upton for the Braves in 2013.

But why stop there? Yelich took it one more step by going yard not once but twice more on Saturday, giving him 13 for the season. Only three other players have connected for 13 homers in any team's first 22 games, and you've probably seen this list: Alex Rodriguez in 2007 (14), Ken Griffey Jr in 1997, and Luis Gonzalez for the D'backs in 2001. It also gave Yelich his fourth three-game homer streak just since joining the Brewers last year. Geoff Jenkins and Jeromy Burnitz share the team mark with 10 such streaks each, but they were also in Milwaukee for a combined 16 seasons.


The Color Purple

There have been four Fridays so far in the 2019 regular season, and for some reason the NL West has developed the disturbing habit of keeping us up late every week. On March 29 the Dodgers had a 13-inning, 6-hour dirge that didn't end until 1:15 am, and then last weekend the Giants needed 18 innings before finally walking off at 12:50 am. This past Friday didn't run quite that long, but two of the remaining teams-- the Padres and Rockies-- both went to extra innings just for fun.

After the 3rd, the Reds/Padres game was 1-1 on a pair of solo homers by Eugenio Suarez and Fernando Tatis Jr. And there's no point in looking up the last time either team had a solo homer stand up for a win, because one of them has to score again. Enter Derek Dietrich. After Tatis made a costly error to begin the 11th inning, Dietrich hit a two-run homer to score himself and Jose Iglesias for a 3-1 lead. That was only the third time in Reds history they'd hit a go-ahead multi-run homer in extra innings in San Diego; Eric Davis (April 15, 1989) and Buddy Bell (September 27, 1986) had the others.

Tatis did his best to atone for the gaffe in the bottom of the 11th, even though the Reds still would have been ahead at this point. Drawing a one-out walk, Tatis proceeded to steal second and then third in the span of four pitches, then scored on the very next pitch when Eric Hosmer rolled a slow grounder to first. You could argue that the play might have been at home if the Reds hadn't had the two-run cushion, but still, that gave Tatis three stolen bases on the day. And combined with his earlier home run, he became not just the first player in Padres history to record a homer and 3 SB in the same game, but also the youngest player in the live-ball era to do so for any team. That mark had previously been held by Tim Raines of the Expos, who did it twice in the 1981 season before turning 22.

The 3-2 win marked the first time the Reds had five or fewer baserunners in an extra-inning game, and still won it, since defeating the Cardinals 2-0 at the old Busch Stadium on August 30, 1989.

Meanwhile, in Denver, the Rockies-- with a 90-minute head start-- were busy slogging things out with the Phillies in the second game of their weekend series. Bryce Harper finally doubled in the top of the 12th to score Phil Gosselin, the Phillies' 17th hit of the game and Harper's fifth. But hold that thought. Because Tony Wolters drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the 12th, and then Charlie Blackmon launched a walkoff homer to center for a 4-3 win. It's just the fourth time in Rockies history that they've hit a walkoff home run when trailing, and all have been in extra innings. Ryan Spilborghs crushed a walkoff grand slam against the Giants on August 24, 2009, in the 14th; the others were both by Dante Bichette-- against the Cardinals on August 20, 1996, and against the Mets on April 26, 1995, in the first game played at Coors Field.

Bichette had also hit one of two previous walkoff homers in Rox history when the team was down to its final strike; that happened on May 23, 1999, against Arizona. Todd Helton did it on September 18, 2007, against the Dodgers, and then Blackmon became the third on Friday. And remember Harper's double in the top of the inning being his fifth hit of the game? He's the phirst Phillie with phive hits in a loss since Marlon Anderson did it in Phoenix on May 17, 2002.

Blackmon, of course, wasn't done with his note-writing for the week. After Friday's walkoff homer, he also hit the very next pitch the Rockies saw for a leadoff homer in Saturday's game. In so doing, he became just the seventh player in Rockies history to hit a leadoff homer and a walkoff homer in the same season, much less the same month. The only one to do that had been Ellis Burks in June 1995 (walkoff on the 2nd, leadoff on the 19th). And in one of those leaderboards that we've given up posting because he and George Springer are constantly flip-flopping, Blackmon now has 31 leadoff homers, one shy of the most in the majors since his debut in June 2011. But he's not one short of Springer (who has 26). He's one short of now-37-year-old Ian Kinsler, who's been dropped out of the leadoff spot by the Padres over the past couple weeks.

We originally wrote the first part, about not going outside the fence, before there had been any inside-the-park home runs this week. Well, Raimel Tapia took care of that in the very next inning on Saturday, and since he fits the "purple" Rockies theme, we'll drop him here. Tapia legged out the 18th inside-the-parker in team history to open the 2nd inning, right after Blackmon had homered to start the 1st. In a neat case of turnabout-is-fair-play, the last Rockies IHR had been by Blackmon on July 16, 2017, at Citi Field, the home of the Mets. And the last one at Coors Field, home of the Rockies, had been by a Met-- Brandon Nimmo last June 18. Saturday also marked the fourth time in Rockies history that they'd started both the 1st and 2nd innings with dingers; Blackmon and Ben Paulsen did it in Atlanta on August 24, 2015, as did Darryl Hamilton and Todd Helton (April 12, 1999, vs Padres), plus Nelson Liriano and Daryl Boston (September 29, 1993, at Candlestick Park).


Color Me Impressed

Speaking of west-coast games, we enjoy making fun of the AL West for being the most boring division where every game ends with a 3-1 score and nobody gets a hit until the 5th inning and the most impressive batting line is 2-for-4 with a double. Yawn, why are we staying awake for this? So we marveled in amazement on Thursday when the Mariners and Angels went totally off the board and combined for 21 runs, 29 hits, 10 extra-base hits, and actual excitement in the late innings. And actually the game was a blowout until the Angels erupted for seven runs in the 7th off three different Seattle pitchers. When David Fletcher homered off Anthony Swarzak to start the 8th, Anaheim had come all the way back to a 10-10 tie, and for once, not the kid of AL West tie that's scary. When it's 1-1 or 2-2 there's a good chance neither team is going to score for another two hours. But at 10-10 something will give.

It did. Mitch Haniger singled, stole second, and scored on a Jay Bruce hit in the top of the 9th to provide our final of 11-10. Franklin Gutierrez hit the Mariners' only other go-ahead, pinch-hit single in the 9th or later in Anaheim, three years ago tomorrow. It was the 10th time in Mariners history that they'd allowed 10 runs in a road game and still won; the previous was a 16-13 slugfest at Petco Park in June 2016, and they'd never done it in Anaheim. On the flip side, it was the third game in Angels history where they had scored 10 runs against Seattle and lost; the others were both at the Kingdome, one in April 1996 and the other in May 1979.

But check out where all that Mariners offense came from. Omar Narvaez and Ryon Healy-- batting 7th and 8th-- combined to reach base eight times, score five, and drive in nine of the 11 runs. Healy's two hits were both homers; he joins Michael Saunders (2013), Ben Davis (2002), Jose Cruz (1997), and Brian Giles (1990) as the only Mariners with a 2-HR, 5-RBI game batting 8th or 9th. Meanwhile, Narvaez was the first batter in team history to reach base five times, score three times, and drive in four runs from that low in the order. And combined they are the first set of Mariners teammates to have 4 RBI in the same game batting 7th, 8th, or 9th.

The Mariners did manage to lose Sunday's finale in Anaheim, but not for lack of trying. Mitch Haniger, Tom Murphy, and Dee Gordon all homered in a 5-run 9th inning, the only problem being that Seattle was down by 7. Only once before had the M's hit three homers in any inning numbered 9 or higher; John Olerud, Ben Davis, and Mike Cameron did it in a fairly-famous 8-run 11th inning on September 8, 2002.

Then it was the other part of the AL West that threw up another 11-10 game on Sunday. That was in the Lone Star State, where the Rangers took an early 10-1 lead and held on as Houston chipped away with four home runs, including leadoff taters in the 6th, 8th, and 9th. They still fell one run short, marking the first road game where they had scored 10 runs and lost since May 5, 2009, in Washington. And even that wasn't entirely a road game; it was suspended by rain with the score tied, and it being the Astros' last visit to Washington, the Nationals actually scored the 11th and walkoff run at Minute Maid Park batting as the home team.

Collin McHugh gave up those 10 early runs to Texas on Sunday, and managed to only strike out one batter. Only three other pitchers have done that for Houston, and if it's any consolation, they all lost too. Those hurlers were Brandon Backe (2008), Jason Jennings (2007), and Wade Miller (2000). Joey Gallo managed to drive in five of the Rangers' 11 runs without going yard, the first Texas batter to pull that off since Rougned Odor did it in his 12th game in the majors, at Detroit on May 24, 2014.


Color Me Badd

Everyone has a bad day from time to time. Daniel Powter confirms. And we try not to pick on pitchers too much. But the epic performance of Steven Matz on Tuesday just couldn't be ignored. To be fair, he got no help from shortstop Amed Rosario either. But the first eight Phillies batters went E6, double, hit by pitch, two-run double, three-run homer, walk, another E6, three-run homer. Count 'em, the first eight batters reached, all eight of them scored, and we can't let this continue. (It did continue, just not with Matz on the mound; the Phillies added two more doubles, a walk, and another Mets error for a 10-run inning.)

You may have guessed that Matz is only the sixth starter in the live-ball era to give up 8+ runs and not record an out. But amazingly, he's not the first Met to do it. Bobby J. Jones pulled it off against the Braves on September 17, 1997. And the Mets aren't the first team to have two pitchers do it. In fact, those six games belong to only three teams: Blake Stein (1998) and Bill Krueger (1984) did it for Oakland, and Paul Wilson of the Reds did it twice by himself! Wilson's second such game, on May 6, 2005, against the Dodgers, is the occurrence before Matz.

As for the Phillies, who went on to a 14-3 drubbing on Tuesday, J.T. Realmuto and Scott Kingery became the eighth pair of teammates in their history to have 5 RBI in the same game. Jim Thome and Pat Burrell were the previous pair, on April 9, 2003, against the Braves. And April 2003 was also the last time the Phillies had recorded a four-inning save before Jerad Eickhoff got one on Tuesday. That earlier save was on the 26th, by Carlos Silva against the Giants.

A little farther down I-95, we must also mention David Hess of the Orioles, who did get an out in Wednesday's game (actually six of them). His issue was three homers, including back-to-back jacks by Yandy Diaz and Ji-Man Choi to start the 3rd and end Hess's evening. That made Hess the first starter in Orioles history to give up 8+ hits, 3+ homers, strike out 0, and not get out of the 3rd inning. The last pitcher in franchise history to do it (i.e., for the Browns) was Bill Trotter at Tiger Stadium... on August 14, 1937.


This being a family-friendly column, we're going to skip over Color Me Badd's breakout hit (along with the soundtrack to New Jack City) and instead link you to the more-recent of their two number-1's. But you can find the other one pretty easily. Intermission!


Colors Of The Wind

Baseball isn't usually a fast-paced game, but there are a couple objects that do move quickly. Bats and balls (and occasionally baserunners) have all kinds of metaphors about flying and whiffing and fanning and feeling the breeze-- sometimes on a strikeout, and sometimes on a home run or a sharp hit that whooshes right back past the pitcher. For some strange reason, a lot of pitchers did a lot of both this week.

Jorge Lopez of the Royals struck out 10 White Sox batters on Tuesday... and lost. Apparently seven of Chicago's hitters couldn't solve him, but Yonder Alonso and Yoan Moncada could. They combined for three homers and a double, and in the first game in major-league history where both starting pitchers were named Lopez, Reynaldo held Kansas City to 1 run on 5 hits. Besides Jorge, only one other Royals pitcher had ever fanned 10 batters but also given up three homers in the same game. Kevin Appier pulled that off against the Tigers on August 23, 1996. Lopez (that's Jorge again) was also the first Royals pitcher to strike out 10 opponents and lose since Luke Hochevar did that, also against the Tigers, on June 5, 2010.

The Nationals had a strange pitching week, beginning with Stephen Strasburg's loss to the Giants on Tuesday. Let's just say he's another one who was leaving it over the plate. In six innings, Strasburg struck out eight Giants, issued zero walks, and somehow also gave up three homers. Only one other hurler in Nats/Expos history has posted that line, Jason Bergmann at Arizona on May 31, 2008.

Perhaps no line was stranger, however, than what Max Scherzer "accomplished" on Saturday in the Nats' 9-3 loss to Miami. As he is wont to do, Scherzer struck out nine Marlins, and we've given up posting the leaderboards for high-strikeout games in Nats history because Scherzer and Strasburg just leapfrog each other every couple weeks. But would you believe the "9" wasn't the biggest number in Max's pitching line? Nope, that would be an "11" and it's under Hits. Along with seven runs, six of them earned, and a loss. Forgetting the decision for the moment, the only other pitcher in Nationals history to give up 11 hits but still strike out nine... is Max Scherzer, at St Louis on September 2, 2015. Max also did it once as a Tiger (June 7, 2014, at Boston) and is the first pitcher this century with three such games. If you tack on the seven runs, only one other pitcher in the past 15 years has pulled that off, and it's National-turned-Tiger Jordan Zimmermann, on May 16, 2016, against the Twins.

Confused yet? Good. Because Scherzer wasn't the only pitcher with this weird affectation on Saturday. Gerrit Cole gave up five 1st-inning runs to his cross-state rivals the Rangers, and eventually got pulled in the 5th after nine total and eight earned. Cole being Cole, however, he still struck out eight batters in the 13 outs he did get. No matter how you slice it, he's the second pitcher in Astros history, and he has some pretty good company. The only one to give up nine total runs yet fan eight opponents was Roy Oswalt against the Cardinals on April 13, 2003. But only five of Oswalt's runs were earned. So if you take the 8 earned runs instead, Cole shares that club with only Nolan Ryan, June 4, 1988, against the Giants.

From Nolan to Nola, Aaron of the Phillies kept this theme going in that Rockies game where Charlie Blackmon and Raimel Tapia started the first two innings with homers. By the time Nola got lifted in the 6th, he had given up nine hits (but only three runs) and also fanned nine batters. Not surprisingly, the last Phillies pitcher to do that was our old pal Cliff Lee. The one before him was... Cliff Lee. And before Cliff Lee was... Cliff Lee. In fact, the last six such games thrown by Phillies pitchers, dating to 2011, were all by Cliff Lee. And naturally he lost five and had one no-decision. By virtue of the Phillies taking the lead in the 4th, Nola became the first Phils pitcher to post that line and actually win the game since Roy Halladay at Florida on September 15, 2010. And Nola was bookended by Vince Velasquez on Friday and Jerad Eickhoff on Sunday, both of whom also gave up 7+ hits while striking out 8. The last time the Phils had three straight starters to do that was June 2 through 5, 1993, by Ben Rivera, Terry Mulholland, and Tommy Greene).

From Nola to Nova, Ivan is now with the White Sox if you've lost track, and all he did on Thursday was give up 11 hits, plus throw a wild pitch and hit a batter. Amazingly he didn't take the loss because Welington Castillo's homer tied the game in the 8th before Detroit hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to regain the lead. No Sox pitcher had done everything Nova did and not lost the game since Gavin Floyd, also against the Tigers, on July 24, 2007. And since sacrifice flies were split into their own category (versus bunts) in 1954, the Tigers had never hit back-to-back ones to take a lead in the 8th inning or later as Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera did on Thursday.

And finally, we detailed Steven Matz's issues earlier, but on Monday Noah Syndergaard preceded him in Mets pitching lore. "Thor" got knocked around for 9 hits and 5 runs, although the Mets got a run in the 11th to beat the Phillies in their series opener. Despite all those hits, Syndergaard still struck out nine in just five innings of work, thus becoming the first Mets hurler with a line of 9+ hits, 5+ runs, and yet 9+ strikeouts, since... Noah Syndergaard did it in San Diego on June 2, 2015. He's in good company. The only other Mets pitchers to do that twice are Dwight Gooden and Tom Seaver.


Goose Eggs

Geese, unlike rabbits, actually do lay eggs, and we're not sure how the number zero came to be associated with a goose egg (as opposed to any other kind of egg). But in the midst of this week's action there certainly were a few teams who, well, laid an egg.

Earlier we covered the Reds' visit to Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, which ended in a 3-2 loss on A.J. Pollock's homer, and in which neither team managed more than three hits. Turns out that wasn't the only game that fell flat on Wednesday. Returning to their AL West roots, the Athletics and Astros muddled their way through a 2-1 game in which both teams managed only four hits and the go-ahead run scored on Matt Chapman's solo homer in the 6th. In the past seven seasons, there's been only one other game at the Oakland Coliseum where both teams posted ≤ 2 runs on ≤ 4 hits; that was a 2-0 loss to the Royals on June 9 of last season. The Astros-- known for their strikeout proclivity behind Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Lance McCullers, et al.-- only fanned one Oaklander (Stephen Piscotty) the entire game. The last time Houston pitching struck out just one batter was May 14, 2015, against Toronto.

Also on Wednesday Erik Swanson of the Mariners managed to give up two hits and lose. That's because one of those hits was a solo homer by Jake Bauers, and because Swanson's opponent was whiff-master Carlos Carrasco, who fanned 12 Mariners over 7 innings. The last Seattle pitcher to lose a home game while throwing 6+ innings of 2-hit ball was Jamie Moyer against the Angels on June 23, 2001. Carrasco, for his part, tied Bob Feller with four outings of 12+ strikeouts and 0 runs allowed; only Sam McDowell (six) had more for Cleveland. And Bauers' dinger marked just the second time the Indians had beaten the Mariners 1-0 on a solo homer; the other was July 28, 2006, when Shin-Soo Choo took Felix Hernandez deep at Jacobs Field. And Wednesday's affair was just the fourth game in the history of Safeco Field where neither team had more than 3 hits; the previous one was a 2-0 Seattle loss to Tampa Bay on May 14, 2014.

Between those three games-- Reds/Dodgers, Indians/Mariners, and Astros/Athletics-- it was just the second time in the past 15 seasons where there were three games on the same day in which neither team had more than four hits. The other such day was August 30, 2014, and three of the same six teams were involved (CIN, HOU, OAK).

The Marlins also know a little something about goose eggs, having posted three of them this week. That already brings their season total to six, two more than any other team. The Padres (who did it in both 2011 and 2016) are the only other team in the past 15 years to get shut out six times in their first 22 games, and the 1987 Royals are the only team to get to seven that quickly. The live-ball-era record for the eighth shutout of a season is game #28, so the Marlins have the whole week to do it twice more.

And it was a lonely weekend for visiting teams on the shores of Lake Michigan. On Saturday, in the game where Christian Yelich homered twice, the Dodgers got a leadoff single from Joc Pederson and then had just one other hit the rest of the game. Their only time posting 0 on 2 in Milwaukee was against Junior Guerra on June 29, 2016, although they did have two other games with ≤ 2 hits but a run scored. One was Opening Day 2007 against Ben Sheets, and the other was May 3, 1961... against Warren Spahn and the Braves. For Chase Anderson, Saturday was his fourth career start where he gave up only one hit and got the win; that ties Teddy Higuera for the most such games in Brewers history.

Meanwhile, down I-94 (or the Edens if you prefer), the Diamondbacks were held to only 3 hits on Sunday at Wrigley Field, although one of them was a 9th-inning homer by Jarrod Dyson and the Cubs had to win via walkoff. Arizona's only other 3-hit game at Wrigley was a meaningless affair on the next-to-last day of the season in 2009. And Archie Bradley started the bottom of the 9th, and needed only three batters-- none of whom he retired-- to surrender the walkoff. Joe Thatcher was the last D'backs pitcher to pull that off, in San Francisco on September 8, 2013.


All The Eggs In One Basket

If only the Twins had been at Wrigley Field on Saturday instead of the Diamondbacks. Because the outfield at the Friendly Confines is known for its famous "basket" that traps home-run balls which might otherwise end up stuck in the ivy (ground-rule double, and this one actually is a ground rule) or have the potential for fan interference. The Twins didn't seem to mind, however. Because they were at another homer-happy park, Camden Yards in Baltimore, and those bats had been simmering for an extra day thanks to Friday's rainout.

The first game wasn't anything terribly special aside from Eddie Rosario hitting two home runs, including a leadoff dinger in the 2nd and a game-tying solo shot in the 5th. He also doubled, making him just the fourth player in Twins history to have 10 total bases in a game in Baltimore. The others on that list are Gary Ward in 1983, Larry Hisle (who also appears below Yelich on some Brewers' home-run lists) in 1976, and Tony Oliva in 1968. He also passed Brian Dozier with his eighth career multi-homer game, the most for Minnesota since his MLB debut in May 2015. Jose Berrios actually gave up three home runs to the Orioles as well, but still got the 6-5 win because the Twins never relinquished the lead. He's the first Twins pitcher to do that in a road game since... Jose Berrios did it on May 24, 2017-- also at Camden Yards. In franchise history, only four other pitchers-- Dutch Leonard for the Senators, plus Kyle Lohse, Eric Milton, and Camilo Pascual-- have had multiple road games where they gave up three homers and won. And only Pascual (who did it at Tiger Stadium in 1962 and 1964) repeated the feat in the same park.

But when it comes to repeating feats, there was nothing quite like the night game of Saturday's twinbill. We always say there are certain games that you just know are going to be in this post each week. Bingo. Nelson Cruz and C.J. Cron both hit 1st-inning homers. Cruz doubled to lead off the 3rd, then Rosario picked up where he left off in Game 1 and put the Twins up 6-0. In so doing, he became the first Twins batter with three homers in a doubleheader (homering in each game) since Dan Ford did it at Texas on July 4, 1975. And he also broke Tony Oliva's team record for the most homers through the Twins' first 18 games of a season (nine).

Mitch Garver hits a three-run shot later in the inning. So does Jonathan Schoop in the 4th. 13-0, you can stop now. Which they do for a few innings. Until Garver leads off the 8th with another dinger. And Cruz homers again. By now the Orioles' seven runs and three homers are an afterthought. And sure enough, in Baltimore's second installment this year (already!) of Position Players Pitching, Chris Davis, whose batting average was pitcher-like for a good chunk of the early season, serves up a friendly meatball to his old teammate Schoop in the 9th. 16-7 and count them, eight home runs just by the Twins. That ties the franchise record, set in Washington against their own replacement team, the second Senators, on August 29, 1963. (You may recognize that date as the day after the March On Washington and MLK's "I have a dream" speech.)

Between Cruz, Garver, and Schoop, it was only the second time in Twins/Senators history that three players had gone deep multiple times in the same game; Corey Koskie, Torii Hunter, and Jacque Jones did it in Miller Park's first year, July 12, 2001. And Renato Nuñez had two of the Orioles' three homers as well; combined it's the first time four players had multiple homers in the same game since Geoff Blum (Expos), Dante Bichette, Todd Helton, and Edgard Clemente (Rockies) did it at Coors Field on August 14, 1999. The 11 combined longballs in one game tied the Camden Yards record set on July 1, 1994, when the O's hit six and the visiting Angels hit five. The Orioles hadn't allowed eight homers in a game since the Blue Jays set the still-standing MLB record with 10 against them on September 14, 1987.

Cruz, Garver, and Schoop also all doubled in addition to their two homers, the first trio of teammates in major-league history to each have 2 HR and a double in the same game. Cruz also singled to give him four hits and four RBIs, the second Twins player ever to post that line in Baltimore. Steve Brye also did that in the back half of a doubleheader on June 6, 1976. Starter Alex Cobb, who would otherwise have been up in the "bad pitching lines" section, got tagged for 10 hits, 9 runs, and 3 homers, a first for an Orioles starter since Rodrigo Lopez did it at Yankee Stadium on July 5, 2005.

And last but not least, Mitch Garver had his two homers and five RBIs out of the leadoff spot. In Twins/Senators franchise history, only other leadoff batter has done 2-and-5, and you can't make this stuff up. It's not Judge Joe Brown, it's Joe Judge against the Browns, in St Louis on July 10, 1921.

May that inspire you to keep the Easter spirit alive by going down a YouTube, uh, rabbit hole. (Actually finish this bottom part first. Then come back.)


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Joc Pederson, Monday: First walkoff homer by Dodgers against Reds when trailing since Eric Karros off Rob Dibble, August 6, 1993.

⚾ Joc Pederson, Sunday: First Dodger to hit two homers on his birthday since Duke Snider, September 19, 1953. Also first Dodger ever to hit a leadoff homer on his birthday.

⚾ Aaron Wilkerson, Wednesday: Third relief pitcher in Brewers history to hit a multi-run homer. The others were both by Brooks Kieschnick in 2003, the year they tried to convert him from being an outfielder.

⚾ James Paxton, Tue & Sun: Second Yankees pitcher in live-ball era to strike out 12+ in consecutive starts. David Cone, June 7 and 14, 1998.

⚾ Derek Holland & Jameson Taillon, Saturday: By virtue of 5-inning rain-shortened game, technically recorded the first double CG in the majors in nearly three years. James Shields & Matt Shoemaker actually made it through 9 on July 16, 2016.

⚾ Tyler Mahle, Tuesday: First Reds pitcher to give up 11 hits and commit a balk (because balks make everything funner) since Norm Charlton at Dodgers, July 30, 1990.

⚾ Joey Rickard, Thursday: First Orioles batter with single, double, triple, and stolen base since Brian Roberts at Boston, July 11, 2008.

⚾ Rays, Saturday: Set team record with 4 triples. First team in majors to have 4 triples in a loss since Royals did it against Detroit on September 21, 1998.

⚾ Brett Gardner, Wednesday: Third grand slam in Yankees history to flip the lead against the Red Sox in the 7th or later. Mark Teixeira walkoff in September 2016, and Johnny Blanchard in July 1961.

⚾ Cody Allen and Diego Castillo, Friday: First day where two pitchers allowed multiple homers while getting no batters out since July 30, 2010 (Andrew Cashner & Raul Valdes).

⚾ Mike Minor, Tuesday: First Rangers pitcher to throw an SHO-3 or better against Angels at home since Kenny Rogers' perfect game, July 28, 1994.

⚾ Touki Toussiant, Saturday: First Braves pitcher to hit 3 batters and throw a wild pitch since George Barnicle at the Polo Grounds, April 25, 1940.

⚾ Noah Syndergaard, Sunday: First Mets pitcher to homer in a game where he also took the loss since Jason Isringhausen at Pittsburgh, June 19, 1996.

Mashed Taters

We're not positive who came up with the cute idea of referring to home runs as "taters". But it might have something to do with them getting mashed. And it's highly unusual to see this many home-run notes this early in the season when the weather in many places is, well, let's be nice and call it "borderline". So we're going to take some of the butter we usually use on #Kernels and mix it up with some spuds instead.


5-Pound Bag

There's never been an individual 5-homer game in the majors, but when it comes to teams as a whole, the number 5 came up a lot this week. We begin in Cincinnati, where the Reds laid an absolute thumping on the Marlins in the opener of their series on Tuesday. After starter Jose Ureña gave up four runs on eight hits through the first five frames, it was up to Wei-Yin Chen to truly seal the deal (and/or, take one for the team). Chen would surrender four more homers and 10 runs to make the final score 14-0. Chen was the first reliever in Marlins history to surrender four taters, and the second (after Elieser Hernandez did it last July) to give up 10 runs. Ureña, who also started last season with three losses, joined Nate Bump, Antonio Alfonseca, and Pat Rapp as the only Marlins pitchers to start consecutive seasons 0-3 or worse.

But check out those five Reds homers. Leadoff batter Jesse Winker hit the lone one against Ureña in the 4th. Joey Votto didn't homer, but after getting plunked by Chen (and politely returning the ball to him), he was replaced on defense by Buck Farmer. Who homered in the 7th. And right after the plunking, Chen gave up back-to-back-to-back taters to Matt Kemp, Eugenio Suarez, and Scott Schebler.

In the part of Cincinnati baseball history that's recognized by MLB (that's to 1882), it's only the third time where the top five spots in their order had all homered in the same game. On June 16, 1990, against Houston, the first quintet to achieve the feat was Chris Sabo, Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Glenn Braggs, and Todd Benzinger. And a few years later, Jacob Brumfield, Brett Boone, Jeff Branson, Kevin Mitchell, and Brian Hunter all did it on August 3, 1994, in San Francisco.

Last Sunday we of course brought you the barrage of taters that was the Yankees' 7-HR game at Camden Yards. The Orioles' home has always been known as a home-run park, but the theme continued at midweek when the Athletics came to town. Monday's opener found Baltimore taking their anger out with a 12-4 win in which they actually hit three triples (more on that later). The A's responded with a 13-2 beatdown on Tuesday, their first time giving up 12+ in one game and scoring 12+ in the next since August 2011, when The Three Grand Slams Game at Yankee Stadium (22-9) was followed by a 15-5 win in Boston.

On Wednesday, however, Oakland sent five dingers out of the grassy playing area, just their second time ever doing that in Baltimore. Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson were among the hitters in the other game-- June 13, 1970, at Memorial Stadium. Khris Davis hit two by himself, giving him just the fifth 2-HR, 4-RBI game for the A's at Oriole Park. The previous was all the way back by Erubiel Durazo on August 18, 2004; the others were Eric Chavez (2001), Tony Batista (1998), and Craig Paquette (1995). Orioles starter Dan Straily and reliever Eric Rogers both gave up 5 earned runs and 2 homers while striking out only 1 batter, the second teammates in Orioles/Browns history to do it in the same game. Elon "Chief" Hogsett (so nicknamed because he was from Kansas and looked somewhat native-American even though he wasn't) and Earl Caldwell did it at Tiger Stadium on May 30, 1937.

And you could be forgiven if you turned on Thursday afternoon's getaway game and thought you were watching a replay of Wednesday's. Yet again did the Athletics hammer five home runs out of Camden Yards, and yet again did Khris Davis do it twice. The previous Oaklander with back-to-back multi-homer games was Josh Reddick in Toronto on August 9 and 10, 2013. But this week was only the second time in franchise history (1901) that the Athletics had hit five dingers as a team in consecutive games. The other was at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland on June 27 and 28, 1987.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, another park known for its many taters (and where you can actually buy poutine at the concession stands), the Rays got in on this "five homer" theme on Friday. Austin Meadows started things early, going yard as the first batter of the game, and he then homered again in the 3rd to start the second time around the order. Only four other Rays had ever done that: Brandon Guyer in 2016, Desmond Jennings (2011), Julio Lugo (2006), and Quinton McCracken (1998). Brandon Lowe would also go on to hit two longballs in Friday's win; he and Meadows are the fifth set of Rays teammates to hit two each in a road game. Kevin Kiermaier and Steven Souza had the previous such game, September 8, 2016, at Yankee Stadium. And when they weren't busy hitting homers, a bunch of balls fell just short and ended up as doubles. Tampa Bay thus ended the game as the second visiting team ever to hit five homers and five doubles in a game at Rogers Centre; the Mariners did it in a 19-7 festival on April 16, 2000.


Start The Gravy
We had some leftover home-run drippings that didn't fit neatly into another section. They're just gravy. ☺

The Twins don't go to Citi Field very often. So in Tuesday's interleague matchup it became even weirder when they exploded for 10 extra-base hits, including not five, but six homers, in winning a 14-8 slugfest. Mitch Garver and Jonathan Schoop each connected twice, the first road game where multiple Twins batters had multiple homers since Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer did it in Anaheim on August 3, 2011. Combined with Pete Alonso's two homers for the Mets, it was only the second game in Citi Field's 11-season history where a player on each team went yard twice. Wilmer Flores matched then-Marlin Giancarlo Stanton on July 6, 2016. And also Tuesday, Jorge Polanco became just the second American League player to homer and triple in the same game at the new stadium; Brett Gardner of the crosstown Yankees did it in the very first Subway Series game played there (June 26, 2009).

Some of our baseball-fan friends still find it weird to think of Houston as being in the American League, even though the switch happened seven seasons ago now. But before that, as NL stalwarts, the Astros hadn't traveled to Seattle much either. In fact, they'd only ever hit one grand slam at The Field Formerly Known As Safeco, that being by Carlos Gomez off Nate Karns on July 17, 2016. So in Friday's series opener, they decided to make up for lost time and triple that total. Jose Altuve came to the plate with the bases loaded in the 6th and mashed one slam, and then Yuli Gurriel repeated the feat in the 8th. It was just the third time in Astros history that they'd hit two slams in a game; Chris Carter and Jon Singleton did it at Target Field on June 8, 2014, and Denis Menke teamed with Jim Wynn on July 30, 1969, at Shea. The Mariners had allowed two slams in a game just twice before as well: Oakland's Kurt Suzuki and Dan Johnson hit them at Safeco on September 10, 2007; and on May 10, 1999, at Fenway, Nomar Garciaparra had a fairly-famous game where he hit two slams by himself.

Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox, signed by the Cubs as an international free agent in 2013 and then sent across town in the Jose Quintana deal two years ago, made the Opening Day roster after just 55 games at triple-A Charlotte last season. On Friday he made the most of that opportunity, cranking his first two big-league home runs out of a rainy Yankee Stadium, the second one apparently doing so much damage that they called the game five pitches later. At age 22-136, he was the youngest White Sox hitter with a multi-homer game since Harold Baines (nearly a year younger) did it in Toronto on September 7, 1990. The only Chicago hitter to do it at either Yankee Stadium at a younger age was Brian McCall (19-248) on September 30, 1962.

And Jimenez wasn't the only White Sock launching spuds in the Bronx. In Sunday's 5-2 win, 80% of that damage was done by a Tim Anderson grand slam in the 4th inning, the first one ever hit by the South Siders at the current Yankee Stadium. Only the Tigers, Royals, and Rangers have not hit one yet among American League opponents. The last Sox grand slam at the old place across 161st Street was none other than Frank Thomas off Roger Clemens on August 26, 2003.


Add Sour Cream

The Rangers were in Phoenix on Tuesday to take on the Diamondbacks in another one of those "interleague series we're not used to seeing". And they probably could've waited; leading 4-2 going to the 9th, Texas reliever Jose LeClerc gave up a single, a double, and then a two-run pinch-hit walkoff homer by Jarrod Dyson to lose the game 5-4. That was the first homer in D'backs history with those specific criteria (walkoff by pinch hitter while trailing), and Arizona hadn't hit any walkoff tater when trailing (by PH or not) since the next-to-last game of the 2012 season. That was Aaron Hill off Colorado's Rafael Betancourt, and had been the longest drought of any team by nearly two years. The "honor" of not having done it now passes to the White Sox (Dayan Viciedo, September 2014). Arizona's only other walkoff anything against the Rangers had been a Cliff Pennington single to score Miguel Montero on May 27, 2013.

The Nationals soured a fine pitching performance by Chris Archer of the Pirates on Saturday; trailing 2-1 going to the 8th, and with Archer now out of the game after reaching 94 pitches, Adam Eaton and Howie Kendrick proceeded to hit back-to-back solo homers. Eaton's shot tied the game, and before the excitement had died down, Kendrick had given Washington its final margin of 3-2. In Nats/Expos franchise history, it was only the second time they'd hit back-to-back homers to tie the game and then take the lead in the 8th inning or later. Bob Bailey and Hal Breeden teamed up to do it in Philadelphia on August 12, 1972.

And on Wednesday, one day after that 14-0 beatdown of the Marlins, the Reds were back to midseason form by managing only three hits off Trevor Richards and friends. Catch: Two of them were homers, the Marlins had only three hits of their own, and Cincinnati won. It was already the second time this season that a game at Great American Ball Park saw neither team have more than three hits; there had been a total of two such games in the park's first 16 seasons. The two homers, much like those by the Nationals, were by Jose Iglesias and Jesse Winker, first to tie the game and then to secure the 2-1 final score (though not back-to-back). The last time the Reds hit a tying homer and a go-ahead homer, both in the 8th or later, was a back-to-back situation; Devin Mesoraco and Shin-Soo Choo walked off against the Braves on May 7, 2013.


Intermission
We thought about "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" here but that just doesn't go well with taters of any form. So we opted for the only song we could come up with that mentions mashing potatoes. Do you like it like this?


Triple Mash
(Yes, we know this is a brewing term, roll with it.)

Not all things that get mashed end up being homers. Sometimes, depending on who's doing the mashing, and the size of the pot (read: stadium), they end up as the more-exciting play we call a triple. Sure, homers are fun too, but who hasn't seen a batter-runner round second base and think, wait, where is he going?

Cedric Mullins of the Orioles was that player on Monday in that series opener with Oakland about which we promised more later. He knocked across not one but two three-baggers, just the fourth Baltimore player to do it at homer-friendly Camden Yards since it opened in 1992. The others were Alejandro De Aza in 2014, Jay Payton in 2007, and Brady Anderson in 1996 (yes, that's also the year he hit 50 homers). Only two other Orioles have had a multi-triple game while batting ninth; Frank Baker did it against the Brewers on September 12, 1973, and Don Larsen legged them out against the Senators on July 21, 1954 (though that would later be superceded as his biggest career accomplishment).

When he wasn't busy running 270 feet to third base, Mullins also collected a sacrifice fly in the 6th and laid down a bunt to advance Jesús Sucre and Richie Martin in the 8th. That batting line (two triples and two sacrifices) hadn't been done by any player on any team since Edd Roush of the Reds against the Braves on August 25, 1924. And combined with Martin's triple in the 6th (he's the one who scored on Mullins' SF), Monday's game was the first time Baltimore had posted three three-baggers in a game since the only other time they did it at Camden Yards: April 29, 1993, against the Twins.

The Mariners, who did a lot of strange things last week, turn up in this section as well. Because on Thursday it was their turn to collect three triples, at Kauffman Stadium in a 7-6 win over the Royals. It was the team's sixth time ever doing that, and in all six games, it was three different batters who hit them; the previous trio was by Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Winn, and Bret Boone in San Diego on June 24, 2005.

While nobody had two triples, that doesn't mean they weren't running. Mitch Haniger did stop at second on a different trip around, making him the 10th Mariner-- but just the second this century-- to triple and double in the same game at Kauffman. Jean Segura had done it one year and one day prior to Haniger. And in one of his other at-bats, Dee Gordon couldn't be bothered to even stop at third. He joined a club of four other Mariners number-9 hitters who had ever homered and tripled in the same game; the previous entrant was Luis Soto on August 8, 1994. The others all occurred in 1985 (which was kind of a good season in Kansas City), two by Spike Owen and the first by Bob Kearney in June.


Extra Helping

Despite those three triples, the Mariners found themselves still tied with the Royals after nine innings on Thursday. No worries, Daniel Vogelbach is due up second, and he wasted no time by mashing a solo homer into the Kauffman Stadium fountains for a 7-6 victory. That was the fourth extra-inning homer that Seattle had ever hit in Kansas City, and the other three... were all in the same game! On September 8, 2002, the M's set a team record for an extra inning by scoring 8 runs in the top of the 11th, including home runs by John Olerud, Ben Davis, and Mike Cameron.

In case you thought you might survive three whole weeks of the 2019 season without a "Juan Soto is young" note, well, here it is. On Tuesday the Nationals were down to their final strike against Philadelphia when not Juan Soto, but Victor Robles, mashed a solo homer to "sour" another game and force some free baseball. It was only the second time in the Nationals' 15 seasons that they'd hit a tying or go-ahead homer when down to their final strike in a road game. The other was also at Citizens Bank Park, by Chad Tracy off Jonathan Papelbon, on June 17, 2013.

But Juan Soto is the reason this game is down here in the extra-inning section. Because just one frame later, the 20-year-old wandered up to the plate with two runners on, and two pitches later all three of them wandered back into the Nationals dugout with a 9-6 lead. The Nationals hadn't hit a 3- or 4-run homer in extra innings of a road game since Anthony Rendon took John Lannan deep at Citi Field on Opening Day 2014. And the "youngest" note you were waiting for? Well, Soto is the youngest player to hit any 3- or 4-run homer in extra innings since a barely-20-year-old Willie Mays cranked one out of Wrigley Field on June 22, 1951.

The extra-inning homer giveth, the extra-inning homer taketh away. When the Nats returned home on Friday, they needed the game-tying services of Anthony Rendon in the bottom of the 8th to force more extra innings. Rendon had also given them a brief lead with a solo shot in the 2nd, and is the sixth player in the Nationals history-- but first in a home game-- to hit two tying or go-ahead homers in a game they still ended up losing. Jayson Werth was the prior one, in Philly on May 7, 2017.

Did we mention the Nats ended up losing? That's because pinch-hitter Colin Moran was summoned with two on in the top of the 10th and did his best Juan Soto impression. Since Nationals Park opened in 2008, Starling Marte (July 17, 2016, in the 18th) had been the only Pirate to hit an extra-inning homer there, and the only other 3- or 4-run homers by visitors in extras were by the Rangers' Robinson Chirinos (June 2017) and Florida's Jeremy Hermida (April 2009).

And as for the pinch-hitting part, Moran was the first Pirates PH in over a decade to go yard in extra innings. Jack Wilson hit one against the Reds on August 4, 1997. And their last extra-inning PH homer of at least three runs was a Mark Smith walkoff against the Astros on July 12, 1997.

At least Sundays are (usually) day games. So if you're going to play 14 innings, you're not keeping people up too late. The Phillies and Marlins were nice enough to do that on Sunday, the ninth game in the relatively short history of Marlins Park (eighth season) to go at least 14 frames. The Marlins, predictably, have won just two of those games, and in the latest case, that's thanks to Jean Segura's two-run tater in the top of the 14th, scoring Andrew McCutchen who had tripled right in front of him. The Phillies hadn't hit a home run in the 14th (or later) of a road game since Jason Michaels did it in Baltimore on June 27, 2003, to win a 17-inning affair. And when Neil Walker got the Marlins' final base knock in B14, but his run was retired on a double play to end the game, it marked only the second time in the live-ball era that Phillies pitching had thrown 14+ innings and held their opponent to five hits. Jim Bunning (8 IP) and Jack Baldschun (6) combined on the other one, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, on July 28, 1965.

And the longest game of the week actually didn't feature any taters at all. Which is probably good, because they would have been cold and lumpy by the time we finally got one. The Rockies and Dodgers found themselves tied at 2 after Joe Panik's sacrifice fly in the 6th. Eleven innings, 78 plate appearances, 15 pitching changes, and nearly 3½ hours later, they found themselves stilL tied at 2 and mired in the second-longest game ever played at AT&T Park. Finally when Brandon Belt clanged a leadoff double in the bottom of the 18th, we were resigned to "how do they waste this?". Belt moves up on a flyout and then the bases get loaded by two intentional walks. So there has to be a double play coming, right?

Well, no. Against a five-man infield, Erik Kratz rolled one to CF Ian Desmond who came home to at least get the force and keep the game alive. Except he didn't. At least not according to the people who matter, in this case C.B. Bucknor and his friends in Chelsea who got to review this play at 3:50 in the morning. Belt was ruled safe with a walkoff "FCX" (fielder's choice with no out recorded), the first such play in the majors in the 18th or later since the Braves beat the Pirates on a similar ruling on July 26, 2011. That was before full replay, and Jerry Meals was blamed by many Pirates fans for blowing the call and sending their previously-promising season right down the drain.

As for the Giants, they hadn't won any game of 18 innings or longer since Bob Brenly's single scored David Green on June 11, 1985, in Atlanta. And their last walkoff win in the 18th was on a single by Hughie Critz against the Cardinals-- on July 2, 1933!

The 12:50 am (local) finish time was the second-latest in park history (though Candlestick's record was 1:25), 20 minutes before its other 18-inning game, a 1-0 loss to the Diamondbacks on May 29, 2001. The Rockies took their lumps by striking out a team-record 24 times, including Chris Iannetta's four in a game he didn't start (also a Rockies first).


Sculpt A Pillar

And finally, if you just can't finish that extra serving and are more inclined to sit there and make mashed-potato sculptures out of it, might we suggest an obelisk. We couldn't let this week end without mentioning the first big "trade win" of 2019. Yes, already. Just five games into the season, the Blue Jays traded Kevin Pillar to the Giants to get utility man Alen Hanson and pitcher Derek Law (who is currently hanging out at triple-A Buffalo).

Seems like Pillar is enjoying it, at least.

On Monday he connected for the first grand slam hit by the Giants at home since Hunter Pence hit one in the home opener-- in 2016. That 3-year drought without a slam was the longest of any team's home fans by well over a season; the White Sox (Matt Davidson, June 2017) now inherit that badge.

And Tuesday brought another 4-RBI game as Pillar had a bases-loaded double and a sac fly. In 695 games with Toronto, he had three 4-RBI games; in his first week with the Giants he had two. The last Giants batter to have consecutive 4-RBI games-- well, you might have guessed the name, but you might be surprised that nobody else had done it since. Barry Bonds at Dodger Stadium in the first two games of the 2002 season. The only other Giant to do it at the corner of 3rd & King was in the first season Pacific Bell Park opened: Ellis Burks on August 19 and 20, 2000.

Wednesday it was back to homering for Pillar, but unfortunately it didn't rub off on any of his teammates. Pillar's solo homer was the only run in San Francisco's 3-1 loss to the Padres, which was also just the second game in stadium history to feature 13+ hits with all of them by different players. The Giants and White Sox got to 14 in an extra-inning affair on August 12, 2014.

And in Thursday's series opener with Colorado, in which the Rockies were shut out on only three hits, it still took Pillar's bat to get them over the hump. Another solo homer, this one in the 7th inning, stood up for a 1-0 victory, the fifth such win in stadium history. Brandon Crawford did it last June (also against the Rockies), as did Barry Bonds in 2007, and Ramon Martinez and Shawon Dunston in 2001.

You may remember the way last season started for the Giants. Joe Panik certainly does. His home runs were the difference in both of the Giants' first two wins, by identical 1-0 counts over the Dodgers. So that destroys a big chunk of our Pillar notes. But that was at Dodger Stadium. So Pillar is still the first Giant whose solo homer was the team's only run in back-to-back games-- where both games were at home-- since Bobby Thomson did it at the Polo Grounds on July 18-19, 1957.


Bottom Of The Bag
(Non-homer edition)

⚾ Harrison Bader, Thursday: First player to get hit by a pitch with the bases loaded twice in same game since Toronto's Reed Johnson at Texas, April 16, 2005.

⚾ Carlos Carrasco, Friday: First Indians starter to give up 6 runs and not finish the 1st inning since Paul Byrd, also in Kansas City, on August 23, 2006.

⚾ Paul DeJong, Tuesday: First Cardinals batter with 2 doubles, 2 walks, and a stolen base since Ray Lankford in 1996. First to also score 2 runs since Stan Musial against the Phillies on September 13, 1953.

⚾ Jameson Taillon, Monday: First Pirates starter to give up 6+ runs, with none of them charged as earned, since Woodie Fryman against the Mets on August 18, 1966.

⚾ Yankees, Saturday: First game where pitching staff allowed 1 hit and 0 walks since September 2, 2001, at Boston. The one where Carl Everett broke up Mike Mussina's no-hitter with two outs in the 9th.

⚾ John Hicks, Sunday: First 5-strikeout game in majors this season. First for Tigers in a nine-inning game since Craig Monroe vs Brewers, June 14, 2007.

⚾ Terrance Gore, Wednesday: Second batter in live-ball era with single, double, triple, and two stolen bases while hitting 9th. Charlie Moore of the Brewers did it in Anaheim on October 1, 1980.

⚾ Walker Buehler, Thursday: First Dodgers pitcher to homer at Busch Stadium (either one) since John Wetteland, May 27, 1990.

⚾ Marco Gonzales, Tuesday: Second starter this century to get four wins within team's first 13 games of a season. Jered Weaver did it in 2011 when the Angels were able to open with a four-man rotation because of travel days.

⚾ Braves, Saturday: Top five starters in batting order all had multiple hits and multiple runs scored. Team last did that July 9, 1964, at Pittsburgh; the batters that day were Eddie Mathews, Denis Menke, Hank Aaron, Lee Maye, and Joe Torre.

⚾ Dodgers/Cardinals, Monday: First game at current Busch Stadium where both teams had ≤ 5 hits but both scored 3+ runs. Last at the old place was also against the Dodgers, on August 9, 1974-- which you may recognize as the day Richard Nixon resigned.

⚾ Thomas Pannone, Sunday: First Jays reliever to throw 3+ perfect innings and strike out at least four batters since Doug Linton at Boston, August 5, 1992.

⚾ Nationals, Wednesday: Scored 15 runs without benefit of a single tater. Second time that's happened in franchise history; the Expos did it at Wrigley Field on June 28, 1974.

Spring Cleaning

Been putting off a bunch of stuff all winter, haven't you? It's cold, it's dark a lot, it snows a lot, and you just don't feel like doing some of those things. We understand; we're not here to judge. And some people like snow. (Really. We know two.) But it's why so many people break out of their winter funk with one spring ritual or another. Whether yours is spring training or spring cleaning, let's blow some dust off and get 2019 all shiny and ready for the summer.


Pitchers Who Rake

Thought you got all those leaves up last fall, didn't you? Yet despite your best efforts, a bunch of them managed to survive under all that snow. So for our first spring-cleaning chore we must call on our cadre of #PitchersWhoRake.

As hinted in last week's cliffhanger, you knew some of this was already coming. One thing we held back was Jhoulys Chacin of the Brewers going yard on Opening Day against the Cardinals. When it comes to pitchers homering, there isn't much that Madison Bumgarner hasn't done, and sure enough, he was the last in this category too, going deep in 2017 at Chase Field. But only three others in the DH era have homered in an opener: Clayton Kershaw in 2013, the Cardinals' Joe Magrane in 1988, and Rick Rhoden of the Pirates in 1982. When Brandon Woodruff also had a multi-hit game on Saturday, it was the first time two Brewers hurlers had done that so close together since Yovani Gallardo and Chris Narveson did it on back-to-back days in 2010.

It doesn't really snow much in Miami; in fact, if you don't remember the last time it did, you're probably not old enough.

Jacob deGrom isn't old enough to remember it either, and frankly we're not sure which "raking" performance was better on Wednesday night at Marlins Park, his or the grounds crew's. The latter sculpted the pitcher's mound just perfectly such that deGrom could pile up 14 strikeouts (they would not actually do this). That by itself was plenty impressive, and he joined Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, David Cone, and John Maine (one of these things is not like the others) as the only pitchers in Mets history to allow 0 runs on ≤ 3 hits with 14+ strikeouts in a game.

But you know that's not the topic. It's deGrom's home run off Trevor Richards that gets him into this section, just the ninth one in the live-ball era hit by a pitcher who also struck out 14+ in the same game. Not shockingly, the last to do it was Madison Bumgarner, on August 16, 2015. But before that you have to go back to that last time it snowed in Miami. Steve Carlton did it in 1977; the rest of the list is Tom Seaver (1973), Bob Gibson (1972), Pedro Ramos (1963), Early Wynn (1959), Warren Spahn (1952), and Dazzy Vance (1925). The last two entrants actually fanned 18 and 17, respectively, in the games where they homered, but both were extra-inning contests.

Los Angeles and San Diego are two more places where it doesn't snow often, but there was still plenty of raking early in the week. The aforementioned Madison Bumgarner might not have struck out 14 in Tuesday's loss to the Dodgers, but he did homer again. It was his second dinger at Chavez Ravine, making him only the fourth visiting pitcher to hit two there (including the Angels years). The others are Noah Syndergaard (in the same game), fellow Giant Russ Ortiz, and Joey Hamilton of the Padres.

As mentioned, there was some raking happening in San Diego on Tuesday as well. And only some of it was by pitchers. Zack Greinke, who once led the Dodgers in slugging percentage all the way into August, mashed a pair of homers out of Petco Park to record only the second multi-HR game by a pitcher in D'backs history. Everyone knows the other one, by Micah Owings in Atlanta on August 18, 2007.

As compared to deGrom, Greinke "only" struck out 10 batters, but of course he also hit two homers instead of one. He thus became the first pitcher with 2 HR, 4 RBI, and 10 K since Rick Wise of the Phillies did it against San Francisco on August 28, 1971.


Where'd I Put The Clubs?

As impressive as Greinke's night was, he didn't even account for half of Arizona's homers in that game. Christian Walker, Ketel Marte, and John Ryan Murphy also golfed balls out of Petco Park, the first time the Diamondbacks had ever hit five home runs there since it opened in 2004. The only time they ever did it at Qualcomm was April 10, 2000, off Woody Williams.

Meanwhile, David Peralta, hitting in front of Walker and Marte, had three hits, two of them doubles, but managed to not score a run. Only seven cleanup hitters in D'backs history have pulled that off, the previous being Aaron Hill against Houston on October 2, 2015.

And Tuesday was just the middle game of a three-game stretch where Peralta recorded multiple doubles. He's the first player in D'backs history to do that, and the first for any team since Odubel Herrera of the Phillies in June 2017. That also made Peralta the first player with 7+ doubles through a team's first seven games of a season since Carlos Beltran did it for the Mets in 2008. And with another one on Sunday, he reached eight two-baggers in the team's first 10 games, tying the record for such a thing (shared by a couple dozen players).

Arizona wasn't the only team going deep at Petco on Tuesday. Hunter Renfroe also went deep twice, the fourth time he's done that in a home loss just since the 2017 All-Star break. Adrian Gonzalez and Justin Upton are the only other players in Padres history to even do it twice.

Back up I-5, the whole reason the Giants lost that game on Tuesday in spite of MadBum's homer was that Cody Bellinger connected for a 3rd-inning grand slam and Kenley Jansen was able to escape a jam in the 9th. Bellinger's shot was the first GS hit by the Dodgers against the Giants since Andre Ethier took Todd Wellemeyer deep on April 16, 2010.

Bellinger homered again on Friday, giving him 6 HR and 16 RBI through the team's first eight games of 2019. Both of those are the most in Dodgers history. Four players had 5 HR, most recently Adrian Gonzalez in 2015, and the previous record for RBIs had been 13, done by Andre Ethier in 2012, Tommy Davis in 1962, and Roy Campanella in 1953.

And this section just can't seem to escape California. Up in Oakland, Matt Chapman opened the scoring in the 1st inning with a solo homer off Chris Sale of the Red Sox. We didn't know this at the time, but that would also close the scoring in the game; the Athletics got just two more hits, and the Sawx never chained any of their seven hits together to force over a tying run. Final score: 1-0, the first 1-0 game in the majors this season, and the seventh in Oakland history (1968) where they scored 1 run on ≤ 3 hits and won.

But in all of Athletics history (Oakland, KC, or Philly, to 1901), it was the first time one of their batters had hit a solo home run in the 1st inning and had it stand up for a 1-0 victory.



Grease Up The Cycle

Whether it's bi- or motor-, the weather is finally nice enough for a little spin around the neighborhood. Or, if you're Jorge Polanco of the Twins, a spin around the bases. As you might have heard, Polanco recorded the first cycle of the 2019 season on Friday night in Philadelphia, and just the third one ever at Citizens Bank Park. Brad Wilkerson of the Nationals did it on April 6, 2005, and the only Phillies hitter with one is David Bell on June 28, 2004, in the park's first year.

The added bonus to Polanco's cycle was that he had a second single by virtue of batting a fifth time in the 9th, and thus recorded an even-rarer five-hit game that included a cycle. Only one other player has done that in an interleague game (including the World Series), Eric Byrnes of the Athletics, on June 29, 2003, across the bridge in San Francisco. And only one other player in Twins/Senators history had done it. In perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come, it happened at Fenway Park on September 2, 1929, for a then-visiting Joe Cronin-- who, six years later, would be traded to the Red Sox and eventually have his number 4 retired on the right-field wall.


Take Five

All this cleaning is hard work. But Polanco's cycle wasn't the only time the number 5 came up this week. Nick Markakis of the Braves rolled a pair of 5's in Thursday's 9-4 win over the Cubs, becoming the first Atlanta batter with 5 hits and 5 RBIs in a home game since Willie Harris did 6-and-6 against the Cardinals on July 21, 2007. In the brief history of SunTrust Park, he's just the third player with a 5-hit game there, joining Ender Inciarte in May 2017 and Freddy Galvis of the Padres who did it last June.

Markakis also has two of the Braves' three 5-RBI games at their new facility, his other being June 7, 2017, against the Phillies. (Preston Tucker had the other game last April.) And here's where the asterisk comes in. Because of Markakis' five hits on Thursday, three of them were doubles. That also happened in that June 2017 game. And thus, since RBI became an official stat in 1920, he's only the fifth player to have multiple games with 3 doubles and 5 RBI. You might have heard of the others: Lou Gehrig, Don Mattingly, Ivan Rodriguez, and Willie Stargell.

Stephen Piscotty of the A's also dropped 5 RBIs on the Red Sox on Thursday, albeit on "only" four hits. No Oaklander had done that since Brandon Moss in Detroit on August 28, 2013, and the last to do it with only one home run in the mix (Piscotty's was a three-run bomb) was Rajai Davis against the Angels on July 10, 2010. Piscotty also became just the third Oakland player (read: since 1968) to post a 4-hit, 5-RBI line against Boston; the others are Troy Neel on July 8, 1993, and Reggie Jackson, who did it at Fenway on June 14, 1969.


No, really, take five. Dave Brubeck demands it. Or just let it play while you finish cleaning. Intermission!


Yard Sale

In which we had so many home-run nuggets that we just had to throw them outside and hope someone will give us a quarter for them.

One bright spot to the Jays' 3-8 start this season has been the up-and-coming Rowdy Tellez, who at least got them on the scoreboard in two of those eight losses. Last Sunday against the Tigers, his 8th-inning homer actually forced extra innings (though the Jays still lost), and then on Tuesday he spared Toronto a 2-0 shutout by Baltimore with a solo shot in the 9th. That's twice in three days that he broke up a shutout with a home run in the 8th or later, something no Toronto player had ever done before. Jose Bautista did it in four days (September 2016) and Justin Smoak in five (July 2017).

Enrique Hernandez led off Wednesday's game with a home run off the Giants' Derek Holland as the Dodgers won 5-3. Back on April 15, 2016, Hernandez also hit a leadoff homer against the Giants at Chavez Ravine. In nearly 60 years of Dodger Stadium history, only one other player has led off two different home games against the Giants with a longball: Davey Lopes in 1979 and 1980.

Max Kepler started the Twins' game in Philadelphia on Sunday with a leadoff homer. Now granted, that would end up being the only run Minnesota scored and they lost 2-1 when Rhys Hoskins homered in the 6th. It's the third time this century that a leadoff homer has been the Twins' only run of a game, and Brian Dozier recorded the other two. But more notably, the Twins don't go to Philadelphia much. But the Senators did. Because Philadelphia used to have an AL team as well. And thus Kepler is the first player for the current Twins franchise to hit a leadoff home run in Philadelphia since Eddie Yost did it at Shibe Park on April 26, 1950.

And if home-run nuggets are a quarter, the Yankees will give you seven of them for two bucks. (They would probably really do this.) That would be Sunday's 15-3 beatdown of the Orioles, wherein the Yankees became the first visiting team ever to hit seven dingers in any game in Baltimore. (Baltimore did have other teams prior to 1954, but those were in the days when 7 HR in a season led the league, so.) Only four other times had the Bronx Bombers ever bombed seven bombs in a game, the previous being July 21, 2007, in a 16-3 win over the White Sox.

Gary Sanchez collected three of those homers by himself, and all were two-run shots for a total of 6 RBI. The only other Yankees to hit three multi-run homers in a game are Alex Rodriguez (April 26, 2005, vs Angels) and Lou Gehrig (May 22, 1930 at Athletics). Clint Frazier added two more taters, again the third time in Yankee history that something had happened. The only other games where one Yankee had 3 HR and another had 2 were on July 28, 1940 (Charlie Keller and Joe DiMaggio) and May 24, 1936 (Tony Lazzeri and Frankie Crosetti, this is Lazzeri's two-grand-slams-and-11-RBI game).

Sunday's outburst stole the rug out from under our original draft of this section, which was focused on Gleyber Torres's effort in the series opener on Thursday. In that 8-4 win, the not-yet-22½-year-old Torres homered twice and doubled, becoming the fourth-youngest player in Yankee history with 3 XBH and 4 RBI in a game. He's behind Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and (okay then) Deion Sanders. And he broke by a year and a half Mickey Mantle's claim of being the youngest Yankee ever with a multi-homer game in Baltimore.


Paint The Corners

It wouldn't be 2019 without some ridiculous strikeout numbers, and, well, it's 2019. We already covered Jacob deGrom's 14-K game which led the week, but Blake Snell and Matt Boyd gave him a run with 13 each. Snell recorded his 13-K game against the Rockies on Tuesday, also allowing 0 runs on 2 hits. Only one other pitcher in Rays history has posted a line of 0 runs, 2 hits, and 13 K... and it's Blake Snell, October 1, 2017, against the Orioles.

That all meant that Rockies starter Kyle Freeland had to play second fiddle despite his 10 strikeouts in the same game. The catch to Freeland's outing is that he threw 99 pitches, walked four, and didn't finish the 5th inning. Jon Gray (September 23, 2016 at Dodgers) is the only other Rockies starter to fan 10+ in an outing of less than five innings, and Tuesday's contest was just the eighth interleague game ever where both starters hit double digits. The previous one was also at Tropicana Field, between David Price and Charlie Morton on June 25, 2014.

As for Matt Boyd, he hung his 13 K's at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday in Detroit's 2-1 victory. Only one other Tigers pitcher had recorded a 13-strikeout game in the Bronx, and it's only Hall Of Famer Hal Newhouser, on May 27, 1943. Unfortunately for Boyd, the Tigers' go-ahead run came in the 8th inning after he was already out of the game, so he didn't get the win out of it. The same thing happened in his first start on March 30, when Boyd struck out 10 Blue Jays but the Tigers offense was shut out on 2 hits by Matt Shoemaker and he actually took the loss. Only six pitchers in the live-ball era have hit double-digit strikeouts in their first two appearances of a season and not gotten the win in either. The previous one was Kevin Gross of the Dodgers in 1994.


Don't Forget The Gutters

If your team name contains "Red", it really hasn't been a great start to the 2019 season, although we did have a Boston fan tell us on Saturday that "it's still early". That may be true, but that also lends itself to some fun facts. Culminating in Friday's 15-8 masterpiece against the Diamondbacks, the first nine Red Sox starting pitchers of the season all gave up at least one home run. That's the third-longest stretch in the live-ball era; the 2010 Brewers got to 11 games, and another defending champion, the 2009 Phillies, actually did it in 16 straight games.

The day before, in the series finale in Oakland, Eduardo Rodriguez gave up 6 runs and lost to drop to 0-2. He'd also allowed 6 in his first start last week, making him the fourth Sawx pitcher ever to do that in his first two appearances of a season. The others are Kyle Kendrick (2017), Vaughn Eshelman (1996), and Tim Wakefield (also 1996).

But as mentioned, Friday was really the turning point when Rick Porcello allowed 10 hits and 7 earned runs and couldn't finish the 5th. To stop the bleeding we turn to Brian Johnson, and well, let's say he ripped the scab off, giving up 7 more runs while retiring just four batters. Since the American League first recognized earned runs in 1913, they are only the third pair of Sawx teammates to surrender seven of them, plus two homers, in the same game. Tomo Ohka and Marino Santana did it in Detroit on July 23, 1999, two months before the closing of Tiger Stadium; and Dick Drago and Jack Billingham pulled it off against the Angels on June 20, 1980.

That all led to Eduardo Nuñez pitching the 8th, and while he did give up the 15th and final run, we're in a National League park and so he got to bat in the top of the 9th. Instead of rolling over and conceding this one, he started a 3-run rally with an infield single, the second Red Sox "pitcher" to record a base hit at Chase Field. Julian Tavarez was the other, on June 9, 2007.

No worries, Cincinnati, we promised you some love here too. After dropping a 1-0 decision to Milwaukee in their series finale on Wednesday, the Reds made a short jaunt to Pittsburgh and promptly got shut out again on Thursday. Combined with last Sunday's game, it marked the first time in Reds history (or at least 1882 which is the part MLB recognizes) that they'd been shut out on ≤ 6 hits in three of their first six games of a season. The only year they'd even done it twice was 1985.

And sure enough, it would get worse on Friday when Joe Musgrove shut them down again, this time on only 3 hits. The last time the Reds played a game in Pittsburgh, scored 0 runs, had ≤ 3 hits, and struck out at least 10 times, was on August 20, 1983, against Jose DeLeon at Three Rivers. And the last time the Reds were shut out in three straight games at all was April 18 through 21, 1989, by the Dodgers and Astros.

The Reds rebounded by scoring 5 runs on Saturday but still got walked off by Kevin Newman's double in the bottom of the 10th. The Pirates hadn't recorded a walkoff double against the Reds since Brian Giles hit one off Scott Williamson on August 11, 1999, and hadn't done it in extras since Smoky Burgess burned Bob Purkey on May 24, 1959. Five runs on Sunday also weren't enough, propelling Cincinnati to just its second 1-8 start in the past 80 years. The good news? The other was 1995 and they came all the way back to win the NL Central that season.


Fire Up The Grill

We've worked hard on our cleaning tasks, so it's time to relax and end our week with a little outdoor refreshment. How's some grilled shrimp sound? Sounded good to a couple teams this week, since "shrimp" is the affectionate name given by Baseball Twitter to a game-ending, bases-loaded, "walk-off" walk. It all started when a university in Oregon posted video of an experiment involving a shrimp walking on a treadmill. The Internet being the Internet, someone set this video to the theme from "The Benny Hill Show", re-uploaded it, and then a baseball blog devoted to game-ending walks decided to embed that video in one of their posts about a game where it happened. (The More You Know.)

Anyhoo, on Wednesday the Phillies and Nationals played one of their ever-popular back-and-forth affairs, with Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto homering to build a 6-2 lead in the 3rd, the Phillies battering the bullpen for four runs in the 8th to tie, and Washington eventually winning on a leadoff single and three straight walks by David Robertson to start the bottom of the 9th. The last of those was to pinch-hitter Jake Noll; the Nats hadn't eaten any shrimp (to continue the metaphor) since Elijah Dukes against Atlanta on August 30, 2008. and hadn't had a pinch-hitter do it since the move. The only two Expos pinch-hitters ever to enjoy the little creatures were Sherman Obando in the 1997 season opener, and Bob Pate on June 2, 1980. The Phillies had not served a shrimp to a pinch-hitter since Roger McDowell walked Houston's Ken Oberkfell in a scoreless 11th inning on June 11, 1991.

Then on Sunday it was Houston's turn (those are Gulf Shrimp) when the Astros scored 5 in the 1st but allowed Oakland to chip away and eventually take the lead before getting two runs in the 8th to tie. Blake Treinen, Trein-en-ing for a five-out save, only got four of them before issuing the famous bases-loaded walk to Jose Altuve for a 9-8 Houston victory. It hadn't been that long since Houston won a game in such fashion (two years ago this Tuesday, by Evan Gattis), but it had been a while since Oakland lost one. They had gone the longest of any team without serving shrimp at any of their dinner parties; in fact, the last time they did it was so long ago that Cal Ripken Jr. was a guest. Their previous such walk was issued to Ripken by Mark Acre on August 26, 1996! The "title" now passes to Cleveland, who hasn't issued one since September 1998; the Pirates-- whose last one was 14 years ago today-- are next on the list.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Jason Heyward & Victor Caratini, Saturday: First Cubs teammates with 3 hits & 3 RBI batting 7th or lower since Walker Cooper & pitcher Howie Pollet against Pittsburgh on August 31, 1954.

⚾ Kole Calhoun, Thursday: First leadoff home run in Angels history when already trailing by 5 or more. Brian Downing hit one down 4-0 against the Yankees on August 21, 1985.

⚾ Chris Iannetta, Wednesday: First home run in Rockies history that broke a scoreless tie in the 9th inning or later.

⚾ Willson Contreras, Thu-Fri: First Cub to commit a catcher's interference in consecutive games since Vic Roznovsky at Philadelphia, September 28-29, 1965.

⚾ Nationals, Sunday: First team to score 12+ runs in a game where they had 8 or fewer hits (thanks, 7 Mets walks) since Toronto did it in Detroit on May 24, 1999.

⚾ Steve Cishek, Wednesday: First Cubs pitcher to face 3 batters and walk all of them since Justin Berg against the Mets, May 25, 2011. First to also have all of them score since Bob Osborn at the Polo Grounds, September 16, 1930.

⚾ Niko Goodrum, Thursday: First Tigers batter with two doubles and a bases-loaded walk since Andy Allanson at Boston, July 7, 1991.

⚾ Jon Duplantier, Monday: First pitcher to get a 3-inning save in his MLB debut since Dale Thayer did it for the Rays on May 22, 2009. Only other pitcher in Padres history to do it was Gene Walter against the Astros on August 9, 1985.

⚾ James Paxton, Thursday: First Yankee pitcher to wild-pitch in a run and balk in a run in same game since the great Tanyon Sturtze at Kansas City, September 13, 2004.

⚾ Jays/Indians, Friday: First game in Jacobs Field history (1994) where neither team had more than 4 hits but yet both scored multiple runs. Last at Lakefront was July 5, 1980, against the Yankees.

⚾ Mets, Thursday: Fourth time in team history being shut out in their home opener. Three have been against the Nats/Expos franchise (1992, 1984, 1963 vs Cardinals).

⚾ Adalberto Mondesi, Tuesday: First Royals batter with an inside-the-park homer and an inside-the-park double in same game since Mark Teahen versus White Sox, July 10, 2008.

⚾ Cubs, Friday: Scored 10 runs in Milwaukee and lost. Also scored 10 at Texas last Sunday and lost. Had a total of one such game in the previous 12 seasons. Last team to do it twice in their first seven games of a season was the 1925 Browns.