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.