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.