It ain't over 'til it's over! pic.twitter.com/hMfVyNhGJ1
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) May 26, 2019
No fair. We're pretty sure that Nigerian prince who's always asking for our bank account number must have hacked us. (Joke's on them, we didn't even have time/space to get their Saturday game in here. Oh, yeah, plus they ended up getting walked off 15 minutes after this.)
You're Yanking My Chain
On Monday the Yankees sent J.A. Happ to the mound for their series opener in Baltimore, and well, it just wasn't Happ-ening. Nine hits, six runs, and four innings later, New York faced a 6-1 deficit going to the 6th. They scraped together two in that inning to knock Andrew Cashner out of the game, then cut it to 7-5 on a Dwight Smith fly-ball error in the 7th. Enter Mychal Givens for a four-out save. Or not.
Mychal was apparently in a "Givens" mood, because he gave up a dinger on the first pitch he threw. There goes the cushion. And two singles to start the 9th, plus a sac fly, equals blown save and 7-7 tie. When Gary Sanchez belted a 3-run homer with two outs, and then Aroldis Chapman struck out the side, that score had flipped from 6-1 in the 6th to 10-7 the other way.
It had been nearly three years (June 18, 2016, at Minnesota) since the Yankees trailed a road game by 4 runs after 6 innings and come back to win it, but it had been eight seasons (August 13, 2011, versus Detroit) since the Orioles did the opposite at home. Givens was the first Orioles pitcher to give up 5 runs, 2 homers, and get both a blown save and a loss since Ken Dixon in Toronto on June 6, 1987 (and it took Dixon four innings, not four outs).
Gleyber Torres, who hit that first pitch from Givens, already had his third multi-homer game against the Yankees this season; Aaron Judge-- two years ago and also against the Orioles-- is the only other Yankee in the past 45 seasons to have three such games against the same opponent. And Sanchez joined Alex Rodriguez (2010), Aaron Boone (2003), and Tino Martinez (1996) as the only Yankees to hit a go-ahead 3- or 4-run homer in the 9th inning at Camden Yards.
The two middle games didn't have much drama (11-4 and 7-5 with no lead changes), aside from Sanchez homering again in both of them to create the Yankees' first 3-game homer streak this year. But there is always Thursday's finale. In which the Orioles really would have liked to get Dylan Bundy through 6 innings, but, uh, no. Walk, double, walk, Gio Urshela 2-run single for the lead. Paul Fry gives up a run in the 7th. Luke Voit solo homer in the 8th, 5-1. Surely Jonathan Holder, who threw only 12 pitches to retire the side in the 7th, can Hold-er onto this one.
Well, kind of. Two walks and a single to start the 8th. And it ends up being Tommy Kahnle who gets the honor of hanging a meatball to Renato Nuñez for the game-tying, save-blowing homer. Proving the occasional silliness of the "hold" stat, Holder did technically still leave with the lead, albeit 5-4 instead of 5-1. He's the first Yankee to give up 3 runs and still "earn" one since... hmm. Jonathan Holder did it against the Rays in April of last year. The last Yankee pitcher to do it twice was Bob Wickman in 1994-95, and Nuñez's homer was the team's first tying (not go-ahead) 3- or 4-run shot in the 8th or later since Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam against the White Sox on June 25, 2014.
So the air's out of that balloon, right? 5-5 and let's see who's going to be the extra-inning hero and just how long it's going to take. Because it's "getaway day" and Murphy's Law says we must play like a 16-inning game and defeat the purpose of starting at 12:30. Hey, Mychal Givens is back on the mound for the 9th, surely he can't-- okay, two quick outs. Mound visit. Seven-pitch walk to Gleyber Torres. Mound visit. Gary Sanchez single. Four-pitch walk to D.J. LeMahieu. Mound visit. (Pro tip: The mound visits aren't working!) Because six-pitch walk to Aaron Hicks to force in the go-ahead run and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (or at least a tie). It was the first go-ahead walk by the Yankees in the 9th or later since April 20, 2014, and there's no way you remember who was involved in that one. They probably don't remember it themselves; they played only 37 MLB games between them. Dean Anna was the batter and C.J. Riefenhauser was the pitcher for the Rays.
Binary Expression
If you enjoy 1's and 0's, both in your linescores and your margin of victory, well, Wednesday had a good game for you between the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Now, granted, Boston did score 2 runs in the top of the 3rd, but they were on separate singles by Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogaerts, and then the rest of the game went like this-- all in different innings (i.e., one run at a time): Vlad Guerrero homer (2-1), Moreland bases-loaded groundout (3-1), Luke Maile bases-loaded walk (3-2), Rafael Devers homer (4-2), Justin Smoak homer (4-3), Danny Jansen RBI single (4-4), Mookie Betts homer (5-4), Rowdy Tellez homer (5-5), Michael Chavis homer (6-5). You can probably guess that this didn't end in regulation either; Jansen's single came with two outs in the 9th, and proving that it still wasn't over, the homers were T12, B12, and T13.
Tellez's 12th-inning homer also came with two outs; he joined Gregg Zaun, who hit a walkoff grand slam against Troy Percival of the Rays on September 6, 2008, as the only players in Jays history with a tying or go-ahead homer when down to their final out in extras. And combined with Jansen, it's only the third time Toronto's ever had multiple tying or go-ahead hits in the same game in a "final out" situation. All three of those games have been against the Red Sox, and in the other two cases the second such hit was a walkoff. On June 15, 1984, Lloyd Moseby hit the tying single in the 9th and then Rance Mulliniks singled home Dave Collins in the 11th. Then on August 19, 1989, Ernie Whitt singled in the 10th after Boston had scored in their half, and Nelson Liriano hit a walkoff double in the 13th.
On the Boston side, it felt somewhat like a passing of the torch, with previous young sensation Mookie Betts homering right before current young sensation Michael Chavis. In fact Chavis was the youngest Red Sox batter to hit an extra-inning homer since Mookie had one on September 30, 2015, against the Yankees. And he's the youngest to hit one in the 13th or later since Mike Greenwell, also in Toronto, on September 25, 1985. And combined, it was just the second time in Sawx team history that they'd hit two go-ahead homers in extra innings of the same game (usually one is sufficient). The other set was by Dom DiMaggio and Tom Wright at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, April 29, 1951.
Mets Get Out Of A Hole
(Well, most of them.)
While their New York nemeses were down in the Baltimore-Washington area this week, that area's other team, the Nationals, were hanging out in Queens for a four-gamer with the Mets. We'll jump right to Tuesday's game, which the Nats led 2-1 before J.D. Davis was sent to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the 7th. We should probably mention that former National Wilson Ramos had opened the inning with a single and then Dominic Smith walked, because otherwise it won't make sense that Davis hit a 3-run, lead-flipping homer. And the last Mets pinch-hitter to do that in the 7th or later, is directly above him in an alphabetized list of All Mets Ever. That would be Ike Davis's famous walkoff grand slam on April 5, 2014, against the Reds (after which the Mets promptly traded him).
Trea Turner and Juan Soto both hit RBI doubles in the 8th to take the lead back, but a Pete Alonso homer-- upheld by replay-- took things back to 5-5. It was Alonso's 16th dinger of the season; coming in just the team's 47th game, it was the second-fastest any Mets player had gotten there. Dave Kingman had 17 in 47 games in 1976. And when Tanner Rainey walks two hitters in the 9th, and then Amed Rosario dribbles an infield single that Turner doesn't have a play on, the Mets walk off with a 6-5 win. Rosario joined another former National, Daniel Murphy in 2012, along with Chris Woodward in 2005, as the only three Mets with walkoff singles against Washington.
Wednesday featured only one lead flip, but when it happened, did it ever. Adam Eaton's solo homer in the 1st put the Nats up early and then, well, nothing happened. Aside from Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom firing baseballs past everyone, of course. So as you would expect, this is a battle of who gets to the bullpen first. And this time it's Kyle Barraclough's turn to put runners on first and second before Sean Doolittle, well, could've doo'd a little better. First pitch hits Carlos Gomez. Juan Lagares three-run double, the Mets' first to flip a lead in the 8th or later since Carlos Delgado against the Braves on August 19, 2008. And then after a walk to Ramos, yet another Davis-- Rajai this time-- gets the honor of hitting a 3-run pinch-hit homer to cap a 6-run frame.
The Davises are not just the first Mets with the same name to have 3- or 4-run pinch-hit homers in consecutive games, they're the first Mets to ever do it at all. Doolittle ended up facing four batters and having all of them score, eerily reminiscent of (because it's the same as) Trevor Rosenthal's line from the March 30 game between these same two teams. In Nats/Expos history they'd never had two pitchers do the "4 batters, all scored" line against the same opponent twice in a season. And as for Scherzer, it was his second game for Washington where he gave up 0 runs, struck out 9+, and didn't win, having done so last August at Wrigley. He and Jordan Zimmermann are the only other Nationals to swing that line twice. Scherzer did, however, no-hit the Mets in the next-to-last game of 2015; that following game, the otherwise-meaningless season finale, was the last time before Wednesday that the Nats had three or fewer hits at Citi Field.
If you could not drag yourself to the noon start of Thursday's finale, that's okay; by now you've learned the good part is at the end. This time it's the Mets who hold a 3-1 lead heading to the 8th, despite Steven Matz giving up 10 hits. He was the first Mets pitcher to allow double digits in hits but then also hold the opponent to 1 run since Bartolo Colón in 2014. And he would end up being the first Mets pitcher to do that and not get the win since John Mitchell against the Cubs on June 24, 1987.
After Howie Kendrick and Dave Martinez get ejected in a wild sequence, Yan Gomes restores some order with a double to make it 3-2. Victor Robles is now on third, and Gerardo Parra proceeds to hit the third lead-flipping single in Nationals history in the 8th or later of a road game. Chad Tracy did it at Wrigley on April 7, 2012, as did Ryan Zimmerman in Cincinnati on August 16, 2009.
But alas, it's still not meant to be. Leadoff double by Dom Smith again in the bottom of the 8th. Two strikeouts keep him stuck right there. So may as well intentionally walk Ramos again and let Carlos Gomez hit the 3-run homer to flip the lead right back. Asdrubal Cabrera had the Mets' last one of those so late in a game, when he walked off against the Phillies on September 22, 2016. And the 6-4 final meant that Robert Gsellman, who blew the save for Matz in the top half, also gets the win when the Mets score in the bottom half. Back on April 6, Jeurys Familia gave up 3 runs against the Nats and also got both a blown save and the win. The Mets have never before had two pitchers with a 3-run "BS win" in the same season.
And remember a few minutes ago when Tommy Kahnle also gave up 3 runs and blew a save for the Yankees? He got the win too. And also on April 6, the Yankees were playing the Orioles and guess what Adam Ottavino did (hint: gave up 3 runs and got a "BS win"). Only three times have both the Yankees and Mets had pitchers do it on the same day, and two of those occurrences are this year, and those two are both against the same opponents. (The other day was October 2, 1991, Greg Caderet for Yanks and John Franco for Mets.)
Fish Tales
This week the Marlins found their way from the warm sandy-ness of the Gulf Stream (where Monday's *low* was 76°), to the banks of the Detroit River (where Monday's *high* was 62°). They'd probably love to go back, though. Even Thursday's 1:00 start drew over 17,000 fans, more than any home Marlins game this year (except for Opening Day, which is always a wildly-inflated exception). Oh yeah, and they won some games too. And the outcome pretty much was always in doubt.
Tuesday's game looked pretty good until Sergio Romo, trying to cover first on an infield single to start the 9th, missed the bag and Niko Goodrum was ruled safe after a replay. And that wasn't even the one that was called an error. Two batters later, Goodrum was ruled safe at second when Starlin Castro dropped the ball trying to turn a game-ending double-play. He then scored on a Miguel Cabrera single, and then the tying run scored on another reviewed play (though it would have counted anyway), one which actually cost the Tigers an out as Harold Ramirez was ruled to have dropped a fly ball on the transfer instead of just flat-out missing the catch.
The Marlins ended up needing an RBI double from Chad Wallach in the 11th to retake the lead and secure the 5-4 win; Wallach joined Andy Fox (June 10, 2002, at Kansas City) as the only Marlins players ever to hit an extra-inning double in an American League park. And thanks in part to the two extra frames, the Tigers had only five hits and struck out 17 times, but still cobbled together four runs. That was a first for the team in (at least) the live-ball era.
On Wednesday Neil Walker joined Giancarlo Stanton (June 28, 2016) as the only Marlins DHs to have a multi-hit, multi-run game against the Tigers, and their 6-3 win represented the second-most runs the Fish had ever scored at Comerica Park. They knocked around Jason Johnson for a 9-2 win on June 13, 2004.
The shoe (fin?) was on the other foot (paw?) on Thursday as the Tigers took the 2-run lead into the 9th. And Harold Ramirez-- saved from one error by that replay on Tuesday-- benefitted from another one with a leadoff boot from Detroit 3B Dawel Lugo. Neil Walker singled him home, but the Tigers once again failed to win over the replay gods. Miguel Rojas was ruled on the field-- and confirmed-- to have beaten out a game-ending double play, so we continue with the Marlins down 2-1 and the bases about to be loaded after a walk.
Welcome to the bigs, Garrett Cooper. (He's been there before, but only twice, both times as a DL replacement stint. Thursday was just his 40th game.) Shane Greene's second pitch to him ends up in the left-field seats for a grand slam, with all the runs unearned because of that error to start the inning. There are only five grand slams in Marlins history with two outs in the 9th, and it just depends which way you want to slice them up. (PSA: Don't slice up marlins. They're endangered.)
Only Bobby Bonilla's walkoff against the Rockies on September 16, 1997, actually flipped the lead when the team was down to its final out. Giancarlo Stanton, on May 13, 2012, against the Mets, also hit a walkoff slam, but that game was tied 4-4 so the "final out" criterion doesn't apply. Gary Sheffield tied a game against the Phillies on May 16, 1995, again when down to their final out, but it didn't give them the lead, just forced extras (where they lost). And Cody Ross chipped in one against the Dodgers on May 17, 2009, that doesn't fit anything other than the "final out" list; he just turned an 11-run loss into a 7-run loss.
Ross did, however, hit another slam in Toronto a few weeks after that; he, Hanley Ramirez (2011 at Texas), Aaron Boone (2007 at Tampa Bay), Bruce Aven (1999 at Tampa Bay), and now Cooper are the only Marlins to hit any grand slams in an AL park. And this, of course, all adds up to a three-game sweep by the Marlins in the Motor City, their first of an interleague road series since beating Houston in three straight from July 25-27, 2014. It's also a nine-game losing streak for Detroit, one which could even become 10 if they don't come back in that suspended game from last Sunday. With their win on Friday, however, it will still fall short of last year's longest streak, an 11-gamer from June 19 to 30.
Plenty of time, though. The season ain't over 'til it's over, either. Nor is this post. Intermission!
Oops, I Did It Again
Soooo the Twins hit some more home runs this week. (This is not a repeat, really it isn't.) After fairly-normal wins of 3-1 on Monday and 8-3 on Tuesday, the Minnesota/Anaheim game on Wednesday had to be postponed, not so much because it was raining, but because it had rained. Earlier in the day. Just enough to cause some puddles in the shallow outfield. Urban legend holds that the Angels do own a tarp, but this influx of water surprises and confuses them. And after an hour of trying to move the water to other places around the ballpark, the Angels are finally forced to give up and announce just the 16th home "rainout" in team history-- the first since July 19, 2015, against Boston, and there had been exactly zero (0) in the 20 years before that one.
So instead of leaving early for their weekend series with the White Sox, the Twins got to hang around Orange County for another day (and, really, what's to do?). They promptly took that out on Matt Harvey by cranking eight more homers out of Anaheim Stadium. Only one other team (the Athletics on June 27, 1996) had ever gone deep eight times since the ballpark opened in 1966, and Harvey became the first hurler in Angels history to allow eight runs and four taters without at least finishing the 3rd inning.
Much of the Twins' destruction came from the bottom of the order, with Miguel Sano and Jonathan Schoop both connecting for two homers. It was the first time in franchise history that teammates batting 7th or lower had posted multiple homers in the same game; the last pair to do it for any team was Ike Davis and RoD Barajas of the Mets on May 7, 2010.
You may remember, (since we seem to reference it every week,) that the Twins also hit 8 homers in an April 20 game at Baltimore. That doubles the number of times they'd done it in the previous 118 years of franchise history (1901-2018). The other 29 major-league teams have had two such games since the start of 2016. And the only other team in MLB history with a pair of 8-HR games in the same season was the 2005 Rangers.
We've chron-icled C.J. Cron's 4- and 5-hit games a lot over the past couple weeks also; in this little slugfest he collected a homer, two doubles, and two singles. That's 5 hits with 3 XBH... but wait, Jorge Polanco did the same thing back on April 5 in Philadelphia. The last time that happened twice for the franchise was in 1933 when Joe Cronin and Luke Sewell both did it for the Senators. And if you include those 4-hit games, Cron and Polanco have both had four of them already this year. The Twins didn't play their 50th game of the season until Friday. Only one other batter in Minnesota history has had four 4-hit games within the team's first 50; that was Rod Carew in 1977. And the last teammates to both do it... were George Sisler and Wally Gerber for the St Louis Browns in 1922.
BUT for some reason the Angels didn't want to admit this one was over. Trailing 16-2, Brian Goodwin felt it necessary to lead off the 9th with a homer, and then Austin Adams (we'll give him the benefit of the doubt here) was "pitching carefully" to protect that 13-run lead. (NO YOU WEREN'T. THROW A STRIKE!) That, naturally, led to Adams walking the bases loaded and then giving up a grand slam to Tommy La Stella to jump your final score from 16-3 to 16-7. Incredibly, it's not the first time the Angels have hit a 9th-inning grand slam while trailing by 13 runs. Dick Schofield did that against the Athletics on April 12, 1985. But it was the first time any MLB team had homered twice in the 9th, both homers coming with a deficit of 13 or more, since Victor Martinez and Ben Broussard did it for Cleveland against the Angels on June 4, 2006.
1-2-3
Continuing our journey through Britney Spears's discography (it troubles us as much as it troubles you), if you did it again, why wouldn't you do it three times? Okay, we at least escaped another 8-homer game. For now. But in returning to Target Field on Friday, the Twins kept up their extra-base attack, with six doubles (by six different players) and three more homers in an 11-4 beatdown of the White Sox. The six different doubles isn't overly unique; the Twins did that last July in Toronto. But combined with that Thursday outburst in Anaheim, it was just the third time in the live-ball era that the franchise had collected 9 extra-base hits in consecutive games. The others, oddly, were both in 2016, when they did it August 1 & 2 at Cleveland and then again over Labor Day weekend against the White Sox.
Recall that Max Kepler had 2 extra-base hits, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBIs in Thursday's game; when he repeated the feat on Friday, he became the first Twins leadoff batter to do so since Chuck Knoblauch against the Royals on July 5-6, 1996. And while we stipulate that sac flies have only been a separate stat since 1954, Kepler was the first-ever Twins leadoff batter with 3 hits, 2 XBH, a sac fly, and 4 RBI.
Meanwhile, Eddie Rosario recorded 4 hits, including a homer and a double, down in the cleanup spot. No Twins hitter had done that, and had 3 RBIs, since... oh. Eddie Rosario did it September 26, 2017, against Cleveland. Once again, RBIs have only been officially counted since 1920, but the only other Twins/Senators cleanup batters with multiple 4-hit, 2-XBH, 3-RBI games are Justin Morneau, Zeke Bonura (who did it three times in 1938), and HOF'er Goose Goslin from Washington's only championship team in 1924.
Until We Meet Again
The silver lining of that Mets/Nats series being over (aside from, if you're a Nats fan, you're just glad it was over) is that both teams were free to win via late heroics over the weekend. And after their little stint in Detroit from earlier, it was the Marlins' turn to go to Washington. And yeah, no 2-1 Scherzer/deGrom shutdowns in this one. Friday's opener was already 4-4 by the 3rd inning, and after the Marlins scored four times in the next two frames, the Nationals answered with four back in their next three frames, so we're knotted again at 8 after the 7th. Curtis Granderson leads off the 8th with a double but has to wait a while to score on Starlin Castro's two-out single. Gosh, this looks familiar. Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon both draw walks, prompting the Marlins to turn to Tayron Guerrero. Who promptly turns and watches Juan Soto's 3-run homer to center field. Soto, as you would expect, is the youngest player in franchise history to have a lead-flipping homer in the 8th or later; it's apparently one of the few "youngest-ever" things he hadn't done yet.
Guerrero's not done yet either. Turning his focus to Matt Adams, and not to that blown save and potential loss he just got (yeah, sure), a mere five pitches pass before Adams homers also. Tyler Kinley immediately comes on and strikes out two Nationals to end the inning. But Guerrero joines Gary Knotts (May 8, 2002, at San Diego) as the only pitchers in Marlins history to face multiple batters in a game and give up homers to all of them.
Jorge Alfaro did hit a leadoff homer in the 9th against Sean Doolittle, who nonetheless escaped with a save after giving up two more singles. That got the Marlins to 10 runs, the first time they had scored in double digits and lost since, well, last July 5, also at Nationals Park. In the 27 seasons of Marlins baseball, there are only two other cities where they've had two such losses, and neither of them is Miami! You could correctly assume that one is Denver. And then remember their old stadium was not in fact in Miami proper. So Miami Gardens, it may have had an Opa-Locka ZIP code for a while, basically yes, they did do it twice at Joe Robbie. But so far they've only done it once at Marlins Park.
And if you're on that crooked-number kick, check out your final linescore. Marlins, 10-15-1 (-11 if you like to add left-on-base); Nationals, 12-14-4-7. The "4" marked only the second game since moving to Washington where the Nats had 4 errors and won; the other was April 10, 2017, against the Cardinals. It was only the second game in Nationals Park history where both teams went 10-10-1 or higher. And the other time it happened, Nats Park never even got to show the final linescore. It was their famous suspended game with Houston on May 5, 2009, that had to be completed at Minute Maid Park with the Nats batting last because the Astros didn't come back the rest of the season. We're counting it for this purpose because both teams had reached 10-10-1 before the suspension.
And in a weird case of four-team synergy here, after Nats play Mets and Marlins play Tigers, then Nats play Marlins... and Tigers play Mets because why not. Fifteen teams each, interleague every day! Saturday gave us even more of it when the Mets clung to a 4-3 lead in the 8th but Josh Harrison, who's been around some late-game heroics, doubles off Robert Gsellman again. Then JaCoby Jones singles him home and he's the only one who will be going home anytime soon. In seven of the next eight half-innings (that's B8 through T12) the teams have at least one baserunner with one out and waste all of them. Two on double plays, one gets picked off, the Mets even manage to strand the bases loaded in the 11th. Finally Tomas Nido and Buck Farmer agree (probably not) to just end this thing, and Nido puts Farmer's third pitch into the apple. It was the first walkoff homer in the 13th or later ever at Citi Field; the team's previous one had been by Carlos Beltran against the Diamondbacks on June 11, 2008, their last season at Shea. Only four other Mets-- Curtis Granderson (now playing for the Marlins, see how this works?) in 2016, Eric Young in 2013, Cliff Floyd in 2005, and Kurt Abbott in 2000-- had hit an extra-inning walkoff homer in an interleague game. And Farmer was the first Tigers pitcher to give up a walkoff homer to the first batter he faced since Wil Ledezma hung one to Oakland's Miguel Tejada on April 22, 2003.
On Friday the Mets got close on several occasions, even taking the lead at 6-5 in the middle innings, but ultimately lost when the Tigers put a 3 under T7. But it was just the second home game in Mets history where they hit five homers and lost. And the other... was only loss #79 of that famous 120-loss inaugural season in 1962 (August 3 vs Cincinnati). Three of those players-- Adeiny Hechavarria, Pete Alonso, and Amed Rosario-- also doubled on Friday, another novelty that's happened just once before in a Mets loss. Edgardo Alfonso, Rico Brogna, and Jeff Kent all went homer-double on July 25, 1995, at St Louis but Brian Jordan walked them off. And Noah Syndergaard gave up 10 hits but didn't lose because of all the middle-innings lead-flipping. Combined with Steven Matz's 10-hits-but-1-run game with the Nationals on Thursday, it was the first time consecutive Mets starters had allowed 10 hits and neither one got the loss since Kris Benson and Tom Glavine did it on August 4-5, 2005.
But Yeah, Sometimes It's Over
There is no shortage of minor-league teams who, when going to the bottom of the 9th, enjoy playing the clip from Animal House wherein John Belushi rants that "[n]othing is over until we decide it is!" Mmmm, not really. We frequently respond to that clip with, uhhhh, no, this one's over. Such would be the case with the week's Big Blowout (this should be an award we give out, now that we consider it) between the Diamondbacks and Giants on Friday.
Ildemaro Vargas and Tyler Austin matched homers in the 1st. After a leadoff walk in the 2nd, Vargas drives in another run to make it 3-2. Robbie Ray (yes, he's the pitcher) comes up with the bases loaded in the 3rd, and why not hit a two-run single to make it 5-2. Let's throw on a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded single in the 4th to get to 8-2. Not good enough? 11-2 when Adam Jones hits a 3-run homer in the 5th. And 14-2 when Eduardo Escobar copies that act in the 6th.
Make it stop. Mmmm, nope. Derek Holland gives up four more in the 7th, all unearned when Donovan Solano made a wild throw that would have retired the side, but then Ketel Marte blasted another 3-run homer. By the time we finally get out of this, Arizona has recorded the first 18-2 exact score in the majors since Baltimore beat Oakland by that count on August 16, 2015. The D'backs were the first visiting team ever to score 18 runs at the Giants' current ballpark (whatever it's called this year), and the last team to do it at Candlestick was the Expos on May 7, 1997 (W 19-3).
Vargas, Jones, and Nick Ahmed were the first trio of teammates in Diamondbacks history to each have 4 hits in the same game. While Ahmed didn't also hit a 3-run homer, Eduardo Escobar did, and that was also a first in D'backs history (three 3- or 4- run homers in same game). Ketel Marte joined Chris Young (July 2, 2010, vs Dodgers) as the only leadoff hitters in team history with 3 hits, 2 runs scored, and 4 RBIs in a game. And since we always feel sorry for somebody in this type of game, Christian Walker went 0-for-4 with a walk and four strikeouts, then got double-switched out in the 7th. He's the first player to strike out four times in a game where his team scored 18 runs since Jason Varitek did it for the Red Sox against Baltimore on September 19, 2011. And as for Godley, he's the first Arizona pitcher ever to "earn" a 3-inning save in a game the team won by 10 or more (to say nothing of 16).
Don't Dream It's Over
Soooo apparently the Padres saw what we just wrote about their division rivals the Diamondbacks and said, um, no, if there's a Big Blowout Award, well, take this. San Diego took a brief excursion out of the country, to Toronto, on Saturday, and left their most-ever home runs in a game while they were at it. Wil Myers and Ian Kinsler went back-to-back in the 2nd. Austin Hedges hit a grand slam in the 4th. Myers and Kinsler both came up again in the 5th with the bases loaded and both of them drew walks to score two more runs. As for Hedges, well, at least he didn't hit another grand slam. Plunked by a Thomas Pannone fastball to score yet another run. Renfroe off Derek Law in the 6th. Hosmer and Renfroe and Myers yet again in the 8th off Sam Gaviglio. And by the time this punishment finally ends it's 19-2 and the Padres have collected seven homers in a game for the first time in their history.
The Padres did hit six homers once, on July 17, 1998, in Cincinnati, a game where Tony Gwynn and Greg Vaughn both went deep twice. The other teammates in Padres history to do it (now including Hosmer and Renfroe): Yasmani Grandal and Alexi Amarista in 2012 (June 30 at Coors), Milton Bradley and Adrian Gonzalez in 2007, Steve Finley and Wally Joyner in 1997, and Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff in 1992.
Myers ended up with 4 runs scored and 4 RBIs, the first Padres batter ever to do that hitting 7th or lower, and the first from any spot to do it in a road game since Brian Giles in Colorado on August 10, 2008. But keep scrolling down. Hedges, who hit that grand slam, bats 9th. That, plus his bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, made him the first starting #9 batter in Padres history with a 5-RBI game. Now scroll right. Hedges had that one hit, and struck out in his other four at-bats. Since RBI became official in 1920, he's the first #9 batter, for any team, with 5 RBIs and 4 strikeouts in a 9-inning game. Two players-- Hank Blalock for the Rangers in 2003 and Arizona's Devon White in 1998-- did it in extra-inning games.
On the Jays side, Gaviglio joined Kerry Ligtenberg in 1998 as the only relievers to give up 6+ hits and 3+ homers while getting no more than 2 outs. That would eventually lead to catcher Luke Maile pitching for the second time this year, but his other appearance was off the bench. He didn't actually catch in that game as well. The only "C/P" combo in Jays history prior to Saturday had been by Jeff Mathis against Oakland in July 2012 (a 16-0 blowout).
Since we just looked this up when Houston did it a couple weeks ago, we were able to figure out that Saturday was the third time in Padres history that they had scored 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in different innings of the same game (though, alas, not in order). The others were exactly those six numbers with nothing else thrown in; they beat Philadelphia 15-3 on August 10, 2000, and the Reds by a 15-8 count on August 14, 1987. So adding those couple extra 2's to get to 19 tied the Padres for the second-most runs ever scored by any team at Rogers Centre. And no, the Blue Jays aren't in the tie; they've never gotten beyond 18. The 2017 Astros, 2004 Devil Rays, and 2000 Mariners all got to 19, while the reigning champion is still a 22-2 win by the Brewers on August 28, 1992.
Yeah, this one's over. Except for...
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Yu Darvish & Jose Quintana, Sat-Sun: First time consecutive Cubs starters each gave up 12+ hits and 6+ runs since Larry French and Charlie Root (in complete games, of course), September 6-7, 1940.
⚾ Albert Almora & Anthony Rizzo, Wednesday: First time Cubs hit a grand slam and a 3-run homer in same game against the Phillies since Mark Grace and Sammy Sosa did it at The Vet on July 26, 2000.
⚾ Trevor Story, Friday: Eighth batter in Rockies history whose second (or subsequent) homer of the game was a walkoff. Previous had been Todd Helton against the Phillies on July 31, 2001.
⚾ Trevor Bauer, Tuesday: First Cleveland pitcher to hit three batters in a game since... Trevor Bauer, September 18, 2016, versus Detroit. Last to do it twice was Willie Mitchell-- in 1910-11.
⚾ Adam Plutko, Thursday: Second pitcher in Indians history to give up 12+ hits, 7+ runs, and 4+ homers. Charles Nagy did it on Opening Day 1998 in Seattle.
⚾ Rangers, Monday: First game in franchise history (1961) where all nine starters had at least 1 extra-base hit.
⚾ Joe Musgrove, Saturday: First Pirates pitcher to give up 7 doubles in a game since Guy Bush vs Giants, September 11, 1935. Also first game where Dodgers as a team collected 8 doubles since July 2, 1978, in Cincinnati.
⚾ Austin Riley, Wed-Thu: Second Braves player ever with a homer and 3 RBIs in consecutive games in San Francisco. The other happened in the Braves' first two games ever in California; Wes Covington did it at Seals Stadium on June 3 and 4, 1958 (they went to LA after).
⚾ Mike Yastrzemski, Sunday: First Giants batter to have 3 hits in either of his first two MLB games since Pablo Sandoval, August 16, 2008.
⚾ Eugenio Suarez, Friday: First lead-flipping homer for Reds in 9th or later at Wrigley Field since Pete Rose off Ray Burris on May 3, 1974.
⚾ Miguel Sano, Monday: First Twins batter with a go-ahead homer in the 8th or later in Anaheim since Tom Brunansky off Terry Forster, April 20, 1986.
⚾ Andrew McCutchen, Wed-Sat: Third Phillies batter in past 45 years (where full PBP is available) with a leadoff extra-base hit in four straight games. Others are Jimmy Rollins in August 2007 and Ruben Amaro in September 1992.
⚾ Max Kepler/Jorge Polanco/Marwin Gonzalez, Tuesday: First time top three batters in Twins order all had 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and at least 1 double since Ted Uehlander, Rod Carew, and Tony Oliva did it against Oakland on July 4, 1969.
⚾ Brandon Woodruff, Sunday: First pitcher with 8+ IP, 1 hit allowed, 10 strikeouts, 2 hits on offense, at least 1 XBH, and 2 RBI all in same game since Catfish Hunter did it in his perfect game against the Twins, May 8, 1968.
