Sunday, May 26, 2019

It Ain't Over Till It's Over

We swear, we had the majority of this post done and titled and linked well before the Red Sox leaked our title in a tweet on Saturday night.



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.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Teen Week

No, this isn't a "special" tournament on your favorite game show. (You know, the weeks that make us feel smart because we actually know some of the answers.) And as much as we enjoyed all the Juan Soto notes last year, he turned 20 last fall. They just keep growing up, where does the time go? But anyway, our seven days of baseball this week happened to encompass May thir-teen through nine-teen, and wouldn't you know it, a bunch of other numbers ending in -teen found their way into our bucket.


You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful

Okay, ignoring this slightly-creepy #1 hit from Ringo Starr in 1974 (who was 33 at the time), we turn our attention to Thursday's slate of MLB games. The Rangers, finishing a series in Kansas City with an afternoon game, failed to score in the first three innings. They did not fail to score in the last six. Joey Gallo's solo homer tied the game in the 4th, after which Texas unloaded for 5 in the 5th, and then 3-1-2-4 on their way to a 16-1 beatdown of the Royals. It was just the second time in Rangers/Senators history that they'd scored 16 runs against "Kansas City" (that's intentionally meant to include the A's); the other was a 16-5 victory over starter Mark Gubicza on May 29, 1987.

Gallo's tying homer in the 4th was just the beginning. He ended up adding two doubles and a single to become the first Rangers batter with 4 hits-- 3 of them for extra bases-- and 4 runs scored since Josh Hamilton's famous 4-homer game in Baltimore on May 8, 2012 (we were there!). He also became the first Texas batter to do 4-and-4 with no more than 1 homer in the bunch since Michael Young against Toronto on July 22, 2011.

But as the kids say, scroll up. At the top of that boxscore were more 4's, specifically those in the hit columns of both Danny Santana and Willie Calhoun. Only once before in franchise history had their top two hitters in the order both had 4 hits in the same game, when Luis Alicea and Chad Curtis did it againat Cleveland on August 31, 2000. And it was the third road game in team history where three different players had 4+ hits. It first happened June 4, 1994, in Boston, by Jose Canseco, Will Clark, and Rusty Greer. The other is "only" the famous 30-3 game in Baltimore in 2007.


Sixteen Going On Seventeen

As impressive as the Rangers' outburst was, it wasn't even the biggest offensive output just on Thursday. Because some 23 minutes earlier in Detroit, the Athletics had put the finishing touches on a 17-3 win over the Tigers, their first time scoring that many runs against Detroit since July 13, 1935, when they won an 18-5 game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. And similar to Texas, most of Oakland's damage, 11 runs of it, came in the final four innings.

It was catcher Josh Phegley, batting ninth, who collected most of the 4's in this one, becoming the first A's player since 1920 (when RBIs became sanctioned) with 4 hits and 4 RBIs from the bottom spot. Throw on the fact that two of those hits went for extra bases (a homer and a double), and he's the first A's batter with a 4-4-2 game from any spot in the order since... Josh Phegley did it just two weeks ago in Pittsburgh (he batted eighth in that one). No Oaklander had posted two such games in the same season (much less the same month) since Miguel Tejada in 2001.

Another 4 came off the bat of Jurickson Profar, whose 3rd-inning grand slam was really all the runs the A's would have needed. Jed Lowrie (2017), Ben Zobrist (2015), and Jack Cust (2007) are the other Oakland players to hit a slam at Comerica Park since it opened. And speaking of homers, Dawel Lugo gets the award for note-spoiler of the week. Since both teams began in 1901, the A's had never won a 17-0 (or larger) shutout, and the Tigers had never lost one. And they still haven't, thanks to Lugo making us delete that note with two outs in the 9th. But in so doing, he generated another note, setting the record for the most-futile home run in Tigers history. Previously the worst deficit Detroit faced when someone hit a last-out homer was 14 runs; Mark Lewis hit that one against Minnesota on April 24, 1996.

And if you've noticed that Texas and Oakland are both in the AL West, that division we like to make fun of because their games are all 3-1 snoozefests, well, okay, okay. But to our point, the last time two teams from that division scored 16 runs on the same day... was August 17, 2004.


Touchdown, Cleveland!

At one time Cleveland had a football team called the Browns. It more-or-less moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens.

At one time St Louis had a baseball team called the Browns. It moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.

At one time Baltimore had a football team named the Colts. It moved to Indianapolis. Then Cleveland got another football team named the Browns. So why would these two cities not throw up a 14-7 score this week?

Unlike the two AL West games, this one had a lot more back-and-forth, with the Ravens Orioles taking a 5-1 lead in the 3rd, and being the Orioles, promptly losing it on a Jason Kipnis three-run homer in the 4th. They briefly regained it on a two-point conversion in the 5th, then lost it for good on a Carlos Santana 6th-inning single that just clipped the glove of second baseman Hanser Alberto (yeah, more on him in a moment).

Trey Mancini and Rio Ruiz each went deep off Trevor Bauer to give the O's that early lead; they were the first Orioles teammates to have multi-run homers in Cleveland since Nate McLouth and Matt Wieters hit them on September 2, 2013. And Bauer hadn't given up 7 earned runs and multiple homers in a game since... oh. May 6. Two starts ago. The last Indians pitcher to do that twice in a season was also in 2013, Brett Myers.

Of course, the Indians really put Thursday's game away with a 5-run 7th, and you've seen two of them. Sometimes you hear anecdotes about the defense "falling asleep out there" when there's no action (the fans do this too, you might have heard that MLB thinks it's a problem). So to be fair, let's look at what happened before this play. Inning break. Hit batter. Pitching change. Walk. Single (ooh!). Strikeout. Walk. Pitching change. By the time Richard Bleier throws his first pitch, the Orioles have been standing in the field for 21 minutes with only one ball put in play. So maybe Hanser Alberto really wasn't awake when that pitch came bouncing to him. Or maybe just, "Orioles". Alberto misses a swipe tag at Francisco Lindor who is passing behind him (this, we believe, is why he is getting "credit" for a failed fielder's choice), throws too late to get Kipnis at first, and then Chris Davis appears to not notice Leonys Martin rounding third and still running, making a half-hearted late throw to the plate.

You can argue (and some people did) that Kipnis should only get 1 RBI because Martin advanced on the throw to first, but right now the play stands as a 2-run "FCX" (fielder's choice, no out recorded, as we mark it personally). And we pored through the incredible Baseball Reference play index for the past 25 seasons (to the strike of 1994-95) and could not find another instance of a 2-run fielder's choice with no error involved (i.e., the batter got credit for both RBIs).

Those two extra runs gave Kipnis the Indians' first 6-RBI game against Baltimore since Manny Ramirez did it at Camden Yards on July 29, 2000. And Cleveland's last #2 batter with a 2-HR, 6-RBI game was Joe Carter against the Yankees on August 12, 1984 (not the game he's remembered for).

By the way, none of those current three football teams (the New Browns, the old Browns as the Ravens, or the Colts in either city) have ever won/lost a 14-7 game to the other. Yeah, we're confused too.


Tween Week

The -teens may have ruled Thursday, but they weren't the only ones making noise. Two younger siblings, both from the Upper Midwest, couldn't get above 11 and had to form their own little group. Those, of course, were the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins, who beat the Phillies 11-3 and the Mariners 11-6 respectively. Thursday thus became the first day this season on which five different teams scored at least 11 runs, though it happened a whopping four times during the 2018 campaign.

The Brewers' 11 runs on Thursday came mostly from likely sources (*cough* Christian Yelich), but definitely from at least one unlikely one. Pitcher Zach Davies chipped in two hits and an RBI, becoming the first Brewers hurler with multiple hits in a road game, at least one for extra bases, and a run driven in since Yovani Gallardo homered in Arizona on August 20, 2007.

But back to Yelich, he chipped in two homers to extend his major-league lead in that category, plus a double, a hit-by-pitch, and a stolen base. He's only the second player in team history to do all that (3 XBH, HBP, SB) in one game; Devon White pulled it off against the Mets on April 26, 2001. And if you take out the hit-by-pitch, he's the first Brewer to even have that line since... oh. Christian Yelich did it July 20 of last season against the the Dodgers. But that gives him a pair of 3-XBH games with at least one steal, and the only other player in team history to do that multiple times is Paul Molitor (in case you needed another Brewers/Twins connection).

And as has become common with Twins games, Thursday's win in Seattle turned into yet another homer-fest as Max Kepler, Jason Castro, C.J. Cron, and Byron Buxton all went yard-- and all off Mariners starter Erik Swanson. Only Jeff Fassero (1999) and Ken Cloude (1998) had given up 4 homers in under 4 innings in a Mariners home game, and the team's only other starter to get tagged for 8 runs along with those 4 homers, without finishing the 4th, was Gil Meche against the Rangers in Arlington on September 16, 2003.

C.J. Cron had three other hits aside from his homer, and if a 4-hit game sounds familiar, it's because he's done it three times in the past two weeks (May 8 at Toronto, May 11 against Detroit). Only one other player in Twins history (1961) has had a trio of 4-hit games that close together, and that's Tony Oliva, who did it May 2, 3, and 7 of his Rookie Of The Year season in 1964.

However, Swanson's four homers only slightly trumped the three homers allowed by Twins starter Michael Pineda, although he did survive seven innings. Just three other Minnesota hurlers have given up three longballs to the Mariners and won, and only one of them did it on the road: Jerry Koosman in his second non-Mets start, April 15, 1979. The ones to do it at home are Glen Perkins in 2008 and Scott Aldred in 1996.

Daniel Vogelbach also went deep off Tyler Duffey in the 8th, creating the second game at the Mariners' current stadium where they hit four homers and lost. The other was September 8, 2004, against the Indians; Edgar Martinez hit two that day but an error led to five unearned runs by Cleveland for the win.


18 And Life

Of course, after we wrote that last part about Thursday's game, it turns out Minnesota was just getting started. If you've known the Kernels for any length of time, you know we're good at pattern recognition. In fact this whole post came about when the Cardinals scored 14 on the 14th (wait for it) and then the Rangers scored 16 on the 16th as mentioned earlier. There's no way that another team could... no way... OH YES THEY DID.

Sending Thursday's homer-fest to the back burner, the Twins jumped on Wade LeBlanc for 5 runs in the 2nd, including a Byron Buxton grand slam, and then handed him an early exit with back-to-back jacks by C.J. Cron and Miguel Sano in the 3rd. So after Erik Swanson gave up 4 homers in 4 innings on Thursday, we've already mentioned the only other Mariners starters to do it in 3 innings-- Gil Meche in 2003 and Ken Cloude in 1998. As for the combo, it's the first time two Mariners pitchers have allowed 4 homers in such proximity to each other; the only other time it happened even twice in a month was by Hector Noesi and Jason Vargas in June 2012.

But then the pile-on begins. Three more runs off Parker Markel before he escapes the 3rd. Five off Mike Wright in the 4th and 5th. Jonathan Schoop homers off Ryan Garton in the 6th. And when Eddie Rosario's infield single plates an 18th run in the 8th, we're just hoping for a scoreless inning out of whichever position player gets the 9th. (Tom Murphy, if you're curious.)

By the time we're all done, we have the second time ever where Minnesota scored 18 runs in a game in Seattle, the other being at the Kingdome on April 15, 1979 (18-6). They joined the Indians (July 16, 2004) as the only visiting teams to score 18 at Safeco Field, and it was the Twins' fourth game already this year where they scored at least 11 runs and homered at least four times. In franchise history (including Washington, to 1901) they'd only had three such games in a season once, in 1963 (one of those games will come up again later). It's not even Memorial Day yet.

As for individual accolades, Cron and Schoop both homered twice, added a third hit for good measure, and drove in at least four runs. (Cron at least did not have another 4-hit game and force us to rewrite any more of that previous section.) That's happened only three times in franchise history, and two are this year. Schoop and Mitch Garver both did it in the homer-fest they had in Baltimore on April 20. Before that the only pair ever was Kirby Puckett and Bernardo Brito against Oakland on August 15, 1993.

Thanks mostly to that grand slam in the 2nd, Buxton became the 13th hitter in franchise history with 5 RBIs batting 9th. The last of those to do it on the road was Nick Punto in Chicago on May 7, 2008. And all told eight different players had at least one extra-base hit and scored at least one run. That hadn't happened since the Senators did it in Chicago on June 14, 1935... and even then it required extra innings.

And finally back to our pattern of teams scoring n runs on the nth day of the month. (Which is kind of how we decided on the -teen theme to begin with.) For days/scores of 14 or more, this is only the fifth month in MLB history where it's happened at least three times, and three of the others were in the 19th century when scores of 26-12 were not uncommon. The only time it's happened in the "modern era" (usually defined from 1901) was on September 15, 1993, when three teams (Angels, Athletics, Brewers) all put up exactly 15 runs on the same day. The other three months, for the record, were July 1894, July 1892, and June 1887.


13 Suited Cards. Plus A Joker.

And even though we finally got through Thursday's scoreboard-busters, two more 14's were in the cards over the course of the week. One of them was literally in the Cards. St Louis scored 14 on the 14th as Yadier Molina, Marcell Ozuna, and Kolten Wong all hit 3-run homers in Atlanta. The Cards hadn't had a trio of 3-run bombs since Matt Holliday, Aledmys Diaz, and Brandon Moss hit them on another 14-3 win, against the Reds on April 15, 2016. And the only other time St Louis had scored at least 14 runs in Atlanta was yet another 14-3 game, this one on August 27, 1978, when the Braves made 5 errors and half the runs were unearned.

Two of those homers, plus a Dexter Fowler solo shot, came off Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz, the first Atlanta pitcher to give up three Cardinals homers since Mike Minor on May 11, 2012. And the last to also get tagged for 8+ runs by St Louis was Eddie Solomon at Fulton County on July 6, 1979.

Meanwhile, the Braves' offense sputtered its way to only 3 singles, but somehow still scored 3 runs because the hits were literally back-to-back-to-back (and then followed by a walk and a sac fly). The Braves hadn't had a 3-hit game with 0 XBH and still scored at least 3 runs since August 20, 2008, in their next-to-last series at Shea Stadium. But the last time they did it at home... was six stadiums and two cities ago! It happened at the South End Grounds in Boston against the Cubs on August 18, 1911.


Spoiler alert: You can't build a fort out of just sheets. They have no structural support. But apparently "futons" didn't fit the rhyme scheme. Intermission!


Four-Teen

And speaking of the Cubs, they got in on this "-teen" thing this week as well, dropping another 14-run game on the Nationals on Friday. And this one had a bunch of 4's in it as well, although the most important number might have been 3-- home runs by Kris Bryant, the first visiting player ever to do that at Nationals Park. His 5 RBIs were also a first by a Cubs batter in Washington. Bryant also had a 3-HR game in Cincinnati on June 27, 2016 (that actually was the last by any Cubs hitter), and is the fourth player in team history (all of it, to 1876) to have multiple 3-HR games on the road. The others ain't a bad group: Alfonso Soriano, Dave Kingman, and Sammy Sosa.

Bryant also added an uninteresting single in the 1st inning to give him 4 hits on the day. When Willson Contreras homered in the 9th to score runs 13 and 14, that was also his fourth hit of the day. The last set of Cubs teammates with 4 hits including a homer in the same game was Reed Johnson and Anthony Rizzo at Citi Field on July 6, 2012. And Friday's duo was the first pair of Cubs ever to pull off the feat against Washington (though they did it three times against Montréal).

Kyle Schwarber added a homer in the 8th, on the 13th pitch of his at-bat against Kyle Barraclough (and back-to-back with one of Bryant's homers). In the three decades of available pitch-count data, only other Cubs homer has come on the 13th pitch (or later), a grand slam by Gary Scott against the Phillies on April 20, 1992. Tack on Albert Almora's 2nd-inning tater off Max Scherzer (who, yeah, actually started this game and hasn't been mentioned yet), and you have the first visiting team to hit six homers in a game in Washington in 55 years. This game has come up before; it's where the Former Senators (now the Twins) beat the Replacement Senators (now the Rangers) 14-2 on August 29, 1963-- a game that was turned into a doubleheader to accommodate the March On Washington (and MLK's "I have a dream" speech) the day before.


No "I" in Team

Those big numbers up above, those are obviously team efforts with a bunch of people chipping in a homer and a couple RBIs and a couple doubles and, sure, occasionally Kris Bryant hits 3 homers and overshadows some of the other performances. But no one player is scoring 14 runs by himself. (We figured out, you would have to have a game of at least 35 innings for anyone to bat 14 times, and we know that's not going to happen once the free-runner-at-second-base rule gets implemented.) On the other hand, there were some games this week where it really did all come down to one player.

This was particularly evident on Saturday when a pair of teams got one-hit. The Orioles, who from game to game are completely unpredictable as to whether they will hit five homers or give up five homers (or both), faced Adam Plutko of the Columbus Clippers Cleveland Indians who had just been called up after making 17 appearances last year. The Orioles did homer when Trey Mancini took Plutko deep in the 4th. Except the Indians staff then worked around two walks and an error for the rest of the game, making Mancini's homer the only hit Baltimore recorded. It actually hasn't been that long since the Orioles had 1 hit and it left the yard. The first time they saw Tsuyoshi Wada of the Cubs, on August 25, 2014, they were stumped until a Steve Pearce homer in the 7th. But the last time the O's got one-hit in Cleveland, home run or not, was on May 19, 1968, when Curt Blefary broke up Sonny Siebert's no-hitter with a double in the 7th.

Mets fans are nothing if not hopeful. So when Jeff McNeil doubled on the first pitch of Saturday's game against the Marlins, well, this is off to a good start. Two strikeouts and a groundout waste that leadoff double. Then they manage to not have another baserunner until Todd Frazier walks with two outs in the 5th. From then on the Marlins bullpen faces 13 batters, walking two of them, but retiring both on double plays. One hit... and it led off the game. Only twice before in Mets history had that happened, and the others were both against the Pirates. On September 5, 1990, Keith Miller singled off Zane Smith; while on July 1, 1966, Ron Hunt began the game with a single, got caught stealing, and then Woodie Fryman sat down 26 in a row for the rare-but-exciting (at least to us) "FM" (faced minimum, 27 batters but NOT a no-hitter or perfect game).

It's worth mentioning that Jon Berti then led off the Marlins' part of the game with a home run, creating just the second game in Marlins Park history where both teams had a leadoff XBH. Ruben Tejada and Bryan Petersen did it in a meaningless season finale in 2012, the stadium's first year.

Of course, on Sunday the Mets did themselves one better. No, literally only one better. They got shut out on two hits as Sandy Alcantara threw the Marlins' first individual shutout since Edinson Volquez's no-hitter two years ago. J.D. Davis actually had both of the hits on Sunday, although that "feat" was accomplished last year by Wilmer Flores. More impressive (or Mets-ian) is that it was only the third time in team history that they'd been held to two hits in consecutive games. And the other two times they at least scored in one of the games. One of them they even won! On September 10 and 11, 1965, they lost to the Braves (in their final month in Milwaukee) by scores of 3-1 and 9-0; then on April 29 and 30, 1967, they dropped a 7-0 shutout to Cincinnati before returning the favor and winning 2-0.

As for Alcantara, only Dontrelle Willis in 2003 and Ryan Dempster in 2000 (both 1-hitters) had thrown 2-hit shutouts against the Mets, and his 89 pitches were the second-fewest in any 9-inning shutout in Marlins history. Henderson Alvarez managed to give up eight hits (but no runs!) on just 88 pitches agains the Rays on June 3, 2014.



"I" Got This

Before Saturday stole the show, there were a handful of other "no man is an island" performances earlier in the week. The Indians started their week with a three-game series in Chicago, and Francisco Lindor started that series with another leadoff homer on Monday against Reynaldo Lopez. Lindor hit two other leadoff homers at Guaranteed Cellular Comiskey Park Field last season, and is the first Clevelander to collect three there since it opened in 1991. Grady Sizemore and Kenny Lofton both hit two.

In the 3rd, number-8 batter Leonys Martin walks, steals second, and goes to third on an error. That sets up Lindor for a sacrifice fly to score the Indians' second run. His next time up, leading off the 6th, Lindor singles again. But have we mentioned that none of Cleveland's other batters has done anything? That sac fly was followed by a walk to Jason Kipnis, and after that, no one other than Lindor (who also walked in the 8th) even reached base. So your final totals for the Indians are 2 runs on 2 hits, with Lindor having both hits and driving in both runs. If that sounds like something that might be a first in team history, well... almost. The obvious "loophole" here is that a player could hit two solo homers and have those be the only two runs for the team, and that's what happened the only other time the Indians did it. Manny Ramirez's two longballs single-handedly beat the Royals on July 3, 1998. And the last time any team had 2 runs on 2 hits, with both hits and both RBIs by the same player, was also one of those multi-homer affairs, Evan Gattis for the Braves in Philly on September 8, 2013.


I'm Only One Out Away

Frankie Montas was sent to the mound for the Athletics on Friday in Detroit; he didn't disappoint, holding the Tigers to 4 hits (what else is new?) and 2 runs while striking out 10. That sure sounds like a good pitching line. But the oddity here is that Montas had a 7-1 lead when he started the 9th, and when Miguel Cabrera doubled home a second run, uh-oh, we could never let a pitcher finish a game with a five-run lead because reasons. Even though Montas wanted to finish it out, the pitch counts and "the metrics" say we can't do that anymore, so let's go get Lou Trivino from the bullpen to end the game with a strikeout. Nothing against Trivino here, it's not his fault, but Montas ended up being the first Oakland pitcher to go exactly 8⅔ innings since Bartolo Colón against Seattle on July 8, 2012. Bartolo's game was 2-1, however; the last time the A's yanked a pitcher after 8⅔ with a 5-run lead was September 7, 2011, when Guillermo Moscoso came one out short of a shutout against the Royals.

Montas did at least become the first A's pitcher in the live-ball era (and likely ever) to go at least 8 innings, walk no one, allow 4 hits or fewer, and strike out 10 in a road game. Their last to do it at home was Jeff Samardzija against the Rangers on September 17, 2014.


Da-Dru-Run-Run-Run, Da-Dru-Run-Run

Officially Wednesday's scoreboard read Giants 4, Blue Jays 3, but you could replace that "Blue Jays" part with "Brandon Drury". Toronto's leadoff batter started the game with a single, later scoring on Freddy Galvis's two-out double. He started the 3rd by drawing a walk and eventually scored again thanks to two wild pitches by Shaun Anderson. In the 5th he reached on a throwing error by Evan Longoria, and then Anderson made another errant throw trying to pick him off, such that Drury scored again on a Vlad Guerrero groundout. (In the 7th he didn't reach base, but not the point.) Thus he was the only Jays batter to touch the plate the entire game (except for the guys who insist on stepping on it while getting in the batter's box).

Now, it's good for your leadoff batter to get on base and score runs. In the vast majority of cases, that's precisely why he's leading off. But it's nice when other folks score runs too. And in Blue Jays team history, Wednesday (and Drury) was the third time the leadoff batter scored at least three runs, in a game where nobody else scored any. And it was the first of those three games that they lost. Damaso Garcia was the lucky leadoff man in both the other games, both of which were 3-2 victories-- over the Twins on June 27, 1982, and the Angels on September 26, 1983.

Since we're here, a shoutout to Mr. Anderson as well, who was making his MLB debut and actually managed to record two hits at the plate. The last pitcher to do that (in his overall MLB debut, not just an AL guy who's batting for the first time) was Steven Matz in his memorable 4-RBI game on June 28, 2015. Anderson's the first in (at least) the live-ball era to accomplish that feat in a Giants uniform (yes, including even Madison Bumgarner).


We Got It Maeda

Elsewhere on Wednesday, the Padres were at Dodger Stadium for a game that we've had on our calendars since last August. It's not because we necessarily knew Kenta Maeda was going to spin a gem, but because it would be the 8,019th regular-season game in Padres history. Again, nothing special unless you know our dislike of no-hitters and that the Padres are the only active franchise to never throw one. The Mets were right there with them for many years until Johan Santana finally did it in 2012... after 8,019 games without one. So Corey Seager's leadoff single in the 2nd gave us some lack-of-no-hitter history, with the Pirates' Adam Frazier putting us over the edge the next day. (The all-time record for games between no-hitters still belongs to the Phillies at 8,954, but this is games before throwing the team's first one.)

Anyhoo, with that out of the way, let's watch Maeda mow down some hitters-- 20 of the 23 he faced, with 12 of those coming via strikeout. It's the Dodgers' first 12-K game this year, but on a club with Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler and Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill, it won't be their last. However, those three batters Maeda didn't retire were all base hits. No walks. And he thus became the first Dodgers pitcher NOT named Kershaw to strike out 12, allow 0 runs, 0 walks, and 3 or fewer hits, since Kevin Gross did it in Montréal on May 12, 1992.

And then there's the matter of Maeda's two-run single later in that 2nd inning. Because those were the only two runs the Dodgers scored. Maeda did single again in the 4th but got stranded. The last Dodgers pitcher with multiple hits and multiple RBIs in a game was Zack Greinke in 2014. But only five in team history have had multiple RBIs and accounted for every run the Dodgers scored in a victory. Randy Wolf did it against the Cubs on August 21, 2009, and before that you need Brooklyn in the house. Ralph Branca had such a game in 1951 and Burleigh Grimes did it twice in the 1920s.

So by now you're wondering about this "do it all" combination. Strike out 12 and record 2 hits on offense? Glad you asked. While Vince Velasquez of the Phillies did it last May, no Dodgers hurler had pulled it off since Ramon Martinez against the Braves on June 4, 1990.


110 Days, Suspended Sentence

We couldn't leave without a check-in to the Kernels rules desk, which just adores things like what happened in Detroit on Sunday. After the Tigers got a leadoff triple from Niko Goodrum, a passed ball, and a couple other escapades, they found themselves tied with Oakland 3-3 going to the 5th inning. And then, as it so often has in the Great Lakes region this spring, it rained. Let's get through 5 so the game becomes official. Except it's tied. Somebody has to score. Okay, we'll play long enough for Stephen Piscotty to double in two runs in the 7th. Then we'll bring Liam Hendriks out for B7, let him throw four pitches, and throw a tarp on it. Alas, after a wait of almost two hours, there was no "window" in sight. So call the game, Oakland wins 5-3 because that's the score at the moment of stoppage, right? Wrong.

It doesn't happen often, but the game becomes suspended under rule 7.02(a)(5), which is based on the principle that the teams have to have an equal number of chances to bat. So being that Oakland just took the lead in the top half, the Tigers have not yet had their full opportunity to answer. And oh yeah, by the way, Oakland doesn't come back to Detroit the rest of the season. And the only time the Tigers go to their place... is in September. So the game gets paused for 110 days until that west-coast trip on September 6, where it will be resumed in Oakland but with the Tigers batting last. It turns out the last game suspended under this particular rule is also the last suspended game to be resumed in the opposite city. It was between the Indians and Royals on August 31, 2014, and Cleveland had just scored in the top of the 10th.



And the last suspended game to occur in Detroit was on Friday, July 29, 1983, also against the Royals. It had a long rain delay (we've been unable to determine exactly how long) but started late enough that it finally hit the American League's old 1 am curfew rule. Now the nice part about it being Friday, and not weather-related, is that the teams finished the 9th inning the next day. But in another oddity that actually violates the rules, they completed the suspended game after the originally-scheduled one... because the original game was slated to be the Saturday afternoon national TV "Game Of The Week" and AL president Lee MacPhail didn't want to risk the resumed game going long and preempting viewers' weekly baseball fix.

The Pittsburgh Press, July 30, 1983.


Here ends your weekly baseball fix. Except for...


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Pablo Sandoval, Sat-Sun: First Giants batter to hit a pinch-hit homer in consecutive team games since Armando Rios got his first big-league callup on September 4 & 5, 1998.

⚾ Chris Sale, Tuesday: Became second pitcher ever to strike out 14+ in consecutive starts and not win either of them. Randy Johnson lost 1-0 and 2-0 complete games (one of which was a Joe Jimenez no-hitter on the other side) in June 1999.

⚾ Corbin Burnes, Friday: Third pitcher in the "earned run era" (1912) to give up seven of them, plus three homers, while getting no more than two outs. Dylan Bundy did it for the Orioles last May; the other is Travis Harper of the Rays in 2008.

⚾ Athletics, Monday: Fourth game in franchise history where they scored 5+ runs with all of them on solo homers. Previous was May 22, 1996, at Yankee Stadium (Geronimo Berroa hit three).

⚾ Austin Riley, Saturday: Became fourth player ever to play his first four MLB games in an Atlanta uniform and homer in two of them. Others were Jordan Schafer (2009), Jeff Francoeur (2005), and Mike Hessman (2003).

⚾ Domingo German, Wednesday: First Yankees pitcher to have 8 wins by May 15 since Tommy John in 1979. (We normally avoid such-and-such-date notes due to season-creep, but this was too good to pass up.)

⚾ Carlos Carrasco, Tuesday: First Cleveland pitcher to throw 7+ scoreless, walkless innings at Comiskey Park... since it was on the other side of 35th Street. Jim Perry did it on June 11, 1974.

⚾ Shane Bieber, Sunday: Second Indians pitcher in live-ball era to issue 0 walks and strike out 15+ in an individual shutout. Luis Tiant threw 10 innings for a 1-0 win over Minnesota on July 3, 1968.

⚾ Luke Jackson, Wednesday: First Braves pitcher to get a 2-inning save yet face less than 6 batters (DP erased an inherited runner) since Rudy Seanez vs Giants, May 17, 2000.

⚾ Gerardo Parra, Thursday: First player (any team) with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, 3 RBI, and a stolen base in a game in Washington since Baltimore's Luis Aparicio against the Senators on April 22, 1965.

⚾ Lorenzo Cain, Monday: Ninth leadoff batter in Brewers history with a 5-hit game. Previous was Mark Loretta vs Royals, July 17, 1999. Cain is first of the nine to do it in a loss.

⚾ Ivan Nova, Friday: Second game this season (April 23 at Baltimore) allowing 9+ runs and 3+ homers. Only other White Sox pitcher ever to do it twice in a season is Kevin Tapani in 1996.

⚾ Ryan Feierabend, Saturday: First pitcher for any team to record a 4-inning complete game (called by rain with home team winning) since the Mets' Steve Trachsel at Philadelphia, May 11, 2006.

⚾ Nomar Mazara, Wednesday: First Rangers batter with 4 hits, including 2 extra-base hits, but 0 runs scored and 0 driven in, since Rafael Palmeiro at Boston, June 30, 1990.

⚾ Kyle Hendricks, Tuesday: First Cubs pitcher NOT named Carlos Zambrano (who did it eight times) with a 3-hit game since Matt Clement at Pittsburgh, May 22, 2003.

⚾ Cardinals/Rangers, Sunday: Second game ever with a go-ahead sac fly in the top of an extra inning, and a walk-off sac fly in the bottom of the same inning. Mark Loretta of the Padres (that's two mentions just in this section!) and Ruben Sierra of the Yankees hit them on June 13, 2004.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Let There Be Light

If you follow the Kernels on Twitter, you're aware we were on a little Pennsylvania road trip for most of this week. Which included waking up much earlier than we'd prefer, several times in a row, although we make that sacrifice for worthy causes like morning baseball games. So there was way too much daylight around this week, and then a certain game Tuesday night just aimed the beam at exactly where this post was headed.


Dawn's Early Light

You might have noticed that this week's slate of MLB games also started earlier than usual, with the rare Monday-afternoon 12:30 getaway game in a wraparound series between the Reds and Giants. Even the bees were unprepared for a game at that hour and refused to leave. And after hitting his first major-league home run last Saturday, Nick Senzel was even more ready to get going, hitting the second pitch from Drew Pomeranz for a leadoff homer. That only inspired Eugenio Suarez to homer again two batters later. Throw in a Jose Iglesias triple and the Reds lead 5-0 before Anthony DeSclafani strikes out to end the inning. That means Senzel is up again to start the 2nd. Three guesses. Senzel thus became the first player in Reds history (1882) to lead off both the 1st and 2nd innings of the same game with homers. The last in the majors was Brian Dozier for the Twins on August 4, 2017.

Iglesias would add two more base hits to become just the second Reds batter in a quarter-century with a single, a double, a triple, and 4 RBIs. Joey Votto did it in a loss to the Dodgers three seasons ago. Speaking of Votto, he got plunked by a pitch in the 6th to drive in the Reds' 12th and final run-- right after rookie Josh VanMeter had been plunked for the 11th. In the live-ball era, the Reds had never received multiple bases-loaded hit-by-pitches in the same game, to say nothing of the same inning.

Pablo Sandoval would end up pitching a scoreless 9th inning, becoming the second Giants player to homer, steal a base, and pitch in the same game. The other actually was a pitcher-- Bill Walker against the Cardinals on July 14, 1929. And by not getting out of the 2nd, Drew Pomeranz at least made some company. The only Giants starter to give up 7+ runs, 3+ homers, and not get at least 6 outs, was Gaylord Perry against the Phillies on June 14, 1971.


Light My Fiers

If only the old saying was true and the Reds could have saved some of those runs for Tuesday. Or maybe a hit? We have to talk about it, don't we? Well, if the 300th currently-recognized no-hitter in MLB history had to happen, at least there's a fun story to it.

You probably know that the Oakland Coliseum has its issues. (If you don't, we won't elaborate. Google it.) It's over 50 years old, and hosting mulitple sports, sometimes simultaneously, can't help matters. But it's not usually the lights that are a problem. But sure enough, on Tuesday, the 7:00 start was not delayed by an inability to see. It was still daylight. The problem was that it was going to get dark later in the game and when one bank of lights in left field decided not to come on, team and MLB officials wanted to know whether there would be sufficient light later on. And they couldn't just turn the sun off for a couple minutes. So finally, shortly after 8, everyone was satisfied that the lighting was sufficient even without that one particular bank, and let's start the game at 8:45. Twitter was full of jokes about power outages, and the sputtering Reds offense, and how there will just be another lack of power/outage/failure once the game gets going. Heh.

Joey Votto fouled off that 8:45 first pitch and the Reds went 1-2-3 in the 1st. And the 2nd. And the 3rd. And now we're becoming concerned. In the 4th the famous "in play, no out(s)" code appears. But, as you know by now, it's not a hit, it's an error on Matt Chapman. Two walks in the 7th, maybe this'll do it. Nope, double play and a popup which Chapman has the nerve to catch this time. And at 11:10 pm, when Eugenio Suarez whiffs on a pitch in the dirt, we find Mike Fiers basking in the slightly-less-illuminated glow of the 300th currently-recognized no-hitter in major-league history. (We phrase it this way because they have changed the rules in the past, notably in 1991 to wipe out previously-recognized NHs that were less than 9 innings or that were broken up in extras. So it could always change again.)
Frankly we hoped row #300 was going to be reserved for the Padres if they ever throw one, but here we are.

If "Mike Fiers" and "no-hitter" sounds familiar, there's a reason for that. Because guess who occupies row 292 as well. That was his out-of-nowhere, who-is-this-guy no-hitter for the Astros on August 21, 2015. And that was also in an interleague game, against the Dodgers. He's the first pitcher ever to throw two of those (there's only been seven), and the seventh pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter with two different teams. You know a couple of the others, even though Justin Verlander hasn't done it yet; that list consists of Ted Breitenstein from the 1890s, future senator Jim Bunning, Randy Johnson, Hideo Nomo, Nolan Ryan, and Cy Young.

As for Oakland Coliseum, it has a neat connection here too. In the 11th game the Athletics ever played there, Catfish Hunter threw a no-hitter. That was on May 8, 1968-- 51 years minus one day before Fiers did it in the 4133rd game played there. All told it's seen 11 no-hitters by either the A's or their opponents, trailing only Fenway (14) and Dodger Stadium (12). And one of those others, considered equally unlikely by anyone who saw it, was Dallas Braden's perfect game on Mother's Day. That was on May 9 of 2010, giving the A's a no-hitter on each of three consecutive calendar days. Only the Braves (August 5-6-7) can claim that, and two of theirs were in the 19th century when they were in Boston and still referred to themselves as the Beaneaters.

And remember Eugenio Suarez's strikeout to end the game? And how he had two homers in Monday's game and it sure would have been nice to save one of them? He gets the award for the weirdest connection to come out of Tuesday's no-hitter. Although Fiers is only the seventh pitcher to throw them with two different teams, plenty of others have thrown two with the same team. Jake Arrieta, in 2016, was the previous one to join that club. His second NH, on April 21 and the only one of that season, was also against the Reds. While it didn't end on a strikeout, Cincinnati's final batter in that game? Eugenio Suarez. And the last hitter to make the final out in two different no-hitters? Why, that's Chase Utley of the Phillies. And he was the batter that Arrieta retired in 2015 to finish his first one.


Power Surge

We didn't get a chance to elaborate last Sunday on an emerging trend of "four-run homers", as some would call them. There were five grand slams hit on Sunday alone, and then plenty more in the early part of this week.

Monday's final from Camden Yards: Jonathan Villar 4, Red Sox 1. Now it's true that those other runners had to get on base, so partial credit to them, but Villar became the first Orioles batter in 15 years to hit a grand slam that accounted for all four of the team's runs in a game. Brian Roberts pulled that off in a 4-2 win at Coors Field on June 20, 2004. Their last player to do it at home was Brady Anderson against the Royals on August 26, 1997 (5-4 loss).

Last week we did bring you tales of the Royals and their many extra-base hits. Well, they're still at it. On Tuesday they dropped a 12-2 win on the Astros, their first time ever beating Houston by double digits. Ryan O'Hearn made the first big impact of the game by yanking his first career grand slam against Collin McHugh in the 3rd. That came after Whit Merrifield tripled to start the inning, and wouldn't you know it, Merrifield came up in the 7th with the bases loaded as well (O'Hearn was the runner on third). And presto, we have the second game in Royals history where the team hit multiple grand slams. Abraham Nuñez and John Buck hit them in a 10-3 win at Oakland on August 13, 2004. Merrifield joined Jarrod Dyson (2016) and Carlos Beltran (2001) as the only Royals to have a grand slam and a triple in the same game. And back on August 13, 2017, Whit also had a game with a homer (though not a slam), a triple, and 5 RBI as the Royals beat the White Sox 14-6. He's the first player in Royals history with two such games.

And on Wednesday, Hunter Pence, relegated to pinch-hitting duties in a National League park with no DH, said sure, I can do that. And proceeded to tie the game in the top of the 8th with the seventh pinch-hit slam in franchise history. Victor Diaz had the previous one, off the Yankees' Sean Henn on May 10, 2007. Brad Fullmer (off Mike Johnston, June 10, 2004) had the Rangers' only previous slam against the Pirates. No Ranger had hit any slam in a National League park since Sammy Sosa took Matt Belisle of the Reds deep on June 15, 2007. And having also driven in all four runs in Tuesday's 5-4 loss, Pence became the first Rangers batter with consecutive 4-RBI games since Mike Napoli did it in Boston on April 17 and 18, 2012.


Electric Company

You may remember that the original moniker of Houston's stadium was Enron Field, the naming rights having been bought by a local energy conglomerate that was cooking a lot more than your dinner. And after squeezing (that's a Minute Maid reference) the Rangers to 0 runs on just 2 hits on Friday, they put together an 11-4 win on Saturday that featured a dozen Gerrit Cole strikeouts and then turned it up another notch in Sunday's finale.

George Springer, leadoff homer. Stop us if you've heard this one; he actually hit three this week to move past the halfway point toward Craig Biggio's team record of 53. He singles and Alex Bregman homers in the 2nd. He singles and scores again in the 4th. And the 5th on another Bregman homer. Then he homers again on his own in the 6th. Then the 7th and 8th pass by on only seven batters, such that Springer is trapped on deck to end the game, denying him a chance at a second career six-hit game (Kirby Puckett remains the last player with two). Still, though, look at this boxscore. Springer, 5-for-5, 5 runs scored, 4 RBIs, 2 homers. Bregman, 3-for-5 but 2 homers and 5 RBIs. Even Tony Kemp played the "second leadoff batter" role admirably; hitting 9th he collected 3 hits, 3 runs, and a triple.

Kemp's the easy one to deal with. Martin Maldonado, last August 19, and Jim Golden, in the team's inaugural season of 1962, are the only other number-9 hitters with that 3-3-and-a-triple line. And the Astros' 15-5 win was the third in their history by that exact score, but oddly the first to (a) not be against the Cardinals, or (b) not occur in April 1994. The teams visited each other on alternate road trips that month, and the Astros won games a week apart (the 23rd and 30th) by identical 15-5 counts. And never before or since (until Sunday).

Now then. Springer tied Cesar Cedeño as the only Houston players to have three games of 5 hits or more. But then tack on 5 runs scored and it's the first 5-and-5 in Astros history. The most recent to do it for any team was also a leadoff batter, Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals last June 26. Like Springer, Carpenter also hit two homers; the only other leadoff batter in the live-ball era to go 5-5-2 is Tim Teufel of the Twins on September 16, 1983.

Sub in the 4 RBIs for the 2 homers, and Springer is only the fourth leadoff batter ever (since RBIs started counting in 1920, more on this later) with 5 hits, 5 runs, and 4 driven in. Ian Kinsler, at the time playing for Springer's opponent, the Rangers, did it on April 15, 2009; the others are Wally Moon of the Cardinals in 1954 (he also started the game with a homer) and Cliff Heathcote of the Cubs in 1922.

In any other game we'd be talking about Bregman's 5 RBIs by themselves. And the Astros have already had multiple other games this year where multiple players had 4 RBIs. But 2 homers and 4 RBIs? That's been done by only three other sets of Astros teammates, and Jeff Bagwell is in two of them. He teamed with Vinny Castilla against the Padres in 2001, and with Moises Alou against the White Sox in 1998. The remaining pair is Tim Bogar and Lance Berkman at Wrigley on September 9, 2000. And notice that Springer and Bregman bat one-two in the order. Considering a home run always clears the bases for the next guy, you don't often see adjacent batters with large RBI totals. The last time any team's one-two combo had each posted 2 homers and 4 RBIs in the same game was on August 22, 2010, when Omar Infante and Jason Heyward did it for the Braves.

We'll also throw one mention to Corbin Martin, who was the beneficiary of all those Houston runs. That's a great way to make your major-league debut go much smoother. Though he did give up a couple of runs and a dinger to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Corbin ended up striking out nine Rangers-- a number no other pitcher had reached while making his debut in an Astros uniform.


Keeping up with all this baseball stuff is tiring. And involves a lot of sitting (and in our case, typing). Sometimes you just gotta get up and dance. Intermission!


We'll Leave The Light On For You

If you thought Wednesday might be a good night to turn in early, well, there's eight baseball teams who would like to say "denied!".

Okay, two of them played a day game, so most people were not deprived of any sleep by that one, although the Diamondbacks might have lost an hour of sleep on the plane back home. But, A, they get that hour back by not observing Daylight-Saving Time, and B, they won, so they're probably okay with it. A fine start by Robbie Ray was wasted, however, when Eduardo Escobar's throwing error got Tampa Bay within 1 in the 8th, and then Yandy Diaz scored the tying run in the bottom of the 9th on Kevin Kiermaier's pinch-hit single. Tommy Pham would have scored the winning run on the same play, except that he was called out on the Buster Posey "home plate collision" rule. And like we always say, if this game was 10-10 and lots of stuff is happening, we feel confident that someone will score and end it fairly soon. It's 2-2. Leadoff walk in the 10th, then three straight outs. Leadoff double in the 11th, three straight outs. Pham draws a leadoff walk in the 12th and then gets picked off. Finally the D'backs connect two singles and a walk in the 13th and Zack Godley nails down the save for a 3-2 victory.

Wilmer Flores, who had the go-ahead hit in T13, joined Tony Womack (June 13, 1999, at Anaheim) as the only batters in Diamondbacks history to have one that late in a game in an American League park. Arizona's only other go-ahead hit against the Rays in any extra inning was Chris Young's walkoff homer on June 19, 2007. Kiermaier's single in the 9th was the sixth game-tying pinch hit in Rays history when they were down to their final out. The previous one was Dan Johnson's solo homer against the Yankees in a game that pops up a lot-- "Game 162" in 2011. And that wasted start by Robbie Ray? He was the fourth pitcher in team history to strike out 11+, allow 0 runs, and not get the win. Patrick Corbin did it last June against the Pirates, and the other two were both Randy Johnson losses.

But if you like the combination of strikeouts and extra innings, there's no topping the Orioles/Red Sox game. You know, the one where Chris Sale allowed 3 hits, struck out 14, and ended up in a 1-1 tie because two of those hits came back-to-back in the 6th. A Mookie Betts homer was all the offense Boston could muster, sending us off to extras without Sale being able to get a win. Counting his White Sox days, Sale's actually done the "14 K without a win" line five times now, one of just four pitchers with that many such games (Sam McDowell, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson). Ryan is the only other pitcher in the live-ball era to fan 14+ batters but also hit two and allow two stolen bases, doing so against Oakland on July 1, 1972.

It took until the top of the 12th before Andrew Benintendi connected for another solo homer, the second-latest by inning that the Sawx have ever gone deep at Camden Yards. Nomar Garciaparra took Terry Mathews deep in the 12th on April 24, 1997. And when Heath Hembree struck out the side in B12, it gave the Orioles a team-record 22 whiffs in the game, and counting Boston's 11, a Camden Yards-record 33 combined. Only once before in Red Sox history had they scored 1 or 2 runs, scored only on solo homers, and won the game. Glenn Hoffman and Dwight Evans both went yard in the 10th at Tiger Stadium on September 28, 1985.

The Cubs-- or more specifically, Jason Heyward-- were nice enough to only treat us to two extra innings on Wednesday, thanks to a leadoff homer in the bottom of the 11th. Jose Quijada, brought into the game for just that purpose (probably not), became the fifth Marlins pitcher to give up a walkoff homer to the first batter he faced, the previous being Yusmeiro Petit against the Rays on May 19, 2006. Kyle Hendricks, who pitched the first eight innings, gave up zero earned runs, zero walks, struck out seven, and of course didn't get the win because the game was tied. Since the National League adopted earned runs as a stat in 1912, only one other Cubs pitcher has hit those marks and not won the game, and that was in 1916 when George McConnell lost a 1-0 walkoff to the Cardinals.

To be honest, Heyward's homer wasn't that interesting by itself, but flash back to Tuesday. When Kris Bryant also hit a walkoff homer against the Marlins, albeit in the 9th and not extras. The Cubs hadn't connected for walkoff dingers in back-to-back games since Orlando Merced and Mark Grace did it against the Brewers on September 12 and 13, 1998. And the Marlins hadn't allowed it since the aforementioned Yusmeiro Petit game in 2006 was followed by a Russell Branyan shot off Logan Kensing the next day. Bryant also had a triple earlier in Tuesday's game, making him the first Cubs batter in four decades with a three-bagger and a walkoff homer in the same game. Larry Biittner did it against the Pirates on April 14, 1978.

And when you're done flashing back to Tuesday, you can flash forward to Saturday. Because in the Cubs' longest game of the week, one which happily started at 1:20 in the afternoon, both teams scored a lone run in the 5th inning and then said, yeah, that should be enough. Mmm, no. Somebody needs to score again. Nah, that's okay, they said. Let's play a full nine-inning game without anything happening before Willson Contreras finally connects for a line-drive homer to left in the bottom of the 15th. He came one out shy of the Cubs record for latest walkoff homer by inning; Gene Baker went deep with two outs in the 15th against the Dodgers on June 1, 1956. Contreras's one-out dinger also matched Sammy Sosa's against the Cardinals on September 2, 2003.

Now between Contreras, Heyward, and Bryant, it's definitely the first time in the live-ball era that the Cubs have hit three walkoff homers in a five-day span. It's very likely that it's the first time in team history, but before 1915 you start running into games where the home team batted first, so we can't say it with absolute certainty. And remember that 18-inning game that Milwaukee lost to the Mets last Saturday? That's the second time in Brewers history they've played two games of 15+ innings in eight days; the other happened on back-to-back days against Minneosta on May 12-13, 1972.

The Brewers managed to record just four hits on Saturday and ground into six double plays; both of those were also "seconds" as well. Their other 15-inning game with ≤ 4 hits... was a victory, at Texas on May 14, 1975. (Naturally, the winning run in that game scored on a walk, sacrifice, error, and bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.) And their other 6-DP game is a very famous one that was also in Chicago. It's the longest game in MLB history that resulted in a winner, their 25-inning marathon with the White Sox that celebrated its 35th anniversary this past week.


Turn Out The Lights

And when it came to walkoffs this week, well, there's no place quite like Oakland. (This is true of Oakland in general, you can take it however you want.) If you were still celebrating Mike Fiers' no-hitter on Tuesday, you had four extra innings to come down from that high before Stephen Piscotty walked off on Wednesday. The Athletics hadn't hit a walkoff homer in the 13th or later since Brandon Moss took Barry Enright of the Angels deep on April 29, 2013, and thanks to the quirk of this being an interleague game, it was only the second time the A's had ever walked off against Cincinnati. The other... was only Game 4 of the 1972 World Series, when Angel Mangual singled home Gene Tenace to give Oakland a 3-1 series lead (and eventually the first of their three straight titles).

When Matt Chapman brought an end to Friday's slate of games with another walkoff homer, it was the first time Oakland had hit two in a three-day span since Bobby Kielty and Mark Kotsay hit them against the White Sox on June 1 and 2, 2004. Forgetting the "homer" part, the A's hadn't had two walkoffs of any kind in the 12th or later so close together since June 17 and 18, 1988, when Stan Javier's 14th-inning double and Ron Hassey's 13th-inning single gave them consecutive wins against the Rangers.

And of course, Saturday brought one of the oddest walkoffs you've seen in a while, what would have been called an Infield Fly if there had been a runner on first. Ramon Laureano's popup resulted in mass confusion and fell right in between Carlos Santana and Jordan Luplow, giving Matt Olson enough time to race home from third with the winning run. At least this was in the 9th, so the extra-inning factor doesn't apply, but we also didn't have to go far to find three A's walkoffs in a four-day span. They've actually done it 10 times since moving to Oakland in 1968, the most recent being two years ago this week. They walked off against the Tigers on May 6 and 7, and then the Angels on May 8.

That walkoff on Saturday also spoiled another fine outing by Trevor Bauer, who will probably devise some conspiracy theory to cheat him out of a win. Since the AL adopted earned runs in 1913, he's just the third Cleveland pitcher to allow zero of them on two hits and strike out 10 or more in a game the team lost. Teammate Corey Kluber did it in 2014 when the Royals walked off in the 14th, and since every Cleveland pitching note must include either Bob Feller or Sam McDowell, the latter also did it in 1965 when the Orioles walked them off in the 11th.


Stick A Fork In It
(PSA: Don't do this.)

On the other hand, sometimes you don't have to wait to find out who's going to ultimately win the game. The Mets made quick work of the Marlins on Friday by batting around and scoring eight runs in the 1st inning, cruising to an 11-2 win at Citi Field. That Citi Field scoreboard had never before displayed an "8" in the bottom of the 1st (the Phillies did use the one in the top half once), and all the other stadiums where the Mets posted a 1st-inning snowman (or better) are all gone. They did it at Shea on July 12, 1979; Candlestick on August 16, 1988, and most recently at Veterans Stadium on June 16, 1989.

Amed Rosario jumped that scoreboard number from 3 to 7 with one swing of the bat; his grand slam was just the second one in team history by a number-8 or -9 hitter in the 1st inning. The other one was also against the Marlins, and also at Citi Field: Omir Santos took Anibal Sanchez deep in the stadium's 10th game on April 27, 2009. And Friday was the sixth Mets game ever where they collected eight hits in the 1st inning. The only other one in this century was a 7-run frame against the Padres on May 23, 2017.

Things calmed down (as they should), but the Mets still posted single runs in the 2nd (Michael Conforto homer) and 3rd (Jeff McNeil homer) to put Miami starter Pablo Lopez out of his misery. Jeff Locke (July 3, 2017) was the last Marlins pitcher to get tagged for 10+ hits and 10+ earned runs in a start; preceding him were Ricky Nolasco (2011), Ryan Dempster (2002), and Pat Rapp (1997). Tack on three homers, a wild pitch, and a hit batter, and Lopez is the first hurler ever to post that line in 3 innings or fewer. The previous "record" for such futility had been held by the Dodgers' Tom Candiotti, who needed 4 IP to do it against the Giants on August 4, 1995. Everyone else who bricked up such a game at least made it to the 7th.

And when you've got an early 10-2 lead, your own pitcher is free to be a little, well, looser. Zack Wheeler gave up nine hits of his own to the Marlins, but then went back to his usual self and struck out a bunch of people so those runners (usually) never scored. He's the first Mets pitcher to give up 9+ hits but also strike out 11+ since Johan Santana did it in Atlanta on August 2, 2010. That, however, was in a loss; the last Met to do it and win was Dwight Gooden against the Dodgers on May 11, 1990.


Socket To Me

If you had the Tigers in your pool entertainment-purposes-only exercise as the first team to get no-hit this year, we can't fault you for a bad guess. They've certainly come close a lot over the last couple seasons, easily leading the majors by having 3 or fewer hits in a game twenty-two times. So in Thursday's series finale with the Angels, the surprising line wasn't Detroit's 0 on 5, it was Anaheim's 13 on 16.

The first three batters of the game all reached against Ryan Carpenter, as did the first two hitters in the 2nd, meaning Tommy La Stella's homer later that inning already made it 5-0. In the 3rd, Albert Pujols brought an end to our latest Milestone Watch with a solo homer-- his 639th, but that's not the round number in question. Albert's driving in of himself constituted his 2000th RBI and, depending on whom you ask, either the third or fifth member of that elite club. Because, as we like to mention, RBIs were not adopted as official by MLB until 1920, the ones that have been awarded prior to that by historians have some subjectivity to them. Obviously on a home run, yes, that's an RBI, but picture a runner on second and a single to center where the outfielder then boots the ball. Would this guy on second have scored anyway, or would he have stopped at third and only scored on the error? How deep was the hit? How good a jump did he get? Don't know, weren't there. So MLB has chosen to not recognize around 200 of Babe Ruth's retroactive RBIs, and none of Cap Anson's since his entire career happened pre-1920. Regardless, all three "official" members (the others are Hank Aaron and Alex Rodriguez) drove in run number 2000 with a homer, and if you include the awarded ones, so did Ruth. Anson is the lone holdout; his unofficial 2000th came in 1896, a season in which he only homered twice.

Meanwhile, on Thursday the Angels piled on seven more late runs with three more homers off the bullpen, including another by La Stella, such that the final of 13-0 matched their largest-ever shutout of the Tigers. The other was on July 17, 2012, and was also the only other time the Angels hit five homers at Comerica Park. It had been nearly six years since eight different Angels batters had an extra-base hit in a road game; that happened at Wrigley Field on July 10, 2013. And La Stella became the first number-9 batter in team history to hit two homers and drive in four runs in a road game. Three players-- Francisco Arcia last September, Benji Gil in 2001, and Jack Howell in 1985-- did it at home.

The Tigers then went to Minnesota on Friday and one-downed themselves, this time getting shut out on only three hits against Jake Odorizzi. Two of those hits came off Fernando Romero in the 9th inning, which (a) is why we don't start on "X hits in a game" notes until it's actually over, and (b) means Odorizzi only allowed 1 hit in his 7 innings of work. He also didn't walk anybody, making him the first pitcher in Twins history (1961) to post that line. Between 1920 and 1960, only two Senators recorded 7 shutout innings with 1 hit and 0 walks: Camilo Pascual as a reliever against Cleveland in 1954, and Walter Johnson in his only career no-hitter on July 1, 1920.


Red-Right-Return

You might know this phrase if you've ever been on a boat. It refers to keeping the red lights on your right as you return upstream from the open sea. A navigational aid for... Mariners.

Baseball's Mariners navigated their way from New York to Boston this weekend via Long Island Sound, past Nantucket, around Cape Cod, and into Massachusetts Bay (this is most certainly not true, they took an airplane). And the big numbers navigated their way from one side of the scoreboard to the other.

After a three-run walkoff 9th inning by the Yankees on Tuesday, the Mariners decided they weren't going to let that happen again Wednesday, scoring five early runs and letting their latest Japanese crossover sensation, Yusei Kikuchi, hold the Yankees to three hits in 7⅔ innings. He's the team's first pitcher NOT named Felix Hernandez to throw that many innings in the Bronx and allow so few hits since Gil Meche did it on August 9, 2003.

But you still never know with these Yankees. So those five late runs don't hurt, all in the 8th and 9th off Jake Barrett who was Wednesday's "take one for the team" honoree. Ryon Healy homered for the first two of those runs to make it 7-1, and came very close to doubling in an 11th run the next inning, except that catcher Omar Narvaez was the lead runner and had to stop at third. As it was, that was Healy's third double of the game, the first time any Mariners player has ever compiled three two-baggers against the Yankees. Tack on the homer, and he's the first player in team history to have four extra-base hits in a game where he batted either 8th or 9th. The only Mariner even to do it from the 7-hole was Adrian Beltre against the Angels in 2007.

At the current Yankee Stadium (2009), only four visiting players have recorded a 4-XBH game, and two of them are Mariners. Kyle Seager had a homer, double, and two triples on June 2, 2014; the others are Mike Trout last May and Toronto's Yunel Escobar in 2012. Wednesday was the third time Seattle had reached double digits at the current Bronx ballpark; they beat David Phelps 10-2 in 2014 and Phil Hughes by a 12-2 count the year before. Overall, Wednesday was the eighth time the Mariners scored 10 or more runs this year; that not only leads the majors, it matches the total number of double-digit games they had all of last season.

Over the weekend, however... not so much. On Friday they were pounded to their second-worst loss ever against the Red Sox, a 14-1 final that trailed only a 15-1 visit to Fenway in August of 2015 (which was followed by a 22-10 game the next day). Erik Swanson, fresh off his first major-league victory earlier in the week, gave up 7 runs and 2 homers before getting pulled in the 5th, and the bullpen obviously didn't fare any better. Rafael Devers and Mitch Moreland became the sixth pair of Sawx teammates to each homer, double, and drive in 4 runs in a game at Fenway. Devers is part of the previous pair as well, joining Xander Bogaerts last September. David Ortiz was involved in two such pairs earlier this decade; the others date to 1978 (Bernie Carbo & Butch Hobson) and 1959 (Gary Geiger & Frank Malzone). And even though the Mariners got hammered (PSA: Don't drink and boat), Domingo Santana made his own little bit of team history, joining Dustin Ackley (August 24, 2014) and Joe Simpson (September 3, 1981, in a 20-inning game) as the only Seattle players to single, double, and triple in a game at Fenway Park. He was also the second Mariner ever with each of those three hits in a game where the team ended up with only 1 run; Ken Griffey Jr managed it against Oakland on June 24, 1997.

Then we come to Sunday's finale and another Red Sox win, not quite as big but still a respectable 11-2. After Saturday's 9-5 game, it marked the second time the Mariners had lost three straight games to the Red Sox, all by 4 runs or more. And the other was in their inaugural season, August 1977. Michael Chavis turned in the big performance on Sunday, collecting 5 RBIs by being in just the right place at the right time. The place, of course, is the batter's box, and the time is when Boston has runners on second and third each time. Chavis had a pair of two-run singles and a one-run single, becoming the first Red Sox batter with 5 RBI and no extra-base hits since Mike Lowell against Oakland on September 26, 2007. And the rookie Chavis was playing just his 20th MLB game; the only other player to pull off the 5-RBI-with-0-XBH feat that early was Jack Conway of the Indians, who did it in his 13th game in 1946.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Ian Desmond, Tuesday: Sixth player in Rockies history with two triples in a loss. Previous was Tyler Colvin against the Cardinals on August 1, 2012.

⚾ Phillies, Sunday: First game where they scored 6+ runs with all of them in the same inning since a 7-3 win at Florida on April 24, 2009. Had gone longest of any team without such a game by over 3 years.

⚾ Adam Frazier, Friday: First Pirates batter with a leadoff homer in St Louis since Al Martin hit one in the final game of the 1995 season.

⚾ Jorge Polanco & C.J. Cron, Wednesday: Second time in Twins history that one player had 5 hits including a homer, and another had 4 hits including a homer. Joe Mauer & Danny Valencia did it July 26, 2010, in Kansas City.

⚾ Zach Eflin, Saturday: First visiting pitcher to throw a 4-hit shutout with 0 walks at Kauffman Stadium since Ervin Santana of the Angels on May 5, 2008.

⚾ Vince Velasquez, Monday: First Phillies pitcher to allow 5+ walks and 3+ homers since J.A. Happ vs Red Sox, June 14, 2009.

⚾ Tyler Austin, Thursday: Fourth player in Giants history with 2 HR & 6 RBI in a loss. Others are Barry Bonds (2007), Bill Terry (1932), and Mel Ott (1930).

⚾ Melky Cabrera, Tuesday: First Pirate with a pinch-hit double to flip the lead (any inning) since Jason Kendall walked off against the Expos on June 18, 2003.

⚾ Josh Tomlin, Saturday: First pitcher in Braves history to "earn" a hold despite allowing three runs and multiple homers. Last for any team was Russ Springer of the Cardinals on September 3, 2003.

⚾ Blake Snell, Sunday: Second pitcher in Rays history to strike out 12, allow ≤ 4 hits, and lose. James Shields did it in a 1-0 complete game against Baltimore on October 2, 2012.

⚾ Astros, Wed-Fri: Second time in team history holding three consecutive opponents to ≤ 3 hits with 10+ strikeouts. Other streak was September 23-25, 1986, ending with Mike Scott's no-hitter vs Giants.

⚾ Justin Turner, Tuesday: With Cody Bellinger on March 30, first season where two different Dodgers have had a 4-hit, 6-RBI game since Babe Herman, Al Lopez, and Glenn Wright all did it in 1930.

⚾ Reds, Thursday: Had a designated hitter (Derek Dietrich) homer and a pitcher (Michael Lorenzen as pinch runner) steal a base. First team in MLB history to do that in same game.

⚾ Tommy La Stella, Sat-Sun: First player in Angels history to be granted a catcher's interference award in consecutive games. First Angel to have four in a season since Hideki Matsui in 2010 (team record is five).

⚾ Nick Senzel, Sunday: First Reds batter to lead off a game with a catcher's interference award since Pete Rose against the Giants on May 10, 1971.

⚾ Mike Leake, Thursday: Second pitcher in Mariners history to throw 7+ innings of 1-run ball in the Bronx and lose. Jim Beattie gave up an unearned run to start the 8th on May 1, 1982.