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
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
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.
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.
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