Casino Night

We could probably have saved this theme for next week, when (God willing) #Kernels will come to you from Las Vegas and that stadium list up top will finally get an update. But on many of these road trips we do pop into the local gambling house, partly to pass some time if we're not at a day game, and occasionally out of necessity because the motel internet doesn't work (looking at you, Scranton). If you've got stuff to do late at night, then heck, at least you know that's one place that won't throw you out because they're closing. We've even seen "Casino Night" as a theme night at a minor-league event or two, and recall one time in high school when some group (possibly MADD) tried to counter-program a casino-themed event opposite the prom or homecoming or one of those big weekends. Because yes, let's keep the high-schoolers from going out drinking, by teaching them how to gamble instead. The '80s were fun. But we digress. You want your baseball (Golden) nuggets.


Lucky Sevens

Every week it feels like there's one team that reads our post each Sunday or Monday (dare to dream) and says, hey, that sounds like a good idea, and then goes out and does it in the next game. This week's prize is shared by the Angels and Edwin Jackson, who quickly escalated the first MLB game of the week after the Blue Jays decided to join the "opener" bandwagon. Derek Law pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Jackson... um... did not. First pitch, Justin Upton homer. Two pitches, Kole Calhoun homer. Two outs-- but two walks and a Mike Trout double-- later, Shohei Ohtani 3-run jack. Okay, we're done here. It's 7-1 after two innings and the Angels cruise to a 10-5 win despite their own "designated follower" (we heard this term on Oakland's radio broadcast this week and kinda like it), Felix Peña, also giving up 4 runs and 2 homers. He was the first "reliever" in Angels history to throw 6+ innings, give up multiple homers, and get a win.

But back to Jackson for a moment. How many other Jays pitchers have ever given up 7+ runs and 3+ homers while getting only 2 outs? Yeah, that would be none. And as many teams as he's played for, it the first game of Jackson's career where he'd surrendered 3 homers and gotten less than seven outs (which he did with the Nationals two seasons ago). Forgetting the 7 runs (as if), only one other Jays pitcher had ever given up 3 homers in a 2-out appearance and eaten a loss because of it; Corey Thurman did that in a start against the Rangers on August 8, 2003.

The Angels last had a 7-run inning in Toronto on July 10, 2004, mostly against Kerry Ligtenberg. And by the time it was all done, those three players who homered-- Trout, Ohtani, and Calhoun-- had all also doubled. Only twice before had the Angels had a trio of players homer and double in a road game: July 2, 2016, when Albert Pujols, C.J. Cron, and Carlos Perez did it it at Fenway; and September 25, 1979, by Dan Ford, Don Baylor, and Bobby Grich, also in Toronto (though at Exhibition, not Rogers).

Mike Trout, however, was not quite done. Two days later, he would homer in the 2nd inning to put the Angels up 3-0, only to be matched later in the inning by Rowdy Tellez for a 3-3 tie. Okay, well, let's take this up a notch in the 4th. After Tommy La Stella gets his sixth(!) catcher's interference award of the season (no one else in the majors has more than three), the bases are full of, let's say, Trout bait. He joined Bengie Molina (2004), Adam Kennedy (2000), and Dave Winfield (1991) as the only Angels batters to hit a grand slam at SkyDome/Rogers, and by tacking on a 9th-inning single for the final margin of 11-6, he became the sixth visiting player with a 2-homer, 7-RBI game there. That list includes three Mariners (Brian Giles, Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz), plus then-Clevelander Manny Ramirez in 1999 and Mookie Betts from two years ago.

And it's worth mentioning that Tellez would also go on to homer again, although his second one was a solo shot and he ended up with "only" 4 RBIs. But combined, he and Trout were just the third opposing players in stadium history to each have 2 homers and 4 driven in. And the others go to its first couple seasons. Joe Carter and Carlos Quintana of the Red Sox did it on August 9, 1991; and the first pair was Glenallen Hill and the aforementioned Brian Giles on May 17, 1990.


Hit On 16

By now we all know that Camden Yards is not a pitchers' park. Entering Sunday, it had seen the most home runs so far this season, in a season that is on pace to shatter all kinds of home-run records. Oakland Coliseum, on the other hand, the last of the "cookie-cutters" with its vast expanses of foul territory and high walls to accommodate a football field, is not. The two parks hover around fifth from the top and fifth from the bottom in ESPN's park factors. So if we told you the O's and A's were going to play a 16-2 game that featured seven home runs, you would say the game is at...?

Yep. Remember we do the weird stuff. Tuesday's contest at Oakland Coliseum started out somewhat normal and AL-West-ish, with someone named Beau Taylor, in just his 13th big-league at-bat, taking Gabriel Ynoa deep for the first run in the 3rd. But that should be a clue. Taylor had just 11 homers in three seasons in the Pacific Coast League, so if he's hitting them at the Coliseum, well, Beau knows this one's about to turn ugly. Ramon Laureano hits a 3-run shot in the 4th. The Orioles get one back when Jonathan Villar goes deep in the 5th. Ynoa gives up another homer to Robbie Grossman in the 5th to continue a grand tradition of Orioles pitchers having total meltdowns in June (seriously, two years ago, they had fourteen starters give up 5+ runs just that month alone). So the good news is that Ynoa got spared any more damage. The bad news is that Paul Fry and Dan Straily didn't do any better. Marcus Semien RBI triple. Richie Martin makes a 2-out error that will render most of this inning unearned, but still they all count. Straily gives up a 3-run bomb to Khris Davis, the first batter he faces. Okay, blank slate, maybe now we can-- single, wild pitch, walk, another 3-run dinger by Stephen Piscotty. That all adds up to a 10-run inning, the first by any team at the famously offense-averse Oakland Coliseum since the Cardinals did it on June 16, 2007. The A's hadn't done it in a home game since July 5, 1996, when the Angels opened with 3 in the 1st and the A's went a little overboard in their response by hanging a thirteen in the bottom half. That game still holds the modern-era record for most combined runs in a 1st inning.

Chad Pinder added another 2-run homer in the 6th to provide our final margin of 16-2. Pinder was the first Oaklander with a multi-run pinch-hit homer against Baltimore since Mike Aldrete took Alan Mills deep on June 8, 1993. But that final score marked the first time the Athletics had ever scored 16+ against Baltimore, and their second-largest win ever since the Orioles moved there in 1954. They dropped a 15-0 shutout, more-predictably at Camden Yards, on August 30, 2001. And Tuesday was just the second home game in A's history, in any city (they've had three!) where six different players went yard. It also happened in a 13-6 win over the Red Sox at the Coliseum on August 21, 1997.

On the Orioles' side, Ynoa and Straily each surrendered three of those six homers, just the second time in franchise history (1901) where two pitchers did it in the same game. Sindey Ponson and Rocky Coppinger each gave up three homers against Toronto on July 8, 1999. And you may remember from last week that Straily gave up four homers last Thursday against the Red Sox. He's the first reliever in franchise history to surrender three of them in back-to-back appearances, and the first for any team since Dan Murray of the Royals on (look at that June theme!) June 16 and 18 of 2000.


Stay on 17

They are the games we love to hate. (Or, maybe, in your case, hate to love. We're okay with that.) The low-scoring games where neither team can do anything, either because of great pitching or because the offenses are just inept, and it gets to the 8th or 9th with a score of 2-1 or 1-1, and you can just feel that if this goes to extras we are going to be here a lonnnnngggg time.

Welcome to Tuesday in Minneapolis. Rafael Devers of the Red Sox hits a 2-out RBI single in the top of the 4th. C.J. Cron of the Twins hits a 2-out RBI single in the bottom of the 4th. Devers homers to lead off the 7th, okay, at least it's not tied. And then the Sawx issue two walks and a wild pitch in the bottom of the 8th, such that Max Kepler easily ties the game with another of those pesky 2-out RBI singles. Ohhhh boy, here we go.

Brock Holt, leadoff double in the 10th. Nope, can't score him. Two more singles in the 12th, still can't score. Twins get a walk and a single in the bottom of the 12th, but nope. Oh, hey, Mookie Betts, leadoff homer in the 13th, maybe the end is finally in sight. Turns out Mookie also had a go-ahead homer in the 12th in Toronto on May 22, and is the first Red Sox batter to hit two in the 12th or later of the same season since Carl Yastrzemski in 1975.

Okay, Hector Velazquez, you have one job. Mmmmm, no. Kepler repeatedly refuses to let this game end by matching Betts with his own leadoff homer in B13. That was the first Twins homer in the 11th or later at Target Field that was not a walkoff. We'll spare you the rest except to say that there were baserunners in T14, T15, B15, T16, B16, and T17 and none of them could be bothered to score. It's only when Brian Johnson cameon for the bottom of the 17th and gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases, that Max Kepler finally decided the game could end. Walkoff blooper to right for a 4-3 victory that took 5 hours 45 minutes, the longest game by both time and innings in Target Field history. It was the longest game in Minneapolis since an 18-inning affair against Oakland on August 8, 2004, and the Twins lost that game. Their only other walkoff anything in the 17th or later was a home run by Pedro Muñoz in the 22nd inning against Cleveland on August 31, 1993.

And if you've been following Kepler's adventures, that's a tying hit in the 8th, another tying hit (the homer) in the 13th, and a walkoff hit in the 17th. He's the first player in almost 80 years to have two tying hits plus a walkoff hit, all in the 8th or later, in the same game. Dolph Camilli of the Dodgers homered in the 8th, doubled home Billy Herman in the 10th, and then singled home Pete Coscarart in the 15th, against the Braves on September 1, 1941. Evem ignoring the tying hit in the 8th, he's the first player to have a game-tying hit and a go ahead-hit in the same game, both were in the 13th or later, since then-Brewer Willie Randolph did it against the White Sox on May 1, 1991.


Aces Wild

That 17-inning game on Tuesday followed a series opener on Monday that actually was much closer to a pitcher's duel. Rick Porcello, not really an "ace" on a team with Chris Sale and David Price, but still respectable, went up against Jose Berrios, who is certainly Minnesota's top pitcher but flies under the radar because their offense homers every five at-bats. So it was a bit surprising to see a game where the Twins didn't homer at all, but where they got shut out by Porcello and lost basically because Berrios gave up three straight singles to start the game. It was the first time the Red Sox had shut out the Twins on 5 or fewer hits at Target Field; their last such game at the Metrodome was May 4, 2007, in a Tim Wakefield start. Porcello's performance sent us back another decade before that; no Sawx pitcher had thrown 7+ shutout innings with 8+ strikeouts in Minneapolis since Tom "Flash" Gordon on May 17, 1997.

And what of poor Jose Berrios? Who gave up those 3 hits and 1 run in the 1st but then retired 19 straight and 23 of 25 before departing? Why, he's got some good company also. No Twins pitcher, against any team, had gone 8 innings, allowed 1 run, struck out 10+, and eaten a loss, since Bert Blyleven did it at Texas on April 20, 1974, when Jim Fregosi broke a scoreless tie with a walkoff single.

You can take the "Aces Wild" header in a different direction as well. On Friday Sandy Alcantara-- who is too new to have reached true "ace" status yet, but he's certainly the Marlins' anchor-- managed to scatter eight hits and four walks, yet give up only one run. To make matters worse, four of those hits were doubles, Alcantara chipped in two wild pitches, and the Phillies stole three bases behind him. In fact that lone run they scored off him came on a double steal between Roman Quinn and Bryce Harper. They stranded 11 including seven in scoring position. For the Phillies, it was the first time their only run of a game came on a steal of home since Al Lakeman and Del Ennis pulled off the double against St Louis on August 1, 1947. And for Alcantara, well, he's only the third pitcher in the live-ball era to allow 12 baserunners, 3 steals, 2 wild pitches, and yet only 1 run. Randy Johnson would be a good (and correct) guess; he did it in 1993. The other was Bill Travers of the Brewers in 1976.

Then there is Walker Buehler's masterpiece against the Rockies on Friday night. It started with an innocent-looking strikeout of Charlie Blackmon, notable in itself because he frequently homers, but then two more in the 2nd and three more in the 3rd. Four in the 4th would have been tricky, but why not at least average two more for the rest of the game. In fact, let's set down 25 of the first 27 Rockies hitters, to the point where Colorado never batted with a runner on base until the 9th inning. Those other two Rockies hitters-- Blackmon and Nolan Arenado-- both homered. Blackmon would dump a single into right in the 9th but then, you guessed it, two more strikeouts to end the game with 16. The last Dodgers pitcher with a 16-K outing was Hideo Nomo against the Marlins on April 13, 1996. Besides Buehler and Nomo, only four other 16-K games had been spun at Dodger Stadium, by Ramon Martinez in 1990, Tom Seaver of the Mets in 1974, and Sandy Koufax twice. Buehler also became the fifth pitcher in the live-ball era to fan 16 but also give up 2 homers. Max Scherzer did it in his 20-K game three seasons ago, and the rest of the club (it's a nice one) is Randy Johnson, David Cone, and Steve Carlton.

But hang on a second. That's all written as if the game is over. Which it actually wasn't because the Dodgers had also scored only 2 runs. So we can speculate whether Buehler would have pulled a Rich Hill and gone back out for the 10th (doubtful after 111 pitches), but fortunately Matt Beaty would spare Dave Roberts that decision by hitting a walkoff 2-run homer against Jairo Diaz. Andre Ethier (2009) and David Ross (2004), both in extras, hit the only other multi-run walkoff homers for the Dodgers against the Rockies. And it's only because of that homer that Buehler actually gets the complete-game win. The last pitcher to strike out 16+ and have to "back into" a CG win with a walkoff? It's not surprising that it's Nolan Ryan. But it's one of his all-time memorable games, on September 27, 1973, when he insisted on pitching 11 innings (despite developing a cramp in the 9th) because he needed one more strikeout to break Sandy Koufax's record of 382 for the season. He got it by fanning Rich Reese to end the 11th, and then Richie Sehienblum hit a walkoff double in the bottom half to also give Ryan the CG win.

And our discussion of aces wouldn't be complete without mentioning Masahiro Tanaka's dominance of the Rays on Monday. Austin Meadows finally got the first hit off him to start the 4th, and Willy Adames added another inconsequential single in the 5th. Meadows walked in the 6th but got caught stealing. Tanaka then retired the Rays on 10 pitches in the 7th and six (!) in the 8th, leaving him set up to throw the Yankees' first 2-hit individual shutout since Hiroki Kuroda did it against the Rangers on August 14, 2012. Every other team except the Royals had watched some pitcher or another throw an SHO-2 since then. And in the current era, because strikeouts tend to require more pitches, you don't see a lot of shutouts that also have a lot of strikeouts. Tanaka was the first Yankees pitcher to throw an SHO-2 with 10 or more K's since Mike Mussina on September 24, 2002 (also against the Rays, for what that's worth).


You may be able to read about baseball's strange happenings on this blog every week, but you can't read Lady Gaga. Intermission (muh muh muh muh)!



Boxcars

Cameron Maybin had 3 hits and a homer to back Tanaka in that Monday game, and if that sounds familiar, it's because he also homered last Saturday and Sunday, all the while realizing he's destined for a road trip to Scranton (there are worse places, trust us) after Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton came back from injuries. But he would really leave his mark by homering in a fourth straight game on Tuesday in the Yankees' 6-3 win over the Rays. Only two other players in Yankees history have homered in four straight games while batting 8th or 9th in each game; Gleyber Torres did it last May shortly after being called up, and the other is "only" Tony Lazzeri, who did it in May 1936, with the final game in the streak being his famous 11-RBI game where he became the first player ever to hit two grand slams in a game.

That 6-3 win on Tuesday would be just the start of a series of Yankee sixes this week, hence our section header. Wednesday's game erupted right from the outset with an infield single by DJ LeMahieu, a walk to Luke Voit, and Gary Sanchez's 3-run homer. Let's then have Blake Snell, the rare Rays pitcher who doesn't qualify as an "opener" anymore, walk the bases loaded before we can't take anymore. Put in Colin Poche, who hits Gio Urshela, and then LeMahieu ends the inning where it began, with another single to plate runs 5 and 6. Snell got charged with all of those, the first Rays starter to give up 6+ runs while getting 1 out since Tim Corcoran, also against the Yankees, on September 12, 2006. Poche was the first Rays pitcher to enter a game with the bases loaded, and hit the first batter he faced, since Shawn Camp on May 4, 2006, yet again versus the Yankees.

Things settled down after that 11-batter 1st inning, and the Yankees actually didn't have another baserunner until the 7th. But once again LeMahieu starts things with a walk, and after two more walks and two more hits, it falls to Gleyber Torres to hit a grand slam for the Yankees' second 6-run inning of the game, something that hadn't happened since April 21, 2012, in Boston. They hadn't had multiple 6-run frames in a home game since the famous "three grand slams" game against Oakland on August 25, 2011. And with all those walks helping out, the Yankees managed to finish the game with 12 runs on just 9 hits, their first such home game since defeating the Tigers 12-3 (on 7 walks and 3 homers) on April 9, 1999.

On Thursday, now with Houston in the house, it was Framber Valdez's turn to get into some early trouble, though he did at least finish an inning. Actually three of them before Gary Sanchez homered to lead off the 4th. But once one of them gets going, well, watch out. Giancarlo Stanton doubles, Edwin Encarnacion walks, and Gleyber Torres hits a 3-run bomb. When DJ LeMahieu connected again later in the inning (after Valdez's departure), it gave the Yankees their first set of 6-run innings in back-to-back games in just over a decade. On May 19 and 20 of 2009 they did it against the Orioles (and also on the 18th against the Twins). Torres, who hit that slam on Wednesday, was the first Yankee since Greg Bird last July to hit a 3-run homer and a 4-run homer in consecutive games. And note that Sanchez homered on both Wednesday and Thursday as well. So when the two of the each went deep again in Friday's win, they became the first teammates in Yankees history to have simultaneous 3-game homer streaks.


Flop Card

We had to give one paragraph to Jack Flaherty of the Cardinals for the particularly-wacky ending to Thursday's game. St Louis and Miami battled to a 5-5 tie after nine innings, only to see JT Riddle hit a 2-run homer in the 11th. That turns out to be the first extra-inning homer that the Marlins have ever hit against the Cardinals, leaving the Reds and Pirates as the only NL opponents they've never victimized. Ah, but this is why both teams have a chance to bat. Paul Goldschmidt leads off the bottom of the 11th with a single, and with two outs, Yadier Molina doubles him home to make it 7-6. That was the Cardinals' first RBI double in 5 years in the bottom of an extra inning that didn't at least tie the game; Jon Jay hit one against David Robertson of the Yankees on May 26, 2014, when also trailing by 2. But now Molina represents the tying run. And Yadi is a lot of things to the Cardinals faithful, but he's also a catcher who will be 37 in a few weeks. So we're going to sub in pitcher Jack Flaherty to carry that tying run. And then let's have Sergio Romo's first move, before even giving Matt Wieters a chance to see a pitch, throw back to second. If you don't believe that just happened, well, neither did Flaherty, because he cemented his place in baseball lore by refusing to leave second base. And why not just stay there overnight. Because in the entire population of games in the great Baseball Reference Play Index, which is nearly complete back to the mid-1950s and includes many games as far back as 1925, he's the first pitcher-used-as-pinch-runner ever to be picked off to end a game. Only two others came close, and one was another Cardinal: Curt Simmons made the first out of the 9th against the Pirates on June 21, 1960. Kyle Kendrick of the Phillies, on June 1, 2013, got picked off by the Brewers for the second out of the 9th.

And part of Flaherty's thoughts had to be, that just happened again? Because five days earlier against the Mets, also pinch-running for Molina, Flaherty tried to score from first on a bloop double that fell in the "triangle" behind second base. Nope, out at the plate to end that game with a 1-run loss as well. And while we've found plenty of instances of pitchers-as-pinch-runners making the last out of a game, we got back to 1960 before we started losing some of the play-by-play accounts, and no other pitcher since then has done it twice in a week.


Hit: The Jackpot

We admit, we had already spent the "hit on 16" header before pitchers started plunking batters early and often over the weekend.

Tanner Roark, now with the Reds, had a pretty good start against the Brewers on Thursday. He threw 6 innings, allowed 1 run on 3 hits, struck out 7, and got the win as Cincinnati easily topped Milwaukee 7-1. But take a closer look at those pitching lines. Roark hit Yasmani Grandal with a pitch not once but twice, and then plunked Lorenzo Cain in the 5th for good measure. So he gave up as many runners by plunking them, as he did by actually allowing them to get a base hit. No Reds pitcher had done that (≤ 3 hits but 3+ HBP) in a game since Rube Benton came unraveled in the 7th inning against the Cardinals on September 10, 1914. A hundred years before his time, Benton actually had a no-hitter going, but having walked five and hit three, the "metrics" said it was time for him to go.

Meanwhile, Derek Dietrich, now with the Reds, also got plunked twice, albeit by two different pitchers. And then, after Jesse Winker tripled in the 2nd, the Brewers said, yeah, let's not have that happen again, just hit him. So Winker earns a note for being the first Reds leadoff batter with a triple and an HBP in the same game since Ryan Freel at Dodger Stadium on May 16, 2004. And altogether we have just the sixth game in the live-ball era where both teams received 3+ hit-by-pitches. The Pirates and Padres were the previous beanballfest on June 2, 2014.

We're pretty sure Dietrich is not trying to have Rob Manfred's signature permanently embossed on his arm, although to each his own. Maybe he's just got some funky magnet that attracts baseballs. If so he must have shared it with Eugenio Suarez, because the two of them got plunked back-to-back in the 1st inning by Chase Anderson on Friday. Dietrich comes up again to start the 3rd and plunk. He is already the first Reds batter in the live-ball era to receive multiple HBPs in consecutive games... and we've still got six innings left. By the time the 7th rolls around, Junior Guerra is now in the game, and guess what happens to his second pitch to Dietrich. Doink. This one finally earned a staredown and a warning to both benches, but it also earned Dietrich a share of the MLB record for a single game, and the honor of being the first Reds batter ever to get hit three times. We also could find no other player to receive five total HBPs in a two-game span.

So what's he do on Saturday? Yep, gets hit again, this time only once by Alex Claudio. Dietrich turned out to be the only batter Claudio faced, duplicating the latter's "feat" from May 11 of facing only Anthony Rizzo and hitting him. Only one other pitcher in Brewers history has two outings where he faced one batter and plunked the guy, Zach Braddock in 2011. And Dietrich, while not setting another record with three straight multi-HBP games, did become the first Reds batter to get hit at lease once in three straight team games since Jason LaRue in July 2006.

The baseball magnet then shifted west on Saturday when the Rays and Athletics just couldn't stop hitting each other. Mike Fiers, who knows a little something about opponents not getting hit, began by plunking Avisail Garcia in the 2nd. The Rays actually got another HBP awarded by replay later in the inning when Willy Adames was brushed. And the very next inning, Garcia comes up again and gets doinked by Fiers' first pitch. No Oakland pitcher had hit three batters and thrown a wild pitch since Mike Norris did so in Boston on May 23, 1982, and that was a 6-inning rain-shortened game (who knows what he could have done in 9!). And since we actually looked this up, Fiers is not the first Oakland pitcher with a no-hitter and a "3-hitter" (as in HBPs) in the same season. Dave Stewart did it the other way around in 1990.

Ah, but now it's the Rays' turn. Ramon Laureano leads off the 6th against Yonny Chirinos and doink. He then reappears in the 7th after the A's have loaded the bases, so you certainly can't say they're trying to hit people. But they sure did. That forced in the Athletics' final run of their 4-2 win, and would you look at that, both Garcia and Laureano batted 5th and got hit twice. In all the searchable online boxscores back to 1908, there's never been a game where the two number-X batters both got hit twice. And scroll down, turns out they both stole a base along the way as well. Since 1908 that's never happened either, by any two players in the same game, regardless of position in the order.


Security, Watch This Guy

Alex Dickerson, at least so far, is one of those players you might refer to as "quadruple-A". Drafted by the Pirates in 2011, traded to the Padres as a double-A prospect for then-little-known Miles Mikolas, spent 2015 and 2016 bouncing back and forth between San Diego and El Paso, and then traded two weeks ago to the Giants for a double-A relief pitcher. But when Steven Duggar got hurt this week, Dickerson's chance finally came to reemerge in the majors. And, well, there was a reemergence, all right.

On Friday he singled in his first at-bat as a Giant. Okay, nice start. It was the second at-bat that got everyone's attention. After a hit batter and two walks, Dickerson crushed a grand slam to straightaway center at Chase Field, just the sixth one the Giants have ever hit there. Only two other Giants (all the way back to 1882) have ever hit a slam in their first game with the team; they are Brandon Crawford in 2011 and Bobby Bonds in 1968. So then we come to the 7th and the Giants erupt again with two singles and two more walks. And Dickerson now comes up with runners on first and second and clocks the first pitch to center for a triple. No Giants batter had hit a slam and a triple in the same game since Matt Williams at Three Rivers Stadium on July 17, 1990. And again, only two others had ever homered (at all, forget the slam part) and tripled in their first game with the team. Those would be Kenny Lofton right after his deadline trade in July 2002, and Ray Poat who did it in 1947. Of course the triple clears those two runners in front of Dickerson and gives him 6 RBIs too. Since those became official in 1920, only six other players-- for any team-- have collected that many in their debut in a new uniform. Starlin Castro, in not just his Cubs debut but his MLB debut, did it on May 7, 2010. The others are Darrin Jackson (1997 Twins), Sam Horn (1990 Orioles), Todd Cruz (1983 Orioles), Brant Alyea (1970 Twins), and Roman Mejias (1962 Astros, in the team's first-ever game).

Now by Saturday even Steven Duggar might be saying, let this guy stay. This time all he does is collect two early-inning doubles, but both of them came with Kevin Pillar on in front of him, and the second one had Brandon Belt on base in front of Pillar. So that's three more RBIs, again the second in Giants history to do something. Their only other player to have three or more in each of his first two games with the team was John Bowker when he made his MLB debut on April 12 and 13, 2008. Then throw two extra-base hits into the mix. Only one other player, for any team, has had 2 XBH and 3 RBI in both of his first two appearances for a new club: Gabe Kapler, after the Red Sox purchased his contract from Colorado, on June 28-29, 2003.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ DJ LeMahieu, Sunday: First Yankees leadoff batter with a homer, a triple, and 3 RBIs in a loss since Bert Daniels hit for the cycle against the White Sox on July 25, 1912.

⚾ Lucas Giolito, Wednesday: Second White Sox pitcher to strike out 9+, but also allow 6 earned runs, 3 homers, and take a loss. Javier Vazquez did it against the Red Sox on August 26, 2007.

⚾ Jordan Yamamoto, Tuesday: First pitcher in live-ball era to throw 7+ scoreless innings and allow no more than 3 hits in each of his first two MLB appearances.

⚾ Jeff McNeil, Friday: First Mets leadoff batter with a homer and 3 RBI at Wrigley Field since Len Dysktra on August 16, 1987.

⚾ Orioles, Monday: First road game where they had 3 or fewer hits, no extra-base hits, and still scored multiple runs, since April 21, 1980, at Yankee Stadium (vs Tommy John).

⚾ Madison Bumgarner, Thursday: First game of career where he gave up 10+ hits, 6+ runs, and didn't get through the 4th. Last Giants pitcher to do that against the Dodgers was Mark Leiter on July 11, 1996.

⚾ Jonathan Holder, Saturday: First Yankees pitcher to give up 3 earned runs, blow a save, then get a win when they take the lead back in the next inning, since David Robertson on September 25, 2014-- the one where Derek Jeter hit a walkoff single in his final home game.

⚾ Freddie Freeman, Tuesday: First Braves batter to homer in the 9th inning to break up a shutout of 10-0 or worse since Earl Williams off the Expos' Steve Rogers, May 12, 1975.

⚾ Francisco Liriano, Sunday: First Pirates pitcher to enter a game in extra innings, give up 3 runs, and get a win (because the Pirates then scored 4), since Bob Patterson against the Cubs on April 21, 1991.

⚾ Adbert Alzolay, Thursday: First pitcher to make his MLB debut as a reliever, throw 4+ innings of 1-hit ball, and get a win, since Bill Swift of the Mariners on June 7, 1985.

⚾ Brian Dozier, Wednesday: First Washington player to homer in both games of a home doubleheader since Mike Epstein for the Second Senators, June 29, 1969, against the Red Sox.

⚾ Ketel Marte, Sun-Thu: Had 3+ hits in four straight games, and the Diamondbacks lost all of them. Last player to pull that off was Wilin Rosario of the Rockies in September 2012.

⚾ Marcell Ozuna, Friday: First Cardinals cleanup batter with 3 hits, 3 RBI, a homer, and a stolen base in same game since Fernando Tatis (that's Senior) against the Rockies on July 31, 1999.

⚾ Whit Merrifield, Tuesday: Third leadoff batter in Royals history with a 6-RBI game, joining Brian McRae (July 14, 1991 at Detroit) and Willie Wilson (June 15, 1979 at Milwaukee).

⚾ Alex Verdugo, Saturday: Second player in Dodger Stadium history (including the Angels years) to have 3 extra-base hits with the last being an extra-inning walkoff. Adrian Beltre did it against the Braves on August 20, 2004.

⚾ Chris Taylor & Will Smith, Sunday: First teammates (any team) with 3- or 4-run pinch-hit homers in the same game since Rip Repulski and Bob Bowman of the Phillies on August 13, 1958.

⚾ Dodgers, Fri-Sun: First time in team history (1884) winning three consecutive games via walkoff homer.