Off The Beaten Path

It is easy, and usually profitable if you're a TV network, to focus on the big rivalries like Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/Cardinals (hmm, did both of those happen this weekend?) or Giants/Dodgers. But that still leaves 11 or 12 other matchups that have to happen every day, and this week had some of the stranger ones. Whether it was teams doing familiar things in unfamiliar places, or #9 batters doing things that #4 batters should be doing, or some new faces that we've never seen do things at all, this week found us with a lot of notes that made us invoke Billy Joel's line, "man, what are you doing here?"


A Quaint Little Pad In The Bronx

It took over a decade, but someone at Yankee Stadium finally had to type "Padres" into the scoreboard this week. Under the new-and-improved format of rotating the divisions for interleague play each year, we will now see every team visit each other at least every six seasons, but San Diego had somehow escaped coming to the Bronx since 2008, the final year at the old stadium across the street. All 28 other teams had made at least one pilgrimage so far.

Ten years ago, even Matt Strahm would not have dreamed he would make the first-ever start for the Padres at Yankee Stadium. Ten years ago, Matt Strahm was finishing his junior year of high school and considered himself the third-best pitcher on his own team. But there he was on Monday, not only becoming the first Padres pitcher to strike out 10 or more at the new stadium, but the first ever to strike out 10+ Yankees at any stadium. Tyson Ross held the previous mark by fanning nine Yankees at Petco in 2013.

Unfortunately, the 10 strikeouts don't matter as much if you give up home runs to Clint Frazier and Brett Gardner and lose the game. Of the four visiting pitchers to record double-digit K's at the new park and lose, three have been National-Leaguers; the others are Julio Teheran last July, Carlos Martinez in 2017, and Jake Peavy in 2012. Gardner's lead-flipping homer, while not as dramatic when it happens in the 3rd inning, was his ninth this decade; only Mark Teixeira (10) has more.

On Tuesday the Padres must have decided that if Gardy's going to homer on us, we need a bigger lead and we need it earlier. Eric Hosmer, you're up. After leadoff hitter Greg Garcia reached on an error and scored, Hosmer mashed a 3-run homer for a 4-0 San Diego lead before an out was even recorded. It is somewhat uncommon for a team's fourth batter of the game to hit a 3-run dinger (the grand slam is, of course, even rarer), and the Padres hadn't had anyone do it in a road game since Justin Upton at Dodger Stadium in May 2015. But Hosmer was the team's first batter ever to hit such a homer in an AL park. The four 1st-inning runs were also San Diego's most in an AL park since June 13, 2007, when they opened with a 5-spot at Tampa Bay.

Although the Yankees did threaten with 3 runs in the 7th, Eric Lauer was out of the game by then, having allowed just 1 in 5⅓. Only one other Padres starter had held the Yankees to 1 run in the Bronx, and he had a little bit of help. It was David Wells, and the old Yankee Stadium was his home park for four seasons before he went to the Padres and did it in his return on June 13, 2004.

And in the finale on Wednesday, the Yankees said, early lead, huh? Watch this. DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit began the game with back-to-back homers, the fourth time the Yankees have done that at their new ballpark, but the first time in over a decade that the Padres had allowed it, anywhere. Not-the-outfielder Chris Young gave up dingers to Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Theriot at Wrigley on May 13, 2009.

By the way, if you're wondering, there are just 14 remaining check-ins of "[Team] is at [Stadium]" that have not yet happened, and eight of them involve Atlanta's SunTrust Park which just opened two years ago. And two of the other six will resolve later this year. When Cleveland comes to Citi Field in August, that will leave the Mariners as the only team to never play there. When the NL East's Nationals return the favor and go to the AL Central's Twins, then only the Giants will remain without a game at Target Field. The others are the Orioles at Busch Stadium and Oakland at Nationals Park.


Another Cobb For Tigers

Did we say there were still eight teams that hadn't visited SunTrust Park? Well, that was true if this column had been posted before Friday, but with NL East meeting AL Central this year, one of those also got knocked out this week (with two more to come later in the season).

You can actually take the same road (I-75) all the way from Detroit to Atlanta (plus stop and see the Reds in between), and it's worth pointing out that the Tigers were the final opponent at Turner Field upon its demise in 2016. But now that the Braves have moved, well, it's time for another visit to check out their new place in the 'burbs. (Cobb County, if you missed the joke behind the section header.)

Niko Goodrum is clearly a fan of the Atlanta suburbs, and why wouldn't he be?, he grew up there. (Fayette County, the next one south of Atlanta as Cobb is to the north.) He took the third pitch from Mike Foltynewicz and singled it into left field. In the 3rd he homered the other way. It took a few innings for all of his teammates to come around, but JaCoby Jones hopped on the MARTA with a leadoff triple in the 5th and Niko singled him home. Nick Castellanos homered later that inning, then Niko doubled and scored to lead off the 7th. Then for good measure, he put the final touch on the Tigers' 8-2 victory with another home run in the 8th. Count 'em, that's a 5-for-5 day with two homers. No Tigers batter had done that in any game since Brennan Boesch at Texas on June 6, 2011. And in franchise history (1901) they'd never had it done by a leadoff hitter.

George Springer of the Astros, certainly in the running for greatest leadoff hitter currently playing, also had a 5-hit day with 2 homers on May 12. It's the first season in the live-ball era where two different players have done it, although Matt Carpenter did have two such games by himself last year. And not only was Goodrum the first Tigers batter with 5 hits and 2 homers in a National League park, he's only the second to do either of those things separately. Ian Kinsler had the 5-hit game at Wrigley in 2015, and Miguel Cabrera had the 2-homer game in that final series at Turner Field in 2016.

Pile it all together and it's 5 hits, 4 runs scored, 3 RBI, and 2 homers. Five players in Tigers history have had that line: Carlos Peña at Kansas City in 2004, Hank Greenberg against the Browns in 1937, Marty McManus against the Red Sox in 1929, and the original Cobb himself (that's Ty), May 5, 1925, in St Louis.

Alas, June in Atlanta turned out to be a little less friendly than May in Atlanta, as the Braves lit up Daniel Norris for 6 runs and ran away with a 10-5 victory on Saturday. Ordinarily, though, Norris wouldn't have also been batting and thus have the chance to at least get one of those runs back. He singled and scored in the 5th, the first Tigers pitcher with a hit and a run scored since Justin Verlander in Miami on Opening Day 2016.

Although the outcome was never really in doubt, the Tigers actually gave us more notes than the Braves did on this one. Niko Goodrum toned it down a bit after his big homecoming yesterday, "only" recording a triple and a double. But the three-bagger is the one he didn't have on Friday, and thus he's the fourth Detroit leadoff batter with a triple and a double in an NL stadium. It had been 13 years since Curtis Granderson did it at Wrigley on June 16, 2006; the others were Alex Sanchez (2003 in San Francisco) and Brian Hunter (1997, appropriately in the Tigers' first-ever series at Turner Field). And with the two homers from Friday, Goodrum became just the second player in Tigers history-- leadoff batter or not-- to post consecutive 2-XBH games in a National League park. Luis Gonzalez did it at County Stadium in Milwaukee on May 5 and 6, 1998, the first two games the Tigers played there after it (briefly) became a National League park.

Sunday's finale was fairly dull until the end, with the Braves scattering 3 runs before Dansby Swanson's error opened the door in the 8th. That meant Grayson Greiner's two-run homer, back-to-back with JaCoby Jones-- after two were out and the inning should be over-- tied the game at 3. Jones was the fifth Tiger ever to hit a tying homer in the 8th or later in an NL park; Dawel Lugo had one last September in Milwaukee, and the others are Placido Polanco (2008 San Diego), Brandon Inge (2004 Philadelphia), and none other than Hank Greenberg at Wrigley in the 1945 World Series. Jacob Webb became the third pitcher in Braves history to allow multiple homers but 0 earned runs in a game; Rod Nichols had a 7-run inning against Colorado in 1995, and Jim Tobin did it in a complete-game win against Brooklyn in 1944.

Sunday's tie would not last long, however, as Swanson redeemed himself with a walk in the 8th and then Freddie Freeman doubled him home for a 4-3 lead. It was Freeman's fourth go-ahead double in the 8th or later, trailing only Chris Chambliss (6) and Javy Lopez (5) in Atlanta Braves history (which dates to 1966). The Braves would go on to score three more runs, rendering Christin Stewart's solo homer in the 9th irrelevant, other than making it the first game where Detroit hit three homers in the 8th or later since they used four solo shots to tie a game with the White Sox on July 24, 2016.

Combined with Friday's three homers, SunTrust is just the sixth NL park where the Tigers have had multiple 3-HR games in a series. And three of those no longer stand. They did it at Marlins Park in 2016, Wrigley Field in 2015, and then it's way back to Busch Stadium (1999), Three Rivers (1999), and Shea (1997).

And again, if you're wondering, once the Royals and White Sox visit Atlanta, that will leave Cleveland, the Angels, Minnesota, the Yankees, and Oakland as the five teams that haven't yet been to SunTrust.


Hello, Old Friend

The early part of the week also featured an interleague series between Chicago and Houston, and depending on which year it is, that could mean either the Cubs or White Sox. In 2019 it's the North Siders, and by virtue of both teams being in the old NL Central, the Cubs and Astros had met 705 times (but never in postseason) prior to Houston's move in 2013. And when your friend moves away, well, sometimes you have to settle for only seeing them every three years or so. Maybe on a holiday like Memorial Day.

The Astros wasted no time in welcoming the Cubs back on Monday, erupting for a 5-run 2nd inning against Cole Hamels and then hanging on at the end for a 6-5 victory. In classic "keep the line moving" fashion, there were no big moments in that inning; it went single, walk, single, double, RBI groundout, walk, single, RBI groundout, flyout. In fact all six runs the Astros scored were driven in by different players, their first time doing that since a 6-3 win at Coors Field on May 29, 2013.

You may also notice there's no strikeout in that inning, nor was there one in Hamels' other three innings before he was pulled. Only four other Cubs pitchers had ever allowed 6+ runs and struck out 0 in an interleague game: Jon Lester in 2017, Shawn Estes in 2003, Terry Mulholland in 1999, and (wayback machine!) Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown when he lost the final game of the 1906 crosstown World Series against the White Sox.

Gerrit Cole, however, did strike out some people. A dozen of them in his six innings, his seventh 12-K game with the Astros. That's fifth all-time in team history, but he's got a ways to go to reach J.R. Richard's record of 20 such games. The Cubs did get within striking distance when Albert Almora and Addison Russell hit solo homers in the 9th, but then Kyle Schwarber and Javier Baez struck out to end the game. For Baez-- who was the ironically-named Designated Hitter in Monday's game-- it capped an 0-for-5 day with all 5 at-bats being strikeouts. The only other National League DH ever to record a 5-K game was Ben Grieve of the Brewers in Anaheim on June 8, 2004. And it was the second 5-K, 9-inning game of Baez's career, the other being July 25, 2017, against the White Sox. That's half of the total such games in Cubs history; Ted Lilly (who was a pitcher) and Geovany Soto both did it in 2008. And even if you include extra-inning games, the only other player in Cubs history with multiple 5-K boxscores is Sammy Sosa.

When you first start scanning Tuesday's boxscore, nothing looks terribly out of place. Kyle Schwarber homered. Anthony Rizzo, 1-for-4 plus a walk. Jason Heyward, 2-for-5 with a homer. Don't have to worry about that pesky pitcher's spot in an AL home game. David Bote hit 9th and oh my. Solo homer in the 2nd. 2-run homer in the 6th. Leadoff double in the 8th but got stranded. That's 3 XBH and 3 RBI out of a spot that, until Joe Maddon came along and started messing with it, was always reserved for the pitcher. In fact, the only other Cubs in the live-ball era to collect three extra-base hits batting 9th are Kyle Schwarber, two years ago against the Marlins (that's after Maddon started messing), and Grover Cleveland Alexander against the Phillies on June 20, 1925 (he, of course, was a pitcher). The last player for any NL team with 3 XBH and 3 RBI out of the 9-hole was Miami's Justin Ruggiano on August 16, 2013, and the two occurrences before that were by #PitcherWhoRaked Micah Owings of the D'backs.

Bote's 2nd-inning homer followed Heyward's and one by Addison Russell, the first time the Cubs have hit three homers in the same inning of a road game since Geovany Soto, Blake DeWitt, and Carlos Peña went deep in San Francisco on August 29, 2011.

And when you hit five homers, you should win, right? Ah, but the theme is about things happening where and when they shouldn't. Because it seems Jon Lester kept up the "Cubs pitching" theme by giving up 7 runs of his own and ending up on the wrong end of a 9-6 score. Between Lester, Hamels, Jose Quintana on Sunday, and Yu Darvish last Saturday, it was the fourth straight game where a Cubs starter had allowed at least 6 runs; that hadn't happened since August 2006 when the entire five-man rotation did it in succession. For Lester, it was his third straight start with 7+ hits and 5+ runs allowed, the longest by any Cubs starter since Jacob Turner's brief stint with Chicago in September 2014.

And the "5 homers and lost" part? Happens at Wrigley often enough because of the wind. Your 6 homers beats my 5 homers. But in the serene, wind-free conditions of Minute Maid Park (whose roof was closed on Tuesday), only one other team-- the Athletics on June 28, 2017-- has hit 5 homers and lost. (Three others have done it with the roof open; the wind is listed as double-digits blowing out in all of those games.) And as for the Cubs, they had not hit 5 homers in any road game and lost it since Ernie Banks, Dee Fondy, and Randy Jackson each went deep twice at Sportsman's Park in St Louis on April 16, 1955, but they got walked off in the 14th inning.

The Cubs did salvage the last game of their visit to Houston, thanks mostly to a leadoff home run from Kyle Schwarber and eight innings of 4-hit ball from Kyle Hendricks. It was the eighth leadoff homer hit by the Cubs in Houston, but the first in an interleague game; Alfonso Soriano had the previous three, including Opening Day 2009 off Roy Oswalt. Despite nine strikeouts of his own, Wade Miley gave up both Cubs runs and lost the game 2-1; Gerrit Cole (April 25) and Collin McHugh (March 30) both had similar outings this year. The only other season where three different Astros pitchers struck out 9+, allowed ≤ 2 runs, and lost, was 1969 when Mike Cuellar, Jim Ray, and Denny Lemaster all did it.


You didn't really think we were going to drop a Billy Joel lyric in the lead and not link to the song, did you? Especially that classic? Intermission!



Hello It's Me

The Mets and Dodgers aren't really strangers; they visit each other at least twice a year just by virtue of both being in the National League. However, this week's trip to SoCal was unlike most other Mets visits there. Monday's opener wasn't an eye-popping score at 9-5, but the hit column certainly, uh, got hit. Dodgers 17, Mets 15. Dodgers stranded 11, Mets stranded 10, and that would have been more if New York hadn't run itself into four outs on the basepaths (three outfield assists and one conventional double play). It had been nearly 12 years since the last game at Dodger Stadium where both teams collected 15 hits, and that previous affair was also against the Mets-- a 13-9 New York victory on July 19, 2007. Clayton Kershaw managed to give up 10 of those hits and still get a win, the second time he's ever done that (September 2, 2013, at Coors). For the second consecutive year (September 4, 2018), Amed Rosario had a multi-double game at Dodger Stadium, joining David Wright and Carlos Beltran as the only Mets to do it twice there. And the game really turned on a 6-run Dodgers 6th inning capped by Enrique Hernandez's pinch-hit, go-ahead home run. The only other such homer in Dodgers history against the Mets was a walkoff by Trayce Thompson on May 10, 2016.

Tuesday's game was deadlocked at 2-2 until Yimi Garcia was summoned to start the 7th. Eight-pitch walk to Adeiny Hechavarria. Pitching change because why not. Seven-pitch walk to Aaron Altherr (at least we're getting more efficient). Amed Rosario lays down a sacrifice bunt but then he is also safe when Dylan Floro makes a bad throw. Soon we have "Mets on the pond" with one out, another pitching change because why not, and then the second pitch from Scott Alexander gets deposited in the left-field seats by Michael Conforto for a grand slam. (After which, you got it, another pitching change.)

The Mets and Dodger Stadium have been around for the same number of seasons, since 1962, and Conforto was the sixth visiting Metropolitan to hit a slam at Chavez Ravine. Todd Pratt off Terry Adams, May 30, 2000, had been the previous one. Mike Marshall and Kevin McReynolds hit them in back-to-back games in 1990, McReynolds hit another in 1989, and the first was by Tommie Agee in 1972.

That sac bunt made Rosario just the second player in Mets history with a triple, a sac bunt, and a stolen base in the same game; fellow shortstop Frank Taveras did it against the Giants on July 13, 1979. And because Hechavarria's leadoff walk was actually the go-ahead and later winning run on the grand slam, Yimi Garcia became the first Dodgers pitcher to face one batter, walk him, and eat a loss since Hung-Chih Kuo did in Milwaukee on August 16, 2011.

Wednesday's game was not about the collection of hits like Monday's was, but rather about the types of hits. We'll spare you all of it, but the Mets' side of the boxscore lists 13 hits, 4 doubles, 4 homers, and seven different people with an extra-base knock (Pete Alonso homered twice). For the Dodgers it's 15 total, a whopping 8 doubles (again by seven different players), and 3 more homers-- all hit by a player who also had one of the doubles. It was the first game in Dodger Stadium history where both teams had at least 8 extra-base hits, and the combined total of 19 tied the park record, set September 18, 2006, in an extra-inning contest with San Diego.

Those seven different Dodgers who doubled? Those were the first seven batters in the order; only catcher Will Smith (0-for-3) and pitcher Walker Buehler (who was true to his name by walking twice but not doubling) went without. That was a first for the Dodgers in (at least) the live-ball era, and if you look at any seven Dodgers with a double, regardless of batting order, they did that just last Saturday in Pittsburgh! Since 1908 they'd never had two games in a season where seven different Dodgers had a double, much less doing it twice in five days.

So we haven't told you who wins this epic battle of extra-base hits. And that's largely because, after all this, the winning run doesn't come down to an extra-base hit. Trailing 8-5 going to the 9th, Joc Pederson and Max Muncy hit back-to-back solo homers. Then Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back doubles to tie it. We concede those are extra-base hits, but they haven't decided the game explicitly yet. Nope, that would come on a walk, an infield single, and of all things a sacrifice fly by Alex Verdugo, the first sac-fly-off the Dodgers have ever hit against the Mets.


Home From Cali, A Little Tanner

While the Mets were off enjoying that warm California sun, the rest of the NL East was, well, back east. But around the division there were familiar things done by some unfamiliar people. The Nationals faced the Marlins on Monday, and the easiest way to sum it up is to say that they lost 3-2 thanks to unearned runs in both the 7th and 8th. So the boxscore isn't much to write home about. Except that there's one Nationals player who managed to have both a hit and an RBI-- and it's the pitcher. Max Scherzer singled home the final Nationals run in the bottom of the 5th, marking the fifth time that the pitcher was the only Nats batter with both a hit and an RBI. Scherzer did it once before, April 8 of last year against the Braves; Tim Redding did it twice in 2008, and Gio Gonzalez did it in a game against Houston on August 8, 2012, that the Nats somehow won.

On Thursday it was the Marlins' turn to lose a game, this one 3-1 to the Giants on Brandon Crawford's double in the 8th. But again, look at who had that "1". That was Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara with a single in the bottom of the 2nd. It's only the seventh game in Marlins history where they scored 1 run and the pitcher had the RBI, the prior time being... May 11 when Sandy Alcantara did it against the Mets. The only other Marlins pitcher with two such games was Livan Hernandez in 1999.

While the Marlins were busy floundering against the Giants, the Nationals hung 14 on their NL East rivals the Braves on Wednesday, becoming the first visiting team to record multiple 14-run games at SunTrust Park. (The Braves, who play there 81 times a year, have only ever done it twice themselves.) Those runs included 8 against starter Kevin Gausman; since the NL adopted earned runs as a stat in 1912, no Braves starter had ever surrendered 8 of them while getting 3 or fewer outs. Trea Turner collected 3 hits, including a triple, and a stolen base for the Nationals in the 14-4 win; he also did that on August 31, 2017, in Milwaukee. Only two other players in franchise history have had multiple such games, and they were both Montréal Expos: Tim Raines did it five times, and Ron LeFlore thrice.

The Nationals then headed off to Cincinnati for the weekend, and Patrick Corbin probably wants to forget that trip. In Friday's opener he got raked for 11 hits and 8 runs without finishing the 3rd inning. Only one other pitcher in Nats/Expos history has done that (Tomo Ohka, June 3, 2003, vs Angels), and only one other other pitcher in the live-ball era has done it against the Reds (John Thomson of the Rockies, April 11, 1998, and at Coors).

And when it comes to that Nats/Reds series, you're forgiven if you were a bit confused looking at Saturday's boxscore. Tanner Roark hit his first career homer, but he ended up taking the loss because he also gave up 2 homers... to the Nationals. His former team. Meanwhile, because Erick Fedde didn't go 5 innings (please abolish this rule!), he couldn't get the win for the Nationals, and so Tanner Rainey-- who made eight appearances for the Reds last year-- did. To recap, Rainey got the win against his former team, while Roark took the loss against his former team. In the same game. AND they were traded for each other. Mind, blown. BUT Roark's 2-run homer managed to account for both the Reds' runs in their 5-2 loss. No Cincinnati pitcher had done that since Steve Parris hit a 2-run double off Eric Gagne of the Dodgers on April 21, 2000. And Roark was the first Reds pitcher to homer against the Nats/Expos franchise since Ted Power on July 11, 1987.

By the way, if you think Tanner Rainey getting a win and Tanner Roark getting a loss might be unique, well, it is. There have only been five major-league pitchers with a first name of "Tanner", all in the last decade, and so it's not a stretch to confirm that Saturday was the first Tanner-defeats-Tanner result in MLB history.


Situation

And as for "what's in a name"? Well, when you're saddled with Yastrzemski, you probably get a lot of questions. (On the up side, there's probably at least a few folks who can spell it.) Mike made his major-league debut last weekend and was along for the ride when the Giants made just their second-ever trip to Baltimore this week.

This lends itself to some very easy notes, especially from Saturday's game where Brandon Belt had the Giants' first 4-RBI game there, and Kevin Pillar had their first multi-double game there. Belt was actually just the third NL player with a 4-RBI game at Camden Yards that didn't include a homer; the others are Adam Dunn in 2010 and then-Marlin Cliff Floyd in 1998. Buster Posey also became the first Giants Designated Hitter (against any opponent) to homer and score 3+ runs in a game. Then on Sunday, Brandon Crawford had their first-ever multi-homer game in Baltimore, and Evan Longoria had their first 3-hit, 3-RBI game there. Actually both of those Sunday feats were firsts for the Giants in any AL stadium since Jarrett Parker hit three home runs across the Bay in Oakland (yeah, their home Bay, not the Chesapeake) on September 26, 2015.

But back to Yaz. He was most notable in Friday's series opener, which also happened to be the first game in the majors in almost seven years where both teams hung a 5-spot in the 1st inning (Yankees/Red Sox, July 6, 2012). The Orioles-- and thus Andrew Cashner-- hung on for the win, Cashner becoming the first Baltimore starter since Mike Mussina on June 4, 1996, to allow 13 baserunners, 6 or more runs, and still get a victory. Yastrzemski drove in two of those runs, collecting his first career triple as the second batter of the game (after a Joe Panik leadoff walk), and then his first career homer in the 2nd after the Giants batted around. The aforementioned Brandon Belt (August 2, 2013 at Tampa Bay) is the only other Giants player to record a homer and a triple in an AL park. And Yaz was the first Giant with a homer, a triple, and 2 RBI in a loss-- anywhere-- since Pedro Feliz did it at Coors Field on May 26, 2003.

But of course, the "Yaz" name was made famous by Grandpa Carl. Who, being a Red Sock, played 3316 of his 3322 career games in American League parks (the others were World Series games). The younger Yaz, being a San Francisco Giant (and former Connecticut Tiger, we might add), will be playing the vast majority of games in National League parks. But like Grandpa, like Grandson: Mike's first career game with both a homer and a triple came Friday in Baltimore. Carl's first (of seven) career game with both a homer and a triple came on June 22, 1962-- also in Baltimore.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Mallex Smith, Monday: First player this season to steal four bases in a game. Only other #9 hitter in Mariners history to do it was Julio Cruz against Cleveland on May 24, 1983.

⚾ Orlando Arcia, Saturday: First player in Brewers/Pilots history to homer twice in same game with them being 11 innings apart (2nd and 13th). Robin Yount did it 10 apart at Seattle, May 31, 1982.

⚾ Derek Dietrich, Tuesday: First batter in Reds history (1882) to hit 3 homers in a game and have them all be 2-run shots.

⚾ Austin Riley, Wednesday: First player to hit a grand slam with his team trailing by 14 or more runs since Carmen Fanzone of the Cubs did it on August 20, 1974.

⚾ Trevor Story, Friday: Second player in Rockies history with 4 runs scored and 7 RBI in a game. Nolan Arenado did it in a 3-homer game against the Padres on July 19, 2017.

⚾ Marcell Ozuna & Paul Goldschmidt, Tuesday: First time Cardinals hit two 1st-inning homers in a game in Philadelphia since Wally Moon & Rip Repulski went back-to-back at Shibe Park on May 19, 1956.

⚾ DJ LeMahieu, Friday: First Yankees leadoff batter to homer, double, and score 2 runs against Red Sox at home since Tim Raines, September 15, 1997.

⚾ Joe Musgrove, Thursday: Gave up 7 extra-base hits for second consecutive start. Last pitcher to do that was George Caster of the A's in September 1940.

⚾ Manny Piña, Sunday: First catcher in Brewers history to be called for interference twice in same game. Jose Osuna & Gregory Polanco are the only known pair of pinch hitters ever to receive a CI award in the same game.

⚾ Luke Jackson, Saturday: First pitcher in Braves history to get a 5-out save where every out was a strikeout.

⚾ Carlos Santana, Wednesday: First Clevelander to homer, triple, double, and drive in 5 runs since Larry Doby, also at Fenway, June 4, 1952. Santana is first in team history to also score 4 runs.

⚾ Myles Straw, Sunday: Second #9 batter in live-ball era with 3 hits, 3 RBIs, and 3 stolen bases in a game. Elvis Andrus did it for Texas, also as a rookie, on August 15, 2009.

⚾ Austin Meadows, Monday: 3 hits, 3 RBI, a homer, and a stolen base for second straight game. Only others ever to do that back-to-back are the Phillies' Bake McBride in 1977, and Reds great Vada Pinson in 1965.

⚾ Andrew McCutchen, Wednesday: First Phillies leadoff batter to score 4 runs in a game while having only 1 hit (he drew 3 walks) since John Briggs at Wrigley, September 23, 1965.

⚾ Adam Wainwright, Sunday: First Cardinals pitcher to walk 7 batters but allow 0 runs (and/or, get a win) since Rick Ankiel against San Diego, April 20, 2000.

⚾ Zack Littell, Thursday: First Twins reliever left in long enough to give up 10 hits and 8 runs (take one for the team!) since Joe Klink at Detroit, May 29, 1987.

⚾ Starling Marte & Edwin Diaz, Saturday: First Pirates teammates to have 3+ hits and 3+ RBI in a home loss since Jerry May & Roberto Clemente at Forbes, July 6, 1969.

⚾ Joc Pederson, Max Muncy, Corey Seager, Friday: First Dodgers home game where the top three in their order all homered since Eddie Miksis, Jackie Robinson, and Pee Wee Reese did it at Ebbets on September 28, 1948.