Original Thirteen
On the original schedule, Monday's Diamondbacks/Phillies game would have likely kicked off our baseball week, being that the Phils are among the few remaining teams who still observe :05 start times. Alas, a passing cloud pushed that back by a half-hour, just enough time to watch some cat videos or play a couple of quick online quizzes. Hey, since we're in Philadelphia, here's one where you try to remember the original 13 colonies. Hint, Maine is not one. Okay, first pitch is finally coming up, let's settle in for-- wham, Jarrod Dyson home run. (That's Delaware.) First pitch of the game leaves almost as soon as it arrives. 1-0 D'backs. Okay, wait, I haven't even positioned my beverage-- wham, Ketel Marte home run. (Pennsylvania.) Dude, at least let me take a bite of my sandw-- wham, David Peralta home run. (New Jersey.) Yes, we are 13 pitches in (this is a neat coincidence) and Arizona just led off the game with back-to-back-to-back homers. Only six teams in major-league history have pulled that off, and the Diamondbacks-- who have only existed since 1998-- are the only one to do it twice. Peralta, A.J. Pollock, and Jake Lamb did it against the Nationals on July 21, 2017. And the only other trio to start a road game with three straight homers was Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, and Ryan Braun for the Brewers in Cincinnati on September 9, 2007.
Jerad Eickhoff settled down and got three outs, but now the Phillies already start with a 3-0 deficit. Bottom of the 1st, Jean Segura solo homer. (Georgia.) For a couple innings the game appears somewhat normal, and the Phillies actually tie it up in more-traditional fashion with RBI singles in the 2nd and 3rd. Let's send Eickhoff back out for the 4th and see what-- wham, Eduardo Escobar. (Connecticut.) Two batters later, wham, Alex Avila. (Massachusetts.) Finally, after allowing five homers while getting nine outs, Eickhoff's nightmare is over; he is the first Phillies starter to give up five dingers since Cory Lidle in Houston on July 25, 2005. The only others, for any team, to do it and not escape the 4th inning were the Cubs' Steve Stone (July 9, 1974 vs Reds) and then-Senator Denny McLain (June 16, 1971, at Oakland). Eickhoff is also just the eighth pitcher in the live-ball era to give up five hits in a game and have all of them be homers. Nick Tropeano of the Angels pulled that off last July 26 against the White Sox.
Scott Kingery leads off the bottom of the 4th for the Phillies and yep. (Maryland.) It's already 7-4, but Ranger Suarez did a good job getting out of that 4th-inning jam, let's send him out for the-- wham, Eduardo Escobar again. (South Carolina.) That's a fluke, right? Yeah, two straight strikeouts, there's no way-- wham, Ildemaro Vargas. (New Hampshire.) By the 6th it's 11-4 and our game finally calms down. Or does it? Matt Andriese enters for the bottom of the 8th and faces Scott Kingery again. What could happ-- oh yeah. (Virginia.) Amazingly this game is within 11-6 until Ildemaro Vargas comes up again in the 9th. Do we have to tell you? (New York.) And now all Greg Holland has to do in the bottom half is get three outs with a seven-run lea-- wham, Rhys Hoskins leadoff homer. (North Carolina.) All good, just two more ou-- wham, Jay Bruce, the exclamation point that makes this the first game in major-league history where thirteen homers were hit.
That, of course, is the Big Story here, but there are plenty of little stories hiding within. The Diamondbacks became the 28th team in MLB history to hit 8 homers in a game, but the fourth already this year. That's not only a record for a season, it's very nearly a record for a decade. There were only five such games from 2010-2018, and eight total between 1960 and 1999. The Phillies are the only pitching staff to be on the wrong end of four of those 28; the Angels, Braves, and Brewers have all done it three times.
Eduardo Escobar, Ildemaro Vargas, and Scott Kingery all hit multiple homers, the first game at Citizens Bank Park (2004) where three players went yard twice. Kingery joined Jimmy Rollins (2007), Ryan Howard (2006), and Cy Williams (1924) as the only Phillies in the live-ball era with two homers and a triple in a loss. And by also doubling in the 6th, Escobar became the fifth player in D'backs history with 4 hits, 3 XBH, 5 RBI, and 3 runs scored in a road game; that list also includes J.D. Martinez (his 4-HR game at Dodger Stadium in 2017), Micah Owings (his 2-HR game in 2007), Damion Easley (2006), and Steve Finley (1999).
(Rhode Island if you were still struggling with the last one.)
A Pirates Life For Me
You didn't have to watch too many innings of Pittsburgh's four-game series in Atlanta this week to find out how that went. The trick was picking out which innings.
The 1st inning of the first game on Monday was certainly worth watching, not so much for Ronald Acuña's fielding error that led to a Pirates run, but for the staredown that occurred in the bottom half when Josh Donaldson was ever-so-slightly grazed (and even that's being generous) by a pitch from Joe Musgrove. The ensuing shouting match led to both players, and an irate Clint Hurdle (is there any other kind?), being ejected. In Musgrove's case, he's the first Pirates pitcher in 85 years to be ejected from a start in the 1st inning; Larry French pulled that off on August 27, 1934, and we'll let the next day's Pittsburgh Press (below) fill you in on that.
Acuña would come right back in the 2nd with a grand slam off reliever-who-wasn't-planning-on-pitching-this-early Alex McRae, the first slam for the Braves against Pittsburgh since Brian Jordan took Francisco Cordova deep on May 19, 1999. McRae would give up 3 homers in the 13-7 loss that looked closer than it actually was; Tony Watson, on September 6, 2016, is the only other reliever in Pirates history to give up three dingers and also get charged with a loss. Ozzie Albies would go on to hit 2 homers, the first Braves' 8- or 9-hitter to do that at home since Jarrod Saltalamacchia against the Nationals on June 26, 2007.
On Tuesday you really only needed the 2nd and the 6th, because that's where the Braves bunched all 7 of their runs in a 7-5 victory. And if you dig the long ball, well, Chris Archer has you covered. Josh Donaldson returned his plunking from Monday by plunking the right-field foul pole with a home run to start the inning. That was followed five pitches later by a Nick Markakis blast. After a 6-pitch strikeout of Austin Riley, it took Brian McCann and Ozzie Albies just three more pitches to go back-to-back again for a 4-0 lead. The last time the Braves went back-to-back twice in the same inning... was in their final season in Milwaukee. Joe Torre, Felipe Alou, Hank Aaron, and Gene Oliver did it in the 10th(!) inning of a game in Chicago on June 8, 1965.
Incredibly, even after two (clearly not-helpful) mound visits, Archer was still in the game, a decision that might certainly have been related to the bullpen pitching 8⅓ after Musgrove's ejection the day before. And he was still in the game in the 6th when McCann homered again. That gave him 2 homers and 4 RBIs for the sixth time in his Braves career, tying Javy Lopez for the all-time lead among catchers. And for Archer, that's five homers allowed, the second pitcher in all of Pirates history (1882) to do that. And the first guy to do it didn't even see his record last a year. It was Ivan Nova at Dodger Stadium last July 3.
There's a non-zero chance that Archer got a consolation call from Jerad Eickhoff. Remember how he, too, gave up 5 homers just the day before. And only the baseball gods could think up this one: Each of the last five times that a pitcher has given up 5 HR in a game, another pitcher has done it again within two days. When the aforementioned Nick Tropeano did it last July 26, Reynaldo Lopez did it on the 27th. Ivan Nova's game last July 3 followed one by David Price on the 1st. Jakob Junis, last April 26; Erasmo Ramirez, April 27. And going back two seasons, Scott Feldman and Jeremy Hellickson, August 17-18, 2017. So the moral of the story is that the next time someone gives up five dingers, you don't want to be starting the following day.
For Wednesday's game, you can skip the first eight innings, and the hour-long rain delay, unless you'd like to watch Mitch Keller and Mike Soroka each give up 10 hits and wind up in a 6-6 tie by being equally bad. But for this one you want the 9th, when Josh Bell collected just the second go-ahead homer the Pirates have ever hit in the 9th inning in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the Phillies are the team who uses the slogan "ring the bell", because that other Pirates longball... was by the unrelated Jay Bell back on May 13, 1992.
That bell would promptly be un-rung (we've heard you can't do this) by phenom Austin Riley, staying fairly close to his pace of homering every other game. He hit the Braves' first tying (not walkoff) homer at SunTrust Park in the 9th or later; Tyler Flowers had the last one at Turner Field on July 1, 2016. That also made Riley the second-youngest player in the live-ball era to collect a homer, a triple, a single, and a hit-by-pitch in the same game, behind a Reds rookie named Frank Robinson on July 1, 1956. Bell's go-ahead solo homer, combined with Riley's re-tying solo homer, marked the first Atlanta home game where teams traded them in the 9th or later since Scott Thorman matched Milwaukee's Corey Hart on September 22, 2007. And when Ozzie Albies finally hit a walkoff double in the 11th, we flash back to Andrelton Simmons off Mark Melançon on June 4, 2013, for that was both the Braves' last extra-inning walkoff against Pittsburgh, and their last walkoff double against any team.
And, may the circle be unbroken, we come back around to Joe Musgrove for Thursday's finale. The fateful pitch that got him ejected on Monday was only his 18th of the game, so the Pirates opted to treat that like his usual "throw day" and let him start again on Thursday. And we'll just play the 5th inning for you. Walk, RBI triple, RBI single, single, mound visit (yeah, this'll help), 2-run double. Annnnd we're done here. The last Pirates pitcher to start on 2 days' rest and get knocked around for 9 hits and 6 runs was Larry McWilliams against the Cubs on September 19, 1984 (and he won!). The Braves' 5-run inning, combined with one they had one Monday (but not against Musgrove), marked their first home series with the Pirates where they did it twice since the opening week of 2008. And even though none of them led to a big inning, the Pirates did manage to collect five doubles in the 6-5 loss (which also adds up to a sweep if you've been following along). The last time Pittsburgh had 5 doubles in a road game against the Braves but still lost... wasn't in Atlanta. It wasn't even in Milwaukee. 'Twas July 20, 1951, in Boston, when Warren Spahn (future winner of the 1957 Cy Young Award) outdueled Vern Law (future winner of the 1960 Cy Young Award, when the runner-up was... Warren Spahn).
Yards Work
Camden Yards has always been one of those places where things can escalate quickly. Maybe you remember this being the ballpark that hosted a 30-3 game back in 2007. Sometimes the escalation even happens when the Orioles are batting, but nope, not this week.
In Tuesday's opener, Eric Sogard did hit the sixth leadoff homer ever by a Jays batter at Camden Yards, but that's not what's notable here. That game ended up in a ho-hum, 4-2 loss. Clearly 1-run innings will not do. Let's try 6. After David Hess loaded the bases in the 5th on Wednesday on three singles (two of which didn't leave the infield) and a walk, let's have Miguel Castro uncork a wild pitch (cue Mound Visit) and then walk Justin Smoak to re-load them (cue second Mound Visit). Then let's have Rowdy Tellez un-load them with the eighth grand slam ever hit by a Blue Jays batter at Camden Yards. Josh Donaldson hit one last April, J.P. Arencibia is the only Toronto batter with two, and the others are Yunel Escobar, Chris Woodward, Eric Hinske, and Tony Batista. The only ballpark (other than their own) where they've hit more is the Kingdome (9), and breaking news, it's been gone for a while now. When he stole a base in the 9th, Tellez also became the fourth player in Jays history with a slam and a steal in the same game, joining Jose Cruz (2001), Glenallen Hill (1990), and George Bell (1985).
That 6-run inning (which ultimately led to an 8-6 win) was the Jays' first in a road game since June 21, 2017, at Texas. That doesn't sound like much until you consider that every other team had one since then. The honor of least-recent 6-run road inning now jumps to September 2017 and passes to the Rays.
Even though they still won, that 8-6 score was a little too close on Wednesday. Better take that "6" under "5" and make it "7" under "6". After Gabriel Ynoa gave up a leadoff homer to Lourdes Gurriel in the 6th, it's time for him to go. Let's bring in Paul Fry and hope he doesn't get (with apologies to Max) Fried. Yeah, so about that.
Tellez double. Walk. Mound visit (they're so helpful!). Walk. 2-run double. 2-run single. Pitching change, after which Evan Phillips gives up the inherited run plus one more of his own. We don't have to tell you when the Jays' last 6-run road inning was, but their last 7- was in Seattle on September 20, 2016. It also marked the first time the Jays had posted a 6-run frame in consecutive road games since doing it in Cleveland on May 2 and 3, 2015. Paul Fry, who gave up 5 runs and got 1 out, was the first O's reliever to do that since Jorge Rondon, also against the Jays, on September 30, 2015. Danny Jansen, who had that Fry-chasing 2-run single, was the first Jays #9 batter with 3 hits and 3 runs scored in a road game since Chris Woodward also did that at Camden Yards on April 25, 2004. And Cavan Biggio, while not involved in The Big Inning, can return to Canada knowing he's the second-youngest Jays player ever to have a multi-homer game in Baltimore (either stadium). A 23-year-old Vernon Wells did it in a 6-3 win on July 22, 2002.
The Red Sox would come in to replace the Jays for the weekend, and at least on Friday, things didn't exactly get any better. Oh sure, it's only 2-1 after 3 innings, but Christian Vazquez hit a leadoff homer in the 4th and Luis Ortiz, in just his third major-league game, is quickly chased from the mound in favor of 8-year veteran Dan Straily. No regrets. Well, except for J.D. Martinez's 2-run homer. And in the 5th inning, Jackie Bradley's 2-run homer. And Michael Chavis's 2-run homer. And another homer by Martinez. In the span of five outs the Red Sox ran the score from 2-1 to 11-1, then tacked on 2 more in the 6th en route to a 13-2 thumping. The 11-run margin matched Boston's largest ever at Camden Yards; they beat Chris Tillman 11-0 on June 4, 2010, and Pedro Martinez led another 13-2 win there on September 22, 2002.
Not mentioned above is Brock Holt's homer in the 2nd inning, which gave the Red Sox a total of six on the night. The only other time the Red Sox hit six dingers in Baltimore (at any stadium) was August 3, 2003, when Rick Helling served up four of them in a 7-5 Boston win. But the Sawx are also the third team already this season to hit 6 HR in a game at Camden Yards, joining the Yankees on April 7 and the Twins on April 20. In the previous 15 seasons (2004-18), the number of visiting teams who did that, altogether, was... three.
Thursday's 12-3 score, combined with Friday's 13-2, marked just the second time in Camden Yards history that the Orioles lost back-to-back home games by 9 or more. The Yankees (13-2) and Nationals (17-5) did it to them on May 19 & 20, 2011. And continuing our little mini-theme for the week, Straily is the first reliever in Orioles history to give up 4 homers while getting 4 outs. Although shout-out to Dylan Bundy for doing it in a start last May. And ignoring the 4 homers, Straily also gave up 7 earned runs while getting only 4 outs. The last Orioles relievers to pull that off were Rob Bell and Brian Burres, who both did it in a certain famous game at Camden Yards... the 30-3 game against Texas on August 22, 2007.
We actually did a search to see if there were any songs about escalators. There aren't. Apparently they're neither glamorous nor easy to rhyme. The late great Mitch Hedberg may have said it best: "An escalator cannot break, it can only become stairs." So we'll have to settle for this classic about another people-mover. Intermission!
Rocky Mountain High
Fun fact, the word "escalate" has no true etymology. It's a verb we back-formed from the device known as an escalator, which until 1950 was actually a made-up trademark, not some clever Latin phrase meaning "thing that climbs upward". (We do actual research for these posts sometimes.) What better place to have things escalate than Coors Field? Although it would take a very long series of Escalators™ to reach 5,200 feet, and they have enough problems with the water.
Who'd'a thunk Thursday's 9-6 series opener against the Padres would be the calm game. Fernando Tatis and Eric Hosmer started the game with back-to-back doubles, the first time the Padres have done that since... oh. May 25 by Greg Garcia and Josh Naylor. Well, in that case, it's just the third time in team history that they've done it twice in a season, the others being 2017 and 1984. Tatis would triple later in the game, thus becoming the youngest leadoff batter with a three-bagger and a two-batter since since Rennie Stennett of the Pirates on September 6, 1971.
The Padres' 2 runs in the 1st would quickly be topped by the Rockies' 3 runs in the bottom half, two of them on an Ian Desmond double. The Rockies never lost that lead, in spite of Jon Gray giving up 9 hits and 4 runs; he became the first Colorado pitcher to allow 9+ hits, but also strike out at least 9 and get a win, since Denny Neagle in Milwaukee on August 24, 2001. Meanwhlie Charlie Blackmon collected two homers, a triple, and 4 RBI, the sixth player in Rox history to do that (all have been at Coors).
Friday's game also felt relatively mild, 4-3 in the 6th before Jeff Hoffman and Cal Quantrill hit those famous pitch limits and both got subbed out. Single, hit-by-pitch, Ian Desmond inside-the-parker leads to a 5-run inning and a 9-3 Rockies lead. Both teams tack on a couple more, nothing earth-shattering, 11-5 going to the 9th and let's see if Mike Dunn can nail this down.
Spoiler alert, he can't. Three singles, a wild pitch, and a two-run homer by Hunter Renfroe later, it's 11-9 and it's up to Wade Davis to send us to extra innings by allowing three more singles, including the blown-save-clinching one by Fernando Tatis. In the past 15 years the Padres have posted a 6-run 9th on seven occasions, and four of those have been at Coors. That matches the number of times the other 28 visiting teams have done it combined over that same span. And wow, that was too much excitement, let's relax for a couple innings while nothing else happens. Finally Tatis comes up again to start the 12th and smokes a triple to deep center. Only two other Padres-- Mike Cameron (July 23, 2006) and Luis Salazar (June 26, 1982), both in San Francisco-- had led off a 12th inning or later with a triple, and at this point one run should be all you need. But this is Coors. So let's get five. Austin Allen and Manny Machado, back-to-back doubles. Hunter Renfroe homers again, his third of the game having also gone deep way back in the 2nd. Ryan Ludwick, in the 3rd and 13th against Atlanta on April 25, 2011, is the only other Padres batter to homer 10 innings apart in the same game, and only Bret Boone (2000), Ken Caminiti (1998), and Nate Colbert (1972) collected 3 homers and 5 RBI in a Padres road game.
The Padres happened to have a 6-run extra inning back on April 27 in Washington, the first season where they've hit 5+ twice since 2008. One of those 2008 games, also in Washington on September 19, was their last time scoring 5 or more in an inning numbered 12 or higher. Only one other game in this decade saw a team score 11 or more runs from the 9th inning onward; on September 15, 2017, the Red Sox tied the Rays with 3 in the 9th and traded runs in the 14th before Boston said forget this and dropped a 7 in the 15th. And no, on Friday one run would not quite have been enough, because why not have Charlie Blackmon lead off B12 with his fourth hit of the game (again!), a solo homer for your 16-12 final. That was the fourth homer in Rockies history to lead off the bottom of an extra inning but not be a walkoff; Edgard Clemente had the prior one against Atlanta on August 19, 1999.
Saturday's game, defying our theme, didn't have one huge turning point, it was your classic Coors Field slugfest where everyone just hits everything. So there's no 10-run inning, but there is 1-3-1-2-4 and, just like that, the Rockies are out toan 11-4 advantage by the 6th. Eric Lauer became the fourth starter in Padres history to give up 10 hits and not finish the 3rd inning (spoiler, wait until Sunday!), joining Edinson Volquez (2013, also at Coors), Dewon Brazelton (2006), and Andy Hawkins (1988). The Padres got 3 runs back in the 6th to knock German Marquez off his mound, but that just ended up making him the first pitcher in Rockies history to give up 10+ hits and 7+ earned runs and get a win. Nobody had done it while also uncorking two wild pitches since Jim Bullinger of the Cubs on August 9, 1996.
David Dahl and Ian Desmond finished out their stat lines in the 7th with a 2-run triple and a sacrifice fly respectively; that will lead to your final score of 14-8 and 65 runs already in the series. While Desmond didn't hit an inside-the-parker for the second day in a row, he does have something to do with that "4" in the Rockies' 5th inning. That's a grand slam, the Rockies' first this season, leaving the Indians, Brewers, and Cardinals without one. That triple, and the ensuing sac fly, gave Dahl 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 RBI, a triple, and a hit-by-pitch in the game, something that only two other cleanup batters had ever done. Anthony Rizzo in 2016 and Ryan Doumit for the Pirates in 2005 are the rest of that list.
And Charlie Blackmon quietly collected four more hits, becoming just the 11th player in the live-ball era to have three straight 4-hit games, and the fifth among those to also score 2 runs in each game. The previous hitter on the list is Rafael Furcal for the Dodgers, May 13-15, 2007, and the previous one to also have the runs was Brett Butler of the Mets in July 1995.
We're going to jump right to the end of Sunday's game and tell you that Blackmon, with a chance at 4-hit history, flied out to start the 9th and thus fell one hit short. But he did join Wilin Rosario (September 20-23, 2012), as the only Rockies batters to ever have four straight 3-hit games. Wilin's, however, were not all in the same series. Blackmon just went 4-4-4-3 against the same opponent. How hard is that? Well, hard enough that nobody before him had ever done it. The previous MLB record for hits in a four-game series, 14, had been shared by the Braves' Buck Jordan in 1934 and Bill White of the Cardinals in 1961. The silver lining is that if Blackmon had gotten that fourth hit to start the 9th, we might still be playing. Because it's a 1-run game at this point, and not just any 1-run game.
Renfroe homered again in the 1st so it's already 3-0 Padres when Nick Margevicius trots out to the mound. Blackmon leadoff homer. Nolan Arenado walks and Desmond doubles him home. Then four more 2-out singles, the last being Blackmon's second hit, of both the game and the inning. In the 2nd Margevicius gives up four more singles in a row, such that he's now faced 16 batters and gotten four of them out. Yeah, that'll be all. So not only does he join that "10-hit" list with Eric Lauer on Saturday, he gets to be in a more-elite club. Only two other starters in the live-ball gave up 11+ hits while getting no more than 4 outs; they were Bronson Arroyo in 2008 (10 runs) and Phil Niekro in 1980 (7 runs).
Meanwhile, Peter Lambert's not exactly mowing them down either. Manuel Margot and Fernando Tatis hit back-to-back doubles in the 2nd, and then Greg Garcia drives in two more with a 3rd-inning triple. Suddenly it's 9-8 (1-run game, remember?) and now Lambert is gone as well. Since earned runs were first adopted as an official stat in 1912, Sunday was the first game ever where both starters gave up 9 hits, 8 earned runs, and neither of them made it to the 4th inning. However, Lambert would also end up being the second starter in Rockies history to give up 8 runs in ≤ 3 innings and not take the loss. The other is a memorable game in Rockies history; on the final day of the 1995 season, Bret Saberhagen gave up 8 early runs to the Giants, but Colorado came back from 6 down to win the game 10-9, avoid a tiebreaker game with the Astros, and clinch the first-ever NL Wild Card berth.
That just proves there's a lot of game still to be played. Trevor Story and Hunter Renfroe cancel each other's solo homers. Phil Maton, however, gives up three straight doubles in the 6th and we head to the 9th with another wacky score of 13-10. Wade Davis wouldn't blow-- another-- oh yes he would. Two fairly quick outs but also two walks and a Wil Myers single to make it 13-11. And Greg Garcia, now down to the Padres' final strike, hits not just his second triple of the game, but only his second of the season, for an incredible 13-13 tie. Garcia became the first batter in team history with a 4-hit, 4-RBI, 2-triple game, and only two other Padres batters-- Sean Burroughs in 2003 and Kevin McReynolds in 1985-- had hit a tying or go-ahead triple with the Padres down to their final out. If you've been adding up runs, you will notice we're now at 92, breaking the four-game-series record set by the Dodgers and Phillies in May 1929. And we also still need at least one more for somebody to decide this thing.
Davis is promptly lifted for Jon Gray, who suddenly has the bases loaded before doing anything. With Garcia on third, and the new intentional walk rule not requiring him to throw the pitches, and oh yeah, two outs, of course you're going to set up the force at every base. Which only works if Gray can throw a strike and have pinch-hitter Matt Strahm put it in play. Strahm never even swung. Six-pitch walk, two of them in the dirt, to make it 14-13. Only Ruppert Jones (1983) and Pat Scanlon (1977) had drawn a go-ahead, pinch-hit walk for San Diego with 2 outs in the 9th, and throwing out the "pinch hit" criterion brings in two other, more-famous names: Tony Gwynn (1984) and Mike Hargrove (1979).
About that score... the majors' last 14-13 game (exactly) was Angels over Red Sox on August 23, 2012. Exactly a year after that game was the last time a team scored 6 runs in the 1st and lost; the Cubs also did it against San Diego. (The Rockies, in their history, never had.) There happens to be a 14-13 road victory in that 1929 series whose runs record we just broke (there is also a 20-16 game which helped it set the record). And combined with the 16-12 from Friday, well, you may notice the Rockies just scored 12+ and lost twice in the same series. Only once before (1999) had they ever done that twice in a season. And the inverse, from the Padres' perspective? Well, they just gave up 12 runs and won-- twice. In their 50-season history before this weekend, the number of times they had done that... was three.
The Rockies are off on Monday.
Potpourri
We had a few other examples of things escalating quickly this week, each not worthy of its own long section, but worthy of mention nonetheless.
After getting walked off by Cleveland on Tuesday, the Reds said, we can't let the in-state "rivals" do that again. So Nick Senzel and Joey Votto both took Zach Plesac deep to start the game. The Reds hadn't opened a contest with back-to-back homers since Alex Ochoa and Barry Larkin did it in St Louis (off Andy Benes) on June 26, 2001. And no visiting team had ever done it in the history of Jacobs Field (slash, Progressive). Cincinnati would go on to tally 4 homers on the night; the only other time they did that against the Indians was July 8, 2000, in a 14-5 win at Riverfront.
The early home runs were flying in California on Tuesday, with Shohei Ohtani and Justin Bour powering the Angels to a 5-run 1st while many Dodger fans were still trying to find the stadium. It was the second time Kenta Maeda had allowed multiple 1st-inning homers (April 22, 2017, at Arizona), and Bour's 3-run shot was the first of that variety the Angels had ever hit in the 1st against their freeway counterparts (either stadium). The Angels ended up riding that 5-run inning to a 5-3 win, their first such victory (5+ runs but all in the 1st) since August 9, 2013, in Cleveland. As for the Dodgers, it was their first game allowing 5 runs in the 1st, but yet none after that, since the Cubs hung a "snowman" on them (8-1) on April 18, 1998.
Meanwhile up the 101, it was Fernando Tatis who started the Padres' game in San Francisco with a leadoff homer. It was one of the few things he still hadn't done yet, and this time he's beaten Roberto Alomar by a wide margin. Tatis is the youngest Padres batter to hit a leadoff dinger by 14 months; Alomar also hit his first one in San Francisco, but not until September 1989 before turning 22 that winter. Manuel Margot (last June), Chris Denorfia (2013), and Brian Giles (2008) are the only other Padres to hit a leadoff homer at the current Giants ballpark.
The bullpens at Target Field are both situated next to each other in left-center, so it made sense that a pitching line might "rub off" from one team to the other. On Thursday Brandon Brennan started the 6th for the Mariners. Not only did he not end the 6th, he didn't even get an out. A single, a failed fielder's choice, two walks, a wild pitch, and a pickoff error later, he's gone after facing four batters and allowing all of them to score. If that felt familiar to M's fans, it's because in his previous outing on Tuesday, Brennan faced three batters and all of them scored. No pitcher in Mariners history had done that twice in a row (min 3 BF). So with a comfortable 10-1 lead, the Twins trot Fernando Romero out there for the 8th. Two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch later, he's gone as well, the first Twins pitcher this season to face four batters and retire none of them. (Alas, only two of his ended up scoring.) There have been 11 games this century where multiple pitchers faced four batters and got none of them out, so they're notable but not historic. Ah, but see the wild pitches? Thursday's game was the first on record where multiple pitchers did 4 BF, 0 outs, and at least 1 WP in the same game.
Ketel Of Snakes
Remember back on Monday when Ketel Marte opened his week with a homer? Yeah, he remembers that too. Except five days ago he was batting second and had to wait through seven pitches and a Jarrod Dyson homer before he could also homer. But now it's Saturday in Washington and he's hitting leadoff this time and dangit, he wants to homer too. Except it's Stephen Strasburg, and he's really good, and-- wham, first-pitch home run, Ketel Marte. We don't have a lot of good notes for that, considering Dyson did the same thing five days ago, but Marte did hit just the third leadoff homer for the Diamondbacks in Washington. Jean Segura took Max Scherzer deep on September 27, 2016, and former New Britain Rock Cat Trent Oeltjen did it against J.D. Martin on August 9, 2009.
No, the good notes would happen later in the inning when Adam Jones also homered. Including Monday's outburst, it's the fourth game this season where the D'backs hit multiple 1st-inning homers. The only other season with that many games was 2017 (six), and the only other time they did it three times in a month (see June 2) was in August 1999.
And then things got interesting. Because upon the Nationals' turn to bat, already trailing 2-0, Trea Turner wasted no time either, roping Taylor Clarke's first pitch down the line in left for a triple. The Nats hadn't had a leadoff triple since August 13, 2016, but that was also by Turner (off Atlanta's Rob Whalen); he now has three total and the only Nationals batter with more is Nyjer Morgan (six). But as for that first-pitch thing? Well, Retrosheet has complete pitch counts back to the 1988 season, and Saturday was the first game in that dataset where one team homered on the first pitch it saw in a game, and the other team tripled on the first pitch it saw in a game (either order).
So natually after Turner scores on a sac fly, leave it to Juan Soto and Matt Adams to also hit 1st-inning homers and give the Nationals the lead right back. There hadn't been a game where both teams homered twice in the 1st inning since July 29, 2004, when Oakland's Alfonso Soriano and Mark Teixeira matched Mark McLemore and Eric Chavez of the Rangers.
And you might remember the only other game this season with four total 1st-inning bombs... because it was Taylor Clarke's last start. The one in Philadelphia on Monday where the D'backs started the game with 3 homers (and then Jean Segura hit one in the bottom half). And which also started the post (and is now going to end it). May the circle be unbroken.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Thursday, and Jake Bauers, Friday: Third time in MLB history that players have hit for the cycle on back-to-back days. They've all been in the second week of June: BOS Tris Speaker & NYG Chief Meyers in 1912, plus Dave Orr (NY Metropolitans) and George Wood (Detroit Wolverines!) in 1885.
⚾ Matt Adams, Sunday: Fourth player in Nats/Expos history with a grand slam and a 3-run homer in same game, joining Danny Espinosa (2016), Mike Lansing (1996), and Willie Davis (1974).
⚾ Twins, Wednesday: First game where they committed 5 fielding errors since June 4, 1994, at Detroit (they still won that one big).
⚾ Brad Peacock, Tuesday: Second pitcher in Astros history to give up 7+ hits, 2+ homers, strike out 4 or fewer, commit a balk, and get a win. Mark Lemongello at San Francisco, August 9, 1978.
⚾ Eric Sogard, Sunday: First Jays leadoff batter with a triple, a double, and 3 runs scored since Alex Rios at Kansas City, April 27, 2008.
⚾ Noah Syndergaard, Saturday: First Mets pitcher to allow 5 stolen bases and still get a win since Jason Isringhausen against the Dodgres on August 20, 1995.
⚾ Ramon Laureano, Wednesday: Second player in Athletics history with 5 (official) RBIs and 2 stolen bases in a game. Bing Miller against the Yankees on June 21, 1929.
⚾ Rougned Odor, Friday: Second Rangers batter ever to hit a grand slam in Cincinnati. Sammy Sosa off Matt Belisle, June 15, 2007.
⚾ Trevor Bauer, Sunday: First Indians pitcher to throw a 4-hit shutout (or better) with 0 walks IN Detroit since Luis Tiant, June 9, 1968.
⚾ Justin Verlander, Wednesday: Second pitcher in Astros history with 15 strikeouts and 0 walks in a game. Randy Johnson did 16 and 0 against the Pirates on August 28, 1998.
⚾ Adrian Sampson, Thursday: Second pitcher in Rangers/Senators history to give up 4 homers in a game at Fenway Park. Rick Helling also did that (in addition to the ones in Baltimore mentioned earlier) on August 4, 2001.
⚾ Cubs, Saturday: Won a road game with the Dodgers where they had 3 hits or fewer. Last such win wasn't at Dodger Stadium. It wasn't even at Ebbets. It was at Washington Park on August 3, 1912.
⚾ Nationals, Monday: First 11-run win by a Washington team in Chicago since the original Senators posted a 12-0 at the original Comiskey on June 29, 1958.
⚾ Stevie Wilkerson, Sunday: First Orioles batter to homer and triple in a game he didn't start since Harold Baines vs White Sox, May 4, 1999.
⚾ Edwin Diaz, Thu/Fri: First pitcher to blow a save, have the game get suspended, stay in the game when it resumed, and then also take the loss in the second "half", since Robb Nen of the Marlins on May 4, 1995.
⚾ Brett Gardner, Tuesday: First Yankees batter to triple in one game of a doubleheader and homer in the other (either order) since Johnny Damon at Boston, August 18, 2006.
⚾ Sonny Gray, Sunday: First Reds pitcher with a triple and a sac bunt in the same game since Don Gullett at Dodger Stadium, September 22, 1973.
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