Home(r) For The Summer

We can't really use "Home For Christmas" since MLB doesn't play in December (yet!). But with a bunch of minor-league teams invoking "Christmas In July" this week when the 25th came along (including one we were at on Saturday the 27th), we'll harken back to those college days when your parents couldn't wait to send you back. A bunch of hitters this week sent some stuff back too.


Three's Company

It's sometimes given as writing/debate advice also, but we recently saw a commercial touting "scientific research" that humans find things that come in threes aesthetically pleasing. Musketeers. Tenors. Stooges. Blind Mice. Little Pigs. Strikes and you're out. Home runs?

Don'tcha know where we're headed with this? Robinson Cano does, because on Tuesday he not only took Chris Paddack deep in both the 4th and 6th innings, but he whacked another 2-run shot off Logan Allen in the 7th to singlehandedly beat the Padres 5-2. In its 11 years and many variations on outfield fences, Cano was the first batter for any team to have a 3-homer, 5-RBI game at Citi Field, and the first Mets batter ever to do it in a home game (any stadium). The only such game at Shea came from the visiting Dickie Allen of the Phillies on September 29, 1968.

Only two other players even had a 3-homer game at Citi before this week, and those came in consecutive homestands in July 2015. Lucas Duda did it on the 12th against Arizona in the Mets' final game before the break, and then (current Long Island Duck!) Kirk Nieuwenheis went deep thrice on the 29th, also against the Padres, although in classic Mets fashion, all three were solo shots and they lost.

Cano also broke up the no-hitter with a 1st-inning single before his three taters, and thus was also the first Mets cleanup batter in over 20 years to collect 4 hits (any type) and 5 RBIs in a game. Todd Hundley last did that against the Reds on July 20, 1997. And only three other Mets (there's that number again!) have driven in 5+ runs and accounted for every run the team scored in a game: Jay Bruce (April 2017), Carlos Beltran (August 2008), and Todd Zeile (June 2004).


Dressed To The Nines

PNC Park in Pittsburgh is always among the most aesthetically-pleasing ballparks (it's our desktop wallpaper at the moment), and we're guessing Paul DeJong thinks so too. Because, unlike Cano just 24 hours earlier, he didn't even wait until the second plate appearance. He cranked a 2-run homer to open the floodgates against Jordan Lyles, who would surrender 8 runs in the inning and get yanked after another 2-run dinger by Paul Goldschmidt. Lyles ended up as the first starter in Pirates history (1882) to give up 8+ runs, 3+ homers, and not finish the 2nd inning; Shawn Chacon (August 9, 2006, at Houston) held the previous "record" with 7 and 3.

DeJong then greeted Lyles' replacement, Luis Escobar, with a double, and scored a ninth run when Kolten Wong doubled right after him. That was Wong's second double of the inning, not just the game, and it marked the Cardinals' first 9-run frame in Pittsburgh since April 18, 2005. Recall that we also brought you tales of a 10-run inning the Cardinals dropped in Cincinnati last Friday; it's the first season since 2007 where they've had multiple 9-run innings, and the first time (at least in the linescores we could find back to 1905) that they've ever had two within a week of each other.

Nine is, of course, three threes, and back to our protagonist Paul DeJong. History repeated itself two innings later when Goldschmidt again reached to start the inning and DeJong cranked a 2-run homer. And in their final go-around, Goldy unfortunately grounded out to end the 7th, meaning DeJong couldn't drive him in. But he could drive himself in with a leadoff shot in the 8th off Jose Osuna. And heck, we imagine Goldy doesn't feel too bad, because remember that he also had a 3-HR, 5-RBI game in his second game with the Cardinals back on March 29. It's the first season in team history (1882) where two different players have done it (Albert Pujols, Mark McGwire, and Johnny Mize did it twice by themselves), and DeJong is also the first Cardinal ever to have a 3-homer game in Pittsburgh (any stadium). Tack on that double and he joins a few other lists: Ryan Ludwick (2009) is the team's only other batter in the live-ball era to have 4 extra-base hits in a game in Pittsburgh. And only five other Cardinals have ever had 4 XBH, scored 4 runs, and driven in 5: Matt Carpenter last July, Albert Pujols (2004), Mark Whiten (1993 in his 4-HR game), Joe Medwick (1937 when he won the Triple Crown), and Les Bell (1925).

Although they never recovered from the 9-run inning, the Pirates did manage 8 runs of their own, and look at the doubles on that said as well. Corey Dickerson had two of them, plus scored 4 runs, the first Pirates batter to do that in a loss since Bobby Bonilla in Atlanta on May 20, 1990. And you have to go back even further to find Starling Marte's line of 4 hits including 3 doubles in a Pittsburgh loss; Marvell Wynne pulled it off against the Dodgers on May 6, 1984. Between the two Pirates, Wong, and Yairo Muñoz, it was the first game played in Pittsburgh in at least 100 years (covering PNC Park, Three Rivers, and Forbes Field) where four players had multiple doubles.


Cruz-ing for Bruz-ing

If one player hitting 3 homers pleases us, then what could be better than three players hitting 3 homers? Each. On three consecutive days, something that had never happened before in our little game of 3's and 9's where everything seems to have happened at least once. Our third Musketeer is not a triplet but a Twin, Nelson Cruz, who got it out of the way early on Thursday by going yard in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th against the White Sox. (This also creates maximum anticipation for his strikeout in the 6th and flyout in the 9th.) Only one other batter in Twins/Senators history has had a 3-homer game in Chicago (and we include the North Side here), Justin Morneau on July 6, 2007. They account for two of the five games at the current White Sox stadium where a player had 3 homers and 5 RBIs; the others are by Manny Machado (2016), Paul Konerko (2009, yes, one White Sock actually did it), and Jeff Bagwell (1999).

Teammate Max Kepler knows all about 3-homer games; he had one back on June 6 in Cleveland. Four times in Twins/Senators history have they gotten two in a season: 2017 (Byron Buxton & Eddie Rosario), 2016 (Kepler again, with Brian Dozier), and 1963 (Bob Allison & Harmon Killebrew). And it's also relevant that Kepler homered alongside Cruz in the Thursday game, because adding on Miguel Sano's 6th-inning blast gave the Twins 5 homers in the 10-3 victory. That's the ninth time this season that the Twins have hit 5 or more homers in a game. Not only is that a record for them, it's an all-time record for any team in any season. The 1977 Red Sox had eight such games. And the 2019 Twins still have 60 games left.


Now With Extra Bases

Those 5 homers on Thursday were just the latest spike in the Twins' season-long homerfest. In fact they had just hit three of them the day before against the Yankees... and lost because Jake Odorizzi couldn't stop giving up extra-base hits. The specific combination of 2 homers, 2 triples, and 3 doubles had been done by only one other Twins/Senators pitcher in the live-ball era-- Irving "Bump" Hadley on August 19, 1935. And Odorizzi was the first Twins pitcher to give up any 7 XBH and also 9+ runs since Bert Blyleven against Texas on September 13, 1986.

The 10-7 slugfest was the second time the Yankees had ever played a game in Minnesota and collected two of each hit (HR, 3B, 2B, 1B); the other was May 17, 1993, when they knocked around starter Kevin Tapani and Carl Willis for an 11-5 win. And more notably, those triples and doubles... were by the same two players! Mike Tauchman and Didi Gregorius both had one of each, although Tauchman's double came later when Odorizzi was already out of the game. They were the first Yankees teammates to triple and double in the same game in exactly 13 years; Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter did it in Arlington on July 24, 2006. Tack on 2 RBI for each player and only one other set of Yankees had done that in the past 70 years: Wade Boggs and Tony Fernandez (who hit for the cycle) against Oakland on September 3, 1995.

And before his 3-homer outburst on Thursday, Cruz did hit one of those Twins homers in the loss on Wednesday. Over the course of the week, Cruz would become the first Twins batter to homer in four straight games since, well, Nelson Cruz from June 5 through 9. He's the team's first player to have multiple 4-game homer streaks in the same season since Harmon Killebrew in 1970.


Now With Extra Innings

So by now you realize that also means Cruz homered in Tuesday's game against the Yankees. He was, as usual, not the only one. Wednesday's 10-7 slugfest was actually pretty calm compared to Tuesday's, um, does that say 14-12 in extra innings-fest? A-yup, and it only took 5 hours too!

In the first hour (or two) we find the Twins running out to an 8-2 lead off Domingo German after Cruz and Jorge Polanco go back-to-back to start the 3rd. Miguel Sano would be the final nail with a 3-run dinger in the 4th, and German would end up being the first starter in Yankees history to give up 8 runs, 3 homers, not finish the 4th inning, and not end up taking a loss. If you throw on his 2 hit batters and wild pitch, no starter, for any team, has done that and not lost the game.

But these are the Yankees, so it's not a question of if they're going to erupt in the late innings, it's when. Didi Gregorius had already driven in those 2 early runs with a double, and he would answer Sano with his own 3-run tater in the top of the 5th. The Twins still hold a 9-5 lead going to the 8th, but no worries, Blake Parker can take care of that. He promptly gives up three doubles and a walk to make it 9-8, and oh hey, look who's up again. Gregorius's fourth hit of the day is another double, just the second one they've ever hit in Minnesota to flip the lead in the 8th inning or later. Alex Johnson did it on June 3, 1975, at Metropolitan Stadium. That also gave Didi 7 RBIs on the day, joining Jose Abreu (2016), Max Kepler (2016), and Ben Zobrist (2011) as the only players to have such a game at Target Field. Didi had another 7-RBI game last April against the Rays, joining a pretty good list of Yankees to do it multiple times: Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodriguez, Babe Ruth, George Selkirk, Ruben Sierra, Bernie Williams.

However, the Didi-versus-Sano show isn't quite over yet. After Eddie Rosario knocks an infield single off Gio Urshela's glove, Sano gets the lead back (11-10) with his own 2-run homer, the first time the Twins have hit a lead-flipping homer in the 8th or later against the Yankees since May 16, 2010. That was a grand slam by Jason Kubel off Mariano Rivera, one of just two slams the new HOF'er ever allowed as a reliever. The only other Twins batters to hit such a homer against the Yankees in Minnesota are Randy Bush in 1988 and Harmon Killebrew twice. This also gives Sano 2 homers and 5 RBIs; he would end up being the first Twins batter to do that in a home loss since Matt Lawton against Cleveland on September 17, 1997.

So now all Taylor Rogers has to do is get three ou--- mm, yeah, about that. He did get two. Then walked Mike Tauchman, and Aaron Hicks swats yet another lead-flipping homer, this one just the second ever hit by the Yankees in the 9th in Minnesota. Bobby Richardson, who's famous for a different homer, hit one off Dick Stigman on August 16, 1962. And it's the first Twins home game where both teams hit a lead-flipping homer this late since Ted Uhlaender and the Senators' Paul Casanova traded them in the 8th on June 18, 1968.

It's now Aroldis Chapman's turn to get three ou-- oh, come ON man. Three straight walks, none requiring more than six pitches, and a game-tying sacrifice fly by Jorge Polanco, who would join Joe Mauer (2004) and Rod Carew (1978) as the only Twins to homer, double, single, and have a sac fly in a loss-- said loss made possible by Kohl Stewart giving up three straight singles in the 10th, the first of those by (who else) Didi Gregorius again. He of the 7 RBI now also has 5 hits, the fifth 5-and-7 game in Yankees history. The others belong to Danny Tartabull (1992), Joe DiMaggio (1937), Babe Ruth (1927), and Del Pratt (1920). And the only other player for any team to have such a game in Minnesota was Cleveland's Casey Blake on July 5, 2003. When this thing finally ends, we also have the first game ever played in Minnesota that "featured" four blown saves. And it's only Tuesday.



When you've got the number 3 on your mind, sometimes it's best to play some pinball. It actually occurred to us that none of the animations in the series ever involved counting items. There aren't three of anything in the special "3" animation, or eight of anything in the part that's unique to 8. It's a wonder we ever learned anything. Intermission!



Please Come To Boston

So after a 14-12, 5-hour game on Tuesday, and a 10-7 "getaway" game on Wednesday, where else would the Yankees want to go but Fenway Park? And they certainly did keep the Sawx scoreboard operators busy, but not with their hitting. No, that would be Masahiro Tanaka giving up 7 runs in the 1st inning, including a 3-run homer by Xander Bogaerts-- the team's third batter of the game after Mookie Betts and Rafael Devers both reached. Obviously the third batter of the game is the first one who can hit a 3-run homer, and Bogaerts was the first Bostonian to do that against the Yankees since Mike Greenwell, on June 16, 1993, against Melido Perez. After three more singles and a bailout on the Infield Fly rule, #9 batter Jackie Bradley doubled to make it 5-0 and then Betts also hit a two-bagger before Devers ended the inning. The Sawx hadn't hung a 7-run 1st inning at home since July 8, 2011, against the Orioles, and hadn't done it against the Yankees (home or road) since September 26, 1989.

But like we've seen in the prior two games, and in that London series with the Red Sox last month, the Yankees aren't above scoring 10 or 12 themselves. So after Tanaka gets through the 2nd and 3rd unscathed, let's leave him out there and-- oh. Those would be 5 more runs in the 4th courtesy of a Devers homer and then three straight doubles, the last one closing Tanaka's line after he was knocked out of the game.

That line would end with Tanaka being the first Yankees starter to give up 12 runs since Red Ruffing also did it at Fenway on September 2, 1939-- and since earned runs were adopted by the AL in 1913, just the second to give up 12 of those in a game. Carl Mays did that in a 13-0 shutout by Cleveland on July 17, 1923. The last starter for any team to give up 12+ earned and not finish the 4th inning was A.J. Burnett, then with the Pirates, on May 2, 2012.

By the end of the 5th, now with Stephen Tarpley having given up 3 runs of his own, we're up to a count of 15-3, the third time this season that the Red Sox had gotten to 15 runs by the end of the 5th inning. (One of them was Jackie Bradley's 6-RBI game last weekend.) Boston hadn't done that three times in a season since 1950, and Thursday would also be just the second game in the live-ball era where they collected 10 doubles. The other was a 13-3 win at Tiger Stadium on July 29, 1990.

You may know the rest of the gory details by now, including catcher Austin Romine taking the hill for the Yankees in the 8th and giving up two home runs, including one to Xander Bogaerts. No position player in Yankees history had ever given up 2 dingers, and it only served to get the Red Sox up to 19 runs, their most ever against their New York rivals. The last 19-3 game in the majors was also at Fenway, last September 26 against Baltimore; it's the first time that score has appeared in consecutive seasons since 1920-21.

Bogaerts would finish the night with 4 hits, 4 runs scored, 4 RBIs, and 2 homers, the first Red Sox batter ever to post that line against the Yankees. And if you drop the 2 homers, their only other player with 4-4-4 against New York was Mookie Betts in a 14-1 thumping in the Bronx last April.


Three's A Crowd

Someone say Mookie Betts? Hope you got your bets in early on Friday's game, because it didn't take long for Mookie to put the Sawx up 1-0. He hit the first leadoff homer for Boston against New York since Jacoby Ellsbury off Andy Pettitte on July 19, 2013. And then, well, after Robinson Cano on Tuesday and Paul DeJong on Wednesday and Nelson Cruz on Thursday, Mookie wasn't about to let those guys challenge his lead in the 3-homer-game department. He took James Paxton deep again in the 3rd and 4th as the Sawx sprinted out to another 7-0 lead. And since we already know a 3-homer game had never happened on three straight days, well, obviously it hadn't happened on four either.

It's the fifth time (already!) that Mookie has gone deep three times in a game, surpassing several luminaries such as Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Albert Pujols, and Willie Stargell. Alex Rodriguez is the most recent player with five such games, and the only ones with six are Sammy Sosa and Johnny Mize.

Paxton was promptly yanked after the 4th; having also yielded a longball to J.D. Martinez, he joined Michael Pineda (April 24, 2016, vs Rays) as the only pitchers in Yankees history to allow 4 homers while also striking out 9 batters ("here, see if you can hit it"). His mound opponent, Andrew Cashner, was the first Red Sox pitcher to give up 10 hits to the Yankees and still get a win since Josh Beckett on May 5, 2009.

Only three other Red Sox batters have had a 3-homer game against the Yankees, and all of them were at Fenway. Steve Pearce did it last August, along with Kevin Millar (July 2004) and Mo Vaughn (May 1997). Mookie's also the first Bostonian to have multiple 5-RBI games against the Yankees (never mind the 3 homers), doing so in an 11-6 win last September 20. Only two others have done it at all: Jacoby Ellsbury in 2011 and Billy Werber in 1933. And because one of Mookie's homers started the game, we can put him in a club with Travis d'Arnaud (two weeks ago, also against the Yankees) and Max Kepler on June 6, all of whom had a 3-homer game that included a leadoff. That's never happened three times in a season in MLB history.

Tack on an RBI double in the 6th, and Mookie is the first leadoff batter in Red Sox history with 4 hits, 4 runs scored, and 5 RBI, although he had that same line on August 14, 2016, against Arizona when he batted 3rd. The only other player in Sawx history to do it twice (any spot in the order) is Dustin Pedroia.



Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

While all those 3-homer games got a lot of attention this week, a few other singleton homers were just as notable. If you left Disney's California Adventure when it closed at 10 pm on Thursday, you could have hopped across the street and had another California adventure in the form of 9 full innings of baseball. That's because the Orioles and Angels were already playing a 4-4 dirge of 3½ hours, already the last game in the country still being played, when Trey Mancini homered in the top of the 9th to give Baltimore a 5-4 lead. And then Brian Goodwin happens. His solo shot in the bottom half ties it up annnnnd now we wait. Double play in the 10th. Two walks in the 11th but nope. Another double play in the 12th. Finally Griffin Canning emerges for the top of the 15th, gives up a single, a walk, and two stolen bases, and Jace Peterson's single gives Baltimore a 7-5 lead, the first time the Orioles had hit a multi-run go-ahead single in the 15th since Lee May did it in Detroit on May 26, 1979.

After Hanser Alberto adds an insurance single, it's 8-5 going to the bottom half and all we ask is that Tanner Scott not walk three straight hitters to force in a run. All we ask. It's approaching 1 am, and that's if you're on Pacific Time. Dangit, 8-6. Still, as long as Mike Trout doesn't drive in exactly two of those remaining runs,... Seriously, no player in Angels history has ever hit a multi-run double in the 15th or lat-- of course he did. And so what if we got false hope from a couple of replays that showed David Fletcher might have actually gotten his hand on the plate for a walkoff despite being called out?, prompting Angels radio to wonder out loud if anyone in the replay center was still awake at 4 am. Unfortunately they were, and unfortunately it means we play on. At least Canning was headed back out there, and it was the homer he allowed to Jonathan Villar in the top of the 16th that finally put an end to our baseball day, er, morning. No visiting player had ever homered at Anaheim Stadium (1966) in the 16th or later, and it was the fourth-latest homer by inning in Orioles history. Adam Jones (2012) and Luis Matos (2003) both hit them in the 17th, while Andy Etchebarren (June 4, 1967, walkoff in the 19th) holds the team record. Tanner Scott wound up as the first Orioles pitcher to give up 3 runs, blow a save, and then get the win when they scored again in the next inning, since Willie Roberts against the Yankees on September 21, 2001. But the best line of the week belongs to the Orioles' "closer". That would be center fielder Stevie Wilkerson, in a move that would probably have been a fireable offense for Brandon Hyde if it hadn't worked. Wilkerson not-so-promptly launches a bunch of 54-mile-per-hour "fastballs" the likes of which the Angels have never even seen in batting practice,


Trea-Cycle

Okay, it's not quite a tricycle (another "3" reference!), but it's another notable homer to add to this week's collection. Of course, we didn't know what was coming when the homer actually happened, since all it did was lead off Tuesday's game against the Rockies. Turner would follow with a single in the 2nd and a triple to lead off the 5th. Instead of getting the double in his next turn in the 6th, Turner got a double play to end the inning... but when three straight Nationals reach in the 7th, Turner is guaranteed to bat one more time. This time he didn't miss, shooting an RBI double to right to not just complete the cycle, but continue a frame that would end up with the Nationals scoring 8 times. You might remember the Nats having another 8-run inning last week in Atlanta in the game where Stephen Strasburg had 5 RBIs. That marks the first time in franchise history the Nats/Expos had a pair of them within a week of each other.

Turner, meanwhile, is the first player for any team in over 9 years to collect the cycle in that order (HR-1B-3B-2B0, after Jody Gerut in Arizona on May 8, 2010. The last cycle that included a homer to lead off the game was by Rajai Davis in Toronto on July 2, 2016. And-- with the asterisk that GIDPs weren't reported by the leagues until 1933-- only five players have ever cycled and grounded into a double play in the same game. Jeff DaVanon of the Angels was the last, on August 25, 2004; preceding him were George Brett (1990), Carlton Fisk (1984), and Joe Torre (1973).

And, in a game that continues to haunt us, Turner also hit for the cycle in a 15-12 win at Coors Field on April 25, 2017. He's the first player ever to record two cycles against the Rockies. Brad Wilkerson is the only other player in Nats/Expos history to record two cycles at all.


Slammin' Saturday

By the end of the week we had transitioned from threes to fours, with Saturday featuring four 4-run homers (which you probably know better as "grand slams"). While not even a season high (there were five on-- of course-- May 5 (i.e., 5/5)), it took all the way to July 27 before the Indians connected for their first one of the season. After the Cardinals got one last weekend, Cleveland had been the last team waiting to hit one, but in this case they didn't wait long. Francisco Lindor and Oscar Mercado led off the game with singles, Mike Freeman got plunked to load the bases, and number-4 batter Jason Kipnis unloaded them.

As mentioned with Xander Bogaerts above, the fourth batter of the game is of course the earliest player who can possibly hit a grand slam, and Kipnis was the first Clevelander to do so in that spot since Juan Gonzalez went deep off Gary Glover of the White Sox on September 8, 2001. The Indians hadn't had it happen in a road game since Andre Thornton hit one in Oakland on July 2, 1986, and the Royals hadn't allowed it since Vlad Guerrero (that's Sr.) connected against Zack Greinke on May 1, 2007.

(It's worth pointing out here that in Sunday's loss, Carlos Santana pulled the similar trick by hitting a 3-run homer as the Indians' third batter of the game. Going back 75 years (before which we start losing play-by-play accounts), the only other time Cleveland had both such homers in the same season was 2000. David Justice & Manny Ramirez did it that year, and they were six weeks apart.)

Back to Saturday, though, Lindor would add a solo homer in the 2nd, and then Jose Ramirez provided the final straw against Glenn Sparkman with a 3-run shot in the 4th. Sparkman also started the month by giving up 8 runs and 3 homers in Toronto on Canada Day; he's the fifth Royals pitcher ever to do it twice in a season. Tim Belcher did it in 1998, Jeremy Guthrie had two such games while winning a World Series ring in 2015, and it's been a precipitous drop since then; the other pitchers with two such games-- Ian Kennedy and Jason Hammel-- both did it last year.

Lindor and Mercado both finished with 3 hits and 2 runs scored, the first time Cleveland's 1- and 2-hitters have both done that in any game played in Kansas City (including the A's years).


Please Brew Responsibly

If you happened to miss the first 7 innings of Saturday's Cubs/Brewers game, well, the only person who might be mad (other than whoever bought the tickets) is Anthony Rizzo. Because his 2-run homer in the 3rd was basically the only thing that happened in those first 2½ hours or so. Jon Lester allowed only four singles and the Cubs appeared headed for a win that would put them back in a tie with St Louis for the NL Central lead.

Ah, but Lester is now done after only 94 pitches. Enter Steve Cishek, who gives up a pinch-hit homer to Ben Gamel, the Brewers' first against the Cubs in the 8th or later since Scooter Gennett hit one against Pedro Strop on September 6, 2013. Lorenzo Cain doubles on the very next pitch, and we should probably go to Derek Holland now. He retires Christian Yelich, and since we're playing National League lefty/righty games, he gets to leave now as well. That means it's Tyler Chatwood who gives up the game-tying double to Keston Hiura and blows the save before Rowan Wick gets out of the inning (yes, that's four pitchers to get three outs).

Albert Almora would eventually follow with the Cubs' sixth extra-inning homer at Miller Park; Rizzo hit the previous one on June 11 of last season, and was the only other to lead off an inning. So the Cubs turn to Craig Kimbrel with a 1-run lead in extras, and while #Kernels hasn't heard much from him this year (this is a good thing), we can't help flashing back to last year's postseason where he gave up at least 1 run in seemingly every appearance but still got out of it somehow. Oh, and did we mention Christian Yelich is leading off?

Granted, the stakes are not nearly as high in a Cubs/Brewers tilt in late July, but you can guess what Yelich did to Kimbrel's second pitch. It was the fifth time in Brewers history that they led off the bottom of an extra inning with a homer that was not a walkoff. Corey Hart had the prior one, against the Nationals on July 29, 2012; the others were by Yuniesky Betancourt (2011), Geoff Jenkins (2006), and Jeff Cirillo (1994).

Kimbrel then walked Tyler Saladino before it's Hiura's turn again. And wham, walkoff homer, the Brewers' first this season. In the past 7 years, Milwaukee's only had one other multi-run walkoff homer in extra innings, and that was also against the Cubs, by Travis Shaw on September 23, 2017. The Brewers have 13 such homers in their history, but the Cubs are the only team they've victimized twice. For Kimbrel, it was the third game of his career, including the postseason, where he faced three or more batters and all of them scored. The last Cubs pitcher to do that and get both a blown save and a loss, predictably, was Carlos Marmol on July 14, 2011, against the Marlins. And Keston Hiura became the first batter in franchise history to have a game-tying extra-base hit in the 8th or 9th (his double), and then a walkoff extra-base hit in extras (the homer).

Sunday, however, featured a lot less drama, unless you count "will he homer again?". That's when Kyle Schwarber unloaded a grand slam off Kyle Davies in the 2nd inning, and then another 3-run homer off Davies in the 4th as the Cubs rolled to an 11-4 win. Schwarber is the first Cubs batter with a slam and a 3-run shot in the same game since Derrek Lee on July 2, 2009, and the first with 4 runs scored and 7 RBIs in a game since Adolfo Phillips on June 11, 1967. The only other three Cubs to do that latter part before Phillips are Ron Santo (1961), Ernie Banks (1955), and Frank Demaree (1936).

When Schwarber came up for the final time in the 9th, Taylor Williams just opted to hit him. That gives Schwarber an odd line that only one other player has ever pulled off: Until Sunday the only player ever with 4 runs scored, 7 RBIs, and a hit-by-pitch in the same game was Alex Kampouris of the Reds, who did it in the Phillies' final season at Baker Bowl on May 9, 1937.


And if you just can't get enough Tyler Saladino mentions (we wrote the bottom part first), there is always...


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Tyler Saladino, Sun-Mon: Second player in Brewers history to hit a grand slam in back-to-back games. Rob Deer at Cleveland, August 19-20, 1987.

⚾ Mallex Smith, Friday: First Mariners batter with a leadoff single and a walkoff single in same game since Ichiro Suzuki vs Jays, July 28, 2009.

⚾ Will Smith, Saturday: First Dodgers batter with 3 extra-base hits and a sac fly in same game since the latter became official in 1954.

⚾ Tim Beckham, Thursday: Third player in Mariners history with a grand slam and 3 strikeouts in the same game, joining Mark Whiten (1996) and Jay Buhner (1992).

⚾ Jung Ho Kang, Monday: Pirates' first multi-run homer in the bottom of an extra inning that did not at least tie the game since Bob Bailey vs Dodgers, September 1, 1966.

⚾ Braves, Saturday: First time scoring 15+ runs in Philadelphia since June 10, 1972. Also first team in (at least) live-ball era to score 15+ runs in a game while also striking out 15+ times.

⚾ Wes Parsons, Tuesday: First Braves pitcher to issue a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the same games since John Rocker vs Cubs, June 21, 2000.

⚾ Victor Robles, Sunday: First player in Nats/Expos history with a single, double, and triple in a game he didn't start.

⚾ Anthony Santander, Wednesday: First Orioles batter to homer and double in same game at Chase Field. O's had been the last remaining team never to have a batter do it there.

⚾ Miguel Rojas, Sat-Sun: Second player in Marlins history with a leadoff homer in back-to-back team games. Hanley Ramirez vs Washington, July 17 & 18, 2006.

⚾ Jose Ramirez, Thursday: Second player in Indians history to homer in the 14th or later in Kansas City. Larry Doby off the Athletics' Ray Herbert, August 30, 1958.

⚾ Dylan Covey, Sunday: First White Sox starter to give up 5 runs and not record an out since Ross Baumgarten at Oakland, September 27, 1981.

⚾ Shane Bieber, Wednesday: First Indians pitcher to throw an individual shutout in Toronto since Dennis Martinez on May 22, 1994.

⚾ Scott Kingery, Tuesday: First Phillies batter to triple in the 15th inning or later since Bake McBride walked off the Padres on August 21, 1980.

⚾ Marlins, Friday: First team to hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to tie and then walk off since the Royals against Seattle on September 9, 1984.

⚾ Yuli Gurriel, Tuesday, with George Springer May 14: First season where the Astros hit two inside-the-park homers since 1993 (Ken Caminiti & Steve Finley).

⚾ Pedro Severino & David Fletcher, Saturday: Second game ever where a player on each team had 4+ hits, 3+ RBI, and a stolen base. Other opponents were Buddy Myers of the Senators and Boston's Sy Rosenthal on September 1, 1926.

⚾ Paul Goldschmidt, Friday: Cardinals' first lead-flipping homer in the 8th or later against the Astros since Albert Pujols walked off Chad Harville on July 15, 2005.

⚾ Kole Calhoun, Tue-Wed: First player for any team, including the Dodgers, to have 3 extra-base hits in back-to-back games at Dodger Stadium.

Hot Or Not

Your local Talking Head News Person has probably spent the last few days telling you that it's hot outside. (Also, actually going outside would tell you this.) And once again it is that week of the mid-summer where the numbers on the time-and-temperature board aren't the only ones rising.


High Heat

Seems like every week some team reads our post on Mondays and says, hey, that's a good idea, we should try that. This week's winner was the Giants, who had an early wakeup call thanks to a rainout back on May 8 that necessitated a Monday doubleheader at Coors Field. Seems like they got enough sleep, though. After last weekend saw six 7-run innings in just four days, and a couple notes about the Giants going the longest of any team without one, well, surprise. Back-to-back homers from Brandon Crawford and Mike Yastrzemski in the 1st made it a 5-0 lead, and they finally got over the hump with 7 hits in the 3rd to knock German Marquez out of the game and post that first "7" since June 4, 2018, against Arizona. They hadn't had a 7-run frame in a road game since June 21, 2016, in Pittsburgh, and only the White Sox have gone longer without doing that.

Crawford collected another homer in the 6th and polished off the most lopsided game of the week with another 2-run single in the 9th for a final of 19-2. The Giants hadn't scored 19+ in a game since beating the Dodgers on September 14, 2013, and the Rockies hadn't allowed it in over a decade. And the last time they did it... wasn't at Coors Field. The Phillies piled up 20 runs against them at Citizens Bank Park on May 26, 2008.

Crawford's 5 hits and 8 RBI made him just the 23rd player in major-league history to officially post that line (counting RBI only since 1920), and the previous person to do it... is the one who gave up those last two runs in the 9th. Mark Reynolds, then with the Nationals, did it against Miami on July 7 of last season, and then on Monday joined Todd Zeile (2002) and Brent Mayne (2000) as the only Rockies position players ever to pitch in a game. The only other Giants batter with a 5-hit, 8-RBI line was Orlando Cepeda against the Cubs in a 19-3 win on July 4, 1961.

Yastrzemski ended up with 4 hits, 4 runs scored, and 3 RBIs, harkening back to that 2013 Dodgers game when Brandon Belt was the last Giants batter to do that. Between him, B-Craw, Alex Dickerson, and Kevin Pillar, they were the first quarter of Giants batters to have multiple extra-base hits in the same game since Jo-Jo Moore, Babe Young, Ken O'Dea, and Mel Ott did it against the Cubs on August 25, 1940. And as for Marquez, he's just the third starter in Rockies history to give up 11 earned runs and not make it out of the 3rd inning; Chris Rusin (2015 vs Mets) and Bryan Rekar (1996 vs Expos) also did it, both at Coors.


One Giant Walkoff For Mankind
(That's your required moon-landing-anniversary reference since we're writing this part on Saturday.)

Later in the week it wasn't the number of runs that was increasing for the Giants, it was the number of innings. It started slowly, with a 10-inning win on Tuesday that featured a 4-run extra frame made possible by two walks, three straight singles, and an error. There was no Big Moment such as they had the previous Friday when Buster Posey hit a 10th-inning grand slam. However, those two, combined with a 6-run outburst on June 4 at Citi Field, marked the first season where the Giants had three extra innings of 4 runs or more since 1998.

Tuesday's 10th inning was only made possible by Ian Desmond's tying homer with 1 out in the 9th, the first such homer (to tie, not go ahead) for the Rockies in the 9th since Corey Dickerson hit one in San Francisco in the final game of the 2015 season. The Rockies had gone the longest of any team without hitting one, by over a year. And Mike Yastrzemski finished with 3 hits and 3 RBI, which might look familiar from the section above. Because of the day/night doubleheader on Monday, we can't say he did it in consecutive games, but he did do it on consecutive days, which no Giant had since Pablo Sandoval against the Reds on August 23 and 24, 2010. And Yaz was the first Giants batter to do it while homering on both days since Barry Bonds, May 24-25 of 2000 against the Expos.

But back to Frisco we go for a weekend series against everyone's favorite juggernaut, the Mets. Who managed to turn a leadoff double by Jeff McNeil into a 1-0 lead, give that up on a 4th-inning sacrifice fly... and then we wait. The Giants waste a leadoff triple from Yaz in the 7th. The Mets get Robinson Cano to third with nobody out in the 10th... and then strike out three times. To be fair, most of the innings at least went 1-2-3 so we're not just wasting a lot of time and baserunners, but still, who knows if either of these teams will ever score again. Pete Alonso, who just missed a homer in the 13th, finally leads off the 16th with the third-latest dinger in a road game in Mets history. Travis d'Arnaud also began the 16th with one in Miami on April 13, 2017; the other was by Del Unser in the 17th in St Louis on April 19, 1976. The only other homer the Giants had allowed in the 16th or later since moving to San Francisco was to Doug Clarey of the Cardinals, off Mike Caldwell on April 28, 1976. Chris Mazza, who entered in the 15th and threw just 9 pitches, should be just fine to go another inning. Heh.

Alex Dickerson leadoff double. Brandon Crawford game-tying double, the first one the Giants have hit in extra innings of a home game (to tie, not walk off) since Greg Litton did it against the Reds on September 13, 1989. Mound visit. ("Yeah, everything's fine.") Donovan Solano walkoff single, their latest single by inning since Bob Brenly knocked in pitcher Greg Minton against the Dodgers on September 28, 1986. It was the first time the Giants had ever walked off against the Mets in the 16th or later, the previous record being Jim Davenport's 15th-inning homer on May 16, 1964.

And remember the Giants' 18th-inning walkoff back on April 12 against the Rockies? No, of course you don't, because you were asleep. It happened at 12:50 in the morning when a five-man infield still wasn't enough because Chris Iannetta was off the plate. The Giants have never before had two walkoffs in the same season in the 16th or later; the last time they even had two 16-inning victories was 1920. And as for the Mets scoring a run in the 16th but still losing, they managed to do that earlier this year too, on May 4 at Milwaukee when they traded 1-for-2 in the 18th. In their previous 57 seasons, how many times had the Mets pulled that off? Yeah, once-- August 10, 1992, against the Pirates.


Drop It Like It's Hot

So on to Friday, and did we mention it feels like neither of these teams will ever score again? That game, while it did feature leadoff singles by both teams (no-hitter-watch thanks you), didn't have a single half-inning with more than four batters until the bottom of the 9th, and even that was caused by a pair of walks. It's finally the bottom of the 10th when the Mets defense decides it has better things to do on a Friday night in San Francisco than play 16 more innings. We're guessing Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario didn't say "whoever catches it is buying", but of course neither one caught it and Alex Dickerson beat a rushed-and-nowhere-close relay throw for a 1-0 walkoff. The Giants had never had any 1-0 walkoff win against the Mets, and hadn't had one in extras since Melky Cabrera singled in Brandon Belt against the Phillies on April 18, 2012. The Mets' last "error-off" of any type came on May 18, 2010, in Atlanta, oddly also involving Melky Cabrera. His single, plus a wayward throw by David Wright, scored the walkoff run from second for the Braves. And the Mets hadn't lost a 1-0 game via extra-inning walkoff since the Cardinals beat them on September 15, 1986. That's when Roger McDowell issued a bases-loaded walk to Curt Ford in the 13th, scoring Willie McGee. (That season still turned out okay for the Mets.)

Neither Tyler Beede nor Jacob deGrom got rewarded for participating in this dirge; Beede threw 8 scoreless innings and allowed 3 hits, the first Giants pitcher to do without getting a win since Matt Cain hooked up with Cliff Lee in a similar scoreless tie on April 18, 2012. And it's just another day at the office for deGrom, who struck out 10 more batters and still didn't get a win. Including the postseason, it's the 20th time he's done that, finally tying Tom Seaver for the Mets' all-time "record" at such a thing.


Hot To Trot

We're not sure if it's the Giants or the Mets that just love to keep giving us more material, but just when we thought this section was done, along comes another snoozefest on Sunday. Michael Conforto did send a ball into McCovey Cove, and Amed Rosario followed with another homer before Conner Menez settled into his MLB debut. Menez would allow only one other hit, becoming the first Giants pitcher to allow no more than 3 hits and strike out at least 6 in his debut since Juan Marichal did it in 1960.

But of course, here we go again with neither team being able to score after Buster Posey and another newbie, Zach Green, both double in the 4th. And this one didn't have any five-batter inning after that; the only two runners to even get to second did so on an error and a sac bunt. Finally in the 12th "Yaz" decides he's had enough of this. The Giants' ballpark is a very nice place, but they've spent plenty of time there in the last four days. Doink, walkoff solo homer against Robert Gsellman for the Giants' third extra-inning walkoff of the weekend. They hadn't won three walkoffs in a series, and/or in four days, since beating the Braves in August 2003, and the Mets hadn't been on the wrong end of same since September 2000 against the Cardinals. But the last time the Giants had three extra-inning walkoffs in a four-day span was July 27 through 29, 1916, when they won three straight against the Reds and Pirates.

As for Mike Yastrzemski, he hit just the second walkoff homer for the Giants in the 12th or later against the Mets. You might remember the other one; it was Jim Davenport's 1964 shot that had been the Giants' latest walkoff anything against the Mets until Thursday. And it was the first walkoff homer in the 12th or later of Mike's career. Care to guess how many his grandfather had in his 23 seasons? Yep, one-- on September 14, 1965, against Cleveland.


-Two Hot

Now, true, the Giants may have started the week by dropping 19 on the Rockies on Monday, but never to be outdone, their NL West rival Dodgers played a night game in Philadelphia a few hours later and proved almost equally prolific. Unlike the Giants, they hung three 0's to start the game but then got six hits, a walk, and a double-steal to push across 6 runs in the 4th. Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy added back-to-back homers in the 7th before another big frame in the 8th drove the final score to 16-2. The last time the Dodgers had scored 16 runs in Philadelphia was an identical 16-2 score against the Phillies... but not even at the Vet. It was at Shibe Park on May 24, 1953. Bellinger, who also homered in the 5th, was the first player in Dodgers history to have a 4-hit, 4-runs-scored, 2-homer game in Philly.

The game's most interesting line, however, belonged to Austin Barnes, who was the front end of that double steal in the 4th and thus became the first Dodgers catcher credited with a steal of home since Paul Lo Duca in San Francisco on June 24, 2004. Unfortunately he also got charged with a catcher's interference an inning earlier when Rhys Hoskins was at the plate; the only other known Dodgers catcher with a CI on defense and a stolen base on offense is Yasmani Grandal, who did it on May 28 of last season. And Barnes drove in Bellinger with a sac fly in the 8th for run number 14; since sac flies were split off in 1954, no catcher for any team has had the unique combo of a sac fly, a steal, and a CI error on defense in the same game.

Between the two NL West combatants, Monday was the first day there was a pair of "X-to-2" scores, where X was 16 or more, since May 20, 1994, when the Twins dropped 21 on the Red Sox and the Mariners won 19-2 over Texas.


It's A Dry Heat

And, sure, it was neat when the Giants opened the game 5-0-7 in that escapade on Monday, but yet another NL West team saw that and said, hold my Coors. Two days later, the Diamondbacks were in Arlington and not only put up 7 and 5 in the first two innings, they added 2 more to reach 14 runs by the end of the 3rd for just the second time in team history. The other such game was September 14, 1998, against those same Giants (actually different Giants since it was 21 years ago), and the numbers were the same, just in a different order (2-5-7). No team in the majors had gotten to 14 by the 3rd since the Yankees did it, also in Arlington, on July 28, 2015. Jesse Chavez gave up all 7 of those runs in the 1st and got pulled before it ended, the first Rangers pitcher with that dubious line since Pedro Astacio on May 6, 2005.

Eduardo Escobar had the eye-popping stat line in this one with 2 homers and 5 driven in. Only one other player in team history had done that in an American League park, Steve Finley at Yankee Stadium on June 12, 2002. Escobar also had a 2-HR, 5-RBI game in Philadelphia back on June 10, the sixth player in D'backs history to do it twice on the road in one season. Finley (1999) is one of those also, along with Luis Gonzalez (2001), Adam LaRoche (2010), Paul Goldschmidt (2017), and Jake Lamb (2017).

Kevin Cron came in just behind Escobar with a homer and 4 RBIs of his own, including a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch for that 14th run. They are the third pair of D'backs teammates to record a homer and 4 RBIs in a road game; Chris Young and Miguel Montero did it in Houston on August 16, 2008, while David Dellucci and Andy Fox were the first, July 4, 1999, at St Louis. Carson Kelly also got in on the act; Torey Lovullo took advantage of the DH in the American League park and batted the catcher 9th. Kelly responded with a homer and 3 runs scored, and if we told you only one other number-9 batter in D'backs history had done that, your first guess is probably right. Micah Owings in his 2-homer game in Atlanta on August 18, 2007 (he also doubled and scored in the 2nd).

And Wednesday's eventual final of 19-4 was actually the second such game in the majors this season; the one NL West team we haven't mentioned yet, the Padres, dropped that at Rogers Centre in Toronto on May 25. The last time there were two of that exact score in a season... was 1896.



Normally we object strenuously to baseball-related waves, particularly the kind that means the natives are bored and just want something to happen. (Pace of play! Someone needs to study the correlation between that and the number of waves that break out.) Anyhoo, among all the songs that have heat-related references in the title, it's hard to beat this Motown standard. Intermission!



Throwing Heat

Micah Owings is never a bad segue into the topic of #PitchersWhoRake. Hi, Stephen Strasburg. Now granted, the Nationals often show up in posts like this thanks to their ability to hang 15, 17, 18, 25 runs in a game on a regular basis the last couple years. So Thursday's 13-4 win in Atlanta actually wasn't one of their real big outbursts. However, it was the "snowman" 8 in the 3rd inning that was notable, and especially how they got there. Strasburg led off the frame with an otherwise-uninteresting single. Adam Eaton tripled to score him, and then the wheels fell off Braves starter Kyle Wright. Double, walk, wild pitch, walk, bases-loaded walk, double, pitching change. So now we've gone far enough around that Touki Toussaint enters to face Strasburg again with runners on second and third, although there's two outs and the pitcher's batting, what could happen.

Heh. Only the fourth home run of Strasburg's career, the first by a Nationals pitcher this season, and the third one a Nats pitcher has ever hit in Atlanta (A.J. Cole last year and Livan Hernandez in 2010). It's also just the third 3-run homer by a Nationals pitcher; Max Scherzer hit one in Miami in 2017, and Tommy Milone took Dillon Gee of the Mets deep in his MLB debut on September 3, 2011. Having started the inning with that single, Strasburg became the first pitcher for any team to record 5 total bases in an inning since Edwin Jackson of the D'backs did it on April 11, 2010. The 8 runs were the Nationals' most in an inning so far this season; they had a pair of 6's back in June, both against the White Sox.

Oh yeah, Strasburg isn't done. It's only the 3rd inning. So after Brian Dozier walks and Victor Robles singles in the 5th, guess who's up again. Why not another base hit on which Robles manages to score from second to make to 10-1. But count 'em, half of those runs have been driven in by Strasburg, the first pitcher in Nats/Expos franchise history with a 5-RBI game. Madison Bumgarner was the last to do it for any team, but it wasn't in his 2-homer game, it was April 11, 2014, against the Rockies when he had a grand slam and a sac fly. And as for 3 hits and 5 RBIs, well, we've already established no Nationals pitcher had done it. But the last "Washington" hurler to post that line on offense was Pete Appleton against the Red Sox on May 30, 1937. Dozier and Robles would also finish with at least 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI, again marking the first time in Nats/Expos history that their 7-, 8-, and 9-batters had all done that in the same game.


Hot Wings

Saturday's high in Baltimore's Inner Harbor reached 100°, and the Orioles' 7 pm game against the Red Sox still listed a gametime temperature of 97°, their highest in over 7 years (June 29, 2012 vs Cleveland). And sure, we occasionally lament the boring 4-2 game where the "[sponsor here] Star Of The Game" goes 1-for-4 with an RBI double. But when it's this hot, that's the game you want. Swing early, swing often, let's go back inside. And yet somebody always decides they like this mess and want to stay out in it just to see how soon they liquefy. Saturday's winner on that front would be the Red Sox, which probably had to be wrung out multiple times on their way to a seventeen-to-six decision that featured another one of those 8-run innings. This one came after they took a 5-0 lead, including a 3-run homer by Jackie Bradley, but the Orioles answered with 5 of their own off Rick Porcello. Suddenly they were right back in this thing, as long as Richie Martin doesn't commit a throwing error to keep the inning going, and Tom Eshelman doesn't give promptly give up 4 unearned runs. Ya know, "if".

Jimmy Yacabonis was tapped to replace Eshelman, and the Orioles still have a chance as long as he doesn't give up a double to J.D. Martinez, a single, a walk, and another 3-run homer to Jackie Bradley. Again, "if". So in the span of six outs we went from 5-0 to 5-5 to 13-5 and let's tack on five more straight hits in the 5th, such that Yacabonis became the third reliever in Orioles history to give up 7 runs while getting no more than 1 out. Rick Bauer did it in a 15-0 shutout by the White Sox in 2004, and Jesse Orosco took one for the team in a 26-7 game with the Rangers in 1996. Yacabonis was also just the third pitcher in the live-ball era to allow 7+, get 1 out, and throw 2 wild pitches on top of it. Carlos Maldonado of the Royals did it in a 17-0 shutout in 1991, while the Giants' Don Carrithers did it in a start in 1972.

Bradley's 6-RBI game was just the third by a Red Sox batter in Baltimore, joining Shea Hillenbrand in 2003 and Ellis Burks in 1987. It was also the fourth one of Bradley's career; the only Red Sox players with more 6-RBI games are Dwight Evans (5), David Ortiz (6), and of course, Ted Williams (10). Those 8 runs in the 4th made a winner out of Rick Porcello even though he gave up 11 hits and 6 runs of his own; the last Sawx pitcher to get away with that was Tim Wakefield against the Yankees on July 15, 1996. Rafael Devers homered and tripled, the fifth Bostonian to do that at Camden Yards. And on the Orioles side, Anthony Santander collected 4 hits including a homer and triple of his own. Only Aubrey Huff (2007) and Chris Richard (2000) have done that in a loss in an Orioles uniform, and Santander/Devers are the first pair of opponents ever to homer and triple in the same game at Camden Yards. The only time two players did it was on the same team: Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa of the Nationals in a 17-5 win on May 20, 2011.

Remember the old adage about saving some runs for tomorrow? Or maybe a hit? Rafael Devers came through with a double off the wall in the 7th inning on Sunday, but that's it. The Sawx had two walks and a hit-by-pitch, but only that one base knock, in losing the series finale 5-0. The other Sox (the White ones), two years ago, were the last team to have 17+ hits in one game and then no more than 1 in the next. But the last time Boston did it? That's 1906, and it's no shocker that it's against the Yankees. They ran up 24 hits on April 30 in a 13-4 win, and then Bill Hogg "had revenge" by 1-hitting them the next day.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. New-York Tribune, May 2, 1906.

Red(s) Hot

So far we've had a bunch of lopsided games where one team blew up the, uh, mercury, as it were, and the other just sort of wilted in the heat. Friday brought us another variety of game, the kind where both teams pump up the numbers and it's all about who blinks last. We're used to "C"-ing these at Coors and Camden and Chase, but they don't happen quite as much in Cincinnati. And it didn't look like Friday's game was anything unusual either when the Reds jumped out to a 7-0 lead against Adam Wainwright. Ryan Lavarnway started the scoring with an RBI double in the 3rd and then finished it with a 3-run homer in the 4th. Ah, but there are five more innings still to play. And the Cardinals would really only need one of them, the top of the 6th which began with Tyler Mahle on the mound but certainly didn't end that way.

Three singles. Sac fly. Another single (7-2). Pitching change. Another sac fly. 2-run double by Paul DeJong. Pitching change. RBI double. Walk. Fielding error to score a seventh run and tie the game. And why not, Jose Martinez 3-run homer to give the Cardinals their first double-digit inning since July 21, 2012, a fairly-famous game here at Kernels because St Louis beat the Cubs 12-0 that day and scored all 12 runs in the top of the 7th. It was the first double-digit inning by any team at GABP since the Reds had one against the Tigers on August 24, 2015. Those 10 runs also got Adam Wainwright-- long since out of the game-- out from under a loss; he became the first Cardinals starter to give up 9 hits, 7 runs, and not lose since... Adam Wainwright against the Angels on May 12, 2016. He's the first Cardinals pitcher to do it twice since Bob Forsch in the late '70s.

Speaking of Paul DeJong and the top of the 7th, however, it would be his 2-run homer to make it 12-7 that would really end up mattering when the Reds got another 2-run dinger from Lavarnway and a bases-loaded single from Jesse Winker with 2 outs in the 9th. That made our score 12-11, but Joey Votto grounded out to end the game, the second time this season (May 3 vs Giants) that the Reds had scored 11 runs and lost. They hadn't done that twice in a season since 1984, and hadn't had both games come at home since 1903. (If you know that was at the regally-named Palace Of The Fans, take a bonus point.)

If you've been counting, you know Lavarnway ended up with 6 RBI out of those 11 runs, and thanks to this pesky "let's bat the pitcher 8th" trend, he became the first player in Reds history with a 6-RBI game out of the 9-hole. He's also the first #9 hitter ever, for any team, to have 6 RBI in a loss. Only one other Cincinnati batter-- any spot in the order-- had posted 3 XBH and 6 RBI in a game they lost; that was Harry Heilmann in Pittsburgh on August 28, 1930. And that #8 batter, which began as pitcher Tyler Mahle, well, he did okay too, recording singles in both the 3rd and 4th when the Reds scored their 7 early runs. No Reds pitcher had collected 2 hits and 2 runs in a loss since Bob Purkey in St Louis on June 5, 1962, and the last to do it at all was one Mike Leake against the Pirates on April 15, 2014.


Shhhh! Hot Mic!

Someone say "Mike Leake"? It was not 100° in Seattle on Friday (although it has actually happened three times), but there was still a 10 and a 0 involved, that being the score by which the Mariners blanked the Angels. As you probably know, however, that wasn't really the story. Leake retires nine straight to start the game, the Angels are in their usual mode-- which worked last Friday-- of throwing Taylor Cole for 2 innings and then bringing in someone new, this time Jaime Barria. After a 1-2-3 4th, the Mariners get a 3-run homer from Daniel Vogelbach and a 2-run single from Tom Murphy to go up 5-0. Meanwhile, much of downtown Seattle is getting hit with a (non-heat-related) power outage which is causing some of the stadium's videoboards to flicker and causing further delay. Anyone remember a game back in May where there was a power outage affecting the stadium and a guy named Mike was throwing a no-hitter? (Fiers, and a 2-hour delay because some of the lights wouldn't come on, if you don't.)

Leake is unfazed. Neither is Vogelbach, who hits another 3-run shot in the 5th, becoming the first Mariner ever to hit two against the Angels in the same game, and the 57th with any 6-RBI game. But Vogey was also the 56th to do it, back on April 7 in Chicago, and the only other Mariners with two such games in a season are Alex Rodriguez (2000) and Mike Blowers (1995). Leake needs all of 8 pitches to get through the 6th, after which J.P. Crawford doubles to make it 10-0. All of that is charged to Barria, making him the first "reliever" in Angels history to give up 10 runs in a game.

History, you say. Remember last Friday? When these same two teams played each other, and Mike Leake started for Seattle, and the Angels put up a 7-run 1st and then threw a no-hitter which they dedicated to Tyler Skaggs. In the 301 recognized no-hitters, there are only four occurrences of a team throwing one and receiving one within a week of each other. And just like the M's and Angels, they come in pairs of games against the same team. The others both happened on back-to-back days, in 1968 when Gaylord Perry no-hit the Cards on September 17, and then Cards starter Ray Washburn no-hit the Giants in return on the 18th. The exact same thing happened the following year between the Astros and Reds (April 30 and May 1). Only twice have there been NHs on consecutive Fridays, and the Mariners were the back end of one of those too. They threw their combined one (started by Kevin Millwood) on June 8, 2012, exactly a week after Johan Santana made Mets history. (The other set was in 1912.)

And let's also not forget that this is a perfect game at this point too. The Mariners (Felix Hernandez) also threw the previous PG, in 2012, and Philip Humber also threw his improbable PG at Safeco Field. The only stadium (at least for the moment) to see three PGs thrown is the old Yankee Stadium, and even that depends on whether you consider it one park or two.

Of course, you know it didn't happen. Luis Rengifo, batter number 25, rolls a solid single into right field out of the reach of Austin Nola. Leake was at least allowed to finish the game (and the shutout), doing so in 98 pitches. That's affectionately called a "Maddux" in baseball circles; no less than 16 times did the great Greg Maddux throw an individual shutout in less than 100 pitches. King Felix also owns the last one of those by a Mariners pitcher, and it was also against the Angels, on August 28, 2006. Seattle's last SHO-1 in a home game was thrown by Jarrod Washburn against Baltimore on July 6, 2009. And while we came dangerously close to trading a 13-0 NH and a 10-0 PG/NH between the same teams a week apart, the Angels did get one more note out of this. Friday was the first time they had been held to 1 hit on offense and also given up 10 runs on defense since June 4, 1986, when a Gary Pettis double in the 8th broke up the no-hitter for the Yankees' Joe Niekro.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Travis d'Arnaud, Monday: First player for any team (including the Yankees) to have 3 homers, including a leadoff to begin the game, at any version of Yankee Stadium.

⚾ Joc Pederson, Saturday: First leadoff homer ever hit by Dodgers against the Marlins. Had been the only National League team (including the Astros) against whom they'd never hit one.

⚾ Francisco Lindor, Wednesday: First Indians batter with a home run and a caught-stealing of home in the same game since Manny Ramirez on July 25, 1998.

⚾ Tigers, Tuesday: First time held to 1 hit in Cleveland since April 24, 1968, by Steve Hargan.

⚾ Marcus Semien, Friday: First A's batter to homer, triple, and double against the Twins/Sens since both teams were in their previous cities. Roger Maris for KC against Washington, August 3, 1958.

⚾ Yairo Muñoz, Sunday: First Cardinals batter to homer and triple in a game in Cincinnati since HOF'er Johnny Mize, July 6, 1939, at Crosley.

⚾ Taylor Rogers, Thursday: Sixth save this year of 6 outs or longer. Most for a Twins pitcher in one season since Rick Aguilera in 1990.

⚾ Jack Flaherty, Tuesday: Second time this year the Cardinals scored 1 run and the RBI was by the pitcher (Michael Wacha, June 28 at SD). Last season with two such games was 1992 by Bob Tewksbury and Rheal Cormier.

⚾ Charlie Blackmon & DJ LeMahieu, Sunday: First game at current Yankee Stadium where both teams led off the game with a homer.

⚾ Blue Jays, Thursday: First time held to 2 hits, both singles, at Fenway Park since Bruce Hurst shut them out on April 10, 1987.

⚾ Jurickson Profar & Mark Canha, Wednesday: Second Oakland teammates ever to have 2 HR in same game vs Mariners. Dave Revering and Tony Armas at the Kingdome, August 5, 1979.

⚾ Bryce Harper, Tuesday: First Phillies batter in (at least) live-ball era to have a multi-run homer and a multi-run double in same game and have one of them be a walkoff.

⚾ Myles Straw, Sun-Mon: First batter in live-ball era (any team) to walk twice and score twice in back-to-back games where he batted 9th in both.

⚾ Todd Frazier, Saturday: Second Mets batter ever to homer and triple in a game in San Francisco. Ron Swoboda at Candlestick, May 22, 1966.

⚾ Rays, Thursday: First team to lead off a road game with back-to-back homers and score only those 2 runs in the game since Thomas Howard & Hal Morris homered for the Reds at Dodger Stadium on September 9, 1996.

⚾ Victor Robles, Friday: First player in Nats/Expos history to hit two tying or go-ahead homers when down to team's final out in the same season (other was April 9 at Philadelphia).

⚾ Miles Mikolas, Monday: First Cardinals pitcher to throw a shutout while allowing at least 8 hits since Matt Morris at Pittsburgh, May 24, 2003.

⚾ Braves, Tuesday: First 12-run loss in Milwaukee since... they were the home team. Dropped a 15-1 to the Giants on June 19, 1953, in their first season after the move from Boston.

Right Back Where We Started From

Every year we kick around the idea of skipping the Sunday post right after the All-Star break, because it's only been three days of games, only 40 or 45 to choose from instead of our usual 100+, and hey, what could happen. Sigh.


The Early Bird Gets The Rays

There certainly did seem to be quite a few teams who were done resting and wanted to unload some early runs. Tampa Bay, in the entire month's worth of games between June 12 and July 11, scored a total of 7 runs in the 1st inning. Apparently the memo finally showed up. On Friday-- July 12, by itself-- they scored 7 runs in the 1st inning, a feat largely made possible by the Orioles giving the ball to Dylan Bundy, and let's just say it's not the first time Bundy's had one of these starts. He does at least usually wait until the 3rd or 4th inning before getting blown up, so it looked like there might be hope with 2 outs and the score only 2-0. Wild pitch, Joey Wendle RBI single, he steals second, Travis d'Arnaud singles him in, Willy Adames doubles, leadoff batter Austin Meadows doubles, Bundy gets called for a balk (!), and then Tommy Pham finally keeps one in the park with a lineout to right. It was the fourth time in Rays history that they'd sent 11+ batters to the plate in the 1st inning. One was a meaningless season finale in 2015 when they randomly hung 9 runs on the Jays; the others were both in May 2005. And when we say Bundy usually waits until the 3rd or 4th, well, he's the first O's starter to give up 7 earned runs and not come out for the 2nd inning since... Dylan Bundy, last May 8 against Kansas City. Since the American League started publishing official tallies of earned runs in 1913, no other Orioles/Browns pitcher has pulled that off twice.

No worries, they're not done. Gabriel Ynoa gets summoned for the 2nd inning and gives up a 2-run dinger to Nate Lowe. But his problems didn't really begin in earnest until the O's tried to send him back out for a sixth inning, having already thrown 67 pitches. Sure, he got Wendle to fly out to start the inning, but then four straight singles and an automatic double by Kevin Kiermaier ended his night with the score already 14-2. Asher Wojciechowski promptly wild-pitches in another run, and Nate Lowe singles home Kiermaier for the 16th and final Rays tally. But that also means 9 runs charged to Ynoa, who with Bundy, became the first pair of Orioles pitchers to gave up 7+ in the same game since the infamous 30-3 game with Texas in August 2007. Paul Shuey was one of three who did it that day; he was the last Baltimore reliever prior to Ynoa to give up 9 runs in an appearance of any length. And only once before had an O's reliever given up 10 hits in addition to 9 runs: Josh Towers against the Red Sox on May 1, 2002.


The Seven(th) Sign

Though we've never been in charge of furnishing a hand-operated scoreboard, we can't imagine they have as many 7's and 8's and 10's as they do 1's and 0's stashed back there. You always need a lot more of the latter. (We can't speak for Wrigley, but the Red Sox do have their painter basically on-call during the season. (Note, paywall.))

This is all a very convoluted way of saying that the Cubs hung another one of those 7-spots in the 1st inning on Saturday, riding it to a 10-4 win over the Pirates. Willson Contreras's 3-run homer was just the beginning; the most humorous damage came when Cubs pitcher Jon Lester roped a 2-run single off Jordan Lyles, the first time a Cubs pitcher had hit one of those in the 1st inning since Ferguson Jenkins against the Cardinals on September 26, 1982. The Pirates gave Jordan Lyles one more batter to try and escape, but when that failed, he became the team's first starter to give up 7 runs and not finish the 1st inning since Charlie Morton did it in Washington on June 21, 2015. No Pirates starter had ever posted that line at Wrigley, and of course, they've been playing there for over 100 years.

Lester would then homer in the 3rd off Chris Stratton, giving him 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBI in the game. No Cubs pitcher had posted that line since Burt Hooton against the Mets on September 16, 1972. And back to that "7" card? Obviously the 7's are interchangable, but it's the first time it's been hung in that particular "bottom of the 1st" slot since September 17, 2006, when the Cubs went on to an 11-3 win over Cincinnati.


The Chicago Seven

Clearly the Cubs and White Sox spent their All-Star break re-watching the story of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and conspiring to hang multiple 7's in the bottom of the 1st inning on Saturday. Except the White Sox forgot one little piece-- they were on the road. Which means they would give up those 7 runs to Oakland, which hadn't thrown up a 7-run 1st since April 18, 2014, against the Astros.

Dylan Covey was mercifully removed after 8 batters, meaning he could only be charged with 6 runs, not all 7 of them. He was still the first White Sox starter to give up 6 earned and not finish the 1st inning since Dan Wright did it in Kansas City on August 22, 2001 (and got a no-decision when the Sox came back to win 13-12!). The Braves (Steve Avery in 1996) are the only team to have gone longer without a starter chunking up such a line.

No, that seventh run would be up to Ross Detwiler, who promptly gave up a homer to his first opponent, Franklin Barreto. Detwiler would eventually take a couple more innings for the team, turning a 7-run 1st into a lopsided 13-2 final. Dylan Axelrod, on September 2, 2013, at Yankee Stadium, had been the last Sox reliever to allow 9+ baserunners and get charged with 5+ runs. And we think we've locked in Barreto's career path when his playing days are over. Since the A's moved to Oakland in 1968, they've only had three #9 batters homer in the 1st inning. The others were A.J. Hinch in Toronto in 1999 and Phil Garner against the Royals in 1976-- both of whom would go on to manage the Houston Astros later in life (Hinch, of course, still is).

And that "Chicago Seven" conspiracy? One of our fun databases (which we really want to expand) contains every 5-run inning back to the MLB expansion of 1993. In those 27 seasons, there have only been four days on which both the Cubs and White Sox were involved in a 7-run inning (whether scoring it or giving it up)... and all four times it happened when they were playing each other, and thus we're talking about the same 7-run inning. The most recent of rhose had been June 27, 2008, at Comiskey.


July Is The Seventh Month

Earlier in the season we spent a lot of time pointing out the futility of the Tigers offense, which was held to 3 or 4 hits per game on a regular basis. In fact Saturday was another of those "1-on-4" games for which we were all ready to trot out the chart of league leaders, except that the Tigers aren't on it anymore. Maybe it's the weather in Michigan, maybe their e-mail was delayed and they just now got the memo that the season started. But Sunday in Kansas City they erupted for 19 hits, including six in the 3rd inning alone. That, plus two hit batters and two stolen bases, led to (surprise!) a 7-run frame, most of which Detroit would actually need when the Royals got five back in the next three innings and we rambled to a 12-8 final. Even more impressive is that the Tigers piled up those 12 runs with only one homer (by Gordon Beckham), something they hadn't done since July 10, 2014, in a 16-4 win that was also at Kauffman Stadium.

Rookie Harold Castro and sophomore Niko Goodrum each collected 4 hits, the first Tigers teammates to do that at Kauffman since Andy Dirks and Omar Infante both went 5-for-5 on September 6, 2013 (this is a thing that really happened). Goodrum threw on 2 stolen bases, the first Tigers batter in nearly 18 years with a 4-hit, 2-SB game at any stadium. Roger Cedeño did it against Anaheim on August 15, 2001, and the Tigers had gone the longest of any team by nearly 2 years without a player having such a game. Only one Detroit batter had ever done it at Kauffman, and that was in the stadium's second season: Marv Lane on July 13, 1974.

But back to our 7-run inning which is of course tying this whole post together. If you spent the first two months of the season unable to get more than 4 hits in a game, there's a pretty good chance you didn't have any big innings. And so sure enough, Sunday was the Tigers' first 6-or-more-spot in the 2019 season, leaving the Astros as the only team without one. (Wait for it.) Detroit's last seven-run inning, appropriately, was on July 7 (that's 7/7!) of last season agains the Rangers. And they hadn't hung a 7 or higher in any road game since a 10-7 win at Tropicana Field on June 30, 2016; the only teams to have a longer road drought are the Giants and the White Sox (who of course messed up that consipracy thing earlier).


We kinda set the title for this post while thinking about restarting after the break and also starting with big 1st innings. That was before we knew just how many big innings there would end up being. And we've used sevens in titles plenty of times before. But you may take your pick, the Maxine Nightengale disco classic or the Prince anthem that's probably in your head. Intermission!


Seventh Heaven

Of course, you know we're saving the most significant 7 of the week for last, not because of yet another 7-run 1st inning, but because of the eight innings that came after that. In their first home game since the death of Tyler Skaggs, a night on which every player wore a "Skaggs/45" jersey, the Angels certainly seemed to be on pace to score that many against the Mariners. Even we're running out of Mike "sprung a" Leake quips; the Seattle starter got tagged for 8 hits and 7 runs before departing with 2 outs in the 1st. Trout not only took him for a 2-run homer, he came up again with the bases loaded as the 11th batter of the inning and smoked a 2-run double. Only one other player in Angels history had multiple extra-base hits in the 1st inning of the same game; Jim Edmonds doubled and tripled in a 9-run frame against Boston on July 18, 1994. The Angels had never had a 7-run 1st against the Mariners, and their only other such innings this century were both against Detroit (one in 2013 and then again last August). Leake, meanwhile, joined Felix Hernandez (a fairly famous implosion in 2015), Carlos Silva (2008), and Glenn Abbott (1978) on the list of M's starters to give up 7 runs and not finish the 1st.

Taylor Cole threw a 1-2-3 "shutdown" 2nd inning, but the Angels are playing this "opener" game now, so he's pretty much done. The Angels tack on 2 more runs in their half in quite unusual fashion; Dustin Garneau gets awarded a catcher's interference, the Angels' eighth this year to easily lead the majors (thanks, Tommy La Stella). Next batter Matt Thaiss walks on six pitches to force in one run, and then Mike Trout gets hit by a pitch to force in another. Trout already has 5 RBI by the 2nd inning; he would finish the game with 6 and be the first player since it became an official stat in 1920 with 3 XBH, 6 RBI, and a bases-loaded HBP in the same game. Trout also had a 6-RBI game in Toronto back on June 19, and it certainly appears that's a once-a-decade phenomenon. The only other Angels with multiple 6-RBI games in a season are Kendrys Morales (2009) and Mo Vaughn (1999).

As predicted, however, Felix Peña is now on the mound, and unknown to the rest of us at the time, he ain't leaving. The people who are leaving are Mariners batters-- seven straight before a walk to Omar Narvaez in the 5th. Kyle Seager and Tom Murphy can't move him up. Trout doubles again to collect that sixth RBI and make it 10-0. Peña, meanwhile, has allowed just two balls out of the infield in mowing down Seattle through the 7th. When Justin Upton homers to make it 13-0, it's not the outcome that's in doubt. And after six we just felt this one. Narvaez, Seager, and Murphy go on 12 pitches in the 8th. David McKay walks the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th to make Peña sit around and think for a while. But whatever he was thinking about, this thing is over in five pitches. Luis Rengifo, who entered the game four pitches earlier only because it's 13-0, gobbles up the last out of Currently-Recognized No-Hitter number 301. It's the 13th combined one out of that list, and just the third where the "starter" only went 2 innings. Roy Oswalt did 1 inning in that six-pitcher mess for Houston in 2003, and the most famous one is the Babe Ruth/Ernie Shore game in 1917, where Ruth walked the first batter, got ejected for arguing about it, and then Shore sat down 27 in a row.

Since All-Star breaks were established in the 1930s, there have only been three NHs thrown in a team's first game back from the nap. Allie Reynolds of the Yankees did it 68 years earlier to the day against the Indians, and Don Black threw one for the Indians against the A's in 1947. As for the 13-0 final score, that was the fifth time a team had scored 13+ on offense in a no-hitter; the Cubs put up 16 in support of Jake Arrieta when he threw the only one of the 2016 season. The Yankees did it in 1938, the White Sox in 1905, and the all-time record is held by the Buffalo Bisons, who dropped an 18-0 against the Detroit Wolverines in Pud Galvin's second NH on August 4, 1884.

Now remember that all the players were wearing Skaggs's jersey #45 (at least until they left them all on the mound following the game). So we're not exactly sure how to count this one (and it makes us happy that there's never been an NH on Jackie Robinson Day). A combined no-hitter where both pitchers had the same number? That doesn't really make sense. But we did find three solo NHs thrown by 45's, and that's not a bad list either: Terry Mulholland of the Phillies (1990), John Candelaria of the Pirates (1976), and Cardinals' HOFer Bob Gibson (1971).


All The World's A Stage

Although it wasn't quite a 7, Framber Valdez didn't really enjoy his wake-up call from the All-Star break either. Tne Rangers and Astros were subjected to being MLB's lone game on Thursday, a concession to ESPN that started a few years ago when the league did away with the Sunday-night game immediately before the break. (In theory Thursday can be used for makeups of rainouts and such as well, but it never has been.) So with the entirety of the baseball world watching, Valdez chunked up a leadoff walk, a double, an RBI groundout, a single, an infield double, a fielder's choice that at least resulted in a rundown at home plate, a 2-run double, and two more walks. Leaving with the bases loaded, Valdez would have gotten charged with the lucky 7 runs if Chris Devenski had let those runners score. (He didn't.)

Those 4 runs in the 1st, plus a random Jeff Mathis RBI single in the 3rd, would be all the Rangers needed; although the Astros had baserunners in seven of the nine innings, none of them ever scored and no inning took longer than five batters. They also struck out 11 times against Lance Lynn, who became only the second Rangers pitcher with 11+ K and 0 runs allowed against the Astros. The other is a little ditty that you might remember (because we use it every chance we get), The Marwin Gonzalez Game against Yu Darvish in 2013. Valdez, for his part, was the first Astros starter to depart in the 1st inning since Collin McHugh in a 16-6 loss to the Yankees on April 6, 2016, and the second ever to do it against the Rangers-- joining Lance McCullers on August 3, 2015.

They do, however, say everything's bigger in Texas, and if there's any team that could counter an 11-K performance with a 13-K performance the next day, it's the Astros. Enter Gerrit Cole, who seemed to be on the page of "throw it over the plate and dare them to hit it". Most of them did not, although Shin-Soo Choo did give them a demonstration when he led off the game with a solo homer. That was the 31st of his career, trailing only Ian Kinsler, Curtis Granderson, Jimmy Rollins, and Charlie Blackmon since his debut in 2005. Danny Santana also added a solo homer in the 2nd, as did Joey Gallo in the 4th. Around those, however, Cole also recorded nine straight outs via K's; he would end up leaving in the 7th after 101 pitches, 13 strikeouts, and 3 home runs. Only two other pitchers in Astros history had done 13 K and 3 HR, and one of them was exactly a month earlier, Justin Verlander against the Brewers. The only one before this season was J.R. Richard in the final game of the 1977 campaign.

And now all the bullpen has to do is protect an 8-4 lead. Heh. First batter Tim Federowicz, solo homer. Delayed steal plus an error makes it 8-6. Ronald Guzman ties it with a 2-run shot in the 8th off Hector Rondon. And to complete the comeback we turn to Danny Santana again. With 2 outs and 2 strikes, he lines one to center and Elvis Andrus beats the play at the plate for the 9-8 win. The only other walkoff singles by the Rangers against the Astros were hit by Robinson Chirinos in 2014 and David Murphy in 2009. And it was only the second 9-inning home game in Rangers/Senators history where they struck out 17+ times on offense and still won. The other of those was against the Mariners on September 27, 1992.

And for the weekend we just turn things over to Jose Altuve. Because after Shin-Soo Choo and Danny Santana became the first Rangers ever to lead off a home game with back-to-back jacks, it was up to the little guy to bring Houston all the way back. Altuve had 4 hits and 3 runs scored, joining Marwin Gonzalez (2017) and Hunter Pence (2007) as the only Astros to do that in Arlington, but it was his RBI double in the top of the 11th that put Houston ahead for good. The only other such hit the Astros ever had in Arlington was by Craig Biggio off C.J. Wilson on June 24, 2007.

And on Sunday, Altuve came very close to duplicating his Saturday line, instead moving the "4" from "hits" to "RBI". Those, of course, took the form of a grand slam off rookie Kyle Bird which capped-- what else?!-- the week's sixth and final 7-run inning. That may sound like a lot (and it is), but the last time there were six of them in a three-day span? Why, that's last year, also on the weekend ending with the second Sunday in July (though that was the 8th and not the 14th). And it was the first time this season the Astros had even had a 6-run inning; they had been the last team without one for, oh, about three hours-- since the Tigers got that 7-spot that we mentioned earlier in the afternoon. As for the exact combo of a 7-run 7th, Houston hadn't done that since a 21-5 festival in Arizona on the final weekend of the 2015 season.

But back to Altuve's slam for a minute. It's just the third one the Astros have ever hit in Arlington; the others were by George Springer in September 2017 and Jason Castro in August 2015. And Altuve was the first leadoff batter in team history with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and a grand slam in the same game; other leadoff hitters collected 4 RBIs, but none of them in "slam" form.


Of Coors That Would Happen Too

There was kind of a gray day in Denver over the weekend. Which day it was, depends on who you ask. Friday's series opener with the Reds was a Gray day of a different kind as starting pitcher Sonny matched wits with starting pitcher Jon. And other than the neat name thing (which also happened in Milwaukee with Andersons), that game wasn't remotely interesting. It was 3-2, neither Gray factored in the decision, and David Hernandez blew the save by giving up two homers in the 8th.

Saturday, on the other hand, was gray in a way baseball does not like very much. At 6:00 there were some clouds and lightning around, nothing at Coors Field, mind you, but close enough and threatening enough that it was pointless to start the game and play 15 minutes before stopping again. So we wait. That big radar blob does slowly change from red to orange to yellow, but it's not really going anywhere. Finally by about 8:45, just when everyone's ready to give up and call this thing, the Rockies announce the game will begin at 9:20. By which point all the only other games in the country are already in the 7th inning. So we already know we're gonna be here a while. And then appropriately, Coors says, hold my beer.

The Rockies jump on Tanner Roark for 4 runs in the 1st (not 7, at least!), a lead that would promptly evaporate when Nick Senzel and Phillip Ervin both tripled in the 3rd. It's 5-5 after a Jose Peraza triple in the 4th... and then the wheels fall off. Trevor Story and Daniel Murphy homer in the 5th to knock Roark out of the game having allowed 13 hits and 3 homers. No Reds pitcher had done that since Tom Browning in Pittsburgh on July 19, 1991; and when the Reds re-tie the game, Roark becomes the team's first pitcher to give up 13-and-3 and not take a loss since Bob Purkey in a complete-game victory against the Braves on May 18, 1958.

As for the Reds re-tying the game, that involves two more homers sandwiched around yet another triple (Eugenio Suarez). Derek Dietrich retook the lead with a 2-run shot in the 5th, the latest lead-flipping homer the Reds had ever hit at Coors Field. Jose Guillen had one with 2 outs in the 4th on April 30, 2003, a point in the game where it's hardly even dramatic.

So a few pitching changes and inning breaks later, it's taken an hour and a half to play innings 5 and 6. It's already midnight and the score is 10-9. Just when you thought #WeirdBaseball couldn't get weirder, the Reds apparently said, hey, we sat there for 3 hours doing nothing, we're going to enjoy this ride. Five more runs in the 7th including a Yasiel Puig double and another 2-run single from Ervin. The last time the Reds got to 15 runs at Coors Field, oddly, was exactly 19 years earlier to the day, downing the Rockies 15-6 on July 13, 2000.

Finally it appears we've had enough, at least until Joey Votto gets ejected in the 9th inning for arguing balls and strikes. In a 15-9 game. In the 9th inning. At 11:00 pm. Well, all that did was fire up the Reds offense for three more singles and two final runs to hang the first 17-9 score in the majors since the Orioles beat the Yankees by that count on September 27, 2005. A month before that (August 19) was the last time the Reds had reached 17 runs in any game, beating Arizona 17-3. The last time they reached 24 hits in a game was also at Coors Field (because of Coors it was), on May 19, 1999, in a famous 24-12 game. The Reds also became the first team ever to collect 5 triples at Coors, the first in the majors since the Dodgers at San Francisco in 2014, and the first Cincinnati club to do it since beating the Phillies 21-4 on June 5, 1929.

Among those 24 hits, Puig, Ervin, Senzel, and Peraza all ended up with four of them (Ervin had six), the first quartet of Reds with 4 hits in the same game since Lonny Frey, Frank McCormick, Harry Craft, and Ernie Lombardi beat the Dodgers 23-2 on June 8, 1940. Senzel's bag of tricks included two triples and a double, the first Reds batter to pull that off since Herm Winningham in St Louis on August 15, 1990. And Ervin's six-pack of hits was the first by a Reds batter since eight-time All-Star catcher Walker Cooper did it against the Cubs on July 6, 1949.

And if there's a saving grace to Sunday's game, it's that this time the teams decided to stop when they reached that 10-9 score. (Also, it didn't rain for 2½ hours.) In this one the Rockies again hung a 4-spot in the 1st, the big blow being a Ryan McMahon double, but this time it was promptly answered by the Reds on 4 singles and 2 walks in the 2nd. This one stayed dormant until the bottom of the 5th again when the Rockies collected six hits in seven batters to knock Tyler Mahle out of the game and run their lead to 10-5. Mahle was just the fourth Reds pitcher in the past 80 years to give up 12+ hits and 10+ runs in a game, but remember that Tanner Roark allowed 13 hits on Saturday. The last time Reds starters gave up a dozen knocks in back-to-back games was May 23 and 24, 1994, by John Smiley and Erik Hanson-- also in Denver.

The Reds would try another comeback, starting with Ervin's leadoff triple in the 6th; before long Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela would be gone and Jose Peraza would crank a pinch-hit homer to get within 10-9. Scooter Gennett (July 4, 2017), Reggie Taylor (twice in a series in 2002), and Hal Morris (2000) have the Reds' only other pinch-hit homers at Coors. But after that homer, 10 of the Reds' last 11 batters sat down immediately, and the 11th sat down after being caught stealing in the 8th. So not only does the 10-9 hold up, it means Senzatela gets a win despite allowing 8 runs. Only one other pitcher in Rockies history had done that, Brian Bohanon against the Mariners on June 9, 1999. And you may have noticed we didn't mention any homers other than Peraza's... because it literally was the only one. Senzatela and Mahle hooked up in just the second game this century where both starters gave up 8+ runs and yet neither one allowed a homer. Would you be shocked if we said the other one was at Coors also? Shawn Estes and the Tigers' Gary Knotts managed to do it on July 4, 2004.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Buster Posey, Friday: First Giants grand slam in extra innings since Hector Sanchez at Colorado, April 23, 2014. First one team has ever hit in Milwaukee (either stadium, including Braves years).

⚾ Brett Gardner, Friday: Second game (other is June 12, 2011) with a triple and a double batting 9th. Only other Yankees player in live-ball era with two such games is Omar Moreno in 1983 & 1985.

⚾ Ivan Nova, Friday: Second road game this season where he gave up 10+ hits and 3+ homers (also Apr 23 at BAL). First pitcher in White Sox history to do on the road twice in same season.

⚾ Mallex Smith, Sat-Sun: First Mariners batter ever to triple in back-to-back games in Anaheim.

⚾ Corbin Burnes, Sunday: First Brewers pitcher to face 4+ batters, have all of them get hits, and have all of them score, since Gulilermo Mota at Colorado, June 6, 2008.

⚾ Manuel Margot, Saturday: First Padres batter with 4 walks and a stolen base in a game the team lost since Rickey Henderson at Philadelphia, June 2, 1996.

⚾ Matt Boyd, Saturday: Third game this season where he struck out 10+ but also allowed 4+ runs and lost. Only other Tigers pitcher in live-ball era with three such games in a season is Mickey Lolich in 1974.

⚾ Brewers, Saturday: First team to collect 8 doubles and 4 stolen bases, but 0 home runs, in a game since the Tigers did it in Washington on August 17, 1930.

⚾ Max Kepler, Saturday: Concluded streak of 5 home runs in 5 consecutive plate appearances when facing Trevor Bauer of the Indians. According to Stats Inc., first player ever to have such a streak against the same pitcher within a single season.

⚾ Fernando Tatis, Sunday: Second leadoff batter in Padres history with 4 hits in a game where the team only scored 1 run. Other, Johnny Grubb vs Cardinals, May 19, 1975, also scored the run himself (in his case on a solo homer).

⚾ Rays, Sunday: First time in team history they'd had a no-hitter (combined or otherwise) broken up in the 9th inning. Based on a site maintained by Friend Of Kernels (and Twins official scorer) Stew Thornley, they were the only active franchise it hadn't happened to.

Break My Stride

Each year the All-Star break is an interesting study in momentum. If your team is hot right now, you hate the break because you want them to keep playing and winning. If last week was bleh, then yeah, let's take a few days off, rest and regroup, and start anew on Friday.

Also each year, MLB feels an obligation to appoint at least one player from every team to the All-Star Game, deserving or not, so that all the fanbases and uniforms and such will be represented. Here at Kernels we look at every game every day, and thus always have a lot of stuff we can't use come Sunday. But for one week each year we take a page from MLB's book and highlight something from every team.

(And there's only one real game between now and Friday. You have plenty of time. ☺)


Arizona Diamondbacks

If you've been following along on Twitter for the last two weeks, you know that #Kernels was at the first game of the Rockies/D'backs series on Friday night as the final game of our southwestern road trip. So we're partial to that one, especially since it turned out to be Arizona's second-largest shutout win ever against the Rockies. Friday's 8-0 score trails only a 10-0 blanking on June 5, 2012, in which Ian Kennedy struck out a dozen. Christian Walker blasted two no-doubt homers, the second one very close to the pool in right-center, becoming the fifth D'backs hitter with 3 hits, 2 homers, and 5 RBI against the Rockies at Chase. The others go way back and are all within a year of each other; Shea Hillenbrand and Carlos Baerga did it in different series in 2003, while Chad Moeller and Steve Finley did it in back-to-back games in September 2002. Zack Greinke also looked sharp, throwing 7 scoreless innings and allowing just 4 baserunners. It's the fourth time this season he's done that and won, already becoming the first pitcher in Arizona history with four such games in a season. And we're only at the All-Star break.

Honorable mention to Alex Young in the series finale on Sunday for throwing 6 no-hit innings before yielding to The Metrics and having Yoshi Hirano yield an infield single on the first pitch he threw. No other D'backs pitcher had been removed from a potential no-hitter as late as the 3rd inning, and the others both had extenuating circumstances. Juan Cruz threw 2 no-hit innings in a start on September 30, 2006, but that was the next-to-last game of the year when it's basically an excuse to get every pitcher on the team (all 20 of them by that point) one more inning before the season ends. The other was Curt Schilling on July 18, 2001, when it rained after the 2nd inning and the game was suspended until the next day.


Atlanta Braves

The Braves were among our tougher choices for which game to spotlight. Sure, Brian McCann's single on Friday gave them a 1-0 walkoff win after a rain delay of over 2 hours, but much like no-hitters, sometimes it's hard to come up with notes on 1-0 games because basically nothing else happens. That was not the case for the Braves on Thursday, however, when they piled up 10 extra-base hits in the series finale with the Phillies. It was their first home game doing that since a 13-1 beatdown of the Mets on September 27, 2006.

Nick Markakis ended up with 3 doubles in Thursday's 12-6 victory, his fourth time doing that with Atlanta. He joins Marcus Giles as the only Braves players in the live-ball era with four such games. Meanwhile, Dansby Swanson got his three extra-base hits in the form of 2 homers and a double, becoming the seventh player in Braves history with 3 XBH and 5 RBI in a game. And between them, Markakis and Swanson were the first Braves teammates with 3 XBH in the same game since Brian McCann and Kelly Johnson did it in Milwaukee on July 26, 2009. But only two other pairs have done it for the Braves in Atlanta: Ron Gant and Dale Murphy against the Pirates in 1990, and Gene Oliver and Woody Woodward against the Giants in their first year, 1966.


Baltimore Orioles

It was kind of a bad week to be an Orioles fan, if by "week" you mean "about three decades". They did have those couple brief postseason appearances a few years back just to keep hope alive. But they did win two out of three in Toronto over the weekend, with Saturday's 8-1 score being the most interesting. We've had fun tracking this all season, but in early June the Blue Jays overtook the two Ohio teams to have the most games this season where they had 4 hits or fewer. They're up to 19 now (Reds follow with 17). Baltimore's 5-run 4th inning was their first 5-run frame at Rogers Centre since April 16, 2017, when they did it twice in an 11-4 victory. And Anthony Santander managed to scrape together 3 hits and 2 RBI but not have an extra-base hit in the mix. He also did that against the Blue Jays on June 13 at Camden Yards, and only one other Oriole has had two such games against Toronto in the same season. That was Jeff Conine in 2001.


Boston Red Sox

After the Blue Jays got done with their Canada Day celebration on Monday (more on that later), which doubled as a getaway game for the Royals, 'twas Boston's turn to come to town. Rafael Devers greeted Trent Thornton with a 2-run homer in the 1st inning, the first of his 4 hits on the day as the Red Sox cruised to a 10-6 win (with 3 of those Jays runs scored in the bottom of the 9th). Devers came up again with the bases loaded in the 3rd and drove in another pair of runs to make it 7-1 and knock Thornton out of the game. He became the first starter in Jays history to give up 11+ hits without finishing the 3rd inning; Edwin Jackson (May 31) was among those to have done 10.

Devers would also drive in the final two Red Sox runs with another homer off Joe Biagini in the 8th. Perhaps that gave him flashbacks to last September 26, when Devers also had 4 hits and 6 RBI in a game agsinst the Orioles. Only three other Red Sox hitters have ever done it multiple times: Mookie Betts, Brian Daubach, and of course David Ortiz. Betts, 2 years earlier to the day, was the last Bostonian with a 6-RBI game in Toronto, and that's a pretty nice list to be on as well. Before that the only three Red Sox batters to do it were Dwight Evans (1984), Jim Rice (1983), and Carlton Fisk (1977).


Chicago Cubs

Extra-base hits seemed to be a bit of a theme this week, and the Cubs were no exception. On Thursday they concluded a series in Pittsburgh by raking starter Jordan Lyles for eight of them, making him the first Pirates starter in the live-ball era to give up 8 XBH and not get through the 5th inning. And no Pirates pitcher had given up 10 hits (any variety), 7 runs, and 3 homers since Kevin Correa, also against the Cubs, on August 2, 2001.

Kris Bryant is a part of the Cubs lineup that you would expect to get on the XBH madness. He had three of them, plus a single, plus 3 runs scored, and it was the fifth game in his Cubs career where he'd posted that line. The only other Cubs batter with five such games is Hack Wilson in the 1920s. And Bryant's the first Cubs batter to collect those stats in Pittsburgh since Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby on April 24, 1931.

Robel Garcia, probably not someone you'd expect to join our XBH parade, mostly because you've probably never heard of him. He made his MLB debut in the game on Wednesday as a pinch hitter and struck out. So when he fired off a homer and a triple on Thursday, he joined Starlin Castro (2010) and Frank Ernaga (1957) as the only Cubs to do both in either of their first two MLB appearances. He also became the first Cubs batter to homer and triple in a game at PNC Park; the last to do it at Three Rivers was Benito Santiago on April 11, 1999.

Tack on Willson Contreras's 3 hits and 2 XBH, and you have the first trio of Cubs teammates to do that in a road game since Luis Gonzalez, Todd Zeile, and Scott Servais led a famous 26-7 thrashing at Coors Field on August 18, 1995.


Chicago White Sox

Wednesday would prove to be a long day on the South Side of Chicago, after Tuesday's game with the Tigers had to be postponed by rain and turned into a split doubleheader. So 18 innings was plenty-- but not enough. The night game got stuck on a score of 5-5 after Ryan Cordell's homer and Yoan Moncada's sac fly in the 7th. Sure, it seems like there's an opening when the Tigers score in the 10th, but Jeimer Candelario got thrown out stretching at third to end the inning, and Moncada isn't ready to leave yet. Solo homer to tie the game again in B10, conveniently the first extra-inning homer for the White Sox this entire season. It was also the first game-tying (not walkoff) homer for the Sox in an extra inning since A.J. Pierzynski took Tyler Clippard of the Nationals deep on June 24, 2011.

Two innings and 9 hours 48 minutes after the first pitch of the day, Jose Abreu finally walks it off in the 12th with a 3-run shot of his own. The White Sox hadn't hit any extra-inning walkoff homer against the Tigers since Nick Swisher also cranked a 3-run job on August 5, 2008, off Joel Zumaya. And the last time they had both a tying homer and a walkoff homer in extras? A.J. Pierzynski's in that one too, teaming with Juan Uribe (11th and 12th innings) against Cleveland on August 8, 2007.

Both Moncada and Cordell wound up with two homers, amazingly something White Sox teammates hadn't done in any home game since Juan Uribe (again!) and Paul Konerko both went deep twice against the Phillies on June 8, 2004.


Cincinnati Reds

We couldn't do much with the Braves' 1-0 win from Friday, but to mangle a line from the Declaration of Independence, all 1-0 games are not created equal. Because this one on Thursday began with Jesse Winker hitting a leadoff double and then scoring on Yasiel Puig's infield single to third. And that's it. You like to grab an early lead, but you never think you're going to have to protect a 1-0 for another eight full innings. But that's exactly what Luis Castillo did, at least for his six additional frames where he allowed just 1 hit and struck out 9.

For Castillo it was his second game this season throwing 7+ innings, allowing only 1 hit, and striking out at least 9 opponents-- and in that game the opponents were also the Brewers. That was April 3 at GABP, and it made Castillo just the second pitcher in the live-ball era to have two such games (7+ IP, ≤ 1 hit, 9+ K) in the same season. The other is Jim Maloney in 1969. The 1-0 score was the Reds' second ever against the Brewers; the other was July 17, 2016, and the run in that game scored on what is still the last "passed-ball-off" in the majors.

The Reds hadn't won a 1-0 game where their run came in the 1st inning since September 28, 2012, in Pittsburgh, and hadn't done it at home since Ed Taubensee had an RBI single against the Phillies on April 29, 1998. As for Winker scoring that only run after his leadoff double, he's the first Cincinnati leadoff batter to have 3 hits and the run scored in a 1-0 win since Pete Rose did it against the Expos on September 1, 1972.


Cleveland Indians

As strange as it feels when it happens, teams do move occasionally, usually for economic reasons (hi, Tampa Bay!). Back in the 19th century Ohio often had four major-league teams in the state at the same time, so here in the 21st century, it's enjoyable when the two remaining ones finally play each other.

It was only a 2-game "series" this time (the other two games were in Cleveland last month), but Francisco Lindor came out of the gate quickly with a leadoff homer in Saturday's game. Shin-Soo Choo (2012), Grady Sizemore (2007), and Kenny Lofton (1999) are the only other Indians batters to hit a leadoff homer in Cincinnati, and when Lindor also went yard in the 5th, he became the sixth Clevelander with a multi-homer game at Great American Ball Park (opened 2003). Edwin Encarnacion did it two seasons ago; Carlos Santana and Rajai Davis did it in back-to-back games in 2016; and Shin-Soo Choo (2010 & 2012) has the others.

Sunday was quite the opposite as the Indians piled up 4 homers, 4 doubles, and a triple on their way to an 11-1 rout, their second-largest ever in Cincinnati. On July 2, 2004, they had a 9-2 lead and decided to score 6 insurance runs off Todd Van Poppel and win by 13 for no apparent reason. Sunday was the first time (including postseason) that the Indians had ever collected 9 extra-base hits in a National League park, while Greg Allen also became the team's first player ever with 4 hits including a homer and a triple in an interleague game (home or road). Only Christian Yelich (last August) and Randy Winn of the Giants (2005) had posted such a line as visiting players at GABP.

And speaking of teams moving, some of our favorite notes are the ones where we drop city names instead of team names and harken back to an earlier era. And thus it was fun on Tuesday when Jake Bauers and Tyler Naquin each collected 4 hits in the Indians' 9-5 win over the Royals. Oh sure, it's the first time two Cleveland teammates have done that in a road game against the Royals. But it's not the first time it's happened in Kansas City. Dick Howser and Vic Davalillo each had 4 hits when the Indians beat the then-Kansas City Athletics at Municipal Stadium on July 14, 1964.


Colorado Rockies

Have lost 6 straight, including the aforementioned game we were at in Phoenix on Friday night. We'll be covering most of their games from the winning team's side, so plenty of Rockies nuggets still await you. One thing we didn't mention in that 8-0 shutout against the Diamondbacks on Friday is that Antonio Senzatela got tagged for 7 hits and 7 earned runs while only recording 1 strikeout. Only three other Colorado pitchers have done that at Chase Field: Kyle Kendrick in 2015, Franklin Morales in 2008, and Byung-Hyun Kim in 2006.

And while they did manage to score 3 runs in Sunday's loss, the Rockies were held to just 5 hits or fewer in all three games of the weekend series at Chase. They hadn't done that in any road series against the same opponent since July 1-3, 2016, at Dodger Stadium, and had never done it in Phoenix. The only other time they even had two straight games of ≤ 5 hits at Chase was also in the first week of July, in 2015 when they faced Jeremy Hellickson and Chase Anderson.


Detroit Tigers

In a week plagued by rain delays, Matt Boyd earns our Tigers nod for his bizarre line in Thursday's game, in which Detroit ended up scoring in each of the final six innings to cruise to an 11-5 win in Chicago. Despite giving up 9 hits and 4 runs, Boyd had the lead when he departed in the 6th, and so became the first Tigers pitcher to do that and get a win in a road game since Anibal Sanchez in Arizona on July 23, 2014.

BUT check out the rest of Boyd's line. He worked 5⅓ innings, that's 16 outs. He struck out thirteen. Only four pitchers have ever recorded 16 outs and had 13+ be K's; the others are Eduardo Rodriguez of the Red Sox in 2016, then-Angel Zack Greinke in 2012 (13 of 15), and the Rays' Alex Cobb in 2013 (13 of 14!). Ignoring the innings, Boyd also had a 13-K game in New York on April 3, and only six other Tigers pitchers have had two such games in a season. Mickey Lolich is three of them. Max Scherzer (2014), Justin Verlander (2009), and Jim Bunning (1960) also did it.

By the time Thursday's game was over, the Tigers had piled up 5 doubles and 3 homers-- but those were by seven different players. Only Miguel Cabrera had one of each. Their last game where seven players had at least 1 XBH was also in Chicago-- but on the North Side. They won a 15-8 slugfest at Wrigley on August 19, 2015. And Detroit's only other game with 3 homers and 5 doubles on the South Side... was a 16-15 slugfest at the old Comiskey on July 29, 1934.


The title of this post led us to a lot of songs with "break" in the name of lyrics. But we'll be good and start you with the '80s classic that matches it. (And which apparently had no official video, based on our searches.) First intermission!


Houston Astros

In December you get Yule Logs. In July you get Yuli Barrels. Those would be the no-doubt homers hit by Yuli Gurriel this week, beginning on Tuesday with a 2-homer game against the Rockies. His second of that game, in the 7th inning, was the fourth lead-flipping homer for the Astros in Denver, and also the latest by inning. Brian Bogusevic (2012), Craig Biggio (2001), and Scott Servais (1994) also hit them, but all in the 5th or earlier. Gurriel also joined Richard Hidalgo (2003), Jeff Bagwell (1998), and Moises Alou (1998) as the only Astros with a 2-HR, 4-RBI game at Coors Field.

What, you thought he was done? Gurriel quietly homered again in Wednesday's finale at Coors, and again in Friday's opener with the Angels after an off-day. So on Saturday he actually became the oldest player in Astros history with a 4-game home run streak. (Remember, the Gurriel brothers defected from Cuba, so even though they haven't been in MLB very long, they've been playing for decades.) The only other Astros with a 3-game streak aged 35 or older were Ken Caminiti (2000), Jose Cruz (1983), and forgot-he-was-an-Astro-for-half-a-season Eddie Mathews in 1967.

On Sunday Gurriel finished the first half with a bang. Or a slam, rather, tying the game in the 6th before George Springer eventually walked off in the 10th. It was already the eighth grand slam by an Astros hitter this season, which sets a team record. Yes, we just reached the All-Star break. Gurriel also hit a slam off Andrew Heaney last September and is the first Astros batter ever to have two against the Angels. But that 5-game homer streak was only the fifth in team history, and two have been this year. Jose Altuve also went yard in five straight from April 8 through 13. The others include Carlos Beltran in 2004, Cliff Johnson in 1975, and the one which Gurriel now has the entire break to ponder. Morgan Ensberg, in April 2006, is the only Astros batter to homer in six straight games.


Kansas City Royals

If the news told you the Royals were in Washington over the weekend, you might expect them to be talking about Prince Harry or Kate Middleton or one of those folks from whom the U.S. celebrated its independence this week. Oddly, the last time the baseball Royals visited D.C. was when they won the World Series and visited the White House. They hadn't played an actual game there since 2010, which lends itself to some "small sample size" nuggets. Either way, though, the story of Friday's game was Adalberto Mondesi who contributed a triple, a double, the go-ahead RBI single in the 11th inning, and also stole a base. That go-ahead single was just the second one ever hit by the Royals in Washington; the other came in their first season when the replacement Senators were still around. Pat Kelly hit it off Dave Baldwin on May 24, 1969.

Ignoring the single for the moment, Mondesi was the Royals' first-ever player to have a triple, a double, and a stolen base in a National League park. And he was the first visiting American Leaguer to go single-double-triple at Nationals Park. To find the last of those, you have to once again return to the days when Washington's team was in the AL. Before the Royals were created in 1969, another KC team, the Athletics, had just left for Oakland. And it was in their first season in California that Danny Cater had all three of those hits in Washington, doing so in an 8-3 win on August 11, 1968.

On Saturday, however, the Royals ran into the buzzsaw known as Max Scherzer and promptly got shut out 6-0. It was only the second time the Royals had ever been shut out in a game in Washington, and the other... wasn't against the Nationals. We're back in those same three seasons when the Royals and second Senators both existed; Jim Hannan pitched a 1-hitter against them on August 17, 1970.


Los Angeles Angels

The Angels had three wins and one very big loss this week. So even though Friday's game was the first time they'd ever hit four homers in a game in Houston, and in it Kole Calhoun surpassed Brian Downing by posting his 12th homer/double combo as the Angels' leadoff hitter, there's no amount of Angels miniutiae that's going to steal the show this week. RIP Tyler.


Los Angeles Dodgers

Southern California was definitely shaking last week. And not all of it was because of earthquakes. After sweeping the Rockies from June 21 to 23, all via walkoff, the Dodgers pulled off what is almost certainly a first in major-league history. Setup, in case you don't already know: They trail the Diamondbacks 4-3 going to the bottom of the 9th.

Greg Holland gets two quick outs on eight pitches. He walks Chris Taylor, which you never like to see, but okay. Still only need to get the guy at the plate, pinch-hitter Russell Martin, to lock down the win. Oh, Holland walked him too? Hmm. Alex Verdugo, 5-pitch walk, three of them in the dirt, to load the bases. And Matt Beaty, 4-pitch walk to tie the game. So now we call for T.J. McFarland out of the bullpen to face Cody Bellinger. Gets to a 1-2 count and then throws three more balls. A literal walk-off, not on just one base on balls, but FIVE straight! No team had ever ended a game by drawing five consecutive walks, and even the last occurrence of a tying walk followed by a walk-off was on May 6, 1994, when the Cardinals' Gerald Perry and Terry McGriff got passed by the Mets' John Franco. Since moving to Los Angeles the Dodgers had also done it once: Bill Russell drew the tying walk and then Wes Parker drew the game-winner against Houston's Dooley Womack on April 18, 1969.

So stepping back from the five straight walks, that also meant the Dodgers had won four straight home games via walkoff something-or-other dating to that Rockies series a couple weeks ago. So what might possibly happen in Wednesday's game when the teams are tied 3-3 after 8 innings and then, after Carson Kelly homers to take the lead, Greg Holland blows another save and sends us to extras at 4-4. Why of course that would be Cody Bellinger's second homer of the night, a solo shot against Yoan Lopez with 1 out in the 10th, the fifth straight walkoff win in a Dodgers home game. The last team to post such a streak (also with a road trip in the middle) was the 2004 Athletics. Bellinger, meanwhile, was the seventh Dodgers batter to hit an extra-inning walkoff homer against the D'backs, but just the second for whom it was his second homer of the game. Raul Mondesi hit a 2-run shot to beat Arizona on April 5, 1999.


Miami Marlins

This being our All-Star edition of #Kernels, we're trying to accentuate the positive instead of harping on the pitchers who give up 10 runs in 3 innings. Plenty of time for that after the break. That does mean a few teams have limited choices, however. For the Marlins, who won exactly one of their six games this week, and lost two via walkoff, we'll give them credit for collecting 15 hits in that lone win on Saturday. Granted, they only ended up with 5 runs, but it was barely enough to escape with a 5-4 victory. The Marlins only had one other game in Atlanta where they'd gotten 15 hits, turned them into 5 runs or fewer, and still pulled out a win. And that was 20 years ago to the day against Tom Glavine, a 5-2 win that was Glavine's career high for hits allowed.

And while they lost Sunday's game by a 4-3 count when Charlie Culberson nailed Jorge Alfaro with the potential tying run at the plate in the 9th, Garrett Cooper put the Marlins in position for that tie with a 3-run jack in the top of the 8th. Only two other Marlins batters had cranked a 3- or 4-run homer in the 8th or later in Atlanta; Cooper joined Cliff Floyd in 2002 (off Kerry Ligtenberg) and Mike Lowell in 2000 (off Jason Marquis).


Milwaukee Brewers

Like their alphabetical neighbors the Marlins, the Brewers were another of those teams that really didn't have a great week, and they lost Christian Yelich toward the end of the week with a back issue (probably from hitting all those homers). Though they lost Sunday's game in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee found a bright spot in Jesús Aguilar, who posted the team's third multi-homer game in Pittsburgh already this year. Orlando Arcia and Mike Moustakas did it in a series six weeks ago, and it's the first time the Brewers have ever had three such games in Pittsburgh in a season.

The lone game the Brewers won in Pittsburgh wasn't without its drama; they were up by the leanest of scores, 1-0, going to the 7th, before Arcia led off the inning with a solo homer. Well, that must be the cue for the floodgates to open; Elias Diaz reached on an error and scored in the bottom half to get that run back, but then Aguilar and Manny Piña both went yard in the 8th for a 6-1 run lead. Only once before had the Brewers hit 3 homers in the 7th or later in Pittsburgh; Mark Reynolds, Ryan Braun, and Khris Davis all went deep in a 14-inning mess on April 20, 2014.

The Brewers turned to Former New Britain Rock Cat Deolis Guerra to protect that 5-run lead, and let's just say it didn't go well. Though not quite charged with the blown save, he did join Sam Freeman (April 8, 2016) as the only Brewers pitchers to give up 4 runs including a homer (to Josh Bell) while getting 2 outs in their Milwaukee debut. BUT it somehow worked out when Lorenzo Cain connected for a go-ahead RBi single in the 10th and Junior Guerra (they are different people) held on for the win. Junior is just the fifth pitcher in Brewers history to blow a save by giving up a homer, but then hold on for a "BS win" in extras. Francisco Rodriguez ("K-Rod") also did it in Pittsburgh on September 10, 2015; the others are Eric Gagne (2008), Brad Lesley (1985), and Bob Galasso (1979).


Minnesota Twins

Like the Nationals last year, the Twins are becoming harder and harder to come up with notes about because they do this all the time. Fortunately there are still little nuances to every game that give us an opening. Take Friday's 15-6 blowout of the Rangers. We know the Twins (and the rest of MLB, frankly) are on pace to obliterate all kinds of home-run records. But what if we said they "only" had 4 homers in that game... but nine doubles? Because that's how it played out, with Byron Buxton, Jonathan Schoop, and C.J. Cron each hitting two. They were the first trio of Twins players with multiple doubles in the same game since Luis Rivas, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Jose Offerman did it against Cleveland on April 7, 2004. And nine total doubles? Why, the Twins/Senators franchise hadn't done that in a game since there might have been fans still sitting in the outfield. June 9, 1934, at Fenway Park, was the last occurrence of that.

Now, 9 doubles and 4 homers still equals 13 extra-base hits, and that also happened in that 8-homer game that you're thinking about back in April. But that also makes it the first season in Twins/Senators franchise history where they had 13 XBH in two different games. Eight of the nine Twins starters ended up with multiple hits, at least 1 run scored, and least 1 RBI; since RBI became official in 1920, it's only happened one other time. All nine Senators starters posted that line in a 19-6 beatdown of Cleveland on July 18, 1925.

And as for that exact score of 15-6? Although there have been plenty of other 15-6's since then, the Twins/Senators hadn't won such a game since defeating the Red Sox on April 26, 1922.


New York Mets

The Mets and Yankees played the second half of their home-and-home season series in Queens on Tuesday and Wednesday, and being that they're alphabetically next to each other (both based in New York and all), we'll let each of them have their moment against the other.

The Mets were on the ropes in Tuesday's game, trailing 2-1 in the 8th before DJ LeMahieu made an error to start the inning. And sure enough, next batter J.D. Davis doubles him home to tie the game. Adam Ottavino eventually gets pulled with 1 out and the bases loaded, but Michael Conforto shoots the first pitch from Zack Britton into left field for a 2-run go-ahead double and what would become a 4-2 Mets win. Only one other Mets batter had connected for a go-ahead double against the Yankees in the 8th inning or later, David Wright off Mariano Rivera on June 12, 2009. And the pair of Davis and Conforto became the third in Mets history to hit both a tying double and a go-ahead double in the same inning, where that inning was numbered 8 or higher. Kirk Nieuwenheis and Mike Baxter did it in 2012 against the Marlins, while Edgardo Alfonso teamed with Todd Zeile for a 10-8 win over the Pirates on June 24, 2000.


New York Yankees

Ah, but turnabout is fair play, so we may as well split this season series between two ends of the Triborough Bridge and call it a day. On Wednesday the Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead after DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge led off the game with back-to-back doubles, the first time the Yankees had done that in a road game since Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher hit them in Cleveland on August 24, 2012.

Not to be outdone, Jeff McNeil led off the Mets' part of the game with a solo homer, joining Brandon Nimmo (June 8 of last year) as the only Mets to hit a leadoff homer against the Yankees at Citi Field. Unfortunately, like Nimmo's game, McNeil's homer would be the only run the Mets scored as the Yankees added two more homers in the 6th on a back-to-back by Didi Gregorius and Gio Urshela. They were the first Yankees ever to hit back-to-back homers at Citi Field; the last to do it at Shea were Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada on May 19, 2007 (both off Scott Schoeneweis).

LeMahieu would add another two-bagger later in the game, joining Eduardo Nuñez (2011) and Ramiro Peña (2009) as the only Yankees to have a multi-double game at Citi Field.


Oakland Athletics

The A's concluded their first "half" on a high note Sunday, riding a 5-run 1st inning to a 7-4 win in Seattle. Matt Olson gave them three of those runs before an out was even recorded; he was the first Oaklander in nearly 6 years to hit a 3-run homer as the team's third batter of a road game. Jed Lowrie did that in Toronto on August 9, 2013. The 5-run frame was Oakland's largest in a road game since thumping the White Sox 17-6 on September 15, 2015.

Marcus Semien tacked on 3 hits including a homer, becoming just the second A's leadoff batter to do that in the 20-year history of Safeco Field. Travis Buck pulled it off in a 4-3 loss on September 28, 2008. Three other Oaklanders did it at the Kingdome: Jose Herrera in 1996 and Rickey Henderson twice (1990 & 1993).

Semien also put away Thursday's game against Minnesota with an 8th-inning grand slam for a 7-2 final. Since the team moved to Oakland in 1968, no A's player had slammed against the Twins in the 8th or later of a home game. Semien also had a solo shot earlier in Thursday's contest, becoming just the fourth leadoff batter in A's history with a 2-HR, 5-RBI game. Ernie Young did it on May 10, 1996, also against the Twins; and Eddie Joost did it twice for the Philadelphia Athletics, within a year of each other in 1951-52.


Thirty teams is a lot, we know. Happily there's not another real game before Thursday. Take a break for some line-dancing. Second intermission!


Philadelphia Phillies

There were two names that stood out for the Phillies this week, Aaron Nola and Jay Bruce. The team started its week in Atlanta with a 2-0 shutout in which Nola became the first Phils pitcher to throw 8 scoreless innings, allow no more than 4 hits, and strike out at least 8 in a road game since Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley on July 25, 2015. The Braves never even threatened in the 9th thanks to Hector Neris facing three batters and striking out all of them over the course of 15 pitches. Neris also did that on May 24 in Milwaukee; since saves became official in 1969, he's the first Phillies pitcher to have two of them in the same season where he faced three batters and struck out all of them.

The Phils then ended their week at Citi Field, a park which Jay Bruce called home for parts of three seasons. It appears he still likes the place; Bruce went deep to knock Zack Wheeler out of the game in the 6th, and then started the 8th with a solo shot off Wilmer Font. With an RBI single early in the game, Bruce joined Ryan Howard (August 24, 2009) as the only Phillies batters to have a 2-HR, 4-RBI game at Citi Field. But as luck would have it, Bruce also had such a game two years ago when he was playing for the Mets and against the Phillies. That was April 19, 2017, in a 5-4 Mets wins, and it makes Bruce the first player to have a 2-HR, 4-RBI game at Citi Field for two different teams.

Honorable mention to Rhys Hoskins who also homered, doubled, and got hit by a pitch; no Phillies batter had ever done that in a road game against the Mets (any stadium).


Pittsburgh Pirates

It was pretty obvious pretty early in the week which Pirates game was going to get this week's nugget. That would be Monday night against the Cubs when they unloaded on rookie Abdert Alzolay for 7 runs in the first 2 innings, including a 3-run homer by Josh Bell and a 2-run homer by Josh Bell. (More on him in a moment.) Alzolay was the first Cubs starter to give up 10 hits, 7 runs, 2 homers, and not get through the 3rd inning since Joe Coleman did it against the Braves on June 19, 1976.

Meanwhile, leadoff hitter Adam Frazier collected four (count 'em, four!) doubles, joining Hall of Fame outfielder Paul Waner (May 20, 1932) as the only Pirates batters in the live-ball era with a 4-double game. Thanks to Alzolay's meltdown and a string of relievers, Frazier's two-baggers all came off different pitchers as well, the first player in the majors to do that since Toronto's Alex Rios on August 17, 2008, against Boston. Frazier added a single for a fifth hit, making him the fourth leadoff batter in the live-ball era with 5 hits including 4 doubles. Johnny Damon of the Royals (2000, also vs Cubs), Billy Werber of the Reds (1940), and Denny Sothern of the Phillies (1930) are the others. And no Pirates leadoff batter had posted any 5-hit game at home since Matty Alou did it in the first season at Three Rivers, against the Giants on August 19, 1970. Frazier would add 4 more hits and 3 more runs scored in Tuesday's win, just the second Pirates batter in the live-ball era to do that in back-to-back games. The other is only Willie Stargell on June 4 & 5, 1966.

We promised more Bell-ringing, and sure enough, he added a third homer off Craig Kimbrel in the 8th. Only five Pirates have ever had a 3-homer, 7-RBI game, and the others ain't a bad list: Willie Stargell (1968), Roberto Clemente (1967), Dick Stuart (1960), and Ralph Kiner (1951). Only one other cleanup hitter in Pirates history had posted 4 hits, 4 runs scored, and 7 RBI in a game (never mind the 3 homers): Ewell "Reb" Russell, so nicknamed because he was from Mississippi, in Philadelphia on August 8, 1922.

And we haven't even mentioned Colin Moran's 5 hits, because "only" 2 of them were doubles. But the trio of Moran, Bell, and Frazier marked the first time three Pirates teammates had 4+ hits in the same game since Jay Bell, Don Slaught, and Andy Van Slyke did it in Atlanta on May 13, 1992.


San Diego Padres

The Padres pulled out three straight victories at Dodger Stadium this weekend, all in slightly-unusual fashion. As already mentioned, #Kernels was out in SoCal last week, and it certainly appears that the NL West is turning into the offensive "juggernaut" that we used to accuse the AL West of being. Suddenly they're the ones playing 3-1 games and taking no-hitters into the 7th while Oakland is chucking up 12 runs a game. But we digress.

Friday was indeed one of those games in which neither team got more than 6 hits, and the only reason they're not still playing is that Hunter Renfroe stumbled into a solo homer with 2 outs in the 8th. By inning, that was the latest go-ahead homer for the Padres at Dodger Stadium since Khalil Greene hit one off Takashi Saito on May 4, 2006. Friday's game was so interesting that we were able to hold up Eric Lauer as being the first pitcher in Padres history to be awarded first base on interference by the opposing catcher.

Saturday was another of those 3-1 games in which neither team had more than 6 hits, and which was scoreless until Renfroe homered again, this time in the 7th. He's only the third Padres batter to hit two go-ahead homers at Dodger Stadium in the 7th or later, and the others-- Tony Gwynn and Fred McGriff-- didn't even do it in the same season, much less in back-to-back games. Manuel Margot added a 2-run blast in the 8th for the rest of the scoring, and it gave the Padres their first win at Dodger Stadium with 4 hits or fewer since September 29, 2002, a 2-0 win over Victor Alvarez.

Sunday became an offensive explosion with the Padres scoring 5 runs to the Dodgers' 3, but with Fernando Tatis starting things right away with a leadoff homer instead of waiting until the 7th. Melvin Upton hit the previous one for the Padres at Chavez Ravine, 3 years earlier to the day off Hyun-Jin Ryu. And Tatis would homer again in the 5th, joining Khalil Greene (2004), Darrin Jackson (1991), Johnny Grubb (1976), and Bobby Tolan (1974) as the only Padres leadoff batters with a 2-HR, 4-RBI game. Kirby Yates came on to record his 30th save of the season (out of 45 Padres wins!), shattering the team's prior "first-half" record-- Heath Bell's 26 saves in 2011.


San Francisco Giants

The Giants pounded out 17 hits in Tuesday's game in San Diego, 11 of them off starter Matt Strahm, en route to a 10-4 victory. It began early when Donovan Solano cranked the fifth pitch of the game for just the second leadoff homer ever hit by the Giants at Petco. Ray Durham took Ismael Valdez deep on July 29, 2004, in Petco's first season; Durham also had the team's last two leadoff homers at Qualcomm. He would end up joining Marvin Benard (1998) and Bobby Bonds (1973) as the only Giants to have a leadoff homer in San Diego and then add 2 more hits later in the game.

If you wanted a game with both a Bobby Bonds reference and a Barry Bonds reference, well, here it is. Among those 17 hits on Tuesday, Kevin Pillar and Evan Longoria both ended up with four of them, a feat accomplished by only one other set of Giants teammates in San Diego. The younger Bonds joined Rich Aurilia in doing it on September 13, 2002. And Longoria would be the first Giants batter with 3 extra-base hits and 5 RBIs in any game in nearly four seasons; Jarrett Parker did that across the bay in Oakland on September 26, 2015.

And we can't end the Giants' section without a shout-out to Austin Slater, who totally reminds us of "Saved By The Bell" every time he does something. His pinch-hit grand slam on Saturday propelled the Giants to an 8-4 win over the Cardinals and was the first such homer for San Francisco since (again) Rich Aurilia did it at Comiskey Park on June 12, 2003. They've only hit one other pinch-hit slam at their current stadium, and it was in the first season when it was still Pac Bell. Russ Davis hit it against the Marlins on August 21, 2000. And Slater's knock came in the 4th inning because Madison Bumgarner got hit with a comebacker and had already left the game by then. No team had gotten a pinch-hit grand slam so early in a contest since Justin Maxwell of the Nationals hit one on September 11, 2007, after starter Mike Bacsik gave up 5 early runs to the Marlins.


Seattle Mariners

If there was one exciting game for the Mariners this week, it was probably Tuesday to begin a rare interleague series with the Cardinals. "Opener" Matt Carasiti gave up a 1st-inning homer to Jose Martinez and Seattle had to fight its way back. They did, finally going up 4-1 on an Omar Narvaez homer in the 5th, but St Louis promptly tied it back up in the next two frames. Finally in the bottom of the 8th, Tim Beckham launched just the second pinch-hit homer in Mariners history against the Cardinals; the other was by Ryan Langerhans off Ryan Franklin on June 15, 2010. It was the Mariners' first-ever go-ahead pinch-hit homer in the 8th or later of an interleague game, and the third by any AL hitter against the Cardinals. Danny Santana of the Rangers hit one on May 19, and the other was by Frank Catalanotto of Detroit on June 13, 1999.

Austin Adams, who was the pitcher of record through all of this, because the first hurler in Mariners history to face 4+ batters, strike out all of them, and get a win.


St Louis Cardinals

Of course, as mentioned up in the New York section, turnabout is fair play, and wouldn't you know it the Mariners and Cardinals are right next to each other if you don't spell out the word "Saint" (pet peeve, pick one, "Gateway To The West"). So after Beckham's homer to effectively win the game on Tuesday, it was Tommy Edman's turn on Wednesday. This one ended up being even more dramatic, since the Cardinals trailed 2-0 going to the top of the 9th. With 1 out, Yadier Molina's sacrifice fly tied the game, but then pinch-hitter Edman comes to the plate with runners on second and third and polishes off a 5-run inning and a 5-2 Cardinals win. The Cardinals hadn't hit any go-ahead pinch-hit homer in the 9th inning or later since Nick Stavinoha took Trevor Hoffman-- by then with the Brewers-- deep on April 9, 2010. The Tigers are the only team to go longer without such a longball. The Cards' last such homer that was a 3- or 4-run shot was by Craig Paquette off Danny Graves of the Reds on May 25, 2001. And Wednesday's game was the first time the Cardinals were held scoreless through 8 innings, but then put up a 5-spot (or higher) in the 9th, since walking off against the Reds on August 8, 2016.

Perhaps as a reward for his heroics on Wednesday (but probably not), Edman was given the starting leadoff spot in Thursday's finale against the Mariners. And once again the Cardinals trailed 4-3 when he came up in the 7th with the bases loaded. Wham, not just an RBI single, but a 2-run single to flip the lead, the first one in Cardinals history to be hit in the 7th or later in an American League park.


Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays and Yankees have always had a fairly interesting relationship, usually consisting of the Yankees being a really good team but then falling flat on their face when they go to Tropicana. If that sounds like what happened this weekend, well.

Saturday's game was 2-1 before Nick Lowe took why-is-he-still-in-the-game CC Sabathia deep in the 7th inning, the team's first lead-flipping homer in the 7th or later against the Yankees since Matt Joyce off Rafael Soriano on September 27, 2011. No worries, though; the Yanks will pull off their usual magic of having Aaron Hicks go deep with 2 outs in the 9th to tie the game back up. That was actually the first tying or go-ahead homer the Yankees had ever hit against the Rays when down to their final out, and the first against any team since Brett Gardner at Wrigley on May 5, 2017.

The excitement was short-lived however, because Travis d'Arnaud came up in the bottom of the 9th against Chad Green and, well, walkoff. Five batters in Rays history have hit a walkoff homer against the Yankees; you know one of them is Evan Longoria to win the Wild Card berth in 2011. The others are Jake Bauers last June, Reid Brignac in 2010, and Dioner Navarro in 2007. That homer was also d'Arnaud's third hit of the night, just the second time a Rays batter has had 3 hits including a walkoff against the Yankees. Carlos Peña singled off Mariano Rivera to score Ben Zobrist on April 6, 2012.

Sunday's game turned into a true pitchers' duel when James Paxton struck out 11 but also gave up 2 early runs, whereas Charlie Morton struck out 10 and got the win. In the past 17 years the Rays have only had three games where they converted 10+ hits into ≤ 2 runs but still won. All of those are 2-1 wins against the Yankees. Maybe there's some truth to the Tropicana curse after all.


Texas Rangers

We almost had to expound on Elvis Andrus stealing all three bases (second, third, and home) against the Angels on Tuesday, and while it was only the second time in team history a player had done that (Dave Nelson vs Cleveland, August 30, 1974), Rougned Odor came along late in the week and bailed us out.

In Thursday's finale-- the game which Tyler Skaggs was supposed to start-- Odor cranked both a 3-run shot and a 2-run shot as Texas won 9-3. Mike Napoli, on September 30, 2012, had been the last Rangers batter with a 2-HR, 5-RBI game against the Angels, but overall it was the fifth such game of Odor's career. That brings him into a tie for the fourth-most games in franchise history; only A-Rod (6), Mark Teixeira (8), and Juan Gonzalez (14!) have more.

Odor was then the hero of Sunday's extra-inning win against Minnesota with a 3-run dinger in the top of the 11th. It had been over 2 years since a Texas batter hit a 3- or 4-run homer that late in a game; Robinson Chirinos did it in Washington on June 10, 2017. BUT the only other such homer the Rangers had ever hit in Minnesota was by Oddibe McDowell, to win a 16-inning marathon at the Metrodome on June 11, 1986.


Toronto Blue Jays

Both the countries in which MLB is based celebrated their independence this week, and finally about 20 years ago, the schedulers decided it would be nice to finally let the Jays play a home game on Canada Day each year, such as they've done for the Nationals since they moved to D.C. So obviously Monday's tilt against the Royals starts with an advantage. And then Freddy Galvis ended it with an advantage, smacking 2 homers to lead Toronto to an 11-4 win, tying for the second-most runs they've ever scored in a July 1 game at home (15 vs Mets in 1998). Galvis joined Justin Smoak (2015), John Olerud (1996), and Jesse Barfield (1984) as the only Jays with a multi-homer game on Canada Day, and Barfield's game also featured 4 hits and 4 RBI. We mention that only because Randal Grichuk posted that line in this week's game; they are the only two Jays to do it on Canada Day.

Despite the Jays piling up 11 runs on Monday, Grichuk did that 4-and-4 without also scoring a run himself. Only one other player in Toronto history has done that in any game, Alex Gonzalez in Boston on August 8, 1996. And the combination of Grichuk and Cavan Biggio was the first time multiple Jays hitters had ever had 3 hits & 4 RBI each in a home game against the Royals. Their only teammates to do it in Kansas City are Raul Mondesi and Carlos Delgado on April 20, 2001.


Washington Nationals

Speaking of the Nationals, the Kansas City Royals nearly pulled off the independence doubleheader by playing in MLB's only Canadian venue on Monday, then missing the celebration in the U.S. capital by one day. We covered Friday's visit to Washington from the KC side earlier, but that game also had its unique qualities from the Natonals' perspective. Ryan Zimmerman collected 3 doubles, the first Nationals batter to do that in a loss since Alberto Gonzalez against the Phillies on September 9, 2009.

Friday's game was just the third time the Nationals had been gifted 11 walks and still lost; two were in extra-inning games (the other in 2008), and they also did it in an 11-8 loss to St Louis last September. But six of those walks went to Juan Soto and Adam Eaton, neither of whom was batting right before the pitcher either. Both players also ended up with 2 hits in the game, making them the first teammates in Nats/Expos history (1969) with 2-and-3 in the same game. Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez were the last to do it for any team, at Texas on July 28, 2015.

But remember the Nationals ended up losing that game in 11 innings. No teammates had collected 2 hits and 3 walks each in a loss since Tim Raines and Frank Thomas of the White Sox on May 1, 1991. And we mentioned that no Nats teammates had ever done it. But neither did any of the second Senators (i.e., Rangers). In fact, to find the last Washington duo with 2 hits and 3 walks, win or lose, you must go back 99½ years. Joe Judge and Braggo Roth pulled it off in another game that Washington lost, to the White Sox on May 21, 1920.