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.
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