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.
No comments:
Post a Comment