The Big Sendoff

Tonight 20 teams bid farewell to their 2019 seasons, not that a few of them didn't already do that by about mid-June. And still six more departures will follow within the next week to 10 days, some of them after just one loss. But you've gotta admire the ones who kept playing until the end, and this week was full of gentle (and not-so-gentle) sendoffs into that good offseason.


Snowbirds

Those northerners who go hang out in Florida during the winter and then come back in the spring likely get a couple of sendoffs a year. So with two MLB teams in Florida and two MLB teams in New York, and them being in each other's divisions, there usually comes a point in every season where the schedule finds them playing each other at the same time. That would be the first half of this week when the Mets hosted the Marlins and the Yankees traveled to St Petersburg. The schedule, however, has no idea that both of them might end in extra-inning walkoffs on the same day? As the saying goes, that's why we play the games.

With the Marlins up 4-0 in the 7th, it certainly didn't appear Tuesday's game at Ciri Field would end in a walkoff, or even require extra innings. It got a little more interesting when Sandy Alcantara chucked up a 2-run homer to Michael Conforto, but still managed to get through the inning before calling it a night. And gosh, there's nothing like September Bullpen Magic to make you wish you had left early. In this one it was former starter Jose Ureña who got handed a 4-2 lead, gave up a hard infield single that Isan Diaz knocked down but had no play on, and then hung a game-tying meatball to Conforto for his second home run of the game (and all 4 RBIs to this point). He's the first Mets batter to have 2 homers and drive in 4 against the Marlins since Wilmer Flores on September 16, 2014, and as it happens, Conforto also had a game-tying (not walkoff) homer in the 9th inning against the Marlins last September. In Mets history, the only other player to hit two such dingers at home, regardless of the opponent, is Mike Piazza.

Conforto has now succeeded in getting Noah Syndergaard off the hook for the loss, making him the fourth pitcher in Mets history to give up 10 hits in back-to-back starts and somehow not lose either of them. Jason Isringhausen did it in 1996, along with Dennis Ribant (1966) and Al Jackson (1963) in the Mets' early years. It also, of course, sends us off to extra innings, where Adam Conley finally makes his way in from the bullpen for the bottom of the 11th. With Conforto up first. Gulp. You can kinda understand a walk there, why give him a chance to hit a third homer for the walkoff? Why that now requires another pitching change escapes us, other than it's September and you've got 45 people out there, so keep the line moving. Jeff Brigham promptly hits Amed Rosario. Then bounces the first pitch to Todd Frazier, and with first base suddenly open, the Marlins just put Frazier on. They succeed in forcing Conforto at home, but the bases are still loaded and Brandon Nimmo looks at four straight pitches off the plate for the true "walk-off". The Marlins had issued only two others in their history: Kyle Barraclough to Atlanta's Ender Inciarte in September 2017, and one at Shea Stadium when Vic Darensbourg passed Jay Payton on May 24, 2002. The Mets also had a "walk-off" on September 6 against the Phillies, their first time receiving two in a season since 1988.

The one bright spot for the Marlins was leadoff batter Jon Berti, who not only had 3 hits but managed to steal 4 bases. He's the first in Marlins history to do that-- and yet he still never scored a run. Only six other players in the live-ball era, for any team, have pulled that off (3-4-0): Ichiro Suzuki (2012), Kenny Lofton (2007), Luis Polonia (1992), Rickey Henderson (1987), Garry Maddox (1978), and John Lowenstein (1974).

The Mets had one more sendoff in the season finale against the Braves on Sunday. Holding a 4-3 lead in the 9th after Joe Panik had just homered in the 8th, well, as they say, Mets gonna Met. Adeiny Hechavarria takes Paul Sewald deep to effectively blow the save, although Sewald was in the game before they took the lead, so he technically didn't have one to blow. In the top of the 11th, now facing Chris Mazza, Hechavarria comes up again and shoots one to left for a 5-4 Braves lead. Adam Duvall then cranks the next pitch over the fence to make it 6-4. And now it's the Braves' turn to try and hold the lead. Which three pitchers combined can't seem to get done. Jerry Blevins gives up a leadoff single. Anthony Swarzak another on a ball that Dansby Swanson dove for but couldn't corral. Then with 2 outs, Grant Dayton hangs one to Dom Smith, making his first plate appearance since July 26 after a foot injury. And we'll never know if his foot is quite healed, since all he really had to do was a light jog. Dom raises the apple at Citi Field for the 126th and final time this season with a 3-run walkoff homer, the first walkoff homer the Mets had ever hit in a season finale.

This all gives Adeiny Hechavarria an interesting spot in Braves lore as their first player to hit 2 homers, including one in extras, in a game they still lost, since Joe Torre against the Pirates on April 12, 1966-- the Braves' first-ever game representing Atlanta. The Mets' last walkoff in any regular-season finale was in 2000 against the Expos, when Benny Agbayani scored on Geoff Blum's third error of the game. It was their first extra-inning walkoff homer against Atlanta since Mookie Wilson took Ken Dayley deep on June 26, 1983. And Smith's homer was the second-latest in Mets history to occur when trailing in extra innings; Tim Harkness hit a grand slam in the 14th against the Cubs on June 26, 1963.


Rays The Roof

As dramatic and exciting as that bases-loaded walk on Tuesday was, you needed to wait only 8 minutes to have another New York/Florida matchup result in a walkoff. Of course, the teams themselves had waited several hours before that; after Cameron Maybin (3rd inning) and Kevin Kiermaier (5th) traded solo homers, we went through six innings and eleven more pitching changes despite the teams combining for only two singles over that span. (Ah, September.) That did include Chad Green facing six batters and striking out five of them, the fourth game of his career where he's fanned five and allowed zero baserunners. That's the most such games in Yankees history; Ron Davis did it three times (all in 1981).

If only Green had been left in to face that seventh batter. Because that was Ji-Man Choi leading off the 12th, and Choi took the fifth pitch from Cory Gearrin into the right-field seats for the walkoff. Since 2005 the Yankees have had five pitchers give up an extra-inning walkoff homer to the first batter they faced, and four of them did it against the Rays. The previous one on that list was Chasen Shreve (to Jake Bauers) on June 24 of last year. Bauers and Choi account for two of the three walkoff homers the Rays have hit in the 12th or later against the Yankees; you might remember the other one. Evan Longoria sure does. Tampa Bay has hit three walkoff homers in the 12th or later against the Yankees, and four in their history against all other teams combined.

Tuesday's game was also the second time in Rays history where they struck out 17 times, scored no more than 2 runs, and won. The other was May 6, 2000, when Steve Trachsel and Pedro Martinez tossed a double complete game at Fenway and Tampa Bay won 1-0 when Dave Martinez singled in the 8th, stole second, and Greg Vaughn singled him in.


They Might Be Giants

Just when you thought two extra-inning walkoffs within 8 minutes of each other were enough, it turns out the baseball gods had a little extra in store for us on Tuesday night. Actually a lot more. Because when those two east-coast games ended shortly after 11 pm, the Giants and Rockies were still only in the bottom of the 4th. Which is actually a pretty good pace considering the time difference. The part we didn't know then was that we're only a quarter of the way through the game.

By the time we get to the 8th it's tied 4-4 and Garrett Hampson smacks a leadoff homer to welcome Jandel Gustave to the game and give the Rockies the lead. To which Carlos Estevez, who enters for the bottom of the 8th, says, nah, we don't really want to win this game, here Evan Longoria, hit your own solo homer and tie this back up. And then we wait. Two teams that have 170 losses between them and are a combined 58 games back of the Dodgers can't decide who wants to lose more. Because by the time we get to the 11th or 12th, it would have been real easy to just have someone issue four intentional walks and let's go home. This game means nothing to either team, why waste a dozen pitchers and sit here until midnight. So what do we do? Of course we waste a dozen pitchers and sit there until midnight. Both teams have bases loaded in the 11th and can't be bothered to score. Mike Yastrzemski reaches on a leadoff error in the 12th and doesn't score. The 14th and 15th breeze by on 12 batters. Finally Dereck Rodriguez puts this out of its misery in the 16th by giving up singles to Hampson and Nolan Arenado, and then on the next pitch, a 3-run homer to Charlie Blackmon. That tied for the latest home run by inning in Rockies history; Arenado himself hit one at Dodger Stadium on September 15, 2015, with 1 out in the 16th. No player for any team had hit a 3- or 4-run bomb that late in a road game since the infamous Orioles/Red Sox game at Fenway on May 6, 2012, where Chris Davis got the win and Darnell McDonald got the loss by serving up said homer to Adam Jones in the 17th.

Blackmon's homer was also the second-latest (by inning) ever allowed by the Giants in their 127-season history. Doug Clarey of the Cardinals hit one at Candlestick on April 28, 1976, with 2 outs in the 16th (as opposed to Blackmon's 1). Hampson, who had also homered way back in the 1st, became the second Rockies batter with 2 homers and 3 runs scored in a game in San Francisco; Ryan Spilborghs did that in a 5-1 win on May 2, 2009.

And speaking of hitting homers earlier in the game, Madison Bumgarner had one of those early Giants runs with his first dinger of the season (though he already owns the Giants' career mark for homers by a pitcher). It was the third time he's allowed 3 homers on the mound but also hit one at the plate; all other Giants pitchers have done that four times combined. And the 16-inning game at "Oracle Park" was the third one played in the building this season-- matching the total number of 16-inning affairs it saw during the 19 seasons it was named other things.



Hey Nineteen

Often, late in the evening, the west-coast announcers will give you the "out-of-town scoreboard" and pronounce that this game you're watching/listening to is the last one going on in the majors for the night. Oh but not on Tuesday. There was a different kind of scoreboard-watching going on, not to see who was winning, but whether anyone was going to win. Because while that 16-inning game was plodding along in San Francisco, it had-- of all things-- competition from the state next door. In Phoenix, the Cardinals-- who did still have something to play for-- were stuck in an even sloggier slog with the Diamondbacks. Dexter Fowler led off the game with a solo home run, just the second one the Cardinals had ever hit at Chase Field. Rafael Furcal took Joe Saunders deep on May 7, 2012. And then nothing. In fact Jack Flaherty had us deep into no-hitter watch until the 7th when Eduardo Escobar shot a ground ball up the line that actually hit the first-base bag (that's why they're in fair territory!) and deflected away from Paul Goldschmidt for Arizona's only hit off Flaherty, who would leave after that inning having also struck out 11. He also had a game last June in Milwaukee where he allowed 1 hit, fanned 11, and didn't get a win; the only other Cardinals pitcher in the live-ball era to pull that off was Alan Benes at Atlanta on May 16, 1997. And the only others for any team to do it twice are Nolan Ryan and Justin Verlander.

Why didn't Flaherty get the win, you ask? Well, that's because Ildemaro Vargas appears in the 9th and hits the first game-tying, pinch-hit homer for the D'backs in the bottom of the 9th since Jake Lamb against the Giants on September 9, 2016. That makes it 1-1 (the Cardinals still haven't scored since Fowler's leadoff) and here we go again.

When the Padres game ends at 10:10, both the Giants and D'backs games are in the 11th inning and the race is on to see which one will end first (or last, if you're into that kind of thing). At 10:47-- with the Giants still in T12-- we have a potential breakthrough in the 13th when Paul Goldschmidt connects for the first extra-inning homer ever hit by the Cardinals at Chase Field. Their only one against Arizona at home was a walkoff by Jhonny Peralta on May 25, 2015.

Ah, but that would be too easy. Now trailing 2-1, Nick Ahmed proceeds to lead off the bottom of the 13th with a triple, the latest one by inning in Diamondbacks history. Their previous record-holder had been Didi Gregorius, who hit one in the top of the 12th, 6 years earlier to the day. Ahmed scores on a Caleb Joseph single and here we are again. At 11:12 the teams have traded runs in the 13th (the Giants are now in the 13th) and both games play on.

Both teams have baserunners in both the 14th and 15th, but two are with 2 outs, one gets caught stealing, and one gets erased on a double play. By 12:10 both games have started the bottom of the 16th, with the Rockies having already homered in their half in San Francisco; they would get their 3 outs within 6 minutes to bring an end to our scoreboard-watching. But it sure looked like it was gonna be close when Vargas led off the 16th for Arizona with a double. But no. Two more baserunners for each team in the 17th and no. At 1:06 am the scoreboard at Chase Field is forced to display a 19th inning for the first time ever. And finally, very similar to the other game, back-to-back singles in the bottom of that inning create another sense of hope. Until Robbie Ray is sent to the plate, one pitcher pinch-hitting for another, and whiffs for the second out of the inning. Ray at the time was the 30th player used by Arizona in the game, tying the all-time record (which, at least for now, can never be broken with the roster limit dropping to 28 next season), and the 14th pinch-hitter for both teams in the game. Because the baseball gods find ways of doing this, the last game to have 14 pinch hitters was a 16-inning affair in San Francisco. And not the one that just finished an hour ago (it "only" had 13). This one was against the Dodgers on September 28, 1996.

So just when those two leadoff singles are still stuck on first and second with two strikeouts, we get a fascinating decision from the Cardinals dugout. Maybe, like we suggested with the other game, there is just an intent to let somebody score so we can go home, especially when there's an afternoon game on Wednesday, but again, the Cardinals are still fighting for the NL Central title and want the win. So only Mike Shildt knows for sure why they intentionally walked Christian Walker to get to Ildemaro Vargas who hit that tying homer in the 9th and the double in the 16th. MLB had not seen an intentional walk in the 19th or later with first base occupied since the Expos passed Dave Winfield on May 21, 1977.

But whatever. Vargas jumped on the first pitch he saw from John Brebbia and blooped a single to left for the walkoff. It was the latest walkoff single for any team since Willie Randolph, then of the Brewers, also hit one with 2 outs in the 19th against the White Sox on May 1, 1991. In Cardinals history (1882), they had never gotten walked off in the 19th or later; all their other games to go that many innings were either at home or ended in victories. And Vargas? Well, he's the first D'backs batter with a tying hit in the 9th and a walkoff hit in extras since Aaron Hill did it against Baltimore on August 14, 2013. And that walkoff was actually his fourth hit of the game, counting a wasted single in the 11th, joining Quinton McCracken (July 18, 2005, at Florida) as the only Arizona hitters to have 4 hits in a game they didn't start.

Needless to say, the game-ending time of 1:33 am was also the latest in Arizona history. Suddenly they're probably glad they don't observe Daylight-Saving Time.


It's Only 12 In Canadian Innings

Speaking of Arizona being the last game going anywhere in the country, that was the expected outcome on Monday when the entire MLB slate consisted of five games, and four of them were east-coast 7:00 starts. The Diamondbacks would only be in the 2nd inning or so when all those games ended, say between 9:45 and 10:30, creating a very unusual scoreboard-watching experience. OR the Blue Jays could blow a 5-run lead and hang around until 12:30. Mm, yeah, we'll go with that one.

Toronto held a 6-3 lead going to the 5th, but Clay Buchholz might have thrown three pitches too many by this point. Because the second one of the inning got taken for a homer by Jonathan Villar, and the very next one did likewise off the bat of Austin Hays. Buchholz gets pulled after walking Trey Mancini, who then scores when Rio Ruiz homers to flip the lead to 7-6. That also made this game the first one in major-league history where both starters (Buchholz and Chandler Shepherd) gave up 6 runs, 3 homers, hit a batter, and didn't make it through the 5th inning.

Cavan Biggio homered to re-tie the game in the 7th; by game's end he would also draw 3 walks. He also had a homer and 3 walks on July 27 against the Rays, joining Josh Donaldson (2017) and John Olerud (1993) as the only Jays batters to do it twice in a season. Villar and Hays would hit back-to-back RBI singles in the 8th to put the O's back on top 9-7. And naturally that younger generation that we discussed last week comes through again, with Biggio's sac fly and Vlad Guerrero's 2-out RBI single bringing us back to 9-9. After 9. Once again, two teams that have (so far) combined for 198 losses can't seem to agree on who wants to lose this one more.

To the 12th, where Chris Davis-- who hasn't been heard from much this season-- hits the Orioles' latest-ever homer in Toronto (either stadium), breaking Adam Jones' mark from July 31, 2016, by one out. And proving why these teams have 198 losses, Guerrero pokes a grounder to Ruiz at third to start the bottom of the 12th, and he bounces the throw down the right-field line. Rowdy Tellez then becomes the fourth Jays batter to be hit by a pitch, their most in a game since September 7, 2011, against the Red Sox. And sure enough, it is Davis versus Davis as Jonathan pokes a sac fly to score Guerrero and make this thing 10-10. The Jays had hit only one other tying (not go-ahead) sac fly in extra innings in their history, by Alan Ashby against the Tigers on July 31, 1978.

Off we go to the 15th-- the Diamondbacks game is now somewhere around the bottom of the 7th-- where finally, mercifully, the Orioles have left Ryan Eades out for a third inning of work. He manages to get two outs and then two strikes on Anthony Alford, but Eades' 37th pitch of the night goes just over the wall in left-center for the latest (by inning) walkoff homer in Blue Jays history. The previous record-holder had been Otto Velez, who-- in that same 1978 game where Ashby tied it in the 10th-- walked off with 1 out in the 14th. The last one the Orioles allowed in the 15th or later was to George Brett on May 28, 1979, to lead off the 16th. Alford's dinger was also the 10th of the game, five by each team, making Monday the second time in SkyDome/Rogers history that both teams went deep five times. The other was less than a year after it opened, an 11-7 win over the Tigers on May 6, 1990.

Hays, who managed to strike out in the 11th, 13th, and 15th, would end the game with a combination of fascinating lines. He had 2 homers, drove in 5, stole a base, yet struck out 4 times and his team lost. Four strikeouts and 5 RBIs has been done by only four players, half of them named Austin and half of them this season in Toronto. The Padres' Mr. Hedges did it back on May 25; the others are Hank Blalock of the Rangers in 2013 and Arizona's Devon White in 1998. Hays is the fifth player in MLB history with 2 HR, 5 RBI, and a stolen base in a loss; Derek Dietrich did that for the Reds in a 12-11 loss on May 3. The others on that list are Gary Sheffield (1995), Barry Bonds (1992), and Phillies HOF'er Chuck Klein (1933).

And if the Orioles scoring 10 runs and losing sounds familiar, it's because they had just done it five days earlier-- against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards! It's the first time the franchise has had two such losses to the same opponent in a season since they played the 1942 Senators.



Thanks to those two opening games in Japan, the 2019 regular season lasted 193 days 13 hours 36 minutes, the longest in the Wild Card era (which is, for now, as far back as we've tracked). So now October is upon us and it's time for the postseason to take us home. Seems so long we've been waiting. Intermission!



Around The Globe

As for those 1942 Senators, they had their own signoff a couple decades later when Calvin Griffith moved the team to Minneapolis and it was replaced with a new Senators franchise. The second Senators would also have a sendoff-- and not a terribly great one-- in 1971 when they up and left for the Metroplex and became the Texas Rangers. And after a quarter-century at their current stadium in Arlington, the bulding got its final sendoff on Sunday as the team prepares to move to a new facility next door in 2020.

The Yankees got the honor of being the final team to occupy the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Park, as it's currently named. Twenty-five years ago, the stadium's first home run was hit by Dave Nilsson of the Brewers, but it appeared the Yankees were having a little competition of their own to see who could hit its last. On Friday they crushed six of the things-- the recently-returned Giancarlo Stanton in the 1st, Cameron Maybin in the 2nd, Brett Gardner in the 4th, Gio Urshela and Mike Ford in the 6th, and Austin Romine in the 8th-- en route to a 14-7 thumping. Only three visiting teams ever hit 6 homers in a game there, and the Yankees are two of them. They also did it in an 8-4 win on July 20, 2005, followed by the Tigers the next April. Five of those six homer-hitters also had another hit elsewhere in the game; the last road game where five different Yankees had 2 hits including a homer was May 12, 2002, at the Metrodome.

Maybin and Ford batted 8th and 9th and each had their own little nuggets. Maybin ended up with 3 hits and 4 runs scored (he also walked once), the first Yankee to do that from either the 8- or 9-hole in a road game since Scott Brosius at the very same stadium some two decades earlier (August 23, 1999). And Maybin scored those runs largely because Ford drove him in a bunch of times; Ford's other hit was a double, making him just the third Yankees #9 batter ever to have 2 extra-base hits, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBIs in a game. Juan Rivera did it 16 years earlier to the day, and our buddy Scott Brosius also did that in the 1999 season, this time in a September 30 game at Baltimore.

And while leadoff batter DJ LeMahieu was left out of the homer parade, he did collect 3 hits and 3 RBIs; combined with Stanton batting right below him, it was the first time the Yankees' 1- and 2-hitters had both done that in the same game since Steve Sax and Luis Polonia against the Tigers on July 5, 1989.

The Rangers would bounce back to win their final two games at the stadium, with Saturday's game due in large part to the early wildness of Luis Severino. The Yankees starter walked Shin-Soo Choo to start the game, then Danny Santana with 2 outs. They pulled off a double steal before Rougned Odor scored them both. A walk to Scott Heineman led to another double steal. Although Severino also worked around 2 errors, Santana walked and stole another base in the 3rd before Severino finally got taken out in the 4th. That's five stolen bases, and while they're not entirely on either the pitcher or the catcher, Sevy is the first Yankees starter to allow 5 steals in 3 innings or less since Ted Lilly in Seattle on May 18, 2001. He's also the first pitcher for any team to allow 5 steals while giving up only 1 hit (in order to steal, you must get baserunners somehow) since Dan Miceli of the Pirates did it on September 11, 1995-- in relief, and got a save!

Odor would go on to hit a grand slam off Nestor Cortes as the Rangers sealed things with a 6-run 6th. Counting that 1st-inning double, that gave him 6 RBIs, the first Rangers batter to do that against the Yankees since J.P. Arencibia on July 29, 2014. Arencibia, in that game, was also the last Rangers batter to hit a grand slam against the Yankees; the others to do it in Globe Life history were Marlon Byrd (2008) and Rusty Greer (1996). And it turns out Danny Santana also had a 6-RBI game that included a grand slam back on July 25 in Oakland; together they are the first Rangers teammates to do it in the same season since Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro in 1999.

Didi Gregorius did try to make things interesting with a bases-loaded double in the 9th that made the final margin 9-4. No Yankees batter had connected for a 3-run double when down to the team's final out since Willie Randolph against Toronto on September 17, 1980. And Randolph's at least tied the game; we were unable to find any such doubles in Yankees history when trailing by 8 runs or more.


Kingless In Seattle

It's hard to say whether Felix Hernandez will turn up with another team in 2020, but the faithful in Seattle certainly gave him a sendoff fit for a king on Thursday as Felix plays out the final year of his 7-year, $175 million contract. Unfortunately his final game in a Mariners uniform ended up looking a lot like many other games this season, a 3-1 Mariners loss. And also like many of the others, it's not because Felix pitched particularly badly, it's that the Mariners offense can't seem to get going when he's on the mound. (Or when anyone else is on the mound, for that matter.)

Matt Chapman's 2-run homer in the 2nd inning would prove to be all the offense the Athletics would need as Sean Manaea and friends held Seattle to just 4 hits. Chapman may not only become the answer to the trivia question as the last player to homer off King Felix, it turns out he had never hit one off Hernandez before. And so a total of 185 different batters went yard against Felix in his 15-year Mariners career, the most ever against any M's pitcher. Jamie Moyer, who holds the MLB overall record by giving up homers to 332 different batters, is second on the Mariners list with 159 different dinger-hitters.

As mentioned, the Mariners managed just 4 hits and 0 walks, sending Felix's season record to a dismal 1-8. Only five other Mariners pitchers have ended a year at that level or lower, and only Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-10 in 2010) did it with all the decisions coming in starts. Those to do it with relief appearances included are Danny Farquhar in 2015, Bobby Ayala in 1998, Milt Wilcox in 1986, and Mike Parrott in 1980.

And in this strange 2019 season, between record numbers of home runs and strikeouts and pitching changes and so forth, the Mariners came out on top of a number we'd tracked the entire year. Early in the season we took the stance that baseball doesn't need more offense, it needs better distribution of offense. Because for every Twins and Astros and Yankees team that was throwing up 15 runs and 6 homers every game, there were plenty of teams who struggled to get to 3 and 4 singles and kept us on no-hitter watch into the 5th or 6th seemingly every night. Thursday's game was the 27th time this season that the Mariners had been held to 4 or fewer hits in a game. They held the top spot for one day before the Blue Jays matched them on Friday, and both of them (of course) ended the season in a tie. The Diamondbacks came in third with 24 such games, followed by the Indians and Marlins at 23. At the opposite end? The Yankees with just 6 such games out of 162.

If only Felix had pitched on Friday instead, when the Mariners got some glimmer of good news. He still wouldn't have gotten the win, but at least the team got its final "sendoff" of the year when J.P. Crawford connected for a walkoff double, the Mariners' third ever against Oakland. Edgar Martinez (1996) and Alvin Davis (1984) had the others, and Crawford's hit came after Matt Olson had taken the lead back with a 2-run homer. The A's have hit only four lead-flipping homers in the 7th or later in Seattle, and three of them are by "Matt"s: Olson, Joyce in 2017, and Stairs in 1997. The odd man out is Danny Tartabull in 1995.

Alas on Saturday that Mariners offense would be right back in "stall" mode, mustering just 6 hits, all of them singles. That doesn't earn them another entry on our 4-hit chart above, but when Ramon Laureano hit a solo homer in the 3rd, the A's also probably didn't expect that would be all they'd need. The only other time Oakland beat Seattle 1-0 on a solo homer was June 25, 2012, by Seth Smith. However, the aforementioned Matt Chapman had a similar solo homer for a 1-0 win against Boston back in the first week of the season. In franchise history (1901), it's the first season where they've done it twice.


Marty Party

We-- and almost every Reds fan on the planet-- were hoping for some kind of neat sendoff for broadcaster Marty Brennaman, who sailed into retirement this week after 46 years in the booth. Like Vin Scully and others before him, the final series was filled with tributes, including a meet-and-greet with fans on the field at GABP after Thursday's afternoon finale. Unfortunately, the series didn't feature a single win in which Marty got one last chance to say "and this one belongs to the Reds". (If you have not seen Marty's 8-minute signoff, ending with the simple, unplanned, yet somehow powerful line "That's all I got", here's the video.)

So we're going to have to use Friday's game in Pittsburgh to get our Reds sendoff in, and the problem there is that, being a road game, that means it's another loss. This one hung onto a 4-4 score after Kevin Newman homered in the 5th and then Jose Peraza tried to double off Jacob Stallings on a line drive, but failed and threw the ball to the dugout instead (scoring Kevin Kramer who was on third). Michael Lorenzen, who started the game in center, pulled another Michael Lorenzen Special by coming to the mound to pitch in the 7th, recording a go-ahead RBI single in the 8th, and then going back to center after finishing two innings and potentially leaving with both the win and the go-ahead RBI. He becqame the first player for any team to start a game in center, go to the mound to pitch, and then go back to center, since current Nationals manager Davey Martinez did it on July 20, 1980.

Unfortunately Lorenzen didn't get that win or that game-winning RBI. He could only stand out in center and watch as Raisel Iglesias gave up a leadoff single, secured two infield groundouts, but then hung a 2-run walkoff homer to Newman for the 6-5 Pirates win. It being Newman's second homer of the day, he became the first Pirates batter with 2 dingers and 5 RBIs since Andrew McCutchen did it against Washington on August 1, 2009. He's also the first Pirates batter whose second homer of the game was a walkoff since Garrett Jones did that against the Giants, 2 weeks prior to McCutchen. And the last time the Pirates hit a walkoff homer against the Reds when trailing? That's a grand slam by Bill Virdon off Al Worthington on September 1, 1963. Not even Marty Brennaman called that one.


To Err Is Human

The sendoffs weren't always pretty this week, but you could say a couple of them came gift-wrapped. The Angels jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Houston on Thursday before Jack Mayfield's homer tied things in the 5th and essentially knocked Jaime Barria out of the game. Thanks to our wonderful new pitch-count overlords, Astros starter Wade Miley is also out of the game already, meaning we get the thrill of 13 more relief pitchers between the two teams, even though none of them gave up more than 1 hit. (Please make it stop.) And unfortunately none of those hits were homers. meaning we got all the way to the 11th before either team came close to threatening again. Jose Rodriguez-- reliever number 14-- did give up 3 hits and load the bases, but got out of it. Number 15, Trevor Cahill, gave up a leadoff double and a pair of 2-out walks to load the bases in the 12th but Jake Marisnick struck out. Finally, well, if the offense can't do it, the defense will. Against reliever number 16, the Astros' Joe Biagini, Kaleb Cowart works a leadoff walk, steals second, goes to third on a groundout, and then Kyle Tucker boots what should have been an inning-ending roller right to first base. Cowart scores the walkoff and the Astros have to wait another day to clinch home-field advantage (which they eventually did).

The last time the Angels walked off against the Astros in extra innings was June 24, 2015, on a Taylor Featherston single in the 13th (scoring Erick Aybar). But their last extra-inning error-off, against any team, was back on May 19, 1998, when Cecil Fielder grounded one to Oakland 3B (and current Mariners broadcaster) Mike Blowers, he booted it, and Darin Erstad scored to win it.

The win also spoiled a 5-hit day for Josh Reddick, who just had another 5-hit game back on September 15 in Kansas City. He became the first player in Astros history to have two 5-hit games in the same season, and the first to have 5 hits in a loss since George Springer did it in Chicago on June 10, 2015. Those two players-- Reddick on Thursday and Springer in 2015-- are also the only players in the live-ball era, for any team, to have 5 hits and a stolen base in a game, but neither score a run themselves nor drive one in. And the Astros, as happens in extra-inning games, ended up with 12 hits but only scored 3 runs, the second time this year they've pulled that off. The other game was also in Anaheim, on July 16; it's the first time they've done it twice in the same road stadium since 1979 at Chavez Ravine.


Phifteen Innings Of Phame

So then on to Friday in Philadelphia, where the only thing left to play for is a winning season, and even that requires the Phillies to sweep their weekend series. Fortunately it's against the 103-loss Marlins, so there's a decent chance. And here we are again, with Vince Velasquez giving up 4 early runs, Pablo Lopez giving them right back, Bryce Harper tying things with a sac fly in the 5th, both "starters" being gone already, and then a parade of 17 more relief pitchers. The Marlins got a runner to third in the 10th, and the 11th, and the 12th, but all were with 2 outs and nobody broke through. Meanwhile, nine different Marlins pitchers are basically throwing an inning at a time, combining for a total of just 3 hits and 3 walks. And of course no runs.

That streak is finally broken when the Marlins maybe finally run out of pitchers and have to send Adam Conley back out for another inning (the 15th). He hits Rhys Hoskins, walks Phil Gosselin, and then Adam Haseley hits a little roller to short. Miguel Rojas does all the mechanics right, gets in position to come up firing to the plate to cut down that winning run... but forgets the baseball. Hoskins scores easily and the Marlins have committed the second "error-off" in team history. On September 17, 2006, Marcus Giles of the Braves singled to left, and Brayan Peña would have been held up until Josh Willingham misplayed it and Peña scored the winning run on an E7.

Until that 15th inning, Rojas had been the star of the game for the Marlins, collecting 4 hits and a hit-by-pitch. He still ended up being the team's first batter to do that since Dan Uggla on April 12, 2010 (also in a loss). Starlin Castro, batting right behind him, tallied three hits and also got plunked; they are the third set of Marlins teammates to do that in the same game. Jorge Cantu and Cody Ross did it in the famous 18-17 walkoff game at Coors Field on July 4, 2008; and the original pair was Hanley Ramirez and Mike Jacobs in 2007. Jacobs, also in 2007, is the only other Marlins batter besides Rojas to have 4 hits in a loss in Philadelphia (at either stadium).

Friday's game was the third time this year the Phillies had played 15 or more innings in a game, their most in a season since 1980. This year-- in which they did not quite end up with that winning season after losing the finale on Sunday-- ended just a bit differently than that one.


Back On Holliday

And no one finished out the 2019 season quite the way the Rockies did. After that 3-run homer by Charlie Blackmon in the 16th on Tuesday, they returned home to host the Brewers in the final series. Those same Brewers, while guaranteed a playoff spot, are still chasing down the Cardinals for a potential NL Central title, and/or the Nationals to be able to host the Wild Card game on Tuesday. They need at least two wins and a little help from those other teams. Mm, yeah, about that.

The fact that the Brewers lost all three games ends up not mattering too much, considering the Nationals swept the final interleague series of the year with Cleveland to earn the hosting role on Tuesday. But there was still a chance to catch the Cardinals. And the Saturday and Sunday games in Denver certainly looked like they were going to be Brewers wins, at least if you turned them off in the 7th inning.

Holding a 2-0 lead in Saturday's game, the Brewers gave the ball to Drew Pomeranz, who threw it toward Ian Desmond, who then gave it to a fan in center field in the form of a solo home run. It's still only 2-1 and the always-reliable Josh Hader awaits for the 9th. He gets two outs before pinch hitter (and former Hartford Yard Goat) Sam Hilliard squeaks a pitch just over the left-field wall for a blown save and a 2-2 tie. That was only the second tying or go-ahead pinch-hit homer in Rockies history when the team was down to its final out; Larry Walker hit the other off Cincinnati's Scott Williamson on July 17, 1999.

Unlike a bunch of other games you've read about, the Brewers would lose the game almost as quickly as they lost the lead. Trevor Story led off the bottom of the 10th, now facing Matt Albers, and six pitches later, Story put a "The End" on this one with his 35th homer of the year and second walkoff (May 24 vs Orioles). Only five Rockies batters have hit two walkoff homers in a season; the others are Dante Bichette (1996), Larry Walker (2001), Jason Giambi (2010), and Chris Iannetta (also 2010). Iannetta also owns the only other walkoff homer in Rox history against the Brewers; he hit that off David Weathers on September 29, 2009. And Saturday was the first game in Rockies history where they homered in the 8th, 9th, and 10th innings (or any extra frame for that matter).

Entering the season's final day, we actually still didn't know whether it would be the final day. A Brewers win and Cardinals loss would have created an exact tie for the NL Central and forced a Game 163 at Busch Stadium on Monday. And this is the exact scenario for which MLB changed the schedule a few years ago such that every game starts at the same time. Teams can't scoreboard-watch, realize they backed into or out of a playoff spot, and then scratch players (especially pitchers) at the last minute to save them for later in the week. As it turns out, the Cardinals blew away the Cubs early on Sunday and the Brewers knew they were destined for Washington anyway. So maybe it doesn't matter that they let another 3-0 lead slip away, starting with three singles in the 7th, a leadoff homer by Dom Nuñez in the 8th, and then an error, a walk, and an RBI single in the 9th. Off we go to extras again.

The Brewers almost took the lead back in the 11th, but Ben Gamel was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch. By the time we reach the 13th, the Mets have already walked off in their game and we are watching the 2,429th and final contest of the 2019 regular season. (We lost one on Friday when both halves of a White Sox/Tigers doubleheader got rained out.) It will be the second time that a regular season ends in Denver. What we don't know yet is how it will end. And what goes around comes around. Hilliard draws a leadoff walk. Yonathan Daza drops down a sac bunt, which catcher Jacob Nottingham fields and fires to first... where nobody is covering. Hilliard scampers to third, and after an obviously-helpful mound visit, Jake Faria uncorks a wild pitch of his own, and the Rockies have their first back-to-back extra-inning walkoffs against the same team since beating the Rays on June 21 and 22, 2002. It's their second-ever "bounce-off" victory in extra innings, after Houston's Aneury Rodriguez bounced home Troy Tulowitzki on August 24, 2011. The Angels hadn't committed one since April 30, 2011, when Fernando Rodney brought home Matt Joyce of the Rays.

And Sunday was Colorado's fourth-ever walkoff win in a regular-season finale. They beat the Giants in both 1998 (Neifi Perez homer) and 1999 (Edgard Clemente sac fly). And what goes around comes around. Even though the Cardinals had already won, the Rockies sort of denied Milwaukee a chance at a Game 163 with the win. Colorado's other season-finale walkoff-- and the other time a regular season ended in Denver-- was the Rockies' own Game 163, in 2007 to determine the (then-only) NL Wild Card between them and the Padres. You may know it as "the one where Matt Holliday still hasn't touched the plate". Maybe by next March he finally will.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Trey Mancini, Tuesday: Fourth 5-hit game by an Orioles batter this season. Most for team since 1974 (Mark Belander, Rich Coggins, Tommy Davis twice).

⚾ Raimel Tapia, Friday: Became first batter in Rockies history to hit two pinch-hit grand slams (his other was July 20, 2018, in Arizona).

⚾ Matt Thaiss, Sunday: First Angels batter with 3 extra-base hits and 4 RBIs in a home loss since Todd Greene against Chicago, July 31, 1997.

⚾ Dinelson Lamet, Wednesday: First Padres pitcher to strike out 10+ batters in consecutive outings since Mat Latos in September 2010. Padres had gone the longest of any team without having someone do it.

⚾ John Hicks, Saturday: First visiting player ever to hit a lead-flipping, pinch-hit homer in the 9th inning at current White Sox stadium. Last at the old Comiskey was the Twins' Gary Gaetti on September 10, 1988.

⚾ Trea Turner, Tuesday: First player in Nationals history to have 2 extra-base hits in both games of a doubleheader. Last to do it for the Expos was Rondell White at Coors on August 13, 1999.

⚾ Curtis Granderson, Thursday: Second go-ahead pinch-hit homer the Marlins have hit in the 9th inning in New York. Wes Helms took Scott Schoeneweis deep in the final game at Shea Stadium, September 28, 2008.

⚾ Giants, Sat-Sun: First team since at least 1900 to be shut out by 9 runs or more in both of their last two games of a season.

⚾ Jorge Alfaro & Amed Rosario, Monday: First game where opposing teams traded grand slams in the top and bottom of the same inning since the Tigers (Marcus Thames) and White Sox (Dewayne Wise) did it on September 14, 2008.

⚾ Giants, Friday: First team to score 2 or fewer runs while stranding 17 or more runners in a 9-inning game since the Cardinals squandered 11 walks against the Phillies on September 14, 1950.

⚾ Tommy Edman, Saturday: First Cardinals batter with a triple, a hit-by-pitch, and 3 RBI in a game since Shawon Dunston vs Expos, May 1, 1999.

⚾ Jose Ramirez, Tuesday: Second Indians batter ever to have a 7-RBI game against the White Sox. Ben Chapman did it at the original Comiskey Park on May 14, 1939.

⚾ Justin Verlander, Saturday: With CC Sabathia on April 30, second season in MLB history where two pitchers have joined the 3,000-strikeout club. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton got theirs 11 days apart in 1981.

⚾ Tucker Barnhart, Wednesday: First Reds batter with 2 XBH and 2 walks, but 0 runs scored, in a home game since Joe Morgan vs Cardinals, August 24, 1976.

⚾ Spencer Turnbull, Sunday: First pitcher in Tigers history to finish a season with 3 or fewer wins against 17 or more losses. Last for any team was Jim Abbott of the Angels in 1996 (2-18).

⚾ Gabriel Ynoa & David Hess: First pair of pitching teammates to each go 1-10 or worse in the same season since Jack Nabors & Tom Sheehan of the 1916 Athletics.

New Power Generation

A generation ago the last names were Bonds and Boone and Alomar and Griffey. But in the last couple years, a whole new crop of youngsters-- whose fathers and/or grandfathers were also MLB stars-- has emerged in your boxscores and news feeds, particularly this past week. So in a throwback to Cecil Fielder and "Prince", let's party like it's 1983.


Upstairs At Frederick's

Urban architect Frederick Law Olmsted is known for many more-famous projects (Central Park, Biltmore Estate, Belle Isle in Detroit, Stanford University), but he also laid out "The Fenway", the mile-long thoroughfare through Boston's Back Bay from which the neighborhood's ballpark took its name. He certainly didn't envision that nowadays, millions more people would know the stadium than the neighborhood, the subway station, and certainly the road. (Go ahead, put it in Wikipedia, see which one you get.) All this is a long way of saying that a "Yaz" appeared at "Fenway" this week, and we don't mean the '80s band was playing a free concert in the park.

We don't have a way of checking this, but we're guessing a lot more folks than usual were actually in their seats for the first pitch on Tuesday, instead of wandering around, waiting in the beer line, visiting the team store, and then in the 2nd or 3rd inning, insisting on climbing over, or forcing to relocate, those of us who were in the seats on time. (Sorry, end rant.) Because by now you know that first pitch on Tuesday was to Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Carl, as the Giants made an unusual interleague visit to Boston. And sure enough, Nate Eovaldi's fifth pitch would find the seats for a home run. Except that was by Brandon Belt, after Mike struck out. Those wanting history would have to wait a couple more at-bats, until the 4th inning, when Mike did take the fifth pitch of an at-bat to center field for his 20th homer of the season. Carl's last homer at Fenway Park was off Moose Haas of the Brewers on July 31, 1983; and his last game with both a homer and a double was 22 days before that against the Angels.

For Mike that double would be a while. Because after the Red Sox scored 3 in the 6th, the next run would also be a while. Not in the 10th. Not in the 11th. Both teams ground into double plays in the 12th to erase a potential go-ahead run. Brandon Crawford finally comes through with an RBI double in the 13th, the Giants' first-ever go-ahead two-bagger that late in an interleague game. Unfortunately, he only got credit for a two-bagger because he overslid third after initially making it safely. Which would be bad when the next batter, Donovan Solano, singled. And even worse when the Giants somehow feel the need to use four pitchers just in the 13th, and the last one, Kyle Barraclough, coughs up a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. The Giants had not issued a tying bases-loaded walk in extra innings since September 16, 1929, by Freddie Fitzsimmons in the 11th inning at St Louis.

That walk sent us to the 14th, when Mike finally got his long-awaited double, but he didn't score. It was Solano's double in the 15th that finally wound up as the winning run when Alex Dickerson hit the third-latest sac fly in Giants history by inning; J.T. Snow had a walkoff in the 15th in 1999, and Daryl Spencer hit one in the 17th at Wrigley Field on May 2, 1956. For both teams it was their second win/loss of 15+ innings in an interleague game. That J.T. Snow walkoff, on June 4, 1999, against Oakland, was the other win for the Giants. And the other loss by the Sawx?, well, Max Muncy may be able to tell you something about that one.

The Giants rolled to an 11-3 win on Wednesday, with the younger Yaz going an uneventful 1-for-4 plus a leadoff walk. The story in this one would be Jeff Samardzija, staked to a 4-0 lead by the 3rd inning, who took a no-hitter into the 6th before Rafael Devers finally broke through with his 30th homer of the year. Devers already had 50 doubles to go with those dingers. And so did Xander Bogaerts, such that the homer not only got us out of a no-hitter scare, it created the first pair of teammates in MLB history with 30 homers and 50 doubles in the same season.

That would, however, basically be the highlight for the Red Sox who lost the game 11-3. It was the Giants' largest victory margin in an American League stadium since a 15-3 win in Detroit on July 2, 2011. Stephen Vogt, assuming the role of Designated Hitter under AL rules, became the first Giants DH ever to drive in 4 runs in a game, leaving the Pirates and Nationals as the only franchises never to have a DH do it. He was also the first Giants batter to have a 4-RBI game in Boston since that city had its own National League team for the Giants to contend with. Hank Thompson drove in 4 in an 11-10 loss at Braves Field on August 11, 1952.

The Sawx escaped with a 5-4 win in Thursday's getaway game, and this time Mike Yastrzemski found another way to send us back to July 1983. This time Mike didn't start as Joey Rickard and Austin Slater got nods in the outfield. Instead he showed up as a pinch hitter in the 8th after Slater went 0-for-3 and the Red Sox had switched to right-handed reliever Marcus Walden. The left-handed Mike promptly laced a first-pitch single to left, once again the first pinch hit by a Yastrzemski at Fenway since Carl had a double against Luis Sanchez of the Angels on July 10, 1983.

Thursday's 9th inning was not without its perils, though, as the first three batters all reached before Brandon Workman got two strikeouts to keep things at 5-3. He then walked Kevin Pillar, forcing the game to 5-4, before also fanning Longoria-- who became the first Giants batter with a game-ending strikeout with the bases loaded and the team down by 1 since Eliezer Alfonzo did it against Pittsburgh on June 9, 2006. That preserved the win for Eduardo Rodriguez, who was the second Red Sox pitcher ever to strike out 10 Giants batters in a game. The other was Smoky Joe Wood in Game 1 of the 1912 World Series. And even Carl Yastrzemski didn't play in that one.


Big-gio Wheel

We don't know if Craig Biggio ever had a Big Wheel plastic tricycle; he might have been a few years too old by the time they were nationally popular in the late 1970s. We're also pretty sure that son Cavan didn't; the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001 when he was 6. But as of this week, both Craig and Cavan share one other kind of cycle, and they're one of only two father-son combos who can say that.

Most of your baseball coverage in September focuses on the remaining pennant races, who's going to get home-field advantage, how a team is lining up their pitchers for the postseason, and not so much about a meaningless game between the 49-win Orioles and 59-win Blue Jays. Ah, but that's why they play the games. And why we at Kernels vow to look through all of them every day. Because Cavan began Tuesday's game with a slightly-interesting lead-flipping homer in the 4th inning. The Jays still held that 3-2 advantage when he batted again in the 5th, but Danny Jansen got picked off to end the inning. Cavan thus starts the 6th with a single, and the game now tied again after a Trey Mancini sac fly. Mancini would put the Orioles ahead again in the 7th with an RBI single, giving even more meaning to Cavan's double in the top of the 8th-- and the subsequent run he scored to re-tie the game at 4.

For the hundreds of times a year that someone is "a triple away from the cycle", nobody ever does it, and we really want to smack any announcer who mentions it. In fact Cavan's spot is still five away when Justin Smoak puts the Jays ahead for good with a leadoff homer in the 9th. Then two strikeouts. Danny Jansen singles. Bo Bichette-- speaking of fathers and sons-- works a nine-pitch walk that ends up briging Cavan to the plate after all. And after fouling off three pitches, he amazingly connects for that triple, not only scoring two insurance runs, but completing just the third cycle in Blue Jays history. And if you can name either of the others, you are probably related to them somehow. Jeff Frye did it against Texas on August 17, 2001; and Kelly Gruber had one on April 16, 1989, against the Royals in the final season of Exhibition Stadium.

On the way to scoring some of those deciding runs, Cavan also stole two bases in addition to recording all four possible hit types. Only one other player in the live-ball era (and the stolen-base rules changed frequently before that anyway) has hit for the cycle and stolen two bases in the same game, Charlie Moore of the Brewers on October 1, 1980. And Cavan is the first visiting player ever to hit for the cycle at Camden Yards, which opened in 1992. As mentioned, it's also the first cycle on the road in Blue Jays history, which of course started in 1977. Turns out the Houston Astros franchise also has only one road cycle since 1977-- and that's by dad Craig Biggio on April 8, 2002, in Colorado.

As hinted earlier, Craig and Cavan are the second father/son pair in MLB history to each hit for the cycle, the others being Gary Ward of the Twins on September 18, 1980, and son Daryle for the Pirates on May 26, 2004. But let's see how long that lasts, and which Blue Jays "favorite son" does it next. Because remember Bo Bichette from earlier? Yep, father Dante Bichette also had a cycle at Coors Field, playing for the Rockies on June 10, 1998. And while we haven't had reason to mention Vlad Guerrero Jr. yet, he's on the Jays too. And the Senior Vlad also hit for the cycle once, and also did it in Canada-- September 14, 2003, for the Expos against the Mets.


Acuña Matata

You probably never heard much about the playing career of Ron Acuña. Signed by the Mets as an international free agent in 1999, he got as high as double-A by 2003, did one-year minor-league deals with the Jays and Brewers in '04 and '05, totalled 18 homers in affiliated ball, then returned to play in Venezuela until 2010. That, of course, is in addition to an 8-game stint in 2007 with (OF COURSE!) the Long Island Ducks. Obviously he is listed on scoresheets from back in the day (we actually have 11 of them, in which he went 12-for-40!) as just "Acuña". There was no "Sr." necessary. Ya know, back in the day.

Today there's almost no "Jr." necessary, because when we mention "Acuña" in the past couple years, you know we're talking about his still-21-year-old son who took the baseball world by storm last season. On Thursday the younger version finally reached the 40-homer plateau with a 3rd-inning go-ahead dinger off Aaron Nola of the Phillies. And that means he has 472 left in his MLB career. How do we know? Because only two other players in MLB history have hit 40 homers in their age-21 season or earlier. They're Hall-of-Famers Eddie Mathews and Mel Ott-- both of whom finished their MLB careers with exactly 512 homers.

As for Aaron Nola, he's been a solid cog in the Phillies' rotation for several years now, although in that Thursday game he was the first Phillies pitcher to giv eup 9 hits, 5 runs, and 2 homers to the Braves since Kyle Kendrick did it in July 2013. But Aaron's brother Austin, who's actually 3½ years older, finally found his way to the majors in June, having spent five years bouncing around the Marlins' minor-league system, then finally signing with Seattle as a free agent. And Austin popped up in a couple notes this week too, when the Mariners made a rare trip to Pittsburgh and actually recorded their first-ever shutout there on Tuesday. Austin hit one of three M's homers in the 8-0 win, doubling the number of longballs the team had ever hit at PNC Park, and also added a single and a double. Kyle Seager, in July 2016, is the team's only other player to go single-double-homer in Pittsburgh.

And Thursday's game was finally decided in the 11th inning on a very strange play started by Austin. With Shed Long on third and Omar Narvaez on first, Nola grounded to Kevin Kramer at second. Rather than run into a double play, Narvaez stops and tries to get in a rundown to allow Long to score the go-ahead run (he does). Kramer throws behind Narvaez to retire batter Nola, then ends up running him back to first where catcher Elias Diaz has come up to make the tag. GIDP (4-3)-6-2, no RBI, inning is over but the Mariners take the 6-5 lead and go on to win. Obviously in extra innings, the defense is going to cut down that run at the plate whenever possible. Thus the last "go-ahead double play" that we found in extras was on August 26, 2016, when Ramon Cabrera of the Reds hit a sac fly and the second out only happened because a runner from second got greedy and tried to move up. The last one to happen on your traditional infield grounder was on June 20, 1998, when Paul Molitor of the Twins hit into a standard 6-4-3, and the White Sox were probably well aware they had no chance to gun down the speedy Otis Nixon breaking from third.

By the way, since we're doing this family thing, we learned from Wikipedia that Ronald Acuña's grandfather on his mother's side, Romualdo Blanco, also got as high as double-A in the mid-1970s. He, however, was a pitcher. He never homered (though he did give up 25 of them).

Appropriately enough, the younger Acuña and the younger Yastrzemski would meet each other over the weekend when the Giants traveled to Atlanta. Both batted leadoff on Friday, and both basically were their team's entire offense, although in much different ways. Mike Foltynewicz shut down the San Francisco offense on only 4 hits, but 3 of those were by Yaz, making him the first Giants leadoff batter with 3 hits, including an extra-base knock, in a game where the team got shut out, since Randy Winn against the Astros on April 13, 2006. No Giants leadoff batter had done it in a road game since Bill Madlock in Houston on May 31, 1978. Acuña, meanwhile, erupted for 2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 walks, and 3 runs scored as the Braves rolled to a 6-0 win. It's the fourth time he's had multiples in all those categories while batting leadoff, setting yet another Braves franchise record. Claudell Washington did it three times in 1984-85.


The Power Station

We chose this week's title not just for the "generation" theme, but for the "power" theme as well. Because that lets us segue into a team that seems to do nothing except mash homers. You know the one we mean. The one that just happens to be from the same city as Prince and "the NPG" too.

The Twins added a giant red "Bomba Counter" to their right-field concourse about a month ago when they started a homestand with 240 taters. It has since ticked well past the Yankees' previous single-season record of 267, which even the Yankees have also surpassed in this Year Of The Homer. By the time Tuesday's game with the White Sox rolled around it sat on 287, and jumped to 289 when Ryan LaMarre and Miguel Sano led a 5-run 3rd inning.

Ah, but on this particular day it would actually be the visitors from Chicago who out-"bomba"d the "bomba squad". Zack Collins and Adam Engel went back-to-back to re-tie the game in the 6th, and then it gets interesting. Tim Anderson leads off the 11th with a go-ahead dinger, and all Alex Colome has to do is get three ou-- mm, yeah, about that. Leadoff single, groundout, wild pitch, Mitch Garver sac fly, the Twins' first tying sac fly in the 11th or later since Luis Rivas against Texas on September 20, 2000. Let's try this again. Ryan Cordell, 2-run homer in the 12th, already creating the first road game in franchise history (1901) where the White Sox homered in two different extra innings. Now Jose Ruiz has a 2-run lead and just needs to get three ou-- oh no. The Twins' third base hit of the inning (by Marwin Gonzalez) re-ties the game, and then two more singles set up the bases loaded with 1 out. And Ronald Torreyes receives the gift that doesn't actually hurt, the walkoff hit-by-pitch (or "plunk-off", as we call it). Twins win, 9-8, despite giving up home runs in both the 11th and 12th. The Twins hadn't had one of those in any extra inning since Paul Molitor got plunked by the Royals' Jeff Montgomery on May 1, 1996, and that was in the 10th. In the 12th or later, the franchise hadn't had one since April 27, 1931.

As for the White Sox, they managed to collect 20 hits and lose, which has happened just once before in the past 80 years (July 13, 2008, at Texas). And to go deep in the tops of two different extra innings and still lose? Well, no team's pulled that off in over 30 years; in a game reminiscent of the Astros/Dodgers World Series tilt a couple years ago, the Padres and Expos traded runs in the 11th (Roberto Alomar homered for San Diego), and again in the 12th, and then again in the 13th (Marvell Wynne homer) before Candy Sierra gave up three straight singles and the Expos' 3 runs trumped the Padres' 2. That game, on May 24, 1988, ended up being Sierra's only career MLB decision; he got traded to the Reds 2 weeks later and never made it back.

Nelson Cruz would bump that Twins counter to 293 on Thursday when his second tater of the game sealed an 8-5 win over the Royals in the 7th. It was Cruz's fourth game this season with 2 homers and 5 RBI, setting a new franchise record. Gary Gaetti had three such games in 1986. Cruz had one other game this year with 5 RBI but not 2 homers; his five 5-RBI games also set a franchise record, topping Jason Kubel's four such games in 2009.



Not only was the "New Power Generation" the band, you may have forgotten that they released a song by that name too, sort of as their way of breaking onto the scene. So lay down your funky weapon and join us on the floor. Intermission!



Diamonds & Pearls

We had a handful of other "pearls" of wisdom this week that didn't really fit anywhere else. So let's go around the diamond and recap some other things that would have you drawing diamonds on your scoresheet.

After Cavan Biggio followed in his father's footsteps with a cycle on Tuesday, the Jays and Orioles played a back-and-forth game on Wednesday that saw Baltimore run out to an early 7-1 lead before giving much of it back on a 3-run homer by Teoscar Hernandez in the 7th. Biggio's bases-loaded single makes it 9-6 with 2 outs in the 9th, but still, all Miguel Castro has to do is not give up a grand sl-- oh. Randal Grichuk with the fourth lead-flipping slam in Jays history when down to their final out, joining Justin Smoak (last August), Gregg Zaun (2008), and Dave Winfield (1992). It was the sixth time this season the Orioles had led a game after 8 innings and lost, their most in a season since 2013, and tied with the Cubs for the most in the majors....

...Until Saturday, that is. That's when the Cardinals held a 5-3 lead over the North Siders, who have already decided to pinch-hit for their pitcher in the 4th inning. That gives Ian Happ a little nook in history, hitting the earliest (by inning) pinch-hit homer for the Cubs since Jason Dubois in Houston on April 30, 2005. He ties the game at 5, and the Cubs briefly take the lead when Nico Hoerner goes yard in the 6th. However, then it's Marcell Ozuna's turn to go deep with a 2-run shot, the Cards' first lead-flipping homer in the 7th or later at Wrigley since Stephen Piscotty hit one on August 14, 2016. No worries. The pitcher's spot is up again in the bottom half, so let's send up Tony Kemp, who happens to hit right after Ben Zobrist has doubled to represent the tying run again. Wham, another pinch-hit homer, the first time the Cubs have hit two in the same game since Tyler Houston and Orlando Merced did it against Milwaukee on September 12, 1998. It's the first time since at least 1900 that the Cubs have hit two and both of them have been of the multi-run variety.

So here's that lead we mentioned. 8-7, hand it to Craig Kimbrel to close out the 9th. Which he did. Eventually. If only he could have those first two pitches back. Boom, leadoff, game-tying, save-blowing homer by Yadier Molina. The crowd isn't even done booing yet when, very next pitch, boom, go-ahead homer by Paul DeJong. The Cardinals have hit back-to-back homers to lead off the 9th just one other time in the last decade, on August 20 of last year by Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter against Kenley Jansen. And for Kimbrel, it was the second time this year (July 27 at Milwaukee) that he gave up 2 homers, blew a save with the first one, and took a loss with the second one. Only Carlos Marmol (2013) has done that twice in a season in Cubs history.

And the part everyone wondered about online? Tying and then go-ahead homers on the first two pitches of the 9th? Well, in the available pitch-count data on the great Baseball Reference Play Index, which is complete back to 1988, it's only happened once before. On August 8, 2000, Oakland's Jason Isringhausen served up a gopherball to Bernie Williams and then a walkoff to Dave Winfield on back-to-back pitches at Yankee Stadium.


Power Level 1

The Rays wrapped up the interleague portion of their 2019 schedule with a visit to Dodger Stadium, and wrapped up that series with a come-from-behind extra-inning win on Wednesday. Tommy Pham singled and stole second off Kenley Jansen in the 9th, eventually scoring on a single by Ji-Man Choi. In the 11th the same cast of characters comes around again; this time Austin Meadows homers to give the Rays the lead; Pham then doubles and scores on a sac fly by Choi, an insurance run that would actually be needed when the Dodgers scored an unearned run in the bottom half. What we haven't mentioned is that Pham already had 3 hits prior to his late-inning heroics, making him the third player in Rays history with a 5-hit game in a National League park. Tim Beckham did it at Coors in July 2016, and Jeff Keppinger collected 5 hits in Philadelphia in June 2012. The stolen base also made him the third in Rays history with 5 hits and a steal, joining Carl Crawford (2006) and Julio Lugo (2004).

And we've learned to never prepare the shutout notes early. Two batters this week proved us right; on Tuesday the Mets led the Rockies 6-0 with 2 outs in the 9th, on the verge of their largest-ever shutout at Coors Field, and Charlie Blackmon denies that with a solo homer. Only once before in Rockies history have they homered to break up a 6-0 (or worse) shutout when down to their final out; Vinny Castilla went deep off Tim Pugh of the Reds on August 2, 1993.

Meanwhile, Aristides Aquino-- who has sorta dropped off the home-run radar the last couple weeks but still has 17 of them since making his debut in July-- also faced a shutout from the Mets when they went to Cincinnati on Friday. Jeurys Familia began the 9th with an 8-0 lead, and five pitches later he had an 8-1 lead. Although it wasn't the "down to final out" scenario, Aquino's homer was the second one this season the Reds hit in the 9th inning to break up a shutout of 8-0 or more. Jose Peraza had the other, against the Dodgers on May 19-- and that makes it the first time since at least 1894 (when we start to lose too much game detail) that the Reds have done it twice in a season.


All Seven

You knew this one had to find its way in, huh? Until Saturday we weren't sure exactly how, but there's always a team or two that comes through.

Last Sunday the Oakland Raiders played what may well be the final NFL game in a shared "dual-use" stadium that was also hosting baseball at the same time. (There could be one more in October if the A's get past the Wild Card game.) In both their home games so far this season the Raiders scored a 1st-quarter touchdown. So on Saturday the A's said, hey, we can do that too. Leave that "7" up there. With Brock Burke taking the hill for the Rangers, they opened the game with three singles, a forceout-plus-error, a double, two walks, a sac fly, and then one final single to knock Burke out of the game having gotten only 2 outs. While he did get a lot more than 2 outs in the other starts, Burke became the first Rangers pitcher to give up 6 earned runs in three straight starts since Derek Holland did it just over a decade ago.

Marcus Semien, who began the game with a single, would draw a walk against Luke Farrell as the 10th batter of the inning, then walk again in the 2nd when Jonathan Hernandez couldn't find the strike zone and issued three of them. By the end of the 2nd inning the Rangers are already on their fourth pitcher, and the fine folks at Stats Inc. report they are the first team to have their first three pitchers all get 2 outs or fewer since the Astros did it on September 9, 1984.

The 12-3 final is pretty much academic as the A's just have to not implode, and for once they didn't. The rest of the day would belong to Semien, who greeted pitcher number five (Shawn Kelley) with a solo homer in the 5th, then welcomed number seven (Brett Martin) with a single, and then walked again in the 8th. That's 3 hits and 3 walks, the first batter for any team to do that in a game since Brett Gardner of the Yankees, also against the Rangers, on July 28, 2015. But combined that's six times reaching base in any fashion, and that's the idea behind havnig him bat leadoff.

So the last A's leadoff batter to reach base six times? That's Rickey Henderson, in a 10-inning affair in Cleveland on August 28, 1998). What about in a 9-inning game? Well, that's Rickey too, in the next-to-last game of 1991, also against the Rangers. But that was in Arlington. What about a home game? Yep, Rickey again, in 16 innings against the Angels on April 8, 1982. Finally if you add the combo of 9 innings and a home game, not only is it not Rickey, it's not in Oakland. It's not even in Kansas City. Wally Moses was the team's last leadoff hitter to do that, at Shibe Park against the Browns on September 12, 1939.

And about those touchdowns? Well, it turns out it's the third time this season that Oakland has scored 7+ runs in a 1st inning. They also did in Houston on September 10 in that 21-7 jubilee we covered last week, and on July 13 against the White Sox. No team in the majors had posted three 7-run 1st innings in a season since the White Sox did it in 2000.


And We'll Watch Them Fall

The sevens didn't just show up at the beginning of the games on Saturday, either. Earlier we mentioned a couple of games that the Twins played this week, but Saturday looked destined for extra innings as well when Ryan O'Hearn led a 3-run 6th to tie the game at 5-5. However, the ball got passed to Taylor Rogers for the 9th, and Cheslor Cuthbert promptly untied the game with a 2-run pinch-hit homer. That was the first time the Royals hit a go-ahead, multi-run, pinch-hit dinger in the 9th since Matt Stairs in Cincinnati on June 27, 2006. After Whit Merrifield was awarded a double on fan interference, the ball got passed to Trevor Hildenberger, and well, oof.

RBI double. Stolen base. Single. Single. Single plus an error. Walk. It's now 10-5 with the bases still loaded, and Hildenberger has become the first Twins pitcher to give up 4 hits and 4 runs while getting 0 outs since Tyler Duffey on May 31, 2017. Jorge Alcala is able to finish out the inning, but not before allowing 2 more inherited runs to score, giving the Royals their third 7-run 9th in the past 15 seasons. The previous one was also at Target Field, on September 6, 2016; and earlier that same season they famously had a 7-run bottom of the 9th to come back from 6 down against the White Sox. (It's famous to us because we were there.)

The last Royals run, to cement our 12-5 final, came on a bases-loaded walk to Cuthbert. Who, remember, entered the game as a pinch hitter earlier in the same inning. This is one of our favorite scoresheet quirks, and you don't see it often. He can't very well pinch-hit again. But he also hasn't yet taken a position on defense. Usually the scoreboard will continue showing him as a PH, but he's literally in limbo, in a "position" that's not actually defined in the rule book. He's the first Royals player to bat in this state since Jarrod Dyson pinch-ran for Billy Butler on April 30, 2011, and came around again to single. Cuthbert is also the first batter in Royals history to draw a bases-loaded walk from the undefined position. All told in MLB this year there have been only 12 such plate appearances... out of nearly 180,000 total.

And while it doesn't quite fit the "seven" theme, an honorable mention to the Nationals for blowing a 4-run lead on Saturday but then scoring 6 times in the top of the 10th to end up winning in Miami after all. Fernando Rodney managed to give up 3 doubles, the last-- by Austin Dean-- being the first game-tying 3-run double in Marlins history in the 7th inning or later. Rodney and Joe Ross, who did it May 4 in Philadelphia, are two of the three pitchers in Nats history to give up 3 doubles while only getting 1 out; Jorge Sosa also did it at Wrigley in 2009.

The Nats scored those 6 runs in the 10th on four singles, two walks, and a bases-loaded double of their own, by Kurt Suzuki. It was the team's first bases-loaded double in extras since Kevin Frandsen hit one in Atlanta on August 9, 2014, and their first ever of the pinch-hit variety. Only once before (since 2005) had the Nationals scored 6+ runs in an extra inning; they did it July 23, 2012, at Citi Field. Saturday was also the first time they'd ever scored 10+ runs at Marlins Park without benefit of a home run.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ George Springer, Sunday: First leadoff batter in Astros history with a 3-homer game. With Yordan Alvarez on August 10, first season in Astros history where they've had a 3-homer game by two different batters.

⚾ Mitch Moreland, Friday: First batter in Red Sox history to hit a tying homer and a go-ahead homer, both in the 7th or later, in a game they still lost.

⚾ Miguel Rojas, Tuesday: First player in Marlins history to have 6 RBI in a game but not score a run himself. Last to do it for any team was Minnesota's Chris Colabello on April 3, 2014.

⚾ Glenn Sparkman, Monday: First Royals pitcher to throw 2 wild pitches and commit a balk since Doug Linton at Chicago, July 20, 1996.

⚾ Brad Miller, Saturday: First Phillies batter ever to have a multi-homer game in Cleveland (including the Spiders years). Also first game there where the Phillies hit 4 homers as a team.

⚾ Homer Bailey, Wednesday: First A's pitcher to allow 0 runs on 3 hits, strike out 11, and not get a win since Jack Coombs pitched an entire 16-inning scoreless tie against the White Sox on August 4, 1910.

⚾ Pete Alonso, Friday: First batter ever to hit his 50th home run of a season in Cincinnati. The only Reds batter with a 50-HR season, George Foster in 1977, got his 50th on the road.

⚾ Eddie Rosario, Sunday: Second 3-double game of season (also June 18 vs Boston). First Twins/Senators batter to do it twice in a season since Stan Spence in 1946.

⚾ Tigers, Tue-Wed: First time being held to 4 hits in back-to-back games in Cleveland since getting swept in a doubleheader on June 14, 1982.

⚾ Rays, Fri-Sat: First time in team history winning back-to-back games via extra-inning walkoff.

⚾ Blue Jays, Thursday: Fourth 6-run inning of the year at Camden Yards, most by any visiting team in a single season since the park opened in 1992.

⚾ Yu Darvish, Tue-Sun: First pitcher for any team to strike out 12+ in back-to-back starts and lose both of them since Javier Vazquez of the White Sox in September 2006.

⚾ Mike Fiers, Friday: Third pitcher in Oakland history to throw 8+ innings and face the minimum. The others went on to finish perfect games (Dallas Braden in 2010 and Catfish Hunter in 1968).

⚾ Brandon Nimmo, Monday: Became fourth visiting player to hit multiple leadoff homers at Coors Field, joining Dexter Fowler, Kevin Newman (in same series last month), and Chris Stynes.

⚾ Noah Syndergaard, Wednesday: First Mets pitcher to give up 10 hits and 4 stolen bases in a game since Steve Trachsel against Atlanta on June 24, 2001.

⚾ White Sox, Saturday: Second 9-inning game in live-ball era where they collected 17 hits but only scored 5 runs. Other was June 12, 1973, also in Detroit.

⚾ Jordan Luplow, Tuesday: First Clevelander with a pinch-hit triple in the 3rd inning or earlier in exactly 100 years and 1 day. Doc Johnston batted for pitcher George Uhle who gave up 5 runs in the 2nd on September 16, 1919.

⚾ Hyun-Jin Ryu & Will Smith, Sunday: First game where both halves of Dodgers' battery homered since Andy Ashby & Chad Kreuter at Montréal, May 19, 2002.

A September (Game) To Remember

Most of the time, September baseball is sort of a weird, forgettable version of the real thing. Many teams are out of the playoff picture and just going through the motions; the unwieldy 40-man rosters lead to 4-hour games with 17 pitching changes that still end up being 3-1 (we are very very glad this is changing next year); and sometimes even the good teams will rest a bunch of people because they know they're in the postseason and are trying to stay fresh. But it's also those very elements that can occasionally make September baseball its most interesting.


Fier-Balls

As we were finishing off last week's post, the Astros-- for the second straight week, mind you-- decided to interrupt us by blowing up for a 21-1 win over the Mariners, the "1" being a Shed Long homer which was also Seattle's only hit of the game. (We are writing this paragraph on Friday, so who knows what they're about to do this week.) But at least they gave us a nice transition into this week by hanging another big blowout on Oakland on Monday.

Mike Fiers-- you know, the guy who threw a no-hitter for Houston in 2015 and then threw a no-hitter for Oakland in May?-- Mike, you gotta spread these things out, dude. Because this time he retired exactly one batter in a row before just getting shelled. Two singles and an Alex Bregman homer. Yordan Alvarez goes back-to-back. Robinson Chirinos 2-run homer. In the 2nd he didn't even get that one batter out before Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley went back-to-back, although that does leave Fiers with another little piece of history. Specifically, he's the first pitcher ever (starter or reliever) to allow 5+ homers while getting no more than 3 outs. He's also the first A's starter to give up 9 total runs while getting 3 outs since Lou Brissie did it in a 21-2 loss to Cleveland on June 18, 1950. (The Indians, apparently impressed with this performance, traded the A's to get Brissie the following April.)

Paul Blackburn didn't fare a whole lot better at first, finishing the 2nd with another homer by Alvarez and a triple by Abraham Toro. It's already 11-0 and the Astros have the first game in their history where they scored 5+ runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings. Chirinos would later be Blackburn's last straw with a 3-run homer to complete the scoring in the 7th; he joins J.R. Towles (2007), Rafael Ramirez (1989), and Dave Giusti (1966) as the only Astros to have a 6-RBI game hitting 8th or 9th in the order. And combined with Alvarez's 6 RBI from the 21-1 game on Sunday, it's the first time in Houston history they've had a player do it in consecutive games. It's the second time the Astros have ever hit 7 homers in a game, and both of them have been on September 9-- the other being a 14-4 win at Wrigley in 2000. And the 15-0 final matched Houston's largest-ever shutout (April 26, 1998, at Montréal), and was the worst one for Oakland since dropping a 16-0 in Kansas City on June 25, 1984.

By the way, Fiers would have another start shortened by injury on Saturday, but in that one he managed to give up 3 runs, commit a balk, and throw a wild pitch before finally accepting that it was time to go. He's the first A's starter to do all that without finishing the 2nd inning since Dick Joyce at Boston on September 18, 1965; and the first to do it in a game the A's still won since Hank McDonald gave up 6 unearned runs in the 1st against the White Sox on July 20, 1931.


Mileys To Go Before I Sleep

So hey, what could go wrong on Tuesday? Glad you asked. Because that would be when the Astros handed the ball to Wade Miley, and all he had done in his previous start was give up 5 runs without getting an out. Sooooo the good news is, he got an out this time?

But that's all. Just the one. And then after that, Miley gave up a walk and six straight singles, leading not only to his departure from the game, but his place in #Kernels lore. He became the first starter to give up 5+ runs while getting 1 out in consecutive games since before the Astros were even a team. Mel Parnell of the Red Sox pulled it off in the summer of 1948.

George Springer managed to lead off the game with a home run, but as Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark points out (paywall alert), it kinda loses its luster when they're already down 7-0. The Astros hadn't ever hit a leadoff homer when trailing by as many as 4, and the last to hit one down 7 was Randy Ready of the Phillies off then-Mets starter David Cone on June 16, 1989. That's so long ago that we saw Ready's son play in the New York-Penn League playoffs last week.

Cy Sneed (which we still maintain is the villain's name from some 1970s cartoon series) got us to the 4th without too much more damage, but by now the A's have built up an 11-1 lead and it's time to have Joe Biagini do his best Wade Miley impression. Or his worst, depending on how you look at it. And at least it's fairly consistent. Walk, 2-run homer. Double, 2-run homer. Single, 2-run homer. Yeah, maybe we should go get him. That would be six runs on zero outs, at least equalling if not topping Miley's start if that were possible. Only Xavier Cedeño (2013, also against Oakland) and Jim Clancy (1989) had done that in Astros history, and only one other pair of teammates in the live-ball era had given up 6+ while getting 1 out: Mike Venafro and Brandon Villafuerte of the Rangers in a 19-6 loss to Detroit on August 8, 2001.

You may already know that this limps along to a 21-7 final, yet another football-looking score to "celebrate" the opening of football season. It's the 13th such exact score in MLB history, the previous being the Vikings Minnesota over the Lions Detroit on June 4, 1994. The only other time the Astros allowed 21 runs in a game was against the Cubs on June 3, 1987 (L 7-22). And to have it happen so soon after scoring 21 runs just two days earlier? Well, the last team to do that was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club (now the Dodgers, but back then generally known as the "Bridegrooms" (because why wouldn't you be?) in August 1894.


Come Back To Me

We like to joke that there's always one team who reads last week's post, says hey that's a good idea, and then tacks on one more example of That Thing on Monday. Well, the Tigers didn't play on Monday, so they had to wait until Tuesday to do their best impression of a comeback. Edwin Jackson, now back with the third of his 14 major-league teams (15 if you count the Rays dropping the "Devil" while he was there), would like some credit for setting up the comeback, thank you very much.

Jackson accomplished this mostly by giving up home runs to Brett Gardner in both the 1st and 2nd innings, the first Yankees batter to hit same since... Brett Gardner against the Orioles on April 29, 2017. But no sooner is Jackson gone and the Yankees up 6-0 than Nestor Cortes and Luis Cessa also melt down in the 3rd and give it all back. The Tigers eventually take a 10-8 lead in the 6th when Jonathan Loaisiga gives up 2 hits and 2 walks, and after Didi Gregorius hits his second homer of the game the next inning we're knotted at 11. Gregorius and Gardner together became the second pair of Yankees to each homer twice in a game in Detroit; the others were Joe DiMaggio and Tommy Henrich on June 23, 1946.

Chance Adams has, well, a chance to keep it tied in the 9th, but after a 1-out frozen-rope double by Grayson Greiner, here comes Jordy Mercer for the walkoff. It was the first game in 6 years where the Tigers trailed by 6 at any point and won (September 21, 2013, vs White Sox), and their first walkoff win against the Yankees since Alex Avila singled home Bryan Holaday on August 28, 2014. For the Yankees it was just the fourth game in their history where they'd hit 6 homers and lost, and the first time scoring 11+ runs and losing since May 29, 2010, against Cleveland.

And Edwin Jackson, well, he got a no-decision out of all this, the first Tigers starter to give up 6+ runs while getting 6 or fewer outs, in a game Detroit still won, since Andy Oliver did it in a 12-9 game with Baltimore on July 5, 2010.

As with most things, however, the Yankees must have the last laugh, and after Wednesday's game got rained into a Thursday doubleheader, they promptly swept that 10-4 and 6-4 to take the series after all. Greiner made the nightcap interesting by hitting a 9th-inning triple this time, the team's first against the Yankees that late in a game since Chet Lemon on August 2, 1990 (which for you youngsters, is the same day Iraq invaded Kuwait). And Greiner ended up scoring again on Thursday, but this time the Tigers had started out down by 4 and he would not be the walkoff run. Instead the Yankees won their first twinbill in Detroit since July 26, 1964, back when Sunday doubleheaders were all the rage (the Tigers played 11 of them that season).


Baker's Dozen

The Yankees then took their act to Toronto, and after getting walked off by Bo Bichette on Friday-- the first extra-inning walkoff homer they'd surrended to the Jays since Vernon Wells took Mariano Rivera deep on July 20, 2006-- they clearly decided that can't be allowed to happen again. After getting to Jacob Waguespack for 3 early runs, Brett Gardner unloaded a 3-run homer off Brock Stewart in the 5th, and then Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit went back-to-back in the 6th to open a 9-1 lead. Stewart became the fourth reliever in Jays history to give up 6 runs and 3 homers while getting no more than 6 outs, and two of them have done it this year. Edwin Jackson in a June 17 loss to Anaheim is the other, along with Brad Mills in 2014 and Josh Towers in 2003.

Gardner would end up with 3 extra-base hits and 5 runs batted in, joining Aaron Hicks (2017), Robinson Cano (2005), and Tony Clark (2004) as the only Yankees hitters to do that at Rogers Centre. Luke Voit wound up with 2 extra-base hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs scored before Mike Ford hit another homer in his place in the 9th for a final score of 13-3. Amazingly only one other Yankees cleanup batter in the past 50 years has posted that line on the road; it was Giancarlo Stanton last September at Tropicana. The one to do it before Stanton was Mickey Mantle in 1962.

And the last time the Yankees scored 13 runs in Toronto was August 28, 2004, and it involved a 9-run 9th inning against Dave Maurer and Kerry Ligtenberg. (Fun fact, Mariano Rivera got the last out of the 8th and thus ended up with a save in a 12-run win, the only such save of his career.) Saturday was also the third time this season the Yankees have collected 19 hits in a game, and bizarrely they've been in three different countries: Saturday in Toronto, July 23 in Minneapolis, and June 29 against the Red Sox in London.


Tile Work Done Cheap

To top it all off, the Astros and Yankees weren't the only ones double-dipping from the double-digits this week. Yeah, we see you, Cubs. Oh, but don't forget, the weekend didn't exactly start out on the right foot. The Pirates had to feel pretty good about a 4-run 1st inning on Friday, including a bizarre play with multiple unnecessary throws in which Kevin Newman scored from first on a walk. (Trust us, watch it.) But then we hand the ball to Steven Brault with a 4-0 lead and, um, he doesn't exactly give it back with a 4-0 lead. In fact he gives up three 1st-inning homers, such that the Pirates' lead doesn't even make it through the inning. After the teams trade zeroes in the 2nd, Willson Contreras opens the 3rd with another dinger, and after a single and two walks-- one to opposing pitcher Jon Lester-- Anthony Rizzo hit the Cubs' 10th grand slam of the season, breaking the team record set in 1929. Rizzo also had one against the Pirates in September 2012, and is the first Cubs batter to hit two against Pittsburgh at home since Ernie Banks did it 13 years apart in 1955 and 1968.

Naturally this also knocks Steven Brault out of the game having given up 10 runs and 5 homers without finishing the 3rd inning. Remember where we started this post? (Yeah, we don't either.) With Mike Fiers giving up 5 homers and not finishing the 3rd on Monday? In the Year Of The Homer, it's not surprising that two pitchers have never done that in the same season before. Actually the only other Pirates to give up 5 homers in an outing of any length were Chris Archer against the Braves in June, and Ivan Nova against the Dodgers last July.

Although the Pirates did fight back to 10-7, the Cubs threw down the hammer with yet another 5-run inning (actually 7) in the bottom of the 5th against Yefry Ramirez-- all after he had struck out the first two batters of the frame. The Cubs hadn't had three 5-run innings in the same game (quick, find those extra scoreboard tiles!) since beating the Brewers 19-5 on April 30, 2008. Alec Mills would work the last three innings for the Cubs, and while he allowed a triple to Cole Tucker for the Pirates' final run, he became the first Cubs pitcher with a 3-inning save against Pittsburgh since Scott Sanders got one on July 8, 1999. The pitcher whose win he "saved"? Why, that's Jon Lester, who with such a big lead, was allowed to give up 11 hits and 7 runs. No Cubs hurler had done that and won since Jim Bullinger in Montréal on August 9, 1996.

And while it was not the only other 17-8 win in Cubs history, Friday's score was the majors' first since August 2 of last year (Rangers over Orioles), and Chicago's first since they beat the old National League Senators in "an admirably played game" (really?) on July 16, 1896.

"[A]n admirably played game" in which "[b]oth sides fielded like amateurs". All righty then. (Wire report, The [New York] Sun, July 17, 1896, via Library of Congress.)

We were going to use the old '60s classic "See You In September" here, a version of which was recorded by The Four Seasons, who also did a song about December, and so forth. But with all these big numbers and big names we need something upbeat to keep us going. Even though the 21st isn't until next weekend. Never a cloudy day. Intermission!


Hit Me Baby One More Time

Those players from 1896 might even describe a beanball war as "an admirably played game", given that until 1887 you didn't even get a free base for being plunked. But in Saturday's rematch between the Cubs and Pirates, there were plenty of them, although it wasn't until the late innings when the game became a blowout for them to really take center stage. The Cubs once again jumped to an early lead with two homers off Pittsburgh starter James Marvel, whose performance didn't even earn him any notes. Already eight Pirates starters this year have given up 7+ earned runs while pitching 4 innings or less, and that's not even their most this decade. Nine Pittsburgh pitchers did it in 2010 (there are still 13 games left!).

No, the interesting part would come in the 5th inning after the Cubs blew out to a 9-1 lead and then the fireworks began. Clay Holmes hits the first batter he faces, Nick Castellanos. Then he hits the second one, Kris Bryant, to force in the 10th Cubs run. Then the next inning he beans David Bote before Nico Hoerner hits a 3-run homer to get us to 13-1. Only two other Pirates pitchers have ever given up a homer and hit 3 batters in the same game: Paul Maholm in 2010 and Jim Tobin in 1938, and both of them went at least 7 innings. No Pirates batter had plunked 3 opponents while getting no more than 6 outs since Dock Ellis did it in a start (!, he hit 3 of the first 4) on May 1, 1974.

Naturally, with the Cubs up 14-1 in the 9th, there was more retaliation waiting to happen, with Dillon Maples hitting Elias Diaz and Erik Gonzalez in back-to-back plate appearances. That got him-- and Joe Maddon-- ejected from the game, and also made it the second game this season where six different batters got plunked. The other was between the Reds and Brewers on June 20, and half of those were just a result of Taylor Roark coming off the injured list and not finding his control (i.e., not a beanball war). But as for the Cubs scoring 14+ in back-to-back home games, well, that's only happened three times in their Wrigley Field history (where are those extra tiles from yesterday?). It happened against the Mets two years ago on the exact same dates, September 13 and 14, by scores of 17-5 and 14-6. And the other was way back in 1944 when they swept a doubleheader against the Braves by 15-1 and 14-5.


Goldilocks And The Three Bears Cubs

Don't put those tiles away yet. On Sunday it's Trevor Williams' turn to take the hill for the Pirates, and we don't know what freak of weather was sitting over Wrigley Field, or what was in the pregame porridge, but once again every thing came up juuuuuussst right for the Cubs. kris Bryant, as the Cubs' third batter of the game, smacks a 3-run homer to pick up right where we left off on Saturday. The only other Cubs player in the last 10 years to hit a 3-run homer as their third batter (which is obviously the earliest you CAN hit one) is Anthony Rizzo, who's done it thrice. The Pirates briefly took the lead with 5 runs in the 3rd, but then, if there were any wheels left on the Pirates' wagon (mixed-metaphor alert!), they went a-flying off. Bryant homers again. Two more singles, a walk, and a pinch-hit triple by Tony Kemp, the first one by a Cubs batter so early in a game since Zack Taylor on August 2, 1930 (also against the Pirates, for whatever that's worth). Catcher (and HOF'er) Gabby Hartnett left in the 2nd inning with an "injured thumb" and Taylor hit in his stead. Williams is now done, and with Brault and Marvel from the prior two games, it's the first time in Pirates history (1882) that three straight starters each gave up 7+ runs and multiple homers.

The Pirates, meanwhile, are convinced that someone might have missed third base while scoring on that triple. Just to be sure, let's appeal before the next pitch and ohhhhh boy. (The Kernels Rules Desk points out that, despite what the announcers are saying, the umpires never actually had to rule on the appeal. So we still don't really know if everybody touched third or not. Rule 5.09(c):)

Turns out that quiet 2nd inning for Williams would be the only one for the Cubs. Two more runs in the 4th. Ian Happ homers in the 5th. Jason Heyward RBI single in the 6th. Kyle Schwarber collects another homer in the 7th to finish the day with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBIs. Nico Hoerner had done that in the first game of the series on Friday, the first time Cubs batters have posted the line twice in a series since Fred McGriff and Sammy Sosa did it in Houston in September 2001. If you're counting, we're past 14 again. Told you not to put those tiles away. Jonathan Lucroy adds a solo homer in the 8th for a 16-6 count, the first Cubs win by that exact score since April 4, 2005, in Phoenix, and their first at home since beating the Reds on April 19, 1936.

And the last team to score 14+ runs in three straight games? Why that's the 1993 Tigers who did it against Baltimore from August 10 through 12. (If you're coming at this from the Pirates' side, that's also the last time a team gave up 14 runs in three straight games.) The Cubs have had three other stretches in their history of scoring 14+, but it's unlikely you remember any of them. Before the Tigers in 1993, the Cubs were actually the prior MLB team to do this, 63 years earlier in a home game with the Pirates and then two road games at Boston (June 1-4, 1930). They also had three straight 14's from September 8-11, 1884, and a four-game stretch in July 1876 (18-30-23-17!), the first year that MLB recognizes them as an official major-league team.


Up Goes Frazier

Speaking of being recognized as a major-league team, no week would be complete without the Mets doing something strange. And this time it's actually something good. They opened a sweep of the Diamondbacks with a ho-hum 3-1 game on Monday in which Jacob deGrom struck out 11 and actually got a win for once. Wilmer Flores's homer-- his first back at Citi Field as a visitor-- would be one of just three Arizona hits, and let's say that'll be a theme also.

The Mets collected only 5 hits in Tuesday's game, but two of them were doubles by Todd Frazier, who appeared to be the only one who could solve Zac Gallen. Those doubles accounted for 3 Mets runs, and at the same time, Arizona had its first game this season where they converted 10 hits into only 2 runs. Gallen became the first D'backs pitcher not named Brandon Webb (who did it twice) to strike out 9+ Mets and lose, while the New Yorkers posted just their second game at Citi Field where they had 5 hits, struck out a total of 12 times, and still won. The other was also a 3-2 win, over St Louis on April 23, 2014. And Frazier, who batted 8th on Tuesday, was the first Mets batter with 2 doubles and 3 RBI from that low in the order since Victor Diaz against the Nationals on April 23, 2005.

That single-handed victory may have earned Frazier a "promotion" up to the #6 slot on Wednesday (or maybe Mickey Callaway just likes to do weird things with lineups because Mets), and he wasted no time upgrading those two-baggers to four-baggers. Frazier took Robbie Ray for a 2-run homer in the 1st, and when Brandon Nimmo went back-to-back, the Mets already had a 5-0 lead and Ray was done for. He's the first starter in D'backs history to give up 5 runs and 2 homers without finishing the 1st inning.

The Mets, however, were not finished. Taylor Clarke is good for two more homers out of the Arizona bullpen, including a second one by Frazier and a solo shot by Jeff McNeil. McNeil also went yard against Yoshihisa Hirano in the 7th as the Mets matched their biggest shutout ever against Arizona with a 9-0 win. The other game was at Chase Field on April 15, 2014. Together, Frazier and McNeil are the fourth Mets teammates to each homer twice in a game at Citi Field, but it's the first time neither Ike Davis nor Rod Barajas has been part of the pair. They teamed with Lucas Duda and Jeff Francoeur respectively, and with each other once, all between 2010 and 2013. Amazingly, in 45 seasons at Shea, the Mets only pulled that off once, by Joe Christopher and Hawk Taylor in the stadium's very first year, June 20, 1964.

In the Year Of The Homer, if 5 is good on Wednesday, then 6 in Thursday's series finale must be better. Oh sure, Frazier hit another one, a solo shot in the 2nd, but that was quickly overshadowed by a Juan Lagares grand slam in the 3rd-- especially painful because it followed a 2-out error and all 4 runs were unearned. Lagares would add a 2-run tater in the 5th for the Mets' fourth 6-RBI game this year. Frazier's got one of those too, along with Pete Alonso and Wilson Ramos; it's the first time in team history they've had four in a season. Lagares also became the first Mets batter in 11 seasons at Citi Field to have a 2-homer game where one of them was a grand slam (six people did that at Shea). Wednesday and Thursday marked the first time in Mets history the team had hit 5 homers in back-to-back games.


Met At 1, Walked You Home

The Mets then moved on to Saturday's much-hyped pitching matchup between deGrom and Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Dodgers, which did not disappoint. Both starters worked 7 scoreless innings, allowing just five singles between them, and neither one walked a batter. Only four other pairs of starters in the live-ball era have done that in the same game, and two of the others were last year.

Alas, because neither one ever cracked, neither of them got the win because scoreless tie. DeGrom already owns nearly every Mets record for striking out X and not getting a win, it's just a matter of what number you pick for X. And you could certainly question the decision to take Ryu out after only 90 pitches ("save him for the postseason", most likely), but here we are in the Dodgers bullpen in the 8th. Frazier, hit by pitch. Nimmo, hit by pitch. Amed Rosario, walk. Rajai Davis, in the pitcher's spot, bases-clearing double. Mets, 3-0 win. There had been only two other go-ahead, 3-run, pinch-hit doubles in the 8th or later in Mets history, by Marlon Anderson in 2007 (in a game where they blew that lead because Mets), and a walkoff by John Stephenson, also against the Dodgers, in 1965. Davis was also the second batter in team history with a 3-run pinch-hit anything in a 3-X Mets victory; Nimmo did it with a homer on July 11 of last season.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks-- having garnered only 3 hits on Monday and 4 on Thursday to bookend that Mets series-- continued their climb up our ongoing "4 hits or fewer" leaderboard. On Saturday Nick Ahmed hit the first pitch of the 3rd into the left-field corner and raced around for a triple. That made our no-hitter watch happy, and the very next pitch made D'backs fans happy because Jarrod Dyson lofted it for a sac fly and a 1-0 lead. After which Anthony DeSclafani sets down 14 batters in a row. Sounds pretty good, right? Except guess what the Reds offense did. It got two singles in the 1st but stranded both runners. Aristides Aquino singled in the 7th and got erased on a double play. So that harmless-looking triple in the 3rd is not only Arizona's only hit of the game, they freakin' won. It's the second game in their history where they had 1 hit and won; Stephen Drew doubled and scored against the Dodgers on May 14, 2011. The only other time the D'backs had 1 hit and it was a triple was when Luis Gonzalez did it in a 2-1 loss at Detroit on June 25, 2004.

But wait. Those last 14 set down by DeSclafani. That means no walks either. And that makes the Diamondbacks the first team in (at least) the live-ball era to have 1 baserunner over the course of a 9-inning game and win; the "9-inning" part is necessary only because the Orioles pulled it off in a rain-shortened affair on July 30, 1971. DeSclafani is the first Reds pitcher we could find (going back to 1908) to throw 7+ innings, allow 1 baserunner, and lose.


All Hands On Deck

There's another quirky thing about September baseball that we "get to" enjoy for the final time in 2019, that being the sea of people that occupy the dugout when the teams get 15 extra players and call up half of their triple-A and double-A teams. (If you're unaware, rosters are dropping to 28 spots next September instead of 40, in an attempt to rein in the endless pitching changes that make these games take 4 hours. Unfortunately, the tradeoff is that the normal roster will be 26 spots the rest of the year instead of 25, so instead of having eight unnecessary pitching changes in September, you'll have two more in every game *before* September. Soooo yeah.)

Anyway, this roster expansion does occasionally lead to some interesting MLB debuts, and Seattle's Kyle Lewis can tell you some stories about that. Shortly after being drafted in 2016, he blew out his ACL while playing with the Mariners' affiliate in Everett, Wash. (we saw him in two games there, as it turns out), and needed almost a year to return to action. So it was a happy moment when he got one of those September callups and finally got to the big leagues on Tuesday. To face (gulp) Trevor Bauer. Who is, oh by the way, throwing a no-hitter in (gulp) the 5th inning.

Kyle Lewis, hitter of the night. And one of five players ever to make his MLB debut as a Mariner and homer in it, joining Kenji Johjima (2006), Greg Dobbs (2004), Alvin Davis (1984), and Jamie Nelson (1983). Another September callup, Brian O'Grady for the Reds, would get the lead back with a pinch-hit homer in the 7th, just the second PH homer the Reds have ever hit in an American League ballpark (where they would have the DH available to them). Jason Romano hit their other one in Cleveland on June 25, 2005. Kyle Seager finally settled things with his own lead-flipping homer in the 8th as the Mariners scored 4 runs on just 4 hits.

So then on to Wednesday when yet again Sonny Gray is no-hitting the Mariners after 4. This is getting old, guys. And then 5. Mallex Smith gets plunked in the 6th but Shed Long-- who broke a couple of bids against the Mariners last week-- strikes out. No worries, guess who's coming up in the 7th. And this time he's got two baserunners, although that was also a hit-by-pitch and a walk. Kyle Lewis, hitter of the week. Among that list of Mariners to homer in their first MLB games, only Johjima and Davis also homered in their 2nd. And with this 3-run job giving the Mariners the lead, Lewis became the first player to hit either a tying or go-ahead homer in each of his first two games (any inning) since former Connecticut Defender Brett Pill did it for the Giants in September 2011.

Thursday's finale, thank goodness, for once did not require Lewis to break up a no-hitter; Kyle Seager took care of that in the 1st. But you probably heard that Lewis did homer again, a solo shot to lead off the 5th inning. Among that list of Mariners to homer in their first MLB game-- yeah, nobody's done three. In fact, the only other player in history to homer in his first three MLB appearances was Trevor Story in 2016. Thursday was more memorable for another MLB debut, this one of Mariners starter Justin Dunn. The one that begins with a 4-pitch walk to Josh VanMeter. Who steals second, which was unnecessary because Joey Votto walked. Mound visit. Settle down, kid. Next pitch, VanMeter steals third. Next pitch, Votto steals second. And neither of those was necessary either because Eugenio Suarez draws a third walk, the first time the Reds' first three batters of a game walked since Reggie Sanders, Barry Larkin, and Jeffrey Hammonds against the Marlins on August 28, 1998. Mound visit. Sac fly. A fourth walk to reload the bases (those mound visits are paying off, huh?). Another sac fly. The aforementioned Brian O'Grady draws a fifth walk. And then Justin is, well, Dunn.

So where to begin with this average-defying debut. Well, there's the up side that Dunn didn't allow a hit, thus becoming the first starter for any team to get 2 outs, give up 5 walks, but also give up 0 hits, since Pat Combs of the Phillies on June 26, 1991. No Mariners pitcher had allowed 5 walks and 3 steals in an outing of any length since Horacio Ramirez did it in Baltimore on August 9, 2007. Then there's the matter of it being Dunn's MLB debut. The last pitcher to issue 5 walks and allow 3 steals in his debut, in any number of innings, was Zack Wheeler for the Mets in 2013. He seems to have turned out okay. And the last pitcher to give up 5 walks while getting 2 outs in his debut (forget the steals) was Brooklyn's Frank Wurm on September 4, 1944. Wurm remains one of just a few pitchers with a career ERA over 100; having fought in the Mediterranean during 1943 and '44, he suffered badly from what we today would call PTSD and never pitched in the majors again.


I'll Try The Shrimp

Kyle Lewis, meanwhile, is going to interrupt us one more time on Sunday by, yes, homering again. Now he did go two games without a dinger, so we don't have any four-straight streaks to worry about. But he is the first-ever Mariner to have 4 homers in his first 6 MLB games, a feat also done by Yordan Alvarez of the Astros earlier this year. The only Mariners to have 3 homers in their first 6 games are Jose Cruz, the aforementioned Alvin Davis, and Bucky Jacobson.

And the Mariners couldn't help but provide an interesting end to our week of interesting September games by overcoming an 8-run White Sox outburst in the 5th to walk off with an 11-10 win (never leave early!). And they did it via "shrimp" (game-winning base on balls), no less, after rallying for 5 runs in the 8th. The last time the White Sox had an 8-run inning in any game and lost was July 18, 1998, against Cleveland. Welington Castillo provided a grand slam for half of those 8, the third one the Sox have hit at the current Mariners stadium. Tyler Flowers in 2011 and Danny Richar in 2007 had the others. Castillo also became the first Sox batter with 5 RBI in a loss-- anywhere-- since Josh Fields in a home game with the Mariners on August 11, 2007. The White Sox had gone the longest of any team without having a player pull that off, an "honor" which now passes to the Angels (2009).

Although only one of his walks would be part of that 8th-inning comeback, Hector Santiago left his mark as the first White Sox reliever to issue six free passes in a game since Scott Ruffcorn did it in Boston on April 28, 1995. And thus it's only appropriate that the game ends on a walk as well, to Tom Murphy scoring Braden Bishop. The Mariners' last true "walk-off" (we covered the grammar behind this last week) was also against the White Sox, and it was more than 15 years ago! Billy Koch walked Jolbert Cabrera to force home Willie Bloomquist for a 5-4 win. The Mariners had gone the longest of any team without one of these, this time by over 4 years. And that honor now passes to the Angels as well.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Ryan Braun, Sunday: Second known grand slam in Brewers history when team was down to its final strike (there is one in 1973 we can't prove either way). Jose Valentin hit the other against the Blue Jays on June 21, 1995.

⚾ Oscar Mercado, Saturday: First Clevelander to collect 5 hits in a doubleheader and have the Indians lose both games since Manny Ramirez against Anaheim, July 28, 1997.

⚾ Rangers, Wednesday: First team to pick off 4 baserunners in the same game since the Blue Jays did it against Oakland on May 25, 1977.

⚾ Nico Hoerner, Monday: Joined Pat Borders (1988 Jays), Dee Fondy (1951 Cubs), and Roy Weatherly (1936 Indians) as only players to record 3 hits, a triple, and 4 RBI in their major-league debuts.

⚾ Jack Flaherty, Saturday: First Cardinals pitcher to strike out 10 and lose in a home game since Woody Williams against the Reds on August 18, 2004.

⚾ Kris Bryant & Jason Hewyard, Tuesday: First Cubs teammates to each hit 2 homers in a road loss since Randy Jackson, Dee Fondy, and Ernie Banks all did it in a 14-inning game in St Louis on April 16, 1955.

⚾ Giants, Friday: First 1-0 win against the Marlins at home since Barry Bonds hit a 4th-inning homer on June 17, 1996.

⚾ Trent Thornton, Wednesday: First "reliever" to throw 5+ hitless innings, strike out 7+, and get a win since Cincinnati's Mel Queen on April 22, 1967.

⚾ Peter Lambert, Saturday: First Rockies starter to allow 5+ runs, strike out 0, and get a win since Denny Stark against the Expos on August 22, 2002.

⚾ Athletics, Thursday: First 9-inning game where they struck out 17 times and won since a 4-3 win at Tampa Bay on September 12, 1999-- two decades earlier to the day.

⚾ Cal Quantrill, Monday: Became first pitcher (any team) to give up 8+ runs in three straight starts since Albie Lopez of the Rays in June 2001.

⚾ Paul Goldschmidt, Friday: First Cardinals batter with a grand slam and a 3-run homer in same game since Albert Pujols against Houston, April 11, 2009.

⚾ Albert Pujols, Sunday: Second-oldest player ever to homer, double, steal a base, and have 4 RBI in a game. 40-year-old Davey Lopes, then of the Cubs, did it in a return to his old stomping grounds at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1985.

⚾ Trent Grisham, Wednesday: First leadoff homer ever hit by Brewers against the Marlins on the road (either stadium). Thanks to switching leagues 20 years, San Francisco is now the only road city where they've never hit one.

⚾ Joe Musgrove, Thursday: First Pirates pitcher to hit a triple and get the win in the same game since Salomon Torres against the Cubs on September 19, 2003.

⚾ Zach Plesac, Tuesday: Fourth SHO-4 (4-hit shutout) or better for an Indians pitcher this season. Last time the team had four such games was 1988 when Greg Swindell threw three of them.

⚾ John Hicks, Saturday: Second walkoff grand slam in Tigers history in the 12th or later. Other was only by Charlie Gehringer off Ted Lyons of the White Sox on August 4, 1930.