1. As you may suspect, it was indeed the first 29-9 exact score in major-league history, even including all those wacky numbers put up by the National Association of 1871-75. Hitting a score that's never been hit before is a concept known as "scorigami", made popular in NFL circles, and it's believed to be the first new score in MLB since the Reds and Rockies played a Coors Field Special on May 19, 1999, ending with a count of two dozen to one dozen.
2. Starting slowly, but because it's the best note that fits with the number 2: Jesús Aguilar had the first hit of Wednesday's game with a 1st-inning double. He then doubled again in the 4th to drive home the Marlins' seventh run, although they are of course already down by 6 at this point. Aguilar was serving as the Marlins designated hitter, which is strange enough in a game played in Atlanta. But he also had a multi-double game as Miami's DH back on August 7 against the Mets. Since, prior to this season, the only games the Marlins would have played with the DH were in interleague contests, Aguilar turns out to be the first DH in team history to have multiple multi-double games.
3. Adam Duvall's bat would become one of the central themes of the game as he cranked 3 home runs. (You might remember him doing this once before, more on that in a minute.) But he also had the fairly-rare combo of a 2-run dinger in the 2nd, a 3-run shot in the 5th, and then the game-capping grand slam in the 7th. The so-called "home run cycle" has never been accomplished, but Duvall is the fifth player to miss it by the solo shot. The others are Edwin Encarnacion (2015), Alex Rodriguez (2005), Mark Whiten (1993), and Norm Zauchin (1955).
4. We're going to get into more details on them later, but the Marlins had four different pitchers who gave up at least 4 earned runs each, without any of them getting through 3 full innings. You would be correct if you guessed they were the first team in MLB history to pull that off. Group hug. (Oh wait, we're not allowed anymore.)
5. To kick off our little party of Marlins pitchers giving up runs, we turn to starter Pablo Lopez who chipped in the first 7 by himself. Notably, he actually got through the 1st inning unscathed after a leadoff walk to Ronald Acuña. But then it all came unraveled in the 2nd with three singles, two walks, and a Travis d'Arnaud homer. Lopez allowed 7 runs while getting just 5 outs, the first Marlins starter to do that since Adam Conley in Phoenix on September 22, 2017. Their last starter to do it in Atlanta was Ryan Dempster on October 5, 2001.
6. If the job of the leadoff batter is to get on base, Ronald Acuña needs no remedial training. He not only reached base 6 times on Wednesday, he did so in each of the first 6 innings, a nugget which requires more computing power to look up than we have available. However, even reaching 6 times in a game was impressive enough, especially when it came via 3 hits and 3 walks. No Atlanta batter had done that combo in a game since Martin Prado at San Francisco on April 9, 2010. And no Braves leadoff hitter had done it since Tommy Holmes against the Reds on August 28, 1947.
7. The Braves are, of course, one of the few MLB franchises to have had three different cities as their home over the years. And even in Atlanta they've had three different home stadiums. Plus several in the Boston days before stadiums were really a big thing. So in all that history, would you believe Wednesday was the first time the franchise had ever hit 7 home runs in a home game. After the White Sox accomplished the feat in 2016, the Braves had been the only one remaining of the "original 16" AL/NL franchises who had never done it.
8. So back to Adam Duvall. If that 3-homer game on Wednesday looked familiar, it's because you may remember him doing the same thing at Fenway Park on Wednesday. As in last Wednesday, and on the heels of Marcell Ozuna doing it the day before and becoming the first teammates in MLB history with 3 homers in back-to-back games. But by having another 3-homer outburst just a week later, Duvall joined a very short list of players to have multiple such games within 10 days of each other. Doug DeCinces of the Angels holds the record for same, doing it in 6 days on August 3 and 8, 1982. Duvall's games came in an 8-day span, as did Johnny Mize's for the Cardinals on July 13 and 20, 1938. The only other player with a single-digit gap between them is Nelson Cruz, who had a pair of 3-HR games for the Twins last year on July 25 and August 3.
9. If you count up Duvall's home-run almost-cycle, the one in which he's missing the solo shot, you already know that comes to 9 RBI. Only one other player in Braves history has had 9 RBI in a game, and that one came up last week as well. It's the game on July 3, 1966, where pitcher Tony Cloninger connected for two grand slams.
10. After Duvall kept clearing the bases down there at the #7 spot, it was up to Ozzie Albies and Ender Inciarte to re-load them. Which means that Acuña in the leadoff spot and Freddie Freeman just couldn't resist driving them in as well. With a 3-run homer and a 6th-inning double, Acuña totalled 5 RBI, and Freeman underneath him had 6. They are the first teammates in MLB history to each have 5 RBI while batting #1 and #2 in their team's order in the same game.
11. Before we knew this thing was gonna blow up to 29, there was already the neat matter of the Braves hanging 11 runs in the 2nd. That was their first 11-run frame since April 7, 2004, when they did it in an 18-11 win over the Mets. And if you look at 11-run innings generally, the majors have only seen three of them in the last three seasons-- and all of them involve the Marlins. They were on the "correct" end of the prior one, June 4, 2019, against the Brewers, and also gave up the one before that, to the Red Sox on August 29, 2018.
12. Amazingly a position player did not end up pitching in this mess, and instead the Braves just left rookie Bryse Wilson out there from the 6th all the way to the end. He's got a 14-run lead when he enters, let's say he's got a long leash. Enter the loophole in the save rule that says, as long as he finishes the game and "pitches effectively for at least 3 innings", bang, he gets one. Wilson ended up with the first 12-out save by a Braves pitcher, regardless of score, since Kenshin Kawakami got one against the Mets on September 21, 2009.
13. After Pablo Lopez got stuck on 5 outs, it was time for Jordan Yamamoto to try and escape that disastrous 2nd inning. Which he eventually did, albeit 4 runs later. And then he went out for the 3rd and gave up a dinger to Freddie Freeman. And then he went out for the 4th and gave up a 3-run double to Freddie Freeman. And now we're in "take one for the team" mode. By the time Yamamoto is put out of his misery in the 5th, he's been charged with 13 runs and 4 homers. You may remember the only other reliever in the past 75 years to give up 13 runs in a single outing-- it was Vin Mazzaro of the Royals, who did it in one inning back on May 17, 2011.
14. Ignoring the runs for a second (which we know is hard), Yamamoto also got tagged for 11 hits including 4 homers. Only a select few relievers in MLB history have done that in any game, and like Wednesday, it's usually in a "take one for the team" game. But Yamamoto didn't hang around for the rest of the game to just serve up meatballs like so many pitchers do. He gave up 11 and 4 while getting only 8 outs. And in another dubious record for a reliever, that was the quickest anyone had ever done that. The previous "record" for giving up 11 hits and 4 homers had been by Frank Castillo of the Red Sox, who did it while getting 10 outs at Texas on August 1, 2002.
15. When you've gotta divide 29 runs among nine players, there's bound to be a lot of the same feet crossing home plate. So it was that Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley, and Adam Duvall-- who all happen to bat next to each other, even-- each scored 5 runs to account for half of the Braves' total. They were the first trio of players, for any team, to score 5 runs each in the same game since Stan Hack, Don Johnson, and Phil Cavarretta of the Cubs did it against the Braves on July 3, 1945.
16. As we already mentioned, Adam Duvall exercised no self-restraint, even with his team holding a 25-9 lead in the 7th inning. He wandered to the plate against Josh Smith with the bases yet again loaded and cranked his fourth career grand slam to give us our historic 29-9 final score. But was it a record for the most "piling on"? Actually no. Chick Hafey of the Cardinals hit one in 1929 with his team up by 20; that game remains the only 28-6 score in MLB history. But the last one hit with any team ahead by at least 16 came off the bat of Jayson Werth of the Phillies; it put the icing on the most recent 22-1 game in MLB, against the Reds on July 6, 2009.
17. Travis d'Arnaud (who wears number 16, but we already used it) had one of the quietest lines in this boxscore, even though in many games (hi there AL West!), a cleanup batter having 2 hits, a homer, and 3 RBI might get our attention. But with 9 walks in the batting mix for the Braves, d'Arnaud wound up being the only Braves batter who actually got charged with an at-bat every time around the order. Seven of 'em. And he only had 2 hits, which actually lowered his batting average (to .312, so crocodile tears). No Braves batter had recorded 7 at-bats in a 9-inning game since Bret Boone did it in a 20-5 romp at Coors Field on April 18, 1999.
18. There were a handful of bright spots for the Marlins, notably that #9 batter Jazz Chisholm, playing in just his seventh MLB game, had both a homer and a triple off Tommy Milone. Since the Marlins are in the NL, and they often had pitchers down there in the 9-hole, Chisholm is the first #9 batter in team history to homer and triple in the same game. The only #9 hitter ever to do it against Atlanta was Chris Taylor of the Dodgers on July 22, 2017, and that was a result of a double switch.
19. The aforementioned Tommy Milone actually got tagged for 8 runs and 2 homers before departing in the 4th inning, and in any normal game, we'd look at that line and say oof. It still doesn't help his averages and such; Milone's ERA ballooned to 6.69 with Wednesday's outing. But remember the offense spotted him 13 runs before he departed. So giving up 8, while not good, didn't end up hurting. He was the first Braves starter to allow 8 runs and 2 homers and not lose the game since Mike Foltynewicz at Washington on June 12, 2017, a game where the Braves came all the way back to win 11-10.
20. In the Marlins' relatively short history, it's not surprising that they had never lost a game by 20 runs before. But the Braves trace their timeline all the way back to the National League's first season, in Boston in 1876. And those were the days when pitching was not, um, a thing. (Also, the mound was only 50 feet from the plate.) So while Wednesday was not the Braves' first 20-run win ever, it was their first one in a while. Specifically we have to go back to a 24-4 win over Louisville (go Colonels!) on September 20, 1898.
21. The largest win in Braves history, since we're here? That happens to be one of the other five games in MLB history that start with a "29-". We already noted that the 29-9 was a first, but there have been three 29-4's, a 29-6 (White Sox over A's, 1955), and even a 29-1 (Giants over Phillies, 1887). The Braves-- then still in Boston and known as the Beaneaters, because Boston-- were on the front end of the very first 29-4, over Philadelphia on June 20, 1883. (The other 29-4's, if you're curious: Phillies over Colonels in 1894, and Red Sox over Browns in 1950.)
22. We've mentioned both fun feats by the 22-year-old Ronald Acuña, of reaching base 6 times via 3 hits and 3 walks, and also of driving in 5 runs from the leadoff spot. But we haven't mentioned them together yet. Only five other players in MLB history have done both in the same game, and Acuña's the first one to be a leadoff batter. The others are Sean Casey (in that previous "scorigami" game from 1999), Carl Everett of the Mets (1995), Baltimore legend Eddie Murray (1988), Roy White of the Yankees (1972), and Phil Weintraub again (also in 1944, but not his 11-RBI game).
23. Any linescore with a 29 in it is gonna look weird. But 29 on 23? Between 4 walks, a hit batter, a couple Marlins errors, and the general ways to reach base without getting a hit, especially given that there are fielder's-choice opportunities everywhere with so many baserunners, the Braves ended up with 29 runs on "only" 23 hits. We refer to this phenomenon (more runs than hits) as an inverted linescore, and they're uncommon enough that we usually notice. But a difference of six? The Braves were the first team to have 6 more runs than they did hits in a game, any combination of numbers, since... oh look. It was the Braves. And it was against the Marlins. That was that same game from October 5, 2001, where Ryan Dempster gave up 7 runs; Benito Baez followed by giving up 8 of his own, and the Braves finished with 20 runs on 14 hits.
24. Like Acuña, we mentioned many of Duvall's accomplishments, but here's one more note that puts them together. Only five other players in MLB history have scored 5 runs and driven in 9 in the same game. In a couple cases this overlaps with the 3-homer list, but not always. The previous to do it was Anthony Rendon in the Nationals' 23-5 game against the Mets three years ago. The others are the Dodgers' Gil Hodges in 1950, Walker Cooper of the Reds in 1949, Phil Weintraub in the 11-RBI game in 1944, and Jim Tabor in his 3-homer game in 1939.
25. There's always one guy left out. We always say that about these big outbursts, and this time we actually mean it on the Marlins side. They did score 9 runs, even if that wasn't exactly The Big Story. Newcomer Monte Harrison, who turned 25 a few weeks ago (hence the number choice) ended up drawing an 0-for-5 and striking out four times (out of seven total that Braves pitchers recorded). Only two other Marlins batters had ever done 0 and 4 in a game where the team wound up scoring at least 9 runs: Giancarlo Stanton at Target Field on June 9, 2016 (10-3 win), and Edgar Renteria against Houston on May 12, 1997 (11-4).
26. Since we're almost down to the bottom, one more Adam Duvall note, and one that specializes in being almost down to the bottom. Duvall hit 7th in Wednesday's mess. And yeah, he ended up with 3 homers and 9 RBI. You generally don't put your 9-RBI guys down at the bottom of the order, but in a game like this, what's a manager to do? So Duvall ended up as just the fourth player in MLB history with 3 and 9 batting 7th or lower in his team's order. Bill Mueller did it for the Red Sox on July 29, 2003, as did Jim Tabor on July 4, 1939. And to go with two Bostonians, we need a Yankee-- that's Tony Lazzeri on May 24, 1936, the game where he became the first player to hit two grand slams.
27. Remember that Bryce Wilson save from a while ago? It had everyone flashing back to one of the most famous blowout games, the Rangers' 30-3 outburst in Baltimore in 2007. And if you hadn't noticed, we've managed to go this entire post without that game coming up yet. Now, Wes Littleton still owns the title of Most Ridiculous Save Ever by getting one in that 27-run victory. But Wilson is the first pitcher for any team to get one in a victory of even 20 or more, since that glorious day 13 years ago.
28. And one more Acuña note while we're at it. In addition to having an uncharacteristic 5 RBI out of the leadoff spot, he also scored 4 runs because, well, pretty much everyone did. So he didn't join our party from earlier of players to score 5 each. But he did become the first Braves batter with 4 scored and 5 driven in since Mark Teixeira did that in Cincinnati on August 20, 2007. Thirty days prior to that, on July 21, saw the only other Braves leadoff hitter to post that line, Willie Harris against the Cardinals.
29. And a final shout-out to the Braves' former home in Milwaukee. Because if you were scoreboard-watching on Wednesday, you noticed that the day started with a 19-run outburst by the Brewers in Detroit. And that was 19 more runs than the Tigers scored as they got 2-hit by Corbin Burnes and friends. Seriously, how often does a 19-0 game play second fiddle just among the scores for that day? But here we are, with the Braves then putting up a 20-run win just hours later. So since you asked, no, Wednesday was not the first day in MLB history with a pair of 19-run margins. It was the second. But the other was, well, a while ago. It's always been uncanny how the "national pastime" turns up interesting events on July 4. And sure enough, the other such day was Independence Day... of 1884! On that day the Chicago NL team, not yet called the Cubs, defeated the Philadelphia NL team, not yet called the Phillies, by a count of 22-3. Meanwhile, in the lone season that the Union Association existed, Boston beat Kansas City by the exact same score over in that league. And based on the 29 items above, we respectfully disagree with the wire story that describes one of those 22-3 games as "uninteresting".
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