The baseball world is filled with numbers, and like Casey Kasem, we could probably do one of these every week if we worked at it. But about once or twice a season, we have a week that's filled with rather large and varied and interesting numbers and it lends itself to one of our "countdown" posts where we can match every number to something odd that happened this week. So Don't Look Back to number 25, which we heard before this imaginary station break we're coming out of, because It's Not Enough (24) to stop there. We're going all the way to the top.
I Like It
(... when we know right away what's going to lead the post.)
Yeah, it's That Game. As August turned into September, your scoreboard page turned into a giant "wait, HUH?". The first day of the month brought us 10-1, 10-3, 12-1, 16-2, and two extra-inning games. And those aren't even the ones we're talking about. (Yet.) Because we're playing baseball at Coors Field, and when there is Coors involved, you just never know what might happen. (That would be good as a marketing slogan. Y'all can have that.) It might involve the number 23.
Oh sure, things still looked fairly normal after Jon Gray gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning, including a solo homer by Alex Dickerson and a 2-run double by Donovan Solano. But as the Coors consumption increased, the outlook started to look Gray-er and Gray-er. With 2 outs in the 2nd and Dickerson already at the plate again, wham, another homer to make it 5-0. Another double, this time Brandon Belt, to lead off the 3rd and eventually it's 7-0 and Jon has been Gray-ed out of your lineup card. It was the third start of his career where he gave up 7 earned and didn't finish the 3rd inning, although there is a Coors asterisk in there. However, the only other Rockies pitcher to make three such starts is Jorge De La Rosa.
Dickerson would double and score in the 4th, and just when you thought the Giants might go an inning without scoring, along comes Mike Yastrzemski with a 2-out triple in the 5th. So we're up to 9-2, and the "2" was only because Garrett Hampson has also homered twice for Colorado. Hampson also had a multi-homer game against the Giants at their place back on September 24 of last year; Nolan Arenado and Garrett Atkins are the only other players in Rockies history to do it against them in both cities. Then it got weird.
Enter Jairo Diaz to pitch the 6th for the Rockies. Belt doubles again. Solano singles him in. Brandon Crawford 3-run homer. And with 2 outs, the final batter against Diaz was also the final one against Antonio Santos to end the 5th-- Alex Dickerson of the 2 homers earlier in the game. Or, well, yeah, 3 homers. That closes the book on Jairo Diaz and makes him the second pitcher in Rockies history to give up 7 runs and 2 homers while getting no more than 2 outs. Javier Lopez did that in a 15-3 thumping by Minnesota on June 12, 2003. And the Gray/Diaz pairing was the first in Rox history to each give up 7 runs while pitching less than 3 innings in the same game.
Did we mention 3 homers? Oh yeah, we did. Turns out Dickerson is the first Giants batter not named Barry Bonds with a 3-homer game in Denver (Bonds did it twice). He's the fifth in Giants history to have the solo, 2-run, and 3-run varieties in the same game, after Pablo Sandoval (2013), Darrell Evans (1983), Willie Mays (1961), and Mel Ott (1930). And spoiler alert, he's not quite done.
Tyler Kinley, who got the last out of the 6th, gives up three straight singles to start the 7th, and not only is our score up to a whopping 17-2, but we're pondering whether the Giants are going to become the 21st team in MLB history to score in every inning. (We have a "bucket list" of lists we want to make and share with you across the top of this site, and this is on it.) Dickerson walks to lead off the 8th but eventually scores again-- for the fifth time-- and becomes the first Giants player to cross the plate five times in a game since J.T. Snow in Philadelphia on August 13, 2004. He's also just the second player in team history with 5 runs scored and 6 RBI in the same game; the other is Phil Weintraub in a game that pops up occasionally-- April 30, 1944, where Weintraub had 11 RBIs and the Giants beat the Dodgers 26-8.
The play on which Dickerson scored that fifth run was another double by Solano, which also gave him 6 RBI on the night. That Weintraub game was also the last time Giants teammates had 6 RBI including multiple doubles in the same game; Ernie Lombardi played the Solano second-fiddle role in that one. So by now you have probably guessed that a position player is gonna pitch in this one, and Solano's double brings on backup catcher (and Former New Britain Rock Cat) Drew Butera. Who promptly gives up another double to Crawford, not only scoring Solano but making major-league history. Because that was also Crawford's sixth run batted in of the game. That's 18 RBI from just three players. And no team since the RBI stat was officially adopted in 1920 has had three players with six of them in the same game.
Back when the score was reasonable, Crawford had also stolen a base; no Giants player had posted 6 RBI and a steal since Johnny Rucker against Boston on September 29, 1940. And with Butera still on the mound for the 9th-- the position player in Rockies history to get more than 3 outs in a game-- Dickerson trots his number 12 out to the plate and reminds us that he's still here. His leadoff double, which was painfully close to being a fourth homer, did wind up being his fifth extra-base hit of the game, a first for the Giants in MLB's modern era (1901). It was the Giants' 13th extra-base hit of the game, their first time collecting that many since June 15, 1929, in a 20-15 slugfest with the Pirates. Dickerson was the first Giants batter to have 5 hits (of any type) and 5 runs scored in a game since Ross Youngs did that against the Braves on April 29, 1922. And only five players in the history of the game have had 5 extra-base hits, 5 runs scored, and 6 RBI in one contest; the others are Jackie Bradley Jr (August 2015), Shawn Green (May 2002, his 4-homer game), Willie Stargell (August 1970), and Joe Adcock (Jul 1954, also a 4-homer game).
It's worth mentioning that Drew Butera promptly got the final three outs after Dickerson's double, so the Giants did not become entry number 21 on the "scored in every inning" list. And just as we're working up our list of all the 23-4 games in MLB history, along comes Raimel Tapia in the bottom of the 9th. Matt Kemp, who led off the inning with a meaningless single, has made it around to third. And thus Tapia's long fly ball to center scored him. Since sacrifice flies were split off from bunts in 1954, it's only the third one ever to be hit with a team trailing by 19 runs. Rod Barajas of Arizona hit one in 2002 and the Royals' Todd Dunwoody recorded one (in the 6th inning!) in 2000. So the 23-5 score joined three others in MLB history, and a current or former New York team has been part of all of them. Nationals over Mets in 2017; the Giants-- still in New York-- also beat the Phillies by that count in 1931; and the "original" Metropolitans-- New York's entry in the American Association of 1887-- lost to Louisville on August 30 of that year. Go Colonels.
Soul Provider
(Shout-out to your service provider for having to deal with this many score updates.)
Tuesday's scoreboard may have been crowded with runs, but Friday's scoreboard was crowded with something else-- games. With the myriad of scheduling issues that have arisen this season finally all on hold, and no hurricanes approaching, we finally had all 30 teams playing on nearly every day last week. But there's also the issue of making up all those games from August. Which led to five doubleheaders on Friday alone, the most on any single day since September 13, 2008. In fact there were actually supposed to be six on that day 12 years ago, but of course one of them was caused by rain the day before and then got rained out again. Another postponement on that day was in Houston, when MLB decided to move two Astros/Cubs games to Miller Park in Milwaukee in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The next day (September 14) is when Carlos Zambrano threw that park's only no-hitter. But regardless, that means that not all 30 teams played on that day in 2008. On Friday they did. Ten of them twice. And that gave us the first day with 20 MLB games on the slate since August 4, 1974, when there were only 24 teams total but nine doubleheaders. If you've already done that math, you know that there should have been 21 games scheduled on that day, but the Mets and Expos got rained out. In Montréal. And now recall that the Olympics weren't there until 1976, so that game was still supposed to be outdoors at Parc Jarry.
Back in the days of the Federal League in addition to the American and National, we were able to find instances of as many as 24 "major-league" games being played on one day. But since the Feds disbanded after the 1915 season, the record for games on a day is 21. In last week's post about all the doubleheaders, we discussed how they used to be very popular money-makers on both Independence Day and Labor Day... and that day with 21 games was indeed the first Monday in September, of 1970.
Kisses On The Wind
(Or, did you know Neneh Cherry had more than one song?)
Some of that doubleheader fallout spilled over into Saturday, which had 17 games of its own on top of Friday's 20. And though we didn't have any single team score 17 runs in a game this week, we'll give partial credit to the Angels for scoring 17 in a day. That's because another hurricane came close enough to Houston a couple weeks back, causing multiple games with the Astros to get called off. Saturday's DH made up one of those and created the first doubleheader at Anaheim Stadium since July 20, 2015.
Initially the highlight of Game 1 was Mike Trout's 2-run homer in the 3rd, not so much because it took the lead-- which it didn't-- but because it was career dinger number 300. A total of 151 players have now reached that mark, including 10 who are active. Two of those are Angels because Albert Pujols is still stuck one behind Willie Mays at 659. The other significance to #300 was that it gave Trout sole possession of the all-time Angels home-run record. Tim Salmon ended his 14-year Angels career with exactly 299, which seems fishy. (Pujols has 214 since making the journey west.) The Angels would fight their way back behind two more doubles from Trout and also two from Andrelton Simmons. Down 9-7, Trout would walk to start the 7th and score on Justin Upton's second double of the game as well. Only once before in Angels history had three players recorded two doubles in the same game; Juan Rivera, Vlad Guerrero, and Darin Erstad did it at Texas on June 27, 2005. And two batters later, Jo Adell, prominently featured in last week's post, sends a base hit through the right side and Upton beats the play at the plate. It was the first walkoff single that the Angels had hit when trailing (so, the multi-run variety) since Garret Anderson beat Oakland on June 19, 1997! The Angels had gone the longest of any team without such a walkoff hit-- by almost nine years! The Marlins inherit that honor, having not had a multi-run walkoff single since May 23, 2006.
Now, we'll concede that the score was 10-9 and it's nice to see an AL West team finally score more than 3 runs, but that took 3 hours and there's still another game to play. Game 2 finally kicked off a little before 8 pm, and George Springer kicked it off with his 37th career leadoff homer, a category where he is firmly planted in second place on the Astros' list behind Craig Biggio's 53. We neglected to mention that Springer tripled in the first game; he and Joe Morgan (September 1, 1980) are the only two Astros leadoff hitters ever to triple in one game of a DH and homer in the other. Josh Reddick makes it 4-0 with his own homer in the 3rd, and then Springer goes deep again in the 5th. That's his eighth game with a leadoff homer and then a second homer later on; all other players in Astros history have combined to do it nine times (and Biggio is six of those).
So now it's 6-4 Houston and we're preparing our usual slate of notes because this is the last game of the day by well over an hour. Humberto Castellanos is out for another inning after needing only 11 pitches in the 6th. And okay, that 1-out single by Upton isn't a huge issue, it's still a 2-run lead. Let's have one of those ever-helpful "mound visits" and then walk Trout on five pitches. Enter Anthony Rendon, and exit baseball. And exit lead. And proving that two offsetting abnormalities do not make things normal again, Rendon just hit a go-ahead homer in the final inning of a home game. That should be a walkoff. It's not because this is a makeup of the game from Houston, so the Angels are batting first. But even if they were batting last, it's only the 7th inning. So it wouldn't have been a walkoff anyway because a "normal" game would be 9. Yeah, we're confused too. There's definitely several major-league "firsts" hiding in there, all of them with multiple asterisks. We can say it was the Angels' first lead-flipping 3- or 4-run homer in the last inning of a home game since Trout's walkoff against the Rays on May 15, 2014. And when the Astros failed to score in the "home" half of the 7th, the Angels had their delayed walkoff of a 7-6 victory-- as well as their first streak of three 1-run wins over the same opponent since beating Seattle from July 30 through August 1 of 2004.
By the way, not only did the Angels score 17 runs on Saturday (10 plus 7), they tallied 21 hits (13 plus 8) to take care of that number on our countdown too. Although we'll still give you the link for 21, because it just wouldn't be fair to have an obscure Neneh Cherry reference and then omit Katrina & The Waves.
One
(And then 15 more.)
Because of time-zone considerations, that 23-5 game was the last one of the night on Tuesday, which was handy. Because when that game blew up we were still finishing off notes from the previous 16-run outburst, which had started two hours earlier in Cincinnati. And start it did, with Sonny Gray completing your double helping of grayness by chunking up 6 runs in the 1st inning. Jon at least lasted into the 3rd for the Rockies, but Sonny was done after leadoff batter Kolten Wong re-led off with his second single of the inning. In the past 10 years only one other Cardinals leadoff batter has gotten a pair of hits in the 1st inning, Matt Carpenter at Coors Field on August 26, 2018. Sonny was the first Reds starter to give up 6 runs while getting 2 outs since Johnny Cueto absorbed a 22-1 beatdown from the Phillies on July 6, 2009.
Wong is already halfway to his hit total for the game, but Brad Miller-- of Cardinals jersey number 15-- is not. He had to wait until the 2nd inning for that, when he homered off Lucas Sims who had the unenviable-- and unsuccessful-- task of shutting this mess down. By the 5th it is 9-0 with Miller having driven in four of those runs already, but they're not done. Wong doubles for his fourth hit of the game, and Miller singles to score him. Wong would end up with 4 hits and 4 runs scored, the first St Louis leadoff batter not named Matt Carpenter to do that in a game since the great Bo Hart in Kansas City on June 28, 2003. Wong was also the Cards' first leadoff batter with 4 hits and a hit-by-pitch in the same game since Jerry Mumphrey on July 6, 1976.
But in case 5 RBI weren't quite enough to get you noticed on Tuesday (Marcell Ozuna will raise his hand on this topic later), Miller launches another 2-run homer in the 8th to make our final score 16-2. The last Cardinals cleanup batter with 3 extra-base hits and 7 RBI in a game was Big Mac himself, Mark McGwire on May 18, 2000. And the last 7-RBI game by a St Louis player against the Reds? That's Mark Whiten's famous 4-homer game on September 7, 1993. Thanks to all the runs, number-2 hitter Tommy Edman ended up with 7 at-bats in a 9-inning game, the first Cardinal to do that since Ray Lankford in an 11-3 win in Pittsburgh on August 5, 1994.
And lest you think a position player didn't end up pitching in this one, well, we have Matt Davidson for that. Who started the game as the designated hitter. We've covered this before, but the DH is "designated" to hit in place of the pitcher, not be the pitcher. And sure enough, Davidson was the first player in Reds history to make that transition in mid-game. He's also the first Reds position player to pitch 2 innings of a game since Paul O'Neill in 1997, and the first to pitch in three games in the same season since outfielder Al Libke in 1945.
Miller would end up homering again on Wednesday, joining the aforementioned Matt Carpenter (2018), Fernando Tatis Sr (1999), George Hendrick (1978), and Jim Bottomley (1929) as the only Cardinals to have 7 RBI in one game and then go deep again in the next.
Cherish
(Broken hearts and losing at this game. Yeah, that sounds like the Mets.)
The Mets and Phillies matched up in Sunday's series finale at Citi Field, a much-hyped battle of aces Aaron Nola and Jacob deGrom. If you like strikeouts, we had plenty of them; it became the first Mets/Phillies game ever where both starters recorded 10 of them. Except while deGrom only gave up 3 hits, Nola was getting knocked around for 8, including 6 for extra bases. That put the Mets in the lead 6-1 before Nola departed in the 6th inning, the first Phillies pitcher to fan 10 but also give up 6 runs since Cole Hamels in July 2006. Then it got fun.
Sounds like a perfect time for the MLB debut of Mauricio Llovera, who did escape two Mets hits in the 7th. In the 8th, though... not so much. Single. Single. Walk. Dom Smith's third double of the game. Pitching change, which doesn't help. Double. Pete Alonso's second homer of the day, followed two batters later by a Wilson Ramos homer to blow our final score up to 14-1. Llovera became the first pitcher to make his debut with the Phillies and give up 4 runs on 3 outs since Darrin Winston did it, also against the Mets, in 1997. Not only did Alonso have the 2 homers, he also doubled for one of those hits in the 7th. He and Smith became the third set of teammates in Mets history with 3 extra-base hits and 3 RBI in the same game; the others were both at Wrigley Field: Ike Davis & Daniel Murphy (2012), and Kevin McReynolds & Tom O'Malley (1990). As the designated hitter, Alonso also joined Carlos Delgado (at Yankees, 2008) as the only Mets DH's to have 3 XBH in a game.
All told the Mets collected 12 extra-base hits on Sunday, 7 doubles and 5 homers. That was their most ever in a home game, at any of their three stadiums. And the 14-1 final was the second-largest home win ever, again at any stadium, for the Mets against their "friends" from Philly. They dropped a 17-0 on September 25, 2016. And in possibly our favorite note of the week, remember Wilson Ramos's homer? That followed four strikeouts back in the early part of the game when Nola was mowing people down. The last Mets batter with a dinger and 4 K's in the same game was Bobby Bonilla in 1992, which is fun by itself. But it happened on Bobby Bonilla Day-- July 1-- so celebrated because the Mets still cut him a check every year. Because Mets.
Keep On Movin'
(Around those bases.)
As Wednesday's slate of games kept on movin' toward its end on the west coast, the Padres threw a little interlude at us. Tied 3-3 with the Angels after the 7th inning, San Diego kept on movin' batters to the plate-- 11 of them who eventually scored 8 runs off three different Angels pitchers. Those hurlers-- Ty Buttrey, Hansel Robles, and Noe Ramirez-- became the first trio in Angels history to each allow multiple earned runs while getting no more than 2 outs in a home game. Robles faced three batters and walked all of them, in a fairly-efficient 15 pitches even. The only other pitchers in Angels history to face 3+ batters, walk all of them, and have all of them score, were Rich DeLuca in 1998 and Brad Pennington in 1996. That also contributed to the Padres scoring 11 runs in the game on only 9 hits, a linescore they hadn't pulled off since July 27, 2013, in Phoenix. And Eric Hosmer, who started the inning with a single and then finished it off with a 3-run homer against Ramirez, became the second cleanup batter in Padres history ever to have a homer, 3 runs scored, 3 RBI, and a hit-by-pitch all in one game. Adrian Gonzalez did it against Arizona on April 24, 2007.
Long-Distance Dedication
If you had to list a bunch of songs about baseball, the ones that get played way too much at every game in every stadium because someone thinks it's cute, you know this would be in the top 10. In real life it never even made the top 40. Casey never played it. Peaked at #44. But at least in a baseball stadium, you can't get much of a longer distance than center field. Intermission!
18 And Life
(Or maybe just 10-to-life.)
So we've hit the two ridiculous scoring outbursts from Tuesday's slate, but we've still got plenty of nuggets from other games. In Kansas City, the Royals were trying another Matt Harvey Experiment by starting him against the Indians, and let's just say that experiment will not win your school science fair. (Do they even do those anymore?) Harvey gave up home runs to Francisco Lindor and Franmil Reyes in the 1st, then to Roberto Perez in the 2nd before finally getting pulled after only 4 outs. Only four other Royals starters are in the dubious "3 homers in 4 outs" club: Jorge Lopez (2018), Jeremy Guthrie (2015), Brian Bannister (2008), and Charlie Liebrandt (1987).
Reyes, however, was nowhere near done. He singled in the 3rd and doubled in the 5th to set up the ever-popular (and frankly, kind of annoying) "triple shy of the cycle". Which of course, nobody ever gets, Reyes included. He did add another single and a 7th-inning double to knock Chance Adams out of the game, making him the third designated hitter in Indians history with a 5-hit game. The others are Lonnie Chisenhall on May 14, 2014 (not his 9-RBI game, which was a few weeks later), and Ellis Burks on June 19, 2001. Grady Sizemore (2005) and Milton Bradley (2002) are the only other Clevelanders to have a 5-hit game in Kansas City, and that includes the A's years.
Tuesday's final score was 10-1, and Reyes became the 10th player in Cleveland history to put up 10 total bases in a game in Kansas City (Tyler Naquin, July 20, 2016, was the previous one).
If I Could Turn Back Time
(Don't get us started.)
"Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each", begins the very first sentence on page 1 of the MLB rule book. You have to get to page 13 to actually establish the batting order and make one of those players into the number-9 hitter. In a National League game with no DH, the vast majority of #9 batters were pitchers because many of them can't hit. But in this weird season of experimental rules made real, there are no more pitchers batting. Every game at least has the designated hitter option, and so far we haven't seen a team opt out in the way that Madison Bumgarner did in Oakland a few years ago.
So Saturday in Pittsburgh we witnessed Tucker Barnhart of the Reds and Jason Stallings of the Pirates both go yard. That's interesting enough because they were the two starting catchers. But it was the first game in Pittsburgh-- a National League city where games were never played with the DH before this year-- where both starting #9's homered since Cliff Chambers and Ralph Branca, both of whom were pitchers, did it on June 8, 1950.
Mauricio Dubon was certainly not the big story from that 23-5 game we started with (sorry, Mauricio), but his line did catch our attention. He had one of those 8 doubles the Giants racked up. He also had a sacrifice fly and thus drove in 2 runs. Again not something #9 batters tend to do much of. In fact, the only other Giants #9 to do that in a game was indeed a pitcher-- Livan Hernandez on April 7, 2002. Then on Saturday Dubon legged out a triple in the Giants' 4-3 win over Arizona. That's not completely unprecedented, but look up a spot. Joey Bart in the 8-hole hit a triple as well. The last time the Giants had both 8 and 9 record a three-bagger in a game, it was indeed the traditional 8 and 9, catcher (who usually can't run) and pitcher (who usually can't hit). But their names were Paul Florence and Jack Scott, and the date was June 14, 1926.
The Giants had even more #9 fun on Sunday when starting catcher Chadwick Tromp homered in the 3rd inning against Arizona. By the 7th, holding a precarious 3-2 lead, they turned to pinch hitter Brandon Belt in Tromp's place, and sure enough he also Belt-ed a home run. It was the first game in (at least) the modern era where the Giants' starting #9 hitter homered, and then a pinch hitter in the #9 spot also homered. To be fair, they did have one game where it happened in reverse: On June 16, 1961, Jim Marshall homered as a pinch hitter for starting pitcher Billy Loes, then Jack Sanford, the relief pitcher who inherited that spot, also went yard later in the game.
Sunday also saw the end of the most recent Cardinals/Cubs series at Wrigley Field, with Harrison Bader taking his usual place at the bottom of the lineup. He began the 3rd by getting hit with a pitch, the first volley in a 4-run St Louis rally. He then began the 4th with a double, the 8th with a single, and in between, got credit for a double in the 6th when David Bote knocked down his grounder but shortstop Javier Baez had to come all the way over to field it. That's 3 hits for good old #9, the first time that spot in the Cardinals' order has had a 3-hit game at Wrigley since pitcher Curt Simmons on April 14, 1962. Only one other Cards #9 in the modern era has recorded three hits and a hit-by-pitch; that's another pitcher, Mike Torrez against the Expos on April 15, 1970. And the last #9 to have 2 doubles for the Cardinals at Wrigley? We probably don't have to tell you that he's a pitcher. It's only Steve Carlton on April 7, 1971.
And finally, Jon Berti of the Marlins-- who already made history a couple weeks ago by stealing home for the third time this season-- also took his place in #9 lore. On Tuesday, Starling Marte, recently traded to break up the "Marte partay" with his brother in Arizona, made his debut for Miami and all he did was hit a go-ahead homer in the 8th. That was only the second time a Marlins batter had done that in his first game with the team; the other was Miguel Cabrera's walkoff in his major-league debut in 2003. But the Marlins were in that position largely because Berti had homered and doubled earlier in the game. And the only other #9 batters to do that in Marlins history had both been pitchers-- Carl Pavano and Dontrelle Willis, both in 2004.
Angel Eyes
(Angels probably would wear white socks. Do they have feet?)
You might have heard a little something about Lucas Giolito of the White Sox last week when he created possibly the most rare of all ticket stubs that can ever claim to be from a no-hitter. (We're pretty sure the cardboard cutouts won't part with theirs.) But Giolito was back on the mound on Monday against the Twins for our latest installment of Johnny Vander Meer watch. Happily that only lasted 1 inning before Miguel Sano shot one through the right side, and apparently the White Sox were so not used to having balls hit to them, that Adam Engel promptly misplayed it into a "double".
The White Sox would end up winning that game 8 to 5 after a late surge made possible in large part by Luis Robert. His solo homer tied the game in the top of the 7th, and then with 1 out in the 9th he broke the tie by plopping an automatic double over the left-field fence. Robert joined Alexei Ramirez (August 17, 2010) as the only White Sox batters to have both a tying hit and a go-ahead hit in the 7th or later of the same game in Minnesota (any stadium). Unlike last week, however, Giolito would not even be the winning pitcher since he was out of the game by the 6th. He did, however, strike out 8 Twins batters after already setting the White Sox record with 13 K's in the no-hitter. Only one other Sox pitcher had fanned 8 or more batters in the game after throwing a no-hitter; that was Frank Smith who managed to do it against the same opponent! Smith threw his NH against the Athletics on a Sunday, then the series finale on Tuesday got rained out and made up on Wednesday, so Smith pitched again and struck out 9 more in a 10-inning complete game. This all happened on September 20 and 23... of 1908.
Shower Me With Your Love
(Nope. Can't shower after games anymore. Also, must disinfect all Surfaces.)
We're not sure if Marlins newcomer Sixto Sanchez is actually the sixth child in his family. We also have no reason to believe he's a demon, although there might be a handful of batters who disagree. The 22-year-old pitcher made his debut at Nationals Park on August 22 and allowed 6 hits including a pair of homers, but still ended up winning a 5-3 decision. Six days later he made his first start at Marlins Park and matched zeroes with Ryan Yarbrough of the Rays, striking out 10 and again scattering 6 hits. On Wednesday Sixto went out for his third MLB start, losing a tough 2-1 decision to the Blue Jays on one bad pitch to Lourdes Gurriel, who became the first Jays batter to have a 2-hit, 2-RBI game at Marlins Park since Jose Bautista and Colby Rasmus each did it in their first two games there in 2012. But oddly enough, Sixto again gave up exactly 6 hits. The last pitcher to summon up a 6-6-6 in the hits column to start his major-league career? That's Matt Maloney of the Reds in 2009. And from the "you can't make this up" file, Maloney's MLB debut came in June of that year-- yep, on 6/6.
Heaven
(Isn't too far away. At least if you like cheese.)
We keep returning to the gift that keeps on giving, Tuesday's scoreboard, and this time we end up in Milwaukee. And we presume the Wisconsinites ate all the cheese, because Josh Lindblom and Phil Bickford certainly weren't throwing it. Both of them gave up 4 earned runs as the Tigers beat up on the Brewers 12-1. Oh sure, Lindblom got through the first 2 innings unscathed, but Christin Stewart greeted him with a solo homer in the 3rd and the rout was on. Willi Castro followed that with a double, then added a triple in the 4th to become the first Tigers #9 batter with both those hits in a road game since Ramon Santiago at Yankee Stadium on May 1, 2008.
The big blow, however, would come in the 8th when Bickford walked out to a major-league mound for the first time. Let's just say it'll get better. Victor Reyes-- who wears jersey number 22 since you might have noticed we didn't use that one yet-- starts the scoring with his fourth hit of the game, a 2-run double that makes him the first Tigers batter with a 4-hit game in Milwaukee since Bobby Higginson did it on August 22, 1997, when both teams were in the American League. Those runs also gave Reyes 5 driven in on the day, joining Roger Cedeño (2001) and Gee Walker (1936) as the only Tigers leadoff batters with 4 hits and 5 RBI in a game. And the 4 runs Bickford allowed, combined with hitting two batters and throwing a wild pitch, made him the first reliever to do that in a major-league debut since Joe Shipley of the Giants also did it against Milwaukee. Except that's the Braves because it was on July 14, 1958.
Don't Wanna Lose You
(We all make mistakes. Some of them end up on Lansdowne Street.)
Lost in the continuing chaos of Tuesday's scoreboard was a 10-3 contest between the Braves and Red Sox at Fenway Park. In this season of "who's really the home team?", you could be forgiven for flashing back to the late 1910s when both teams were in Boston and they actually borrowed each other's parks on occasion. There were at least two occasions when renovations to Braves Field were not completed on time (that would never happen in Boston, right?) and they played at Fenway; on the other hand, the Red Sox would sometimes head up the street to the Braves' place for Sunday games (and the entire 1915 and 1916 World Series) because of its larger capacity.
This arrangement ends up generating some great nuggets when Marcell Ozuna jacks three home runs out of Fenway on Tuesday, becoming the first National League player ever to have a 3-homer game there. The last time the Braves had a 3-homer game in Boston was, well, up the street at what is now Boston University's Nickerson Field; Jim Tobin did it against the Cubs on May 13, 1942. Only three other Braves players had ever had the solo, 2-run, and 3-run varieties in the same game (remember Alex Dickerson did this on the same day?); they were Jeff Treadway in 1990, Joe Adcock in 1954, and Les Bell in 1928. That also gave Ozuna 6 RBI; he and Freddie Patek of the Angels (June 20, 1980) are the only visiting players with a 3-HR, 6-RBI game at Fenway. And since we've mentioned the others already (Alex Dickerson and Brad Miller), Tuesday was also the first time in MLB history where three players had multiple homers and 6 RBI on the same day.
Well, apparently the Braves were upset that Ozuna's highlight wasn't the lead on "SportsCenter", given everything else that happened Tuesday. So he does homer again in Wednesday's game, this time breaking a tie in the 7th inning and becoming the first Braves player to hit a go-ahead homer that late in a game at Fenway since... yep, they were the home team. That happened on September 23, 1914, in one of those "borrowed" games during Braves Field renovations. James "Red" Smith was the player who hit a walkoff that day against, neatly enough, the Reds.
However, Ozuna could only take the lead because Adam Duvall had tied the game in the 6th with his own second homer of the day. And when Duvall tacked on the final run for a 7-5 Braves win, he didn't do it with some cute little RBI groundout. Nope, he did it with a third homer. Off a third different Sox pitcher, the first opponent to do that since Mark Teixeira in May 2010. He's also the first Braves batter with a 3-homer game batting 7th or lower since Jeff Blauser in 1992. But yes, Ozuna just had his own 3-homer game yesterday. And the cardboard cutouts (many of which we suspect attended both games) have just witnessed major-league history. Never before had teammates recorded 3 homers in back-to-back games; it did happen on back-to-back days once, May 21 and 22 of 1930, but there were doubleheaders involved so they weren't in consecutive games. We'll still tell you which two players accomplished that feat 90 years ago. Or we'll show you-- because they're hanging on one of our walls upstairs.
Cold Hearted
(It would have been perfect for this one to be about the Diamondbacks. It's not.)
There is no shortage of 2's in any day's worth of games and notes; in fact sometimes games are so dull that the "star of the game" is the guy who managed to have 2 hits. (Looking at you again, AL West.) But the "2" that jumped out at us was from Friday, and it's a by a team named the Twins, and in a doubleheader.
Jorge Polanco started the festivities with a home run off Matt Boyd, the 23rd time the Twins (as the Twins) have hit a leadoff dinger against the Tigers. That's their most of any opponent (Indians 19). Another six pitches, another 3-2 count to Josh Donaldson, doink, another homer. The last time Minnesota began a game with two straight taters was on May 25, 2016, when Eduardo Nuñez and Brian Dozier hit them off Dillon Gee of the Royals. On Friday Boyd then settled down and wound up pitching a complete game, although it's a 7-inning doubleheader, so add your asterisks.
Now the catch here is the final score. 2-0, Twins. Those back-to-back homers not only ended up being the only 2 runs they scored in the game, but they stood up for a win. The last time some team pulled that off? It's May 27, 1964, by the Giants, when Chuck Hiller and Duke Snider (in the last season of his career after going over to the Mets in '63) went deep off Cardinals HOF'er Bob Gibson.
Ian Happ of the Cubs ended up with his own variation on this theme on Saturday. Also in a doubleheader, he began Game 1 with a leadoff shot against Adam Wainwright. The Cubs then managed only 3 baserunners over the next 4 innings until Happ comes up again in the 5th. And another home run. Now this one is a little different because the Cubs lost. But the final score was 4-2, with Happ providing both the runs on solo homers. No Cubs batter had done that in any game since Anthony Rizzo at Target Field on June 19, 2015 (they lost that one too). And they hadn't had a leadoff batter do it since Rick Monday on Tuesday, July 3, 1973, against the Phillies.
Hangin' Tough
(Appropriately, Mets fans know all about this too.)
As with all the low numbers, you can find a "1" just about anywhere you look in the baseball universe. But the Mets and Yankees still had one leftover game to play, even after their 5-in-3 escapade that we prominently featured last weekend because (among many other things) the Mets hit their first-ever walkoff homer against the Yankees. Well, fast-forward to Wednesday when Robert Gsellman and J.A. Happ have equally bad starts, just at different times. Gsellman gave up 4 runs without finishing the 2nd inning, joining Armando Reynoso (June 17, 1997) as the only Mets starters ever to do that against the Yankees. Meanwhile, Happ waited until the 4th to give up his runs, and by the 9th the Yankees are sitting on a 7-6 lead. But with Aroldis Chapman coming in for the save. Or in this case blowing it when J.D. Davis hit the first game-tying home run for the Mets against the Yankees in the 9th or later. Never had one of those before last week either. And while Chapman was the 277th Yankee pitcher to give up a home run and blow a save, he was only the third to also commit a balk, after Tom Gordon in 2005 and Lee Guetterman in 1990.
New kid on the block Todd Frazier (he's actually lived on this block before, but it was too easy) would end the game with 3 hits, a homer, and 3 runs scored, joining Derek Bell (June 9, 2000) as the only Mets ever to have that line against the Yankees. And soon enough, Pete Alonso would end the game with the first walkoff homer of his career, a 2-run shot on the second pitch thrown by Albert Abreu in his second game in the majors. (This qualifies for special "2" status.) And so updating our chart of Mets walkoff homers against the Yankees: at Yankee Stadium, 1; at Citi Field, (finally) 1.
And There Ya Have 'Em
Wondering what all this was leading to? Well, it's one final number, brought to you by one of the teams that pioneered uniform numbers over 90 years ago (and who probably have the most well-known original ones). The Yankees have retired so many jerseys over the years that they commonly give out 60's and 70's to players who get called up in mid-season, frequently re-using the same number several times in a summer. With this season's special roster rules and 60-player "taxi squads", we've seen a few bizarre ones. While there is no rule as to which numbers are "legal" (we always wanted to rep the "number" e), this summer began with only three of the integers from 0 to 99 having never been used. And the Cardinals wiped out two of those-- 86 and 92-- by bringing up pitchers Jesús Cruz and Genesis Cabrera.
That meant Monday's MLB debut of Yankees pitcher Miguel Yajure was notable for two reasons. First, he was just the fifth pitcher ever to make his debut with the Yankees and spin off 3+ hitless innings. The fourth, Nick Nelson, had done it just a month ago; the others were Lance Pendleton in 2011, Zach Monroe in 1958, and Hank Borowy in 1942. But those pitchers-- in fact, no other player in MLB history before Yajure-- had worn jersey number 89 in a game.
You, on the other hand, have been deep in "89" this entire time. Those section headers and song links up above correspond to the Billboard chart from 31 years ago this week.
Now keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Freddie Freeman, Fri-Sun: First Braves player to hit two grand slams in three days since pitcher Tony Cloninger famously hit two in the same game, July 3, 1966.
⚾ Trea Turner, Monday: Became first player in Nats/Expos history to have 3+ hits in four consecutive games.
⚾ Mookie Betts, Wednesday: First Dodgers homer to tie up a 1-0 game in the bottom of the 9th since Eric Karros went deep off Seattle's Mike Timlin on August 31, 1997.
⚾ Alec Bohm, Thursday: First Phillies batter with 3 hits and a walkoff sac fly in same game since Byron Browne against the Expos on June 25, 1970.
⚾ Ian Happ, Tuesday: First Cubs leadoff batter with 3 hits and 3 strikeouts in same game since Ryne Sandberg at Cincinnati, May 21, 1988.
⚾ Jonathan Arauz, Sunday: Second player in Red Sox history to draw 3 walks in a game he didn't start. Ed Jurak entered for Wade Boggs on August 28, 1984, after the latter fouled a ball off his own ankle in the 1st inning.
⚾ Jonathan Holder, Friday: First Yankees pitcher to score the go-ahead run that earns him the win in the same game since Sparky Lyle on August 20, 1972 (last season without DH).
⚾ Pedro Severino, Wednesday: First Orioles catcher to triple, draw a walk, and commit a passed ball in same game since Elrod Hendricks against Boston, August 25, 1968.
⚾ Matt Chapman, Saturday: First Oaklander with 5 strikeouts in a home game since Jose Canseco against the Royals, July 16, 1997.
⚾ Nationals, Tue-Wed: First time in franchise history (1969) being shut out in back-to-back games in Philadelphia.
⚾ Nationals, Saturday: First time scoring 10 runs in a game in Atlanta without benefit of a homer since June 7, 1991, at Fulton County.
⚾ Jordan Montgomery, Wednesday: First Yankees starter to give up 5+ hits and 2+ homers while getting no more than 2 outs since Scott Kamieniecki at Texas, June 7, 1994.
⚾ Rowdy Tellez, Monday: First player in Blue Jays history to end an extra-inning home game with a hit that was NOT a walkoff (because Lourdes Gurriel got thrown out at the plate).
⚾ Fernando Tatis & Manny Machado, Friday: Second set of back-to-back homers the Padres have ever hit against the Athletics. Adrian Gonzalez & Mark Bellhorn did it at Petco on June 29, 2006.
⚾ Phillips Valdez, Thursday: First Red Sox pitcher to give up multiple homers in an extra inning at Fenway since Craig Hansen against the Yankees on August 20, 2006.
⚾ Max Fried: Monday: First Braves starter to begin a season 6-0 or better since Denny Neagle in 1997.
⚾ Trevor Rogers, Sunday: Second pitcher in Marlins history to strike out 10 batters but also give up 3 homers. Scott Olsen did it against the Braves on April 25, 2007.
⚾ Franklyn Kilome, Tuesday: Second reliever in Mets history to give up 4 runs, 2 homers, throw a wild pitch, and take a loss. Tug McGraw did it against Pittsburgh on May 19, 1973.
⚾ Sandy Leon & Omar Narvaez, Saturday: First known game where BOTH catchers committed an interference violation since Joe Astroth (Athletics) and Birdie Tebbetts (Red Sox) on September 3, 1949.
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