Apparently the baseball gods got tired of us doing posts about nothing.
Sports schedule got you a little messed up over the past year? Basketball playoffs in October? The Masters in November? Opening Day in July? A Kentucky Derby in September? College football in April?
Well, if you're gonna have football in April, it follows that you would have football scores in April. On a baseball field. Several of them on one particular field. Which used to host football.
Of course we take you to Wrigley Field, where, for quite a few years, there was only one sport being played in October. In fact, this fall the Friendly Confines will mark another 100th anniversary, of the first time it played host to the newly-relocated Decatur Staleys of the fledgling National Football League. (It will also mark the 50th anniversary of them leaving, but probably with less fanfare.) Back on October 16, 1921, the locals scored 16 to defeat the Rochester (N.Y.) Jeffersons before an estimated crowd of 8,000. Later that fall the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians would also visit Wrigley Field and lose. The following year the team became the Bears solely because they shared a stadium with, well, the Cubs.
The Mets waited until the 4th quarter-- er, inning-- on Wednesday to do their best Metsing. After three straight singles, a potential double-play ball ended up in right field, leading to a bases-loaded walk, another error, a pitching change, two more singles, a third error, and a touchdown's worth of runs to blow the game open at 7-2. Just one inning later Javier Baez would reach on a catcher's interference for the Mets' fourth error, and their first CI committed against the Cubs since Gary Carter on August 11, 1988. Baez wasn't exactly done, however. After Trevor Hildenberger walks the bases loaded in the 7th, Baez unloads them with his sixth career grand slam and first at home in almost 4 years. It was the first time Cubs had ever hit a grand slam against the Mets while already leading by 6 runs (run up the score!), and their first against any team since Kris Bryant in May of 2019.
That gives us our Cubs football score of 14, and for the sake of, well, safety, Luis Guillorme gives up two more runs in the 8th and we land on a 16-4 final, one run shy of the Mets' largest loss at Wrigley (an 18-5 on September 16, 1972). The Mets also hadn't commmitted 4 errors in a game at the (Un)Friendly Confines since June 8, 1989, when they got walked off by an unearned run (of course). The Cubs, for their part, had played only one other game at Wrigley where they scored 16+ runs with no more than 13 hits. The other was an 18-13-4 linescore against the Pirates on April 17, 1974.
15-Pack Of Brew
Okay, we admit, "16-4" isn't really a football score, even if it does harken back to that first Staleys game of 100 years ago. Neither is "15-2". In fact, they're so not football scores that neither of them has ever happened in a pro game. But the Cubs followed up on Friday by dropping that in their series opener with Milwaukee. Brett Anderson barely got out of the gate, allowing back-to-back doubles after retiring leadoff man Willson Contreras. He would end up charged with 3 runs and only the 1 out recorded, the first Brewers starter to pull that off since Matt Garza at Washington on July 19, 2014.
Then it was Josh Lindblom's turn. And he gave up 3 more runs before finally retiring Contreras to end the inning as well. That would be another touchdown's worth of runs, although the Cubs missed the extra point this time. It was their first 6-run 1st inning in a home game since July 2019, and combined with Wednesday, the second time this century they've had 6-run frames in two games in three days. The other stretch also began with the Mets (September 13, 2017) and continued with the Cardinals 2 days later.
Lindblom would also not be done taking one for the team. Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez hit back-to-back homers in the 2nd. Jason Heyward tripled. Jake Marisnick went yard in the 4th to give Lindblom the distinction of being the first Brewers reliver to allow 8 runs and 3 homers since Andrew Lorraine, also at Wrigley, on September 2, 2002.
Deciding that a 9-run lead was good enough for Kyle Hendricks, the Cubs pinch-hit for him in the 6th. And Austin Romine delivered another run (Jason Heyward) with a double. That was the first pinch-hit RBI double the Cubs had hit when already leading by 9 since Bill Schuster tallied one against Brooklyn on August 15, 1945. So what happens on the very next pitch but more running the score up. Willson Contreras couldn't get the slam like Baez had on Wednesday. But he could tack on a field goal with Jake Marisnick having been held at third on the previous play. The last 3- or 4-run homer the Cubs hit in the 6th or later when leading by double digits was Kris Bryant's grand slam in Cleveland on June 17, 2015. But, you know, you play for the win on the road. Or something. Last time they hit one of those at home? Don Young off Frank Reberger in their second meeting ever with the newly-elevated San Diego Padres, on May 13, 1969. (The Cubs won that game 19-0; to this day it remains tied for the worst defeat in the Padres' MLB history.)
There's a good chance you heard of a different version of 15-and-2 that got posted on Friday. This one wasn't a final score. It's the pitching line of our buddy Jacob deGrom, who dominated the Nationals with 15 strikeouts and only 2 hits allowed. Given that it's deGrom, the next thing you're expecting us to say is that he didn't win. But no, he actually did this time. In fact he threw a complete game on 109 pitches, and by hanging around until the 8th inning he got to throw in a couple more "2"s, under runs scored and "safe hits made", as old newspapers used to describe them. Only nine pitchers in the modern era have thrown games of 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 walks, and 15+ strikeouts, and none of the others also had 2 hits on offense. (The most recent was Max Scherzer's no-hitter at the end of 2015.)
DeGrom's offensive line was made even more unique by batting 8th on Friday. Only one other starting pitcher in history has collected 2 hits, 2 runs scored, and at least 1 RBI from a spot other than 9th, and if you guessed Tony La Russa is involved, you're right. Braden Looper did it for TLR's Cardinals on June 1, 2008.
So now you want the Nolan Ryan notes on the 15 strikeouts. Okay. There have been only three individual shutouts in Mets history with 2 hits allowed and 15 strikeouts. Ryan threw the first one on April 18, 1970, and Tom Seaver did it less than a month later. Hadn't happened in the 50 years since. On the flip side, the Nationals have only been shut out on 2 hits and whiffed 15 times once before in franchise history-- and that was against Nolan Ryan too. He was with Houston and they were the Expos back on July 22, 1986. And ignoring the "2 hits allowed" part, only one other Mets pitcher has thrown an individual shutout with 15 K's and no walks. That... is not Nolan Ryan. But we'll put Dwight Gooden on our staff any day; he did it against the Pirates on September 12, 1984.
O Come, O Come, Emanuel
Okay, so maybe these are Canadian football scores or something. We had this whole thing ready to go with 14's and 7's and 3's and teams just kept screwing it up by kicking rouges and stuff. Stick to the script, people.
But we couldn't let a post about running up the score neglect Houston's 16-2 romp against the Angels on Saturday. And after one batter it certainly didn't look like it would end well for the Astros. Because that's when Jake Odorizzi left the game after only 5 pitches citing "forearm tightness" (which frequently ends up being code for "Tommy John surgery"). That brought in Kent Emanuel for his MLB debut, and the Astros quickly gifted him 3 runs to work with. Which he needed after giving up homers to Albert Pujols and Shohei Ohtani in the next couple innings. (Also, wouldn't it be sort of a badge of honor to give up homers to those two? In your debut?)
But then in the middle innings, the Astros started playing a little 3-4-3 defense. And we don't mean balls deflecting off the first baseman. We mean scoring 3-4-3 in innings 3-4-5 and riding this game all the way to the win column. Michael Brantley ended up collecting 3 extra-base hits (all doubles) and 4 runs scored without driving in a run himself, a quirk done by a #2 batter in a lineup just two other times since 1920. Don Kolloway of the Tigers pulled it off in 1949, and Pirates great Arky Vaughan had such a game in 1941. Right below him in the order, Alex Bregman also crossed the plate four times, once on his own homer and once on a bases-loaded triple by Yordan Alvarez who was below him. Two sets of Astros teammates have ever scored 4+ runs in the same game at Minute Maid Park, and all four them start with "B". Two of the original Killer B's, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, did it on July 18, 2001.
As for Alvarez, that triple made him the first Astros cleanup batter with a three-bagger and 4 RBI since Carlos Lee did that in Philadelphia on April 2, 2011. All told, the Astros piled up 7 doubles and that triple, another feat they hadn't done in a decade. And the last time they did-- June 26, 2011, against the Rays-- they lost (by another football score, 14-10).
While all this is going on, Kent Emanuel is just kinda hanging out retiring batters. Gave up a homer to Pujols, got those debut jitters out of the way. Took just 10 pitches each in the 4th and 5th. A six-pitch 7th that included a double play. Another double play in the 8th to get out of that on seven offerings. And what do you know, he's still standing out there as we start the 9th, with the Astros now ahead 16-2 and everyone just wanting to go home. First-pitch single. A pair of second-pitch grounders. And of the last 12 batters Emanuel faced, the most pitches (4!) were seen by the guy who struck out to end the game. Having entered on the second batter of the game, Emanuel went 8⅔ innings in relief. Having never been on a major-league mound before.
The only longer relief outing in a debut was by John "Count Of" Montefusco on September 3, 1974; he entered for the Giants after starter Ron Bryant couldn't find the side of a barn and didn't retire anybody. For the Astros, forgetting the debut part, they'd had only two other pitchers in their history get 26 outs in relief. Mike Cosgrove entered a game with the Phillies on June 18, 1974, in a very similar situation after starter Dave Roberts pulled a shoulder muscle on the first batter. In a neat coincidence, that same day in 1974, a pitcher named Dave Giusti made his longest start since joining the Pirates 5 years earlier. Pittsburgh had moved Giusti back into the bullpen since he had done both roles for the Astros at times. One of those relief roles? In 1962, the Astros' inaugural season, Giusti pitched 9 innings of a 14-inning game-- the only relief outing in team history longer than Emanuel's.
one of the Pennsylvania papers we found from that day.
This post started out with the history of football in Chicago, and there's no way we would let it end without this classic. Shuffle like it's 1985. Intermission!
On Tuesday the Chiefs and Buccaneers tangled in a matchup of AFL expansion franc-- oh wait. The final score could easily be confused with the actual matchup of American baseball League expansion franchises, the Rays from 1998 and the Royals from 1969. Brad Keller and Rich Hill came down to each other's level, with Tampa Bay holding a 5-4 lead and both starters being gone by the 3rd inning. Keller may or may not been having Opening Day flashbacks to when he also gave up 5 earned runs and got 5 outs against the Rangers (actually 6 and 4). He's the first Royals pitcher to do that in multiple starts in the same season since Mark Redman in 2006. And it's still only April.
The Rays' bullpen kept things largely in control after Hill's 4-run outburst, while the Royals', well, didn't. Ervin Santana gave up 2 runs and a homer to Brandon Lowe. Kyle Zimmer followed with his own 4-run performance. Greg Holland, the last remaining piece of the Royals' "HDH" bullpen from their title year, hung back-to-back homers to Mike Zunino and Austin Meadows. The 14-7 final represented the most runs the Rays had ever scored against Kansas City, home or road, topping a 13-6 win at Kauffman on August 10, 2002.
Before ending the scoring with that 9th-inning homer, Meadows also chipped in a double, a single, and a sacrifice fly, thus joining Akinori Iwamura (June 19, 2007, at Arizona) as the only players in Rays history with all four items in the same game. With Randy Arozarena and Joey Wendle following him in the order, it was the first game in nearly a decade where the Rays' top 3 batters each recorded 3 hits. The trio of Johnny Damon, Ben Zobrist, and Evan Longoria did it in Houston on June 26, 2011.
And that Rays' bullpen was anchored, at least for one day, by Trevor Richards who got the last 9 outs having been spotted a 5-run lead. That "earned" him the famous 3-inning save, the first Rays pitcher to get one of those while allowing only 1 hit since Matt Andriese also did that at Kauffman on August 28, 2017.
Seven-Ten Split
The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, gave us a fun case of a 6 and a 7 within a 14 this week. After a lackluster 2-1 start through 5 innings against the Reds, both teams erupted for 6 runs over the next two frames once they got into each other's bullpens. David Peralta chipped in four of those for Arizona with a 2-run homer and a bases-loaded single. Eventually, however, it would be Jonathan India's first career home run that knotted things in the bottom of the 8th and sent us into free runner land.
The 10th begins with Josh Rojas singling home free runner Asdrubal Cabrera to give the D'backs the lead again. It ends with... Asdrubal Cabrera at the plate again after Arizona bats around. In between there is a home run from Carson Kelly and a bases-loaded triple from who else but David Peralta. That by itself was the first bases-loaded triple in extra innings in D'backs history, but it also gave him that "7" we mentioned, driving in half of Arizona's total of 14 runs. The D'backs had only ever had one other 7-RBI game on the road, by Damion Easley in Atlanta on June 3, 2006. The team's only other batter to have 5 hits and 7 RBI in one game was Shea Hillenbrand against the Rockies on July 7, 2003. And the team's only other player to have 5 hits in a game, yet miss the cycle by the all-too-common double, is Mark Reynolds against Houston on May 25, 2007. The only other time Arizona scored 6+ extra-inning runs in a game was on September 27, 2011, when they answered the Dodgers' 5-spot with Ryan Roberts' walkoff grand slam.
But hang on a minute, the Reds still have to bat too. And they get a free runner. Who scores on a Tucker Barnhart single. And then Tyler Naquin singles. And soon Cincinnati also has the bases loaded for Nick Castellanos. Who does not unload them with a triple. He does, however, hit a 2-run single to cut the final margin to 14-11. So your 10th-inning linescore is all in field goals, 6 over 3. The last time the Reds scored 3 runs in the bottom half of an extra inning and still ended up losing? That was July 2, 1976, when they traded 3's with Houston in the 11th and then ended up losing in the 14th. (And still had another game to play, because Independence Day weekend doubleheader.)
Raiders Of The Lost Park
Oakland has had an on-again, off-again relationship with football for quite a while now. In typical 1960s fashion, the Alameda County Coliseum was built to host both baseball and football, and it remained the last such shared facility long after all the others had been demolished. At least in most other cases it was the baseball team who moved out, in favor of their own new swanky "retro" ballpark without those dirt cutouts for bases.
But no, here in Oakland we keep making plans for a new snazzy ballpark but haven't seen one yet. The Raiders left town entirely (again). But the last of the "cookie-cutters" does have an occasional football reference though, such as Tuesday's 7-0 win over the Twins. That featured a complete game by Sean Manaea, the first individual shutout the A's have thrown against Minnesota since Jon Lester did it on August 7, 2014. Many of those runs came via a Matt Olson grand slam, and it was Oakland's first home game scoring 7+ runs on only 5 hits since April 12, 1994, against Toronto.
The 7-0 was the front end of a doubleheader, and one of those scores stayed the same in the nightcap. This time Oakland needed just 1 run to complete the sweep, their first 1-0 home win over the Twins since June 2, 2007, and the first time they'd won both ends of a twinbill via shutout since defeating the Royals by football-y counts of 3-0 and 7-0 on September 9, 1974. And the Twins hadn't been shut out on 2 hits at the Coliseum since Vida Blue threw his no-hitter against them on September 21, 1970.
In Wednesday's series finale the two teams played to basically a 10-10 tie that Kenta Maeda and Frankie Montas would just as soon forget. Both of them allowed 8 hits, 6 earned runs, and 3 homers while getting 12 outs or fewer. The only other pair of opposing starters in MLB history to do that, since earned runs first became a thing in 1912, also featured an entry from Minnesota. Carl Pavano matched "wits" with Detroit's Jeremy Bonderman on September 25, 2010.
In the 10th Byron Buxton put the Twins up with a 2-run homer, Minnesota's first go-ahead dinger in extras in Oakland since Paul Sorrento took Gene Nelson deep on September 13, 1990. And it all came crashing down on, of all plays, back-to-back errors. Mark Canha rolled one to second where it was airmailed by Luis Arraez for one run. Then this happened. The last game the A's won on an "error-off" was... last Sunday against the Tigers. They hadn't even won two such games in a season since 2008.
Qwest For Excellence
When does a field goal count as a touchdown? Why, when you "hit" a 3 but end up scoring seven times. Our final bit of football confusion takes us to Fenway Park on Thursday where Nick Pivetta and Justin Dunn of the Mariners matched each other's mediocre outings, Adam Ottavino blew a save on an unearned run, and here we sit at 3-3 headed to extras. We should back up and give Pivetta a little credit for taking a no-hitter into the 6th, which is about to become relevant. He did walk three, and lost the NH on a double by Ty France that scored two runs and also ended the inning when France got in a rundown. The bullpen issued two more walks and a hit-by-pitch, and with Ottavino's error, the manual scoreboard at Fenway probably wants to ask if these people are putting the cards in the right spot. At the end of regulation Seattle has 3 runs on 1 hit. One.
There is more baseball to play, however. The free runner means that the Mariners' second hit, a Sam Haggerty double, already scores a run. Wouldn't have mattered though, because after yet another walk to J.P. Crawford, Mitch Haniger connects for their third hit-- a homer to score both Haggerty and Crawford along with himself. That's 7 runs on 3 hits, or a touchdown on a field goal. The Sawx did nothing in their half of the 10th, thus ending with 8 hits-- a TD and a 2-point conversion-- that only counted for a field goal (3 runs).
No team had done a "7 on 3" linescore (or more) since the A's drew 12 walks against Toronto on April 12, 1994 and won 8-4. So you're correct in guessing it's the first time Seattle's ever come close to doing it. It was also the first time the Mariners had 3 hits and won since Seth Smith homered to beat Kansas City 1-0. The only team in the majors that had gone longer without such a win, oddly enough, is the Red Sox who watched Seattle do it Thursday.
As for that 3-run homer in the 10th, it was the Mariners' first 3- or 4-run job in extras since Robinson Cano took Cleveland's Cody Allen deep on April 21, 2016. They've only ever hit three against the Red Sox, and the others were both walkoff grand slams back at their own place. The "place" did change in between; Jim Presley hit one off Bob Stanley on July 17, 1986, and then Bret Boone took Curt Leskanic deep at the fancy new Safeco Field on July 19, 2004. You know, the fancy new Safeco Field that replaced the Kingdome so football and baseball could finally have their own homes.
You gotta stop building them across the street from each other, though. It's easy to get them mixed up.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Dodgers/Mariners, Tuesday: First game in the history of Safeco Field (slash T-Mobile) where neither team had more than 2 hits. Happened once at the Kingdome, against the White Sox in 1987.
⚾ Logan Webb, Sunday: First Giants pitcher with a multi-run triple in a home game since Scott Garrelts at Candlestick on June 29, 1989.
⚾ Avisail Garcia, Wednesday: First Brewers batter with 5 strikeouts in a 9-inning game since Richie Sexson at St Louis, May 29, 2001.
⚾ Fernando Tatis, Fri-Sat: Second visiting player ever to have back-to-back multi-homer games at Dodger Stadium. The other is only Barry Bonds in the first two games of the 2002 season.
⚾ Enrique Hernandez, Monday: Second Red Sox batter ever to lead off a Patriots' Day game with a home run. Ellis Burks did it against Texas on April 18, 1988.
⚾ Nick Wittgren, Thursday: Second pitcher in Indians history with a line of exactly 2 total outs, 2 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Mike Lopez did it in Seattle on July 27, 1995 (and tossed in 2 homers for good measure).
⚾ Connor Brogdon, Tuesday: First Phillies reliever to give up 6 runs while getting 2 outs since Ben Tincup against the Giants on April 30, 1918.
⚾ Tyler Glasnow, Friday: Third 4-strikeout inning in Rays history, after Alex Cobb in 2013 and Jeremy Hellickson in 2011.
⚾ Franmil Reyes, Sunday: Second Indians DH ever to have a homer, a triple, and 3 RBI in a home game, joining Rico Carty against the Mariners on August 28, 1977.
⚾ Garrett Richards, Wednesday: First Red Sox pitcher to issue 6 walks, hit a batter, throw a wild pitch, and commit a fielding error since Mickey McDermott against Chicago on July 26, 1949. (He got a win.)
⚾ Trevor Bauer, Saturday: Became first Dodgers pitcher in modern era to strike out 7+ batters in each of his first five outings of a season. Tom Candiotti (1992) and Sandy Koufax (1962) did it for four games.
⚾ Marlins, Thursday: Second time ever being shut out on 2 hits in San Francisco. Other game was April 28, 1995, at Candlestick, with Mark Leiter on the mound.
⚾ Joe Musgrove, Monday: First Padres pitcher to strike out 13 and lose since Jake Peavy vs Atlanta, May 22, 2006.
⚾ Nationals, Wednesday: First 1-0 win for Washington over St Louis since Dutch Leonard threw a 4-hit shutout on May 26, 1943. In a matchup that would now be Twins-Orioles.
⚾ Michael Perez & Kevin Newman, Saturday: First road game where Pirates' #8 and #9 batters both homered since Willie Stargell and Vern Law did it at Shea on June 2, 1966.
⚾ Alex Reyes, Friday: First Cardinals pitcher to issue a run-scoring wild pitch and a run-scoring walk, and still get a save, since Tom Henke on August 18, 1995.
⚾ Yasmani Grandal, Tuesday: First catcher for any team to be called for interference twice and commit a passed ball in the same game, since Minnesota's Mark Salas on April 23, 1986.
⚾ Braves, Sunday: First team in MLB history to record a total of 1 hit in a doubleheader. Previous low of 2 had been set by Cleveland on April 12, 1992. Last time Braves were 1-hit in any back-to-back games was September 28 & 30, 1916, at the Polo Grounds.
⚾ Rougned Odor, Saturday: First Yankees #9 batter to hit a go-ahead homer in Cleveland, in any inning, since Deion Sanders off Cecilio Guante, July 29, 1990. (One last football item for you!)
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