Last week was Memorial Day, and next week is Flag Day (yes, it still exists), and in a few weeks you might even be able to do something to celebrate Independence Day this year. So we thought we'd add a little patriotic flavor to your national pastime this week.
The Hunt For Reds October
...Is not going terribly well, considering they're still under .500 in mid-June. Various projections currently give them about an 8- to 10-percent chance of making the postseason. So you could play the old cliché that Tuesday was "just one game". Unfortunately the Reds seem to have a lot of "just one game"s.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia is home to several of those patriotic traditions, including the independence thing and maybe the flag thing (depending on which story you believe). Their baseball team also wears red, and the Reds were definitely seeing red after the Phillies dropped a 17-3 on them, one of those games that you knew we had to talk about.
It took a while for this one to get noticed, with Tyler Naquin's early 2-run homer matching solo shots by Ronald Torreyes and Odubel Herrera. It's only 4-3 as we go to the 6th. But Sonny Gray has been yanked from the game after 96 pitches and a double to Rhys Hoskins, and now it's the Phillies who see red in the form of the Reds' bullpen.
Andrew McCutchen, leadoff homer. Torreyes an RBI double. Herrera a second homer. Hoskins homers this time. And suddenly 4-3 has become 10-3 and that's fine, you can stop now. Cionel Perez, who bounced around the Astros' minor-league system for the past 4 seasons, is assigned to issue 2 walks and then another McCutchen homer in the 8th. "Cutch" became the first Phillies batter with 2 homers and 2 walks against the Reds since Rico Brogna on April 28, 1998. And of course you know we're not done, because Alex Blandino replaces Perez for the 9th, gives up two singles, gets two pinch-hit outs, walks J.T. Realmuto to load the bases, and then. Grand slam by Matt Joyce, who didn't even start the game; he was one of those walks prior to McCutchen's second homer. The last Phillies batter with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI in a game he didn't start was John Mayberry Jr on June 4, 2013. And Joyce was the first to hit a grand slam with the Phillies already up by 10 runs since Ryan Howard at Citi Field on September 20, 2012. That also left shortstop Mike Freeman to get the final out, the first Reds SS to pitch in a game since Paul Janish on May 6, 2009.
If you've been counting, that's also seven homers by the Phillies offense, something they've done only three times in their history-- and two of them have been at Great American Ball Park. The other was a 9-4 win on July 26, 2018. Since their founding in Philadelphia in 1882, just 106 years after the nation was founded there, they've only done it once in any of their home ballparks-- Veterans Stadium on September 8, 1998, against the Mets.
As for the 17 runs, that was the Phillies' highest total in a game in Cincinnati since July 30, 1953, at Crosley Field. The 14-run margin tied a game from June 30, 1898, as their second-largest win in the Queen City; they dropped an 18-0 on August 10, 1930. And the Reds hadn't allowed 17 runs in a home game since... oh wait. We mentioned they've had a few "just one game"s. It was only 12 days earlier when the Giants hung 19 on them. And the last time the Reds gave up 17+ in multiple home games was in 1901, and even that has a fun story. There was a 25-6 beatdown by Brooklyn in September of that year. But on June 9 they gave up 25 to the Giants thanks mostly to a sellout crowd that kept encroaching farther onto the field (remember, no outfield walls in those days) and causing many routine fly balls to become uncatchable ground-rule doubles. By the 9th inning the crowd had become uncontrollable and the game was forfeited to New York.
And the Reds couldn't let us go gently into the weekend either, could they? On Sunday they finished off a series with another very "red" team, the Cardinals. Often known as the Redbirds, their triple-A affiliate in Memphis, Tenn., actually uses that as their mascot. So we are in solid-red territory here (in more ways than one).
Jonathan India leads off the game for Cincinnati with a single. Jesse Winker then drops a 2-run homer, the first time the second Reds batter of a game has hit a 2-run homer in St Louis since Edgar Renteria off Edwin Jackson on September 4, 2011. Winker bats again with 2 on and 2 out in the 2nd, and wham, suddenly it's 5-0. It's been a while, but you might remember that Tyler Naquin also homered in the 1st and 2nd innings of a game against the Pirates during the first week of the season. And that makes this the first season in Reds history (all of it, to 1876) where multiple players have done that.
Except the Cardinals eventually get Wade Miley out of the game and meet Michael Feliz for the 6th. All he does is face 5 batters and let all of them score. Brad Brach gives up 2 hits and a walk before departing. And all of a sudden we are knotted in a 7-7 tie. It was the first time that consecutive Reds pitchers had given up multiple runs while getting nobody out since Al Jackson and Wayne Granger did it on July 17, 1969. The Cardinals' last 7-run inning in a home game against the Reds came at the old place-- June 26, 2003.
So it seems as though Jesse Winker is going to have to come through one more time. Top of the 9th, solo shot for his third homer of the day and an 8-7 Reds win. Winker had another 3-homer game against the Brewers back on May 21, and is the first player in team history to have two in a season. And only two other Reds batters have ever had a 3-homer game in St Louis. Ted Kluszewski did it on July 1, 1956, in a wild extra-innings fest that ended up with a 19-15 score. And Jake Beckley was also visiting St Louis when he had the first 3-homer game in Reds history on September 26, 1897.
The Yanks Are Coming
There's another baseball team with "Red" in its name, and depending on how your operating system sorts blank spaces, they might come before or after the Reds. Their city-- which can (and does) lay claim to as much patriotic history as anyplace else-- was the site of many historic events against the "Reds" in the 1770s. However, here in 2021, the Red Sox began their week by getting blown out in Houston, 11-2 on Monday. Jose Urquidy dominated the mound by allowing just 3 hits and striking out 9. He was the first Astros pitcher ever to post that line against the Red Sox, and because Houston has been in both leagues, they've now had a pitcher do it against all 29 other active franchises. Houston's 5-run 6th to blow the game open was their first 5-run frame in a home game against Boston since an interleague tilt on June 28, 2008.
Tuesday's game began with Jose Altuve hitting the second leadoff homer in Astros history against the Red Sox; George Springer had the other off Rick Porcello on June 3, 2018. Altuve would walk twice in that game, and then twice more on Wednesday, to become the first Astros batter with a "streak" of same since Jonathan Villar in September 2013. And while Urquidy only struck out 9 on Monday, Framber Valdez upped that to 10 on Wednesday, joining Bud Norris (July 1, 2011) as the only Astros pitchers to post double-digit K's against Boston.
The Sawx escaped a sweep on Thursday when Christian Arroyo connected for a 3-run homer in the 2nd and the Houston offense couldn't solve Martin Perez. Arroyo was the third Bostonian to hit a go-ahead 3-run homer at Minute Maid Park (any inning), and the first that isn't a Drew Brother. J.D. hit one on June 27, 2008, and it took 5 years for Stephen to do it as well, but he connected against Josh Fields on August 7, 2013.
This, of course, is all just leading up to the first series of the year between the Red Sox and Yankees. It's highly unusual that they don't meet until June; in fact, aside from last year, it's the first time it's happened since 1996 (when eight of their 13 meetings were in the final two weeks of the season). So it's not a surprise that at least one team was anxious to get going. Rafael Devers unloaded a 3-run homer in the 1st inning on Friday, the first such dinger the Sawx have hit at Yankee Stadium since... um... Rafael Devers did it against Sonny Gray on June 30, 2018. Since the renovations in the 1970s made "Yankee Stadium I" into "Yankee Stadium I.V", the only other Boston batter to hit two such homers is Mike Greenwell. That would end up being all the offense the Bostonians needed as Nate Eovaldi shut down the Yankees for a 5-2 win. Eovaldi did scatter 8 hits but only 1 earned run; he's the first Sawx pitcher to do that at Yankee Stadium and get a win since Roger Clemens on September 30, 1987.
Saturday featured Jameson Taillon and Eduardo Rodriguez as the starters, and let's just say we don't have a note on either of them. Gleyber Torres did connect for a 2-run homer to give the Yankees an early lead, but Devers delivered the tying runs in the 6th. He was the first Boston cleanup batter with 2 RBI in back-to-back games at Yankee Stadium since Kevin Youkilis in May 2010. It was then time for Chad Green (another color reference!) to give up 2 doubles and a homer with 2 outs in the 8th before getting pulled. It had been 60 years since a Yankees pitcher had allowed 4 earned runs while getting 2 outs in a home game against Boston, and taken a loss as a result. Duke Maas pulled it off in a start on September 18, 1959.
In the meantime, though, Torres hit a foul sacrifice fly (don't catch the ball!) for a brief lead in the bottom of the 6th. He would be the first Yankees batter with a homer, a sac fly, and 3 RBI against Boston since Marcus Thames did it in one of the same games (May 17, 2010) where Youkilis posted his line. The 7-3 final also meant that Torres was responsible for driving in all the Yankees' runs in the game. Turns out he also did that against the Red Sox on August 2, 2019 in a 4-2 win. And with the minimum of 3 RBI per game, only three other Yankees have done it against the Red Sox twice: Bob Meusel, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio.
And the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball can only be described as a back-and-forth affair while the Yankees try to stave off a sweep. Alex Verdugo greeted Domingo Germán with a solo homer, the first go-ahead homer the Sawx had hit in the 1st inning at Yankee Stadium since... oh, right, Rafael Devers on Friday. The answer was considerably more interesting. Gary Sanchez doubled with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 1st, and thus had the Yankees' first lead-flipping double in the 1st inning against Boston since Roger Maris on September 9, 1962.
There's a lot of boring parts until we get to the top of the 7th with the Yankees now up 3-1. Both starters are now gone, and Marwin Gonzalez takes the opportunity to hit Boston's first tying (not go-ahead) multi-run homer in the 7th or later at Yankee Stadium since Mike Napoli launched a grand slam off Boone Logan on September 6, 2013. Xander Bogaerts puts the Sawx ahead with a sac fly in the 8th, which just means Gleyber Torres can also tie the game with his double in the bottom of the 9th. The last Yankees batter to do that (again, not a go-ahead) was Carlos Beltran on April 10, 2015, and that happened in the bottom of the 18th!
A controversial strike-three call ends the 9th with the winning run on third base, and the only other Yankees batter in the past 30 years to get called out on strikes in that situation was Chris Carter against the Orioles on April 30, 2017. Bogaerts would provide the winning margin for Boston in the 10th with a 2-run single, the first go-ahead multi-run hit for the Sawx in extra innings against the Yankees since Jacoby Ellsbury homered off Scott Proctor in the 14th on September 25, 2011.
Speaking of 2011, the three-game sweep was the first one by the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium since this same week a decade ago-- June 7 through 9 of 2011.
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
(That's a "Great White" reference if you've thrown out your drawer of '80s metal band t-shirts.)
Memorial Day (along with Independence Day and Labor Day) used to be huge opportunities for doubleheaders back in the day. Labor Day 1970 still holds the MLB record with 21 games played; two years later there were 20 more. In between, the Sunday before Independence Day in 1973 saw another 20-game slate (with fewer teams, remember). On this Memorial Day there was only one doubleheader, however, and it was caused by an April rainout between the Indians and White Sox. You may remember from last week that, thanks to more rainouts and the new rules, the Blue Jays became just the second team in history to play five straight games of 7 innings or less. The other, as we learned, was the 1886 Chicago White Stockings. But this other Chicago team had the chance to tie the mark themselves the very next day, such that a Baseball Thing that had happened once in the previous 145 seasons could suddenly happen on back-to-back days.
You might remember that the only reason the Blue Jays secured that streak was by losing. Jose Ramirez came through with a walkoff sac fly in Game 5 to stave off that pesky 8th inning. So on Monday, when the Indians had their own chance at mini-game history, guess what Jose Ramirez did. Yep, grounded into a double play to erase the winning run in the 7th and blow Cleveland's own streak. Adam Eaton would come through with a 2-run bomb in the top of the 8th, the second time the White Sox have ever hit a multi-run "extra-inning" (yes, these count) homer at Progressive Field. Paul Konerko took Terry Mulholland deep for the other one on July 12, 2003. As for the Indians, they lost despite Cesar Hernandez and Amed Rosario opening the game with back-to-back homers. That hadn't happened since Grady Sizemore and Casey Blake did it in Kansas City on May 23, 2007, and not in a home game since Graig Nettles and Vada Pinson against Detroit on June 19, 1971. The White Sox would make their own history in the second game on Monday by striking out 12 more times, the first time they've ever had a dozen whiffs on offense in both games of a doubleheader.
Back at home on Thursday, the White Sox were, well, white-hot is an overstatement. They didn't drop 17 runs on anybody. They did hit 4 homers to beat the Tigers... by a score of 4-1. Yep, Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, and Jake Lamb all hit solo shots, just the fifth home game in team history where they scored 4 or more runs with all of them being solo homers. The last such escapade was against Oakland on August 10, 2012; the last homer was a walkoff by Jordan Danks. Thursday also gave Lance Lynn 7 victories against only 1 loss (and even in that game, he only allowed 2 runs and struck out 10). He's the first Sox starter to begin a season 7-1 or better since Jose Contreras in 2005, and we know what happened for the Sox that year.
And on Friday, the Tigers finally managed to score 8 runs in a game-- something they didn't do at all in the second half of May-- and of course still lost. That included a 6-run 7th, the first time they hung that big a number so late in a road game and lost since May 24, 1975, also in Chicago. Jonathan Schoop had 4 hits and 5 RBI, joining Miguel Cabrera (2013), Cecil Fielder (1990), and Walt Dropo (1952) as the only Tigers ever to do that in a loss. The winning single for the White Sox was provided by rookie phenom Yermin Mercedes, who joined Leury Garcia (October 3, 2015) and Lamar Johnson (August 27, 1980) as the only designated hitters in Sox history to have a walkoff hit against Detroit.
The only team to actually have "Blue" in its name and thus fit our theme is, of course, the one that's not based in the United States. Although for the past two seasons they sorta have been. And this week the Jays were on the move again, ceding their spring-training home in Dunedin, Fla., over to their low-A team so they could finally have a home game. (They had played several games in Clearwater and several games where the home team batted first before finally having an opener on Tuesday.) Now the Blue Jays have made it back to last season's home in Buffalo, N.Y., forcing the triple-A Buffalo Bisons to play in Trenton, N.J., wearing the jerseys and such of the Trenton Thunder, while the actual Trenton Thunder, now relegated to the MLB Draft League, are playing at Rider University a few miles away. Got that? Good.
But back to our Toronto/Dunedin/Buffalo Blue Jays. They played the Rays a lot in the first couple months in the first (and, with all due respect, hopefully last) intra-Pinellas County matchups in MLB history. But there's another Florida-based team, the Marlins, who went all the way to Buffalo for a two-game "series". (Seriously, you couldn't have done that in Dunedin?) After a 5-1 snoozefest on Tuesday, the Marlins faced Alek Manoah in his second career start on Wednesday. Last week we brought you Manoah's MLB debut at Yankee Stadium; we're guessing his mom was not as excited this week when he became the first pitcher in Jays history to give up 3 homers in a game against the Marlins. (We're sure she still loves him, though, because Mom.) And she was probably even happier when the Jays' offense rallied to get him off the hook. Randal Grichuk contributed the first two runs via solo homer, joining Travis Shaw (last August) and Jose Canseco (1998) as the only Toronto batters with a multi-homer game against the Marlins. And ultimately the game-winner came in the bottom of the 9th when Joe Panik sent a sacrifice fly to center which was then dropped by Starling Marte. It was the Jays' first walkoff sac fly (the E8 is meaningless since the run would have scored anyway) since John McDonald hit one against Seattle's Jamey Wright on July 19, 2011.
On Friday the Blue Jays were not as excited. The Houston Astros are now the visitors, and it's a really easy guess that they've never before scored 13 runs in a game in lovely Buffalo, N.Y. Until last year the two cities had never had teams at the same time, and last year there was no cross-divisional play between East and Central. Given 13 runs to work with, Zack Greinke ended up throwing a complete game despite only striking out 3 Jays batters, the first Houston pitcher to do that since Scott Feldman-- also against the Jays-- on August 3, 2014. Martin Maldonado blew things open with a 6th-inning grand slam, making him the first Astros #9 batter ever to drive in 5 runs in a road game. Their only #9's to have a grand slam on the road were Jason Castro (at Texas 2015) and Sean Berry (at San Francisco 1996).
And if you're wondering about the history of grand slams in beautiful downtown Buffalo, you should know that there have now been four in major-league play. Dom Smith of the Mets hit one last year. Danny Jansen hit the only one for the home team last year against the Yankees. And Jansen's was the first in 138 seasons. The only one in the history of the original Buffalo Bisons was by Charles "Curry" Foley on May 25, 1882-- a game where he also became the first player ever to hit for the cycle.
More reds and blues coming up. In the meantime, blue are the people here that walk around. We're not sure if we're at a Blue Man Group show or in Smurf Village. But hey, intermission!
If you mix red, white, and blue, you'll probably get some kind of weird lilac color because waaaay too much white. Scale that back and you've got purple, a color that, for centuries, thanks to the rarity of the snails that produced the dye for it, was considered available only to the Royals. Yeah, we went there.
The Kansas City Royals, who do not in fact wear purple, found their way to our radar on Friday by blowing up the scoreboard against the Twins. Matt Shoemaker cobbled together only one out around, you know, just your average start of 6 hits, 2 walks, a stolen base, and a catcher's interference for good measure. It ended up being the Royals' first 9-run 1st inning in a home game since August 23, 2006, against Cleveland (a game they ended up losing!). Shoemaker became the sixth starter in the live-ball era to give up 9 runs while getting only 1 out. The previous was Baltimore's Zack Britton (2011); the two before that-- Mark Redman and Luke Hudson-- both did it for the Royals in the same season (2006); and then you tack on Steve Trachsel from 1998 and Lou Brissle of the A's from 1950.
Whit Merrifield ended Shoemaker's night with a 3-run homer, which is hard to do when you're the leadoff batter. Merrifield was the first Royals batter with 2 hits in a 1st inning since Jon Jay in Baltimore on May 8, 2018, but he's the first ever leadoff batter to hit a multi-run homer in the 1st because the team batted around. The last to do it for any team, not surprisingly, was George Springer, also at Kauffman Stadium, on June 24, 2016.
Shaun Anderson, possibly not expecting to be in the game in the 2nd inning, took a little while to get settled down as well. He started the frame with three straight singles and a walk, such that it's already 10-0 when we start the third trip around the order. Carlos Santana and Andrew Benintendi take care of clearing those earlier runners, and we have a 13-0 blowout on our hands. It's the first time in Royals history that they scored 13+ runs by the end of the 2nd inning, although we did find one game (September 14, 1974) where they had 13 after 3.
Kansas City then played a back-and-forth affair with Minnesota on Saturday. Ryan Jeffers, 2-run dinger in the 2nd. Merrifield answers with a bases-loaded single in the bottom half. Kyle Garlick, solo homer to start the 3rd and put the Twins back up. Benintendi answers that a couple frames later. Finally in the 6th, Miguel Sano, another 2-run go-ahead bomb that holds up for a 5-4 win. It was just the second time the Twins had ever hit three go-ahead homers in the same game against the Royals; the other was on September 9, 1983, at the Metrodome. Kent Hrbek had two of the three that day including the walkoff.
Taste The Rainbow
You could make the case that blue is the Mets' dominant color as well, but it's the orange that sets them apart. There aren't any patriotic orange things. Only a handful of state flags feature any orange at all (we do actual research for these sometimes), but prominent among those is the orange star in the middle of Arizona's flag. That gives us multiple openings to talk Mets and Diamondbacks, who played another strangely-scheduled 3-game series starting on the holiday Monday after the Mets were supposed to have a Sunday night game in Atlanta. (This probably contributed to that game getting rained out early in the afternoon.)
The Mets never lost the lead in Monday's opener, but the game wasn't really secured until Pete Alonso cranked a 2-run homer in the 7th. That made it 5-0, and it came after Alonso had already driven in the Mets' first 2 runs with a bases-loaded single in the 3rd. He thus joined Michael Conforto (2018), Carlos Beltran (2006), Mike Jacobs (2005), Jose Reyes (2005), Ramon Castro (2005), and Mike Piazza (2002) in a club of Mets batters to have a 4-RBI game at Chase Field. Jacob deGrom, meanwhile, was responsible for the other run with a 4th-inning single, the first Mets pitcher with an RBI in Phoenix since Noah Syndergaard on August 16, 2016. Dom Smith would collect 2 doubles but wouldn't be involved in any of the runs (scoring them or driving them in). He's the first Mets cleanup batter to pull that off since Bobby Bonilla against the Dodgers on May 1, 1994.
Smith had another unique line in Tuesday's game when he made up for Monday's lack of runs with a homer and a sac fly. He joined Ryan Church (2008) and Victor Diaz (2005) as the only Mets batters to do that at Chase Field. The sac fly was the Mets' fourth run, which looked like it would hold up until Josh Rojas connected for an RBI single with 2 outs in the 9th. That sent us off to extras where James McCann and Josh Reddick traded doubles. McCann's pinch-hit variety scored free runner Jose Peraza, and was his second go-ahead pinch-hit double this season (also May 17 at Atlanta). Only three other Mets have had two in a season: Justin Turner (2012), Rusty Staub (1984), and John Stephenson (1965).
Reddick's double also scored Arizona's free runner, Eduardo Escobar. Problem is, it came after a walk to Pavin Smith so there was now an extra runner on base-- the winning run. Reddick thus got the distinction of hitting the first walkoff double in D'backs history to beat the Mets.
But Wednesday was the game we really wanted to get to. Because the Mets decided to score their 4 runs nice and early this time. Like 1st-inning early. Like, against Madison Bumgarner early? Yep, on your bingo card of modern pitchers you would expect to have thrown a no-hitter but they haven't, except for that one thing that sorta was but MLB won't count it, MadBum has actually been kinda Bummed this whole season. Wednesday was his third straight start allowing 5 earned runs, a streak he duplicated only once before-- the first 3 starts of this season before that kinda-no-hitter-y thing. He's only had one other season where he's given up 5+ earned runs in 6 total starts; that was 2019 and it took him until September.
McCann did most of the honors with a 3-run homer, joining Jeromy Burnitz and Mike Piazza (back-to-back games in 2002) as the only Mets to hit those in the 1st inning at Chase Field. Staked to a 4-run lead after the top of the 1st, the Mets... well, decided to Met.
David Peterson is on the mound and: Leadoff walk, 2-run homer. There goes half of it. Flyout. Single. Walk. Walk. Single. There goes the rest. And there goes Peterson. Robert Gsellman gets the other 2 outs but not before allowing one of those inherited runners to score.
The Mets would actually come back and pull this one out on another late-inning RBI by Pete Alonso. With McCann on Tuesday, it doubled the number of go-ahead hits the Mets had ever had in the 9th or later at Chase; Brandon Nimmo (2018) and Damion Easley (2007) both had go-ahead homers. That also got Peterson off the hook; he joined Scott Holman (1983) and George Stone (1973) as the only Mets starters to give up 5+ runs, get 1 out, and not end up taking a loss.
But of course, the best part is the "4-over-5" in the 1st inning. In their continuing quest to find new and creative ways to lose games, it was the first time in Mets history where they scored 4+ in the top of the 1st and then gave back more than that in the bottom of the 1st. On hard numbers (scored 4 and allowed 5) they have done it once before, but in that case the number they scored was an 8, so they still had the lead after giving up the 5. That happened at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on June 16, 1989.
Pantone 294
This is the exact color code for "Dodger Blue", and it's so well-known by the locals that it's even spawned a traveling fan base with that same name. (For you east-coasters, think The 7-Line Army.) And to continue the old joke about Dodgers fans, let's hope the P294 contingent showed up on time on Wednesday.
Carlos Martinez is on the mound for the Cardinals. Let's see how his day went. Hmm, automatic double by Mookie Betts. Then walk, single, single, walk, single, single, stolen base, walk. That seems... not good. Opposing pitcher Walker Buehler strikes out on a foul bunt. Betts singles again to make it 7-1. A flyout and another walk leads to Marrtinez's departure. Jake Woodford misses to Cody Bellinger, who apparently didn't learn The Unwritten Rule from the Yermin Mercedes incident. Because on 3-0 he's swinging for the fences, and darned if he didn't get them. A grand slam for an 11-run 1st inning, the team's largest single frame ever at Dodger Stadium. They had done 10 three times, most recently against the Rockies in 2008. And if you're yelling at your screen about last year's NLCS, remember that was played in Texas, not at Dodger Stadium. Their last 11-run frame in any regular-season game was on August 8, 1954, back at Ebbets Field.
About that grand slam. Cody Bellinger had already driven in 2 runs with one of those early singles against Martinez. That made him the first player in Dodgers history (or at least since RBI were actively tracked in 1920) to drive in 6 runs in one inning. Only one other player had cranked a 1st-inning slam after the team had already batted around (i.e., his second time up). That was Matt Kemp in that previously-mentioned 10-run inning in 2008. And the Dodgers' previous 1st-inning slam against the Cardinals at home was by none other than Gil Hodges on July 16, 1953.
Meanwhile, Carlos Martinez got tagged for 10 runs, all earned, without finishing the 1st inning. No Cardinals pitcher had given up 10 in any game since John Lackey at Coors on June 8, 2015. But since earned runs were first tracked in 1912, only three others have allowed 10 and not gotten through the 1st. And they're all fairly recent: Jeremy Guthrie of the Nationals (2017), Jason Jennings of Houston (2007), and the Royals' Luke Hudson (that same 2006 game again). The eventual final score of 14-3 would be the Dodgers' largest home victory over the Cardinals since Don Sutton defeated Ken Forsch on August 28, 1977.
Then on Friday they almost did it again. Now in Atlanta-- a team that is no stranger to 10-run innings, both for and against them-- the Dodgers bunched 5 walks, 3 hits, a failed fielder's choice, and a sac bunt into an 8-run 5th inning to win 9-1. It's not the "9" that was confounding, it's the "4" next to it. The Dodgers became the first team to score 9+ runs on only 4 hits in a game since the Tigers draw 9 walks against Seattle on April 9, 1996. An error gave the Dodgers the first-ever "9-4-1" linescore in MLB's modern era (1901).
Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger drew back-to-back bases-loaded walks in the middle of that 5th inning. The Dodgers hadn't done that against the Braves since Tom Glavine passed Gary Sheffield and Raul Mondesi on May 29, 1999. Those walks also closed out Ian Anderson's strange pitching line, 1 hit and 3 walks with all 4 runs scoring. The last Braves starter to give up 4 runs on just 1 hit was Steve Bedrosian who did it in the 1985 season finale against the Giants.
And according to Stats LLC, the Dodgers are the first team to have an 11-run inning in one game and follow it up with an 8 or more in their next game (they did not play Thursday) since the Astros did that in a doubleheader at Shea Stadium on July 30, 1969.
And we step away from the majors-- way, way, away-- for just a minute to tell you what inspired our colorful post. Traditionally led by the Cape Cod League, New England has always been a hotbed for summer-collegiate ball, where local players using wooden bats form strange alliances with players from other colleges and try to get noticed for draft purposes. One of those teams is located just 3 miles from Kernels World Headquarters here in Bristol, Conn. (We can be there in 7 minutes if both stoplights are green.) They're named the Bristol Blues, ostensibly to honor the "blue-collar" community they represent, but mostly the fact that one of the team's original partners was long-time music producer Elliot Scheiner. Among his many accomplishments, Scheiner worked with B.B. King, to whom the team's mascot pays homage. Babe Ruth and Jim Rice (the latter playing for the Bristol Red Sox in the 1970s) are enshrined on the outfield wall at Muzzy Field, which opened in 1914.
As it happens, we decided to take in their season opener on Thursday. And as it happens, well, this happened.
If you're unfamiliar with scoresheets, or just generally confused by now, that totals up to a seventeen-run 6th inning by the visiting Danbury (Conn.) Westerners. There were 8 hits, 6 walks, 4 errors, the first two Bristol pitchers faced 6 batters each and watched all of them score. The errors made 10 of the runs earned (including the rare "team-unearned" that you may see in the screenshot). There was an infield double because someone thought it would be a good idea to let the pitcher try and catch a pop-up. All told, 22 Danbury batters came to the plate, the half-inning took 41 minutes, and it has been amazingly spliced together here if you really want to see all of it.
For comparison's sake-- and we're certainly not saying a bunch of college kids should be held to the same standard as major-leaguers making $40 million a year-- let's look at that inning as if it had happened in the majors.
The all-time major-league record for runs in an inning is 18, which was among the questions we got asked on the wooden bleachers of Muzzy Field on Thursday. That belongs to the 1883 Chicago White Stockings, who did it on September 6 of that year against the old Detroit Wolverines. Since the mound was moved back in 1893 there's been only one inning of 17 or more; that belongs to the Red Sox in a 23-3 game (also against Detroit) on June 18, 1953. There's also been a 16 and a 15, the latter being a Dodgers 1st on May 21, 1952, bringing us full-circle to the previous section.
Our unfortunate Bristol pitchers, the ones who faced 6 batters and had all of them score? That actually happens in the majors about three or four times a year. Often it's in a game that's already a blowout and somebody just goes and "takes one for the team". But how many major-league teams have had two pitchers do that in the same game? That, of course, would be none. As for four errors in one inning, that's a little harder to find, but the Mariners helped us out by memorably committing five against the Yankees on August 27, 2017. And 10 unearned runs in one inning? That's happened twice in the majors this century-- by the Giants against the Rockies on May 5, 2016, and by the D'backs in their 2001 regular-season finale which didn't matter because they had clinched two days earlier.
As we always say, you start with 81 blank squares and never know what's going to end up in them.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Chris Stratton, Friday: First Pirates pitcher to get a save of 11 outs or more since Jason Christiansen at Montréal on July 17, 1998.
⚾ Orioles, Sunday: First game in franchise history where they had three 5-run innings in the same game.
⚾ Patrick Wisdom, Monday: Second Cubs batter to have 2 homers and a stolen base against the Padres. Ryne Sandberg did it at Wrigley on July 9, 1985.
⚾ Ronald Acuña, Tuesday: First Braves leadoff hitter with 4 runs scored in a loss since Rafael Furcal at Montréal, July 27, 2003.
⚾ Corbin Burnes, Sunday: 10th straight game with at least 7+ strikeouts. First pitcher in Brewers history to pile up 94 K's in any 10-game span (previous high was 89 by Ben Sheets in 2004).
⚾ Ryan Jeffers, Wednesday: First Twins batter to homer and triple in a game against Baltimore since Larry Hisle at Memorial Stadium on June 4, 1976.
⚾ Braves, Saturday: First game where they committed 4 errors and won since May 27, 2010, against the Marlins.
⚾ Josh Donaldson, Thursday: First Twins batter to collect 10 total bases in Kansas City since Corey Koskie, June 19, 2003.
⚾ Max Schrock, Monday: First Reds batter to miss the cycle by the single since Jay Bruce at Colorado, 5 years earlier to the day.
⚾ Tony Kemp, Tuesday: First #9 batter, for any team, to have a homer, a double, a sac fly, and 5 RBI in the same game (SF tracked since 1954).
⚾ Cedric Mullins, Saturday: First player in Orioles/Browns history to have 5 hits and 2 homers in a loss. Last for any team was Ryan Braun in Philadelphia on April 21, 2009.
⚾ Billy McKinney, Thursday: Mets' first triple in the 8th or later in San Diego since Mookie Wilson on August 31, 1987.
⚾ Sean Manaea, Wednesday: First Oakland pitcher to throw a 9-inning shutout with no more than 4 hits allowed in Seattle since Kirk Saarloos on June 23, 2005.
⚾ Freddy Peralta, Friday: Third pitcher in live-ball era to throw 7 innings, allow 1 hit, and strike out 9 on his own birthday. Gerrit Cole did it two years ago and Milt Wilcox of the Tigers did it in 1982.
⚾ Andrew Kittredge, Tuesday: Became first pitcher in Rays history to give up multiple extra-inning walkoff homers to the same team (Clint Frazier, also Brett Gardner in 2017).
⚾ Blake Snell, Friday: Second pitcher in Padres history to allow 1 hit and strike out 10+ against the Mets. Andy Benes took a no-hitter into the 8th on July 3, 1994.
⚾ Victor Robles, Sunday: First player in "Nationals" history with 2 extra-base hits, a stolen base, and 3 runs scored in a loss. Last for Expos was Orlando Cabrera at Oakland, June 14, 2003.
⚾ Kolten Wong & Tyrone Taylor, Tuesday: First Brewers teammates with multiple homers in a home game since Prince Fielder & Mike Rivera vs San Diego, August 13, 2009.
⚾ Jose Peraza, Saturday: First Mets #9 batter to homer at Petco Park since... OH YES IT IS. Bartolo Colón, May 7, 2016. Endless loop!
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