Sunday, July 25, 2021

A-Run-Run-Run-Run-Runaway

There used to be a joke that would get hurled at tourists going to Mexico about not drinking the water or you'd get a case of the runs. Well, even though MLB hasn't been able to play a game in Mexico for the last couple seasons, there certainly was something in the water this week.


Runaround Sue Sox

The Blue Jays, who have seemingly played everyplace except Mexico in the last two seasons, started their week with Ross Stripling on the mound. They ended the 1st inning on Monday with Ross Stripling no longer on the mound, because that went double, homer, groundout, walk, double, walk, and oh yeah, grand slam by Hunter Renfroe. The Red Sox have only ever hit one other 1st-inning grand slam in a road game against Toronto, and it was in the Jays' very first season. It was also by Carlton Fisk, off Mike Darr on September 6, 1977. It was at least quite easy to close out Stripling's line, making him the first Jays starter to give up 6 runs while getting 1 out since Matt Boyd also did it against the Red Sox on July 2, 2015.

That 2015 game finished with a final score of 12-5 after Boston piled up 8 runs in the 1st. History, repeat thyself. Let's welcome Anthony Kay to Monday's game and watch him give up a single and a 2-run homer to complete the snowman. Although the Jays and their opponents have had 8-run innings in Buffalo over the past two seasons, there hadn't been one in a 1st inning yet. And it turns out the Federal League never had one there. So alas, we don't have handy searchable linescores for the Players League of 1890, but it's at least that far back since there could have been one in Buffalo.

That homer was Enrique Hernandez's second extra-base hit of the inning; he would finish the game with 3 of those, plus 3 RBI, plus 3 runs scored, the first Boston leadoff batter not named Mookie Betts to do that in over a decade. (Marco Scutaro, September 8, 2010.)

Anthony Kay gets left out there for the 2nd and promptly gives up another homer to Rafael Devers, plus 3 walks and a double. Jacob Barnes rescues him from that mess, but not before Kay and Stripling become the second pair of teammates in Jays history to each give up 5 runs while getting 4 outs in the same game. Joe Biagini and Chris Rowley pulled it off at Target Field on September 17, 2017. And that means the Red Sox are up to 11 by the end of the 2nd inning, their first time doing that since June 27, 2003. That was a noteworthy 25-8 game against the Marlins where Boston matched the American League record by putting up 14 runs in the 1st. On Monday they would finally calm down and only end up with a 13-4 victory after two more solo homers. But that meant 6 total homers in the game, their second time ever doing that in a road game against Toronto. The other was actually at Rogers Centre-- to which the Jays will finally return next weekend-- in a 13-0 shutout on April 7, 2013.

And though we don't have a long narrative about Wednesday's series finale, suffice it to say that the Red Sox runs were coming one at a time. They won 7-4 behind five separate homers by five different batters, only one of them of the multi-run variety. Combined with Monday's outburst, it's the first time Boston hit 5 homers in multiple games of the same series since June 1977 against the Yankees at Fenway.


Running Back To You

Would it really be a week in a baseball season if we didn't mention the Nationals getting wrapped up in some 15-run escapade? Just last Friday it was the 24-8 game that earned itself about half of our post. And we also just mentioned that 2003 game where the Marlins lost by 17. So of course the stars are perfectly aligned for another pitcher named Ross-- and one who previously did 6 years with the Nationals-- to have an implosion for the Marlins against them.

That would be Ross Detwiler, who starts his Monday with a single, a triple by Trea Turner, and then back-to-back homers from Juan Soto and Josh Bell. After that, however, he gets used to the Nationals Park mound again, gets three straight outs, and maybe this game isn't going to blow up on us. Yeah, right. Leadoff homer by Tres Barrera in the 2nd. Then a single, a hit batter, and Trea Turner is back up again already to hit a 3-run homer and knock Detwiler off said mound. Count 'em, 4 homers while getting just 3 outs, the first pitcher in Marlins history to pull that off. And only one other Marlins starter has given up 8 runs while getting 3 outs-- Chris Hammond against the Giants on April 28, 1996. Turner already has a homer and a triple, his eighth career game doing that to surpass Andre Dawson for the most in Nats/Expos history. And Monday is the first home game in Washington where the Nationals opened with 4 runs in each of the first two innings.

Unfortunately the Marlins still don't have an out in the 2nd. By the time David Hess gets out of the inning, the Nationals have run the lead to 10-0, their second home game in Washington where they scored 10+ that early. The other is the famous 25-4 game against the Mets in 2018, the one where Jose Reyes ended up pitching and giving up 6 runs. (That game had 7 in the 1st and 3 in the 2nd, so the 4-4 note above is still valid.) Hess actually calms the storm for a few innings, but you can tell he's just about done when Jon Lester, yes the Nationals pitcher, connects for a 2-run homer in the 5th. Five pitchers in Nats/Expos history have recorded 2 hits, 2 runs, and 2 RBI on offense; Tanner Roark did it in that 25-4 game, plus Stephen Strasburg in July 2019, and Bryn Smith and Steve Renko in the Montreal days. Combined with the Red Sox putting up 11, Monday was the first time since September 29, 2000, that multiple teams hit double digits by the 2nd inning.

What better time to send Andrew Bellatti out there to make his Marlins debut. Bellatti appeared in six games for the Rays, so it's not quite an MLB debut, but it probably felt similar because that was six years ago. He bounced around the Rays' minor-league system in 2015 and 2016 before having Tommy John surgery and missing two years. And his Marlins debut was, well, not stellar. Granted it's already 12-0, so nothing much to lose. But after striking out Andrew Stephenson to start the 7th, Bellatti gives up a double and four straight singles, the first pitcher to give up 5 runs while getting 4 outs in his Marlins debut since Mat Latos in April 2015. When Juan Soto closes the scoring with a homer to make it 18-0, we can once again update our list. Because when we joke about the Nationals scoring 15 runs all the time, it's no joke. Since the start of 2017 they've now done it 22 times. The Astros and Dodgers are tied for second place on that list, and they've only got 13 each.

Also, as we say around here, never do the shutout notes early. Because sure, it's 18-0 and this is going to land on a list of biggest wins and losses for either team, but there's always a Miguel Rojas hanging around to spoil that zero. He hits a solo homer off Wander Suero in the 8th to avoid tying the 1999 season finale in Atlanta for the worst shutout in Marlins history. The only other homer the Marlins have hit when trailing by 15 or more runs... came in that same 25-8 game from June 27, 2003, by Derrek Lee off Jason Shiell.

But how did the Marlins respond to that game? On July 1 they went out and thumped Atlanta by a count of 20-1. That's a 17-run loss and a 19-run win. Look familiar? Remember how this section started with the 24-8 game from last week? Sure enough, the Nationals just did the exact same thing-- and they're the only two teams in the modern era to have a +16 and a -16 within a five-day window.


Runaway 7-Train

We have yet to take an official position on the free-runner rule. It's come in handy when the game is a boring 2-to-1 slog with a bunch of walks and it's already past 10:00 and nobody's even making contact and please someone score. (Looking at you, AL West!) On the other hand, if the score is 9-9 and both teams seem to be scoring at will because the bullpens are terrible, then adding more free runners seems unnecessary because this thing is probably gonna end on its own.

We take you to Cincinnati, and we're still in the 7:00 hour on Monday. The Red Sox just dropped an 8, the Nats are busy doing 4-and-6, and the Mets and Reds can't decide who wants to win the 1st inning. Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil started things with back-to-back homers, the Mets' first set of those IN Cincinnati in the 1st inning since John Olerud and Mike Piazza on June 15, 1999. The Reds escape allowing only 3 runs when Michael Conforto lines into a double play. So Jerad Eickhoff has a 3-run lead before ever throwing a pitch.

Jerad Eickhoff plays for the Mets. Which means Mets-ian things must now happen to him. (This is only one day after The Taijuan Walker Play, remember.) Double. Single. E6. Hit batter. Tyler Naquin game-tying double. Jerad Eickhoff no longer has a 3-run lead. In fact, Shogo Akiyama is about to hit a sac fly and make this 4-3 the other way. If this sounds familiar, it's because the Mets memorably did the same thing in Arizona back on June 2, scoring 4 in their half and then giving up 5. The 2019 Pirates are the only other team in the last decade to do that twice in a season (for 3 or more runs).

Jerad Eickhoff gets to go back out for the 2nd. Strikeout of the opposing pitcher. Hit batter. E4. E6. E6. Yes, the Mets just made three errors in one inning, and shortshop Luis Guillorme already has three in the game. By the time Eickhoff gets out of this mess, it'll be 7-3 in favor of Cincinnati, though only 2 of the runs are earned.

The good news for the Mets is that there are still seven innings left. Conforto hits a 2-run dinger in the 4th. Dom Smith leads off the 5th with a homer. And by the time James McCann goes deep in the 8th, the Mets have come all the way to lead 9-8. McCann's homer was the first lead-flipping one by a Mets pinch hitter in the 8th or later since Ike Davis's famous walkoff grand slam, also against Cincinnati, on April 5, 2014 (it's mostly famous because the Mets traded him a couple days later and just 2 weeks into the season).

So in the 9th, all that Edwin Diaz has to do is-- oh right, he's a Met too. And the old leadoff walk strikes again. Jesse Winker's 2-out double brings us back to 9-9 and as mentioned, do we really need free runners in this one? No, but we have them and that means it's quickly 10-10 after the first round. Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil combine to score the Mets' runner in the 11th, but Nimmo gets thrown out at the plate trying for another run. So it looks like we might go another round. But instead the Reds send Ryan Hendrix out to get the last out of the 11th. Which he does. Eventually.

That is, however, after Kevin Pillar hits a 3-run bomb on Hendrix's second pitch. In their history, the Mets have hit only one other 3- or 4-run homer in extras in Cincinnati; it was by Howard Johnson at Riverfront on July 22, 1986. If you're wondering whether the Mets have ever hit back-to-back homers in extras, well, they have. Once. It was against the White Sox two years ago by Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto. Guess who's up.

Conforto, in addition to now being the back end of both pairs of homers, has connected for the Mets' seventh homer of the game, the first time the Mets have ever hit seven taters at a park not named for Citizens Bank. No, not Citibank (their home stadium). Citizens Bank, the one in Philadelphia. There are three other 7-HR games in Mets history, and they're all at CBP (2005, 2015, 2017). Remember those four errors? The Mets hadn't done that in a game and won since July 27, 2000, against the Expos. They also had only scored 15 runs in Cincinnati once before, a 15-2 thumping on April 28, 1997. And Monday was their first time scoring 5+ runs in an inning numbered 11 or higher since September 30, 1989, in Pittsburgh.

The Reds did end up scoring their free runner to bring us the first 15-11 exact final since the Astros beat the Rockies on May 13, 2009. There hadn't been an extra-inning game to land on 15-11 since the Yankees beat the Tigers on July 25, 1953. And if there was one bright spot for the Reds it was that Tyler Naquin finished with 5 hits and 4 RBI. He's the fourth player in team history to do that in a loss, after Sean Casey (2005), Ken Griffey Sr (1977), and George Crowe (1957). Naquin is also the second player in Reds history, win or lose, to have 5 hits and 4 RBI but never get to score a run himself. Center fielder Edd Roush did that in Philadelphia on September 26, 1922.

And from the "shoulda saved some runs" file, the Mets would close out that series on Wednesday with a 7-0 win that featured a grand slam from Dom Smith. Lucas Duda and Carlos Beltran are the other two Mets to hit slams at Great American Ball Park. But the story of the game was a 1-hitter from basically Marcus Stroman. (Jeurys Familia did have a 1-2-3 9th.) Stroman did hit Jonathan India but retired him on a double play, along with walking Joey Votto because that's what you do to Joey Votto. As for the lone hit, that was a single by Aristides Aquino, and at least it was in the 3rd inning so we didn't have to deal with another no-hitter watch. That was different from the last time the Reds got 1-hit by any New York team. And most likely your phone did not alert you to that one. It's by the Giants' Jim Hearn on July 23, 1955, and he also hit one batter and walked one batter before losing the no-hitter to Chuck Harmon with 1 out in the 9th.


Running On Empty

NFL training camps are already starting up, and you might imagine the Lions and Cowboys are looking forward to the relative normalcy of playing on Thanksgiving. Last year Detroit played another Texas team, the one actually named the Texans, who scored 41 against them. The "Texas" baseball team, well, they haven't scored 41 since Independence Day. And they found themselves on the wrong end of a football score on Monday against the Tigers.

This one came at us out of nowhere because, while the Nationals and Red Sox and Pirates were piling up early runs, this one was only 2-0 after 4 behind an Akil Baddoo homer. But Kyle Gibson starts to lose it in the 5th (that "third time through the order" jinx), capped by Miguel Cabrera's bases-loaded double. After a walk and a single to start the 6th, Gibson's not going around the order again. He's going down the stairs to sit in the dugout.

Or maybe he should have stayed. Because Brett Martin gets the top of the Tigers order, and they knock him around for five straight singles, ending with another 2-run knock from Cabrera. Miggy now has 15 career 5-RBI games with the Tigers, trailing only Cecil Fielder (20) and Hank Greenberg (17) for the most in team history. Those singles made Kyle Gibson responsible for 10 hits and 8 runs, joining Colby Lewis (2011), Kris Benson (2009), and Kevin Brown (1992) as the only Rangers pitchers to chunk up that line against Detroit. And Brett Martin got an even more dubious line, because Joe Barlow let in his inherited runners as well. So Martin faced five batters, all of them got hits, and all of them scored. Only two others in Rangers/Senators history have pulled that off: Shawn Tolleson in 2016 and Len Barker in 1978.

For the extra point on this 13-0 festival, Joely Rodriguez is going to issue a bases-loaded walk in the 8th. And we never do the shutout notes early (see: Miguel Rojas). But this one did not have a meaningless homer to add 0.01% to the win probability. Nope, it ended with the worst shutout loss by the Rangers since September 4, 1973, against the White Sox. And, as pointed out by Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark in his column, the Rangers were coming off back-to-back shutouts in Buffalo on Sunday. Since moving to the Metroplex in 1972, the Rangers had never before been shut out in three straight games. Their last time doing it was in April 1969 against the Orioles. And those three losses came at the expense of 29 runs allowed. Only one other team in the modern era has been outscored 29-0 over a three-game span, and let's say it's been a while. (The Royals did manage a 28-0 in 2017, so props to them.) On July 6 and 7 the Dodgers got blanked by the Phillies, 10-0 and 12-0, then went to Pittsburgh on the 9th and lost 9-0 for a combined 31. The year that happened... was 1906. (Meaning those home games weren't even at Ebbets Field yet, they were at Washington Park.)

From the Tigers' side, not quite as much fun. They had actually beaten Cleveland in another 14-0 game as "recently" as September 26, 2011, so it only took them a decade to repeat the feat. But since we looked it up, the last time the Detroit football team won a game by an exact count of 14-0 was on November 5, 1972, against Chicago. So yes, we have Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh my.

And for one final "oh my" moment before we leave Monday, July 19, 2021... we just rattled off teams scoring 18, 15, 14, and 13 runs on the same day. Thanks to the Players League, the last time your daily scoreboard page showed all those exact numbers was July 19, 1890-- one hundred thirty-one years to the day!


Speaking of calendars, and today being the 25th, it's the old tradition of "Christmas In July". Which is totally a shameless excuse to get in this link to a "run"-related song. Intermission!


A River Runs Through It

The Cardinals took a quaint little 6-1 lead into Tuesday's 9th inning at Wrigley Field. Surely Luis Garcia, recently released by the Yankees and picked up by the Cardinals earlier this month, can protect that. Well, in a way he did, but he also picked up what we've discussed in earlier columns as a "blown hold" by putting the next pitcher in a save situation. Oddly enough, Garcia doesn't qualify for an actual hold because, well, he didn't get an out. Strikeout but Patrick Wisdom reaches on a wild pitch. Single and a walk to load the bases. Now Alex Reyes has the 5-run lead. All he does is issue two more walks to make the score 6-3. It was the first time the Cubs received multiple bases-loaded walks in a 9th inning since Keith Moreland and Ron Cey got them from the Padres on April 8, 1984. And then Ian Happ hits the team's first lead-flipping double in the 9th inning since Jon Jay on June 29, 2017. They hadn't hit one against the Cardinals since Diego Segui served one up to Jose Cardenal on September 25, 1973.

As for Wednesday's game, well, walks take longer but they're also less painful than what the Cubs got, um, hit with. Rafael Ortega hits a triple to put the Cubs ahead, but then gets caught trying to swipe home as part of a delayed double steal. Kyle Hendricks gives up a pair of doubles in the 7th to put St Louis back in front. Now the fun begins. In the 8th, Javier Baez hit by a pitch. Moving Willson Contreras-- who had been hit by Adam Wainwright earlier in the game-- to second. This time, however, there are two outs and the Cubs don't convert. Two outs in the 9th, Nico Hoerner gets plunked. And here is pinch-hitter Eric Sogard to double him home for the tie. The last Cubs pinch-hitter to hit either a tying or go-ahead double when down to the team's final out was Troy O'Leary against the Diamondbacks on August 1, 2003.

And now it's fortunate for the Cardinals that the ball is dead on an HBP. Because there are now two bases open. And John Gant promptly plunks Jake Marisnick and Contreras again, on back-to-back pitches. That's five, the most the Cardinals have ever issued in a game in the modern era. The Cubs had only received 5 plunkings once before, and it was last season at Cincinnati. But now we're in extra innings land again and a double play gets Gant off the hook in the 10th. And Yadier Molina lines one to right that was initially scored a walkoff double, which would have been a cool note because the Cardinals hadn't hit one of those in extra innings since 1990. They had the longest drought of any team by more than 16 years. And guess what, they still do. The next day it got changed to a single, which is usually the ruling because the batter never makes it to second, he's standing there watching his teammate score the winning run and then gets mobbed by a Gatorade bucket. So Yadi will have to settle for his eighth career walkoff hit, the same number as Lou Brock and Jim Edmonds. Six of those have been at the current Busch Stadium, trailing only Albert Pujols (8).

From their own roost at the edge of the Mississippi, the Cardinals then got to paddle upstream, making sure to turn right at Cairo, to another park with some great river-related views. (This is completely false, we're sure they have outboard motors by now.) And sure enough, they held a 5-3 lead in Friday's opener in Cincinnati, although that wasn't without some effort. After Paul Goldschmidt homered in the top of the 1st, Wade LeBlanc gave up two quick singles and a two-bagger to Joey Votto (you're supposed to walk him, remember?), the first time any Reds batter had hit a lead-flipping double in the 1st inning since... Joey Votto did it against Milwaukee on August 31, 2010. The last Reds batter to hit two of them was George Foster, 5 years apart in 1976 and 1981.

The Cardinals got that lead back with a flipping double of their own, this one in the 6th by Andrew Knizner. St Louis hadn't hit one of those in any inning in Cincinnati since Bernard Gilkey did it in the first game of a doubleheader on September 7, 1993. If that date seems familiar, it's not because of Gilkey. In the second game of that same doubleheader, Mark Whiten sorta went off. This one, however, was ultimately lost on Tyler Stephenson's sac fly in the 8th; the Reds' only other go-ahead SF in the past 40 years to happen that late against the Cardinals was by Todd Frazier in 2015.

And remember how we started the week with a 15-11 game against the Mets? Well, we're going to end it with another 4-hour slog that ends in a 4-run win for the visitors. This time it is Tyler O'Neill, not Goldy, who homers in the 1st inning. And it's time for Joey Votto to flip the lead back again, except this time he does it with a 3-run dinger. Since we looked it up, the Reds' last lead-flipping homer in the 1st was by Yasiel Puig against Cleveland on July 6, 2019. And exactly a month after that was the last game at GABP where both teams hit a multi-run homer in the 1st (Jose Iglesias and the Angels' Justin Upton). There's no back-and-forth ending to this one, though. The Cardinals erupt for a 7-run 4th inning, knock Sonny Gray out of the game, and we can't even do much with that because Luis Castillo gave up 8 runs to the Cardinals on Opening Day. Gray is at least in a club of four Reds starters to give up 8 runs and 3 homers to the Cards without getting through the 4th inning. Its other members are Aaron Harang (August 16, 2008), Jose Acevedo (August 21, 2001), and Tom Browning (April 9, 1993).

And by homering on both Saturday and Sunday, Joey Votto has tied for, and now taken sole possession of, second place for the most homers ever hit by a Reds player against the Cardinals. He passed Ted Kluszewski and then jumped over Wally Post with his 32nd such dinger against St Louis. The only Reds batter ever to have more is Frank Robinson with 46.


Running With The Night

Around 15 years ago there was a brief period when the Dodgers started their home games at 7:40 pm. (Here's your chance for the late-arriving crowd joke.) We're glad they stopped that. Because the "time for Dodger baseball" was already creeping past 1 am Eastern this week-- and that's before the fun started.

Let's start on Tuesday where the Dodgers are trying to cobble together a "bullpen game" from a bunch of 1- and 2-inning pitchers. That's actually working out if you don't mind Josiah Gray giving up 3 homers. Forunately Chris Taylor is there to get two of those back by himself; he will end up finishing with 3 hits, 3 RBI, and 4 runs scored. Only four other leadoff batters in Dodgers history have had that line, and Mookie Betts (last August) is the only one since the Brooklyn days. There's a statue outside the double-A park of the last Brooklyner to do it, Pee Wee Reese in 1949. (The others are Goody Rosen in 1938 and Bernie Neis in 1923.)

But we go to the bottom of the 9th with the Dodgers still trailing 6-5 and the fresh arm of Tyler Rogers trotting in from the bullpen. He probably wants nothing to do with Chris Taylor at this point, so a 4-pitch walk is not the worst thing that could have happened. No, the worst thing would then be the 5-pitch walk to Matt Beaty, which only has the extra pitch because of what we like to call the 3-0 "mercy strike". Then, like every few years at a theater near you, it's time for Will Smith to show up. Walkoff homer, 8-6, tip your server and drive home safely. Tyler Rogers is the fourth pitcher in San Francisco history (1958) to give up 3 runs, get 0 outs, and get walked off; Rod Beck did it twice in the '90s and Santiago Castillo had such a game in Miami in 2015. It was the first time the Giants hit 4 homers of the own at Dodger Stadium and lost since they tagged Orel Hershiser for a bunch of solo shots on June 28, 1994.

And the parting shot for Will Smith? It's the Dodgers' first pinch-hit walkoff homer when trailing since Olmedo Saenz hit one against Toronto on June 8, 2007. But, pinch-hitter or not, the last time a Dodgers batter crushed a walkoff homer to beat the Giants when trailing was May 27, 1953, by Roy Campanella-- a 3-run shot off Jim Hearn that also scored Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. (Yes, that's multiple Jim Hearn references for you fans out there.)

On to Wednesday, where Logan Webb and Julio Urias got locked in an unlikely pitcher's duel, and this time it was the Giants' bullpen that held together. Chris Taylor did start the game by homering again, his seventh of the leadoff variety, and tying him for fourth in Los Angeles history. (He's still a long way from Davey Lopes's 28, however.) Taylor singled again in the 5th, and the only other Dodgers run-- or hit-- would come on a double by A.J. Pollock in the 4th. The Giants also held the Dodgers to 3 hits in a home game on June 29, and it's the first time since 1988 that they've done it twice in a season. So we are limping toward a 2-1 final and Kenley Jansen going out for the save in the 9th.

Buster Posey drops his second pitch into right-center. And then Wilmer Flores drops his sixth pitch into the seats. That's only the second lead-flipping homer ever hit by a Giants batter in the 9th inning at Dodger Stadium; the other was Juan Uribe against another usually-reliable closer, Jonathan Broxton, on September 4, 2010. Kenley goes on to give up a double and two more walks, just the third game of his career where he allowed 3 runs and blew a save while getting only 1 out. There's been one in each of the last three seasons.

And that's technically still true, because Jansen got two outs on Thursday. The problem is that he again needed three. Will Smith has returned for a sequel and homered to put the Dodgers up 3-1 going to the 9th. The percentages are definitely in favor of Jansen not doing that again. And it does start well, with a strikeout of Mike Yastrzemski, who has already had a triple and a sac fly to score the Giants' lone run. Since sac flies were first counted in 1954, only one other Giants batter has had one of those plus a triple against the Dodgers-- Jose Pagán who did it three times in the early 1960s. But with 2 outs, here we go again. Donovan Solano doubles. Jason Vosler works a walk to load the bases. But still just need one out to win. Any base. Two-run lead. Thairo Estrada, infield single. They're all going on contact and it's too slow of a roller to get anyone. Still, one-run lead. One out to win. Any base.

Darin Ruf, on seven pitches, draws what is amazingly the first game-tying walk ever by a Giants batter at Dodger Stadium. In any inning. There was also a bases-loaded walk to Curt Casali to score that final run in Wednesday's game; it's the first time the Giants have received one in the 9th inning of back-to-back games since Eddie Stanky (May 30) and Wes Westrum (June 1) did it in 1950. This also means another blown save for Jansen, who will give up a fourth run for good measure before Phil Bickford has to come in to get that final out. Jansen is the first pitcher in Dodgers history (or at least since saves became a thing in 1969) to give up 3 runs and blow a save on consecutive days. Three Dodgers have done it in consecutive appearances-- Jeff Shaw in July 1999, Pat Zachry in September 1984, and Pete Mikkelsen in May 1971. The last pitcher for any team to do it on back-to-back days was Houston's Francisco Cordero in July 2012.

So by Friday you have to figure that Kenley Jansen is getting a day off for personal reflection. And the Dodgers are probably glad to be done playing the Giants until, um, well, Tuesday. But now the Rockies are visiting for the weekend and it's 5-3 going to the 8th. Hey, maybe they can blow this lead earlier! Why yes, yes they can. Charlie Blackmon RBI double, then a single through the right side by Ryan McMahon to score Blackmon. But that still only ties things up. To complete the meltdown it's going to take Sam Hilliard's homer, the first go-ahead shot ever by a Rockies pinch hitter in the 9th or later at Dodger Stadium.

Ah, but the bases-loaded walks are back. And this time it's the Dodgers' turn to benefit from them. Daniel Bard gives up two singles and a walk to start the 9th and then passes Justin Turner for a game-tying walk. That's the first one they've ever been gifted in the 9th inning by the Rockies, and guess what it's leading to.

Nope, not another Will Smith sequel. Those pesky free runners again. And 3 runs off James Sherfy in the top of the 10th thanks to a Charlie Blackmon homer. Nolan Arenado, on September 15, 2015, has the only other extra-inning homer by the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, and he hit it off Mat Latos because it's the 16th inning and we're down to only having starters left. Blackmon would also finish the game as the second Rockies batter with a homer, a double, a single, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI at Dodger Stadium, after Wilin Rosario did it on April 29, 2013. We have easily-queried inning-by-inning data back to 2004 and this Wednesday-through-Friday stretch is the only time that the Dodgers had three straight games where they led after 7 innings and wound up losing.

So finally on Saturday, there were no lost leads and no blown saves. In fact the only thing that happened on Saturday was an Austin Barnes solo homer. Kenley Jansen came back and actually got his 22nd save of the year. The final score of 1-0 was the first time the Dodgers had ever beaten the Rockies on only a solo homer. But they also did the same thing to the Nationals on April 9 via Justin Turner. And they haven't had two such wins in a season since 2002.


Running Wild

While Kenley Jansen was having an interesting couple games, back in New York it was the Brooks Kriske adventure. Kriske, a 6th-round draft pick in 2016, also had Tommy John surgery so missed all of '17 and half of '18. But he's steadily risen through the Yankees system since then, spending 2019 at double-A and then the first part of this season on the express back and forth to triple-A Scranton. Wednesday marked his fourth different stint with the Yankees this season, and it came after another one of these back-and-forth endings that the Yankees like to get mixed up in.

Jean Segura of the Phillies started the game with a leadoff homer, just the second one the team's ever hit in the Bronx. Jimmy Rollins took A.J. Burnett deep on the very first pitch thrown to a Phillies batter in the new (current) Yankee Stadium on May 22, 2009. Bryce Harper made it 2-0 with a double, which the Yankees then answered with a homer and double of their own. They get to Hector Neris in the 7th for a 3-spot including Rougned Odor's homer. Then they give it right back in the 8th. Gleyber Torres boots one and Zack Britton walks the next two batters before leaving. Britton will be the first Yankees pitcher to give up 3 runs but 0 hits since Bryan Mitchell against Toronto on September 12, 2015. That's because Luke Williams promptly singles in two runs, Segura walks to reload the bases, and Nick Nelson uncorks a wild pitch for the tying run. Since we looked it up, the last Yankee to blow a save via wild pitch was Aroldis Chapman on July 4, 2019.

The Yankees, however, have second and third in the 9th but fail to score when DJ LeMahieu, either forgetting there's no force or just wanting to make the Phillies make the play, gets himself thrown out at the plate. So we go to extra-innings land again and here comes Brooks Kriske. He fields the required sacrifice bunt, then strands the free runner at third base, such that he ends up with the win when Ryan LaMarre hits the walkoff single. The Yankees have hit five walkoffs in their history against Philadelphia, including one in the World Series, and all of them have been singles. The others belong to Melky Cabrera (2009), David Justice (2000), Ricky Ledee (1998), and Jerry Coleman (1950).

So then on Thursday the Yankees head north to begin a series with the Red Sox, and Brooks Kriske is along for this ride also. After Enrique Hernandez ties the game with a sac fly in the 7th, the Yankees take it right back on two walks, a single, and a sac fly of their own against Adam Ottavino. It is up to Chad Green to protect the 2-run lead in the 9th, which he, um, doesn't. Two outs but also two singles and then a game-tying double from Hernandez again. He's the first Bostonian to hit a multi-run double when down to the team's final out against the Yankees since Troy O'Leary on July 17, 1996.

The Yankees are now on the road, so it's their turn to bunt the free runner over to third and then score him on Brett Gardner's sac fly. The Yankees hadn't hit a go-ahead sac fly in extras against Boston since the Williamses teamed up on May 3, 1995, with Bernie scoring Gerald. Now we turn the lead over to Brooks Kriske for the bottom of the 10th. And in a bizarre "new world" first, he will turn it back before the leadoff batter even does anything. With Xander Bogaerts still standing at the plate, Kriske unleashes two wild pitches to score the free runner Rafael Devers from second. That's the Yankees' third blown save of the game, something they had only done once before in the "save era". Ray Burris, Jim Kaat, and Ron Davis all gave up leads to the Royals on June 9, 1979.

Bogaerts is already halfway to drawing a walk, so might as well complete that. And four pitches later he's standing on third because Kriske has uncorked two more. The only other pitcher in Yankees history to throw 4 wild pitches in a game is Freddy Garcia (5!) against the Orioles on April 10, 2012. And it took him five innings. So at this point it isn't long before Hunter Renfroe hits a walkoff sac fly, the first for the Red Sox since Kevin Youkilis against Texas on July 17, 2010. Only the Braves, White Sox, and Astros had gone longer without one. And one more on Kriske-- he gave up those 4 wild pitches and took a loss without ever giving up a base hit. Only one other pitcher has ever done that, Bobby Witt of the Rangers in an 8-walk start on April 17, 1986. And Witt left a tie game so didn't even get tagged with the loss.

And Sunday's finale could best be described as "interesting". Domingo Germán, doing his best work on the day of the week he's named for, took a no-hitter through the 7th and had us discovering that the Red Sox have not been no-hit at Fenway since 1958. (And other fun nuggets that only serve to delay this post.) But once Alex Verdugo doinked one off the right-field wall to start the 8th, Germán was done in favor of Jonathan Loaisiga. He only faced four batters. But all of them got hits, and by the time this ends, the Sawx have gone from being no-hit at the start of the inning, to having 5 hits, 5 runs, and the lead. Loaisiga is the third Yankees pitcher this year to give up 4 runs while getting 0 outs; Justin Wilson did it earlier this month against the Orioles, and Aroldis Chapman did it against the Twins on June 10 in a game that's widely considered to be the start of his troubles. The only other season where three Yankees pitchers pulled that off was 1930, and two of those were starters who broke down in the 1st inning.

Where's Brooks Kriske when you need him? After all, he pitched a perfect inning, with 0 wild pitches, on Sunday. For Scranton.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Nelson Cruz, Sat-Sun: Joined Lucas Duda (2017) and Elijah Dukes (2007) as the only players to homer in both of their first two games with the Rays.

⚾ Andrew Benintendi, Tuesday: Second cleanup batter in Royals history to have both a sac fly and a sac bunt in the same game. Jorge Orta did it against Minnesota on September 21, 1985.

⚾ Sean Manaea, Thursday: First Oakland pitcher to strike out 13 batters in a road game since Jose Rijo on April 19, 1986. Oakland's drought of not having someone do this was the longest in the majors by 15 years (it's now the Yankees).

⚾ Jose Berrios, Monday: First Twins pitcher to throw a complete game (albeit a 7-inning DH) while allowing 3 homers since Bert Blyleven at Baltimore, May 11, 1987.

⚾ Patrick Sandoval, Saturday: First Angels pitcher not named Nolan Ryan to strike out 13+ and allow no more than 1 hit in a game. Ryan did it three times (two of them NHs).

⚾ Austin Meadows, Wednesday: Second walkoff single in Rays history with team down to its final out (i.e., a lead-flipper). Tim Beckham had the other against Toronto on October 3, 2015.

⚾ Max Kepler & Brent Rooker, Sunday: Second set of Twins this year to start a game with back-to-back homers, after Byron Buxton and Josh Donaldson on April 28. First season in franchise history (1901) where it's happened twice.

⚾ Rangers, Mon-Tue: First time in franchise history that they struck out 10 times and draw 0 walks in back-to-back games.

⚾ Austin Riley, Sunday: First Braves batter to have 3 extra-base hits in a game where the team only scored 1 run since Ernie Padgett against the Cubs on June 13, 1924.

⚾ Darren McCaughan, Wednesday: Second pitcher in modern era to throw 5+ hitless innings in an MLB debut yet still give up a run. Ross Stripling did it as a Dodger on April 8, 2016.

⚾ Yandy Diaz, Thursday: First Rays batter ever to homer and triple in the same game against Cleveland. Had been the only remaining AL opponent against whom they'd never done it.

⚾ Tim Anderson, Monday: Became first White Sox batter to homer in three straight games while batting leadoff in all of them since Ray Durham in May 2001.

⚾ Sal Perez, Sunday: Third time hitting a 3-run homer as the Royals' third batter of a game. Only player in team history with more is George Brett (4).

⚾ Athletics, Friday: Second game in franchise history where their pitching staff unfurled 5 wild pitches. The other was a 12-6 loss to the White Sox on June 7, 1937.

⚾ Josh VanMeter, Tuesday: First player for any team with a single, a double, a triple, and 3 RBI in a game he didn't start since Felix Mantilla of the Mets on May 25, 1962.

⚾ Framber Valdez, Saturday: Third pitcher in Astros history to allow 0 hits in a game but also issue 6 walks. Pete Harnisch (1991) and Don Wilson (1969) are the others.

⚾ Francisco Mejia, Tuesday: Second player in Rays history with a homer, a triple, and 5 RBI in one game. Melvin Upton did it when he hit for the cycle against the Yankees on October 2, 2009.

⚾ Bryce Harper, Friday: Third steal of home by a Phillies runner this season (McCutchen, Realmuto). First time team has had three in a season since 1967 (Dick Allen and Tony Taylor).

⚾ Orioles, Sunday: Recorded first walkoff FCX (fielder's choice, no out) since September 27, 1974, when they won a 1-0 game against Milwaukee in the 17th inning.

⚾ Merrill Kelly & Alec Mills, Saturday: First game at Wrigley Field where both starting pitchers hit a double since Paul Minner & Murry Dickson of the Cardinals on May 13, 1956.


Sunday, July 18, 2021

Wanna Be Starting Something


It was a nice little break, but still you waited three whole days for baseball to come back. And then it didn't, because the lone game on Thursday-- which was already an anomaly because All-Star Thursday has been reserved as a makeup date in recent years-- got postponed. So you had to wait another day until the Twins and Tigers had a day/night doubleheader at 2:00 on Friday. And then that got rained out. So it was actually the Phillies' twinbill that started at 4:06 on Friday that got the honor of being our first game back after nearly five entire days (remember, no Sunday night game in All-Star week either). So with only three days of games, it's hard for a theme to develop. In the spirit of Seinfeld we considered trying to do a post about nothing. And then a whole lot of not-nothing happened.


Battle Of The Network All-Stars

There was one game stuck in there, and we usually don't do any notes and stuff about the All-Star Game because it doesn't count and everybody's just having a bunch of fun out there. But we're going to steal an idea we use during spring training and look back at Tuesday's 5-2 American League win as if it were a real game played as part of the championship season. (We admit this works better when the game is more interesting than, well, 5-2.)

⚾ Nine different NL pitchers recorded a strikeout (and the one who didn't was Craig Kimbrel). That actually happened in a real game back on April 16, one where the Dodgers scored 5 runs in the 12th and the Padres had already intentionally made it a bullpen game and were already on pitcher number seven by the 8th inning. Not shockingly, of the 17 games in MLB history where nine pitchers from the same team had a strikeout, all of them are this century, and 12 of them are in the last five seasons. It also happens that all of them are extra-inning games; no team's ever done it in a 9-inning affair. Yet.

⚾ Neither starting pitcher allowed a hit. Now granted, we know they only worked 1 inning. But Shohei Ohtani and Max Scherzer became the latest to pull off that little nugget. In our new world of "openers" we were surprised that this has only happened 12 times in the modern era, and only two of them involve the Rays. But that includes the latest occurrence, on September 17, 2019, against the Dodgers when Blake Snell and Caleb Ferguson headed up dueling bullpen games. The most amusing one we found was from May 9, 1943, when Al Milnar of the Indians faced four batters and walked them all. Meanwhile his opponent, Bob Muncrief of the Browns, faced four batters, walked three of them, and had one reach on an error. So not only did neither starter give up a hit, but neither one got an out. As for 0 hits and 0 walks by both starters, a la Ohtani and Scherzer, well no, that's never happened in the regular season.

⚾ Vlad Guerrero Jr homered for the AL's second run of the night. No, of course there's nothing unusual about Vladdy going yard. But we are at Coors Field. And the Jays don't get there very often. Turns out Junior did hit a dinger the last time they visited, on May 31, 2019, off Chris Rusin. And the only Jays player to hit two homers there in the regular season is Edwin Encarnacion, who did it in the same game back on June 27, 2016.

⚾ The Zunino giveth, the Zunino taketh away. (Needs work, we know.) That's catcher Mike of the Rays, who was responsible for the final run for both All-Star teams. No, he didn't magically get traded in the middle of the game. In the top of the 6th he came to the plate and hit a solo homer. In the bottom of the 6th he committed a passed ball to allow Manny Machado to score from third. We thought this might take a while since offensive stats and defensive stats don't merge easily, plus you have the added condition that we wanted a run-scoring passed ball. But it turns out Zunino actually did this earlier in the season. On May 11 against the Yankees he committed 2 PBs in a row to score DJ LeMahieu from second, then atoned in the bottom of the same inning with a solo homer. (They still lost.)

⚾ And one final side shout-out to a local All-Star. Opposite the MLB game on Tuesday, we were taking in the All-Star game of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (think Cape Cod if you're unfamiliar) and the exploits of one Nick Martin of Westfield State (go Owls). Martin was named as a last-minute replacement and wasn't even on the roster. So imagine everyone's surprise when he gets into the game in the 8th inning and then steals second, third, and home on the same trip around the bases. A straight steal to boot, and that's after one of his teammates was tagged out doing the same thing an inning earlier. Ever seen three stolen bases in an All-Star game? Not an MLB one. In fact, the list of those who've even stolen two in the MLB game is only five players long. Starlin Castro was the last to do it, in 2011. And the other four, well, one of these things is not like the others: Kenny Lofton (1996), Roberto Alomar (1992), Kelly Gruber (1990), and Willie Mays (1963).


24-Padre Magic

Sooooo can we do a whole post about one game? Well, we've done it before. But honestly, San Diego, what. the. heck. was. that?

It was an eventful weekend at Nationals Park, and as you probably know, not all of it involved baseball. Happily, we are here to talk about the baseball part, and the Padres gave us plenty of material. We had a section just last week about the Nationals hanging 15 runs at Petco Park, and how they are lapping the field at being involved in 15-run games over the last few seasons. So another 15-run game at Nationals Park doesn't feel too weird... until we mention that it's for the other team. And we're not stopping at 15.

Erick Fedde had a relatively calm start to Friday's outing before giving up three straight 2-out singles in the 1st. That, plus a delayed steal of home by Tommy Pham, already gives the Padres 3 runs. Which Chris Paddack promptly returns by issuing a single, a walk, and a 3-run homer to Juan Soto. Soto is the first player in Nats/Expos history to twice in the same season hit a 3-run dinger as the team's third batter of a game. Want to guess when his other one was? In the 15-5 game last week at Petco-- off Chris Paddack. You can't make this up.

Fedde starts the 2nd with three walks (and a required sacrifice bunt because for some reason pitchers are batting again), and all of them eventually score as well. That happens after he's already been yanked from the game, the first Nats starter to give up 6 runs while getting 4 outs in a home game since Jason Marquis against Pittsburgh on July 3, 2011. That brings Andres Machado out of his All-Star break slumber, and that goes equally well. He faces four batters, gets one out, and that only came because of an interference call. So it's 6-3 and the bases are still loaded when we awaken Paolo Espino from his four-day nap. Wil Myers, very much already awake. And the lucky one who gets to hit the Padres' first-ever grand slam in Washington (either stadium). Surprisingly, in 35 years of playing in Montréal, the Padres only ever hit one there either, by Mike Ivie off Gerry Hannahs on May 20, 1977.

So it's 10-3 and you can stop now. No. No you can't. Jake Cronenworth, who greeted Machado with a double last inning, rattles one into the right-field corner for a triple (and another run). Tommy Pham and Eric Hosmer hit back-to-back doubles to start the 4th. Sam Clay gets to pitch the 5th, and Cronenworth molds that into a solo homer. (If you're paying attention, he's a single shy of the cycle, and it's the 5th inning.) It is already 13-4 when Wander Suero wanders out to the mound for the 6th and heeeeere comes the fun part.

Tommy Pham, solo homer. Hosmer walks. Wil Myers homers again, the Padres' first multi-homer game at Nationals Park since Matt Kemp on July 22, 2016. Yadiel Hernandez, now in left field after a double switch, drops a fly ball that leads to two more unearned runs (that's 18). Suero departs with 5 more on the board and one still on base. But at least he won't be the one who gives up that magic single to Jake Cronenworth. Nope, that happens on the very first pitch from Ryne Harper, and it completes the third cycle in Padres history. The other two both happened at Coors Field, and we've mentioned both players already: Wil Myers in April 2017 and Matt kemp in August 2015. It was also the first cycle by a visiting player at Nationals Park. Pham singles in a 19th run as the Padres bat around, but at least he gets stranded this time. (More on this soon.)

Miguel Diaz gets charged with protecting a 15-run lead, which he does by giving up homers to Juan Soto (again) and Gerardo Parra and turning it into an 11-run lead. That one inning doubled the number of homers the Nats/Expos have ever hit when trailing by 14 runs or more; Anthony Rendon hit one two years ago against the Diamondbacks, and the Expos did it once in 1997 when Rondell White homered off Atlanta's Paul Byrd.

Despite another error, Harper gets through the top of the 7th unscathed, and finally there's a "0" up there and we can stop digging up our list of teams to score in every inning. It was the first time the Padres had scored in the first 6 frames since June 24, 2016, in Cincinnati. And finally you think, maybe they're done. Maybe 19 is just enough. Maybe they're gonna put all the bench players in and this thing will limp to a finish. Maybe final Nats pitcher Jefry Rodriguez can-- mm, yeah, no, he can't.

With two outs in the 8th, Tommy Pham draws another walk and scores on a Wil Myers single. If this feels repetitive, it's only because Pham wound up scoring 5 runs including that steal of home in the 1st. Only one other player in Padres history had touched the plate 5 times in a game, Al Martin against Houston on April 16, 2000. And with that grand slam from way back in the 2nd, Myers would end up driving in 7 Padres runs, the first in team history to do that while hitting 7th or lower in the batting order. If you drop the threshold to 5 RBI, it's the fifth such game for Myers (from any spot), trailing only Phil Nevin and Ken Caminiti for the most in Padres history.

And how does one more for the road sound? Jorge Mateo, possibly the most useless home run in Padres history with 1 out in the 9th. Only two other Padres batters have ever homered with the team already up by 15, and they weren't in the 9th. Brian Buchanan hit one against the Marlins on August 23, 2002, and Brad Ausmus took Todd Burns of the Cardinals deep in 1993. That was also the fifth run off Jefry Rodriguez; with Suero and starter Fedde, they're the first trio of pitchers in franchise history to each give up 5 runs in the same game.

So now let's take a look at this 24-8 final. We already know it's the most runs ever scored by the Padres or allowed by the Nationals. That 2002 game from the last paragraph ended with a score of 18-2 and is the only other 16-run win in Padres history. And the only other times the Nationals franchise lost by 16 were both road shutouts from the Expos days: A 16-0 at St Louis on August 11, 1980, and an 18-0 on May 24, 2000, in their first series at (then) Pacific Bell Park.

Ever seen a 24-8 score before? Okay, maybe in a video game or your softball league at work. But in a major-league game? No you haven't. 24-8 had been among the remaining combinations that had never happened in the "official" MLB annals dating to 1876. There is one game from the National Association, on May 4, 1874, in which Philadelphia beat Baltimore by a 24-8 count, but most sources don't consider the National Association of 1871-75 to be a true "major league". You can make that call for yourself as to whether it is a true "scorigami", as a never-before-seen final is known. Either way, you weren't around in 1874 to see the other one. And you probably didn't read about it either; we found one Pennsylvania newspaper where it gets three lines around the announcement of a book reading and two death notices.

Back to Jake Cronenworth, he pulled off another thing you've never seen. Yeah sure, he hit for the cycle, but he did so in a game where his team scored 24 runs. And while we did find three other players to do that, exactly none of them were from the 20th century. Sam Thompson of the Phillies did it in 1894, and the others even predate that, to when the mound was still 55 feet away. They are Tip O'Neill of the Cardinals in 1887 and Cincinnati's John Reilly in 1883.

And even through Juan Soto's team lost by 16, remember he still had those two homers to drive in half the Nationals' runs. Combine his line with Cronenworth's and you've got a tremendous list. Only five times in MLB history has a player from each team had 4 hits, 4 RBI, and 10 total bases in the same game. The last instance was by Willie McGee and Ryne Sandberg on June 23, 1984. And if that's not impressive enough, try the other combos: Mike Schmidt and Rick Monday (1976); Willie Horton and Carl Yastrzemski (1965); and Lou Boudreau and Ted Williams (1946).


Wanna Be Re-Starting Something

We jump ahead to Saturday, and while other things were happening on South Capitol Street, it was also raining on and off in Philadelphia. The Marlins and Phillies got stuck in one rain delay in the 5th right after the game had become official, but that wasn't a long one and the umpires sent everyone back onto the field to try and finish. In the 9th, with it raining again, the Phillies couldn't be bothered to finish it, blowing the save and ending up in extra innings. Two pitches into the 10th we put the tarp on and go home, let's save this for another day. This is within minutes of the Nationals game also getting suspended, and shout-out to the folks at Retrosheet for having this list readily available. The last time there were two suspended games on the same day was July 27, 1958-- AND one of those was a Phillies game. In fact both Pennsylvania teams had their games suspended because of the old state Sunday curfew law, to the point where Giants manager Bill Rigney was ejected for "stalling" to try and reach the curfew (a forebearer of "playing for the rain delay"). Unlike this weekend, those games were not completed the next day-- but they were completed on the same day, September 9, when the old eight-team NL schedule repeated itself and the same opponents were back in town.

It's also worth mentioning that the Yankees and Red Sox waited 50 rain-free minutes to start Saturday's game, then played most of it in the rain before Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres homered to break a tie in the 6th. But for those homers, we could have had a third suspended game on Saturday, something which is not known to have happened in MLB history.

Instead, the game was promptly called soon afterward, technically resulting in a complete-game victory for Gerrit Cole. You may recall last Saturday when he talked himself into a 1-0, 129-pitch win over the Astros. That makes him just the fourth pitcher in Yankees history to throw back-to-back complete games with 11 strikeouts in each. The others are Ron Guidry (1978), Bob Turley (1955), and Red Ruffing (1934). And the last Yankee to throw any CG with 11 K's against Boston was Mike Mussina on September 2, 2001-- affectionately still known as The Carl Everett Game. (Expletive optional depending on which side of the rivalry you're on.)


Yes, the Yanx/Sawx rivalry is always a big thing, and it's frequently overplayed in our opinion. But we can all agree that hurling baseballs at opposing players from the stands is not the ideal way to start the commotion. Intermission!


Pitt Stop Start

Getting back to the Pirates, it turns out they no longer have to worry about state curfew laws. Pennsylvania now allows them to stay up past their bedtime. The Mets, however, may want to make a side trip to Harrisburg and lobby for those getting reinstated. New York led Saturday's game 6-0 after 7 innings, with rookie Tylor Megill confounding the Pirates in his fifth start in the bigs. Now if only it hadn't taken him 93 pitches and they could've left him out there.

Seth Lugo appears for the 8th and is the poster child for our own made-up stat, the "blown hold". A pitcher can't actually get a hold if he's not in a save situation to start with, and 6-0 does not qualify. But if your outing results in the next pitcher being in a save situation, eh, well, it probably wasn't good. Walk. Single. Double. Walk. Fly ball. Kevin Newman beats out a potential double play for another run, but more precariously keeps the inning going. That's just enough time for Wilmer Difo to crank a 3-run homer to suddenly turn this from 6-0 into 6-5. Difo was the first Pirates batter with a 3- or 4-run, pinch-hit homer against the Mets since Mike Diaz went deep off Roger McDowell on June 7, 1987.

And it'll be another Diaz who puts this one away in the 9th. Unfortunately that's Mets closer Edwin, of 19 converted saves but just enough close calls to make the locals nervous. Brandon Nimmo has hit a solo homer to put the Mets back up by 2. Diaz plunks Ke'Bryan Hayes and walks Bryan Reynolds to put the tying runs on base. Diaz induces two strikeouts, but in between John Nogowski singles to load them up; he now represents the winning run and gets pinch-run for.

Not gonna matter. Because Jacob Stallings does this. From 0-6 to 9-7 in two innings, the Pirates have come all the way back and added the dagger of their first walkoff grand slam since Rob Mackowiak against the Cubs on May 28, 2004. That was the second-longest drought without a walkoff slam of any team, but the Pirates have nothing on the Giants-- who haven't had one since Bonds. No, Bobby Bonds-- in 1973!

The Pirates' last walkoff slam when trailing is going to invoke visions of another perilous Mets closer, though he wasn't a Met at the time. Brian Giles hit it off then-Astro Billy Wagner on July 28, 2001. The last one the Mets gave up was by Giancarlo Stanton on May 13, 2012, and that happened to be the first grand slam in "Miami Marlins" history after the rebrand. J.D. Davis, who drove in four of those early runs with a pair of homers, became the first Mets batter to have multiple dingers in a loss in Pittsburgh since Willie Montañez on May 24, 1978.

And that Pirates comeback? Well, 9 late runs isn't exceedingly rare. The last time they scored that many from the 8th onward was Opening Day 2018, in a memorable 13-10 back-and-forth with the Tigers. But the last time they scored 9+ runs in a game with all of them coming in the 8th or later, was so far back that it happened during their first road trip away from Forbes Field. That 9-0 win-- 3 in the 8th and 6 in the 9th-- was at Boston's South End Grounds on July 22, 1909.


Jump Start

Apparently the Pirates were so excited by their 5 runs in the 8th and 4 in the 9th that they roared out of the gate on Sunday still wanting to score more runs. Taijuan Walker made that possible in more ways than one, first by giving up multiple doubles to Wilmer Difo and Joe Nogowski and then by, well, making one of the most Mets-ian plays in recent memory. Yep, that's a fair ball because it's still on the line when he touches it, and then he just ignores it until after three Pirates runs have scored. So already it's 6-0 Pittsburgh and here we go again.

Or do we? Walker is the second pitcher in Mets history to give up 6 runs to the Pirates while getting only 1 out, the other being Craig Anderson in their inaugural season (loss #49 on June 25, 1962). But with the pitchers already being switched around, Tyler Blankenhorn cranks a 3-run pinch-hit homer in the top of the 4th. There'd only been one other of those so early in a Mets game; Hawk Taylor hit a grand slam off another Pirates hurler, Bob Veale, on August 17, 1966. And here we are at 6-4. And then 6-5. And in the top of the 9th, there's no way Michael Conforto might... no.

Yep. Lead-flipping homer to bring the Mets all the way back after surrendering 6 runs before getting the second out of the game. They hadn't had any lead-flipping homer in the 9th inning against the Pirates since Chris Jones walked off in extras on July 31, 1996. And the 7-6 final meant that all the Pirates' runs came in the 1st inning. Sound familiar? We haven't done the whole thing yet (and will update when we do), but we can go back 30 years pretty quickly, and in that timeframe the Pirates have never had a game where they scored 6 or more with all of them in the 1st inning.

Now who wants those curfew laws back?


Come Together

That Nationals/Padres series was literally interrupted about halfway through and led to 12½ innings being played on Sunday. The suspended game from Saturday was already 8-4 when we returned to Nationals Park, so there was some chance, but you kinda knew where that was headed. The Padres added two more in their half of the 7th to provide our final score of 10-4, after just dropping 24 runs in Friday's game (which seems soooo long ago now). However, it did give us some more notes to play with. Fernando Tatis already had four hits and a stolen base before the "incident" on Saturday, so combined with Tommy Pham's line from Friday (remember the 5 runs scored?), it's the first time in Padres history that a player has done that in consecutive games. And speaking of Pham, he would single in the resumption such that he reached base for a fifth time in that game. After 4 hits and a walk on Friday, he collected 3 hits and 2 walks in Saturday's game, joining a very small list of Padres players to reach base five times in consecutive games. The others are Adrian Gonzalez (June 2009), Brian Giles (August 2004), and Gene Tenace (May 1977), and none of them also managed to score multiple runs in both games as Pham did.

Then it came time to play Sunday's regularly-scheduled game, in which the Nationals erupt for 4 runs in the 3rd off Joe Musgrove. Eric Hosmer answers that with a 3-run homer, and the Padres eventually claw back to take the lead in the 8th. Never fear, Juan Soto is here. (That should be a t-shirt or something.) He blasts a 2-run homer in the 8th to go back to 7-6, the first lead-flipping homer for the Nats/Expos in the 8th or later against San Diego since Henry Rodriguez went deep off Andres Berumen on May 24, 1995.

As a last-ditch effort, Trent Grisham is going to tie things yet again with a 2-out single in the top of the 9th, the first such tying hit the Padres have had against the Nationals since Josh Naylor did it on June 7, 2019. It's still not enough. Because in the bottom of the 9th, Mark Melançon gives up a single, hits Victor Robles with a pitch, and then watches as Alcides Escobar plops a ball into center field for a walkoff single. Washington hadn't had a game-winning single against San Diego since Austin Kearns did it on July 26, 2009. So at least they got something good out of the weekend.

But still, look at those scores. 24-8, 10-4, and 8-7. The Padres rolled up 41 runs in three games, their most in team history over any three-game span. The previous mark had been 38, and it was a fairly-infamous series at Coors Field in June 2019 that involved a 16-12 and a 14-13. And before this Nationals series, before the All-Star break, the Padres' previous road game had been an 11-1 win in Philadelphia on July 4. With the Friday and Saturday finals, that meant they scored 10+ runs in three consecutive road games. The only other they ever did that was at Coors Field too-- April 6 through 8 of 2001 (10-6, 14-10, and 11-3).


Finish What You Started

Remember that Tigers game that would have been the first one of the week after Yanx/Sawx got cancelled, but then it got cancelled too? That became a day/night doubleheader on Saturday, and Robbie Grossman has been waiting six days to even make contact with a baseball. (Seven since he's had a hit.) In a lefty/righty move, Akil Baddoo gets to sit against the pitching of Charlie Barnes, and Grossman moves up to the leadoff slot. By the way, Barnes is making his major-league debut as a spot starter, having come across the river from triple-A St Paul for the doubleheader. So Grossman's never seen him. But after four pitches he's seen enough, and rips the fifth one to left-center for a leadoff homer. That was the second leadoff homer for the Tigers this year; both have been by Grossman, and both have come against the Twins (May 8 off Jose Berrios). For Barnes, it's not even unusual for a pitcher to give up a dinger to the first batter he sees; Edwar Colina did that for the Twins last year.

No, it's the rest of the game that gets unusual. Jonathan Schoop follows Grossman with a single, but then Barnes gets three outs in a row. Then three in the 2nd. Then three in the 3rd. He finally gets pulled in the 5th after facing Grossman a third time and that silly "third time through" superstition kicking in, even though Detroit still has only the one run. And Minnesota doesn't have any. Jose Ureña gave up meaningless singles in the 2nd and 3rd and erased one of them on a double play. And don't forget, even though you paid full price to attend this game, you still only get 7 innings because of the night game later on. So when the teams manage only one baserunner in the 6th and 7th combined, we have a 1-0 final with the only run being Grossman's leadoff homer. It's the first occurrence of that in Tigers history, and according to Baseball Almanac it's the 27th in MLB history. Nick Markakis of the Orioles was the last to do it on August 3, 2014. And one leftover note on Barnes, who of course got the loss as a result of that leadoff homer: He's the first Twins pitcher to lose his debut despite giving up only 1 run since Brad Havens lost a 2-0 contest, also at Detroit, on June 5, 1981.

The aforementioned night game also had its share of fun, and you at least got 8 innings out of this one. Akil Baddoo, now back in the lineup with righty Kenta Maeda on the hill, delivers a 3-run triple in the 2nd, just as Grossman had done against the Royals back on May 11. The Tigers have had only one other season at Comerica where they had multiple 3-run triples; that was 2001 by Juan Encarnacion and Damion Easley.

The Twins were able to claw back and send this one to extras, whereupon Joe Jimenez wild-pitches in their free runner in the top of the 8th. That forces Jonathan Schoop to hit a game-tying single to score the Tigers' free runner, and then Miguel Cabrera to do this. That's about a 6-second hang time that allows Schoop to score all the way from first while Miggy just stands on the bag admiring it. It was his 11th walkoff anything, breaking a tie with Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish. (Lou Whitaker is believed to hold the team record with 20, but we don't have every play-by-play for the Greenbergs and Cobbs of the world, so we can't be certain.) The 5-4 win, combined with the 1-0 from earlier, is the first time the Tigers have swept a doubleheader from the Twins, both by 1 run, since April 24, 1984. And the last time the Tigers started Game 1 of a twinbill with a homer and then ended Game 2 with a walkoff was July 8, 1962, against Baltimore, with Jake Wood scoring the run in both cases.


Don't Start Now

And finally, one team that refused to get started this weekend was the Texas Rangers. They may have been outshadowed by the news that the Blue Jays would finally be returning to Toronto in a couple weeks, but for now they still get to face them at Sahlen Field and maybe throw us a few (we hope) final Buffalo notes. But yeah, not really. Friday's game was a 10-2 drubbing highlighted by two more homers from Vlad Guerrero Jr after his All-Star escapades. That gave him 30 on the year, setting a team record for the fewest number of games (88) needed to achieve a 30-HR season. Vladdy was only two of the Jays' five homers in the game, their most against Texas since May 14, 2010. And Jordan Lyles gave up four of those taters, which he also did on June 16 in Houston. He's the first starter in Astros history to have multiple games in the same season where he surrendered four homers and didn't get out of the 5th inning.

On Saturday the Jays spared us from the threat of yet another suspended game by just cancelling early. The same weather that got Philadelphia and New York was over the western part of the state early in the day and they just said, nah. We'll play two on Sunday instead. This at least was a single-admission doubleheader, so you're getting 14 innings for the price of 9 instead of getting cheated out of a couple. And the Rangers still couldn't solve Jays pitching. Hyun-Jin Ryu threw a complete-game 3-hitter in the opener, defeating Texas 5-0, and getting the first individual SHO by a Jays pitcher since Mark Buehrle had one in Washington on June 3, 2015. Yes, we know it's only a 7-inning CG, but technically it counts. The only team to go longer without having someone throw an individual shutout is the Brewers (Kyle Lohse in 2014). It was the first time the Rangers had been shut out on 3 hits in a game "at" Toronto since Roger Clemens did it to the on September 7, 1997.

Annnnnd it would be the last time that happened until, oh, a little over 3 hours later. The second game, even worse. Toronto, like their new neighbors down in Pittsburgh, blew up for a 6-spot in the 1st inning against Mike Foltynewicz, with a Lourdes Gurriel grand slam doing most of the damage. The Rangers sent Folty back out for the 2nd, and the Jays proceeded to send more baseballs into the night sky, finally knocking him out after 10 runs and only 5 outs. The only other starter in Rangers history to hit those dubious marks was Kenny Rogers against the White Sox on May 16, 1993. Folty is also the first starter in Rangers history to give up 10 runs and 4 homers in a game, no matter how many innings you let him stay out there.

The last time the Jays piled up 10 runs by the end of the 2nd inning was on August 12, 2015, in a home game against Oakland. And oddly, just like on Sunday, they figured that was enough and started packing for that return to Canada next week. Didn't score again the rest of the game. But as mentioned, this is a 7-inning doubleheader game, so their bullpen can fairly easily connect a few more zeroes. Between Steven Matz, Rafael Dolis, and Tayler Saucedo, the Jays combine to shut out the Rangers again, this time doubling their 5-0 to a 10-0. In franchise history the Blue Jays had never shut out their opponent in both games of a twinbill (although, thanks to that roof they are trying to get back to, they don't play very many these days).


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Hunter Dozier, Sunday: Third player in Royals history to have 4 hits, including 2 for extra bases, but score 0 runs and drive in 0 runs. Billy Butler did it July 1, 2009, against the Twins, as did Freddie Patek at Yankee Stadium on June 20, 1972.

⚾ Max Fried, Saturday: First Braves pitcher to have 3 hits, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI in a game on offense since Carl Morton against the Cubs, June 12, 1975.

⚾ Myles Straw, Friday: First Astros batter to hit a 3-run double in Chicago since Brad Ausmus did it on the North Side, May 30, 2003.

⚾ Austin Meadows, Sunday: Second batter in Rays history with a go-ahead sac fly in the 7th or later in a National League park. Quinton McCracken did it at Shea on June 9, 1998.

⚾ Willson Contreras, Saturday: Third Cubs batter with a multi-run, go-ahead homer in the 9th or later at Chase Field. Others are Anthony Rizzo (May 23, 2015) and Tyler Houston (June 8, 1999).

⚾ Austin Meadows, Friday: Second go-ahead hit the Rays have ever had in the 9th or later in Atlanta. The other was a Fred McGriff solo homer, 20 years earlier to the day (July 16, 2001).

⚾ Willy Adames, Sunday: Third player in Brewers history with 2 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and 3 walks in a road game. Others are Richie Sexson at Cincinnati (May 10, 2003) and Tommy Harper at Comiskey (September 26, 1970).

⚾ Kris Bubic, Saturday: First Royals pitcher to throw 6 innings in relief and allow no more than 2 hits since Todd Wellemeyer got to mop up after an 11-run 1st at Cleveland on August 13, 2006.

⚾ Jordan Holloway, Friday: First pitcher in Marlins history to throw 5+ innings in "relief" and not allow a hit.

⚾ Will Smith, Sunday: First Dodgers player with 3 hits, 3 RBI, and a stolen base in a road loss since Delino DeShields at Philadelphia, August 24, 1995.

⚾ Mookie Betts & Max Muncy, Saturday: First Dodgers teammates in (at least) the modern era to have 4 hits and 10 total bases in the same game.

⚾ Trey Amburgey & Hoy Park, Friday: First time two Yankees have made their MLB debuts in the same game since Tyler Austin & Aaron Judge, August 13, 2016.


Sunday, July 11, 2021

Them's The Breaks


Much like Memorial Day and Labor Day are often viewed as the start and end of summer, we've been splitting baseball seasons in half around the All-Star break for many years now. None of that is true, of course; every team's played at least 87 games now ("half" would be 81) and many are over 90. (Spoiler alert: The vast majority of "spring training" doesn't happen in the spring either.) But after 15 weeks of the daily grind, it's a nice chance to step back and collect thoughts and get ready for the final sprint (or inevitable collapse) toward October. Turns out a lot of teams already had breaks-- both good and bad-- over their games of the past week.


There's No Stopping Us

We could easily have made this post all about the machinations of the Phillies this week. We're not going to do that, because then many of you wouldn't read it, but they certainly took a lot of twists and turns on their way into the break. After spending Independence Day at home last Sunday, the Phillies took their message of newfound liberty to Chicago on Monday and proceeded to beat up on the Cubs by a score of 13-3. Once again, this game looked normal for a while, tied at 2 after 5 innings, then with an Andrew McCutchen double to take the lead in the 6th. But then it was the 8th when things came unhinged for Cubs pitching. Adam Morgan loaded the bases to start the inning, and was replaced by Kohl Stewart. Bases-loaded walk. An error. And the inevitable 3-run homer by Odubel Herrera. That created the Phillies' first 6-run inning at Wrigley Field since May 16, 2012, and their first double-digit win there since May 16, 1979 (33 years to the day). The final damage was done by Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm in the top of the 9th, and it marked the first time five different Phillies batters had homered in the same game at Wrigley since a 10-4 win on August 17, 1985.

And this game might have gotten lost in the shuffle of our week if it hadn't been for Tuesday. The Phillies picked up right where they left off against Jake Arrieta, who would promptly get put on the injured list with a hamstring issue. Not promptly enough, however, as he gave up 7 runs while getting just 5 outs. That was after a 6-on-5 outing against the Brewers last week, and it made him just the second Cubs starter in the modern era to reach that lofty mark in back-to-back outings. Ferguson Jenkins did it in July of 1983.

Four of Tuesday's runs came before Arrieta even recorded one out, with Jean Segura hitting a leadoff double, J.T. Realmuto getting plunked, and a Bryce Harper single to load the bases. This allows Andrew McCutchen to be the first Phillie in nine seasons to hit a grand slam as the team's fourth batter of a game; Ryan Howard went deep off Chris Young of the Mets on August 28, 2012. But "Cutch" is just the second Phillies batter ever to do it in a road game; Greg Luzinski had the other one of those, in Atlanta on June 11, 1977.

The Cubs did their best to not get blown out this time, putting up 3 runs in the 3rd only to see Bryce Harper (double) and Rhys Hoskins (sac fly) get them back in the 4th. Javier Baez homered in both the 6th and the 7th, but in between, Trevor Williams-- out there for a fourth inning-- finally melted down and gave up five more runs. Those included homers by both Harper and Hoskins again to raise the final total to 15-10. It was the Cubs' first time scoring 10+ against the Phillies and losing since April 18, 1993.

As a result of hitting leadoff, Segura was always on base for either Hoskins or Harper to score him; he posted the first 4-hit, 4-runs-scored line by a Phillie at Wrigley Field since John Kruk on August 10, 1989. And he didn't even have the biggest line of the day. Harper collected five hits (but only scored twice, on the homers). No Phillie had dropped a 5-hit game at Wrigley Field since Darron Daulton on September 20, 1989. And Harper also drove in 4 runs with said homers; the last 5-and-4 game by a Phillies batter on the road is also their only other one at Wrigley-- Mike Schmidt in a 3-homer game on April 17, 1976.

Someone say 3-homer game? Fast-forward a couple days to the series finale, when all that really happened is a "breakout" game from first baseman Brad Miller. He took starter Adbert Alzolay deep twice and then added a 2-run dinger off Cory Abbott in the 7th as the Phillies cruised to an 8-0 shutout. Jayson Werth had the Phils' last 3-homer game, on May 16, 2008, against Toronto; they had the longest drought of any team without such a game by over a year (the "honor" passes to the Angels). As for Phillies to have 3-homer games at Wrigley, that's not a bad list either. You already know two of the four. The others belong to Benito Santiago (September 15, 1996) and Johnny Callison (June 6, 1965).

We move ahead in our week philled with Phillies to Friday where the breaks are going the other direction. After the 7 early runs off Jake Arrieta on Tuesday, it would this time be Vince Velasquez giving them up as the Red Sox broke out for an 11-5 win. Oh sure, Segura did begin the game with a triple, the first leadoff three-bagger by a Phillies batter at Fenway Park since Dee Miles on September 6, 1942. But things even up on Velasquez's third pitch when Enrique Hernandez hit his fifth leadoff homer of the season. That by itself isn't a record, but the fact that all five of them have come at Fenway is. The only player we could find to even have four these in a season was Dwight Evans in 1985.

J.D. Martinez followed with a 3-run shot in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers led off the 3rd with another homer off Velasquez and this one was over early. The 3 homers were a first by a Phillies pitcher at Fenway since Randy Wolf did it on June 8, 2001, and that was in a complete-game loss. Velasquez also became just the second pitcher in Phillies history, or at least since earned runs became a thing in 1912, to give up 8 of them and 3 homers while getting no more than 7 outs. The other was one Adam Bernero on June 30, 2006, in what turned out to be his only career appearance for the Phillies.

And hey, at least the Phillies still have Jean Segura. After that leadoff triple on Friday, he took it one base further on Saturday, joining Doug Glanville (July 15, 1999) as the only Phillies ever to hit a leadoff homer at Fenway Park. But the combination? Turns out, in 25 years of interleague play, plus a handful of World Series games, plus those early years when the Braves and Sawx would borrow each other's parks on occasion, there had never been a National League batter to hit both a game-starting triple and a game-starting homer at Fenway.


Slam On The Breaks

After their 11 am start for Independence Day last Sunday, the Nationals had plenty of time to get to the west coast for a series with the Padres. The teams split the first two games, neither one terribly noteworthy. Jon Lester became the first Nationals pitcher with a hit, a run scored, and an RBI in San Diego since the Nationals weren't the Nationals and the Padres weren't at Petco. Dustin Hermanson did it for the Expos at then-Qualcomm Stadium on August 29, 1998. (We're gonna have much more on pitchers hitting in a moment.) Victor Robles and Yan Gomes made up the first pair of Nats/Expos teammates to have multiple doubles in back-to-back games in San Diego since David Segui and Sherman Obando did it in May 1996. And five of Tuesday's seven runs were driven in by Wil Myers, who joined Mark Loretta (2004), Ken Caminiti (1998), and Archi Cianfrocco (1995) on a list of Padres with a homer, a double, a sac fly, and 5 RBI in a game.

On Wednesday, however, the Nationals couldn't help themselves. It had been a whole entire week since they scored 15 runs in a game, and then the Phillies did it on Tuesday, so... so they just had to, right? As it turns out, Chris Paddack was happy to oblige, hitting Alcides Escobar to start the game, and eventually giving up a 3-run bomb to Juan Soto. Similar to the McCutchen slam, it was the first time the Nationals' third batter of a game had hit a 3-run dinger since Anthony Rendon in the 2017 season finale. It was also the first time the franchise had ever hit such a homer against the Padres. And it apparently was so nerve-wracking that in Soto's second plate appearance he got intentionally walked, with first base occupied. Of course, that just led to Josh Bell and Starlin Castro each hitting 2-run singles to make it 7-0 by the end of the 2nd. And Paddack didn't even record an out in the 3rd, joining a dubious list of Padres pitchers. Their others to give up 9 hits and 9 runs while getting no more than 6 outs are Nick Margevicius (2019), Woody Williams (2005), and Matt Whiteside (1999).

Nabil Crismatt gave up 2 hits and another run in the 4th, but then settled down (and also, the Nats have a 10-run lead) and those were the only hits he allowed the rest of the game. The last time a Padres pitcher threw 5 innings of relief in a home game and only allowed 2 hits was May 28, 2003, when Charles Nagy did it against the Brewers. It was Nick Ramirez who got sent out for the 8th and gave up 5 more hits to send the Nationals up to 15-run land again. If it seems like you read about this a lot, well, since the start of 2017, the Nationals have hung a 15-spot (or more) a whopping 21 times. That's eight more than any other team over the same span. However, Wednesday was only the franchise's second time doing it in San Diego, and the other goes back to Expos-at-Jack-Murphy days again. They had a 15-0 shutout in which Tim Wallach had 8 RBI on May 13, 1990.

Thursday's series finale certainly looked like it would be a repeat of Wednesday. This time it was Yu Darvish who fired off six early runs, including a homer by Trea Turner in the 1st and then 4 hits plus a sac fly in the 3rd. Turner bumped the lead up to 8-0 when he homered off Daniel Camarena in the 4th, joining Matt Adams (2018), Michael Taylor (2016), Adam LaRoche (2013), and Ryan Zimmerman (2010) as Nationals batters with a multi-homer game at Petco. Oh, and did we mention Max Scherzer is on the mound? What could go wrong?

Well, Fernando Tatis breaks up the shutout with a solo homer. Eh, happens. Still 8-1. However, then Scherzer seems to be broken as well. He plunks both Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer, walks Wil Myers to force in another run, and now it's two outs and bases loaded with the pitcher's spot due up. Didn't seem to be a point in double-switching since you don't figure the team's going to bat around right after you bring in said new pitcher. And it's too early in the game to start wasting pinch hitters. Guess we'll let Camarena bat for himself and see what happens.

So where to begin. If not for one other pesky strikeout against the Reds in June, Camarena would be on an even shorter list than he already is. Another Daniel-- Nava of the Red Sox-- is famously (still) the last player to hit a grand slam in his first at-bat, but Camarena is the first to have a slam be his first MLB hit since Brandon Crawford in 2011. Only three other players have hit a grand slam off Scherzer, including Vlad Guerrero Jr earlier this year. The others were Stephen Piscotty in 2016 and Matt Joyce in 2010. The last Padres batter to hit any slam against the Nats was Khalil Greene on September 17, 2005.

And all that is true without the asterisk that he's a relief pitcher. Mike Corkins, who was a starter, is the only other pitcher in Padres history to hit a grand slam, doing so against the Reds on September 4, 1970. To even find any 4-RBI game by a Padres pitcher (slam or not), you have to go back to Jake Peavy against the Dodgers on July 26, 2006.

The last relief pitcher to hit a grand slam for any team was Don Robinson of the Pirates on September 12, 1985. And only one RP had ever slammed against Washington-- and that obviously wasn't the Nationals. Dizzy Trout, father of '80s Chicago stalwart Steve Trout-- but no relation to Mike Trout-- hit a slam for the Tigers against the Senators on July 28, 1949. And according to StatsPerform, the only other pitcher in MLB history whose first career hit was a slam was Bill Duggleby of the Phillies on April 21, 1898.

Camarena wasn't even around to get the win (well, he was around, just not still in the game), because that didn't happen until Trent Grisham walked it off in the 9th. And that barely even made the radar screen because Austin Hedges also had a walkoff single the last time the Nationals visited Petco in 2019. In fact their last five walkoffs against Washington, going back 15 years, have all been singles. For the Nats it was the first time they scored 8 runs in the first 4 innings and ended up losing since Atlanta came back to win 11-10 on June 12, 2017. And going from 0-8 to 9-8 tied for the largest deficit the Padres have ever overcome to win; their last such game was on June 10, 1974, when they scored 4 in the 8th and 5 in the 9th to beat the Pirates.


Break-Fast

Although it's one of the few numbers they haven't retired yet, you still don't see too many zeroes when discussing the Yankees. On Tuesday the only goose eggs were on the Mariners' side of the scoreboard as they lit up Justus Sheffield en route to a 12-1 thumping. Giancarlo Stanton got that one going with a 3-run homer in the 1st inning, just the third such dinger the Yanks have ever hit at Safeco/TMobile. Alex Rodriguez took Jamie Moyer deep on May 18, 2005, and Scott Brosius hit one against Jeff Fassero on August 6, 1999, in the first series they ever played there. That 1st-inning homer was the exception, however; the Yankees piled up 14 singles for the first time in over 5 years (June 27, 2016, vs Rangers), with some of those leading to 3 more runs off Sheffield in the 2nd. The two walks, hit batter, and wild pitch probably didn't help either; Sheffield is the first Mariners pitcher ever to start against the Yankees, give up 6 earned runs, and not get out of the 2nd inning.

The Yankees ended up with at least one of those singles in every inning except the 7th, with Luke Voit's 5-hit game blowing up the boxscore. Voit did have one of the Yankees' four non-single hits, but that was a two-bagger; he posted the Yankees' first 5-hit game that did not include a homer since Derek Jeter did it in Chicago on August 3, 2011. Voit also became just the second Yankees batter ever to have a 5-hit game against the Mariners; the other is Don Mattingly on August 25, 1984.

Wednesday was more of the same, at least for the first 2 innings. Yusei Kikuchi got tagged for 3 runs in the 1st (including another RBI single from Voit) and a 2-run homer by Aaron Judge in the 2nd. That marked the first time the Yankees had scored multiple runs in both the 1st and 2nd of back-to-back games since doing it in Kansas City on July 23 and 24, 2007.

But Kikuchi calmed down and actually got through 5 innings, which is why he doesn't have a bunch of notes here. Nope, those instead go to Yankees starter Nick Nelson, who at least did get 2 outs. Around them, however, he walked three, hit a batter, and threw a wild pitch (naturally on ball four, thus scoring a run). He's the first starter in Yankees history to do all that without finishing the 1st inning. The last starter to do it for any team was Joe Mays of the Twins on August 10, 2000. And technically Nelson did not give up a hit, thus becoming the first Yankees starter to leave a no-hitter since Chad Green did it three times in August 2019 during their "opener" phase.

Thanks partly to Nelson's efforts in the 1st, the Mariners would manage to score 4 runs and almost come back to win that game despite having only 3 hits. Two of the hits came in the 6th, and one of those was Tom Murphy's 3-run tater-- the Mariners' first 3- or 4-run homer that late in a game against the Yankees since Mike Zunino off Anthony Swarzak on August 22, 2016. It was only the second home game in Mariners history where they had 3 hits but somehow scored 4 runs; the other was July 31, 2000, against the Red Sox, and involved 7 walks and 5 stolen bases.

But back to those zeroes. The Yankees did not end up scoring in the 1st inning on Thursday, so that streak is over. Giancarlo Stanton led off the 2nd with a double, and then Voit got hit with a pitch, so this seems promising. Nope, three outs against Logan Gilbert. We say this about debuts all the time, but an above-average number of teams seem to just freeze up and not do anything against a pitcher they've never seen before. Gilbert's not quite an unknown quantity, Thursday was his 10th major-league start, but still the Yanks had never faced him before. And 2019 was his only season in the minors, and he's on a west-coast team, so none of the current Yankees would have seen him there either. So maybe that explains it. But that Stanton double to start the 2nd? Only hit that Gilbert gave up. Plunking Luke Voit? Only other baserunner that Gilbert allowed. Eighteen in a row after that, putting him in rarefied company even though he didn't go on to finish the game. Gilbert is the second pitcher in Mariners history to allow 1 hit, walk 0, and strike out 8+ in a game. We'll give you a minute to guess the other before clicking on it.

The Yankees did no better against Paul Sewald in the 8th or Kendall Graveman in the 9th, meaning that Stanton double was their only hit of the game. The Yankees still haven't been no-hit in over 18 years, the fourth-longest streak among teams, but they also hadn't been one-hit in 18 years. In fact, 18 years to the day. Shortly after that 6-pitcher no-hitter by Houston on June 11, 2003, Billy Traber of the Indians came along and threw his only career complete game on July 8 of that year against New York. A John Flaherty single to start the 3rd was the only thing separating Traber from the perfect-game list.

And now it is of course perfectly appropriate that Houston Street in New York is the starting point of the Manhattan street grid, or basically, 0th Street. Because the Yankees would be taking their zeroes to Houston (the Texas one, pronounced differently) for the weekend. After Nestor Cortes and friends cobbled together a 3-hit shutout on Friday, it was Gerrit Cole's turn to take the ball on Saturday. And he did not let anyone take it back. Aaron Judge hits a solo homer in the 3rd to put the Yankees ahead. Meanwhile Cole goes through the order once unscathed before finally giving up a single to Abraham Toro in the 5th. Yuli Gurriel sends a single to left to start the 7th. Cole finishes the inning on 97 pitches, so there's no doubt he'll get the 8th. His career average is 99, and that includes some duds where he got pulled in the 4th inning. Sure enough, a perfect 8th but 15 more pitches for a total of 112. He's never gone more than 116. And it's still a 1-0 game. This is why we don't get paid the big bucks.

Out he goes. To give up a first-pitch single to Jose Altuve, who oh by the way, is the tying run. Michael Brantley works a 10-pitch at-bat to put Cole well over his career high in pitches. But Yuli Gurriel and Yordan Alvarez both manage to strike out on three pitches to end the game, give Cole his fifth career CG, and give the Yankees their first 1-0 win in the state of Texas since April 27, 1976. Their only other 1-0 win over the Astros was a Carlos Beltran sac-fly-off on August 24, 2015. And their last 1-0 win via solo homer was another Derek Jeter effort, May 25, 2010, in their first visit to Target Field. The Yankees had easily gone the longest of any team without such a 1-0 win (an "honor" which passes to Arizona).

As for Cole, he was the first Yankees pitcher to throw an individual shutout (commonly known as the redundant "complete-game shutout") while fanning a dozen batters since Mike Mussina did it on September 24, 2002. And the only other one they've thrown in Houston, regardless of how many K's, was by Luis Severino on May 2, 2018. And if you were counting along, you see the Astros got held to 3 hits yet again. Only once before had they been shut out on 3 hits in consecutive games at home, and it wasn't at Minute Maid Park. It wasn't even at the Astrodome. The Colt 45's had it happen in their second season, by Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres of the Dodgers on August 3 and 4, 1963. The Yankees hadn't been on the front end of such a thing-- shutting out their opponent on 3 hits in consecutive road games-- since June 1980 in Seattle.


We couldn't figure a way to use this one as a section header, but it's an '80s classic, so we'll stuff it in here. It's also a good baseball message, although technically if you never touch ground, you can't score a run. (Bases, yes, they're elevated, but the plate is not.) Either way, we got to keep on movin'. Intermission!


Breaking All The Rules

Okay, so what... was... that? If you were out enjoying yourself on Saturday night, we can only hope you had nearly as much fun as the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yes, it's The Game We Can't Not Talk About. Originally we thought it was going to be that 15-10 mess in Chicago. Yeah, we hear you laughing, baseball gods.

Caleb Smith is the unfortunate soul who gets to face the Dodgers on this fateful night, and let's just say it doesn't start well. Cody Bellinger and A.J. Pollock hit back-to-back homers in the 1st such that it's already 5-0. The Dodgers have already had four 5-run 1st innings this season, matching their total for the four previous regular seasons combined. Walker Buehler-- yes, the Dodgers pitcher-- leads off the 2nd with a single. Smith walks Mookie Betts and Chris Taylor to load 'em up. And now it's time for a breakdown. That would be Justin Turner's grand slam to make it 9-0, still with nobody out in the 2nd. That'll do, Caleb, we'll see you after the break. He joined Juan Cruz (May 17, 2006) and Edgar Gonzalez (September 3, 2004) as the only Diamondbacks starters to give up 9 runs while getting 3 outs. Matt Peacock does well to get through the next 3 innings unscathed, but he's a reliever, he's beyond done after 40 pitches. Alex Young got through the 5th and 6th on 30 pitches, and should he really be out there for the 7th?, well, again, this is why we do not get paid the big bucks. Pollock singles. Austin Barnes gets hit by a pitch. Matt Beaty beaty-ies out an infield single, and here we are loaded again. Wanna Betts what's gonna happen? The Dodgers have called their little bowl built into the side of Chavez Ravine home for 60 seasons now, and before Saturday they'd never hit two grand slams in the same game there. Betts will end up with 4 hits and 4 RBI, which he also did last August 13 against the Padres. The only other leadoff batter in Dodgers history with two such games is Davey Lopes.

Suddenly it's 13-0 and Alex Young is stuck in "take one for the team" mode even though he's already thrown 39 pitches. Pitch 47 ends up being a 2-run homer by Zach McKinstry. Pitch 49 is Albert Pujols's 674th career dinger. 16-0. Alex is finally done after becoming the first reliever in D'backs history to give up 7 runs and 3 homers. So we're going to end up with position players pitching in this mess, aren't we? Yep. But hold that thought. Andrew Young, not to be confused with Alex Young, hits one of the most meaningless home runs in Diamondbacks history in the top of the 8th. It does serve to erase the shutout, so maybe from a mental standpoint it gets a little bit of credit. But the only other homer in D'backs history to be hit with the team trailing by 16 runs was by Alex Cintron off another Young-- Jason of the Rockies-- on September 23, 2003. (For what it's worth, Shea Hillenbrand promptly went back-to-back, only trailing by 15 now. The game ended 20-9.)

Jordan Weems is ostensibly a pitcher. He appeared in 14 games for Oakland over the past two seasons and arrived in Phoenix last Monday after the A's waived him. Let's see if he can "protect" this 15-run defici-- mm, yeah, no. A.J. Pollock, leadoff homer in the 8th. He joined Yasmani Grandal (May 7, 2015, at Milwaukee) as the only Dodgers batters ever to have 4 hits, 2 homers, and 2 walks in the same game. And forgetting the homers, he's the first to do 4 hits and 2 walks while batting 7th or lower since Ron Fairly on August 7, 1966.

So that's 17-1. But Weems still can't find the plate. Walks Austin Barnes again. Matt Beaty singles. Mookie Betts walks to generate another note for us; he's the first Dodgers batter with 3 walks and 4 runs scored in a game since Jim Gilliam in Pittsburgh on April 19, 1953. And how does he score, you ask? Well, not another grand slam. The Yankees still lay claim to that feat. But how about a bases-clearing triple from Gavin Lux. The Dodgers haven't had one of those in a home game since Cody Bellinger off Matt Moore of the Giants on May 2, 2017. Twenty. We have twenty runs and a duplicate of that Braves/Pirates score from May. And now it's time for outfielder Josh Reddick-- who wasn't even in the game-- to mop things up. But one last thing before he goes.

That's Albert's career homer number 675, and it comes with the Dodgers already leading by 19 runs. The team's last batter to go yard with them already that far ahead was Joe Kelley, and we don't mean their current pitcher. Hall of Famer Joe Kelley-with-a-second-E played 17 seasons for the Orioles, Dodgers, and Reds, and hit that fateful homer in a 25-6 game against Cincinnati on September 23, 1901. All told the Dodgers had eight different players with at least 1 hit, at least 1 run scored, and at least 2 RBIs. No team had pulled that off since the Rangers in the famous 30-3 game at Baltimore in 2007. And ignoring the RBIs for a moment, 11 different Dodgers had both a hit and a run scored. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, they'd only had one other game where that happened, and it was also against the Diamondbacks. That was a 19-1 beatdown on September 2, 2002.

As for your exact score of 22-1, it's the eighth such occurrence in MLB history, with none of the others involving either of Saturday's teams. The previous one was Phillies over Reds on July 6, 2009. And the Dodgers have posted a handful of 19-run victories in their storied history that begins in 1884. (That 1901 Joe Kelley game is one of them.) But they haven't won a game by 20 or more since 1892. And only once before have they ever won a game by 21 runs. That just happens to be the only 25-1 exact score in MLB history, a "severe beating" of the original Baltimore Orioles franchise on June 24, 1886.


Break On Through

We covered a couple of walkoffs already, but if you like your walkoffs weird and wacky, then Tuesday was your day. That's when several teams caught quite a lucky break, while fans of the losing team could only say "give me a break". (They probably said some other things too, but we're a family-friendly blog here.)

We start you in Pittsburgh, where the not-anticipated-by-anyone pitchers' duel between Ian Anderson and Chad Kuhl resulted in a 1-1 knot with the Braves. Orlando Arcia's solo homer in the 5th accounted for the Braves' only run, while Adam Frazier led off the 3rd with a single and eventually scored on Bryan Reynolds' sac fly. Guillermo Heredia got hit by a pitch in the top of the 9th, but that's all and we are headed for free runners if the Pirates don't score in their half. Rodolfo Castro works an 8-pitch walk from Tyler Matzek. Frazier rolls a single through the left side. A walk to Ke'Bryan Hayes to load them up. And then a game-ending walk to Reynolds, on four pitches no less, to give the Pirates a 2-1 win. There have only been four servings of "shrimp" (as it's referred to by the baseball internet) in the majors this season, well off-pace from the 10 we had two years ago, though Kevin Newman (June 23) was one of those 10 and had the last one for the Pirates. Matzek was the first Braves pitcher to face 4 batters, get none of them out, and get walked off, since Jesse Chavez did it in extra innings against the Marlins on July 25, 2010. And Reynolds-- who had the sac fly for one run and a bases-loaded walk for the other? He had both RBIs in a Pirates win, without having a hit anywhere in the game. The only other batter in team history to pull that off was Kiki Cuyler against the Dodgers on July 27, 1927; he drove in one run on a groundout and the other on what would have been a sacrifice fly if such a stat had existed back then.

Alphabetically on your weather scroll we move up one slot to Phoenix (sorry, Piscataway, denied again), where the only thing quicker than a four-pitch walk is a plunking. Merrill Kelly and the Rockies' Jon Gray hooked up in an otherwise ho-hum 3-2 game where all the D'backs runs came in the 1st inning. Gray gave up only 6 hits in the game, but the problem was that four of them were doubles-- four in a row by Josh Rojas, David Peralta, Eduardo Escobar, and Christian Walker to start the game. The D'backs had never pulled that off before, and there are adults who weren't botn the last time any team did it. The White Sox of Willie Harris, D'Angelo Jimenez, Frank Thomas, and Magglio Ordo�ez did it against Boston on June 17, 2003.

Yonathan Daza tied the game with a 7th-inning groundout, leading to something else the D'backs had never pulled off. In the bottom of the 9th Stephen Vogt led off with a single, two walks load the bases, pinch runner Stuart Fairchild is now on third, and the second pitch to Peralta hits him. Forcing in the winning run. We affectionately call this a plunk-off, and it was not only the first one in Arizona history, it was the first one ever issued by the Rockies. It's actually the first one the Rockies have ever been on either side of, and they were the last team who had never experienced the "thrill". The Angels and Rays are the two remaining teams who've never issued a plunk-off, and four expansion teams (Rockies, Marlins, Mariners, and Jays) have yet to receive one.

And then to Miami, which had already gotten an 8th-inning homer from Jorge Alfaro to win Monday's game over the Dodgers by a 5-4 count. Pablo Lopez worked the first 4 innings of Tuesday's game and struck out 8 batters, which would turn out to be the second-most impressive thing he did this week. Also somewhere on that list is the 3rd-inning double he hit against Tony Gonsolin, just the second one ever by a Marlins pitcher against Los Angeles. Alex Fernandez connected for the other against Ismael Valdez on April 26, 1997.

Gonsolin departs with a 1-0 lead in the 6th and Jake Reed blows the save on two singles and a stolen base. He escapes with only run when Chris Taylor snags a liner at second with the bases loaded. But this one does end up in free-runner land after the Marlins leave the bases loaded again in the 9th. A double play erases any thought the Dodgers had of scoring in the 10th. And with two outs in the bottom half, well, this happens. The last extra-inning "error-off" for the Marlins was on May 4, 2009, when Paul Janish of the Reds attempted to turn a double play and airmailed the relay to first. And technically the wild pitch is not the game-ending play (that only got Marte to third), but we can say that it's the first game-ending play started by a wild pitch, just as an excuse to watch this clip again.

The Marlins actually have one more surprise for us (and the Dodgers). On Wednesday Ross Detwiler got sent out to give up 5 runs and 3 homers, mitigated only somewhat by Garrett Cooper and Jesús Sanchez also homering for Miami. Only Brad Hand (2015), Mark Hendrickson (2008), and Kirt Ojala (1998) had given up 3 homers without finishing the 3rd inning of a Marlins home game. Not only were they all off Detwiler, they were all in the same inning-- A.J. Pollock to lead off the 3rd, then Mookie Betts after two strikeouts, then a 3-run shot by Justin Turner after two singles. It was the Dodgers' second time scoring 5 runs in an inning at Marlins Park (July 15, 2017, off Jose Ureña), and the first time they'd ever hit 3 homers in an inning at either of the Marlins' stadiums.

Sanchez unties the game in the 8th with an RBI single, but Zack McKinstry is right there to get us back to 6-6 with his solo homer in the 9th. The Dodgers had never before hit a game-tying homer in the 9th inning against the Marlins, whether at home or on the road. Having already used up Kenley Jansen to give up the run in the 8th, it's someone else's turn to give up runs. That would be Edwin Uceta, and after a single and a walk it's time for the Marlins to summon the other Jesús. (Can you have more than one? That's against some tablet somewhere, isn't it?) And Mr. Aguilar sends everyone (except the Dodgers) home happy with a 3-run walkoff homer, a first for Miami since Adeiny Hechavarria set off the old home-run sculpture on August 2, 2015. The only other 3- or 4-run walkoff homer the Marlins had hit against Los Angeles was by Josh Willingham off Derek Lowe on May 10, 2007. And as for walking off the Dodgers in back-to-back games, the Marlins had only pulled that off once in their history: August 12-13 2003, on homers by Ramon Castro and Mike Mordecai.


Achy Breaky Heart

But no team went through quite as much walkoff drama this week as the Kansas City Royals. On Tuesday they faced an early deficit after Kris Bubic posted his fourth straight start of giving up 5 runs and not finishing the 5th inning. That ties for the longest such streak in Royals history with Chad Durbin (2000), Chris Haney (1993), and Ted Power (1988). The Reds would go up 6-1 in the 7th against Carlos Hernandez. Then the fun begins.

Hanser Alberto reaches on a dropped third strike. That extends the bottom of the 8th for Andrew Benintendi, who homers to make it 6-3. Brad Brach gets sent out for the 9th and can't catch a, um, break. Walk. Hit batter. 6-4 as Eugenio Suarez airmails a potential double-play ball. Nicky Lopez dumps a single into left to make it 6-5, then Aristides Aquino boots that to tie the game. And with two outs, Sal Perez rides one to the base of the wall left for the game-winner. It was the first home game in which the Royals trailed by 3 or more after the 8th inning and rallied to win since May 28, 2016. That was a 7-run 9th capped by Brett Eibner's walkoff single, and it's game we remember well because we were there.

(We always felt bad for Brett Eibner, who got sent back down to Omaha three days later and then traded at the deadline. But at least he had his One Shining Moment.)

Ah, but the walkoffs giveth, the walkoffs taketh away. (Nobody says that.) The Royals moved on to Cleveland on Thursday and held a 3-1 lead after 7 innings. Naturally, we wouldn't be writing about it if that lead had held up. Nope, Roberto Perez cranked a 3-run homer to give the Indians the lead again, and then after Carlos Santana re-tied things with a solo homer to start the 9th, Franmil Reyes deposited another 3-run homer, this one of the walkoff variety, into left-center for a 7-4 win. Only two other Cleveland hitters have launched a 3-run walkoff bomb against the Royals; they are Matt LaPorte (off Joakim Soria, July 30, 2011) and Travis Fryman (off Jose Santiago, April 12, 1999). Perez and Reyes became the first Indians teammates to hit 3-run homers in the 8th or later of the same game since Jody Gerut and Victor Martinez piled on to a 22-0 destruction of the Yankees on August 31, 2004. The only other time the Indians did it at Progressive Field was in an 11-run inning against Baltimore on August 4, 1996.

Then there is Friday's game, equally tense in a different way. This one was a pitchers' duel between two unlikely candidates, Brad Keller and Triston McKenzie, and we're locked at 1-1 going to the 9th. McKenzie would become the second pitcher in Indians history to allow 2 baserunners, strike out at least 9, go the required 5 innings for a win, and yet still not get said win. Corey Kluber pulled that off, also against Kansas City, on July 24, 2014. No, the win would have to come via another walkoff homer, this one by Bobby Bradley after Jorge Soler tied the game in the top of the 9th. Soler followed in the footsteps of Carlos Santana with his tying homer on Thursday; it turns out those are the only two game-tying dingers the Royals have ever hit in the 8th or later at Jacobs Field. It also matches the number they hit at Lakefront in their quarter-century of visiting the Indians at that park. George Brett (June 26, 1993) and Kirk Gibson (April 24, 1991) were the Royals batters to do it in those olden days.

Bobby Bradley's walkoff homer made a winner out of Cleveland pitcher James Karinchak for the second straight day. Although plenty of Indians relievers have lucked into wins in back-to-back games, the last one to do it via walkoff on both occasions was Steve Olin, who also did it against the Royals on July 25 and 26, 1992.


Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Yankees, Sunday: First time leading by 5 runs or more after 8 innings and losing since August 18, 2000, against Anaheim.

⚾ Mets, Sunday: First home game where they scored 5 runs in the 1st inning and lost since June 20, 1989, against Montreal.

⚾ Genesis Cabrera, Friday: First Cardinals pitcher to give up 3 earned runs on 0 hits against the Cubs since Al Brazle on July 3, 1953.

⚾ Indians, Wednesday: Fewest hits in a doubleheader (2) since April 12, 1992, versus Boston. Matt Young also got credit for an unofficial no-hitter in one of those games too (gave up runs and it was an 8-inning loss).

⚾ Paul DeJong, Fri-Sat: First Cardinals batter with a multi-run homer in back-to-back games at Wrigley since Mark McGwire, April 30 and May 1, 1998.

⚾ Blue Jays, Tuesday: First time ever homering in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings of the same game in Baltimore (either stadium).

⚾ Alcides Escobar, Saturday: Joined Tim Raines (1988) and Andre Dawson (1979) as the only Nats/Expos players to have a triple and a double in a loss to the Giants.

⚾ Matt Olson, Tue-Thu: First Oaklander with a go-ahead hit in the 1st inning of three consecutive team games since Mark McGwire in April 1990.

⚾ Luis Urias, Wednesday: First Brewers batter to homer in both games of a doubleheader since Elian Herrera at Cincinnati, September 5, 2015.

⚾ Robbie Ray, Sunday: Joined Brandon Morrow and Ricky Romero (both in 2010) as the only Rays pitchers to allow 1 hit and strike out 11 in a game.

⚾ Darrin Fletcher, Friday: First Angels batter to hit a leadoff homer at Safeco/TMobile. Their last at the Kingdome was Darin Erstad off John Halama, June 23, 1999.

⚾ White Sox, Monday: First game in franchise history (1901) where four different pitchers uncorked a wild pitch in the same game.

⚾ Carlos Rodon, Tuesday: Became first pitcher in White Sox history to strike out 8+ in each of 9 straight appearances. Chris Sale is the only one to do it 8x.

⚾ Athletics, Saturday: First time scoring 4+ runs in an inning numbered 11 or higher since September 22, 2012 (when the Yankees matched them and they lost in 14).

⚾ Marlins, Wed-Fri: First team to have relievers throw 4+ scoreless innings in three consecutive games since the Orioles did it in a series with Cleveland in September 1991.

⚾ Rays, Monday: First walkoff "FCX" (fielder's choice, no out) since Elliot Johnson against Detroit on August 24, 2011.

⚾ Tyler Anderson, Saturday: Second Pirates pitcher to homer at Ciri Field, after Paul Maholm hit one in their second game there, May 9, 2009.

⚾ A.J. Pollock, Wed-Fri: Homered and doubled in a loss twice in a three-day span. Only other Dodgers player in live-ball era to do that is Tony Cuccinello in May 1934.

⚾ Jazz Chisholm, Thursday: Sixth player in Marlins history to hit a leadoff homer for the team's only run of a game. The other five are all by either Hanley Ramirez in 2007 or Cliff Floyd in 1998.

⚾ Mets, Friday: First time in team history hitting a 3-run homer and a grand slam in the same inning. (They did once hit two slams in a frame, July 16, 2006.)

⚾ Duane Underwood, Wednesday: Second reliever in Pirates history to give up 8 hits and 7 earned runs while getting 3 outs. Mark Petkovsek did it at Dodger Stadium on August 24, 1993.

⚾ Andrew Vaughn, Sunday: Second White Sox batter to have a multi-homer game at Camden Yards. Frank Thomas did it 28 years earlier to the day (July 11, 1993).