Say (or type) the phrase "exploding scoreboard", and most baseball minds will immediately think of the original Comiskey Park and Bill Veeck's famous, um, contraption that was built in 1960 and lives on (albeit in a more-subdued form) in the current White Sox stadium.
Nowadays lots of teams, even in the minors, shoot off fireworks or flash lights or have special gimmicks for home runs. (Mr. Celery, anyone?) But with it being Independence Day, it's the perfect week to have a bunch of teams explode their local scoreboards. Let's all get ready to "ooh" and "aah" at some amazing displays.
And Dozens More
Last week's post, in the 13th week of the season, featured a whole lot of number-13's. So let's wrap that up by starting on Monday with the Indians and Tigers-- two teams that do not often explode a scoreboard. In fact they frequently have us on no-hitter watch, and not because their pitching is overwhelming. In this case, it was Detroit's Matt Manning who was not overwhelming, starting both the 1st and 2nd innings by giving up a double and a single. This eventually leads to 5 runs, capped by a homer from Austin Hedges. Manning is still out there in the 4th when that notorious "third time through the order" hits. Specifically, they hit a double, a single, and a home run to end Manning's night. He was the first Tigers starter to give up 9 runs in a road game since Matt Hall also did it in Cleveland on September 15, 2018. Buck Farmer didn't fare too much better, giving up a sac fly and two more doubles as we limp along to a final score of 13-5. Cleveland hadn't scored 13 runs and had six doubles in a home game since beating the Angels 14-4 on August 11, 2016.
Meanwhile, on the opposite corner of Ohio, the Phillies and Reds moved along like nothing special was happening, it's 2-0 before Wade Miley starts losing it in the 4th, and 4-2 the other way after he gives up three singles and two walks in the 5th. But now the Reds get to meet Neftali Feliz in the 7th. Let's see how that goes. There's already a runner on first before his walk and hit batter to load 'em up. And Nick Castellanos will be unloading 'em. It was the Reds' first grand slam against the Phillies since Eugenio Suarez took Daniel Stumpf deep on April 7, 2016, and the first one that flipped a lead against them since Tony Tarrasco at Mark Leiter on September 21, 1998.
Still though, it's only 6-4 and the Phillies have two more innings. In between, however, they send Enyel De Los Santos to the mound. And he sends a throw into right field when Kyle Farmer tries to lay down a bunt. So now it's 8-4, 9 when Jonathan India singles home Farmer, and then 10 thanks to Nick Castellanos again. Nick would finish the game with 7 RBI, the first Reds batter to do that without hitting multiple homers since Robin Jennings against the Pirates on August 31, 2001. He's the first to have any 7-RBI game against the Phillies since Johnny Bench did it on May 9, 1973. De Los Santos would end up leaving after a homer by Joey Votto, becoming the first Phillies pitcher to give up a 6-spot in Cincinnati while getting just 2 outs since Tom Underwood on August 19, 1974.
And when the dust finally settles on this 12-4 game-- combined with the 13-5 up in Cleveland-- the Buckeye State has a baseball day such as it hadn't seen in a quarter-century. The last time both Ohio teams scored 12+ runs in a home game on the same day was July 19, 1994. (Things were very nearly reversed on that day; the Reds had the 13-5 win, against the Marlins, while the Indians won 12-3 over Texas.)
Sometimes a big scoreboard explosion is really a lot of little explosions-- such as the Indians' 1- and 2-run innings above-- and sometimes there's just one huge boomer right in the middle. Continuing our run through Monday's NL Central slate, we jump up to Milwaukee where the Brewers lead the Cubs 4-2 in the 7th. That's before Patrick Wisdom hits a game-tying pinch-hit homer, just the third one the Cubs have ever hit (at any point of a game) against Milwaukee. The others were by Freddie Bynum in 2006 and Glenallen Hill in 1999.
So the Brewers promptly say, yeah, we're not gonna give that "game-tying" thing a chance to happen again. How's this for an 8th inning: Strikeout, walk, walk, double, sac fly, double, walk, 3-run homer (Willy Adames), walk, single, double, 3-run homer (Keston Hiura). Doesn't take long to count up 10 runs in there, the first double-digit frame by the Brewers since April 18, 2010, in Washington, and their first time ever doing it that late in a game. (They do have three 9's in the 8th or later, one of them just a week after that other 10.) For the Cubs it was their first time allowing a 10-run inning since the Pirates got them on July 9, 2017.
At the start of an inning when teams are tossing the ball around to waste time (#PaceOfPlay), it's usually the third baseman who makes the last flip back to the pitcher from about 20 feet away. Generally the 3B doesn't keep the ball and go walk up the mound himself. But by the end of this mess, that's exactly what Eric Sogard did, having to get that final out after Hiura's homer. It was the third time Sogard has pitched in a game this season, a dubious mark that no Cubs position player had pulled off since Doug Dascenzo did it 30 years ago.
By the way, in the next game on Tuesday, the Brewers had only 2 hits in the entire game... and they won because both were RBI doubles from Christian Yelich and Jace Peterson. In the past decade they've only had two games where they won on 2 hits; the other was the first week of the 2019 season in Cincinnati.
If you like your innings big, and you like them in bunches, well then, have we got a day of baseball for you. It would be the last day of June, the symbolic (if not quite actual) midpoint of your calendar year, that day when every baseball player-- like racehorses-- becomes another year older for statistical purposes. It's the day Bobby Bonilla makes sure his mailbox is cleared out for that big check that's coming tomorrow.
We're going back to that Cubs/Brewers series, because this big-inning thing is catching on. The Cubs finally got around to answering the 10-run inning, or at least most of it, thanks to a less-than-ideal MLB debut by Aaron Ashby. Pitching debuts are always kind of a toss-up; some of them turn out to be duds, usually explained away by commentators as "jitters", and then others take no-hitters into the 5th or 6th inning because the hitters have never seen the guy before and have no idea what to do. (Swing. You might hit something. That's why we're here.) Ashby's debut was, well, a no-doubter.
Single, single, walk, single, error, lineout. Finally there's an out but it's 3-0. Bunt single. Double steal. Wild pitch (5-0). Sogard, of the bunt single, gets tagged out at the plate to avoid a sixth run, but not for long. Two more walks, including one to pitcher Jake Arrieta (who hasn't even thrown a pitch yet) signal the end of Ashby's outing. It does not, however, signal the end of Ashby's pitching line; Patrick Wisdom would take care of that with another 2-run single against Miguel Sanchez. Wisdom, who also hit that second single in the sequence above, is the first Cubs batter with 2 hits in the same 1st inning since Juan Pierre against the Reds on September 17, 2006. And Arrieta is the first Cubs pitcher to draw a walk before throwing a pitch since Frank Castillo did it in St Louis on July 31, 1994.
Back to Ashby, he pulled off a debut that hadn't been done in 42 years; Ralph Botting of the Angels, on June 28, 1979, was the last to give up 7 runs while getting no more than 2 outs. And the Cubs had not scored 7 runs in the 1st inning of a road game since September 8, 2009, in Pittsburgh.
Someone mention answering the big inning? Arrieta apparently liked that 1st-inning walk so much that he decided to give away three of his own. That makes it 7-1 before he starts really getting poked around in the 2nd. Luis Urias hits a 2-run homer. There is a 2-run error by Arrieta himself when he tried to field a roller up the third-base line and sailed it. That was enough to earn his departure after only 5 outs, with Tyrone Taylor eventually letting in that unearned run as well. So even though three of them are unearned, we're still back to 7-6, and if you're having flashbacks to that Yankees/Sawx game in London in 2019, you're correct. That's the last game where both starters (see: Ashby and Arrieta) gave up 6 runs while getting no more than 5 outs.
Pssst: That wasn't the big inning.
Rex Brothers walks the leadoff man, Willy Adames, in the 4th. You always hear on TV, "it starts with a leadoff walk". There is then a double, a 2-run lead-flipping single, and the appearance of Tommy Nance on the mound. He plunks Keston Hiura, which is at least quicker than walking him, then goes single, wild pitch, walk, and another plunking of Luis Urias to force in a fourth run. With the bases still loaded. And Adames coming up for the second time this inning. And Adames scoring for the second time this inning. Along with all three of his "ducks on the pond" when he hits the Brewers' first grand slam in a home game against the Cubs since Sean Halton on September 18, 2013. It made Nance the first Cubs pitcher to allow 5 runs, throw a wild pitch, and hit 2 batters in the same game since Ryan Dempster did that against the Giants on September 23, 2010. Urias, who scored on the slam, would end up as the second leadoff batter in Brewers history with 4 hits, 4 RBI, and multiple homers in the same game; Paul Molitor (May 12, 1982) is the other.
And yeah, this is the big inning. It's the second time in Brewers history that they've recorded multiple 8-run innings at home within 3 days of each other. And the other time wasn't really supposed to be a home game; it was a September 2017 series against the Marlins that was moved to Miller Park in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. So the Brewers are technically the "home team" but they batted in top halves of the innings. And don't forget the Cubs had that 7 in the 1st. Took some pulling of newspaper articles from 1878, but Wednesday's game was the first MLB game ever played in Milwaukee where both teams had at least a 7-run inning.
However, that wasn't the only game just on Wednesday where both teams had a 7-run inning. Sure did take a while to get the other one, though. To Yankee Stadium and the exciting return of Shohei Ohtani, pitcher who bats for himself-- now elevated to the leadoff spot! Technically the last "starting pitcher" to bat 1st was Cesar Tovar of the Twins in 1968, but that was in an all-nine-positions stunt where he just happened to begin the game on the mound. The last true pitcher to bat leadoff in a game he starts was Jim Jones of the Giants on September 30, 1901.
With the Angels on the road, Ohtani did at least get to bat. Once. Flied to center. He was, well, elsewhere by the time the next inning came around. That's because Ohtani gave up three straight walks to start the game, then a pair of singles, hit Clint Frazier, another walk, then DJ LeMahieu clears it with a 3-run double after Ohtani's already been pulled. The good news is, those singles were the only hits Ohtani allowed; he's the first pitcher in Angels history to somehow give up 7 runs on only 2 hits. The last starter for any team with that line was Ubaldo Jimenez, then with Cleveland, on April 16, 2013.
We will jump ahead through a 42-minute rain delay in the 3rd and another of nearly an hour and a half in the 5th. By now it's 10:30 or 11:00 and the Yankees fans just want the game called. After all, they scored 7 runs in the 1st and still have a 7-4 lead, and the game's now official, we need a win. If it were up to the home team, they likely would have called it to get that win. This is why it's not up to the home team. The umpires say wait and finish it. Which they finally did, at 1:06 am. But in the midnight hour the Angels cried more, more, more. (Hey, it's only 9:something back home.)
Top of the 9th, off Aroldis Chapman no less: Walk, groundout, two more walks to load the bases, game-tying grand slam by Jared Walsh. More than 5 hours later, Ohtani is finally off the hook, the first Angels starter to give up 7+ runs, not finish the 1st inning, and not take a loss since Ramon Ortiz on September 3, 2000. Combined with Aaron Ashby getting off the hook for the Brewers, it's the first day two pitchers did that since Scott Aldred of the Rockies and Minnesota's Brett Merriman on April 25, 1993. Walsh hit just the third grand slam by an Angels batter in the 9th or later at any version of Yankee Stadium; one was by Bobby Abreu on April 13, 2010 (off David Robertson), and Scott Spiezio took Juan Acevedo deep on May 13, 2003.
Problem: It's still tied. It's past 12:30. It's July already. Someone untie us. (PSA: Always agree on a safe word.) For tonight the word is Lucas Luetge, who comes on to replace Chapman and gives up a walk and two singles to make it 10-8, then a finishing double by Taylor Ward for an 11-8 final. But 8-4 to 11-8? That's another 7-run inning, the first time any game at the current Yankee Stadium had one by both teams. The last at the old place was a 13-9 affair with the White Sox on August 2, 2007. That was also the last time the Yankees scored 7 runs in the 1st inning and wound up losing.
If only they could've called it in the 5th.
There's another New York team that probably wanted to call Wednesday's game in the 5th. The Mets got a 2-run homer from Pete Alonso in the 1st against Atlanta, only to see Ronald Acuña-- who already holds every Braves leadoff homer record-- add to his total. The only one the Braves had ever hit against the Mets when already trailing by multiple runs was by Ralph Garr off Tom Seaver on August 24, 1974.
Soon enough they weren't trailing anymore. Two more singles and a wild pitch bring home Freddie Freeman. David Peterson gets through the 2nd but gives up a walk and three more singles in the 3rd for a 4-2 Braves lead. Still not a blowout "firework" game by any means. Until you leave Peterson out there for the 4th and then replace him with Sean Reid-Foley. And then replace HIM with a guy making his major-league debut.
Double, wild pitch, single, here's your first pitching change. Peterson would give up 6 runs and throw 2 wild pitches, the first Mets hurler to do so while getting 9 outs since Matt Harvey against Houtson on September 2, 2017. Reid-Foley commits an error on the first batter he sees, then gives up three more singles, a walk to Dansby Swanson, and a 2-run double to take our inning total up to 6. Welcome to the show, Thomas Szapucki. He's the first SZA- player ever to make the bigs (Matt Szczur sends a wave from down at triple-A Memphis). He's also the first pitcher in Mets history to make his debut as a reliever and give up 6 runs. That did take him until the 8th, however; back here in the 4th he's still dealing with inherited runs. Dansby scores on a groundout for the seventh run of that inning. And there's our magic number again. With an assist from Stats Inc, we discovered that Wednesday was the second time in MLB's modern era (1901) that five different teams scored 7+ runs in an inning. The other was April 29, 1930, a day which had only seven games because, well, there were only 16 teams. And we didn't even mention that the Marlins and White Sox each had a "6" in their games on Wednesday.
The Braves had a "6" as well. No, not the "7" we already mentioned. This is the "6" that finishes Szapucki's line in the 8th. He's already given up homers to Ozzie Albies and Ehire Adrianza before we get there, which is why the Mets would have just called this thing at 13-2 after five. (Yes, they still haven't scored again.) But Szapucki gives up a double and two walks to lead the bases starting the 9th before getting pulled. And on your depth chart, who is below a reliever making his MLB debut? Yep, that would be a center fielder who is also making his MLB debut. Kind of. That would be Albert Almora, who has never tried to find the strike zone before and needed some "onboarding". During which he walked Inciarte to force in a run, then hit Pablo Sandoval, then at least induced contact from Adrianza, then shot off a 3-run homer from Ozzie Albies. That made Albies-- who was also part of the 7-run inning-- the second player in Braves history to have 5 hits and 7 RBI in the same game. Joe Adcock was the other, doing so at Ebbets Field on July 31, 1954. Only five other players in MLB history have had that line PLUS a stolen base: Yoenis Cespedes (2015), Willie Stargell (1968), Bob Johnson of the A's (1937), Carl Reynolds for the White Sox (1930), and Pittsburgh's Reb Russell (1922).
And if you've been adding these up, the 7 plus the 6 plus a couple other homers along the way-- plus oh yeah, the Mets still never scored again-- gives us the seventeenth 20-2 score in major-league history. The last one was Oakland over Boston on August 31, 2012; the Mets have never been on either side of one, and the Braves were on the wrong end of one other-- playing as the Boston Rustlers against the Cubs on June 11, 1911.
And yes, this is the same Braves team that dropped a 20-1 score on the Pirates back on May 21. The last time they scored 20+ twice in the same season was in 1897, when they dropped a 25-5 against the Cardinals on Memorial Day, then two days later, unloaded a 21-3 against the Cleveland Spiders. (In between, they played a doubleheader with the Cards on Tuesday and scored 14 and 12.) As for the Mets, it's the fourth time they've ever given up 20 runs in a game, and three of them have now been prominently featured on this here blog. And they've all been on the last day of a month. There's the 25-4 game from July 31, 2018, where Jose Reyes pitched and gave up 6 runs (which we watched from the third-base side of Target Field), and there's the 23-5 game from April 30, 2017, which we wrote about in a motel room in North Carolina while in mid-road trip. (The fourth is a 26-7 loss to the Phillies on June 11, 1985.)
This week's title actually has its own disambiguation page on Wikipedia because it's been used as a song and album title several times. The most well-known is probably by The Brothers Johnson, who are also most well-known as the one-hit wonder responsible for "Stomp!". They had some other songs too, but you likely haven't heard them. And you won't now either, because, well, you've gotta out-noise the fireworks somehow. Take it to the top. Intermission!
Sparklers
Did we mention those other two big Mets losses from 2017 and 2018 were both to the Nationals? Who have a habit of shooting off some big numbers now and again themselves. Thought they wouldn't join this week's fun? C'mon now. In those five seasons since the start of '17, the Nationals have posted 15 runs or more in a game, a whopping twenty times. That's seven more than any other club. The latest one didn't come against the Mets, it came against the Rays. And you might have clicked on yet another eye-popping "ooh" and "aah" 15-6 game from Wednesday's scoreboard only to find not more 7-run innings, but one of a few sparklers-- the single player who exploded out of nowhere.
A cycle and a no-hitter occur with roughly the same frequency over MLB history; the no-hitter number is still closer to 300 while the cycle count is nearing 350. So in 2021 where pitchers exploded for seven no-hitters before the end of June, you would expect there to be... um... zero cycles yet this season? Yep. Not a one. Moreover, there weren't any last year with the shortened season. It had been 651 days since Cavan Biggio hit the last one on September 17, 2019, the longest break without a cycle since Charlie Moore of the Brewers hit one in the final week of the 1980 season, the strike season of 1981 didn't have any, and then Frank White of the Royals waited until August to have the first one of '82.
Trea Turner had one in that 2019 season before Biggio. Had one in 2017 at Coors Field too. So it must be an odd-year thing. Singles and steals second in the 1st. Doubles so he doesn't have to steal second in the 3rd. Scores both times. Homers in the 4th. And for his final trick, a leadoff triple in the 6th. (They let Ryan Zimmerman pinch hit for him in the 7th because, really, what's left to do. Also it's 11-5.) Turner has tied the MLB record with his third career cycle (Adrian Beltre was the previous one to do that), and he's recorded the third one ever at Nationals Park. He's got two of them, no visiting player has one, and the other Washingtonian with one was Cristian Guzman in 2008. And oh yeah, he's the first player in history ever to have all four hits on his own birthday. (He's also the rare player who really does age another year on June 30. Josh Rojas and Jesús Aguilar are the only others who are active this season.)
Turner joined Rondell White (June 11, 1995) as the only players in Nats/Expos history to hit for a cycle and steal a base in the same game. And that 15-6 didn't come entirely from him. Juan Soto also collected 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 2 stolen bases. Incredibly, in the live-ball era, only one other set of teammates has had that line in the same game: Seattle's Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr at Yankee Stadium on August 18, 1996.
And lest it get left out, the Dodgers went to Nationals Park for the weekend and exploded for a 9-run inning in Friday's 10-5 comeback victory. They still hold the season high with their 11-run 1st against the Cardinals, which was exactly a month prior on June 2. The Dodgers haven't had a pair of 9-run innings in the same season since 2005, and it's only the second 9 ever hung by a visiting team at Nats Park. Remember way back when we started this with a 10-run Brewers inning, and how it was their first of those since April 18, 2010? Yep, that was also the other one by a visitor at Nationals Park.
Stay Till The End
Almost all fireworks shows have that big finale where they just launch everything they possibly can into the night sky and you know it is time to start heading to the car if you're not already there. (Postgame fireworks traffic, the worst.) Games can be like that too, and the Orioles gave us another one of those on Tuesday.
Cedric Mullins fired a lone rocket to begin the display, the first leadoff homer the Orioles had ever hit in Houston. That leaves only one current AL opponent whose home field they've never hit one at-- and it's the Rays, despite being in the same division.
This is, of course, not the end of Mullins' involvement. By the 7th we've back-and-forthed our way to a 3-3 tie before he greets Ryne Stanek's presence on the mound with an RBI double. That gives the O's a 4-3 lead, and gives Mullins both a go-ahead homer and a go-ahead double in the same game-- a feat last accomplished by Jimmy Paredes against Boston on April 25, 2015.
Now the fun begins. Stanek returns for the 8th and gives up a solo shot to Anthony Santander. He follows that up with two walks and a single to set up Maikel Franco for a grand slam. Which he doesn't hit, but he does clear all three runners with a double. Franco would end up scoring when Austin Hays sends Blake Taylor's fifth pitch back up the middle. Franco is thus the first Orioles batter to have 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI batting 8th or 9th in a road game since Floyd Rayford did it at Fenway Park, 36 years earlier to the day (June 29, 1985).
And just in case, let's send up another round of fireworks in the 9th, with Ramon Urias and Austin Wynns each hitting 2-run shots. The Orioles hadn't done that (multiple multi-run homers in the 9th inning of a road game) since Ken Singleton and Gary Roenicke hit them in Anaheim on May 6, 1982. Mullins would follow Wynns with a 2-out single, uninteresting aside from the fact that it was his fourth hit of the game. The only other Orioles to post 4-hit games against Houston, home or road, are Adam Jones (2017), Hyun-Soo Kim (2016), and J.J. Hardy (2013), meaning no one ever did it in interleague play. Kim's 4 hits came in a 13-5 win on August 18, 2016, a game that had been Baltimore's largest victory margin against Houston-- until Tuesday came along.
Another game that might have screamed "click me!" was the Thursday matinee between the Red Sox and Royals. It's a 15-1 score, the largest victory margin the Sawx have ever had against Kansas City at Fenway. And when we say "Kansas City", we intentionally include the A's years as well. Their only other 14-run wins against either team came on April 13, 1983 (18-4 at Kauffman), and August 26, 1957 (16-0 at Municipal).
Again, this one had no one big inning, just a couple players who lit up the boxscore. Enrique Hernandez actually recorded the only run of the first 3 innings with a leadoff homer. If that sounds familiar, it's because he's doing his best Kyle Schwarber impression. Hernandez led off Monday's opener with the Royals in home-run fashion, one day after closing the series with the Yankees the same way. He's the first player in Red Sox history to crank three leadoff homers in a 5-day span.
After that, however, most of the damage involved Rafael Devers (hitting 5th) and Danny Santana (hitting 8th) driving in all the runners in between them. Each of them ended up with 3 hits and 5 RBI, the first Boston teammates to do that in the same game since Edgar Renteria and Trot Nixon (again, three spots apart in the order) in a 17-1 demolition of the Yankees on May 28, 2005.
And you know how once in a while you find one stray firework that fell through the hole in the box, or you knocked it off the deck by accident, and you've gotta shoot it off by its lonesome after you're all done? That would be Jarrod Dyson. After the Sawx piled up 15 runs on all those RBIs from Devers and Santana, Dyson comes up with two outs in the 9th and Ryan O'Hearn on base only because of a 2-out error. As we say, never do the shutout notes early. Dyson proceeded to begin the comeback with a double down the right-field line, the second time in Royals history that they've broken up a shutout of 15-0 or worse when down to their final out. Wilson Betemit also had a double against the Twins on July 26, 2010, to score Mitch Maier and make the final tally of that game "only" 19-1.
One For The Road
Just time for one more outburst from the Brew Crew from earlier. By Saturday the Brewers had made it to Pittsburgh, where they proceeded to explode for an 11-2 win. Turns out all 11 of those runs involved Omar Narvaez, Avisaii Garcia, and/or Jace Peterson-- the middle third of the Brewers' order. In the 1st Avisail doubled home two runs and then scored himself when Jace doubled. In the 2nd Omar and Avi hit back-to-back singles to knock Cody Ponce out of the game. Duane Underwood shut them down for a few innings, but once he left in the 6th, we would find Omar and Jace with singles, the latter driving in a sixth run, and then Omar later scoring on a wild pitch. In the 8th, look again-- Omar and Avi both single, and Jace reaches on an error for two more runs. Now up 9-2, Avi and Jace provide the final runs in the 9th with a double and a sac fly.
The final tally: Omar had 5 hits, and bizarrely all of them were singles. No Brewers batter had pulled that off since Jean Segura on May 28, 2013, and the only other 5-hit game by a Brewer IN Pittsburgh was by Jeff Cirillo, 22 years earlier to the day (July 3, 1999). Omar scored 3 runs, thanks mostly to Avisail right behind him. Garcia collected 4 hits and 5 RBI, a first for Milwaukee since Ryan Braun on August 27, 2012, and a first in Pittsburgh since yet another first-week-of-July game. Damian Miller did it at PNC on July 2, 2007, 14 years plus 1 day before Garcia. Braun is also involved in the last pair of Brewers teammates where one had 5 hits and another had 5 RBI in the same game; Keon Broxton was his other half against Arizona on August 6, 2016.
And Jace Peterson ended up with only 2 hits but did drive in 4. We started a note about Brewers teammates with 4 RBI each but remember where we started this post? Luis Urias and Willy Adames just did it against the Cubs on Wednesday! And we can't even talk about doing it twice in four days because the Brewers did that once last season, and in Pittsburgh again in 2019. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Haase That Eric Built
If you've ever gone to a minor-league fireworks display (and really, they have them like every two days), you might have been fortunate enough to watch them actually get lit and set off. We can recall at least two places (Durham and Hartford) where there are larger non-baseball-related structures beyond center field and they have to carefully trot the fireworks out on the field and shoot them off from behind second base. To paraphrase a great movie line, the fireworks are coming from inside the park.
In this case, the homers are coming from inside the Haase. That's Eric Haase, Tigers mostly-catcher who platoons with Wilson Ramos. And on Saturday, all he did was flip the lead with a 4th-inning inside-the-parker of about 290 feet where Billy Hamilton missed the dive and it went all the way to the track. That was Detroit's first 3- or 4-run IHR since Curtis Granderson hit one off Bartolo Colón (and got a weird bounce off the wall in Anaheim) on September 15, 2005.
Tigers starter Tarik Skubal proceeds to give the lead right back to Chicago, but he's going to end up being the first Tigers starter in over 4 years (Jordan Zimmermann, April 25, 2017) to surrender 8 hits, 5 runs, and get a win. Jeimer Candelario ends Keuchel's night with a go-ahead single in the 5th, and the rest is just gravy. Including the other 3-run homer that Haase unleashes. Candelario walks to start the 7th against Jace Fry, Miguel Cabrera singles, and then Haase clears the wall with another bomb. He's the first Tigers batter with an inside-the-park homer and an outside-the-park homer since Nick Castellanos on August 22, 2017. And he's only the fifth batter in Tigers history to have 6 RBI in a home game against the White Sox. You've probably heard of the others-- Yoenis Cespedes (2015), Hank Greenberg (1934), and Charlie Gehringer (twice).
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Mets, Sunday: First 6-run inning (or more) at current Yankee Stadium. Last one at the old place was in their next-to-last game there on May 18, 2008.
⚾ Indians, Wednesday: First game where they scored 4+ runs, all of them on solo homers, since April 23, 1987, against the Yankees.
⚾ Garrett Richards & Nick Pivetta, Mon-Tue: First time Red Sox pitchers have given up 9 hits and 3 homers in consecutive games since Rick Wise & Diego Segui on July 28-29, 1975.
⚾ Seth Brown, Saturday: First Oakland better with an RBI triple, and RBI double, and an RBI single in the same game since Eric Byrnes on June 1, 2005.
⚾ Max Muncy, Thursday: First grand slam ever hit by the Dodgers in Washington. That's including the various 19th-century teams.
⚾ Mookie Betts & Max Muncy, Monday: First time in Dodgers history (1883) that they led off a game against the Giants with back-to-back homers.
⚾ Ronald Acuña, Friday: First player hit by a pitch to lead off the game, and score the only run in a 1-0 win, since Juan Pierre of the White Sox on July 8, 2010.
⚾ Pete Alonso, Sunday: First Mets batter to homer in both games of a doubleheader since Shawn Green against Atlanta on September 6, 2006. First ever to do it against the Yankees.
⚾ Matt Shoemaker, Wednesday: First Twins reliever left in long enough to give up 8 runs and 3 homers since John Pacella against the Tigers on July 15, 1982.
⚾ Freddie Freeman, Saturday: First time a Braves #1 or #2 batter had 3 hits and 2 walks but 0 runs scored since Kenny Lofton in Denver on June 9, 1997.
⚾ Royals/Red Sox, Monday: First game at Fenway Park to see five combined homers in the first 2 innings since August 7, 1984, against the Tigers.
⚾ Clay Holmes, Thursday: First pitch to walk three batters and commit a balk while getting 0 outs since Ray Hayward of the Rangers on July 5, 1988.
⚾ Tigers, Wednesday: First time winning both games of a doubleheader in Cleveland since September 14, 1977.
⚾ Braves, Sunday: First time receiving 5 intentional walks in a game since September 29, 1982, by the Dodgers.
⚾ Jake Fraley, Friday: Second batter in Mariners history with 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and 2 stolen bases. Mark McLemore did it at Toronto on May 12, 2001.
⚾ Gavin Sheets, Tuesday: First player to make his MLB debut with the White Sox, and have 2 hits and 2 RBI in it, since Craig Wilson on September 5, 1998.
⚾ Emmanuel Clase, Sunday: Second pitcher in Indians history to allow 0 hits, 0 walks, 0 hit-by-pitches, and take a loss. Rip Hagerman did it against the Browns on June 1, 1914, in what is described only as "a stream of errors".
⚾ Marlins/Phillies, Tuesday: First game in Philadelphia where neither team had more than 4 hits, but both of them still scored 3 runs, since July 22, 1947 (at Shibe Park vs Indians).
⚾ Brad Miller, Friday: Second walkoff double ever hit by Phillies against San Diego. Del Unser off Mike Caldwell, August 21, 1973.
⚾ Michael King, Saturday: First Yankees reliever to allow 0 runs and strike out 9 batters since Steve Hamilton on May 11, 1963. Hamilton came on the 1st inning of that game after Stan Williams was named an "emergency starter" and it didn't go well.
⚾ Kyle Schwarber & Trea Turner, Monday: First time Nationals led off a game with B2B homers since Denard Span & Ryan Zimmerman at Citi Field on September 9, 2013.
⚾ Freddie Freeman, Thursday: First Braves batter in (at least) live-ball era to strike out four times and then hit a walkoff anything.
⚾ Red Sox, Sunday: First 1-0 win where the lone run scored on a double play since Lefty Grove hit into one, also against the A's, and also on July 4-- of 1936.
⚾ 10:41 pm EDT, Friday: The so-called "baseball equinox". With the end of the Tigers/White Sox tilt we had completed 1215 games-- exactly half of the 2430 that are scheduled in a standard regular season. Meaning we're now closer to the end of the season than to the beginning.
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