Not five more hours, although that's a thing too. But last week's post had a lot of "dreamy" stuff in it. From Field of Dreams, to throwing a no-hitter in your first start, to lots of fun walkoffs, it was a week to remember. So this week we'll forgive everyone for still being groggy and throwing up a bunch of forgettable "snooze-button" games. But a few teams woke up by the end of it. So we still have a few of our favorites from the "dog days" of August.
By now you know we love a good 15-run game because it gives us plenty to write about. Odds are good that somebody went off for 3 homers or 6 RBI or some pitcher imploded. Alas there weren't too many of these games this week. Perhaps everyone just got tired of running around the bases all summer.
Except maybe Joey Votto. While you've been hearing about Miguel Cabrera being stuck on 499 homers all week (he finally got un-stuck on Sunday), Votto has been rolling off the milestones all summer. He reached 300 career homers at the end of April. He got his 1000th career RBI right before the All-Star break, and then passed Pete Rose on the team's career list a couple weeks ago. So when Votto began his week on 1998 career hits, you knew this wouldn't be long. Seven innings to be exact.
An otherwise-meaningless single in the 3rd puts Votto squarely on 1999. The Reds manage to score 4 runs without Votto's help, such that he comes up again with no outs in the 7th. And proceeds to bloop one just over second base to roll over the odometer. We're not sure if they took the ball out of play for him (they usually do), but either way, Michael Rucker didn't like the next ball very much either. Because Kyle Farmer roped it to left for a double, and Rucker finally leaves with the bases loaded. Votto's now on third, so when Dan Winkler promptly walks Aristides Aquino, he also collects career run number 1090 (he rolled that odometer at the end of 2019).
Winkler, however, apparently missed the memo that not all the Reds batters are waiting to get hit number 2000. Because he certainly seemed interested in helping them. Tyler Naquin singles. Jonathan India hits a 3-run double-- with Naquin's game against Pittsburgh on April 6, the first time in Cubs history that multiple leadoff batters have collected 5 RBI in a game. And when Jake Jewell becomes the third Cubs pitcher of the inning, guess who's up again. Not only is Votto going to finish an 8-run inning, he's not even going to get to savor hit number 2000. Because 2001 goes flying down the left-field line, making Votto the first player since Eddie Mathews in 1965 to get hits 2000 and 2001 in the same inning. Monday's 3-hit game also tied Votto with Johnny Bench; they've each had 134 of those for the Reds along the way, appropriate since Bench is also around Votto on the tops of all those leaderboards. The Reds were also nice enough to point out that the only other National League player to reach the milestones of 300 homers, 1000 RBI, and 2000 hits in the same season was Billy Williams in 1971.
But let's not forget that 8-run inning. The Reds had one of those on May 13 at Coors Field, the first time they've had two in a season since 2016. As for Winkler's 4 runs and 1 out, that earned him a dubious spot in Cubs history, mostly because he did the same thing (actually 6 runs and 0 outs) in his previous game. The other Cubs pitcher to pull that off in consecutive outings was Tex Carleton in July 1938. And Winkler won't get a chance to three-peat; the Cubs released him later in the week.
From that "shoulda saved some runs" file, the Reds scored only 1 run each in the remaining two games against the Cubs, both of them on solo homers. But they did have an interesting line on Friday when the Marlins came to town. The Reds posted a fairly boring 5 runs on 6 hits and 1 error. But Miami had 3 runs, 4 hits, and 2 errors. So a slightly different quirk than the Red Sox game last week with different numbers in every inning. But Friday was the first game in Great American Ball Park history where the two teams combined to use each number 1 through 6 in the final summary.
Those 14 runs by Cincinnati on Monday stood up as the highest-scoring game for most of the week, but we did have a few higher combined scores that got there. The most notable of those was on Thursday at Comerica Park where the Tigers unloaded for 6 early runs against Jose Quintana of the Angels. Quintana joined Shohei Ohtani (June 30) as the only Angels starters this year to give up 6+ runs while getting no more than 4 outs, and Quintana is the first to also give up a homer along the way since Jhoulys Chacin on August 11, 2016.
It's already 9-2 by the time we get to the 5th, but Matt Manning has already needed 96 pitches after giving up 5 hits and 4 walks. He will end up not finishing the 5th inning, and here's the opening for the Angels. Derek Holland starts the 6th by giving up three singles, and Joe Jimenez replaces him and lets all three of those runs score. He of course does this by allowing a single and two walks of his own, and Brandon Marsh's triple eventually plates all of those too. Marsh also had an RBI triple in the 2nd, and is the first Angels batter with two three-baggers since Erick Aybar on September 2, 2011. The only other batter in Angels history with a multi-triple game in Detroit was Jerry Remy on August 28, 1977.
The Angels have gotten back to 10-9 when Michael Fulmer is tasked with pitching the 8th. And Max Stassi proceeds to hit the first lead-flipping homer for the Angels in the 8th or later at Comerica. The last one they hit over at Michigan and Trumbull was by Jim Edmonds on August 11, 1998. Shohei Ohtani then adds an insurance sac fly, becoming the first Angels batter with 2 hits, 2 walks, and a sac fly in the same game since Chili Davis did it against the Twins on June 7, 1994. Only two others in team history have done it out of the leadoff spot: Luis Polonia in 1992 and Rick Miller in 1978. The 13-10 final was Detroit's first time scoring double digits and losing since Opening Day 2018 against the Pirates (they memorably returned that 13-10 score a couple weeks later). And while Miguel Cabrera still didn't hit #500, he did tie Al Kaline by having his 26th 3-RBI game that did not feature a homer. He also tied Cecil Fielder with his seventh career 4-RBI game in a loss; the only Tigers batter with more is Hank Greenberg (9).
But Ohtani is much more than just 8th-inning sac flies. (As the kids say, big if true.) You see, every five or six days Ohtani wanders out to the mound and decides to be a pitcher as well. He even bats for himself in those games, despite being in a league that has the Designated Hitter option. Which means nearly every game has some kind of weird first-time-ever note by a pitcher batting leadoff or an AL pitcher batting at all. It's sort of a gift that keeps on giving.
This week Wednesday was your day to watch Ohtani hurl some baseballs at opposing batters, and the Tigers didn't have many answers. They grounded into double plays in both the 1st and 2nd, with the only damage being Willi Castro's solo homer in the 5th. So Ohtani is already in line for the win when he decides to add another insurance run. And this isn't an 8th-inning sac fly. This is an 8th-inning homer. He is the third pitcher in Angels history to throw 8 innings, allow 1 run, and also hit a homer on offense; the others to do it-- Clyde Wright in 1970 and Fred Newman in 1964-- were before the DH. Similarly, only four other Angels pitchers have ever homered in the 8th inning or later: Bob Lee in 1965, Ken Tatum twice in 1969, and the asterisk that is Francisco Arcia, a position player pitching in a 19-run blowout in 2018. That dinger also happened to be Ohtani's MLB-leading 40th of the season, giving him some pretty good company on another list. Only two other players have hit 40 homers in a season and pitched in even one game during that same season. Rocky Colavito threw 3 innings in a doubleheader for Cleveland in 1958, a season where he hit 41 dingers. The other, you might have guessed, is Babe Ruth who did it three times.
And since we're working backwards through the Angels/Tigers series, Tuesday's opener was an 8-2 affair that was only decided when the Halos blew up for 6 runs in the top of the 9th off Gregory Soto. Even though 3 were unearned, Soto was the first Tigers pitcher to surrender 6 scores while getting 2 outs since Rick Porcello managed to do it in a start, also against the Angels, on April 20, 2013. Those runs included a grand slam by Jo Adell, who became the first Angels batter ever to hit one at Comerica. Their last one over at The Corner was by Lance Parrish on June 17, 1990. And Adell was only the third Angels batter to hit a slam in the 9th inning against Detroit, joining Dick Schofield in 1986 and Jay Johnstone in 1970.
We'll admit, we sometimes do not give enough love to games that happen on Sundays. That's because most of this post is already written and done on Saturday night, particularly this week when there was a hurricane a-comin' this way. So you might have missed Gregory Polanco's walkoff sac fly for the Twins last Sunday. He didn't even reach "bottom of the bag" status with that one. Well, he'll show us, right?
That 9th-inning fly ball beat the Rays 5-4 and sent Minnesota off to a midweek series with Cleveland. And Monday's opener was a back-and-forth affair between Griffin Jax and Cal Quantrill, both of whom would be worth some decent Scrabble points if you could use names. Max Kepler hit his fifth leadoff homer against the Indians, breaking a tie with Brian Dozier for the team's most ever versus Cleveland. Bradley Zimmer then hit Cleveland's second lead-flipping homer at Target Field, after Edwin Encarnacion on June 3, 2018. So after Ryan Jeffers ties things with a homer in the 6th and gets both starters off the hook, we stall out and head to Free Runner Land again. Caleb Thielbar strikes out two batters such that Cleveland doesn't score. Which means it only takes a walkoff double in the bottom of the 10th, by-- of course-- Jorge Polanco. Minnesota hadn't had a game-winning two-bagger in extras since Denard Span against Kansas City on September 13, 2012. But remember the sac fly from Sunday. Polanco is the first Twins batter with a walkoff anything in back-to-back team games since Jacque Jones had a single and a homer against Baltimore on July 19-20, 2005.
But what if that's not good enough for you? What if you just want More Polanco More Often? Well, he did have 2 hits and a stolen base in Tuesday's loss, and did drive in the Twins' only run in the 8th. But we must skip ahead to Wednesday for All Your Polanco Needs. And technically he's got Alex Colome to thank for this one. Up 7-5 in the 9th, Colome allows an RBI double to Jose Ramirez, who then finds his way to third with 2 outs. And ball four to Bradley Zimmer is also a wild pitch which allows Ramirez to scamper home with the tying run. The last Twins pitcher to blow a save in such fashion (wild-pitch in the tying run in the 9th) was Len Whitehouse against the Angels on July 29, 1984. But this just sets up Polanco for more heroics. With Ryan Jeffers out there as the free runner in the 11th, Polanco hits a 1-out single for an 8-7 walkoff, his third game-winner in four days. And if that seems like it could be a team record, you'd be right. We're missing some plays from the first couple decades of Senators history, so can't be airtight back to 1901, but at least in Twins history (1961), he's easily the first player to have three walkoffs in a 4-day span. In fact, he also had one on July 11 going into the All-Star break, so we didn't realize Polanco had already broken this record earlier in the week. But prior to him, the Twins' record for the fastest to accumulate three walkoffs... was a whopping thirty-seven days. That was by Joe Nossek in 1965.
Sleepless In Seattle
If you've been with us for any length of time, you know the AL West is one of our "favorite" topics because many of their games are duller than watching those cornstalks grow in Iowa. Oh look, it's 3-1 again, the starting pitcher went 6 innings and struck out 5, the "star hitter" was 1-for-3 with a double, and there's just nothing interesting about this game. Plus it's usually about 1:30 in the morning by the time they finally end. So we do at least owe the AL West some credit when they do something interesting.
We will take you to the series finale in Arlington on Thursday between the Mariners and Rangers. Seattle won the first two games of the series, both of them by 3-1 counts (we told you so!), and Spencer Howard would at least make sure the Mariners scored more than 3 runs this time. In fact he gave up 5 of them including a 3-run homer to Mitch Haniger, who will also end up scoring 3 runs himself. Nelson Cruz was the last Mariners DH with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored, doing that at Oakland on April 23, 2017.
The teams trade a couple runs such that it's 7-2 going to the 9th. And enter Anthony Misiewicz for his 52nd appearance of the season, the most for a Seattle pitcher by this point of a season since Edwin Diaz set the record with 60 games pitched in 2018. Might be too many appearances. Two singles and a double to start the Rangers 9th; Misiewicz will join Brandon Brennan in 2019, Arthur Rhodes in 2008, and John Montague in 1979 as the only Mariners pitchers to have multiple games in a season where they gave up 3 runs and got 0 outs. Misiewicz also did it against the Padres on May 23. But still it's 7-4 until Diego Castillo gives up a 3-run, game-tying shot to Jason Martin. Only two other batters in Rangers/Senators history had tied the game with a 3-run homer when down to the team's final out: Lee Stevens against the Royals in 1999, and Jeff Burroughs against Boston in 1975. It was the first time the Rangers scored 5 runs in a 9th inning since June 4, 2019, against Baltimore.
But this takes us off to Free Runner Fun Land again, and the aforementioned Mitch Haniger is your bonus guy in the 11th. Which means Ty France gets to hit the first-ever multi-run homer for the Mariners that late in a game in Arlington. Three Seattle batters-- and here's a fun list-- have hit solo shots there in the 11th or later: Ken Griffey Jr (1994), Jay Buhner (1991), and Jerry Narron (1981).
And if you're planning a Mariners road trip, you couldn't do better than a quick trip down I-45 from Dallas for a weekend series against the Astros. The execution, however, well,...
Yusei Kikuchi was sent to the mound in Friday's game, and well, yu-sei it didn't go well. Kikuchi got tagged for 7 runs and 3 homers without escaping the 3rd inning; with Darren McCaughan on July 26, it's the first time multiple M's pitchers have posted that line against the Astros in the same season. Jake Meyers hit a 2-run homer in the 2nd; Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel went back-to-back in the 3rd, and by the time we're all done with this, the Astros have scored multiple runs in each of the first 5 innings of a game for the first time in team history. We were surprised that we didn't have to go back further to find the last time any team did it, but that was the A's against the Astros on September 10, 2019.
And once again, we might not have written anything about this game if it hadn't been followed up with Saturday's escapades. Finally topping that 14-run Cincinnati game from Monday, the Astros piled up a 15-1 win, their second-largest victory ever against the Mariners behind a 21-1 on September 8, 2019. Taylor Jones, whom you are entitled to have never heard of, came up a single shy of the cycle, which is rare by itself. But only four other batters in Astros history have collected a homer, a triple, a double, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBI in a game: Jeff Bagwell in 2001, Chris Truby in 2000, and Cesar Cedeño twice in the 1970s. Jacob Wilson, also an Astros batter you might not have heard of, also had a triple and a double; with Jones they are the fourth set of teammates in Houston history to do that in the same game. Jose Altuve and Matt Downs did it at Washington in 2012; the other pairs are Gerald Young and Kevin Bass (1989 at Philadelphia) and Cedeño with Jim Wynn against the Dodgers in 1972. The 12-3 loss on Friday, followed by the 15-1 thumping on Saturday, marked the first time the Mariners had given up 12 runs in back-to-back road games since June 1 and 2, 2016, in San Diego. They did bounce back on Sunday to avoid the sweep, but needed 11 innings to do it. Ty France hit a tying shot in the 9th, joining Ryon Healy (August 2018) as the only Mariners to do that at Minute Maid Park. And then it was up to Kyle Seager for most of the late theater. Although France singled home the free runner for the lead in the 11th, it was Seager who followed with a 3-run homer to put the game away. He's the first Seattle hitter with a 3- or 4-run shot that late in a game since... Kyle Seager tied a game against the White Sox with a 14th-inning grand slam on June 5, 2013, after they had given up 5 runs in the top half. (They still eventually lost.)
Yeah, a lot of teams were sleepwalking through the middle of August, no doubt some of them realizing that with only six weeks left, there's not much to play for at this point. So if you, like them, have just not felt like dragging yourself to work on a Monday morning later, may we suggest the official siren's call of that famous Snooze button. Intermission (and five more minutes!)
Sole Cycle
Taylor Jones may have become the fifth player this year to miss the cycle by the single, but we also had the third completed cycle of the 2021 season this week. That was brought to us by Freddie Freeman, who pulled off the feat Wednesday in Miami.
Freeman doubled in the 1st inning, only to see Jorge Soler get thrown out on a play at the plate to keep the game scoreless. He tripled to lead off the 4th, always the hardest hit to get, and then scored on an Austin Riley single. The single came in the very next inning after Atlanta batted around and scored 4 runs against Jesús Luzardo in the 4th. And when Charlie Morton struggled to get out of the 5th, Freeman batted again in the 6th and cranked a 2-run homer to make the score 7-2 and complete the 333rd cycle in MLB history. That's only slightly less rare than a no-hitter, of which there are currently 313. It's the third cycle this year (versus eight! no-hitters); the others were by Jake Cronenworth (July 16) and Trea Turner (June 30). The Braves' last cycle was... oh look, by Freddie Freeman on June 15, 2016. That only made him the first player in Braves history to do it twice, and the 28th in MLB history. Only one other Braves batter had hit for the cycle and scored 4 runs in the game where he did so; that was Bill Collins against the Phillies on October 6, 1910. And only one other batter had recorded a cycle at Marlins Park since it opened in 2012; that was Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers on July 15, 2017.
Thanks in part to Freeman's cycle, the Braves held an 11-3 lead going to the 9th inning of Wednesday's game, which makes it somewhat irrelevant that the Marlins managed to score 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th and "only" lose by 2. Miami's last game with a 6-run 9th was on August 5, 2015, against the Mets... and that was also a loss after trailing 8-0 to start the frame.
Dual Cycle
So what happens after we've already written that previous section, than Daulton Varsho of the Diamondbacks meets Coors Field. Varsho unloaded a 3-run homer in the 2nd to give Arizona the lead for good, their seventh lead-flipping 3- or 4-run bomb there and the first since David Peralta on July 10, 2008. Varsho then went back on Snooze for a few innings, finally stirring in the 8th with a leadoff double and another run scored. And with 2 outs in the 9th, and Arizona holding a 7-3 lead, Varsho can't just go quietly. He legs out an RBI triple to score Peralta and also post the "single shy of the cycle" line. He is the sixth to do it this year, and the first for Arizona since A.J. Pollock on July 21, 2017. The only other D'backs hitter with those three hits and 4 RBI in a game is Greg Colbrunn, who recorded Arizona's second completed cycle on September 18, 2002.
And if you put Jones and Varsho together, you have the first instance of "single shy of the cycle" on consecutive days since Josh Reddick of Houston and Steven Souza of the Rays did it on April 19 & 20, 2017.
Royal Rumble
Forget players getting 3 or 4 hits, there were teams who couldn't be bothered to get 3 or 4 hits this week. The Cubs needed a 34-minute rain delay (no mention if there was a secret clubhouse meeting such as the one during the World Series) to finally figure out how to get a hit off Kris Bubic on Saturday. The Royals starter set down 18 of the first 19, walking only Frank Schwindel, before a severe thunderstorm passed just to the south of Wrigley Field and caused a halt in play during the 7th-inning stretch. (They did not, thankfully, keep Harry Caray playing on a loop.) Combined with the Royals having just batted and scored in their half of the inning, Bubic's time to sit around between pitches was just shy of 50 minutes, right around the limit where you'd want a pitcher to continue versus having his arm "cool down" too far. And sure enough, Patrick Wisdom shoots one just inside the left-field pole to take the pressure off. But while Bubic made a quick exit, and the Royals fans were left to ruminate over still not having a no-hitter since Bret Saberhagen in 1991.
But three relievers after Bubic also couldn't be bothered to give up a hit. Meaning Wisdom's 2-run homer (with Schwindel having walked ahead of him) wound up being their only hit of the game. It was the second time in the modern era that the Cubs had done that (had 1 hit and it was a homer); pinch-hitter Walt Moryn did it in the fourth game ever played at Candlestick Park, April 16, 1960. If was the Cubs' first game with 1 hit but multiple runs scored since August 13, 1971. And when catcher Robinson Chirinos was called for a controversial plate block and thus an obstruction error in the 5th, it gave the Cubs a final line of 2 runs, 1 hit, and 1 error. The last team to "dial 2-1-1" on a linescore was the Yankees on May 29, 2016. The Cubs last did it on September 6, 1937, when Phil Cavaretta got the only hit off Cincinnati's Les Grissom.
As for Bubic, he became the first Royals pitcher ever to allow 1 hit (any length outing) and strike out 9+ in a ballpark that isn't either in Kansas City or St Petersburg. (They've strangely done it four times at home and three times at The Trop.) And Saturday's game came one day after the Royals collected 5 homers in a 6-2 win at Wrigley. According to StatsPerform, it's the first time in team history they'd hit 5 solo shots in a game. It's also just the Royals' second time ever hitting 5 dingers in a National League ballpark; the other was in San Diego on June 10, 2017.
And if you're wondering, Saturday marked the 43rd time this year we've taken a no-hitter scare into the 7th inning (including the completed ones). Bubic being the first to do it for the Royals, those are now spread across 25 of MLB's 30 teams; we now await agitation from the Marlins, Rays, Rangers, Blue Jays, and Nationals.
Although the Pirates weren't part of any of those scares (at least not this week), they seem to have run out their hit supply with that 14-4 doubleheader game aganist the Brewers last weekend. It didn't help that they ran into the Dodgers, now winners of 9 straight before Sunday and making a run at the Giants for the NL West. The Pirates, meanwhile, finished their next six games with 26 hits total and only won the last of those games on Friday because it wasn't against the Dodgers.
On Monday the Pirates managed 6 hits-- their high point of the week-- but half of them came off the bullpen in the late innings. After neither team scored in the first 6 innings, the Pirates even had a brief 1-0 lead until Billy McKinney homered off Anthony Randa to blow that save. In the 8th it was Max Muncy's turn to homer off Chasen Shreve, and then turn it over to Kenley Jansen for his 24th save. Muncy's shot was the Dodgers' first go-ahead homer against the Pirates that late in a home game since Andre Ethier took Jason Grilli deep on April 10, 2012. It was also the second time this year that the Dodgers scored 2 runs, both on solo homers, and won. The other-- also against Pittsburgh (June 9 at PNC). They hadn't pulled that off against the same opponent twice in a season since the Expos in 1988.
That 2012 game where Ethier homered in the 8th also featured a 2nd-inning triple by Pirates 3B Casey McGehee. We bring that up because that was the last Pirates triple at Dodger Stadium until Ben Gamel hit one on Tuesday. Bryan Reynolds and Yoshi Tsutsugo also chipped in doubles... and it didn't matter because that was more than half their hit total. Pittsburgh still lost 4-3, mostly because their own pitchers, Wil Crowe and Cody Ponce, couldn't stop giving up doubles. The Dodgers collected six of the two-baggers, more hits than the Pirates had total, their first 6-double game against Pittsburgh since July 29, 1980.
And sometimes the blowouts are easier to take than the close losses. Wednesday would be the low point of the Pirates' week, although they did manage one hit off "opener" Justin Bruihl in his major-league debut. After that, however, Mitch White came in and threw seven innings of "relief" during which the Pirates got just two more hits. White became the first Dodgers pitcher to throw 7 innings out of the bullpen since Tom Candiotti did it against the Mets on July 18, 1994.
Meanwhile, Max Muncy was at it again, this time joined by A.J. Pollock in the leadoff spot. Together they combined for 5 hits, 6 runs, and 6 RBI-- again, way more than the Pirates had as an entire team-- and Los Angeles rolled to a 9-0 shutout. Muncy had 2 homers and drove in 4, which he also did against the Mets last Sunday. The last Dodgers batter to post that line twice in four days was Shawn Green in May 2002; you may remember one of those games being his 4-homer outburst in Milwaukee. Meanwhile on Wednesday, J.T. Brubaker found a dubious place in Pirates history, becoming the team's first pitcher on record to allow 5 runs and 2 homers in three straight starts while not going more than 5 innings in any of them. And since the Dodgers moved to California in 1958, only twice have the Pirates been handed a 9-0 shutout or worse there. The other was by Orel Hershiser on July 4, 1984.
After somehow exploding for 12 hits on Saturday, the Pirates were back to "usual" form on Sunday, posting the now-familiar 0-on-4 against Adam Wainwright. (Waino also poked a double for his 50th career extra-base hit, trailing only Bob Forsch and Bob Gibson among Cards pitchers.) But that also meant seven of their last eight games had seen the Pirates collect 6 hits or fewer. They've hung that 0-on-4 three times in this little mini-streak alone, nine times this season (the team record is 12), and six just since July 27. In the modern era, the Pirates have never before been on the wrong end of six 4-hit shutouts in less than a month.
And in our final bit about needing some Z's, the Mets had another one of those schedule quirks where they had to play a Sunday night game and then hop a plane for California. There was a similar dustup on Labor Day a few years ago where they had a 12:30 pm start the next afternoon in Cincinnati. And the most recent bargaining agreement moved the Sunday night starts from 8 pm back to 7. Unfortunately, #PaceOfPlay along with the national TV broadcast means they still don't end before 11. So it was that the Mets finally reached their hotel in San Francisco at 4:30 am (Pacific) on Monday, "fresh" off a 10-run loss to the Dodgers. So it was probably good that they only lost Monday's opener by 2 runs, mostly as a result of Trevor May giving up 3 insurance runs in the 7th.
That inning included back-to-back homers by Brandon Belt (as pinch hitter) and Kris Bryant, his first time ever having a multi-homer game against the Mets (no, he never did it with the Cubs). The last Giants batter with 2 homers in a home game against New York was Bengie Molina on May 7, 2007. And the last run came on an RBI triple from Brandon Crawford, his fourth hit of the game. Unfortunately Wilmer Flores then flied out to end the inning, meaning Crawford collected those four hits, including the triple, and never ended up scoring a run. Stranded every time. No Giants batter had pulled that off since J.T. Snow at Montreal on April 29, 1999.
On Tuesday the Mets didn't have a huge "hitting" problem, getting 7 of them off Logan Webb, they had a "putting them together" problem. Three came with 2 outs, another was removed on a double play, and the Mets' only breakthrough finally happened in the 8th when Pete Alonso hit a 2-run homer to knock Webb out of the game. They still lost, partly because Tommy La Stella cranked a 2-run shot as the Giants' second batter of the game and they trailed from the outset. Joe Panik (2015), Willie McCovey (1966), and Felipe Alou (1963) are the other Giants to hit such a homer against the Mets. Alonso, however, did create us a Mets-related note. Seems Jonathan Villar also homered in the 8th inning of Monday's game, which didn't really matter since they trailed by 4 at the time. But it's just the second time in Mets history that they've hit an 8th-inning homer (or later) in consecutive games in San Francisco. The other pair to do it was Gary Carter (August 31) and Keith Hernandez (September 1) in 1985, and both of them went deep off setup guy Mark Davis.
The Mets have still only been in town for about 56 hours when Wednesday afternoon's finale begins, and in another phenomenon we notice about west-coast day games, basically nothing happens until very late and you really want those free runners to start popping up so that someone will score. (It's called "getaway day" for a reason, y'all.) The Giants' only run comes from a LaMonte Wade double in the 3rd. And it takes the Mets nine innings and seven Giants pitchers to answer it, but here's J.D. Davis hitting a sac fly to score Pete Alonso and send us to free runner land. The Mets hadn't hit a tying sac fly in the 9th since Chin-Lung Hu against Washington on April 27, 2011.
And they hadn't hit a 3- or 4-run homer in the 12th inning or later since Jeff Kent went deep against the Cardinals' Bryn Smith on September 24, 1992. We bring that up because that's exactly what Kevin Pillar ended up doing after the teams traded free runners in the 11th. The only other 3-run shots hit by the Mets that late in a game were by Howard Johnson in 1986, George Foster in 1983, and a Tim Harkness walkoff grand slam against the Cubs on June 26, 1963. The 6-2 final marked the first time the Mets had scored 6+ runs in a game with all of them in the 9th inning or later since beating the Expos 9-6 on September 13, 1997.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Riley Adams, Tuesday: First Nats/Expos catcher with 3 hits, 3 runs, and 3 RBI in a home game since Gary Carter did it 44 years earlier to the day (August 17, 1977).
⚾ Max Fried, Friday: First Braves pitcher to throw an individual shutout on 90 pitches since the feat's namesake, Greg Maddux himself, September 13, 2000.
⚾ Andrew Benintendi, Sunday: Second Royals batter to have a 3-hit, 3-RBI game at Wrigley Field. Other was Mike Sweeney on July 19, 1999.
⚾ Garrett Richards, Wednesday: First Boston pitcher to throw 4+ hitless innings in relief against the Yankees since Mike Maddux, September 9, 1995.
⚾ Christian Yelich, Saturday: Second grand slam hit by Brewers in the 8th or later against the Nats/Expos franchise. Raul Casanova had the other off Steve Kline on June 13, 2000.
⚾ Joey Gallo, Monday: Second lead-flipping homer ever hit by Yankees in the 1st inning against the Angels. Mike Pagliarullo off Kirk McCaskill, September 4, 1987.
⚾ Austin Meadows, Thursday: First batter in Rays history to draw multiple bases-loaded walks in the same game.
⚾ Nelson Cruz, Tuesday: Sixth-oldest player ever to have a 2-homer, 5-RBI game, behind Carlton Fisk, Barry Bonds, Dave Winfield, Ted Williams, and Graig Nettles.
⚾ Mike Zunino, Friday: First Rays catcher ever charged with three passed balls in the same game.
⚾ Elias Diaz, Saturday: Second 3-run walkoff homer this year (also July 1 vs Cardinals). Only other Rockies batters ever to hit two are Dante Bichette, Charlie Blackmon, and Jason Giambi-- and theirs were not in the same season.
⚾ Cedric Mullins, Wednesday: First leadoff homer ever hit by Orioles at Tropicana Field. Had been the only active American League park where they'd never hit one.
⚾ Tigers, Sunday: First time scoring in the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings of the same game since May 30, 1994, in Baltimore.
⚾ Odubel Herrera, Wednesday: First Phillies leadoff batter to triple and double in a loss since Jimmy Rollins against Detroit on June 15, 2007.
⚾ Charlie Barnes, Friday: First Twins pitcher to allow 8 hits and 5 walks to the Yankees since Frank Viola on May 7, 1983.
⚾ Brewers, Tuesday: Second game in team history where they converted 14 hits into only 2 runs and still won. The other was against Cleveland on May 15, 1973, and was ended by a Dave May walkoff homer in the 17th.
⚾ Jose Ramirez, Saturday: Second Clevelander ever with a homer, a double, a stolen base, and 3 RBI in a game against the Angels. Current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts did it on August 30, 1999.
⚾ Sam Hilliard & David Peralta, Friday: First game in majors where both teams had a pinch-hit triple since Florida's Scott Cousins and Milwaukee's Joe Inglett on September 24, 2010.
⚾ Rockies, Monday: First game in team history where they hit both a leadoff homer and a walkoff homer.
⚾ Chas McCormick, Thursday: First Astros batter to draw a bases-loaded walk in extra innings of a road game since Adam Everett at Cincinnati, April 18, 2002.
⚾ Jake Cronenworth, Tuesday: Second inside-the-park homer of the year, joining Tony Gwynn Jr (2010) and Gene Richards (1982) as the only Padres batters with two in a season.
⚾ Frankie Montas, Sunday: First pitcher in A's history to throw 7+ scoreless innings, allow 2 hits, strike out 9, and NOT get a win. Because...
⚾ LaMonte Wade & Donovan Solano, Sat-Sun: First time in (at least) modern era that Giants have hit a pinch-hit, lead-flipping homer in the 8th or later of consecutive games.
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