Last week was kind of that slow week in the middle of August where some teams just start going through the motions because they know they're out of it, some players are just understandably tired after 120 games in 140 days, and so not a lot happened. Turns out that's because they were saving it all for this week. Let's light this candle with a bunch of lit-up scoreboards and a whole other ball of wax. Plus, to keep all those candles lit, we'll be burning some midnight oil.
How Do We Sleep While The Pads Are Burning
You know the game that gives us our title "sixteen" reference. You knew when it happened that it was The Game We Were Gonna Write About. (Actually, you may not have known that exactly when it happened, because you were most likely asleep. Eight-plus years ago when we started doing the "time tweets" every night, of the day's first and last pitches, we adopted the hashtag #TillTheLastOut. So the last two seasons, with the free runners and no marathon 20-inning games, have actually been a little bit of a relief. Which is why Wednesday night, slash Thursday morning, was a neat throwback.
We take you to Petco Park, home of a 22-inning game, two 18-inning games, three 17-inning games, and one that was famously delayed nearly 4 hours by rain before being suspended at 1:38 am and finished the next day (which was, um, already the next day). What better place to watch the free-runner thing crash and burn.
It was meant for games like this, where the only offense consists of Walker Buehler giving up an unearned run in the 2nd and then Blake Snell going one inning too many and allowing a tying homer to Will Smith in the 8th. That will end up making Snell the fourth pitcher in Padres history to throw 7 innings against the Dodgers, strike out at least 10, and not get a win; the others are Wade LeBlanc (2011), Kevin Brown (1998), and Gaylord Perry (1978). Craig Stammen has a 1-2-3 10th. So does Alex Vesla of the Dodgers, around an intentional walk to Tommy Pham so he can't be the one to beat you. The Padres do likewise to Trea Turner in the 11th, and now we're just having an intentional walk-fest. Anyone who has a chance at singling home that runner from second (or maybe third), here, free pass. Plus you set up more force plays. At least they don't have to actually throw the four pitches anymore. (More on that later.) But unfortunately, this "strategy" is working. It brings up the pitcher's spot with the bases loaded, and thanks to all the double-switches from earlier in the game, the Padres are stuck sending pitchers up to pinch-hit for each other. Joe Musgrove becomes the first such Padres batter to strike out with the bases loaded in extras since Colin Rea in 2016. Off to the 12th, where the Dodgers run themselves into an out at home on what is not a force play. And at 11:24 pm we have the fifth game in the Free Runner Era to reach a 13th inning.
The Padres sent four batters to the plate in the 12th, which means two more intentional walks in the 13th would bring that pitcher-turned-pinch-hitter spot up again. Instead of trying to get Manny Machado out, let's pass him and Jake Cronenworth to put us one short of the MLB record for IBBs in a game. And we'll have Ryan Weathers, pitcher, hit a nubber back to his counterpart for a force at home. It's the first time in Padres history that they've had any two pinch-hitters come to bat with the bases loaded in extra innings in a home game. (This is somewhat of an expected outcome, because if you're got the bases loaded in a home game, there's a good chance you walk off the first time and it doesn't happen again.) Only twice before had they had it occur in a road game, and only one of those four pinch hitters (Sean Bergman in 1986) was a pitcher. One of them was Tony Gwynn. But even the best can make outs as easily as Ryan Weathers and propel us to the first 14-inning game in the majors since the Phillies beat Miami on September 27, 2019.
Amazingly, the Padres also run themselves into a non-forceout at the plate in the 14th which leads to nothing happening then either. Perhaps we need to start putting two runners on base and then three as the extra innings pile up. We now have the first Dodgers/Padres game to reach a 15th inning since May 22, 2016 (at Petco, of course), and it is now past midnight. Pacific Time.
Must have just needed that midnight oil. Or a midnight snack. Or the ice cream treat that comes from the phenomenon known as #WeirdBaseball. But we have finally reached the depths of both bullpens where someone is bound to give up a run or two. Billy McKinney, also pinch-hitting for Dodgers pitcher Brusdar Graterol, drives home free runner Chris Taylor while also recording the first go-ahead pinch hit for the Dodgers that late in a game in since at least 1900. And Trea Turner follows with another single to double this game's run total in about 3 minutes. All Corey Knebel needs to do is not give up exactly 2 runs. One is fine. Three is fine. Any number but two.
Fernando Tatis, 2-run homer because of the free runner. It's the fourth multi-run dinger the Padres have ever hit in the 15th or later, and the others all took the lead. Adrian Gonzalez walked off in one of those 18-inning games back in 2008, Mark Parent hit a walkoff in the 16th in 1988, and Merv Rettenmund gave the Padres the lead in the 21st in Montreal in 1977. And for good measure, one more intentional walk to Jake Cronenworth to get to that pitcher's spot again. Cronenworth joined Garry Templeton (1985) and Terry Kennedy (1982) as the only Padres batters to have 3 IBBs in a loss. That pitcher is Daniel Camarena, whose claim to fame will always be hitting a grand slam in his major-league debut. This was not his debut, so no slams. Let's go to the 16th.
There is a Camarena home run, however. It's the one he quickly gives up to A.J. Pollock, and because of the free runner, it's the new weirdness of a 2-run leadoff job. This gives us more phenomena: The last time both teams homered in the 15th or later of a game was on April 10, 2015, when David Ortiz and Mark Teixeira traded jabs. But it's the first game in MLB history where both teams hit a multi-run homer that late in a game. The Dodgers hadn't hit any homer in the 16th since Ramon Martinez off Cincinnati's Ryan Franklin on August 29, 2006. And their last multi-run shot in the 16th or later? That goes back more than a century. Henry (usually abbreviated as "Hy" or "Hi") Myers smacked one against the Phillies on April 30, 1919.
Our final loose end is the final intentional walk of the day, this one coming to Will Smith later in the 16th. You know, the same Will Smith who is responsible for us being here by tying the game in the 8th. That gives this game a total of 11 intentional walks, tying the record for such a thing which was set by the Giants and Cubs on May 2, 1956, just a year after the leagues started tracking IBBs separately from total BBs. That split was Cubs 7, Giants 4, and while there have been four other teams to issue 7 IBBs in a game since then, no one had ever done 8 until the Dodgers on Wednesday (with all of them in extra innings even!).
And as we mentioned, it's a good thing they don't have to throw all 44 of those soft-tosses anymore. Because as it was, our 7:10 start finally came to an end at 12:59. (It's Thursday, so the trolley starts running again at 5:00, you'll be fine.) And although we have had games go past 1 am local in the past two seasons of New Rules, those were all on the east coast and resulted from rain delays. The last time there was baseball on until 4 am Eastern was in the final week of the 2019 season when Ildemaro Vargas finally walked off for the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the 19th at 1:33 am MST.
So of course it was unprecedented to have a game last seven extra innings under The New Rules, but the fun part is that the Dodgers/Padres game upstaged another unique contest from earlier on Wednesday.
The Rockies and Cubs required 10 innings to settle their affairs, and you say, what's exciting about that? Well, it's because this was the night game of a doubleheader after a rainout on Tuesday, and thanks to another provision of The New Rules, doubleheader games are now only scheduled for 7 innings. (Soapbox: We're fine with this for single-admission DHs, but if the games require separate tickets then they should each be 9. Otherwise you have charged the fans the same price for 22% less product. At least encode the tickets with some concession-stand credit or something.) So if you did show up for the day game, you at least got to witness some repeated Cubs comebacks in your limited helping of baseball. C.J. Cron homered for the Rockies in the 2nd, and David Bote responded with a tying shot in the Cubs' half. Brendan Rodgers put the Rockies back ahead right after that with an RBI single, but Austin Romine cranked another homer off Austin Gomber in the 4th to once again make it a tie game. And Gomber does get two quick outs in the 5th, but then surrenders a triple, a walk, and a 3-run bomb to Patrick Wisdom for our final margin of 5-2. Gomber struck out 8 but also gave up those 3 homers and took a loss, the first Rockies pitcher to do that since Jeff Francis in Atlanta, 17 years earlier to the day (August 25, 2004). And it was the third time the Cubs had ever hit three tying or go-ahead homers in the same against the Rockies. Corey Patterson, Fred McGriff, and Joe Girardi won a 12-9 slugfest on August 11, 2002, and back on August 28, 1998, it was Sammy Sosa, Jose Hernandez, and yes-he's-a-pitcher Steve Trachsel who hit them in a 10-5 win.
So now we're on to that night game, which begins with a leadoff walk and Rodgers hitting another homer. Then the Cubs unload on German Marquez in the 2nd. Six hits, a bunt, a wild pitch, and a steal of home end up with Chicago scoring 5 runs and looking like they're cruising to a sweep. Until Justin Steele-- the pitcher of the aforementioned bunt-- gives up two singles to start the 4th, hits Charlie Blackmon with a pitch, and then watches Connor Joe launch his first career grand slam. It was the first lead-flipping grand slam by any visiting player at Wrigley since Adeiny Hechavarria of the Marlins hit one on September 4, 2013. Rodgers hits another single in the 6th to put Colorado ahead 8-5. And then, not as dramatic because there's only 1 out, Ian Happ steps to the plate in the 7th and crushes a game-tying 3-run homer to send us off to Free Runner Land.
The teams trade their free runners in the 8th, and so the big blow is Ryan McMahon's 2-run homer in the top of the 10th. The only other homer the Rockies have hit in the 10th or later at Wrigley Field came from Todd Helton on May 9, 2004. And when Brendan Rodgers adds two more insurance runs with a double, it marks the first time in Rockies history that their top two batters in the lineup (remember Connor Joe's grand slam) had 4 RBI in the same game.
The Cubs do get a meaningless groundout in their half of the 10th to score the free runner and make the final score 13-10. That's significant mostly because it marks the first time the Cubs scored 10 runs and lost since, well, two weeks ago against the Marlins. Wednesday's game was actually the fourth time they've done it this year, tying the 1993 squad for the most such games in the modern era. The last time the Cubs scored 10 runs in either game of a doubleheader and lost was September 19, 1992, against the Cardinals. And although we had some hopeful flashbacks to a 21-inning DH we attended in Seattle in 2004, the last time the second game of a doubleheader required three extra frames now only goes back to August 13, 2014, between Arizona and Cleveland.
And ohhh yeah, let's say that 13-10 in 10 innings in a 7-inning game was the least of the Cubs' notable escapades this week. Their other game against the Rockies, the one we haven't mentioned yet, was on Monday and it would have otherwise been not very notable. Colorado collected 3 runs in the 1st, culminating with one of those famous "timing plays" where Sam Hilliard was out trying to stretch a single into a double (or at least a "second on the throw") but C.J. Cron crossed home in time to have his run stand. And then nothing. David Bote grounds into a double play in the 6th which at least gets the Cubs on the board. Our buddy Connor Joe hits a sac fly to give the Rockies their 3-run lead again. And then Jhoulys Chacin starts the bottom of the 8th by walking three straight batters on 12 straight pitches. Only twice before in Rox history had they issued three 4-pitch walks with 0 outs in the same inning, and the others weren't to consecutive batters. (Weirdly, they did both happen on June 26 against the Padres-- Mark Brownson in 1999 and then Max Suzuki again two years later.)
This will lead to Wisdom singling in one run, but still leaving the bases loaded for David Bote again. Who proceeds to ground into another double play that still scores a run. Long ago it was decided that a batter does not get an RBI when a run scores on a double play; clearly the committee in question was of the mindset that the defense would always rather trade two outs for one run. But since GIDPs were first officially recorded by the leagues in 1933, Bote is the first Cubs batter ever to hit into two run-scoring ones in the same game.
Monday's game would ultimately be won when Rafael Ortega launched a walkoff homer against Daniel Bard, also scoring Jason Heyward who had led off the 9th with a single. The only other Cubs batters to hit a multi-run walkoff homer against the Rockies are Kris Bryant (2015), Aramis Ramirez (2010), and Moises Alou (2002).
Light The Chicago Sky And Hold On Tight
We told you the Cubs weren't nearly done with their escapades. So if that wasn't the game you thought we'd "have to" write about, well, here it comes. Yep, it's Friday's barnburner on the shores of 35th Street as the MLB schedulers decide we haven't seen the Cubs and White Sox play each other in almost three weeks. And well, at least we've never seen them play each other quite like this.
Patrick Wisdom opens the festivities with a 3-run homer, the first time the Cubs have had their third batter hit a 3-run dinger in a road game since Anthony Rizzo in Cincinnati on April 22, 2017. By the time Dallas Keuchel gets all the way through the order, it's still the 1st inning and the Cubs have opened a 6-0 lead, the last run even scoring on a delayed steal where Jason Heyward was technically "caught" but was safe on an error. Keuchel leaves after giving up another leadoff single in the 2nd, paving the way for Reynaldo Lopez to throw 5 hitless innings in "relief"-- the first White Sox pitcher to do that since Terry Forster in Anaheim on April 13, 1975.
So while the Cubs are being held hitless, it's just up to the Sox to try to come back. Which naturally they do. And it only takes one inning. Keegan Thompson starts the 3rd by giving up two doubles, an error, and a single before getting replaced. The replacement in question, Adrian Sampson, immediately gives up a 3-run homer to Yasmani Grandal. And he's going to go all the way around the order as well before getting out of the inning. The Sox sent 13 batters to the plate and eight of them scored, marking their first 8-run inning in a home game since May 14, 2017, against the Padres. Michael Rucker gives up 4 more runs in the 5th to make it 13-6 already. And alas, Reynaldo Lopez has to leave the game at some point. So on comes the rest of the Sox bullpen, which on this night is just as susceptible as the Cubs'. By the time Garrett Crochet gives up a pair of doubles in the 8th, it's back to 14-10 and you're starting to look up Bears football scores. (But Chicago is playing Chicago, so how does that work?)
Except 14-10 isn't the football score you'll be looking up. Two walks in the bottom of the 8th lead to another 3-run homer for Yasmani Grandal, who turns in the first 8-RBI game for the White Sox since Robin Ventura did it in Arlington on September 4, 1995. As for Grandal's 4 hits to go with the 8 RBI, that had only been done once before in Sox history, by Carl Reynolds against the Yankees on July 2, 1930. And 17-10 looks like a football score too. Until the Cubs kick a meaningless field goal and play for the onside kick. Craig Kimbrel, yes the one who pitched for the Cubs until a few weeks ago, is still making each of his outings interesting. This time he gets two quick outs and then serves up a dinger to Patrick Wisdom. The same Patrick Wisdom who started this whole mess with the homer in the 1st. He is going to join Sammy Sosa (2004) and Moises Alou (2002) as the only Cubs batters to hit multiple homers in a loss on the South Side. And combined with Grandal, it's only the fourth Cubs/Sox game where a player for each time hit multiple homers. Jose Abreu and Kyle Schwarber did it in 2017, and Paul Konerko was part of both other pairs with Aramis Ramirez in 2006 and Tood Hundley in 2002.
Kimbrel still has to get one more out, by which we mean walking Matt Duffy and giving up another homer to Ian Happ. (There's your 3 meaningless points for the Cubs.) Both of those 9th-inning taters came with the Cubs trailing by at least 6 and down to their final out; they hadn't hit two such homers in the same game since John Boccabella and Jimmie Schaffer did it against the Cardinals on September 12, 1963. But finally Kimbrel gets his last out and seals the Cubs' first loss when scoring at least 13 runs since a 16-15 nailbiter in Montreal on May 14, 2000. It's also the seventh time ever that the Cubs and White Sox have both scored 13 runs on the same day; the last of those was September 14, 2017. But it's the first of those seven occurrences on which they didn't both win (they couldn't, because they're playing each other).
One If By Land, Two If By Sea, Four If By Air
Our baseball week actually began on Monday with one of those games you knew we'd mention. Last Sunday's tilt between the Red Sox and Rangers was hurricane-d out, but both teams had an off-day on Monday, and the Rangers were only going to Cleveland, so hey, stick around, we'll make it up tomorrow. So we had the rare 1:00 start on a non-holiday Monday, although Boston generally has at least one of those every year.
And sure enough, this one had all the makings of a midweek day game where nobody's awake and oh yes, there's an AL West team involved too. Alex Verdugo's 2-run homer looks like it might hold up for a win until Matt Barnes takes the mound in the 9th. He gives up three singles and a double that likely would have given Texas the lead, except that it bounced over the low fence into the bullpen and trail runner Nick Solak got sent back to third. Instead of leaving Barnes out there to give up the losing run as well, Garrett Whitlock comes on and strikes out two batters to send us to Free Runner Land. After both teams score theirs in the 10th, the Rangers can't get a ball out of the infield in the 11th, and so you already know how the Sawx are going to play their half. Sacrifice bunt to get the free runner to third. Except Dennis Santana errs on the throw to put two on. Now you need a force at every base, so the old intentional walk follows in short order, although it was to Alex Verdugo, who basically has been Boston's entire offense so far. Since last season under The New Rules, it's the second time Boston's gotten an intentional walk with first base occupied in extra innings; they had a total of two in the 14 seasons before that. And unfortunately, these things usually work out for the defense, or else they wouldn't keep doing it. This one, however, um, didn't.
Travis Shaw, walkoff grand slam. It's only been three years (July 14, 2018) since Xander Bogaerts had their previous one, but it's been almost 60 years since they hit one in the 11th inning. That was Dick Stuart against the Orioles on April 28, 1964. The others in team history in the 11th or later are by Carroll Hardy (1962), Clyde Vollmer (1951), Vern Stephens (1949), and Leon Culberson (1946).
We've used this before, but the original "16 Candles" to which our title refers is not the Molly Ringwald movie, but a doo-wop song by The Crests from 1958. If you'd like something more upbeat, may we suggest Billy Joel's oral history of four decades jammed into four minutes, complete with flamethrowers. Intermission!
Ah, but as they say, the extra innings giveth, the extra innings taketh away. (Nobody says that.) We skipped over an 11-9 game against the Twins on Tuesday to bring you to the 10th inning on Wednesday, made possible by Kyle Schwarber's first home run with the Red Sox. Hansel Robles would be tasked with getting Josh Donaldson out to start the 10th, and he, well, didn't. In fact his second pitch ended up in the bleachers for the old-fashioned multi-run leadoff homer, the first one of those the Twins have hit since we adopted New Rules last summer. And we might not have mentioned this game either, except that Robles goes on to give up a single, hit a batter, and then serve the bleachers with another souvenir off the bat of Jake Cave. It's the first time the Twins have hit multiple homers in the same extra inning since Chris Herrmann and Pedro Florimon did it in Anaheim on July 23, 2013. It was earlier that same season-- April 10 against Baltimore-- that the Red Sox last had a reliever give up 5 runs, 2 homers, and take a loss; Robles duplicated the "feat" of Joel Hanrahan from eight years ago.
On Thursday the Sox were back in the win column behind Chris Sale and Bobby Dalbec, plus a little help from the Minnesota bullpen. Sale went 1-2-3 on nine pitches in the 2nd. He then went 1-2-3 on nine pitches in the 3rd. We flipped to this game for the 4th, as frequently happens when no-hit bids start reaching those scary middle innings, and the announcers are mentioning "immaculate innings". If you don't already know, it's baseball-speak for striking out the side in the minimum of nine pitches. Hang on, look at Sale. The 2nd inning doesn't qualify because two of those outs were put in play. They just happened to all be on the third pitch. But the 3rd inning, yes, strike 3, strike 6, and strike 9. If that sounds like something Sale might have done before, you'd be right. Twice during the first half of the 2019 season. In fact, the only other pitcher known to have thrown three immaculate innings is Sandy Koufax.
None of Koufax's came in a no-hitter, however. And no, none of Sale's have either. Willians Astudillo made sure of that with a 5th-inning blast over the Green Monster. But that still only got Minnesota back to within 4-2. Dalbec had driven home their first 3 runs with another Monster shot in the 2nd. And even after Sale departs in the 6th, Dalbec is just getting started.
Edgar Garcia will be the aforementioned "help" from the Twins bullpen. He gets to face 12 Sox batters... and get five of them out. Hit batter, single, wild pitch, 2-run single from Dalbec. Two more walks to load the bases. Through some miracle, gets a double play to make this look a little better. Then Rafael Devers smokes him for another 2-run shot and the Sawx have gone up 10-2. For whatever reason (possibly conceding at this point), Garcia gets to go back out for the 7th. Where Dalbec is going to end his night with yet another home run. In Twins/Senators history, only two other relievers have given up 7 runs and 2 homers while getting no more than 5 outs: Jason Miller and Julio DePaula, within two weeks of each other in 2007. By the time this finally ends, Astudillo has pitched again, and actually not given up a run, but also becoming the second Twins player in the designated-hitter era (1973) to homer in a game in which he also pitched. The other is Chris Gimenez in 2018.
Now as for Dalbec, if you've been counting, he's driven in 7 of those 12 Red Sox runs. Did we mention he's batting 9th? Only one other batter in Sawx history has had a 7-RBI game out of the 9-hole, and you might remember it because it pops up a lot. Jackie Bradley did it in the 22-10 game against Seattle in 2015. As for 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 7 RBI batting 9th, only four players in MLB history have pulled that off-- the two Bostonians just above, plus Ramon Vazquez of the Rangers in 2007 (that's The 30-3 Game at Camden Yards), plus Brian Giles of the Mariners in 1990. Making the search "2 homers and 7 RBI batting 9th" only adds two more batters to the four just named-- Robert Person of the Phillies in 2002, and Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger in his famous Two Grand Slams Game in 1966.
We've never tallied up exactly how often the last game of the night belongs to each team, but the Mariners feel like a good choice to lead the pack. While some of the other western teams have moved their games up to 6:30 or 6:45, the Mariners persist in their 7:10 starts. So when they end up with late drama, it's even later than most other teams. In fact they came very close to touching the midnight oil this week also.
The M's started the week with a strange 2-game "series" (is that really even a series?) in Oakland, not even part of a home-and-home such as MLB used to do a few years ago. In fact these two teams play other seven times in the last 10 days of the season, so whatever. But they made it interesting on Monday.
Trailing 3-2 in the 9th (because AL West), Ty France led off the inning with a home run, and unfortunately for "tie game" purposes, this one does not involve a free runner. It was the fifth time this year that France has hit a game-tying (not go-ahead) dinger in the 6th inning or later; he's just the second batter in team history to do that. Raul Ibañez hit six of them in 2013. Care to take a guess when France's fourth such homer was? Yeah, the previous game, last Sunday against Houston. If you expand the search to include tying or go-ahead homers, only four players in team history have hit them in the 9th or later of consecutive team games. The others are Alvin Davis (August 1986), Tom Paciorek (May 1981), and Leon Roberts (June 1978).
But it wasn't even the first tying homer of this game. Back in the top of the 6th, Mitch Haniger had cranked a 2-run job to get Seattle on the board before Matt Olson took the lead right back in the bottom half. Between Haniger and France, it's the first game in M's history where they hit multiple tying homers in the 6th inning or later. Happily for "last game of the night" purposes, we have Jake Bauers coming up later in the inning. Because he smacks a 2-run single to give the Mariners the win. The last Seattle hitter with a multi-run, go-ahead single in the 9th in Oakland was Casey Kotchman on April 5, 2010.
The Mariners would welcome in Kansas City for the weekend, and the Royals very quickly wore out their welcome. Oh sure, they gifted Seattle 4 early runs, including both a homer and a bases-loaded walk by Jake Fraley. But after letting Yusei Kikuchi allow only 1 hit through 5 innings, they decided that was plenty. In the 6th we'll start with back-to-back singles from Ryan O'Hearn and Emmanuel Rivera, and now here's that pesky "third time through the order" gremlin. Whit Merrifield cranks a double to score one. Nicky Lopez draws a walk to reload the bases. Kikuchi is promptly replaced by Joe Smith. And Joe Smith's pitching baseball is promptly replaced by home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook after Sal Perez deposits his first one into the seats for a lead-flipping grand slam. It's the first Royals slam in Seattle since Alcides Escobar took Roenis Elias deep on May 11, 2014. Perez has now hit four of them, tying Carlos Beltran and trailing Danny Tartabull (5) and Frank White (6) on the Royals' franchise list. And it turns out one of Perez's other slams also flipped the lead; that was June 21, 2017 against Houston. The only other players in Royals history to hit two of those are Beltran, White, and George Brett.
So 10:36 was already a late enough finish (and the last in the country by 12 minutes that night), but it doesn't hold a candle to the days on either side. You already know about 12:59 am in San Diego on Wednesday night. You probably didn't hear that we almost hit #WeirdBaseball again on Friday. Unlike his previous start, when Kris Bubic took a no-hitter into the 7th, the Mariners jumped on him for 5 more early runs including a 2-run double and a bases-loaded walk both by Luis Torrens. Torrens will add a sac fly later in the game to become just the sixth player in Mariners history with 4 RBI on 1 hit, where that hit wasn't a home run. The others are Carlos Ruiz (2017), Jose Lopez (2008), John Olerud (2000), Dave Magadan (1993), and Dave Valle (1989). But that sac fly isn't going to come for a while. At least not until rookie Logan Gilbert tries to make it through the 4th inning. Which he eventually does, but he also scatters three singles around the first two outs. Which brings up Sal Perez with the bases loaded.
History, repeat thyself. If you guessed that no player in Royals lore had ever hit slams in consecutive games, that was an easy question. In fact it's happened only two other times so far this century: Tyler Saladino of Milwaukee did it two seasons ago, and Carlos Beltran did it for the Mets in July 2006. Only two other catchers in the live-ball era have hit slams in back-to-back games: Mike Piazza in 1988 and Bill Dickey in 1937. (Hold that thought on the team doing it, unless you clicked the video. Then don't tell the rest of us.)
We're skipping innings 6 through 9 because literally nothing happened. (Remember, AL West.) There were three baserunners and a double play. Total. Both teams will advance their free runner to third in the 10th and score on a sac fly (this is where Torrens comes back in). Carlos Hernandez gave up that sac fly for the Royals, ruining his shot at an impressive win; he threw 5 innings (the 6th through the 10th), allowed just 1 hit, and struck out 6. Even without getting the W, he's the first Royals reliever to post that line since Doug Bird at Milwaukee on August 24, 1977.
This will finally end in the 12th when Edward Olivares, who came on as a defensive replacement in the 7th, lifts a 2-run homer to score Kansas City's free runner. It's just the second time the Royals have hit an extra-inning homer at the Mariners' current home, and the other is only Sal Perez again (July 5, 2017, not a grand slam). Olivares also was responsible for that sac fly in the 10th, the second player in team history to have both a sac fly and a homer in a game he didn't start. The other is Clint Hurdle in Toronto on August 11, 1978. The Mariners do make things a little scary in the bottom of the 12th by scoring their free runner and then putting two more batters (the winning runs) on base with 2 outs. But Jarred Kelenic strikes out to finally end the game... at 11:50 pm. No ice cream for you.
We told you to hold that thought about the Royals hitting grand slams in back-to-back games. Turns out the Thursday-Friday combo in Seattle was the second time they'd ever done that. Because the first... was Wednesday-Thursday. Yes, backing up two days, we're going to their series finale in Houston where the slam actually was wasted by the Royals getting walked off. The walkoff caught our eye (and the pitcher's leg) immediately, the slams didn't matter until later.
It's 3-1 in the 7th and the Astros are trying to squeeze one more inning out of Lance McCullers. Which goes well until Michael Taylor hits a 2-out single, and then Emmanuel Rivera and Cam Gallagher combine to draw back-to-back walks on fifteen pitches. That's how we load the bases, but that also runs McCullers' pitch count to 107 and summons Cristian Javier. And his pitch count will be exactly 1 when Whit Merrifield unleashes today's grand slam into the Crawford Boxes. For all the achievements Merrifield has had in Kansas City, it was only his second career grand slam. That's partly due to him always batting leadoff, so the 7-8-9 guys aren't as likely to load up the bases for him. But it turns out his other slam was also at Minute Maid Park, on May 7, 2019. The only other visiting player to hit two there is Brian McCann.
By now you also know that this will give the Royals a string of three consecutive games with a grand slam, where they'd never even hit two before. However-- and how quickly we forget-- remember "Slam Diego"? Yes, the Padres had a string last year of slamming in four straight games. (Spoiler alert, the Royals didn't hit one on Saturday, so that streak is safe. However, Sal Perez did homer again on both Saturday and Sunday to tie Mike Sweeney for the longest homer streak in Royals history at 5 games.)
Merrifield's slam also flipped the lead back in favor of Kansas City, but pinch hitter Michael Brantley will undo that in the 8th. His RBI single was similar to one Aledmys Diaz hit against the Mariners on April 28; the last time Houston had two tying pinch hits in the 8th or later was 2008 by Geoff Blum and Darin Erstad.
So we head to the bottom of the 10th and one of the strangest walkoffs of the year. Remember, the Astros are the team who walked off on a nubber that went about 8 feet in 2018. This one isn't quite that bizarre, but it did go about 58 feet, right back to the mound where it ricocheted off Joel Payamps' hip. After that there is obviously no play on the winning run at home, so you'll almost always see the defense let out a sigh and let the ball just lay there and concede the walkoff infield single. Nope. Payamps, likely just out of habit since he was already running toward first, picked it up anyway and shoveled it over, even after the winning run had already scored. There is, of course, a "rules" conundrum here, because is the batter really out? The book says the game ends immediately when the winning run scores. On a fair ball with less than two outs, there's nothing requiring the batter to touch first or somehow resolve his at-bat. His at-bat actually ends as soon as the ball is hit (he becomes "batter-runner" in rule-book parlance). The first-base umpire does follow through with the "out" call, and in these days of replay, we can understand playing it out. There could be some weird challenge about interference, or the "winning run" missing the plate, such that if the run got wiped out and the inning had to continue, the out would still count.
So with the looming question of whether the out should really count at all, you're also wondering, when the heck have you seen a game-winning groundout to the pitcher? Glad you asked. That last happened on September 17, 2013, when the Brewers pulled off a suicide squeeze. Logan Schafer had to awkardly lunge over the plate to get the bunt down, and Cubs pitcher Justin Grimm had no play, actually watched Jeff Bianchi score the run, and then just threw over to first for no reason. (At least he gets credit for another third of an inning and not a single?) The last time the Astros walked off on any groundout (note, that 8-footer above is technically a walkoff error) was on August 30, 2006, with the bases loaded. Aubrey Huff sent one right to the Brewers' Jeff Cirillo, who was close enough to step on first, but that also removed the force play at home and Mike Lamb beat the throw that would have finished the double play.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Dansby Swanson, Monday: Second player in Braves history whose solo homer ended up as the only run of a game against the Yankees. Chipper Jones hooked one just inside the pole in the opener of the 1999 World Series.
⚾ Josh Donaldson, Friday: First Twins batter to hit a multi-run homer in the 1st inning, have that be the team's only runs of the game, and have it stand up for a win, since Kent Hrbek at Oakland on April 11, 1990.
⚾ Jesús Sanchez, Sunday: First batter in Marlins history to hit a solo or 2-run homer in the 1st inning, have that be the team's only runs of the game, and have it stand up for a win.
⚾ Ryan Mountcastle, Tuesday: Tenth Orioles batter this season to have 2 homers in a loss. Only other team in MLB history to have 10 players do that is the 1998 Mariners.
⚾ Austin Hays, Saturday: With Ryan McKenna on April 11, first time Orioles have hit two pinch-hit triples in the same season since Jim Dwyer and Mike Young in 1985.
⚾ Glenn Otto, Friday: First pitcher to make his MLB debut in a Rangers uniform and allow 0 runs while striking out 7+ batters.
⚾ Joey Wendle, Sunday: First player in Rays history with 2 homers and 6 RBI in a road game.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Wednesday: First pitcher to bat leadoff and strike out 3 times in a game since the Phillies' Tom Seaton, double-switched as a reliever, against the Giants on May 29, 1913.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Thursday: First Angels batter whose leadoff homer was the team's only run of a game since JB Shuck against Cleveland on August 20, 2013.
⚾ Nate Lowe, Tuesday: First Rangers batter with a 5-hit game that included at least 3 RBI since Josh Hamilton's 4-homer game at Camden Yards on May 8, 2012.
⚾ White Sox/Cubs, Sat-Sun: First time in "Crosstown Cup" history that the two teams have traded 7-run wins against each other in consecutive games.
⚾ Jake Latz, Wednesday: First Rangers pitcher to give up 3 homers in his MLB debut since Ryan Snare did it in his only career appearance on August 6, 2004.
⚾ Indians, Saturday: First time they had four bases-loaded plate appearances in the same extra inning since April 27, 1984, in Detroit (in the 19th!).
⚾ Genesis Cabrera, Thursday: First Cardinals pitcher to give up 6 runs while getting 0 outs since Bill Steele against Pittsburgh on September 8, 1912.
⚾ Nationals, Sunday: First game in franchise history (1969) where they had 3 or more hits and all of them were homers.
⚾ Cardinals, Wednesday: Second walkoff win in team history against the Tigers. Other was June 12, 1999, on an Edgar Renteria single in the 14th.
⚾ Christian Walker, Monday: First batter in D'backs history to get credited with 3 RBI on a single.
⚾ Edmundo Sosa, Saturday: First Cardinals batter to have 2 triples and 5 RBI in a game since Ken Boyer against the Reds on April 29, 1962.
⚾ Austin Riley, Tuesday: Second game in a week with 3 hits and a hit-by-pitch (also did it August 18). Last Braves batter to have two such games so close together was Buck Herzog on May 14 & 18, 1918.
⚾ Victor Reyes, Friday: Second known pinch-hit inside-the-park homer in Tigers history. Ben Ogilvie had one against the Brewers on June 2, 1976.
⚾ Aaron Judge, Thursday: First go-ahead single for Yankees in 9th or later in Oakland since Tino Martinez off Doug Jones on August 11, 1999.
⚾ Taylor Houck, Sunday: First Red Sox pitcher to walk 4 batters and hit 3 others since Dana Kiecker on July 5, 1990.
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