It always used to be the swan song at the end of a school year in early June. A few friends you might see over the summer, but the majority of classmates it would be early September until you caught up with them again. (Anyone else remember having to report "What I Did On My Summer Vacation"?) These days most school districts don't even make it to September. They start up again in late August or even earlier, because Memorial Day has become more popular as a getaway than Labor Day. But "August" doesn't really fit the meter of the song. Either way, here we are in the final month of the baseball season already, and at least one team said "see you in September" way back in April.
Account Temporarily Suspended
Yeah, you knew this was gonna come up. Way back on April 11, the Mets and Marlins were set to wrap up the first home series of the year at Citi Field. LaGuardia Airport started reporting light rain at 10:00 in the morning that Sunday. But if you've ever sat through a rain delay, you might know the rules on this: The home team decides whether the game starts (with limited exceptions), but once it does start, the umpires decide whether it continues. By the scheduled start time at 1:10 it's still raining. The Mets' always-impeccable braintrust says, sure, let's play. A whopping nine pitches into the game, the umpires say, um, no, let's not. Now, in any normal universe prior to the last two years, we'd have wiped out those nine pitches and just started a new game at some point in the future. But under The New Rules we don't do that anymore either. We salvage any part of a game that has actually been completed, even if it's nine pitches and one lonely single by Corey Dickerson. (Hey, at least he broke up the no-hitter.) So we have the first game in MLB history to be suspended in the 1st inning and awaiting a continuation later.
"Later", if you're even more rules-savvy, is defined as "[i]mmediately preceding the next scheduled single game between the two Clubs on the same grounds". Care to know the next time the Marlins will be visiting Citi Field? Yep, that's the last day of August, which is why we're talking about this. For a full 142 days this game sat in suspended animation, all nine pitches of it, the longest gap in history between a game's suspension and its resumption. This game would wind up being only 2 hours shorter than the entire 2018-19 offseason. You could literally make an entire new team out of players who were no longer on their teams by the time the game resumed. Even Corey Dickerson required a pinch runner because he's now in Toronto.
But the real reason we're here is that this quirkiness of resuming a game 4½ months later creates oodles of neat notes. For example, remember that the Marlins never finished batting in the top of the 1st. That means that "starting pitcher" John Curtiss never threw a pitch. Know where he is now? Milwaukee, having been traded for a minor-league catcher. So it's gonna be kind of hard for him to fulfill the requirement of pitching to at least one batter. (Technically the only exceptions to this rule are for injury or ejection, but maybe getting "ejected" to Wisconsin qualifies.) Either way that makes Curtiss just the second pitcher in Marlins history to "start" a game but face 0 batters. The other was Sergio Mitre who did sustain one of those injuries, blowing out a shoulder after 3 pitches to the Pirates on May 12, 2006.
Meanwhile, Marcus Stroman started the game for the Mets and would have been eligible to continue since he's still on the team. And Tuesday was likely his "throw day" anyway. But instead the game resumed with Taijuan Walker inheriting not-Corey-Dickerson on first, which means Stroman only faced two batters. The last game where neither starter faced more than 2 batters was back on June 29, 1961, when Phillies manager Gene Mauch and Giants manager Al Dark played some last-minute lineup-card games with each other. Mauch put three pitchers on the card because Dark had not announced who would start for the Giants. When lefty Billy O'Dell was on the card, Mauch immediately substituted right-handed batters for those "fake" pitchers. O'Dell, pursuant to the rule, faced one batter (Bobby Del Greco) but then Dark replaced him as well, prompting more pinch hitters on the other side.
As for not-Corey-Dickerson on first, that's the first time in Marlins history that a player has had a leadoff base hit to start the game and been pinch-run for in the same trip around the bases. The last time that happened for any team was in May when Enrique Hernandez of the Red Sox pulled a hamstring while legging out a leadoff double. But wait a minute, thanks to suspended games disturbing the time/space continuum, this game is technically still happening in April. So the "last time" can't really be in May because May hasn't happened yet. Ordered by game date, the "last time" now goes back to the final day of the 2020 season when Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers, having sustained a wrist injury earlier in September and not wanting his MLB career to end on that play, was activated for the final game. He laid down a bunt single, had an emotional career-ending moment, and then got pinch-run for.
If you've forgotten how this game finally ended, you're forgiven because the books say it happened in April. But trailing 5-1, the Mets carved up a little seafood platter, devouring the Marlins and reliever Anthony Bass. A 2-run homer by Brandon Nimmo gets it to 5-3. Richard Bleier puts two runners on. Javier Baez singles home one of them. And then Michael Conforto ropes a single to left (tie game!), where Jorge Alfaro (aka Not Corey Dickerson) misplays the scoop and allows Baez-- who was also not on the team when this game began-- to score the walkoff run. Baez was, in fact, on the Cubs back on April 11. He even homered for them that day against the Pirates. Thanks to the magic of suspended games, Elias reports that he's only the second player to have an RBI for multiple teams on the same day. Cliff Johnson did it for Cleveland on May 28, 1980, and was then with (of all teams) the Cubs when they resumed a suspended game from that same day against the Expos on August 8. If you're yelling "Joel Youngblood" at your screen right now... A, much respect for knowing the reference... but B, Youngblood got hits for both the Mets and the Expos on the same day after being traded in the middle of a game, but didn't drive in a run in both.
Tuesday-- er, "April 11"-- was also the first time in Citi Field history that the Mets scored 5 runs in a bottom of the 9th. The last such game at Shea was September 25, 2007, against the Nationals, and they still lost (10-9) because Mets.
Sure has been a busy week in Mets land, and some of it is even on the field. So while the Mets and Marlins may have said see you on August 31, the Mets and Nationals really did put off their rematch until September. A week prior to that suspended game, the NL East rivals had their entire opening series wiped out and have been slowly making it up. Their "Opening Day" matchup wound up on June 19, the middle game became June 28, and the final game of the series, which would have been Easter Sunday, got played not on April 4 but way down here on September 4.
So how do the Mets respond to finally playing their Easter Sunday game in September? Why, by smacking Erick Fedde around for 7 runs in the first 3 innings, of course. Michael Conforto then hits a 2-run shot in the 4th against Wander Suero to put New York ahead 9-0. What could go wrong? (You've probably already answered this question with "it's the Mets.")
Well, Marcus Stroman could struggle his way through the bottom of the 4th by allowing three singles, a walk, and only getting two outs thanks to "sacrifice" flies. That's good for 3 runs for the Nationals, while Stroman manages to get through the 5th on only 8 pitches and make himself eligible for a win. But he's up to 94 already and it's time for Miguel Castro to start the 6th with a 6-run lead. And he only needs 21 pitches to get... um... 1 out. Three hits and an error chase him off the mound, and Brad Hand's first pitch to Juan Soto does the rest. His 2-run single gets the Nats back to 9-7, and remember this is a doubleheader so they've only got one more chance.
Andrew Stevenson, take your last chance. After Carter Kieboom's double, Stevenson mashes a 2-run, 2-out homer to bring the Nats all the way back. He's the first Washington batter to hit a tying or go-ahead homer against the Mets when the team is down to its final out since Justin Maxwell hit a walkoff grand slam in the 2009 home finale. It gets Erick Fedde off the hook for the loss, the first Nats starter to give up 7 runs, get 9 or fewer outs, and NOT lose since A.J. Cole in Atlanta on April 28, 2015. And it's the first time the Mets scored 7 runs in the first 3 innings and didn't win in "regulation" since August 20, 2005, also against the Nats. (In that one they gave up a 6-run 7th and had to walk off in the 10th.)
Ah yes, "regulation". Because we're not done yet. We're still tied. So after 3+ hours of a 7-inning game already, off we go to the land of free runners. Where the Mets issue two walks to load the bases in the 8th but somehow escape. And then, because Mets, Francisco Lindor comes through with the famous 2-run leadoff homer in the top of the 9th. T.J. Rivera (2016) and Scott Hairston (2012) own the other go-ahead homers hit by the Mets in extras at Nationals Park, and theirs were both solo shots. When the Nats go down in order in the bottom, it's their first time scoring 9 runs and losing since a little 15-14 affair with Milwaukee two years ago. The last time they did it against the Mets was their final game ever at Shea Stadium, a 13-10 loss on September 10, 2008. And Miguel Castro, he of the 4 runs in the 6th? He's the second Mets reliever this year to give up 4 runs while getting 1 out (Sean Reid-Foley did it in that 20-2 game with Atlanta), but he's the first to do it in a game the Mets ended up winning since Aaron Sele against the Pirates on August 15, 2007.
It's also worth mentioning that the Mets made 3 errors in the game and won, which is really only relevant because in Thursday's finale against the Marlins, they did the exact same thing. (The Marlins made 4 of their own in that game to set a Citi Field record for combined defensive futility.) The last time the Mets had two such games in three days was on July 27, 2000, when they managed to do it in both games of a twinbill against Montreal.
The Nationals did win the night game of Saturday's doubleheader after it had to be delayed by an hour because the day game was going too long. (#PaceOfPlay.) So the weekend wasn't a total loss. But they were right back at it on Sunday, exploding for 4 runs in the 1st inning off Josiah Gray. The Nats were already so far down that they managed to hit 2 homers in the bottom of the 1st and still not even tie the game. The last time they pulled that off was on June 16, 2002, when Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro started the game with back-to-back homers for the Expos after Toronto had scored 3 on them. By the 3rd it was 6-3 Mets and time for Josiah Gray to exit. He became the first Nats starter to give up 6 runs while getting 9 outs since... oh yeah, Erick Fedde on Saturday. That marked the first time Nats starters had done it on back-to-back days (can't say "games" here because of the DH) since Max Scherzer and Gio Gonzalez experienced some weird alignment of planets and managed to both do it on August 14-15, 2015.
The Nationals actually did get this one back to 6-6 before Patrick Mazeika's sac fly gave the Mets the lead again (and at least they didn't wait until extras to get it back this time). But maybe Austin Voth can keep this at 7-6 and give them one more chance in the 9th. OR, he can give up a leadoff homer to Francisco Lindor on the first pitch of the inning. We did not forget Lindor homering in the 9th inning yesterday, but as it turns out, Jonathan Villar did the same thing for the Mets in back-to-back games just a month ago. No exciting notes there. Instead we have to wait for Voth to issue three more hits and a walk, including Javy Baez's fourth base knock of the game. Added to his stolen base and hit-by-pitch from earlier, he's the first player in Mets history to achieve all of that in one contest. That also still leaves the bases loaded for Kevin Pillar. If we spotted you the rest of the list-- Wilson Ramos, Adrian Gonzalez, and Jay Bruce-- you can probably guess that he just hit a grand slam to put this thing out of reach at 13-6. The Mets hadn't hit a slam at Nationals Park in its first 10 seasons, and now they've hit four since 2018 (that's the list above). The last time any Mets batter hit a slam in the 9th inning was Jose Bautista on July 6, 2018, for what would be the only walkoff homer of his career (really!). It's also the 13th grand slam given up by the Nationals this season, one shy of the major-league record held by the 1996 Tigers.
Austin Voth, for his part, joined a short list of Nats/Expos relievers to give up 6 runs while getting 0 outs. Felipe Vazquez did it in San Diego on June 18, 2016, and Britt Reames pulled it off against Florida on September 17, 2001, the first day MLB returned to action after, um, an unscheduled week off. Which we will hear a lot about in the next few days.
You may remember the late-July escapades of Abraham Toro. After being drafted by the Astros in 2016 and bouncing up and down between Houston and double-A Corpus Christi as injuries on the big club warranted, he was traded to the Mariners for pitcher Kendall Graveman. The neat part of his July escapade was that the trade happened while the Astros were in Seattle, so he became that rare player who got to just mosey his stuff from one clubhouse to the other. Oh, also, you might remember he homered for both teams in consecutive games.
Not quite as dramatic this week. But Toro did generate a little bit more noise against his old club. The Astros were back in Seattle this week, and on Tuesday the only thing he did was to hit an 8th-inning grand slam-- off Kendall Graveman for whom he was traded. The day prior to the trade, Dylan Moore also hit a grand slam for the Mariners against Houston, making 2021 the first time Seattle has ever hit two in a season against the Astros. But the fun part of Tuesday's game? It was a scoreless tie. Toro's grand slam wound up being the only runs for either side in a 4-0 Mariners win. That's only happened twice before in team history, by Henry Blanco in Oakland on June 15, 2013, and by Matt Tuiasosopo in Baltimore on August 17, 2010.
And if you like scoreless ties, well, we will happily make fun of the AL West some more. Because they had another one going on Wednesday until the 6th inning. Jake Odorizzi finally gives up a single and two walks to load the bases for... Abraham Toro. And no, he's not going to hit another grand slam. (Sorry.) But he will send a ball deep enough to left-center to score J.P. Crawford on a sacrifice fly. And because it's the AL West, nothing else happens the rest of the game. We end this snoozefest on that 1-0 score with Toro's SF as the game-winner. Only three other Mariners games have ever ended 1-0 via sac fly; they were June 20, 2010, against Cincinnati (Franklin Gutierrez hit the SF), May 17, 1981, at Yankee Stadium (Gary Gray), and July 27, 1979, at Oakland (Larry Milbourne). But 4-0 and 1-0 also made Toro the second batter in Mariners history to be responsible for every run of consecutive team games which they won. The other was just mentioned: Franklin Gutierrez had that sac fly against the Reds in June 2010, then had a 2-run homer for the only Mariners runs in the following game.
You usually see this invoked when the "F" stands for Friday. Not, oh, "fifteen". This weekend it actually stood for both.
We will start (but not end) in Milwaukee where there was a much-hyped matchup between Adam Wainwright and Freddy Peralta on Friday. Don't believe the hype. Now, we'll admit that Waino did scare us with another no-hitter last weekend, just 2 days shy of his 40th birthday and invoking some Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson comparisons. For his part things went well. Peralta, meanwhile, not so much. He's down 4 runs by the 2nd inning and gets pulled in favor of rookie Justin Topa, who gave up 5 runs while getting 2 outs back on August 14 before getting shipped back to Nashville. He then got a September callup and blew a save in his return on Wednesday. What could go wrong.
Nolan Arenado, leadoff homer in the 3rd. Topa gives up two more singles and then a 3-run bomb to Harrison Bader to make it 8-0 and lead to Topa's exit after only 2 outs. He's certainly not the first Brewers pitcher to have two such games in a season; such luminaries as Corbin Burnes did it just two years ago. But he is just the second in team history to give up 4 runs and 2 homers to the Cardinals while getting only 2 outs, joining Michael Blazek on July 9, 2016.
It is already 8-0 so we will spare you much of the piling-on that's about to happen. Tyler O'Neill homers. Arenado had already homered off Peralta in the 1st, so he's the first Cardinals batter with 2 homers in Milwaukee since Yadier Molina on August 27, 2019. And oh yeah, about Yadi. He's going to come up in the top of the 9th with St Louis already up 10-2 and Daniel Norris having loaded the bases. That calls for yet another Brewers pitching change and the grand entrance of Hoby Milner, who has also picked up some frequent-flyer miles between MKE and BNA this season. And all Yadi does is this. That's his seventh grand slam with the Cardinals, trailing only Albert Pujols (12) and Stan Musial (8) in team history. Since we like to characterize the most useless home runs around the majors, the Cards hadn't hit a slam with the team already ahead by 8 in the 9th or later since Ray Lankford in San Diego on July 20, 1998. And when Edmundo Sosa goes back-to-back with Molina, it gives the Cardinals their second 15-run game ever against Milwaukee (and yes, we're talking any Milwaukee team here). The other was on April 16, 2003, when Ryan Franklin gave up 9 runs and lost 15-2. And since so many of their runs came on homers (six of them, also the first time they've done that since June of 2016), the Cardinals have the strange linescore of 15 runs on only 12 hits. They've only pulled that off once before in the modern era, and it's September 7, 1993, at Cincinnati. If that date jumps out at you, again, well done. Because it's Mark Whiten's 4-homer, 12-RBI game which the Cardinals won 15-2.
The Hunt For Red September
Ah yes, Cincinnati. The Queen City (although Charlotte may fight us on this) and the site of 15 more runs on Friday night. This time the 15 runs come to you courtesy of the Detroit Tigers, who really don't make the 4-hour trip down I-75 all that often because they're in the other league. (Also because they have gobs of money and fly everywhere instead of taking a bus even when it would be somewhat feasible. But we digress.)
A pitching matchup between Tyler Alexander and Vladimir Gutierrez was certainly not as eye-popping as Waino-versus-Peralta. You might well be seeing those other names for the first time, and that's okay because they're both gone by the 4th inning. It's 4-3 Detroit in the 6th when the fun really starts. Justin Wilson, who is NOT (we think) the cajun chef, allows three straight singles and leaves after 12 pitches. Mychal Givens watches his fourth pitch to Dustin Garneau sail over the left-field fence for an 8-3 lead. But at least now the bases are clear and we can settle d-- oh. Double, walk, single, bailed out by a caught-stealing, but now Givens leaves with two more runners on. Jeimer Candelario finishes off that line with a double to put Detroit up 10-2, but also to make Wilson and Givens the first Reds teammates to each give up 3 hits and 3 earned runs while getting 1 out since Bill Bray and Todd Coffey did it against the Mets on September 4, 2007. Candelario, who also went yard in the 4th, would end the game as the first Tigers batter with a homer, two doubles, and 4 runs scored since Larry Herndon did it against the Angels on July 11, 1983.
Ah, but they're not done. Garneau just homered in the 6th, but with the Tigers batting around, guess who's up again in the 7th against Jeff Hoffman. Bang, home run. Only three Tigers batters have ever had multiple homers in a game against the Reds, and all of them have done it on the shores of the Ohio River. But Garneau is the first at the new park; Robert Fick (July 15, 2001) and Tony Clark (July 18, 1999) both did it up the street at Riverfront. Jonathan Schoop, while not getting in on the "RBI" action, always seemed to be on base ahead of these big hits, so he also collected 3 runs scored along with a 3rd-inning home run. Add Candelario to that mix, and you get the second set of teammates in Tigers history with 4 hits, 3 runs scored, and a homer in the same game. The other pair was only Gee Walker and Hank Greenberg, who each homered twice against the Browns on May 30, 1937.
As for the 15-5 eventual final, it's the most runs the Tigers have ever scored against Cincinnati. By a lot. Their previous high was nine, and that's the same Tony Clark multi-homer game from July 18, 1999. The only remaining active franchise against whom Detroit has never scored 15+ is the San Diego Padres; the Tigers' high-water mark against them is an 8 in 2005.
We used up our quota of September-related songs in the first couple headers. So we cannot technically advise sleeping through the rest of the month. It's baseball season after all. And there's only a few weeks left. So don't do this. Intermission!
The Reds didn't quite score 15 in their previous game on Wednesday (here come the Cardinals again), but maybe that's only because they only batted six times. You see, Tuesday's game with St Louis got rained out, and thus we have another of our "fun" 7-inning doubleheaders on Wednesday, again made possible by The New Rules which decree that two games on the same day shall both be 7's, even if they are separate admissions and the fans paid the full 9-inning price to see them. The Cardinals at least gave them an offensive show in the day game. That entailed a 1st-inning homer by Paul Goldschmidt and a leadoff homer in the 2nd by Harrison Bader before the Reds even had a baserunner. Goldy would hit another bomb in the 4th and make Wade Miley the first Reds starter who got left out there long enough to give up 12 hits and 3 homers in a home game since Mario Soto did it against the Dodgers on September 6, 1982. Goldy would later draw 2 walks, joining Paul DeJong (also against the Reds on April 3) as the second Cardinals batter this season with 2 homers and 2 free passes in a game. St Louis hadn't had two different players do that in a season since Mark McGwire and Ray Lankford in 1997.
But all was not lost for Miley. With the Reds trailing 2-1 after those early homers, he found himself at the plate for the first time in the bottom of the 2nd with Kyle Farmer at second and Tucker Barnhart at first. And all he did was crank a lead-flipping double, the first one by a Reds pitcher since Jose Acevedo against Milwaukee on May 14, 2002.
In the nightcap the Reds' bats finally woke up, and not just the bat of their pitcher. Oh sure, it didn't look good when Tommy Edman smashed a leadoff homer against Sonny Gray, joining Matt Carpenter (2017) and David Eckstein (2007) as the only Cardinals to hit a leadoff dinger at Great American Ball Park. But Nick Castellanos is here to save the day. (We're still working on the theme song for this, be patient.) Two-run homer in the 1st to erase Edman's early lead. J.A. Happ allows three straight singles to start the 2nd and then Castellanos comes up again. And does this. That's the first time in Reds history that a player has recorded 6 RBI in the first two innings of a game, and he's the first Cincinnati batter with a grand slam and another, non-slam, homer in a game since Scooter Gennett had his 4-homer outburst on June 6, 2017. It also gave Castellanos his second 6-RBI game of the season; he also did it against the Phillies on June 28. The other Reds batters with two such games in a season are Jesse Winker (this year!), Derek Dietrich (2019), Dave Parker (1987), Johnny Bench (1973 AND 1974), and Smoky Burgess (1955).
The Reds would roll to a 12-2 win in the nightcap, with Happ getting dinged for 7 of those runs. He's the first Cardinals starter to give up 7 earned while getting 3 outs against the Reds since Travis Smith on May 12, 2002. And the first of those three singles in the 2nd, before the grand slam? Why, that was by Sonny Gray. With Wade Miley, it's the first time the Reds' starting pitchers each had a base hit in both games of a twinbill since Elizardo Ramirez and Bronson Arroyo did it in Pittsburgh on August 28, 2007.
Fifteen Candles
We had a 15-4 and a 15-5 on our scoreboard on Friday, but that wasn't the only "15" that popped up on the radar this week. The Angels could have lit fifteen candles and watched them all get snuffed out by the breeze from Gerrit Cole's strikeouts on Wednesday. Jared Walsh was nice enough to break up the no-hitter in the 2nd, but that was basically all the Angels got except for an RBI double from David Fletcher in the 6th. Phil Gosselin was the victim of four of those strikeouts, posting the first 0-for-4 with 4 K's against the Yankees since Reggie Williams faced Hideki Irabu on May 13, 1999. Only three other Yankees pitchers have fanned 15 opponents in a road game, and let's say it's been a while. David Cone did it at Tiger Stadium in 1997. Whitey Ford threw a 1-0, 14-inning(!) complete game against the Senators in 1959. And Bob Shawkey fanned 15 A's batters at Shibe Park in 1919, considered the final year of the "deadball era". Cole also failed at walking a single Angels batter, joining a list that had been only two Yankees long. Those, however, are more recent. The only Yankees pitchers to fan 15 and walk 0 in a game are Masahiro Tanaka (2017) and Michael Pineda (2015), and both of them did it at home.
As for the no-hitter part, the Yankees dragged that into their weekend series with the Orioles, waiting until the 4th against John Means on Friday. (Means, of course, has already thrown one this year.) That bid ended with a hit by Giancarlo Stanton, and the game also ended with a hit by Giancarlo Stanton. In between the Orioles answered with solo shots from Trey Mancini and Jorge Mateo, such that we're off to Free Runner Land again-- the idea that every team's Twitter base loves to hate, at least until their team wins a game because of it. After the teams trade free runs in the 10th, Baltimore strands theirs in the 11th because even a fly ball to right is too shallow for Mancini to try scoring. So with Aaron Judge already out there on second, it takes just four pitches for Stanton to hit the walkoff single. At their current stadium, the Yanks have recorded only one other walkoff hit in the 11th or later against the Orioles, and it's kind of a big one. Aaron Hicks doubled to score Didi Gregorius on September 22, 2018 to secure a spot in the postseason.
By the way, the extra-inning loss got charged to Dillon Tate who is now 0-6 on the season. And even though we're not supposed to care about pitcher records anymore, check out the rest of the Orioles. Dean Kremer, 0-7. Keegan Akin, 0-8 before winning his next two decisions. The franchise hasn't had three pitchers start 0-6 or worse since that magical season in '10. Yeah, that's 1910 when Alex Malloy, Jack Powell, and Bill Grahame "led" the Browns to a final mark of 47-104 and a dead-last 57 games back.
Saturday's contest did not involve a walkoff, but it did involve another no-hitter. As we've seen all too frequently with rookies and MLB debuts, teams need a couple times around the order to be able to do anything against them. Imagine if they only had scouts who could watch the pitcher in advance. Or even better, maybe they could get video of him pitching to other teams. Today's winner is Chris Ellis, making just his third MLB start, and because it's the Yankees, they're going to drag every at-bat out to about nine pitches. So you knew fairly early that Ellis wasn't going the distance. In fact he barely got through the 5th, needing 92 pitches and some defensive help to not give up a run. But he also didn't give up a hit. Nor did Tanner Scott in the 6th. Incredibly here in our Year Of The No-Hitter, there were 10 teams left who hadn't been no-hit through 6 innings, and the Yankees were one of them. They'd also never had a season where they'd thrown a no-hitter (remember Corey Kluber?) and received a no-hitter. Technically Gleyber Torres broke things up in the 7th with a slow roller to second that rookie Jahmai Jones couldn't get a good handle on. The "clean one" finally came when Joey Gallo hit a 2-run homer in the 8th. But oh by the way, the Orioles offense hadn't done much either. Gallo just tied the game. So it'll be up to Aroldis Chapman to decide this.
Yeah, you know how that's gonna end if we're writing about it. He does strike out leadoff batter Ryan Mountcastle in the 9th. Problem, the last pitch nearly hits Mountcastle in the ankle, ends up at the backstop, and he ends up at first base. It's the third strikeout of Chapman's career where the batter reached on a wild pitch (Evan Gattis in 2018 and Starling Marte in 2012 are the others), and after a single, a walk, and a sac fly, he'll be the first of those three to score. The fly ball would also have been the third out if not for the WP. The Yankees can't get a ball out of the infield against Cole Sulser in the bottom half and suffer their seventh home loss this year on 3 or fewer hits. They've only had one other season in team history with seven such home games, and it's 1967 when the Red Sox rode Yaz's triple crown to the pennant and the Yankees finished in 9th place.
Chicago Hope
We can think of worse places to spend a week than Chicago, but the Pirates might be having a hard time doing that right now. They started their week over on the South Side for one of those strange 2-game interleague sets that MLB has done the last few years, and then took a lovely 13-stop journey on the Red Line up to Wrigley Field. And all they wanted was to win just one game.
The two games against the White Sox were notably uneventful, a 4-2 loss that was decided by a bases-loaded walk in the 6th, followed by a 6-3 loss that was over early. It's over on the North Side on Thursday where things get fun. Colin Moran gave the Pirates an early glimmer with a 3-run homer. The last 3- or 4-run dinger hit by the Pirates in the 1st inning at Wrigley came off the bat of Francisco Cervelli on July 9, 2017. And then all we do is trade zeroes for a couple hours. Keegan Thompson, who gave up that homer, wasn't destined to go more than 50 pitches anyway, so he winds up turning things over to Adrian Sampson who retires all 10 batters he faces. In the past 25 seasons only one other Cubs pitcher had done that, Travis Wood against the Dodgers on May 30, 2016. Meanwhile, Mitch Keller deals 6 shutout innings for Pittsburgh but then leaves after 89 pitches. He gives way to Chad Kuhl who will leave after 24 pitches-- except six of them were put in play and two left the yard. That's going to end up in a 5-run inning to put the Cubs back in front.
The Pirates aren't quite done yet, though. Two singles in the 9th are followed by one of our old favorites, a catcher's interference call. And it came against pinch-hitter Hoy Park, just the third known CI awarded to a Pirates PH since the leagues started reporting them consistently in the 1960s. The other two... were both in the same game!, June 2, 2019, against Milwaukee's Manny Piña. And now it's up to another pinch-hitter, Michael Perez, with the bases loaded. He bloops a single into right, and with all the runners going, we have a ourselves a 5-5 tie. No Pirates pinch hitter had recorded a game-tying (not go-ahead) knock in the 9th at Wrigley since Willie Stargell on May 26, 1981.
The ending to this one is not going to be quite as pretty, however. In the bottom of the 11th, with the Cubs' free runner having moved over to third, Ian Happ lifts a high fly ball between first and second. It's impossible to tell whether Wilmer Difo loses it in the lights or among the stars or just loses his balance, but the ball drops right beside him for the walkoff error. The Cubs' last game-winning error against Pittsburgh was on September 27, 1996, when Jason Kendall tried to stop Jose Hernandez from advancing on a wild pitch and ended up throwing the ball into left field. And it took until September 2, but Thursday marked the Pirates' first walkoff loss of the entire season, having been the last remaining team to not have one yet.
Welp, now they've got two. Fast-forward to Saturday where the Pirates find themselves with a 6-4 lead after Kyle Hendricks has another less-than-ideal start. It was his sixth appearance this season where he allowed 5 earned runs and didn't get through the 5th inning, something no Cubs pitcher has done since Edwin Jackson had seven such starts in 2014. Chris Stratton works a perfect 8th for the Pirates and needs only 11 pitches, he'll be fine to go back out for the 9th. After all, he pitched the 8th inning on Thursday as well when we got walked off.
With two outs, Matt Duffy has made it to second after Stratton walks Sergio Alcantara on five pitches. That brings up the pitcher's spot, which obviously calls for pinch hitter Alfonso Rivas. He singles to knock in Duffy, but the Pirates still have the lead. All we need is Rafael Ortega to not single home Alcantara. You know, like he's about to do. That blows the save and advances pinch runner Andrew Romine all the way over to third. And then the death blow comes from Frank Schwindel who sends a ground ball to deep short, beating the shift and forcing Kevin Newman to attempt a long jump throw to have any chance. That throw is offline, Schwindel slides around a tag attempt by Colin Moran, and the Cubs walk it off again. They haven't walked off the Pirates twice in the same season since 1991 (July 1 and 4).
As for the walkoff infield single, those usually happen on a slow roller that the defense just lets lay there because the run's already scored. (We discussed this last week when the Royals followed through on a 1-3 walkoff grounder.) And it sort of depends on your definition of an "infield single". We found two recent Cubs walkoffs where the first contact was by an infielder, but those were diving deflections of balls that were probably destined to get through the hole anyway. Their last walkoff single that was technically "fielded" by an infielder was by David Ross against the Royals on May 31, 2015, but that was a pop-up that both the shortstop and left fielder converged on and it fell between them. The last one to meet our true-but-subjective definition of an "infield single" was by Marlon Byrd on September 16, 2011. We couldn't find video, but the game recaps tell us he hit a "dribbler" up the third-base line that was "ruled fair". Similar to the "let it lay there" defense, it seems the only chance the Astros had was to hope it rolled foul, and it didn't.
Saturday's 7-6 win also marked the third consecutive 1-run win for the Cubs against the Pirates. The reason that's possible is because the Cubs won Friday's game (the one we skipped over) by the exact same 6-5 score as Thursday, although without all the drama at the end. All the runs in that one came early, and the Cubs bullpen retired the last 10 Pirates in order, seven of them via strikeout, to protect the 1-run lead. It's the first time the Cubs have won three straight games, all by 1 run, all against the same opponent, since July 2013 in San Francisco. And the last time they did it against the Pirates? Let's just say Grover Cleveland Alexander got one of the wins (in walkoff fashion). They swept a series by scores of 8-2, 2-1, 5-4, and 5-4 at then-still-called-Cubs-Park in September of 1923.
And they just wanted to win one game in the Windy City. Just one. They've been there an entire week scarfing down deep-dish and Chicago Dogs and-- hmm, maybe this is the issue. Sunday's finale was at least not a 1-run loss. But apparently everyone wanted to "slam" down as many Chicago Dogs as they could before leaving town. Bryan Reynolds unleashed a 4-run homer in the 3rd, the first slam by the Pirates at Wrigley since that Francisco Cervelli 1st-inning one back in 2017 that got mentioned earlier. But then two walks and two singles in the bottom half and they're loaded for Matt Duffy. Boom. 7-5 Cubs the other way. Reynolds and Duffy are also going to end up with a stolen base later in this game; they'll be the second pair of opposing players in the live-ball era to both hit a slam and swipe a bag in the same game. Chris Taylor of the Dodgers and Travis Shaw of the Brewers also did it on June 3, 2017.
The Pirates are going to claw back and tie this mess in the 5th on a sac fly and a wild pitch. They hold an 8-7 lead (and Chicago hope!) going to the bottom of the 7th. And then Frank Schwindel happens again. Actually two walks and a single happen first, before Nick Mears is summoned to pitch to Schwindel. Who hits the Cubs' first lead-flipping grand slam in the 7th or later since David Bote had his "Santa Maria!" moment on Sunday Night Baseball back in 2018. It's the first time the Cubs have hit two slams in a game since Brian Dayett and Keith Moreland did it against the Astros on June 3, 1987; Billy Hatcher also hit one for Houston in that game and it's the only other one in Wrigley Field history with three slams total. Schwindel, having also gone yard on Friday and Saturday, is the first Cubs batter with a homer and at least 2 RBI in three straight games against the Pirates since Billy Williams in July 1970.
(Sidebar: That David Bote slam came up multiple times on Sunday because Daniel Vogelbach of the Brewers also hit a pinch-hit walkoff slam. In addition to being the first one in Brewers history, it was the first in the majors to be hit with a team trailing by 3 runs since that same Bote moment a few years ago. Baseball has a strange way of tying these things together.)
And Bryan Reynolds from way back in the 3rd? He just wanted to celebrate a win with a Goose Island or two before heading back to the Iron City. Nope. He's going to wind up as the second batter in Pirates history to have 4 hits and 4 RBI in a loss at Wrigley. At least the other is in the Hall Of Fame (though probably not for that). Arky Vaughan did it in a 12-11 escapade on April 29, 1935.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Miguel Rojas & Jonathan Villar, Thursday: First known instance in MLB history (pitch counts complete to 1988) of BOTH teams homering on the first pitch they saw in a game.
⚾ Amed Rosario, Tuesday: First Clevelander with an inside-the-park homer and an outside-the-park homer in the same game since Grady Sizemore at Texas, September 24, 2006.
⚾ Andrew Albers, Saturday: First Twins pitcher to give up 9 runs and 4 homers in a game since Bert Blyleven against Texas on September 13, 1986.
⚾ Giants, Friday: First walkoff error in extra innings against the Dodgers since September 12, 1972, when Bill Russell booted a grounder off the bat of Jim Ray Hart to score Bobby Bonds.
⚾ Ronald Torreyes, Monday: First Phillies batter to hit a 3-run triple in a road game against the Nats/Expos since Danny Jackson on June 18, 1994, at Le Stade.
⚾ Twins, Wednesday: Second home interleague game where they were shut out on 2 or fewer hits. Other was against Tom Glavine at the Metrodome on June 11, 2002.
⚾ Gary Sanchez, Sunday: Second player in Yankees history to have 2 homers and 6 RBI batting 9th. Pitcher Spud Chandler also hit a grand slam against the White Sox on July 26, 1940.
⚾ Angels, Tuesday: Second time ever stealing 5 bases in a game against the Yankees. Other was August 11, 1975, mostly with Pat Dobson on the mound.
⚾ Franmil Reyes, Saturday: Cleveland's first tying or go-ahead pinch-hit homer when down to their final out at Fenway since Joe Adcock on June 26, 1963.
⚾ Jed Lowrie & Mark Canha, Thursday: Second game in A's history where they hit multiple 1st-inning homers against Detroit. The other was a 15-9 win at (!) Shibe Park on June 3, 1921.
⚾ Franmil Reyes, Sunday: First Clevelander with a 4-hit, 3-RBI game at Fenway since Cory Snyder on April 12, 1989.
⚾ Yu Chang, Wednesday: First Clevelander with a homer and a double in a game he didn't start since Shin-Soo Choo at Texas on June 3, 2008.
⚾ Athletics, Saturday: First time hitting two multi-run homers in the 9th but still losing since August 28, 1981, at Boston (Mike Heath and Cliff Johnson).
⚾ Marcus Semien, Friday: Third Toronto batter to hit a walkoff homer against the A's while trailing. Others are Yunel Escobar in 2011 and Joe Carter in 1996.
⚾ Jarlin Garcia & Jose Quintana, Mon-Tue: First Giants relievers to get 10 outs while giving up only 1 hit in consecutive games since Randy O'Neal and Jeff Brantley in April 1990.
⚾ Adrian Houser, Saturday: First Brewers pitcher to throw an SHO-3 or better since Kyle Lohse at Cincinnati on September 24, 2014. Only team to go longer without a pitcher doing it is the Royals (by 6 weeks).
⚾ Darin Ruf, Thursday: Second batter in Giants history to hit a go-ahead double in the 8th or later of a home game against Milwaukee. The other is just Willie Mays (!) at Seals Stadium (!) on August 5, 1959.
⚾ Reds, Monday: First game where the team had 2 hits, and both of them were extra-base hits by the same player, since Dick Egan tripled and doubled against the Cubs on October 1, 1908.
⚾ Travis d'Arnaud, Saturday: Second Braves pinch-hitter ever to homer in a game in Denver. (We didn't believe this either.) Sid Bream hit one in their first series at Mile High Stadium on May 8, 1993.
⚾ Padres, Wednesday: First time hitting three opposing batters in an inning since Brian Lawrence did it on April 22, 2004, at Wrigley.
⚾ Jake Cronenworth, Sunday: Padres' first walkoff homer against the Astros since Bip Roberts off Juan Agosto, September 6, 1990.
No comments:
Post a Comment