Show-Stopping Number

The great improv comedy show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" occasionally had a game called "Show-Stopping Number" where the comedians would have to break into a Broadway-style song based on some otherwise-innocuous line that one of them had just uttered. (The participants generally hated it.) This week found us some numbers that would be hard to put up in MLB The Show, much less in the real thing. But hey, as we say, that's why we play the games.

20-5 or 6-4

In most weeks there's one game where we just know this one is getting written about. If you're a regular here, you can probably pick them out by now. It should also be said that, in most weeks, we look forward to Thursdays. Thanks to the "better" travel schedules that were worked out over the winter, there have been fewer games generally than in past years, and many of them get played in the afternoon. We've had Thursdays this year where the last game ends by 11 pm Eastern. However, with Memorial Day throwing a wrench in the schedule, this Thursday wasn't quite as kind. It dumped only one afternoon game on us, the Cubs against the Reds. But oh, did that one dump.

It all started innocently enough, with the Cubs getting a 2-run double in the top of the 1st to make sure Hunter Greene wouldn't throw another non-no-hitter. Nico Hoerner tagged him for a third run in the 2nd. So yes, don't forget the Cubs actually had a 3-0 lead for one brief moment. And they are still ahead after Kyle Farmer connects for a homer off Justin Steele in the bottom half. (2.) But then we discover the melting point of Steele is not in fact 2500° like a Google search will tell you. It's the bottom of the 3rd.

Walk. Single. Double. (3.) Another walk to load them again. Two-run single. (5.) Sac bunt. Intentional walk now that there's a base open. And then off Scott Effross, 2-run single by Albert Almora (7), 2-run triple by Matt Reynolds (9), and a single to score Reynolds (10) before Effross finally escapes the frame.

The Cubs go back-to-back against Greene to start the 5th, but he's got an 8-run lead now, so it's a long leash as they say. So long, in fact, that they pull him after 5 innings because "reasons". That barely allows Greene to get the win (change this rule!); he will become the first Reds pitcher to give up 3 homers and still collect a W since Tim Adelman on June 27, 2017. But remember, Greene also had that non-no-hitter game on May 15 that the Reds lost. So he gave up 3 homers and got a win, while also giving up 0 hits and not getting a win. Only four other starters in the live-ball era have done that in the same season: Robbie Ray (2020), Shawn Marcum (2007), Clay Kirby (1970), and Johnny Klippstein (1956).

But back to our counting exercise, which you probably realize is only half-over. Kyle Farmer answers those Cubs homers with a solo shot. (11.) By the time he bats again, Chris Martin is on the mound and has reloaded the bases. Farmer takes him for a 2-run single. (13.) Next pitcher, Rowan Wick, who also promptly loads the bases to start the 7th. Brandon Drury beats out a would-be double-play ball (14) and Tommy Pham adds a sac fly (15).

Next pitcher... um... *checks notes*... Andrelton Simmons? Well, yes, if by "pitcher" you mean "person to stand on the mound and throw baseballs". Unlike Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, Simmons became Everyman for one inning, lofting the same 40-mph softballs that you've probably thrown at Dave & Buster's. One of them even made "history" when, in Kyle Farmer's next at-bat, he whiffed on a pitch at 45. And at least Simmons was nice enough to let every batter in the Reds lineup take a shot at him. Because he faced all nine of them, and you know that's probably not good. After Farmer's humorous whiff, he ended up singling. Tyler Naquin "works" a walk. Almora singles home a run (16). Reynolds adds a sac fly (17) to join Brandon Phillips (May 2006) and Don Gullett (June 1975) as the only #9 batters in Reds history with a sac fly and a triple in the same game.

With the bases re-loaded, Brandon Drury doubles home two more (19), Tommy Pham tacks on another sac fly (20!), and finally Alejo Lopez, who took over for Joey Votto as the blowout progressed, pops one up in foul territory to end the madness. Simmons thus gave up 5 runs, the first Cubs position player to do that since Larry Biittner against Montreal on July 4, 1977. Jared Solomon gets the final three outs for the Reds in order-- also depriving Joel Kuhnel of a 3-inning save in a 15-run game-- and now we dump out some Interesting Reds Facts.

The Reds hadn't scored 20 runs in a game since September 4, 1999, when they beat the Phillies 22-3. That was the fifth-longest drought of any team (DET, PIT, STL, TB). You have to go back another 3 years (August 31, 1996, vs Marlins) to find the last time they did it at home.

We mentioned all of Kyle Farmer's at-bats; he ended up with 4 hits, 2 homers, and 5 RBI, the first Cincinnati batter to post that line against the Cubs since Willie Greene (no relation to Hunter) on September 24, 1996. Nick Senzel also collected 4 hits and 2 walks as the Reds' leadoff batter, joining Barry Larkin (1986), Johnny Temple (1957), and Hughie Critz (1928) on the list of players to do that in the live-ball era.

Thursday's contest was the 22nd in MLB history to land on an exact score of 20-5, and the first since the Padres won at Arizona on July 7, 2018. Amazingly, six of those 22 games have involved the Cubs franchise on one side or the other. The current-day Reds had never been in one, although their predecessor, the original NL franchise that folded in 1879, lost the very first 20-5 game in history to the Philadelphia Athletics (also not the current club) on June 14, 1876.

And you may remember how this season started for the Reds. (With the exception of Thursday, the "how it's going" hasn't changed much.) After a four-game split with Atlanta on opening weekend, they rattled off 11 straight losses to drop their record to 2-13. In those 11 losses over the span of 13 days, the Reds scored a total of 20 runs.

Sweet Home Chicago

So it turned out to be quite handy that there was only the one day game on Thursday. Really didn't need any other games clogging up the pipeline. But we're not done with Thursday. And we're not done with Chicago either. Because the Cubs/Reds game ended at 3:45. The White Sox play at 7:10, it's just over a 4-hour drive, and remember you gain an hour changing time zones. So if you don't get too bogged down in Indianapolis rush hour, you have a legitimate chance at seeing both games. At worst, you miss part of the 1st inning. What could happen.

Well, if you were still walking into the stadium, you might have caught a home-run ball. Because Enrique Hernandez golfed the second pitch from Dallas Keuchel onto the concourse in left. It was his second leadoff homer along the sidewalks of 35th Street (remember this), joining Wade Boggs as the only Bostonians to hit two there. And Boggs did it in 1984 and 1991, so his were on opposite sides of the street because the ballpark "moved". Keuchel would give up four more hits before getting out of the 1st down only 3-0. Second verse, same as the first. A double, a walk, two strikeouts, but then a 3-run dinger to Trevor Story and it's 6-0. Keuchel is done, it's not quite as notably bad as his 10-run outing in Cleveland in April, but Keuchel now has three White Sox starts of 2 IP or less and 6 runs allowed. And it's still going to require 7 innings from the White Sox bullpen. Or, you know, maybe their infield.

Reynaldo Lopez, who has four of those 6-run starts and is among only seven Sox pitchers with more than Keuchel, gets through two clean innings. Alex Verdugo doubles in the 5th before the White Sox claw their way back to a 7-5 score. But in the 7th, here we go again. Feels like we just saw this down in Cincinnati a few hours ago.

That would be Tanner Banks on the hill, giving up a walk and three singles for a 9-5 Boston lead. Still not terrible. Let's leave him out there for the 8th. So we can watch him give up four more hits, including another one to Verdugo, and leave with an 11-5 deficit and two runners still out there. That's okay, they're both going to score too when Bobby Dalbec singles off Bennett Sousa and then Sousa does this. In a blink we went from 7-5 to 14-5, and thus it's not a huge deal that Matt Barnes literally walks in a run around a strikeout and a wild pitch. Only one other pitcher in Red Sox history had issued 4 walks and a wild pitch while getting only 1 out; Ivy Andrews also did it against the White Sox on July 14, 1932.

Well, as they say, anything the Cubs can do, the White Sox can do better. (Nobody says this.) For the 9th let's let Josh Harrison have a go at this. Harrison did actually record the final out of a game for the Pirates back in 2013, so he's not making his major-league debut. He's also not throwing 39 mph. He is, however, walking the leadoff batter and then surrendering a 2-run dinger to Kevin Plawecki for our final margin of 16-7. The last White Sox position player to give up a multi-run homer on the mound was Eddie Carnett at Cleveland on August 25, 1944. Thursday was also the first time in Chicago history that both teams used a position player on the mound on the same day.

As for those 7 White Sox runs, it should be noted that Andrew Vaughn drove in 5 of them with a 2-run homer and a bases-loaded double. The last Chicago batter with 5 RBI in a loss to Boston was Ivan Calderon back on May 31, 1987. And yes, while the Cubs were busy giving up 20 runs in Cincinnati, the White Sox just gave up 16 of their own. That's the first time both Chicago teams allowed 14 or more runs on the same day. And the only time they did 13 each... was against each other, in that 17-13 crosstown game last August.

Run The Show

We mentioned we weren't done with Chicago. And aside from your beer-league softball squad, we've run out of area teams who can give up 16 runs on Thursday. That just means we'll have to switch days. Teleport your time machine back to Tuesday the 24th instead. This time you could not have seen both Chicago teams play in person because they were at the same time. But you still could have seen Enrique Hernandez hit a leadoff homer on the south side of 35th Street. (Remember we mentioned he'd done that once before? Yeah, two days ago.) On Thursday he would join Wade Boggs as the only batter to hit two there, but on Tuesday he became the first Sawx batter to even hit one since Nomar Garciaparra took Doug Drabek deep on July 3, 1997.

This time it was Dylan Cease who couldn't seem to, um, cease giving up runs. Trevor Story had another 3-run blast later in the 1st. Hernandez doubled home another run in the 2nd. He ends up being the last batter Cease faces when he flies out to end the 3rd. It's already 7-0. Jose Ruiz is immediately greeted by a Rafael Devers solo homer to start the 4th, then tacks on 3 hits, a walk, and a sac fly such that it's 10-0 when he leaves.

Bennett Sousa, of that 8th-inning throwing error on Thursday, is already in the game by the 5th inning. He did get the leadoff man out, which is something. The next five batters, however, mmm, not so much. Single, walk, double, single, single. 13-2 with two runners still out there. And Matt Foster needs just five pitches before Christian Vazquez unloads a 3-run bomb and it is 16-2 in the 5th inning. Yes, the reason we didn't have a bunch of notes about the Sawx dropping 16 on Thursday... is because they just did it two days earlier. And that was their first-ever 16-run outburst at the current Comiskey Park. They hadn't done it at the old place since a 21-11 escapade on August 30, 1970.

With that 3-run homer, Vazquez wound up as the second #8 or #9 batter in Red Sox history to have 3 hits and 4 RBI in a game in Chicago. Rusney Castillo did it in a 5-4 win on August 24, 2015. Trevor Story, who had that 3-run homer in the 1st, wound up becoming the first Bostonian ever to have 4 RBI but also strike out 4 times in the same game. And eventually, after the Red Sox decided they had enough runs and stopped trying, Vince Velasquez managed to throw 3 hitless innings and strike out 5 batters. No White Sox pitcher had done that against the Red Sox since Big Ed Walsh threw a no-hitter on August 27, 1911.

As for the Red Sox scoring 16 runs twice in a series? They'd only done that once before in team history on the road. That was on July 4, 1939, which came up last week when Trevor Story duplicated Jim Tabor's 3-homer, 5-runs-scored line from that date. That Tabor game was part of a doubleheader in Philadelphia which the Red Sox swept by counts of 18-7 and 17-7.

Reynolds Wrap

Nope, still not done with the Windy City. If you could teleport instead of making that 4-hour drive around Indianapolis, you might have been able to catch a much more favorable game, at least if you're a Chicago fan. While the White Sox were getting blown out 16-3 on Tuesday, back in Cincinnati the Cubs were playing the second contest of that four-game series with the Reds. And unlike Sunday morning, when he took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, Tyler Mahle on Tuesday took a no-hitter into the... um... 7th pitch. Cubs leadoff batter Chris Morel sliced a single to left-center and later scored on a sac fly. Frank Schwindel, 2-run homer. Joey Votto and Tyler Stephenson get a couple runs back, only to have Mahle give up a 2-run triple in the 3rd. After Schwindel homers again in the 5th, Mahle has given up 8 runs, the first Reds pitcher to do that against Chicago since Asher Wojciechowski on August 23, 2017.

Thanks to our New Rules, Schwindel is listed as the Cubs' Designated Hitter. He would wind up being the second of those in team history with 3 hits, 3 runs, and 3 RBI in a game, after Roosevelt Brown did it in Detroit on July 6, 2001.

By the time Robert Gsellman takes the mound in the 7th, it's 10-2, so Tyler Naquin's solo homer off him isn't a huge deal. However, he does become the first Cubs pitcher to "earn" a 3-inning save while allowing 4 hits since Sean Gallagher against the Giants on July 18, 2007. And Andrelton Simmons-- who won't make his pitching debut for two more days-- was just the second Cubs player in the live-ball era who was not a pitcher to have a 3-hit game out of the 9-hole. Manny Alexander did it after an early double switch against the Reds on September 7, 1999.

No, Simmons would not be the designated Position Player Pitching in this one. With the Reds losing 10-3 they turned to their own shortstop, Matt Reynolds, to loft some gopherballs toward home plate and try to finish this thing off. We can accurately say that his pitches were in the direction of home plate. Over the plate, not so much. He managed to hit both P.J. Higgins and Chris Morel to load the bases (whereupon Rafael Ortega's sac fly provided the final margin of 11-4). Only one other Reds "position player" in the modern era had plunked two opponents while pitching, and we use the quotes because Buck Fausett was a wartime replacement player who only appeared in 8 games for Cincinnati. So it's hard to know if he was really a pitcher or an infielder or what. Either way he hit a pair of Phillies batters on June 1, 1944.

In all the movement of Reds infielders, Brandon Drury started the game at second base (that's a "4" if you're scoring at home), moved to third base ("5") when Joey Votto departed this blowout in the late innings, then went to shortstop ("6") when Reynolds was summoned to pitch. He's the first Reds player to cover all three positions in the same game since Juan Castro against Cleveland on July 4, 2004, and their first since at least 1900 to do it in the "natural" order of 4/5/6 on your scorecard.

Wild Wild West Coast

Okay, we're done with Chicago. We're not done with either Tuesday or Thursday however.

We got a 16 out of the Red Sox on Tuesday. We got an 11 out of the Cubs. Let's knock out 12 and 13 in the same game.

Giants fans got stuck waking up at 8:30 am on Sunday for that "Peacock" game in Cincinnati. Not ideal, but at least it's Sunday. Mets fans, however, had to stay up until 1:30 am on Tuesday night, slash Wednesday morning, if they wanted to see their team win in San Francisco. And then, oh yeah, they didn't.

If you had to pick a matchup of great pitchers in Mets/Giants history, you would not pick Chris Bassitt against Logan Webb. No you wouldn't, put your hand down. Even if you're related to one of them, you wouldn't pick the other as their opponent. So this is a fairly low-key, ho-hum game until Tommy La Stella connects for a 3-run homer off Bassitt in the 4th. That balloons the Giants' lead to 6-1 and then Joc Pederson adds a 2-run shot in the 5th having already hitting another off Bassitt in the 3rd.

By the time we reach the 7th, it is 8-2 Giants when Francisco Lindor bops a 2-run homer off Dominic Leone to give the Mets a glimmer of hope. After all, they did have that 7-run comeback just a few weeks ago. Ya gotta believe. And it appears Tyler Rogers will oblige. Four straight singles to start the 8th and it's 8-6. A fielder's choice to retire the next run at the plate. Then two more singles to make it 8-7 with the bases still loaded. And Francisco Lindor is up again.

That's a 3-run, lead-flipping triple. The Mets have hit only six of those in their history, and only two of them came after the 8th inning. Wayne Garrett hit one off Tug MgGraw in Philadelphia on May 27, 1976; and Danny Napoleon had one at Candlestick on April 24, 1965. That also gave Lindor 6 RBI in the game, a first for a Mets batter in San Francisco since Todd Hundley on May 18, 1996. No player for any team had accumulated a homer, a triple, a sac fly, and 6 RBI in the same game since Sammy Sosa on May 16, 1997. Pete Alonso scores an 11th run with another sac fly, meaning Tyler Rogers got charged with all 7 of those runs while getting just 1 out. He's the first Giants pitcher to do that since Vin Mazzaro on May 5, 2016. It also means the comeback is complete and Chris Bassitt is the first Mets starter to give up 8 earned runs and not get a loss since Dillon Gee against Atlanta on June 14, 2015.

But what have we forgotten? Oh yeah, the Giants still have two more chances to bat. And Drew Smith can't find the plate against Darin Ruf, issuing a 4-pitch, 2-out walk to bring up (gulp) Joc Pederson. Yep, suddenly that's an 11-11 tie, making Joc the third Giants batter ever to have a 3-homer game against the Mets. And the other two are both named Willie McCovey, from September of 1963 and then again in September of 1966.

Dom Smith, whom we're guessing you didn't realize was still a Met, leads off the 9th with a triple. That sets up Brandon Nimmo to take the lead once more with the Mets' third sac fly of the game. Their last go-ahead SF in the 9th inning of a road game was by Kevin Plawecki at Dodger Stadium on July 3, 2015. And even though this game is happening on May 24, the Mets apparently like hitting sac flies on July 26 as well. In 2018 against the Pirates, they recorded the prior game where they had three of them. And the only other times they had 3-SF games in "SF" were also both on July 26, and exactly a decade apart at that (1977 and 1987).

So finally it's around 1:30 back east and the Mets have a 12-11 lead to protect. For this we turn to... Edwin Diaz. May want to read about this one in the morning, Mets fans. The double play was a nice touch. But with 2 outs, walk, single, game-tying single to Joc Pederson, and then two words: Brandon Crawford. That's his fourth career walkoff single; the only players in San Francisco history (1958) to have more are Willie Mays, Jim Davenport, and Benito Santiago. (There's a logjam at 4 each.) It's also the first walkoff for the Giants against the Mets since they won three times in a four-game series in July 2019.

More notably, it's the first time in Mets history that they scored 12 runs in a game and lost. That leaves the two newest franchises-- the Rays and Diamondbacks-- as the only active teams who've never done it.

Teenage Dream

When the Reds hit on 20 on Thursday, our original thought was to do this post countdown-style. After all, we already had multiple 16's. Because of the timing, we didn't really do justice to that 18-4 game from last Sunday where Yadier Molina ended up pitching. We just covered 13, 12, and 11. So wherefore do we get 14 and 15? Did we mention we weren't done with Thursday?

So of course 20-5 and 16-7 pop out on that scoreboard from May 26. Hiding just off to the side is another late game between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. And an "epic" battle between Humberto Castellanos and Mitch White. Yeah, nothing that makes you want to stay up and watch this. Fortunately, we take care of that for you. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back doubles to start the game, and the Dodgers quickly go ahead 2-0. Cody Bellinger leads off the 2nd with a single and Chris Taylor doubles him around, so it's 3-0. When Freeman shows up again in the 2nd and cranks a 3-run homer to make it 6-0 already, yeah, you probably went to bed at this point. There's stuff to do on Friday. Castellanos gives up two more hits in the 2nd and two in the 3rd before departing after the 4th. He's the first Arizona starter to allow 10 hits and 6 runs in a home game without making it to the 5th inning since Archie Bradley on August 1, 2016.

Luis Frias has a calm 5th for the D'backs so, yes, let's have him throw the 6th also, starting with the top of the Dodgers order. Let's see how that went. Betts single. Freeman double. Wild pitch. Trea Turner triple. Will Smith single. Edwin Rios single. Suddenly it is 9-0 and the only thing saving this from being worse is Justin Turner hitting into a dobule play. But then Cody Bellinger bounces an automatic double into the seats and it's a comfortable 10-0 lead.

Freeman already has 3 extra-base hits, joining Chris Taylor as the only Dodgres batters ever to do that at Chase Field. Taylor missed the cycle by the single on July 15, 2016. And when Freeman singles again in the 7th-- but gets stranded-- he's the first Dodgers batter ever to have 4 hits and 5 RBI in a game in Phoenix. But they're not done.

Caleb Smith, who is actually a pitcher by trade, gets the 8th and gives up another 2-run homer to Chris Taylor. That makes Taylor the first #8 or #9 batter in a Dodgers lineup with 3 hits, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored on the road since Howie Kendrick in Philadelphia on August 16, 2016. Jake Hager, who is not actually a pitcher by trade, then gets the 9th and becomes the second D'backs position player to give up multiple runs to the Dodgers. J.R. Murphy did that in an 18-5 blowout on March 30, 2019, in the third game of the season. Your final score after Cody Bellinger's single in the 9th: 14-1. But just as prominent as the 14 runs, the Dodgers did that on twenty-four hits, of which ten were for extra bases. They hadn't collected 24 total hits since September 13, 2014, in San Francisco (a 17-0 win), and had only accumulated 10 XBH at Chase Field on one other occasion. That was September 2, 2002, in a 19-1 win which, along with another 14-1 on July 3, 2010, are the only 14-run games the Dodgers have ever recorded at Chase.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, the Dodgers have only two games where every starting batter had at least 2 hits. One was Thursday in Phoenix. The other was June 27, 2011, in a 15-0 win at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Strike It Up

So that leaves us to come up with a 15. There were no teams who scored exactly 15 runs this week. But as you probably know, we peruse every boxscore every night. And on Thursday, there were a couple of 15's that caught our attention.

While the Dodgers were busy dropping 14 runs in Phoenix, the other "Los Angeles" team (although it plays in neither Los Angeles city nor county) was busy sending Shohei Ohtani to the mound for its game against Toronto. That's probably going to result in a few strikeouts. And it did. Ten of them in fact, but not until George Springer uncorked the Jays' first leadoff homer in Anaheim that was not against Chuck Finley. Finley allowed two there, to Jacob Brumfield on June 13, 1996, and Devon White on April 17, 1994. That also put Springer in a tie with Ian Kinsler for the second-most leadoff homers in MLB this century; only Alfonso Soriano (54 to their 48) has more.

Bo Bichette connected for a 2-run double against Ohtani in the 3rd to put the Jays up 4-0. From there it was just a matter of which pitcher could outlast the other. Ohtani registered those 10 strikeouts but still got a loss, the first Angels pitcher to do that against the Jays since Ervin Santana on May 4, 2012. Meanwhile, proving strikeouts aren't always all that, Hyun-Jin Ryu only fanned 1 batter but still got a win. No Jays starter had pulled that off since R.A. Dickey's famous knuckleball at Detroit on June 8, 2016.

However, Ohtani gave way to Jaime Barria in the 6th, and while he did allow a homer to Danny Jansen, he continued the strikeout theme by fanning five more Toronto batters. He can't get a 3-inning save because the Angels lost, but still that means the Jays struck out 15 times in a game they won. They hadn't done that in a 9-inning road game since August 17, 2016, at Yankee Stadium.

Meanwhile, a few hours up the coast, we saw Frankie Montas take the hill for Oakland. He's been known to strike some people out; in fact, last year he became the first A's pitcher to have a 200-K season since Barry Zito in 2001. So his line of 11 whiffs and 1 run allowed over 7 innings against the Rangers wasn't a real surprise.

The problem is that Montas only went 7 innings. Lou Trivino started the 9th and gave up a go-ahead double to Adolis Garcia. The Rangers hadn't hit one of those so late in a game in Oakland since Brad Wilkerson on April 16, 2006. That also denied Montas a win, the fourth time in his career he's fanned 11 and not gotten a W. He's tied with Eddie Plank for the second-most such games in A's history, although they've got a ways to go to reach Rube Waddell's total of 13. (Also, Eddie Plank died in 1926, so it's unlikely he'll be adding to his total anytime soon.)

As for the Rangers, Nate Lowe put the game away with a 2-run homer, but they also struck out four times against the Oakland bullpen. That means the Rangers also had a game where they fanned 15 times and won, their first on the road since June 11, 2019, in Boston, and their first ever in Oakland. And the last time two teams did it in 9-inning games on the same day was September 12, 2019, by the A's (in Houston) and Royals (at Chicago).

The Big A Stands For Action

And since we had a 13-12 walkoff game earlier, why not end the week with an 11-10. This one, not a walkoff because everything happened early on. Shohei Ohtani hit yet another 1st-inning homer for the Angels, the 22nd of his career and already just one away from joining the top 10 10 in team history. As it turns out, it was also the 999th 1st-inning homer in team history, and the 500th hit at Anaheim Stadium.

Lourdes Gurriel countered with a 2-run double for the Jays, then Luis Rengifo tripled and scored, then Alejandro Kirk single home a run in the 3rd, and we've already got the RBI "cycle" (which we just made up). Gurriel works a bases-loaded walk that scores Kirk and the Jays are up 6-2.

Ah, but Ohtani is up again too. He knocks a second homer to make it 6-4 and spell the beginning of the end for Jose Berrios. Who puts two more runners on before being removed, with those two runners then removed by a Max Stassi game-tying single. Taylor Ward then adds a 2-run homer in the 4th and a double in his next at-bat in the 6th and the Angels are up 9-6.

In the 7th, however, Oliver Ortega loads the bases with 1 out, leaving Gurriel to draw another bases-loaded walk. Raimel Tapia advances everyone with a single, and then Teoscar Hernandez also gets a free pass that ties the game. It's just the seventh time in Jays history they've drawn three bases-loaded walks in a game, and the first since September 12, 2015, from the Yankees. Gurriel is their first player to receive two in the same game since Joe Carter on June 25, 1997.

Stassi isn't quite done yet, however. He puts the Angels back on top with a solo shot in the bottom of the 7th. Which Bo Bichette promptly matches in the top of the 8th. So somebody's going to have 10 runs and lose this game, and it might very well involve zombie runners. (This is not the type of game that needs them, because the teams seem to be able to score at will.) Ah, but it will not, because after Alejandro Kirk greets Jose Quijada with an automatic double, Gurriel strikes again with a double off a diving Jared Walsh to ultimately win the game. That gave Gurriel the Jays' first 5-RBI game in Anaheim since Josh Donaldson in 2015, and it made Kirk the second Jays batter ever to have 4 runs but only 2 hits in a game against the Angels. Raul Mondesi pulled that off on April 27, 2001.

We mentioned somebody's gotta score 10 runs in this game and lose, and sure enough it was the Angels. They'd only done that once before against the Jays at The Big A, a 13-11 slugfest on May 5, 1998. And between Ohtani, Ward, and Stassi, the Angels actually hit three go-ahead homers in Sunday's game... and lost. They've only done that three other times in team history, the previous being when the Rangers walked them off on May 13, 2007.

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Bobby Witt, Friday: Second player in Royals history to have a homer, a triple, a single, and a stolen base in a loss. Carlos Beltran did it against the White Sox on Augsut 22, 2001.

⚾ Mookie Betts, Monday: First Dodgers leadoff batter ever to have 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch all in the same game.

⚾ Dane Dunning, Sunday: First Rangers pitcher to give up 7 hits, 3 walks, 2 wild pitches, and hit a batter, since Vicente Padilla against the Angels on Sepember 20, 2009.

⚾ Dodgers, Tuesday: First time in franchise history (1884) where they homered in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings of the same game.

⚾ Corey Seager, Saturday: Second batter in Rangers/Sens history to have a homer, a double, a single, and a walk in Oakland. Toby Harrah, April 21, 1975.

⚾ Nationals, Wednesday: Second 1-0 win (since the move) against the Dodgers. Other was April 25, 2010, on Adam Dunn's groundout in the 1st inning.

⚾ Bruce Zimmermann, Tue & Sun: First pitcher to give up 4+ homers in consecutive outings since Dan Haren of the Diamondbacks in May 2010.

⚾ Odubel Herrera, Wed-Thu: First Phillies batter with 2 hits & 2 RBI in back-to-back games in Atlanta since Mike Lieberthal, June 25-26, 2003.

⚾ Trent Grisham, Sunday: First walkoff homer for Padres against Pittsburgh since Derek Norris slammed Bob Scahill-- also 7 years ago to the day.

⚾ Orioles, Friday: First time scoring 10+ runs in the 7th or later at Fenway Park since July 31, 1941 (W 16-11).

⚾ Giants, Wednesday: First time hitting 4 homers in the first 2 innings of a game since May 13, 1954, against the Cubs.

⚾ Pete Alonso, Friday: First Mets batter with a homer, a double, and a sac fly in the same game since Angel Pagán on August 1, 2009. First in team history to also have a walk.

⚾ Zach Logue, Monday: First A's pitcher to give up 3 homers, 4 walks, and 7 runs since Tommy Milone at Coors Field on June 13, 2012.

⚾ Nationals, Saturday: Second time in franchise history collecting 7 extra-base hits in both games of a doubleheader. The Expos did it on July 4, 1977, at Wrigley Field.

⚾ J.D. Martinez, Wednesday: First Red Sox batter to have 2 hits and 2 walks in a loss in Chicago since Coco Crisp on July 9, 2006.

⚾ Brewers, Thursday: First game where their starting 7-, 8-, and 9-batters all homered since Keon Broxton, Orlando Arcia, and Zach Davies did so in Atlanta on June 25, 2017.

⚾ Ke'Bryan Hayes, Saturday: Second lead-flipping homer in Pirates history in the 9th or later against San Diego. Richie Hebner walked off against the Padres on May 27, 1974.

⚾ Bryce Harper, Tuesday: First Phillies batter to hit a lead-flipping homer in the 9th or later of a road game against the Braves since Ron Northey off Jim Tobin in Boston, August 25, 1944.

⚾ David Peralta, Sunday: First time any team hit a pinch-hit triple to break up a shutout when down to its final out since Clevelane's Ryan Raburn did it against Seattle 7 years earlier to the day.

⚾ Charlie Blackmon, Thursday: 53rd career triple, tying Dexter Fowler for the Rockies' all-time lead.

⚾ Amdy Ibañez, Friday: First go-ahead pinch hit for Rangers in the 9th or later against Oakland since Mike Lamb walked them off on May 5, 2000.

⚾ Paul Goldschmidt, Monday: Thirteenth walkoff grand slam in Cardinals history. The first went so far that "nobody looked for it".

Homers Odyssey

If you're a regular viewer here, you know that the past two weeks have both started with a 1-0 game on Monday afternoon. We like to say teams read about things in our posts and copy each other. Unfortunately there were no afternoon games last Monday. There was a 1-0 game later in the night, but it just meant that we had to wait for the fourth game of the week to see our theme start to emerge.

Au Contreras

Wrigley Field is, of course, the second-oldest ballpark still in continuous use, so it's seen a few things. It does not usually see a Cubs catcher nominated as the Designated Hitter and bat leadoff, but this is the world we live in now. So it was that Willson Contreras greeted Dillon Peters of the Pirates with a double to start Monday's game. Then Ian Happ doubled. And if we told you it's now 1-0 and that would be the only run of the game, then not only would we keep our theme going, but Dillon Peters probably wouldn't want to forget his visit. (Narrator voice: That's not what happened.)

Yan Gomes singles home another run. Jonathan Villar walks and loads the bases. Peters has gotten two outs but has also faced seven batters and gets a quick hook in favor of Bryce Wilson. Let's see how this goes.

Andrelton Simmons, infield single just past third base. Number-9 batter Rafael Ortega works a bases-loaded walk. And now, Willson with two L's, meet Wilson with one L. Because Contreras is already up for the second time in the 1st inning. And Wil(l)son smokes a volleyball into the left-field bleachers for a grand slam and an 8-0 Cubs lead. The scoreboard crew at Wrigley hadn't hung that "8" card in the bottom of the 1st in nearly a quarter-century, since an 8-1 win over the Dodgers on April 18, 1998. No Cubs batter had pounded a 1st-inning slam against the Pirates since George Mitterwald on April 17, 1974. And, because this requires a team to bat around, it was only the 10th grand slam in MLB history (all of it, we checked this) to be hit by a leadoff batter in the 1st inning. George Springer had the previous one in Kansas City on June 24, 2016.

That nice comfy 8-run lead (and also, the fact that they're playing the Pirates) certainly let Wade Miley cruise through the game, tossing seven scoreless innings with his only baserunner coming on a Michael Chavis single in the 5th. No Cubs pitcher had done 7 scoreless on 1 baserunner since Milt Pappas threw his no-hitter on September 2, 1972. And if you'd like to see how things have changed in a half-century, just imagine the outrage today about the check-swing on the final pitch. (And also umpire Bruce Froemming's sideburns.)

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

We don't have much for this, and we don't want to leave Wrigleyville just yet, but we did want to note that Willson's brother William Contreras also hit two homers for the Braves in Miami on Saturday. Although they've "only" been in the same division for 30 seasons, William's feat gets you two squares on your Braves home-run bingo card. He's not only the first catcher in Braves history to have a multi-homer game against the Marlins, he's also the first-ever 8- or 9-batter (of any position) to have a multi-homer game against the Marlins.

Matt Olson also collected his 16th double of the 2022 season in that Braves win on Saturday, the fastest Braves batter to reach that mark (39 games) to start a season since Tommy Holmes did it for Boston in 1944.

But now we head back to the corner of Clark and Addison. Which is rarely a bad place to be, but on Friday you would have preferred to be at the opposite corner, of Waveland and Sheffield. Okay, yes, you would have gotten to help raise the giant "L" flag, which does not represent the extra L in "Willson". But MLB lists the wind for this game as "25 mph, out to center". So you know what's coming.

Patrick Wisdom hits the first one for the Cubs in the 2nd. Josh Rojas and David Peralta answer for Arizona in the 3rd. Jonathan Villar for the Cubs in the 4th. Stop us if you've heard this one, but Josh Rojas and David Peralta both go deep again in the 5th to knock Kyle Hendricks out of the game. Daniel Norris enters for the 6th, and Alek Thomas puts his second pitch onto Waveland. Mychal Givens enters for the 7th, and second pitch ends up on Sheffield-- off the bat of Josh Rojas again. The Cubs trail 9-3 when Christopher Morel and Ildemaro Vargas launch back-to-back jacks in the 7th. And for good measure, Christian Walker puts another one onto Waveland in the 9th. The D'backs end up winning the game 10-6, but let's add this up. Carry the 2, pi-r-squared-something-or-other, oh yeah, that's eleven home runs including three by Rojas. The last time the park saw that many dingers in a game was June 18, 2006, against the Tigers (oddly, it's never had more than 11, and has also never had a game with exactly 10).

Rojas joined Paul Goldschmidt (August 3, 2017) as the only Arizona batters ever to hit 3 homers in a game at Wrigley. And when he and Peralta repeated themselves, they became the second set of D'backs teammates to each hit two in a game there. Luis Gonzalez and Chris Snyder both did it in a 13-6 win on July 31, 2005.

The Diamondbacks were responsible for seven of those taters, another thing they had accomplished only once before in team history. That happened in Philadelphia on June 10, 2019. And no team-- including the Cubs-- had cranked seven in a game at Wrigley since Drew Stubbs chipped in three for the Reds on Independence Day 2010.

That leaves the Cubs with the other four homers in Friday's game, but check out where they came from. Wisdom, who started the barrage, bats 6th. Villar follows him. Morel and Vargas, of back-to-back in the 7th, are the bottom two in the lineup. So the Cubs got homers from their 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-hitters all in the same game, for the first time since September 2, 2002, in a 17-4 win over Milwaukee. (If that date looks familiar, it's the 30th anniversary of the Milt Pappas no-hitter we linked in the previous section.) And in Cubs history, which does go all the way back to the beginning of the National League in 1876, they'd never before had the bottom four spots in the order all go deep in a game they lost. Raise that "L" flag... but maybe with an asterisk underneath it.

Take It To The Bank

Over in the AL East, the Orioles got to entertain the Yankees four times this week, and that generally never goes well. In Monday's opener, Luis Severino allowed only 1 hit, but it was a solo homer by Anthony Santander. The last Yankees pitcher to throw 6+ innings and allow 1 hit in Baltimore was Don Larsen at Memorial Stadium on September 20, 1958.

The Yankees ended up cruising to a 6-2 win on 3 homers of their own, but Aroldis Chapman was handed the 9th inning with a 5-run lead. He only gave up 1 hit as well-- a solo homer by Anthony Santander. That made him the first O's batter to hit 2 homers in a game where the team scored 2 runs since Adam jones did it against the Nationals on July 12, 2015.

On Tuesday Aaron Judge finally solved the mystery of the expanded left-field wall (which deprived him of a homer in the 1st) by just going the other way. After that 1st-inning double, Judge tacked on a pair of dingers to center, plus a single in the 8th, to record 11 total bases. Only three other Yankees batters have done that in Baltimore, two of them in the same series. Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez each did it in April 2019; the first was Danny Tartabull in September 1992. Those homers on Tuesday also gave Judge 14 for the season and made him just the eighth player in Yankees history to have that many by the 36th game of a season. Judge also did it in 2017, and you've probably heard of the others. It's A-Rod (2007), Tino Martinez (1997), Mickey Mantle (1956), and Babe Ruth (3x).

By Thursday the Orioles are just hoping to not get swept. Trailing 5-3 in the 6th, and knowing the Yankees' penchant for late-inning heroics, it seems unlikely. Did the game truly turn on Jorge Mateo getting a catcher's interference call? Probably not... and according to the scoring rules, it can't, because we have no idea what Mateo would have done had his at-bat continued. (This is why his run is unearned, but you also don't assume he would have made an out. Scorers hate this play.) Either way, it was the first CI award to an Orioles batter against the Yankees since Elston Howard was charged with the offense against Moe Drabowsky on May 12, 1967.

The Orioles end up scoring 3 runs to take a 6-5 lead, but as usual, the Yankees are destined to do something that does not involve going gently into their return flight home. Isiah Kiner-Falefa draws a leadoff walk in the 9th and then steals second, but just when Jorge Lopez retires the next two and might save this thing, DJ LeMahieu dumps one into right and ties the game. It was the first time any Yankees batter had hit a game-tying single at Camden Yards when the team was down to its final out. (Gleyber hit a double last year and messed up our note.) The last such single at Memorial was by Jim Leyritz off Gregg Olson on June 8, 1990.

But we still have a bottom of the 9th to play. No free runners yet. Unless you count Austin Hays, who rolls one to third to start the inning and then this happens. After Trey Mancini also reaches, that sets up our friend Anthony Santander to walk it off. That would be the first 3- or 4-run walkoff homer by an Orioles batter against the Yankees since Brooks Robinson hit a slam off Lindy McDaniel on July 7, 1970. They hadn't hit one against any opponent since Manny Machado slammed the Angels on August 18, 2017; the only team in the majors to go longer without such a walkoff is the Reds.

Don't Block The Box

There's a lot of walking in New York. If you're not walking to get to your destination, you're at least walking to the nearest bus or subway stop. Heck, sometimes your car might even walk off. (This happened to us once. Parked in a rush-hour tow zone, expecting to get back in time to move it, didn't, then had to walk about 40 blocks in the rain to get it out of hock. But we digress.)

Our point is, on Thursday while the Yankees were busy getting walked off in Baltimore, the Mets were playing a getaway game with the Cardinals back in Queens. And this looked pretty similar. New York Team leads Former St Louis Team 5-3 in the 6th. (The Cards are still a St Louis team, but they're technically a former one too. Don't @ us.) This one, however, doesn't end quite the same. With two on in the 7th, Paul Goldschmidt hits into this little escapade. That's SF7f/DP 7-4/RBI if you're scoring at home. And then with 2 out in the 9th, Paul Goldschmidt hits a seeing-eye single through the left side to tie the game at 5 and send us to Free Runner Land. Goldy actually collected a homer, a double, a sac fly, and 4 RBI in addition to that single; he's the first Cardinals batter to do all that in the same game since Albert Pujols against Arizona on September 25, 2008.

Oh yes, speaking of Pujols, he's making one last victory lap (and pitching now too!). So when he grounds one to second in the top of the 10th, and the Mets know they get a free runner also, they'll gladly trade 1 run for 2 outs, even if we are in extras here. We're back to 6-5 Cardinals with the Mets needing another run to keep this going.

Or, Pete Alonso can see that free runner (Francisco Lindor) out there at second base and just pound one. Giovanny Gallegos throws his eight warmup pitches but his second "real" pitch ends up just fair into the second deck in left field for a 7-6 walkoff. And because we must relive this weirdness, the last time the Mets hit a walkoff homer when trailing... they weren't in their own stadium and it was in the 7th inning. It was August 28, 2020, when the home team (Yankees) batted first in the second game of a doubleheader. It's Amed Rosario off Aroldis Chapman.

The Mets hadn't hit any walkoff homer against the Cardinals since Angel Pagán took Fernando Salas deep on July 20, 2011, and they'd never hit a multi-run walkoff homer against St Louis in extra innings. And as for the Yankees and Mets both getting caught up in a multi-run walkoff homer on the same day? Well, officially it's that same Amed Rosario mess from two years ago. But if you add the "not against each other" asterisk, it was August 7, 2009, when A-Rod hit one against Boston and K-Rod gave up one to Everth Cabrera of the Padres

And by the way, it was a mere six days after the Rosario game when Pete Alonso hit another "2-run leadoff walkoff homer", also against the Yankees (though back in Queens). Since this could not happen before randomly-placed free runners in 2020, it's easy to figure out that he's the first player in MLB history to do this twice.

American Saturday Night

Since the Yankees and Mets are competing with each other for home-run notes, let's jump ahead to Saturday. Which we have to, because both teams got rained out on Friday, the Yankees in mid-afternoon because it "might rain later" (this is becoming a new soapbox for us), and the Mets in Colorado due to, no really, snow.

So when baseballs did finally get thrown instead of snowballs, neither team wasted any time. Brandon Nimmo led off the day game of Saturday's twinbill with a single, and Starling Marte followed with a 2-run homer. The Mets had never before had their second batter of a game hit a 2-run homer in Denver, at either stadium. German Marquez would go on to give up 11 hits but still strike out seven batters, the first Rockies pitcher to do that in a game since Brett Anderson against the Cubs on July 30, 2014.

Meanwhile, in the sunny-but-now-scorching Bronx, Dallas Keuchel got through the 1st inning unscathed. In the 2nd he was, um, scathed? (Is that a word? It's like "fettered".) Giancarlo Stanton leads off with a single. Gleyber Torres and Isiah Kiner-Falefa add base knocks of their own. And eventually DJ LeMahieu appears with 2 outs and the bases loaded. You get three guesses. That would be the first grand slam for the Yankees in a home game against the White Sox since Bernie Williams hit one on the other side of 161 St on May 17, 2000. That also means it's their first one at the current stadium, and since the Tigers fell off the list last April, Chicago was the last remaining AL opponent against whom the Yankees hadn't hit one at their new digs.

Keuchel, for his part, got tagged with 6 runs and recorded zero strikeouts before getting pulled in the 5th. He's the first White Sox pitcher with that line since... Dallas Keuchel did it in Cleveland on April 20. No Sox starter had done it twice in a season since Freddy Garcia in 2010 (and it took him until August).

(We mentioned the Mets and Rockies played a doubleheader on Saturday. More on the night game a little later. This is what we in the biz call a "tease".)

Birds Of A Feather

When last we left our Orioles, they were basking in Anthony Santander's 3-run walkoff to conclude their series with the Yankees. With the Yankees safely back in New York, the Birds brought in the Rays for the weekend. And that didn't start well either when Mike Zunino hit a 3-run homer in the 5th inning of Friday's opener. Ah, but somehow the Rays defense will come through. Brooks Raley inherits a baseball with two on in the 7th. His second pitch is a wild one that scores Tyler Nevin. His third pitch ia a routine fly ball to left that, um, is not routine. Eventually Trey Mancini ties the game at 3 and another game heads off to Free Runner Land.

The whole "free runner" thing was supposed to end games more quickly, especially these 1-1 and 2-2 snoozefests where it's obvious neither team can hit the ball and the fans all just want to go home. You're not supposed to just match each other and score the one run and keep going. Top 10, Brett Phillips doubles in Free Runner Taylor Walls. Yandy Diaz follows with a single to score Phillips, so the Rays actually got two out of this. What say you, Matt Wisler who pitches B10 for the Rays?

Ten pitches, 2 walks to load the bases. Which means who else but Anthony Santander singles and matches the Rays' 2 runs. Kevin Kiermaier singles home the Rays' free runner in the 11th. Hays does likewise for the Orioles. Tampa Bay does not score in the 12th, hey here's an opening. Ryan Thompson closes that without a ball getting past the infield. Finally in the bottom of the 13th Rougned Odor gets hold of the fourth pitch from Ralph Garza and the O's win this thing 8-6. By inning it was Baltimore's latest walkoff homer since Manny Machado hit one against Oakland on August 14, 2015. It was their first in any inning against the Rays since Chris Davis hit one on September 2 of that same year.

And combined with Santander's 3-run shot against the Yankees on Thursday, it was the first time the Orioles had connected for multi-run walkoff homers in consecutive games since Rich Dauer (against Cleveland) and John Lowenstein (against Detroit) each hit 2-run bombs on September 19 and 20, 1982.

Parrotheads

Now we have three-fifths of the AL East embroiled in our post about dramatic home runs. We'll make a quick stop in Toronto, because they had an even stranger situation this week. The Jays were the designated interleague series for the weekend, hosting the Cincinnati Reds for the first time since 2017.

Bo Bichette has not yet (we don't think) attained the nickname "B.B.", as the longer-named Edwin Encarnacion acquired "E.E." fairly quickly upon his ascension to the majors. But on Saturday B.B. led off the 4th with a game-tying homer after Joey Votto had just posted an RBI double for the Reds in the top half. Still in a 1-1 tie in the 7th, Bichette goes yard again off former AL East foe Luis Cessa to give Toronto a 3-1 win. He's the second Jays batter with a multi-homer game against Cincinnati, and also the team's second batter to have 3 RBI and account for every run in an interleague win. On both counts, the other player is "E.E.". Encarnacion hit 2 homers at GABP on June 20, 2014, and did the 3-RBI deal against San Francisco on June 16, 2010.

Eat Me, I'm A Danish

So we head off to our final AL East destination, Fenway Park in Boston. Where it has not been a particularly great year, though it's picked up in recent days. The AL West-leading Astros were visiting for a few games, and Tuesday was... um... a day when they played. The good news is, Nate Eovaldi retired the Astros in order in the 1st, and Rafael Devers hit a solo homer in the bottom half.

Top 2. Yordan Alvarez, leadoff homer. Yuli Gurriel, E3. Kyle Tucker, 2-run homer. Jeremy Peña, homer. Flyout, single, double, Michael Brantley 3-run homer. Groundout. Alvarez (who started the inning), single to left. Oh we didn't forget a pitching change, Eovaldi is still out there. Gurriel for the second time: Um, yeah, that.

That's five homers, not just off one pitcher, but off one pitcher in the same inning. Although it's not an outright major-league record, only three pitchers in the history of the game have pulled that off: Chase Anderson of the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on September 17, 2020 (thankfully the cardboard cutouts did not interfere), and Milwaukee's Michael Blazek in Washington on July 27, 2017. More notably, Eovaldi didn't make it to the end of the 2nd inning, and gave up 5 homers while only getting 5 outs. That's also something only two other pitchers in MLB history have "accomplished"; they are Mike Fiers of Oakland on September 9, 2019, and Shane Greene of Detroit on May 30, 2015.

Just when you thought this was over, Kyle Tucker returns to the plate in the 4th against Tyler Danish. After the latter has given up two singles and a failed fielder's choice. Yes, the bases are loaded for Tucker to do this. That joins George Springer (May 14, 2016) and Jose Altuve (August 17, 2014) as the only grand slams hit by the Astros at Fenway, and it also gives Tucker two more distinctions. Not only had no Astros hitter ever had a multi-homer game at Fenway Park, no Houston batter had ever had 6 RBI in a game against Boston-- home or away. Thanks to all this scoring, the Astros just left Jose Urquidy out there to get pounded; he actually became the first Houston pitcher to give up 12 hits and get a win since Roy Oswalt did that against Seattle on June 17, 2007.

Now Serven

Okay, we promised you more Mets/Rockies from Saturday. And yes, they played a split doubleheader because May 20 is a perfectly acceptable time for it to snow in Denver. The Mets won the day game 5-1 with an assist from Starling Marte's 2-run homer as the second batter of the game. The Rockies won the night game 11-3, but it's more fun to look at How They Got There.

Brian Serven, already a legend for fouling a pitch to his family in his first major-league at-bat, got to catch and bat 9th for the Rockies. It's 2-2 when he comes to the plate for the first time in the 2nd. And this happens. It's his first homer in the bigs, and it also gives Colorado the lead. We're all very excited for him.

Fast-forward to the 6th. When Adonis Medina is in the middle of an implosion for the Mets. Single, flyout, double, single, errant pickoff throw, and oh look, Serven's up again. Whereupon he does this. That puts the Rockies up 8-3, they add 3 more runs later in the inning before Chasen Shreve finally escapes, and this one is very much over. Medina became the first Mets pitcher to give up 5 runs while getting 4 outs at Coors since Manny Acosta on April 27, 2012. Pete Alonso had 2 hits in both games, but didn't have an RBI or score a run himself in either contest; no Mets batter had done that in a doubleheader since Garry Templeton against the Expos on September 17, 1991.

But let's go back to Brian Serven. After the foul-ball game, this was only his second career MLB appearance. And he homered. Twice. Only two other Rockies #9 batters have hit multiple dingers in a game: True pitcher Mike Hampton against the Astros on June 5, 2001, and Sort-Of pitcher Brooks Kieschnick exactly a week before that against the Dodgers. But has any Rockies batter ever had a multi-homer game just two games into his MLB career? Well, yes, because you might remember the amazing debut of Trevor Story in early 2016. Where he had 9 hits but 7 homers in his first 6 games. Drove in 12 runs. Story and Brian Serven are the only batters in Rockies history to have a multi-homer game in either of their first two MLB appearances.

The Neverending Story

Someone say Trevor Story? After 10 years in the Rockies organization, including that red-hot MLB debut in 2016, he was not tendered an offer by Colorado last fall and became a free agent. He signed with the Red Sox just 2 weeks before Opening Day. So after starting with history at the second-oldest active ballpark (Wrigley Field), we're going to end this post with history at the first-oldest (Fenway Park).

On Thursday, Boston's #6 hitter (Story) launched a 2-run homer off Seattle's George Kirby in the 2nd. Not exciting yet. With 2 outs in the 3rd, and J.D. Martinez on first, he launched another one. Hmmm. Maybe we shouldn't let Kirby face him a third time, because "metrics".

So we didn't. Instead Story singled on the first pitch from Sergio Romo in the 6th, stole second, and later scored. He was also the first batter to face Wyatt Mills in the 7th; Story walked and later scored. And then, just for fun, Story comes up one more time in the 8th against Danny Young and belts another 3-run homer. The Red Sox pound the Mariners 12-6 but check out Story's line. Three homers and five runs scored. The only other batter in Red Sox history to pull that off was Jim Tabor in Philadelphia on July 4, 1939, and that is not the reason you remember that date. The only other players in major-league history with 4 hits, 5 runs, 7 RBI, and a stolen base in the same game are Yoenis Cespedes for the Mets in 2015 and Reb Russell for the Pirates in 1922.

Now let's see what Story did on Friday in the second game of the series. Ehhhh, not much, unless you include that 3rd-inning grand slam into the seats atop the Green Monster. Boston hadn't hit a grand slam against Seattle since Trot Nixon took J.J. Putz deep on May 14, 2005. On Friday Jackie Bradley later hit a 3-run homer to put the game away, making it only the second time the Red Sox have hit both a 3- and a 4-run homer in the same game against the Mariners. Bernie Carbo and Butch Hobson had those dingers at the Kingdome on August 3, 1977.

Have you ever wondered why we love this game?

Story's grand slam into the Monster seats on Friday broke a scoreless tie because it was only the 3rd inning. The last time the Red Sox hit a grand slam at Fenway to go up 4-0 was on May 3, 2014, by Jonny Gomes in the 1st inning against Oakland. That's kind of a fun note by itself. Gomes spent much more time with the Rays than with the Sawx, but he was a key cog in Boston's World Series title in 2013. He's been back to Fenway frequently since his retirement in 2016 and loves to sit in those Monster seats. NESN even interviewed him from up there.

Care to guess who caught Story's grand slam to break up a scoreless tie at Fenway? Only the last player to hit one!-- Jonny. freakin'. Gomes.

Baseball, man. Baseball.

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Adley Rutschmann, Saturday: First Orioles batter to triple in his MLB debut since Manny Machado against the Royals on August 9, 2012.

⚾ Manny Machado, Sunday: First player for any team to have a triple and 3 doubles in a game since Brian Roberts of the Yankees at Minnesota, July 4, 2014.

⚾ Albert Pujols, Wednesday: Second-oldest player in Cardinals history to have 2 hits and a stolen base in the same game. Stan Musial did it as a slightly-older 42-year-old on July 7, 1963.

⚾ Padres, Tuesday: First shutout (by any score) in Philadelphia since a 2-0 at The Vet on August 26, 1998.

⚾ Martin Perez, Friday: First Rangers pitcher to throw an individual shutout but still allow 7 hits since Brandon McCarthy, also at Houston, May 24, 2009.

⚾ Brewers, Monday: First time winning a 1-0 game on a wild pitch since August 24, 1990, at New York (Tim Leary scoring Bill Spiers).

⚾ Martin Maldonado, Thursday: Second Astros batter ever to hit a 3-run double in the 8th or later against the Rangers. Adam Everett connected against Joaquin Benoit 16 years earlier to the day.

⚾ Randy Arozarena & Brett Phillips, Tuesday: Second pair of teammates in Rays history to have a homer and a sac fly in the same game. Johnny Damon & Ben Zobrist did it at Yankee Stadium on September 22, 2011.

⚾ Darin Ruf, Friday: First Giants batter to have 2 homers and 2 walks in a game they lost since Barry Bonds against the Dodgers on October 5, 2001.

⚾ Cesar Hernandez & Jazz Chisholm, Wednesday: First game where both teams hit a leadoff triple since Johnny Damon (BOS) and Lew Ford (MIN) on August 5, 2005.

⚾ Royals, Tuesday: First time scoring 2 or fewer runs in a doubleheader since June 10, 2004, against Montréal. First time ever doing it and winning either game.

⚾ Franchy Cordero, Sunday: Third walkoff grand slam in Red Sox history against the Mariners. The others were both in 1998, by Mo Vaughn (April 10) and Nomar Garciaparra (September 2, since that date keeps coming up).

⚾ Luis Arraez, Wednesday: Second batter in Twins/Sens franchise history with 2 doubles, a stolen base, 2 RBI, and 4 runs scored. Goose Goslin did it against Detroit on July 30, 1927.

⚾ Tim Anderson, Thursday: Second visiting player ever to have 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 stolen bases, and 2 RBI in a game at Kauffman Stadium. Rich Becker of the Twins did it on September 18, 1996.

⚾ George Springer, Tuesday: First batter in Jays history whose 3-run triple accounted for the team's only runs of a game.

⚾ Reds, Friday: First time collecting 5 doubles in a game but only scoring 1 run since May 27, 2001, against the Cardinals.

⚾ Curt Casali, Monday: First #9 batter in Giants history to have 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 4 RBI in the same game.

⚾ Nate Lowe, Wednesday: First walkoff homer for Rangers when trailing against the Angels since Billy Hamilton on July 9, 2008.

⚾ Orioles, Sunday: First walkoff FCX (fielder's choice, no out recorded) in extra innings since Bobby Grich beat a play at the plate in the 17th inning on September 27, 1974.

⚾ Dodgers, Tuesday: First time scoring 7+ runs in both games of a doubleheader since September 10, 1985, in Atlanta.

⚾ Nationals, Friday: First team to turn a triple play in a game where they got shut out since the Padres did it on June 10, 2010.

⚾ Rangers, Monday: First 6-run 1st inning against the Angels since May 11, 2012.

⚾ Mookie Betts, Saturday: First Dodgers leadoff batter with a homer, a double, and a single in a game in Philadelphia since Pee Wee Reese on May 8, 1954.

In A New York Minute

A fun part of our little sport here is that teams play nearly every day. Basketball and hockey come sort of close, but in baseball, just as suddenly as one trend emerges, so can it be reverse. Heck, the Reds won more games this week than in the entire first month of the season. So last week we wrote about a lot of sputtering offenses and a lot of rain putting a damper on the old scoreboards. But when that rain moves out and there's a big high-pressure "dome" behind it, well, things can heat up quickly.

One For The Road

It does always amuse us, however, when we select a theme for the week and put up a post about it, and then on Monday some team reads that post, gets mad that they weren't included in it, and then goes out and does The Thing We Wrote About. The first game of last week was a 1-0 Monday-afternoon makeup affair which the Cardinals won on a solo homer. The Yankees had a Monday-afternoon makeup game this week thanks to all that rain. Do we really need to tell you what happened?

Okay, so it wasn't on a homer. It was almost another of those pesky no-hitters thanks to Nestor Cortes and a lackluster Texas offense which had clearly spent too many days lying around the hotel. Cortes fanned 11 batters, including Charlie Culbertson to start the 8th, before giving up a lone hit to Eli White and getting pulled. (This is how you can tell a manager is of the "let him try for it" mentality, versus just yanking a guy after 6 because The Metrics say so.) And while Monday was the closest Cortes has come to a no-hitter, you might recall that on Easter Sunday he struck out 12 in 5 innings before departing. He also had an 11-strikeout, 3-hit game last September and is the owner of the last three such outings in pinstripes. The only pitchers in Yankees history to do it more often (four each) are David Cone and Mike Mussina.

We at least did not have to go far to find the Yankees' and/or Rangers' last no-hit threat. Because after two decades of David Wells' perfect game on repeat, Corey Kluber finally did throw a no-no against Texas last year. Except that was in Arlington. The current Yankee Stadium has still never had one. And the Rangers hadn't been shut out on 2 hits there since Hiroki Kuroda took one into the 7th on August 14, 2012.

But back to that 1-0 final. That finally came about because Aaron Judge hit a seeing-eye single to left in the 8th and then Anthony Rizzo did this. Maybe some overzealous baserunning, maybe he wasn't expecting the play to come to him, and maybe it kills a bigger rally, but it gives us a good first game to write about. The Yankees' 1-0 win was their first over Texas since Ron Guidry 2-hit them on August 28, 1977! Graig Nettles tripled in the 6th for that game's only run. And Rizzo's double? The first one that the Yankees have hit to break a scoreless tie in the 8th or later since Enrique Wilson off David Cone, by then with Boston, on September 2, 2001. That game isn't known for what Wilson did in the 8th. It's known as The Carl [Expletive] Everett Game for what he did in the 9th.

Everything Changes

But as we say, everything can change in a New York minute. (Or, as Mark Twain famously said about New England, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute.") Or, if you're more into the conspiracy-theory angle, you could say MLB didn't like that dearth of offense last week and decided to start sending out the juiced baseballs again. But once the Yankees dispatched with Texas, the next team alphabetically for them to face is Toronto. And on Tuesday we didn't wait around for that first hit.

Nope, this one became a 1-0 game on the seventh pitch when George Springer dumped it into the seats in left. He joins Bo Bichette (last September) and Jose Reyes (June 2014) as the only Jays batters to hit a leadoff homer at the current Yankee Stadium. Springer also hit one for the Astros in 2017; he and Reyes (2010 with the Mets) are the only players to do it for two different visiting teams.

This one did not stay 1-0, however. Santiago Espinal hit a 2-run double in the 2nd. Which meant Giancarlo Stanton had to crank a 3-run homer in the 6th to tie it up. And when Chad Green gives up 2 more runs in the top of the 8th, you couldn't help thinking that the Yankees have been in this movie way too many times. Someday the ending's going to change.

Tuesday was not that day. Jordan Romano is supposed to close out the 9th with a 2-run lead. Instead he walks backup catcher Jose Trevino who is batting in the 9-hole. Then he walks DJ LeMahieu, which is not the worst violation. Except that brings up Aaron Judge. And everyone in the stadium, maybe even Romano himself, knows what he's going to do. The Yankees hadn't hit a walkoff homer against the Jays since Jason Giambi took B.J. Ryan deep on June 5, 2008. They hadn't hit any walkoff homer when trailing since Gary Sanchez did that against the Twins on April 26, 2018. And combined with Stanton's tying shot in the 6th, it was the first time the Yankees hit both a tying homer and a walkoff homer, each of the 3- or 4-run variety, against the Blue Jays since Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill did it on September 14, 1999.

And while we now see several games a year that begin with a homer (by the visiting team) and end with a homer (a walkoff), Tuesday was only the second one in the 14-season history of the current Yankee Stadium. Alexei Ramirez gave the White Sox an early lead on August 24, 2014, before Brian McCann sent the Yankees home victorious.

South Side Bronx

Thanks to some of the weird provisions about off-days and travel days that were finally agreed to in March, we've seen a lot of random 2-game midweek series already this year. The Yankees' 5-3 win over Toronto on Wednesday was notably mostly because Gleyber Torres was the 5. He cranked a 3-run homer to flip the lead in the 4th, then greeted Trevor Richards with a 2-run insurance single in the 6th. He's the first Yankees batter to have 5+ RBI and account for all the team's runs in a win since Jason Giambi did it against Atlanta on June 26, 2006.

But after that Wednesday-afternoon tilt, the Yankees were already done with Toronto and headed off to Chicago. And you can blame "wind off the lake", you can drink the "juice" theory about the baseballs, or you can just say two words: Giancarlo Stanton.

He's been known to mash a few baseballs. We were at the game where he supposedly broke the videoboard, although a source who worked for the Marlins at the time later told us it was faked by the video room. And on Thursday he mashed a 1st-inning homer off Dylan Cease, and then a 3rd-inning homer off Dylan Cease, and then a 2-run single against Tanner Banks in the 8th. Because the White Sox had stormed back to take the lead in the 2nd, that meant both of Stanton's homers gave the Yankees the lead, something none of their players had done on the South Side since Alfonso Soriano against Bartolo Colón on September 22, 2003. And because they were both 2-run shots, that also gave Stanton 6 RBI (take that, Gleyber!), the Yankees' first 6-RBI game in Chicago since Mark Teixeira did it on July 31, 2015.

Dylan Cease got tagged with 6 runs, but when he wasn't giving up dingers to Stanton, he was pretty much mowing down batters like usual. He joined Javier Vazquez (September 26, 2006, at Cleveland) and Marv Grissom (September 13, 1952, also against the Yankees) as the only pitchers in White Sox history to give up 6 runs but also record 11 strikeouts in a game.

Now let's talk a little more about that 8th inning. Because Stanton was a mere part of it. Cease has by now, well, ceased pitching, which means the strikeout parade has also ended. In the previous frame, Yoan Moncada tagged Jonathan Loaisiga for a 3-run homer to tie the game at 7. Not only did that blow a save, it gave the White Sox their first tying 3- or 4-run homer that late in a game against the Yankees since Bucky Dent had one off of Larry Gura on August 19, 1975. (Bucky Dent would go on to hit some big home runs for the Yankees too.)

Joe Kelly gets the first two outs of the 8th in a tie game but then the wheels come off. He walks three straight batters to set up Aaron Judge for another 2-run go-ahead single. Anthony Rizzo walks to re-load the bases and chase Kelly off the mound. Stanton's single greets Banks and makes it 11-7 Yankees, and if there hadn't been 2 outs and Judge had stopped at third, then Josh Donaldson's 3-run homer would have ended up being a grand slam. That's a 7-run inning, doubling the score to 14-7 and putting this thing out of reach. (They added a sac fly in the 9th to finally end up with 15.) The last time the Yankees had a 7-run inning on the South Side was August 3, 2011, which is also the last time they scored 15 runs there (18-7 win).

And our buddy Jonathan Loaisiga? Who no doubt felt bad about giving up that tying homer in the 7th and blowing the save? The Yankees won the game by eight. Since saves became an official thing in 1969, only one other Yankees pitcher has gotten tagged with a blown save in a game that they won by 8+ runs. That was Jim Roland, also along 35th Street, on June 3, 1972.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

New York, of course, is also notable for its Citi Bike sharing program, although it would take you quite a while to ride one from Yankee Stadium to Great American Ball Park. (Just over 70 hours, plus the wait for a ferry across the Hudson, because of course we had Google figure this out.)

Great American Ball Park, sitting where it does, is at the western end of the Ohio River bike trail which runs past right field and (for now) terminates a couple blocks later at the football stadium. So we're going to enjoy the imagery of Christian Yelich pedaling up to Gate F, chaining his bike to a pole, and hoping it's still there in a few hours. We predict it will be. And if not, well, he's got three of them.

Yes, of course we must talk about Wednesday's matinee between the Reds and Brewers, for multiple reasons. First, it's the Reds. Who came into the game having won 3 of their last 5. All right. Most teams would take that. But recall that last week we were talking about the Reds having won 3 of the first twenty-five. They doubled their win total in less than a week. So if they were going to get in on this sudden offensive explosion, what better time than the present.

Cincinnati entered Wednesday's game having scored 19 runs in the first two innings of games. Total. In 30 games. That's... not good. So there were probably still a few fans looking for a suitable pole to which to chain their bikes when Tyler Stephenson knocked a 2-out double in the bottom of the 1st. Then Colin Moran walks to reload the bases and another Tyler-- that's catcher Naquin-- unloads them with a triple. The Reds had not hit a 3-run triple in the 1st inning since Todd Benzinger against Pittsburgh on August 26, 1989.

Wouldn't you know it, Adrian Houser walks two more batters in the 2nd and here comes Stephenson again with 2 outs and the bases loaded. This time he stops at second, but with 2 outs and runners going on contact, it's yet another 3-run hit, and who are these people wearing Reds uniforms? The last time they had a bases-loaded 3-RBI hit in the 1st inning, and another one of the same in the 2nd inning, was-- would you believe?-- before RBIs technically existed? Lena Blackburne doubled in the 1st and Sherry Magee tripled in the 2nd against Brooklyn's Burleigh Grimes on May 13, 1918.

Meanwhile, Christian Yelich is not happy with this 7-0 Reds lead and seems resolved to change it. In the 1st inning he cranked one to right that bounced over the wall for an automatic double; in the 3rd he didn't bother with the bounce. His 3-run jack off Vladimir Gutierrez, plus a solo shot by Hunter Renfroe, gets the Brewers back to 7-4. Yelich will end up being the last batter Gutierrez faces when he singles in the 5th. Oh look, the famous "triple shy of the cycle" which happens hundreds of times a year and has that nails-on-chalkboard sound whenever some broadcaster makes a whole deal of it. Nobody ever really gets the triple, after all.

Yelich flies out to center to end the 7th, so there's no guarantee he even gets to bat again. Renfroe tacks on another solo homer and it's 8-5. And in case we hadn't already had a ballgame break out, let's check out the epic battle of pitchers J.C. Mejia and Dauri Moreta. The Reds 8th, around one flyout, involves 3 walks, 2 singles, and 3 more runs. Colin Moran finishes that off with a 3-run bomb off Luis Perdomo and the Reds have magically amassed 14 runs. Fourteen. You could pick entire weeks in April where they didn't score that many.

The Brewers, who now trail by 9, could easily let the Reds have this one, go up there hacking, and leave Christian Yelich on deck to end the game "a triple shy of the cycle" [chalkboard noise]. Well, they did go up there hacking. Against Moreta, who got called up during the final week of last season, and actually got a spot start as an "opener" in one of those rain-induced doubleheaders last weekend. Jace Peterson greets him with a solo homer which at least means Yelich bats one more time. Kolten Wong single. Mike Brosseau, pinch-hit homer, the first one the Brewers have ever hit in the 9th or later in Cincinnati.

It's 14-8 with the bases empty and so Yelich knows what must be done. He not only triples for the cycle, he triples his cycles. You may remember that Yelich had two other cycles back in 2018, less than 3 weeks apart, and was the fifth player to do that in the same season. And the reason we started this whole section with cycling facts was that all three of Yelich's cycles have come against the Reds. The only non-Yelich cycle at GABP was by Randy Winn of the Giants on August 15, 2005 (which also means the Reds have never had one there).

As for three in a career, only five other players have ever done that, and none of them had all three against the same opponent. They are Trea Turner, Adrian Beltre, Babe Herman, Bob Meusel, and John Reilly of the American Association from the 1880s.

But hey, we're still not done with this game. Yelich is suddenly on third with nobody out. And Moreta comes close to giving up the cycle by himself in the span of five batters. Rowdy Tellez smacks a single to center to score Yelich and Moreta is done without recording an out. That-- and the double-- will be up to Joel Kuhnel, who's done the drive up I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville a bunch of times since 2019. Luis Urias takes care of that on the first pitch and it's suddenly 14-10. That also makes Moreta the fifth Reds reliever in the live-ball era to face 5+ batters, and give up a base hit and a run to all of them. The latest three have all done it against Milwaukee; the others are Blake Wood (2017), Caleb Cotham (2016), Manny Parra (2015 at Miami), and Eddie Erautt (1951 at Pittsburgh).

Omar Narvaez doubles home Urias for a final run and a final score of 14-11 before Kuhnel simmers down and gets the last two outs. That also created the second game in GABP history where both teams had a 6-run inning. The Rockies were the foe in the other one on May 20, 2017. And that also means Yelich hit for the cycle in a loss. No Brewers batter before him-- including Yelich's other two cycles-- had ever done that. And the last player to hit for a cycle in a game where his team scored 11 runs-- but still lost-- was Willie McGee of the Cardinals on June 23, 1984.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Last week it was the Mets who made an Amazin' comeback in the 9th inning. There was even a link to a Bernard Gilkey walkoff homer. This week that New York Minute belongs to the Guardians, who also wasted no time changing their name last fall. (Actually, you could argue they wasted a lot of years NOT changing it, but that's not why we're here.)

Before hosting the Yankees in that 15-7 mess on Thursday, the White Sox got a 3-gamer with Cleveland, who was also caught up in all that rainy mess from last week. And Gavin Sheets opened Chicago's week with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 1st, which would have been a grand slam except for Zach Plesac's wild pitch on the previous offering. Sheets hit the first 3- or 4-run homer for the White Sox in the 1st inning against Cleveland since Yermin Mercedes last April 14... not interesting but for the fact that it was also off Zach Plesac. He and Jake Westbrook are the only Clevelanders to give up two of them at the Sox' current digs.

Things limp along with a 4-1 score and it looks like this is another ho-hum Monday game that has no place in this post. Ah, but that's why we play the games. A.J. Pollock smacks another 3-run homer in the 8th and the White Sox are up 8-2 with Tanner Banks having to get 3 outs before the Guardians get 6 runs. Take a guess which one happened first.

Andres Gimenez, leadoff homer in the 9th. Single. E5. Two outs and a 4-run lead, this still looks pretty good. Walk. Pitching change. Single to load the bases. Annnnnd this. That would be Josh Naylor hitting the first grand slam in team history when they were down to their final out in a road game. To say nothing of actually tying the score. They'd never hit a slam in the 9th at the current White Sox park, and their only one in the 8th came from Ben Broussard on June 23, 2004.

Impressive comeback. But it might all go for naught when Nick Sandlin walks the bases loaded in the 9th. But then Adam Engel grounds out to kill that threat and send us off to Free Runner Land in an 8-8 tie. What could happen.

Only a double by Gimenez to lead off the 10th and give the Guardians the lead. Followed in the bottom half by Engel redeeming himself and beating a play at the plate. On to the 11th where Ryan Burr walks Jose Ramirez in addition to the free runner. That brings up Naylor again with two on. Of course he did. Naylor became the first player in MLB history to hit a 3- or 4-run homer in the 9th and then another one in extra innings. It was Cleveland's first 3- or 4-run homer in the 11th or later of a road game since Travis Fryman hit one in Toronto on September 9, 1998. And between Naylor and Gimenez, they became the second set of Cleveland teammates to each homer and double in the same game in Chicago. Earl Averill and Joe Vosmik pulled it off in a 12-1 win on May 1, 1934.

And if you're a fan of peculiar linescores (you may have noticed, we are), take a gander at what the White Sox finished this one with. Nine runs, sure. And they lost, which doesn't happen much. But 9 runs on only 7 hits... and four errors. They're the first team to post an exact line of 9-7-4 since the Rangers did it while beating the A's on September 30, 1986.

Saved By Zero

Remember that Ohio River bike trail that runs past right field at GABP? We are forced to ride against the current, back upstream to Pittsburgh where the Ohio River begins at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela. It's why Pittsburgh is known for "three rivers", including a stadium by that name in which the Pirates (and Steelers!) played for many years. The bike trail doesn't actually go all the way back to Pittsburgh, so if you want to ride the entire Ohio/West Virginia border, there's a good chance you'll get a flat.

Hunter Greene did not have a particularly good start to the season, but of course, he pitches for the Reds, so the offense hasn't really been backing him up either. We had a note on Tuesday that he had lost 5 straight starts and hadn't finished the 6th inning in any of them, a "feat" achieved by only three other Reds pitchers in the live-ball era. He enters Sunday's game with a record of 0-6. So there is certainly room for improvement when the Reds head to Pittsburgh on Sunday, but we really didn't need that much improvement that quickly.

Matt Reynolds draws a walk in the 1st. Daniel Vogelbach draws a walk in the 4th. But otherwise, the Pirates manage to do nothing against Greene for the early part of the game. And then the scary middle part. There's a perfect 5th. A walk in the 6th but no hits yet. Except there's another problem: the Reds haven't scored either. This is a 0-0 game. Something has to give.

With no activity in the Reds bullpen, Greene gets sent back out for the 7th. He goes 1-2-3 again. David Bell is now described as "pacing" in the dugout. Meanwhile, Greene is now gassed. He gets sent out for the 8th but walks Rodolfo Castro and Michael Perez. Bell finally pulls the trigger and gets Greene out of the game after 7⅓ despite the no-hitter still being intact. Only one other Reds hurler in the modern era had gotten yanked from a no-hitter in the 8th or later; that was Johnny Klippstein who left after 7 against the Braves on May 26, 1956.

Art Warren is entrusted with the combined no-hitter, and he continues it by walking Ben Gamel to load the bases. No, that's still not a hit. But then the Reds get a ground ball to second and don't have a play at the plate. They take the easy out but allow the run to score. Pirates suddenly have 1 run on 0 hits... and because they're the home team, they have also suddenly put the no-hitter in jeopardy. Fay Vincent's "Committee for Statistical Accuracy", in 1991, decreed that (among other things) a no-hitter isn't really a no-hitter unless it is a complete game where the opponent bats at least 9 times. The Pirates are ahead. Unless the Reds can manage to score in the top of the 9th, they are going to lose their no-hitter because Pittsburgh won't bat again. And cut to the chase, that's what happens. David Bednar does get his seventh save of the year, but can't be bothered to hang a meatball and get the Pirates to the plate in B9. As a result, we have an even rarer phenomenon than the completed no-hitter. Just five times in MLB history has a team thrown an unofficial no-hitter where they lost on the road. The last such game-- and the last time any team won a game without getting a hit-- was thrown by the Angels in the Freeway Series on June 28, 2008. Amazingly the Reds have also been on the opposite side of such a game. On April 23, 1964, they scored an unearned run off Ken Johnson of the Astros in the 9th inning and ended up winning without getting a hit. (That game was in Houston, so Johnson did get credit for a NH.)

Angel Baby

Even though Greene and the Reds will not get credit for a no-hitter, those Amazin' Mets did get credit for the first "official" one of the season in a combined effort on April 29. Well, even before the Reds on Sunday, another team decided to duplicate that this week, because of course they did.

Meet Reid Detmers. He knows a little about that drive on I-71 through Louisville, not because he was a triple-A Louisville Bat, but because he was a Louisville Cardinal in college. He was the Angels' 1st-round pick in 2020, but with the minor-league season cancelled, he did not make his pro debut until May 5, 2021. As a "Rocket City Trash Panda". That's the "interesting" nickname of the Angels' double-A team that relocated from Mobile, Ala., to the suburbs of Huntsville a few years ago. After a brief layover at triple-A Salt Lake City, Detmers reached the majors on August 1 of last year after only 3 months of "seasoning". And on just his 371st day in pro ball, Detmers made MLB history as number 316.

We say this frequently, but sometimes the newbie pitchers, making their MLB debut, or whom there's not much advance research on, scare us more than the Clayton Kershaws and Justin Verlanders of the world. Detmers retires all nine Rays in order the first time around, but eight of them actually made contact, so he's not overpowering anyone. Meanwhile the Angels offense is giving him plenty of run support by beating up on Corey Kluber. Yes, that Corey Kluber. If we said there was going to be a no-hitter in a game started by Corey Kluber and a 22-year-old Angels rookie, well then, you didn't bet on Rich Strike either, did you? Luis Rengifo, Andrew Velazquez, and Mike Trout get to Kluber for extra-base hits in the 2nd and a 5-0 Angels lead. Chad Wallach then cranks a 3-run shot in the 3rd to make it 8-0. Kluber is going to exit having given up 11 hits, 8 runs, and 2 homers, the first Rays pitcher to hit all those numbers since Alex Cobb at Seattle on June 3, 2017.

Meanwhile, Detmers is just churning out ground-ball outs. Taylor Walls drew a walk in the 6th to break up the perfect game, but then he got erased on a double-play ball. Brett Phillips reaches first on an error in the 7th, and then he reaches the mound in the 8th. Yes, it is 8-0 and you are getting no-hit, why screw around with actual pitchers. Phillips, after all, is quite capable of giving up another homer to Mike Trout, plus one to Anthony Rendon-- who decided to have some fun of his own by batting left-handed for the first time in his career. And then he went yard, because why wouldn't he? That made Phillips the first position player in Rays history to surrender multiple longballs in a game. Trout's second homer gave him 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI for the eighth time in his career, trailing only Garret Anderson (nine) for the most such games in Angels history.

So it is 12-0 and all that remains is for the deflated Rays to hit a couple more groundouts and fall victim to the 316th officially-recognized no-hitter in MLB history. The last one thrown by the Angels came on July 12, 2019, in their emotional tribute to Tyler Skaggs where all the players wore his number. The only other no-hitter on May 10 had been thrown by Charlie Lea of the Expos in 1981. And with all that contact, you always expect that eventually a ball is going to find a hole. Detmers threw the first NH in which the opposing team struck out only twice since Francisco Liriano of the Twins on May 3, 2011.

Then you're wondering about the offensive side and that 12-0 score. That Tyler Skaggs tribute game ended with a 13-0 shutout, so we had this one ready. Monte Pearson of the Yankees also threw a 13-0 no-hitter in 1938. The others to result in bigger shutouts are by Frank Smith of the White Sox (1905, 15-0), Jake Arrieta of the Cubs (2016, 16-0), and Pud Galvin of the Buffalo Bisons in 1884 (18-0).

And among those 12 runs for the Angels, it turns out that every starter in the lineup scored at least 1 of them. And all nine starters had at least 1 hit. The Angels hadn't done that in any game since April 13, 2014, against the Mets. But they were the first since at least 1900 to do it on the offensive side of a game where their pitcher(s) threw a no-hitter.

Deuces Wild

And since we're already in Orange County for this little ballet of Angels, we're going to wrap up our week in Los Angeles, which is also where we wrapped up several individual nights thanks to their 7:10 starts and inability to play a game in 3 hours.

To be fair, the scores from this weekend were a little bit prohibitive to playing a 3-hour game. It was the Phillies who were in town and started off Thursday's escapade with 4 quick runs off Tyler Anderson, including homers by Bryce Harper and Johan Camargo. Quick, get out one of those Yahtzee cards where you need one (or two) of every category. Kyle Schwarber will spot you an RBI single in there as well.

Alec Bohm connects for a triple off Anderson in the 5th and then Harper doubles him home. Schwarbs adds a sac fly in the 6th after J.T. Realmuto leads off with a triple. Anderson will end up as the first Dodgers pitcher to surrender 10 hits and 7 runs to the Phillies since Chris Capuano on June 28, 2013. Oh but we're not done yet.

Fast-forward to the 8th where Jose Alvarado is handed a 4-run lead and promptly says thanks, but nah, I don't want that. Single. Walk. Infield single. Single. Pinch-hit double. Strikeout. Game-tying single by Chris Taylor. Alvarado has suddenly become the first Phillies pitcher to give up 5+ hits and 4+ earned runs while getting 1 out against the Dodgers since Sam Nahem on April 17, 1942.

But suddenly we're tied 7-7 again. Which means the Phillies need to finish off our Yahtzee card. How about two more singles, a walk, and a go-ahead wild pitch from Daniel Hudson? That moves Bohm up to third as well and allows Bryce Harper the final RBI with a sac fly to make it 9-7. Harper is the first Phillies batter with a homer, a double, and a sac fly against the Dodgers since Domonic Brown did it on August 10, 2010. He and Camargo each had a homer, a sac fly, and 3 RBI on Thursday, the first Phillies teammates ever to pull that off, and also the first teammates for any team to do it at Dodger Stadium. (Sac flies became official in 1954, the stadium became official in 1962.)

And as for that Yahtzee card? If you've been keeping track, the Phils hit 2 homers, 2 triples, 2 doubles, 2 singles, and 2 sac flies in this little funfest. They are the first team ever to do that in the 61-year history of Dodger Stadium. Tack on the 2 stolen bases, and it's only happened six times in major-league history, last by the Diamondbacks on August 24, 2016.

We move on to Friday at Chavez Ravine, where we find a matchup of former 1st-round draft picks in Walker Buehler against Kyle Gibson. And if you think that's going to be a pitchers' duel, um, well, as we like to say, that's why we play the games.

Buehler gives up 3 singles and 2 runs in the 2nd. Gibson responds with four extra-base hits in the 3rd and a 5-2 Dodgers lead. Buehler says, oh yeah?, I can hang a 2-run homer to Kyle Schwarber and tie this right back up. Gibson eventually has the last laugh with 3 singles and a go-ahead run in the 4th before they're both done. He's the first Phillies starter to give up 6+ runs and record only 1 strikeout at Dodger Stadium since Zack Eflin did it on July 27, 2016.

Evan Phillips picks up where Buehler left off and allows three inherited runs to score in the 6th. Harper homers again to make it 9-7 going to the bottom of the 9th, with Jeurys Familia-- of 1 save in the past 4 seasons-- taking the hill. You probably know why we mention that. Single, groundout, 2-run game-tying homer by Justin Turner. He also hit one of those in the 9th against the Phillies back on April 29, 2017, and in "L.A. Dodgers" history (1958) he's the first to do it twice against the Phillies. Suddenly it is 9-9 and here we come, Free Runner Land.

Alec Bohm makes the first out of the 10th, which makes the decision to pass Bryce Harper easy. But that gave him 3 extra-base hits and 2 walks in the game, which he also did on September 16 of last year against the Cubs. Only one other Phillies batter since 1900 has done that twice, Willie Jones in 1952-53.

Nick Castellanos then doubles to score both runners and we end up with a 12-10 slugfest final. The last game at Dodger Stadium where both teams scored at least 10 runs and had at least 12 hits was against the Padres on September 18, 2006. And the last time the Dodgers scored 10 runs in a home game and lost it, was on Opening Day 2006, an 11-10 affair against Atlanta.

Back In The New York Groove

Some of our favorite notes arise from teams having moved over the years. (It's also why we have to be careful about the distinction between "team" and "city". Sure, you can say it's a first in "Kansas City history", but only if you make sure to rule out the A's years also.)

The Orioles have been playing in Baltimore for 69 seasons now. (Say it with us: "Nice.") And yes, we know most of the last 40 haven't been anything worth cheering about. But it's easy to forget where they came from. In 1953 the franchise played its final season as the St Louis Browns. (In 1996 another Browns team sorta moved to Baltimore as well, although after a bunch of lawsuits, the Ravens are technically an expansion team.) So we couldn't let pass the series where the Orioles headed back to their roots-- incredibly in this day of constant interleague play, for the first time since 2003. Well, at least Pujols is still hanging around.

In Tuesday's opener, Cedric Mullins collected 4 hits as the Orioles held on for a 5-3 win. Pitcher Kyle Bradish rolled up 11 strikeouts against the Cardinals without issuing a walk, joining Wade Maley (September 2016 against Arizona) and Erik Bedard (June 2006 against Florida) as the only O's hurlers to do that in an interleague contest. But as for Mullins, the last time the O's franchise had a leadoff batter collect 4 hits in a game in St Louis, well, yeah, they were the home team. Billy Hunter did it for the Browns against Detroit on September 4, 1953.

In the middle game on Wednesday, the Cardinals teed off on Spenser Watkins and rode 6 doubles to a 10-1 blowout win. The Cardinals hadn't collected 6 doubles and a homer in their own stadium since July 8, 2017, against the Mets. Brendan Donovan, hanging out in the #9 spot in the order, picked up 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 RBI; since RBI became official in 1920, only three other #9 hitters have pulled that off in a single game. They are Oakland's Marco Scutaro in 2006, Rey Palacios of the Royals in 1990, and another St Louis batter, Joe Ostrowski in 1950.

Ostrowski didn't play for the Cardinals, though. He was in the Browns' lineup against the Senators on that day in 1950. And while the Browns won that particular game 5-4, Wednesday's 10-1 score was the franchise's largest loss in St Louis since... yep, they were the home team. That was an 11-1 drubbing by the Athletics-- who were still in Philadelphia at the time-- on July 22, 1953.

And in the series finale on Thursday, the Orioles finally squeezed out a win when Anthony Bemboom and Cedric Mullins combined for 2 runs in the top of the 7th. Nolan Arenado of the Cards had a double and an RBI on both Wednesday and Thursday, the first St Louis batter to do that in back-to-back games against the Orioles since that last series in 2003, when Albert Pujols posted that line in every game. But Bemboom's homer was notable as being by an Orioles catcher. And by now you can probably guess the ending. The last time an Orioles catcher homered in St Louis... yep, they were the home team again. Les Moss went deep for the Browns at Sportsman's Park on July 19, 1953.

By the way, if you know your way-back baseball history, you recall that Baltimore fielded several teams known as the Orioles, one of them even being an "original" American League franchise in 1901 and 1902. And even though the "commissions" in charge of deciding these things have ruled they are different franchises, because the team was sold to new owners, that AL team that was originally barred from playing in New York by Giants ownership, eventually did get to play there in 1903... and lives on to this day as the Yankees. May the diamond be unbroken.

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Andres Gimenez, Oscar Mercado, Austin Hedges, Friday: First time Cleveland's #7, #8, and #9 batters all homered in the same road game since Ryan Garko, Jamey Carroll, and Ben Francisco did it in Seattle on July 24, 2009.

⚾ Jace Peterson, Monday: First Brewers #9 batter with 2 stolen bases in a game since Jose Valentin at Baltimore, August 5, 1995.

⚾ Bryce Harper, Thu-Sat: Second Phillies batter ever to homer in three straight games at Dodger Stadium. Mike Schmidt hit them in four straight in May 1979.

⚾ Derek Hill, Tuesday: Second #9 batter in Tigers history to have a walk, a sac fly, and a sac bunt in the same game. Tom Brookens did it twice in 1983 and again in 1985.

⚾ Kolten Wong, Sunday: Second leadoff batter in Brewers history to have 2 hits, 3 walks, and 2 stolen bases in a game. Tommy Harper did it in Chicago on September 26, 1970.

⚾ Jose Altuve, Friday: Second Astros batter ever to hit a leadoff homer in a road game against the Nats/Expos. Brian Hunter took Mark Leiter deep at Le Stade on August 12, 1996.

⚾ Ryan Pepiot, Wednesday: First pitcher to walk 5, hit a batter, and throw a wild pitch, in his MLB debut, since Kris Medlen for the Braves on May 21, 2009.

⚾ Jesse Winker, Saturday: Second 3- or 4-run homer ever hit by the Mariners in Queens. The other was only a Felix Hernandez grand slam.

⚾ Astros, Tue-Thu: First time shutting out the Twins twice in the same season (by any score, home or road).

⚾ Yankees, Sunday: First team to score 5+ runs on 2 hits since the Cardinals did it against the Dodgers on September 4, 2004.

⚾ Travis Demeritte, Friday: First Braves leadoff batter with 3 hits and 2 walks in a loss since Kenny Lofton at Coors, June 9, 1997.

⚾ Alex Faedo, Tuesday: Second pitcher to make his MLB debut with the Tigers, strike out 7 batters in it, but still take a loss. Ralph Comstock did it against Boston on August 26, 1913.

⚾ Starling Marte, Saturday: First Mets batter with single, double, triple, stolen base in the same game since Kirk Nieuwenheis at Milwaukee, July 5, 2013.

⚾ Athletics, Wednesday: Largest shutout win in Detroit since July 22, 1975.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Monday: First grand slam for Angels against the Rays since Mike Napoli off Jeff Niemann, August 25, 2010.

⚾ Brandon Marsh & Taylor Ward, Saturday: First time in Angels history that their leadoff batter has recorded 3+ hits in both games of a doubleheader.

⚾ Rhys Hoskins, Wednesday: First Phillies batter to hit a grand slam in a road game where the team only scored 4 runs since Pat Burrell at Houston, September 15, 2006.

⚾ Mets, Sunday: First game where they collected 3 triples and lost since August 20, 1981, in Atlanta.

⚾ Taylor Hearn, Thursday: First Rangers pitcher to allow 1 hit, strike out 5+, and get a win against the Royals since Greg Harris, August 31, 1985.

⚾ Corey Seager, Tuesday: First Rangers batter to homer twice in the first 3 innings of a game against the Royals since Mickey Tettleton on May 14, 1996.

⚾ Luis Gonzalez, Sunday: First Giants "pitcher" to hit a 3- or 4-run homer in St Louis since Don Robinson off Ted Power, July 8, 1989.