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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment