You might have seen some things about the MLB schedule getting a little messed up the last few years. Interleague play has always made for some strange bedfellows, but at least as the divisions cycled around, each team would play each other no less than every 3 years. Then, well, things happened. So our little 6-year home-and-home cycle got disrupted. That just means that this week was filled with reunions where the teams (hopefully) said, oh yeah, I remember you. How've you been?
Charmed, I'm Sure
We must, of course, start this journey with the Cubs. On Tuesday their flight got diverted to Baltimore and-- what's that?-- that's not a diversion? They were supposed to be going to Baltimore? Well, as it turns out, yeah.
Chris Morel is happy about that. In fact, he's so excited to be in Baltimore that he's going to take the very first pitch of the game and deposit it over the new higher wall in left-center. It was the second leadoff homer ever hit by the Cubs in Baltimore, and we're sure you remember the first one. It was by George Decker off Arlie Pond, who "met his Waterloo" (much more on bodies of water later), and it happened on August 24, 1897, before the original Orioles franchise was contracted out of the National League.
So Keegan Thompson takes to the mound for the Cubs with a 1-0 lead, and he is able to maintain that for, well, one pitch. Cedric Mullins launches his second offering down the line in right to mark the second game in Camden Yards history with a leadoff homer by both teams. The other was on August 19, 2016, when Adam Jones matched the Astros' George Springer. And not to be outdone, Thompson's third pitch ends up in the picnic tables in center, propelled there by Trey Mancini. The last time the Orioles went back-to-back to start a home game was May 10, 2012, when Ryan Flaherty and J.J. Hardy did it against Texas.
Although the Orioles are done for this inning, Jorge Mateo's going to tack on another one in the 2nd. That's a 3-run shot that follows Thompson hitting Rougned Odor and Ramon Urias in the span of three pitches. He's going to make some Cubs history by doing that; since 1901 they'd never had a pitcher allow 7 runs, 3 homers, and 2 hit batters in a game.
Yep, seven runs. Because the O's are going to get him for two more hits and a sac fly in the 3rd before he departs. And Baltimore is going to cruise to a 9-3 win, but not before Morel adds an RBI triple in the 6th. No Cubs leadoff batter had posted a homer and a triple in any road game since Todd Walker in Houston on June 14, 2004.
As mentioned, we'd gotten used to the regular cycle of six-year repeats in interleague play, where there would be a full series at one site and then a full series at the other 3 years later as the opposing divisions rotated. This year, however, the MLB schedule folks have turned many of those 4-game interleague series into a 2-and-2 set, so that the Orioles will be making a similar layover at Wrigley just before the All-Star break. But as it turns out, the Cubs will be making another trip to Baltimore too. Wednesday's game got rained out, and even though the Cubs had a scheduled off-day on Thursday, the Orioles did not. Places to go. (Kansas City.) But hey, two days off and extra crab fries when they make up that one game on August 18.
We're Never Gonna Score
Speaking of strange surroundings, the Cubs then got to head north to New York, which is not that unusual. They land at LaGuardia and walk across the street to Citi Field on a fairly regular basis. (We realize they probably don't really do this.) So why are these buses sitting here? And hang on, wait, why are we going over this bridge? Where are you taking us?!
Oh cool, Yankee Stadium. I've heard of this place. Oh neat, they arranged a tour for us since we're in town. They're even gonna let us on the field?
As it turns out, yes. Yes, they are. That, of course, is about all the Yankees will let the Cubs do, much like they've done to pretty much everyone for the past few weeks. They will also allow the Cubs to face Luis Severino in Friday's opener, which is naturally going to end with 10 strikeouts, only 1 walk, and a lone run on Jason Heyward's solo shot to start the 5th. Sevy posted that same line in his previous start last weekend, joining Gerrit Cole (April 2021) and James Paxton (April 2019) as the only pitchers in Yankees history to have 10 K, 1 walk, and 1 run allowed in consecutive outings. Heyward had previously led off the 3rd with a two-bagger and is the first Cubs batter ever to homer and double in the same game at a Yankee Stadium (any of them, whether you consider it two or three).
Meanwhile, the Cubs are cobbling together one of those "bullpen games" since everyone's had two days off. And even though The Rules say that never works, it's working. Heyward's solo homer matched one by Gleyber Torres the inning before. And that's all folks. It's 1-1. And it's a good thing everyone's available, because when the Cubs' seventh pitcher, Rowan Wick, gets DJ LeMahieu to end the 9th, well, we're gonna need more.
As we say around these parts, this is the kind of game the free-runner rule was meant for. Where neither team is doing anything and we just need it to end without blowing through a dozen pitchers. Sure enough, double play in the top of the 10th. Wick gets Josh Donaldson to fly out to the warning track in the bottom half. Cubs get their free runner doubled off in the 11th. They walk Torres in the 11th since he's the only one who's done anything, and then get the Yankees in order. Cubs can't get a ball out of the infield in the 12th. And we head to a 13th inning for the first time at Yankee Stadium since April 6, 2018, when Pedro Alvarez hita grand slam for the Orioles.
Spoiler alert, the Cubs didn't hit a grand slam. Once again they didn't get the ball out of the infield. Finally with two outs in the bottom half, pinch hitter Jose Trevino is told to grab something to swing with. And he finally dumps a bloop single into left-center to win this thing. The Yankees hadn't had a walkoff win in the 13th or later since Chase Headley hit a 14th-inning single against Texas on July 23, 2014-- in his first appearance for the Yankees. (As John Sterling called it, "Let's see what he does.") And since the start of 2014, the Cubs have played three interleague games that have gone 13 innings or longer. They've all ended in losses to the Yankees.
By the way, thanks to the free runner always creating an open base, and the Yankees being the Yankees, the Cubs issued an intentional walk at some point in all four of the extra innings. They hadn't done that four times in a game since May 4, 2005, against the Brewers (with two of them that day, plus an "unintentional" one, to Lyle Overbay).
Six Of One, Half A Dozen Of The Homer
Every week there's one game that we just know is going to get written about. On Friday we thought it was that one. On Saturday we knew there wasn't just one.
No, there wasn't just one. There were six. You may already know what we're talking about. You may not know the name Matt Swarmer. He's a 19th-round draft pick out of good old Kutztown University (which, we can verify from having driven through it after a Reading Phillies game once, does really exist). Swarmer has spent most of the last four seasons getting to know everything there is to do in Des Moines. (And with the other 3 years and 11 months,... We kid, Des Moines. Don't @ us.)
Anyway, Swarmer finally got his break on Memorial Day thanks to a doubleheader. Gave up 2 homers but struck out six, no decision, "serviceable" would be the word for it. He got a win in another doubleheader last weekend when he gave up just 2 hits in 6 innings. Then came Saturday.
It starts out fine, aside from Aaron Judge swatting his second pitch into the seats in left. (Yeah, left.) The only other leadoff homer ever hit by the Yankees against the Cubs was by Brett Gardner off Randy Wells on June 19, 2011. And as is standard practice for new pitchers, the batters have never seen Swarmer before and need a couple times up to figure out what to do with him.
Answer: Swarm. One out in the 4th, Giancarlo Stanton homer. Next pitch, Gleyber Torres homer. Jose Trevino, promoted from "pinch-hit walkoff guy", homer to start the 5th. Joey Gallo strikes out before Judge homers again, joining Derek Jeter (June 18, 2005) as the only Yankees with a multi-homer game against the Cubs in the regular season. (Tony Lazzeri and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig all did it in the 1932 World Series, however.)
Josh Donaldson has another of his long flyouts. And for the final swarm, Anthony Rizzo puts one on the porch. That would be... divide by 2, carry the 1... six home runs, all solo shots, all off the same pitcher. That's a lot to un-six-pack.
It's the third time in Yankees history that they hit six solo homers in a single game. The others were a 9-4 over Baltimore on August 6, 2019, and a 7-2 win against Boston on June 2, 1935. Since interleague play started in 1997, the Yankees and Cubs have played six other times in the Bronx. The total number of homers the Yankees hit in those games was five. The only other interleague game where the Yankees went deep six times was on July 10, 1999, at Shea-- and they still lost when Matt Franco walked off against Mariano Rivera.
We'll sidebar for a moment to mention that there were no more homers after Swarmer's departure, but there were two more runs including a sac fly by Judge in the 6th. Judge also hit 2 homers and a sac fly at Texas on September 10, 2017, and since the latter stat became an official thing in 1954, he's the first Yankees batter to do it twice. The 8-0 final was the Yankees' largest interleague shutout since they dropped a 15-0 on the Mets on June 14, 2009. Their previous high against the Cubs had been all of 3-0.
So now we turn to Mr. Swarmer. He is, as widely reported, the 10th pitcher in either the live-ball era or the modern era (take your pick, since it didn't happen between 1901 and 1919) to give up 6 homers in a single game. He supplants Michael Blazek of the Brewers (July 27, 2017, at Washington) as the most recent entry on that list. Tommy Thomas of the Browns is one of the others on the list; he did it against the Yankees on June 27, 1936. (His actual first name was Alphonse, but baseball nicknames.) There are no Cubs on the list, and no pitchers to give up more than 6 homers in one game.
But if you take it back pre-1900, you do find instances of both those things. The inherent asterisk is that those games were played with different rules and even different dimensions (the mound was 10 feet closer until 1893). Many stadiums at the time would allow overflow crowds to literally overflow into the outfield, maybe with ropes, maybe not, and often-- as in the other Cubs game we found-- there were just special ground rules created on the fly that said a fair ball that rolls into the crowd is an automatic home run. (Fun fact: The provision about Special Ground Rules remains in the rulebook to this day (4.05) but, as far as we know, hasn't been invoked in decades.) So, while Swarmer ties the "modern" record, he will at least be relieved to know he does ont tie the "all-time" record. Charlie Sweeney of the old Detroit Wolverines gave up 7 homers to St Louis on June 12, 1886, a mere 136 years minus 1 day before Swarmer's outing. And there are five others to give up 6 homers in a game before 1900 (bringing the total list up to 16), including one for the Cubs. That was Frank Foreman in the back end of an Independence Day doubleheader (hence the overflow crowd) against Cincinnati in 1895.
Just when the Cubs (and we) thought they might escape the Bronx without a huge calamity, there's still one more game to go on Sunday. Oof. Chicago gets a homer from Ian Happ in the 1st. Soooo that's a plus. After that it's all minuses, and the Yankees do not know how to just stop. Matt Carpenter draws a bases-loaded walk just five batters into the game to tie things up. But then doubles by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Joey Gallo each score 2 runs. Keegan Thompson, of the not-so-good outing in Baltimore earlier in the week, doesn't even make it through the 1st, the fist Cubs starter to do that while allowing 5 runs since Jon Lester on July 9, 2017.
The 2nd inning only results in 2 walks and a 3-run homer by Carpenter, who already has 4 RBI on the afternoon. Kyle Higashioka then plants the first pitch of the 3rd from Daniel Norris into the seats in left, and suddenly it's 10-1 and which position player is going to end up pitching in this one?
It's not Ian Happ, who leads off the 4th with a triple and thus becomes the first Cubs batter ever to homer and triple in the same game at any version of Yankee Stadium. That still only gets things back to 10-3, and then Carpenter adds another 2-run dinger in the 6th. It's only his 10th game with the Yankees and he's hit 6 homers already-- and yes, that's a record. Barry Foote, Shelley Duncan, and Eric Hinske each hit five.
So now we're at 12-4 and Sean Newcomb gets to throw the bottom of the 7th. A walk and four singles later, it's 15-4. Then Carpenter puts the finishing touches on this juggernaut with a double to right. He tallies 7 RBI, joining Alex Rodriguez (July 2, 2006, against the Mets) as the only Yankees batters ever to do that in an interleague game. Didi Gregorius (2018 vs Tampa Bay) and Alfonso Soriano (2013 vs Angels) are the only others to have a 7-RBI game at the current Yankee Stadium. And it also means that Thompson, Norris, and Newcomb are the first trio of Cubs pitchers in (at least) the modern era to each give up 5 runs while working 2 innings or less in the same game.
The eventual final of 18-4, after Kyle Higashioka homered off a position player, represented the fourth time the Yankees had scored that many runs in an interleague game, and their most ever at home. The Cubs, as you might remember, had that 20-5 debacle against the Reds just a few weeks ago, and haven't allowed 18+ twice in a season since 2010. And hey, if you're not into having a position player pitch, might as well give Manny Bañuelos as much leash as he wants. He collected a 3-inning "save" in a game the Yankees won by 14 runs, the second such decision in team history. Adam Warren got one in a 21-5 bludgeoning of the Rangers on July 28, 2015.
Three Copies, Cole-lated
If only Gerrit Cole had known what was to come two days later.
While it admittedly doesn't fit our "unusual matchups" theme, Thursday's start by Cole against the Twins does fit a "Yankees" theme, and if only he had stuck around for a few more batters, he'd been in that same list from above. The Yankees started the scoring with yet another Josh Donaldson long flyout, but this one came with a runner on third so it "doesn't count". Then Cole trots to the mound with a 1-0 lead. By pitch five, the lead is gone. By pitch six, the Yankees are suddenly losing. And by pitch eight, Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton, and Carlos Correa have become the seventh trio in MLB history to start a game with back-to-back-to-back homers. The Diamondbacks did it in Philadelphia on June 10, 2019, and four of the remaining five are in this century. In fact it didn't happen at all (not even with weird ground rules) until the Padres did it against San Francisco on April 13, 1987.
Never fear, Joey Gallo will re-tie the game with a 2-run shot in the 2nd. So Cole will get another chance to at least not lose the game. Which he blows by giving up a 3-run bomb to Buxton in his second at-bat. He's the first hitter in Twins/Senators history to go deep in both the 1st and 2nd innings of the same game against the Yankees. And then as Cole nears the end of the second time through, #7 batter Trevor Larnach takes him for a fifth homer. The last Yankees pitcher to surrender five in a game was CC Sabathia against the Rays on August 12, 2011. And only twice before had Minnesota ever hit 5 homers off a single pitcher. One of those was last September against Brady Singer of the Royals; the other goes back to April 29, 1962, when Cleveland's Gary Bell got, um, rung up.
Dylan Bundy is, incredibly, not on the list of pitchers to give up 5 homers in a game. Though he was a key cog in that stretch in 2018 where the Orioles starters seemed to give up 5 runs every game. (Bundy, to his "credit", did lead the majors in losses and homers allowed that year.) And oh yeah, the Yankees are here. Joey Gallo, second dinger that knocks Bundy out of the game in the 5th. Gallo will end this game as the second player in the live-ball era to hit 2 homers but also have 3 strikeouts while batting 9th, after Travis Snider of the Jays did it in 2009. Then DJ LeMahieu greets Jharel Cotton with a solo shot. Then Aaron Hicks greets Joe Smith (which may or may not be his real name) with a 2-run bomb in the 6th and we're back to a 7-7 tie. That gets Cole off the hook and makes him the third Yankees pitcher ever to give up 5 homers and not lose, after Jeff Weaver in 2002 and John Cumberland in 1970. We also have the second game in Target Field history with 9 total homers; the other was against Houston on May 31, 2017.
Because it's the Yankees, you know how this ends-- with a couple late-inning runs and a 10-7 win. That makes it the third game in Twins/Senators history where they went deep five times and lost; they're all in the past 3 years and the others are both against Detroit. And since they started the game with three straight homers, it's also not a stretch to think each of those top three batters might also have drawn a walk later in the game. No team had seen its #1, #2, and #3 batters each homer and walk in a loss since the Angels did it on August 19, 1967. And yes, on that list of seven teams to begin a game by going back-to-back-to-back, only one other squad ended up losing. That was the very first team to do it, those Padres of 1987.
For more than half a century, the Cardinals called St Petersburg home. At least for about six weeks in February and March. Their spring-training home was Al Lang Stadium, which we've actually walked past (it's about a mile and a half from The Trop), and where a foul ball off to the left might very well end up in Tampa Bay. However, in 1998, "Tampa Bay" would get upgraded from a body of water to a new MLB team, and the Cardinals would move to Jupiter. (Not the planet, although that drive across the Everglades can feel like a voyage to another world.)
Anyhow, this is a long-winded way of pointing out that the Cardinals got to make a return trip to St Petersburg this week. Instead of playing at Al Lang (which would be weird since it's now a soccer stadium), they're playing at Tropicana Field, where a foul ball off to the left will probably get stuck on a catwalk. And when you've been outside for so long and you suddenly come inside, it takes a little while to adjust to the light. At least, that's what we're going to blame Tuesday on.
Dakota Hudson, named for two states and another large bay which is nowhere near Tampa, explores the Rays lineup to the tune of 2 hits in 7 innings. The only blemish is when Manuel Margot leads off the 7th with a double and then scores on a sac fly by Isaac Paredes. That actually broke a scoreless tie (see: the light-adjustment thing) and is the first go-ahead sac fly ever hit by Tampa Bay (that's the team, not the body of water) against the Cardinals.
Alas, they squander that lead when Andrew Kittredge gives up a walk and 2 singles in the 8th. So off we go to free-runner land. In which Lars Nootbaar (because you can't say "Lars Nootbaar" often enough) returns the favor of a go-ahead sac fly. The Cardinals had hit one other of those against the Rays, by Dexter Fowler on August 25, 2017, although that was in the 1st inning. So we hand the ball to Drew VerHagen for the save, only to see said ball end up in the right-field seats. After a walk and two outs, Taylor Walls connects for a 3-run walkoff, the first walkoff win in Rays history against the Cardinals. That leaves five teams (ARI, ATL, CHC, LAD, PIT) against whom they've never had one. And thanks to Hudson's shutdown, that was only the third hit of the game for Tampa Bay. They'd never had either an interleague game or an extra-inning game where they scored 4 runs on 3 or fewer hits.
We don't have a lot to say about Wednesday's 11-3 blowout, aside from it being the Rays' largest win ever against the Cardinals. Packy Naughton (who, with all due respect, sounds like he should be the villain in a mediocre British cartoon series) gave up 4 runs while getting just 4 outs and striking out 0. He joins Matt Morris (2003 at Yankees) and Mark Petkovsek (1998 at Cleveland) as the only Cardinals starters ever to do that in an AL park. Randy Arozarena ended up with 4 RBI, joining Johnny Damon as the only Rays batters ever to do that against St Louis. Damon did it in what had been their previous biggest win over the Cardinals, an 8-3 contest on July 3, 2011.
Meanwhile, Thursday's getaway game creates for us a little bit of irony. We like to say it's hard to write about stuff that doesn't happen. But baseball only happened for 114 minutes that day. (That's an hour-54 if math's not your thing.) And yet watch this.
There has not been any 9-inning game (this includes 8½ where home team doesn't bat) to finish in under 2 hours since a duel between Noah Syndergaard of the Mets and Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins on May 19, 2019. The last to finish in 1:54 was a double complete game between Toronto (Mark Buehrle) and the White Sox (Chris Sale) on July 6, 2015.
So how did this finish in under 2 hours? Well, Miles Mikolas did throw a complete game for the Cardinals while walking zero and striking out nine. Problem is, he gave up 2 runs on a homer by Ji-Man Choi in the 4th. So, um, at least he only had to go 8 innings? The last Cardinals pitcher to post that line above and lose was Chris Carpenter at Cincinnati on August 26, 2004. Meanwhile, Shane McClanahan also threw 8 innings and allowed just 2 hits and an unearned run. He also struck out nine, the first Rays pitcher with that combined line (8 IP, 2 H, 9 K) since Drew Smyly at Boston on April 19, 2016.
Your final tally: Rays 2 runs on 3 hits, Cards 1 run on 2 hits. A total of 2 walks and 19 strikeouts. Zero mid-inning pitching changes. Mikolas also threw his 8-inning CG on only 85 pitches. (Swing early, swing often!) The last pitcher to do that in a full game (not shortened by rain) was Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs on May 3, 2019. And the last Cardinals pitcher to do it was Bob Tewksbury who pulled it off twice within a three-start span in August 1990.
We already covered the Yankees hosting (and beating up on) their friends from "The Second City" (as dubbed by The New Yorker in 1952, and from which the comedy club and troupe took its name). (In another bit of irony, the club and related enterprises are now owned by a New York-based investment firm.) We're not sure if that makes Los Angeles "the third city"? They would wholeheartedly disagree. But while New York is hosting Chicago, Chicago is busy hosting Los Angeles. Huh?
You may be aware that Chicago has two teams. So while the Cubs are off exploring the Triborough Bridge, the Dodgers are taking a little ride down the Dan Ryan to visit the White Sox. That's another one that doesn't happen very often. And you might also be aware that the Dodgers have been pretty good for, well, a while now. So when Tuesday's opener ends in a 4-0 Chicago win, it's actually their second-largest shutout ever in a regular-season game against the Dodgers, after a 6-0 on June 17, 2005. (That year turned out okay for them. And speaking of the World Series, they also have an 11-0 shutout against the Dodgers in the 1959 fall classic.)
Because "balks make everything funner" (someone embroider this on a throw pillow for us), Michael Kopech managed to allow only 1 hit and strike out 8 in that shutout win on Tuesday. That's not highly unusual. But he became just the second pitcher in Sox history to do that while also managing to commit a balk. Doc White pulled it off against the A's on June 5, 1906. A.J. Pollock's double in the 6th was really all the Sox needed; it was the team's first multi-run, pinch-hit, go-ahead double against any opponent since Nick Swisher hit one against the Giants on May 18, 2008.
The Dodgers returned the favor on Wednesday with a ho-hum 4-1 win that included 3 homers. The only other regular-season game where Los Angeles went yard three times against the White Sox was on July 19, 2017; they also did it twice in that 1959 World Series between the teams. Tony Gonsolin ran his season record to 7-0, with all seven games being starts where he allowed 4 hits or fewer. He's the first Dodgers pitcher in (at least) the modern era to accomplish that little feat.
Then we come to Thursday's finale, which we thought was going to be That Game We Write About until the rest of Thursday happened. (And then Friday. And then Saturday.)
Tyler Anderson gets tagged for 4 runs early and it looks like this might be another uneventful getaway game. Dylan Cease is on the hill trying to get through that magical 5th inning so he "qualifies" for a win (change this rule!), and here's how that goes. Strikeout. Ground-ball single. Walk. E5 as Jake Burger tries to start an inning-ending double play but overcooks it. So when Mookie Betts strikes out, Cease should be out of the inning and get his win. Should be.
Freddie Freeman, 2-run double. Trea Turner, RBI single and then steals second. Max Muncy, 2-run double. Suddenly the Sox are trailing and Cease can't get his win even if the does finish the inning. Which he doesn't. Two more walks and a wild pitch bring home Muncy for a total of 6 runs against Cease, but all of them unearned because the inning should have ended if Burger hadn't put too much mustard on the throw. He's actually now on the hook for the loss, which he will end up getting-- the first Sox pitcher to allow 0 earned runs, strike out 8+, and eat a loss in a home game since Tommy John on May 20, 1966.
Burger is going to try and redeem himself by homering in the bottom of the 5th, but that only gets Chicago within 1. Freeman restores the 2-run lead with a single in the 6th, making him the second Dodgers batter to have 3 hits and 3 RBI in a game against the White Sox. Corey Seager did it in that same 3-homer game from July 19, 2017.
Then Muncy follows a couple batters later and opens things up with his own 3-run homer, thus becoming the first Dodgers hitter ever to have 5 RBI in a game against the White Sox. That also pushes the Dodgers' run total to 10, the first time they've ever scored double digits against the White Sox. Their previous high had been a 9-3 win that clinched that 1959 World Series title at the Los Angeles Coliseum (they also scored 9 in that 2017 series, but the pictures from 1959 are more amusing). That also leaves five opponents against whom the Dodgers have never scored 10 runs: Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, and the Yankees (although they have done it against the Yankees in the World Series).
We trade a couple more dinky runs at the end, but Los Angeles holds on for an 11-9 win. For the White Sox, it was their first time scoring 9 runs in an interleague game and losing since the Astros beat them by the same score 10 years plus 1 day earlier (June 10, 2012). Josh Harrison wound up as the second Sox #9 batter ever to have a triple and a sac fly in a loss, joining Ozzie Guillen on September 15, 1997.
And in possibly our favorite note of the week, Gavin Lux finished with 4 hits and a walk. He is indeed the first Dodgers batter ever to post that line against the White Sox. But he's not the first Dodgers batter to post that line on the south side of Chicago. Ballpark afficionadoes will know that the Cubs didn't move into Wrigley Field until 1916 after the Federal League (and the Whales, for whom it was built) disbanded. Prior to that the Cubs played at the West End Grounds, which were south of Madison Street and very close to where the UIC hospital currently sits. So Lux joins a very obscure list where the last entry-- the last Dodgers batter with 4 hits and a walk on the "south side"-- was by James "Red" Smith in a 9-2 win on June 15, 1913.
Sooooo New York is hosting Chicago while Chicago is hosting Los Angeles, and thus Los Angeles must be hosting... New York. May the cycle be unbroken. (That's a hint.) Here we must also point out that the Angels have not actually played in Los Angeles since 1965, and that Anaheim isn't even in Los Angeles County. But after all those years trying to claim all of California in their moniker, maybe we've reached a compromise.
Although New York may consider Chicago the "Second City", its real rival, at least in baseball terms, is Boston. So before New York heads to town, the Red Sox will also be visiting The Big A for a 4-game set. They tend to do this once a year, but still unusual things like to happen.
Monday's opener pitted Michael Wacha against Noah Syndergaard, previously mentioned as being one half of the last under-2-hours game in the majors. So he made fairly quick work of the Red Sox, allowing 5 hits and 1 walk but also departing after 6 innings. That one run even involved a runner (Alex Verdugo) scoring all the way from first on a single to center. Seemed harmless enough at the time. But check out what Wacha is up to. After two early hits, he gets a double play to get out of the 1st, and then retires 14 more in a row. A 6th-inning double by Matt Duffy interrupts that streak, but then another double play gets him out of the 7th at just 89 pitches.
The Red Sox aren't scoring either, but that lone run in the 2nd is going to hold up when Wacha gets the last six outs of the game on 16 pitches. The only other 1-0 win for Boston against the Angels was July 31, 1977 when Don Aase was the pitcher and Carlton Fisk's 9th-inning single brought home Fred Lynn. The last Sawx pitcher to throw a shutout against the Angels on 3 hits was Bob Ojeda on July 22, 1984.
Boston won Tuesday's game 6-5 when Christian Vazquez drove in a free runner in the top of the 10th. That sent the Angels to their 13th straight loss, a team record for a single season. Much like the Orioles began the 1988 campaign with 21 straight losses, the Angels ended it with 12 straight to finish 29 games out.
So surely this streak has to end on Wednesday because, after all, every Angels batter has Nickelback as their walkup music. And they've got Reid Detmers on the mound, who inexplicably threw a no-hitter a few weeks ago.
Mmmm, yeah, they lost again. But this is by no means a blowout. In fact it looks a lot like Monday's game. Detmers gives up a couple of walks and a couple of hits before departing in the 5th. The Angels get two baserunners in both the 2nd and 3rd but can't convert. Finally Bobby Dalbec's double breaks the scoreless tie in the 6th after Jimmy Herget walks Alex Verdugo, and it's 1-0 Red Sox. And then the mysterious Red Sox bullpen gets a double play in the 7th and retires seven more batters in order to once again secure a 1-0 win. Yes, that means they had exactly one 1-0 win over the Angels in their first 669 games and 60 years of playing each other (as Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark pointed out in his own column on Friday). Then they had two in the next three. The Red Sox hadn't had a pair of 1-0 wins in the same road series against anyone since August 25 and 26, 1990, when they did it in Toronto.
(Epilogue: The Angels did finally win Thursday's getaway game, 5-2, to stop that losing streak and spare us from even-more-interesting musical selections such as the Kars-4-Kids jingle.
(WHY did you click that? Nothing good can happen.)
By Friday the Red Sox are safely up north in Seattle and those aforementioned New Yorkers are hanging around Anaheim. But, as also mentioned, those aren't your usual New Yorkers. They're the Mets. Who haven't been to Anaheim in over 8 years, and as many of you out there know, if you don't use those Disney points in a timely manner, they'll expire on you. [Insert Mickey laugh here.]
Jhonathan Diaz is charged with getting the Mets out, and to his credit, he does get some of them. He also gives up 5 hits and 2 walks before leaving in the 2nd inning, the first Angels starter to do that in a home game since Felix Peña against Seattle on July 29, 2018. He's the first ever to post that line in an interleague for the Angels, home or road.
Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha add RBI hits in the 6th to put this one away for the Mets, 7-3. They're the second Mets teammates ever to have 3 RBI each in a game in Anaheim; Jose Reyes and Jeromy Burnitz did it on June 15, 2003 in an 8-0 win. Nimmo, who went yard off Andrew Wentz back in the 4th, is also the second Mets batter ever to record a homer and a double in the same game at Anaheim Stadium. Damion Easley did that in a 5-4 win on June 18, 2008.
Brandon Marsh provided 2 of the Angels' 3 runs with a pair of solo homers. He's the second batter in team history to have a multi-homer game against the Mets, after Garret Anderson did it on June 14, 2003. Only two other Angels batters have recorded multiple homers in an interleague loss: Kole Calhoun in the Freeway Series of 2018, and Mark Trumbo against the Cubs in 2013.
On Saturday the Angels jump ahead quickly with back-to-back doubles in the 1st inning by Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon. Jared Walsh follows them with a strikeout to tamp down the threat of a big inning. But don't put away your Jared Walsh bingo card just yet. (If you actually have such a thing, we have some suggestions for you.)
Mike Trout homers in the 3rd but then Ohtani gets gunned down at the plate on a single by Walsh (check) to end the inning. It's quiet for a little while until Ohtani hits his own homer the next time around to put the Angels up 5-0. Walsh's double (check) is the last ball thrown by Carlos Carrasco, who departs after 77 pitches. His replacement, Jake Reed, then gives up 2 homers in the 6th, including another by Trout, and the Angels are well on their way to a blowout. However, Anthony Rendon strike out to end that inning, leaving Walsh on deck and meaning that all he can do in the 7th is hit a leadoff homer (check). 9-1 in favor of the Halos and don't look now, but he's "a triple shy of the cycle" [groan]. That just never happens. They never end up getting the-- no way, he freakin' got the triple! In the midst of a blowout, Jared Walsh has become the fifth player in Angels history to hit for the cycle at Anaheim Stadium, and Mike Trout-- who did it on May 21, 2013, against Seattle-- can tell him what it's like. The others on the list are Jeff DaVanon (2004), Dan Ford (1979), and Jim Fregosi (1968). There have been four cycles recorded against the Mets; the previous one was posted by Vladimir Guerrero of the then-Expos on September 14, 2003. Ray Lankford of the Cardinals (1991) and Wes Parker of the Dodgers (1970) own the others.
Oliver Ortega has a long leash and gives up 4 runs in the 9th to make this look closer than it was. But a cycle obviously requires at least 10 total bases. With his 2 homers and a double, Trout has also racked up 10 total bases. Only one other set of teammates in Angels history has pulled that off, C.J. Cron and Carlos Perez in Boston on July 2, 2016. Throw in Ohtani's performance, and they are the first Angels trio to each record 3 hits and 3 RBI in the same game since Erick Aybar, Chone Figgins, and Juan Rivera did it in Baltimore on August 16, 2009.
The Mets might just want to stick to playing in the actual Los Angeles.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Jazz Chisholm, Tuesday: Second leadoff batter in Marlins history with 6 RBI in a game. Kurt Abbott did it against Houston on July 17, 1996.
⚾ Jazz Chisholm, Friday: Second leadoff homer ever hit by Marlins in Houston. Hanley Ramirez off Roy Oswalt, April 17, 2007.
⚾ Eduardo Escobar, Monday: Second Mets batter to hit for the cycle and have 6 RBI in the same game. Kevin McReynolds did it in St Louis on August 1, 1989.
⚾ Orioles, Sunday: First time hitting for a double cycle (2 HR, 2 3B, 2 2B, 2 1B) in Kansas City since a 9-2 win on August 29, 1983.
⚾ Joc Pederson, Wednesday: First Giants cleanup batter to have 0 hits and 4 strikeouts in a game they still won since Jeff Kent against the Dodgers on September 17, 1997.
⚾ Chris Stratton, Saturday: First Pirates pitcher to give up 5 runs to the Braves while getting no outs since Tommie Sisk on May 10, 1964.
⚾ Geraldo Perdomo & Matt Reynolds, Tuesday: First opposing #9 batters to each have 4 RBI in the same game since MIN Mark Salas & DET Tom Brookens on May 29, 1987.
⚾ Sandy Alcantara, Wednesday: Second pitcher in Marlins history to throw 9+ shutout innings and not get a win (because the offense didn't score either). Jesús Sanchez (not the current outfielder) did it against the Phillies on September 26, 1998.
⚾ Giants, Sunday: First time hitting 2 solo homers in the 1st inning, scoring no other runs in the game, and having that hold up for a win, since May 27, 1964, in St Louis.
⚾ Aaron Nola, Wednesday: First Phillies pitcher to throw 8+ scoreless innings with 0 walks in Milwaukee since Robin Roberts against the Braves on May 31, 1959.
⚾ Chris Okey, Saturday: First Reds non-pitcher to get hit by a pitch in his first MLB plate appearance since Skeeter Barnes on September 6, 1983.
⚾ Josh Rojas, Thursday: Second lead-flipping single in D'backs history in the 9th or later of a road game. Willie Bloomquist hit one at Dodger Stadium on June 10, 2013.
⚾ Diamondbacks, Monday: First time in team history that they had a leadoff hit to start the game and no other hits after that.
⚾ Cole Sands, Sunday: First Twins pitcher to allow 5 runs, 3 steals, throw a wild pitch, and hit a batter since LaTroy Hawkins on August 1, 1998.
⚾ Jonathan Heasley, Friday: Second pitcher in Royals history to throw 7+ innings of 1-hit ball against the Orioles. Bret Saberhagen is the other, on September 17, 1989.
⚾ Marcus Semien, Tuedsay: First Rangers batter with 3 hits in both games of a doubleheader since Marlon Byrd, also in Cleveland, on September 8, 2009.
⚾ Phillies, Thursday: First time homering in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings of the same game since Von Hayes, Dickie Thon, and Curt Ford did it in San Diego on May 30, 1969.
⚾ Padres, Saturday: First time held to 4 or fewer hits in both games of a doubleheader since September 2, 1974, in Atlanta.
⚾ Blue Jays, Monday: Largest shutout win ever in Kansas City (8-0), topping a 7-0 from April 29, 1982.
⚾ Bobby Witt, Thursday: First player in Royals history with a double, a sac fly, and 2 stolen bases in the same game.
⚾ Blue Jays, Friday: Second time ever hitting 3 homers in the same inning in Detroit (either stadium). Willie Aikens, Ernie Whitt, and Alfredo Griffin all went yard on June 5, 1984.
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