Normally when we discuss "perfection" in baseball we mean the number 27, and we mean it in a pitching sense. To quote John Sterling (which is generally not something one should do often), "27 up, 27 down-- baseball immortality!". It's coming up on 10 years since the last perfect game in the majors, although you might remember Clayton Kershaw threatening us with one just last weekend.
However, ask your local mathematician (because naturally we all have one on speed dial), and you will hear that the list of perfect numbers does not include 27-- but does include 28. In that discipline, a "perfect number" is one that is the sum of all its divisors-- in this case, 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14. There are only a few dozen of these known to exist, even with supercomputers which have done the calculations out to millions of digits. So when the baseball gods dropped a 28 in our lap on Friday, the only imperfect thing about it was the scoreboard at Fenway.
You know The Game We Have To Write About. Heading into Friday, we actually wondered what this post was going to look like, considering we lost half a week's schedule to the All-Star break. Never fear, those baseball gods always seem to figure it out.
Oh sure, it starts innocently enough; to paraphrase a proverb, a journey of 28 runs begins with a weak groundout to the pitcher. That's what Toronto's Bo Bichette did in the 1st after Nate Eovaldi gave up back-to-back 1-out hits. (1) But then Teoscar Hernandez strikes out and this seems to be just another game.
We move on to the 2nd where Lourdes Gurriel leads off with a single. (Keep track of his hits too while you're at it.) Matt Chapman then works a 7-pitch at-bat before homering to left-center. (3) Boston gets a pair of singles in their half but Kevin Gausman strikes out the next two batters to end any threat. But still 3-0 is a perfectly normal score, even for 2 innings.
It's appropriate that we're at Fenway, with its famous center-field triangle, because 28 is also what's called a "triangular number", the sum of (in this case) the first seven positive integers. You often see it depicted as a pyramid of dots or balls or whatever, with one on top, two in the next row, three in the next row, and so forth. So after 1 in the 1st and 2 in the 2nd, the Jays just need to keep this going and they will land on 28 after a 7-run 7th. They will end up getting the 4 in the right spot. And they got the 7-run inning too-- just a little early.
Eovaldi, who seems to enjoy giving up 2 hits each inning, puts runners on second and third with 1 out again. This time he walks Hernandez to load them up before Gurriel unleashes a 2-run single to center. (5) Two batters later Santiago Espinal singles home Hernandez and takes second on the throw home (which fails). (6) Hey, there's our 3-run 3rd (and another perfect number, 6). Except this now leaves first base open for Danny Jansen to draw a 4-pitch walk and reload the bases. So if you thought there might be a grand slam coming next, well, you'd be right-- but with a little wrinkle.
That Fenway triangle is already famous for long doubles and triples when hits bounce off the sidewalls-- and that's when the center fielder can actually find the ball. When he loses one in the air and it ends up behind him, well, there's just no chance. Raimel Tapia has just recorded the second inside-the-park grand slam in Jays history (10); Junior Felix also hit one at Fenway on June 2, 1989, also in the famous triangle where it "caromed away from Ellis Burks" according to the AP recap. It was the third IGS in the majors this century, and the first not in a Phillies/Nationals game: Michael Taylor's 2017 hit answered one by Aaron Altherr from two years prior.
We already mentioned that the Jays were going to get their 4 in the 4th; those come on a solo homer by Teoscar Hernandez (11)and a 3-run bomb by Danny Jansen (14). Also, Eovaldi has long since left the game; the grand slam came on the first pitch from reliever Austin Davis. But that means Eovaldi gets tagged for 9 runs in less than 3 innings, which he also did on May 17 against the Astros. Only two other pitchers in Red Sox history have pulled that off twice, Greg Bird (both in 1983) and Luis Tiant (1974-76).
Boston gets a pair of homers in the 4th so at least they're not getting shut out anymore. But this is already reaching "game we have to write about" status. And then the 5th inning happens.
Kaleb Ort is the next unlucky Sawx pitcher to stick his hand in this buzzsaw. He actually starts by getting two quick outs and maybe there's a chance. Mmm, nope. Bichette, Hernandez, and Gurriel all single in quick succession. (15) Matt Chapman brings in another run when the entire Boston infield converges on a popup but nobody bothers to try catching it. (16) After another walk reloads the bases, Danny Jansen singles home a third score. (17) Raimel Tapia-- of inside-the-park-grand-slam fame, has the bases loaded again. And there's just no way he could... no, could he even possibly?...
Well, no, he doesn't. He does drive another double off the Green Monster (ignore MLB's caption that says it went to "right-center", because interns) to bring in 2 more runs. (19) And Vlad Guerrero Jr, who started the inning with a strikeout, will not end it with a strikeout. Instead he ends Ort's fascinating outing with a 2-run single to left (21). Ort will end up charged with 8 runs on only 2 outs, joining Rob Stanifer (2000) and Marv Grissom (1953) as the only pitchers in Red Sox history to post such a line.
Darwinzon Hernandez gets tapped to be next, basically only because he hasn't seen action in a week. He's already trailing by 18, so what's the harm if Bichette and Teoscar add on two more singles (23). Then Gurriel, who drove in the first run of the inning with 2 outs, gets to drive in the 10th and 11th! runs of the inning, still with 2 outs. His double (25) gives him 4 hits and 5 RBI if you've lost count, and it ties the Jays' franchise record for runs in a single frame (they've now done it six times). However, that 25th run also gave Toronto its largest single-game output in team history, breaking a 24-10 victory over Baltimore on June 26, 1978.
Starter Kevin Gausman (yes, he's still out there) now has a 22-run lead, so not only does he have the proverbial "long leash", he might just be roaming the neighborhood freely and darting into traffic. He's going to end up striking out 10 Boston batters before departing in the 6th, something he also did on June 27. Only two other Jays pitchers have had multiple 10-K games against the Sawx in the same season; they were Ted Lilly in 2004 and Roger Clemens in 1997. And from the "no lead is safe" file (more on the Yankees later), that 22-run margin is about to become 24. Santiago Espinal reaches on an error to start the 6th (perhaps the Red Sox have just given up caring by now), and then Danny Jansen blows yet another homer over the Green Monster. (27) You probably haven't been counting his stats along the way, but he's now got 2 homers and 6 RBI, joining Teoscar Hernandez (2021), Lyle Overbay (2010), and Ernie Whitt (1988) as the only Jays with such a game at Fenway Park. More importantly, though, he's also scored 4 runs and he's batting 9th. Only four other players in MLB history have had a 4-and-6 game out of the 9-hole: Seby Zavala of the White Sox last year, Jackie Bradley (who is watching from the other dugout) in 2015, Ramon Vazquez for Texas in 2007, and Micah Owings in his 2-homer game for the Diamondbacks. Plus, thanks to the grand slam and the double, Raimel Tapia has also driven in 6 runs; it is the first time since RBI became an official stat in 1920 that the #1 and #9 batters for the same team each had 6 of them in the same game.
Those last two tallies for Toronto also mean Darwinzon Hernandez has gotten charged with 4 runs, after Nate Eovaldi's 9, Austin Davis's 5, and Kaleb Ort's 8. Only four other teams in the live-ball era have sent four different pitchers to the mound and had them give up 4+ runs in fewer than 3 innings. The last of those was the Rockies against Cincinnati on May 19, 1999, and of course there's a Coors Field asterisk on that one. So at this point the only remaining suspense is whether the Rangers' 30-3 record is going to fall.
Well, you already know that it's not. Gurriel does get a leadoff single in the 7th but the Jays fail to score and thus lose their chance to become the first-ever American League team to score in all 9 innings of a regulation game. Hirokazu Sawamura works a 1-2-3 8th. And it's up to infielder Yolmer Sanchez, playing only his second game with Boston after coming over from those other Sox last winter, who does the "position player pitching" honors in the 9th. And like so many before him, he gives up two more base hits, including the sixth of the day to Lourdes Gurriel. The only other 6-hit game in Jays history was posted by Frank Catalanotto against the White Sox on May 1, 2004. And the last player for any team with 6 hits and 5 RBI in a game was Anthony Rendon of the Nationals in that wild 23-5 game with the Mets on April 30, 2017.
By now all nine Jays starters have also recorded multiple hits and multiple runs scored, although several of them are also out of the game because, well, 27 runs. Only one other squad in the modern era has had all nine starters do that, the Angels against Toronto in a 24-2 beatdown on August 25, 1979. So the only way to finish this off is to have Matt Chapman atone for striking out to end the 11-run inning, by driving home Cavan Biggio with a 1-out single. (28!) And that also broke a Red Sox record for most runs allowed in a game; Cleveland beat them 27-3 a mere 99 years ago (July 7, 1923).
If you're more into the scientific uses of the number 28, a glance at your Periodic Table will tell you that an atom with 28 protons is the element nickel. Which is also neat, because the Red Sox scored a nickel's worth of runs. We didn't mention that Rob Refsnyder homered in the 7th to give us our 28-5 final, because, well, at that point who really cares. But Refsnyder did deny us what's called a "scorigami", a final tally that has never happened in the history of whatever sport is under consideration. 28-4 and 28-8 would have been unique; the ones in between are not. Although you can put a big asterisk next to the only other 28-5 game in MLB history. It happened on August 25. 1891, between the Dodgers and Cubs (neither of whom went by those nicknames yet), when pitches were thrown on flat ground at 55 feet.
get the idea of how farcical this game seemed at the time.)
Only six times since 1901 (considered the famous "modern era") has a team scored 28 runs in a game; we all know that 30-3 Texas mess in 2007. There have been three 29's, most recently the Braves against Miami in September 2020. Boston was on the front end of one of those, against the Browns on June 8, 1950. And the White Sox did it against the Kansas City Athletics on April 23, 1955. The only other 28 in the mix is a Cards/Phillies drubbing from July 6, 1929.
And as much as we'd like to throw in a couple notes about Sunday's series finale, in which the Jays piled up 15 more hits and won 8-4, we really can't because everything was done already. But we will give a shout-out to Raimel Tapia, who had another 4 RBI on a triple and a pair of singles. Only one other Toronto batter has had multiple 4-RBI games in the same series against Boston-- and it's the guy who hit the other inside-the-park grand slam in team history. Junior Felix followed up that 1989 outing with 3 more hits in a 10-2 win the next day.
Of course we all remember that 29-9 game from a couple years ago. (Even the cardboard cutouts can tell you exactly where they were. Especially since they really didn't move much.) However, unless you're the Brewers, there's a good chance you don't remember what else happened that day. Before that game blew up in the evening, Milwaukee had an afternoon tilt in Detroit and hung an incredible 19-0 shutout on the Tigers. We thought that was The Game.
This week the Cubs may be having similar thoughts. Because lost in the 28-5 scrum, they were down the road in Philadelphia posting a fairly impressive win that nobody noticed because it barely had half as many runs. Reset your counting devices, here we go again.
The first damage of Friday's game actually comes from Kyle Schwarber, who has become no stranger to leadoff homers since joining the Phillies. He's got four of them so far this season; the last Phils batter with more was Jimmy Rollins in 2012. And Kyle Gibson escapes any damage the first time around the Cubs order, so it seems fairly calm for now. Willson Contreras matches Schwarber's homer in the 4th so we're tied. Until we're not.
Gibson surrenders 2 walks, a double to Chris Morel, and a pair of singles while getting 1 out in the 5th. Jeurys Familia gets called upon to stop the bleeding and proceeds to rip the scab off. Back-to-back doubles to his first two batters result in a 6-run inning. It's worth noting that Gibson didn't strike out a single batter before leaving; he's the first Phillies pitcher to gave up 6 runs to the Cubs with 0 K's since Cole Hamels on August 24, 2006.
The Phils' bullpen gets through a few more innings, it's still 7-1, and then JoJo Romero gets called upon for the 8th. We had to look him up too; he's made 25 appearances over the last 3 seasons, averaging basically one inning per game because The Rules now say he has to. He would probably be that "lefty specialist" if that were still a thing. Next thing you know, he's given up a 2-run pinch-hit homer to Nelson Velazquez, then a walk and two more hits to make it 10-1. And now it's time for another post-break installment of Position Players Pitching. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs thought he had the night off. Chuckle.
Stubbs got inserted into a 12-1 blowout against Arizona back in mid-June and surrendered only 1 run. On Friday he is greeted by Chris Morel's third hit of the game; Morel will end up scoring his third run of the game as well in just a moment. Morel also did that out of the 9-hole on June 30 against the Reds, given our new world order where pitchers don't bat anymore. Only one other Cubs #9 batter in the modern era has had multiple games in the same season with 3 hits and 3 runs scored; that was actual pitcher Don Cardwell in 1960.
That third run for Morel is going to come on Nelson Velazquez's second homer of the night, and remember, he just hit the first one as a pinch hitter last inning. Only one other batter in Cubs history has recorded 2 homers and 5 RBI in a game he didn't start; that was Thad Bosley against the Expos on August 12, 1985. P.J. Higgins then doubles before Seiya Suzuki cranks another dinger to give the Cubs their final total of 15 runs. Suzuki, along with Ian Happ-- who followed with a single but got erased on a double play to end the inning-- each ended up with 4 hits in the game, the first time any Cubs teammates have done that in Philadelphia since Rick Monday and Don Kessinger on May 16, 1972.
And the Phillies end the game the same way they started it, with a solo homer-- this time by Darick Hall with 2 outs in the 9th. That makes our final tally 15-2, exactly matching the score from the Cubs' previous 13-run win over the Phillies. That was on June 8, 1990.
The Phillies at least decided to be consistent and score 2 runs again on Saturday. (And lose again.) This one did not involve a leadoff homer, nor did it involve Chicago dropping 15 on them. It was notable in that Marcus Stroman and Zack Wheeler battled to a 1-1 tie which sent us off to Free Runner Land. In which the Cubs have some fun with Jose Alvarado.
Frank Schwindel reaches on a fielder's choice which fails to get the free runner. David Bote doubles. Chris Morel singles and then steals second; today his special accolade is that he's the first Cubs #9 batter in (at least) the live-ball era to have 2 hits, a steal, and get hit by a pitch all in one game. An error and a double by Willson Contreras eventually clear the bases and the Cubs hang a 5-spot in the top of the 10th. That's the first time they've posted 5+ in an extra inning since they started getting help from the new rules; their last such game was June 11, 2018, at Milwaukee. Alvarado got only 1 out and ate the loss; even though two of his runs were unearned, all five of them still count. No Phillies pitcher had posted that line since Joaquin Benoit against Seattle on May 10, 2017.
If You Love Runs Set Them Free
For as much as the free runners were supposed to eliminate long slogs of games where nobody scores (looking at you, AL West!), the system isn't perfect. While the Brewers were scoreboard-watching the 28-5 and the 15-2, they couldn't seem to get their own board unstuck from 3-3.
Charlie Blackmon hit a 2-run homer for the Rockies, which Milwaukee promptly answered with jacks by Willy Adames and Andrew McCutchen. It's 3-3 by the 6th, and the Brewers can't inch themselves back ahead despite having multiple baserunners in both the 6th and the 8th. Blackmon singles home the Rockies' free runner in the 10th, and Brendan Rodgers later hits a sac fly to score Blackmon so it's 5-3. Just as the Brewers are down to their final strike in the bottom half, Hunter Renfroe does this. It's only the third time the Brewers have hit a multi-run homer in extra innings of a home game and had it not be a walkoff; the others were August 7 of last year by Luis Urias (in another "free runner" situation), and June 17, 2017, when Keon Broxton matched 2-run homers with Yangervis Solarte of the Padres.
So we're not stuck on 3-3 anymore, but we are stuck on 5-5. Only one of the next 12 batters gets the ball out of the infield; Rockies runner Ryan McMahon thinks he can make it to third on a grounder to short and is proven wrong. C.J. Cron whiffs for the fifth time in the game to end the top of the 12th. The Rockies issue a pair of intentional walks in the bottom half to set up a force at home, which ends up actually working. Finally in the 13th it is time for Luis Urias to come through again, with a walkoff single after (yet again) the Rockies can't get the ball out of the infield in their half. Although the list of 13-inning "free runner" games has grown to seven with Friday's addition, we've still only had one go beyond that; it was the 16-inning Dodgers/Padres affair from last August.
The Brewers had not recorded a walkoff win in the 13th or later since Ryan Braun singled against the Mets on May 4, 2019. And those 5 strikeouts by C.J. Cron?, well, he's only the second batter in Rockies history with 5 K's and a base hit in the same contest, joining Roberto Mejia on August 9, 1993. (Four others-- Ryan McMahon, Trevor Story, DJ LeMahieu, and Carlos Gonzalez-- have had the 5 K's without the hit.)
After a fairly easy 9-4 win on Saturday, the Brewers narrowly escaped with another 1-run victory to end the week on Sunday, in a game that might have gotten more attention if not for, oh, say, a 28-5 game and the fact that it happened on Sunday after the rest of this post is already written. Christian Yelich leads off the game with a triple, joining Kolten Wong (April 14 vs Cardinals) as the only Brewers to hit one this season. Their last such hit against the Rockies had been by Corey Hart off Kevin Milwood on September 14, 2011. But that also sets up Willy Adames to hit the team's first sac fly by their second batter of the game since Hernan Perez scored Jonathan Villar against the Cubs, 6 years earlier to the day (July 24, 2016).
That's going to lead to 3 Milwaukee runs in the 1st and a 5-2 lead by the 3rd. Kris Bryant doubles and scores one of the Colorado runs, and then shortens the lead to 5-4 with a 2-run homer in the 5th. The Rox briefly take the lead in the 6th but then Tyrone Taylor's pinch-hit homer makes it 6-6. The Brewers hadn't hit any game-tying pinch-hit homer since Eric Thames took the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen deep on April 21, 2019, and they'd never hit one against Colorado.
The Rockies, however, are going to get that lead back again with a 2-run single by Elias Diaz in the 7th. Their only other go-ahead, bases-loaded single in the 7th or later against Milwaukee had been by Jeff Barry on August 9, 1999, and that only scored 1 run. Rox lead 8-6 when Mike Brosseau connects for a pinch-hit double in the bottom half to get back within 1.
In the 8th Kris Bryant connects for his third extra-base hit of the game, another double, but fails to score. Still, though, he joins Ian Stewart (2010) and Todd Helton (2001) as the only Rockies batters with 3 XBH in a game in Milwaukee. And that lack of runs comes back to haunt Colorado in the bottom half when Alex Colome gets tapped to pitch. With 2 outs, Yelich walks. Adames singles. Rowdy Tellez ties the game with another single. Then Andrew McCutchen hits his second double of the day to put the Brewers back up by a 10-8 count. There have only been two other multi-run, go-ahead doubles hit by Milwaukee in the 8th or later against Colorado; they were on Opening Day 2013 by Aramis Ramirez, and June 20, 2010, by Rickie Weeks.
The ending was not without drama either, however. With 2 outs in the 9th, Garrett Hampson ends the game the same way we started it, with a triple. He had a sac bunt earlier in the contest, which creates a weird batting line; the last Rockies batter with both of those things in a road game was... none other than Garrett Hampson, on April 12, 2019, in San Francisco. The only other Rockies batter with multiple such games on the road is Darryl Hamilton in 1998-99. And even though he scores on a single by Yonathan Daza, that still leaves Colorado 1 run short and our game ends 10-9. The last time the Rockies scored 9 runs on the road and lost was a 16-9 slugfest at Dodger Stadium on September 2, 2019... and they'd never done it in Milwaukee.
When last we left the Miami Marlins, they were planning on using their All-Star break to search for some numbers other than zero. They headed into the break on back-to-back shutouts (10-0 and 4-0) by Philadelphia, meaning it was somewhere around 7 pm on Friday the last time the Marlins scored a run. Lately we never know what product is going to have a supply crisis on any given week, and apparently this time all the local shops in Miami were sold out of positive numbers.
The Marlins are already having some weird schedule shenanigans; they were scheduled to be one of the two interleague series during that first week of the regular season that got postponed. So it's hard to make up any of those games because the scheduled opponent, the Rangers, is not someone they would normally play in the course of the season. So there was one stray game added on Thursday, and at least Texas was ready for it. They connected for three straight singles off Pablo Lopez in the 3rd and then knocked him out of the game with a homer by Adolis Garcia in the 5th. Meanwhile the Marlins manage just 4 singles off Jon Gray, two of them with 2 outs, and lose another on a double play. They do manage to get Avisail Garcia to third with 2 outs in the 9th, but Jacob Stallings grounds out to end the game, and the scoreboard folks might want to make sure the button still works. Because it hasn't changed off that zero in nearly a week. The 8-0 final was the Rangers' third-largest win over the Marlins, and Adolis Garcia was their first batter to have 3 RBI in a game at their current stadium (Ian Kinsler, in 2010, was the last at the old place). But more notably, it was the third time in Marlins history that they'd been shut out in three straight games, the previous being 8 years ago and involving several of the same dates (July 19-21). They also did it 11 months prior to that, in August 2012.
After their stray game with Texas, the Marlins then get to hop a plane to Pittsburgh, where the local stores do have non-zero numbers. Or, at the very least, if life is going to hand you zeroes, stick two of them together and make an 8. Miami connected for 9 hits off Zack Thompson to end their scoreless streak at 37 innings, and the performances extended all the way down to catcher Nick Fortes in the 9-hole. He became the second #9 batter in Marlins history to have 3 RBI in game without an extra-base hit; pitcher Josh Johnson did it against San Diego on April 26, 2010. And from Miami's side, it was Braxton Garrett shutting down the Pirates, who notched their fourth home game this season with 2 or fewer hits. That ties their modern record for such a thing, at any stadium-- and it's still only July.
Saturday's contest would bring together two familiar themes. The Pirates scored 1 run again, manufacturing it on three singles off Tanner Scott in the 6th. This time, however, they won-- because, yep, Miami is back to scoring 0 again. It was the third 1-0 win ever for the Pirates over the Marlins; Corey Dickerson's bunt single in the 9th provided the lone RBI on April 14, 2018, while Carlos Garcia made a leadoff homer stand up for a win on September 14, 1993.
As for the nine days dating back to the Friday before the break, that marked the first time in Marlins history that they had been shut out four times in any five-game span.
Another one of those strange Thursday scheduling quirks was that the Yankees got to go to Houston and play not one, but two games with the Astros. The Astros, of course, have become something of a nemesis for New York over the past few years, especially some October memories that fans would like to throw in a conveniently-placed trash can.
In the day game of the twinbill, Jordan Montgomery starts by giving up 3 singles and a run in the 1st, then a walk and a double in the 2nd. He settles down and records 8 strikeouts, and it's only 2-0, and the Yankees have spent the entire season rallying from deficits much larger than 2 runs. Sure enough, they load the bases in the 3rd but then Aaron Judge gets doubled off first base. They hit four fly balls in the 5th but only DJ LeMahieu is able to clear the fence, so it's still 2-1. Phil Maton works past an infield single in the 6th, the Yankees do nothing in the 7th or 8th, so it must be Hector Neris's job to blow this somehow.
Aaron Hicks singles and ends up at second with 2 outs. Which also means he's going on contact. Which pinch hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa somehow makes. He shoots one through the hole at short, Hicks beats the play at the plate, and we're tied. "IKF" as they call him also had a game-tying hit on April 23 against Cleveland when the Yankees were down to their final out. His runner, Aaron Hicks, is one of only four other Yankees in the past 40 years to have two of those in the same season (2019); the others are Curtis Granderson in 2011, Gary Sheffield in 2005, and Roberto Kelly in 1991.
But the Astros still have one more turn at-bat before more free runners get involved. We would find out that Michael King had a season-ending elbow fracture when he left Friday's game, but perhaps something was already brewing on Thursday. He started the 9th with two hard liners to left field which put Houston runners at second and third. He did induce two strikeouts to keep it that way. But then pinch hitter J.J. Matijevic, who made his debut in April and was making only his 44th plate appearance, rolls one to deep short and Marwin Gonzalez effectively has no play. It goes as a walkoff infield single, the Astros' first of those since the Padres' Eric Hosmer overran an infield popup on April 7, 2018.
As for the "pinch hit" aspect, the Astros had never before had any pinch-hit walkoff against the Yankees; the last against New York by any team was, well, also by New York. It was that famously-bizarre homer by the Mets' Amed Rosario when the Yankees got walked off in their own stadium thanks to the "home team bats first" rule for 2020 doubleheaders. As for a pinch-hit walkoff single against the Yankees, that goes back to David Ortiz off Armando Benitez on July 26, 2003.
The night game had a little less drama as Domingo German gave up 5 early runs and the Astros took a 7-2 lead into the 9th. Except there are now two things at play: Houston used a bunch of pitchers in the day game, and the Yankees just being the Yankees. The Astros are trying to extend Brandon Bielak into a 4-inning save, of which they've had one in the last quarter-century. They still do, because Bielak gives up a pair of singles to start the inning, and then a 3-run dinger to Aaron Judge. Judge became the first Yankees leadoff batter not named Alfonso Soriano to have 3 RBI but also 3 strikeouts in a game. And then it is up to Rafael Montero to finish things out, which he does by getting Matt Carpenter to ground into a game-ending double play. Astros escape 7-5 and record their first-ever doubleheader sweep against the Yankees (not that they have played all that many, given that Houston just joined the AL in 2013). Those 5 runs off German were partly due to back-to-back homers by Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman, who joined Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve (June 27, 2015) as the only Astros to do it in a home game against the Yankees. And because Bielak would have been eligible for that 4-inning save if he had stuck around, and he did still leave with the lead, he also "earns" a hold despite giving up 3 runs, hitting 2 batters, and throwing a wild pitch. Not shockingly, no pitcher in Astros history had managed to pull off that line previously.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Cody Bellinger, Friday: First go-ahead grand slam for Dodgers against Giants in the 8th or later since Steve Finley walked off to win the NL West on October 2, 2004.
⚾ Nelson Velazquez & Garrett Stubbs, Sunday: First National League game in (at least) modern era where both starting #9 batters had 2+ hits, a homer, and 2+ runs scored.
⚾ Tigers, Thursday: First time scoring 7+ runs in the first game of a doubleheader, and then getting shut out in the second, since July 27, 1984, against Boston.
⚾ Aaron Judge, Saturday: First Yankees batter with 4 hits in a loss at Camden Yards since Johnny Damon on May 27, 2008.
⚾ Jose Altuve & Jeremy Peña, Sunday: Second time Astros have ever led off a road game with back-to-back homers. George Springer & Josh Reddick went deep against the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka on May 14, 2017.
⚾ Zac Gallen, Friday: First D'backs pitcher to throw 7 scoreless innings with 0 walks and 2 hits allowed in a home game since Brandon Webb 1-hit the Cardinals on September 9, 2006.
⚾ Brady Singer, Saturday: First pitcher in Royals history to allow 3 or fewer hits, strike out 12+, and not get a win.
⚾ Darrin Ruf, Thursday: First Giants batter ever to hit a grand slam at Dodger Stadium in a game he didn't start. Last to do it at Ebbets was Ken O'Dea on August 4, 1941.
⚾ Dylan Cease, Sunday: Second pitcher in White Sox history to give up 7+ hits, throw 2+ wild pitches, and not get charged with a run. Ned Garvin did it in Baltimore on August 26, 1902!
⚾ Tyler Naquin, Friday: First Reds batter with a triple and 4 RBI against St Louis since Todd Benzinger on August 18, 1989.
⚾ Victor Robles, Saturday: First #9 batter in Nats/Expos history to score multiple runs and score every run for the team in a game.
⚾ Dodgers, Thu & Sun: First time collecting 5 doubles in multiple games of the same series against the Giants since July 6-7, 1934, at Ebbets Field.
⚾ Padres, Saturday: Second road game in team history where they scored 2 runs, struck out 15 times, and won. Other was a 12-inning win in Atlanta on August 25, 2009.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Friday: First Angels pitcher to strike out 11 and lose since Joe Blanton against Houston on June 3, 2013.
⚾ Athletics, Sunday: First time hitting back-to-back-to-back homers since Eric Chavez, Frank Thomas, and Milton Bradley did it on April 15, 2006.
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