Light Up The Night

Say (or type) the phrase "exploding scoreboard", and most baseball minds will immediately think of the original Comiskey Park and Bill Veeck's famous, um, contraption that was built in 1960 and lives on (albeit in a more-subdued form) in the current White Sox stadium.

Nowadays lots of teams, even in the minors, shoot off fireworks or flash lights or have special gimmicks for home runs. (Mr. Celery, anyone?) But with it being Independence Day, it's the perfect week to have a bunch of teams explode their local scoreboards. Let's all get ready to "ooh" and "aah" at some amazing displays.

And Dozens More

Last week's post, in the 13th week of the season, featured a whole lot of number-13's. So let's wrap that up by starting on Monday with the Indians and Tigers-- two teams that do not often explode a scoreboard. In fact they frequently have us on no-hitter watch, and not because their pitching is overwhelming. In this case, it was Detroit's Matt Manning who was not overwhelming, starting both the 1st and 2nd innings by giving up a double and a single. This eventually leads to 5 runs, capped by a homer from Austin Hedges. Manning is still out there in the 4th when that notorious "third time through the order" hits. Specifically, they hit a double, a single, and a home run to end Manning's night. He was the first Tigers starter to give up 9 runs in a road game since Matt Hall also did it in Cleveland on September 15, 2018. Buck Farmer didn't fare too much better, giving up a sac fly and two more doubles as we limp along to a final score of 13-5. Cleveland hadn't scored 13 runs and had six doubles in a home game since beating the Angels 14-4 on August 11, 2016.

Meanwhile, on the opposite corner of Ohio, the Phillies and Reds moved along like nothing special was happening, it's 2-0 before Wade Miley starts losing it in the 4th, and 4-2 the other way after he gives up three singles and two walks in the 5th. But now the Reds get to meet Neftali Feliz in the 7th. Let's see how that goes. There's already a runner on first before his walk and hit batter to load 'em up. And Nick Castellanos will be unloading 'em. It was the Reds' first grand slam against the Phillies since Eugenio Suarez took Daniel Stumpf deep on April 7, 2016, and the first one that flipped a lead against them since Tony Tarrasco at Mark Leiter on September 21, 1998.

Still though, it's only 6-4 and the Phillies have two more innings. In between, however, they send Enyel De Los Santos to the mound. And he sends a throw into right field when Kyle Farmer tries to lay down a bunt. So now it's 8-4, 9 when Jonathan India singles home Farmer, and then 10 thanks to Nick Castellanos again. Nick would finish the game with 7 RBI, the first Reds batter to do that without hitting multiple homers since Robin Jennings against the Pirates on August 31, 2001. He's the first to have any 7-RBI game against the Phillies since Johnny Bench did it on May 9, 1973. De Los Santos would end up leaving after a homer by Joey Votto, becoming the first Phillies pitcher to give up a 6-spot in Cincinnati while getting just 2 outs since Tom Underwood on August 19, 1974.

And when the dust finally settles on this 12-4 game-- combined with the 13-5 up in Cleveland-- the Buckeye State has a baseball day such as it hadn't seen in a quarter-century. The last time both Ohio teams scored 12+ runs in a home game on the same day was July 19, 1994. (Things were very nearly reversed on that day; the Reds had the 13-5 win, against the Marlins, while the Indians won 12-3 over Texas.)

Shake The Room

Sometimes a big scoreboard explosion is really a lot of little explosions-- such as the Indians' 1- and 2-run innings above-- and sometimes there's just one huge boomer right in the middle. Continuing our run through Monday's NL Central slate, we jump up to Milwaukee where the Brewers lead the Cubs 4-2 in the 7th. That's before Patrick Wisdom hits a game-tying pinch-hit homer, just the third one the Cubs have ever hit (at any point of a game) against Milwaukee. The others were by Freddie Bynum in 2006 and Glenallen Hill in 1999.

So the Brewers promptly say, yeah, we're not gonna give that "game-tying" thing a chance to happen again. How's this for an 8th inning: Strikeout, walk, walk, double, sac fly, double, walk, 3-run homer (Willy Adames), walk, single, double, 3-run homer (Keston Hiura). Doesn't take long to count up 10 runs in there, the first double-digit frame by the Brewers since April 18, 2010, in Washington, and their first time ever doing it that late in a game. (They do have three 9's in the 8th or later, one of them just a week after that other 10.) For the Cubs it was their first time allowing a 10-run inning since the Pirates got them on July 9, 2017.

At the start of an inning when teams are tossing the ball around to waste time (#PaceOfPlay), it's usually the third baseman who makes the last flip back to the pitcher from about 20 feet away. Generally the 3B doesn't keep the ball and go walk up the mound himself. But by the end of this mess, that's exactly what Eric Sogard did, having to get that final out after Hiura's homer. It was the third time Sogard has pitched in a game this season, a dubious mark that no Cubs position player had pulled off since Doug Dascenzo did it 30 years ago.

By the way, in the next game on Tuesday, the Brewers had only 2 hits in the entire game... and they won because both were RBI doubles from Christian Yelich and Jace Peterson. In the past decade they've only had two games where they won on 2 hits; the other was the first week of the 2019 season in Cincinnati.

Lovely Bunch Of Innings

If you like your innings big, and you like them in bunches, well then, have we got a day of baseball for you. It would be the last day of June, the symbolic (if not quite actual) midpoint of your calendar year, that day when every baseball player-- like racehorses-- becomes another year older for statistical purposes. It's the day Bobby Bonilla makes sure his mailbox is cleared out for that big check that's coming tomorrow.

We're going back to that Cubs/Brewers series, because this big-inning thing is catching on. The Cubs finally got around to answering the 10-run inning, or at least most of it, thanks to a less-than-ideal MLB debut by Aaron Ashby. Pitching debuts are always kind of a toss-up; some of them turn out to be duds, usually explained away by commentators as "jitters", and then others take no-hitters into the 5th or 6th inning because the hitters have never seen the guy before and have no idea what to do. (Swing. You might hit something. That's why we're here.) Ashby's debut was, well, a no-doubter.

Single, single, walk, single, error, lineout. Finally there's an out but it's 3-0. Bunt single. Double steal. Wild pitch (5-0). Sogard, of the bunt single, gets tagged out at the plate to avoid a sixth run, but not for long. Two more walks, including one to pitcher Jake Arrieta (who hasn't even thrown a pitch yet) signal the end of Ashby's outing. It does not, however, signal the end of Ashby's pitching line; Patrick Wisdom would take care of that with another 2-run single against Miguel Sanchez. Wisdom, who also hit that second single in the sequence above, is the first Cubs batter with 2 hits in the same 1st inning since Juan Pierre against the Reds on September 17, 2006. And Arrieta is the first Cubs pitcher to draw a walk before throwing a pitch since Frank Castillo did it in St Louis on July 31, 1994.

Back to Ashby, he pulled off a debut that hadn't been done in 42 years; Ralph Botting of the Angels, on June 28, 1979, was the last to give up 7 runs while getting no more than 2 outs. And the Cubs had not scored 7 runs in the 1st inning of a road game since September 8, 2009, in Pittsburgh.

Someone mention answering the big inning? Arrieta apparently liked that 1st-inning walk so much that he decided to give away three of his own. That makes it 7-1 before he starts really getting poked around in the 2nd. Luis Urias hits a 2-run homer. There is a 2-run error by Arrieta himself when he tried to field a roller up the third-base line and sailed it. That was enough to earn his departure after only 5 outs, with Tyrone Taylor eventually letting in that unearned run as well. So even though three of them are unearned, we're still back to 7-6, and if you're having flashbacks to that Yankees/Sawx game in London in 2019, you're correct. That's the last game where both starters (see: Ashby and Arrieta) gave up 6 runs while getting no more than 5 outs.

Pssst: That wasn't the big inning.

Rex Brothers walks the leadoff man, Willy Adames, in the 4th. You always hear on TV, "it starts with a leadoff walk". There is then a double, a 2-run lead-flipping single, and the appearance of Tommy Nance on the mound. He plunks Keston Hiura, which is at least quicker than walking him, then goes single, wild pitch, walk, and another plunking of Luis Urias to force in a fourth run. With the bases still loaded. And Adames coming up for the second time this inning. And Adames scoring for the second time this inning. Along with all three of his "ducks on the pond" when he hits the Brewers' first grand slam in a home game against the Cubs since Sean Halton on September 18, 2013. It made Nance the first Cubs pitcher to allow 5 runs, throw a wild pitch, and hit 2 batters in the same game since Ryan Dempster did that against the Giants on September 23, 2010. Urias, who scored on the slam, would end up as the second leadoff batter in Brewers history with 4 hits, 4 RBI, and multiple homers in the same game; Paul Molitor (May 12, 1982) is the other.

And yeah, this is the big inning. It's the second time in Brewers history that they've recorded multiple 8-run innings at home within 3 days of each other. And the other time wasn't really supposed to be a home game; it was a September 2017 series against the Marlins that was moved to Miller Park in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. So the Brewers are technically the "home team" but they batted in top halves of the innings. And don't forget the Cubs had that 7 in the 1st. Took some pulling of newspaper articles from 1878, but Wednesday's game was the first MLB game ever played in Milwaukee where both teams had at least a 7-run inning.

Late In The Evening

However, that wasn't the only game just on Wednesday where both teams had a 7-run inning. Sure did take a while to get the other one, though. To Yankee Stadium and the exciting return of Shohei Ohtani, pitcher who bats for himself-- now elevated to the leadoff spot! Technically the last "starting pitcher" to bat 1st was Cesar Tovar of the Twins in 1968, but that was in an all-nine-positions stunt where he just happened to begin the game on the mound. The last true pitcher to bat leadoff in a game he starts was Jim Jones of the Giants on September 30, 1901.

With the Angels on the road, Ohtani did at least get to bat. Once. Flied to center. He was, well, elsewhere by the time the next inning came around. That's because Ohtani gave up three straight walks to start the game, then a pair of singles, hit Clint Frazier, another walk, then DJ LeMahieu clears it with a 3-run double after Ohtani's already been pulled. The good news is, those singles were the only hits Ohtani allowed; he's the first pitcher in Angels history to somehow give up 7 runs on only 2 hits. The last starter for any team with that line was Ubaldo Jimenez, then with Cleveland, on April 16, 2013.

We will jump ahead through a 42-minute rain delay in the 3rd and another of nearly an hour and a half in the 5th. By now it's 10:30 or 11:00 and the Yankees fans just want the game called. After all, they scored 7 runs in the 1st and still have a 7-4 lead, and the game's now official, we need a win. If it were up to the home team, they likely would have called it to get that win. This is why it's not up to the home team. The umpires say wait and finish it. Which they finally did, at 1:06 am. But in the midnight hour the Angels cried more, more, more. (Hey, it's only 9:something back home.)

Top of the 9th, off Aroldis Chapman no less: Walk, groundout, two more walks to load the bases, game-tying grand slam by Jared Walsh. More than 5 hours later, Ohtani is finally off the hook, the first Angels starter to give up 7+ runs, not finish the 1st inning, and not take a loss since Ramon Ortiz on September 3, 2000. Combined with Aaron Ashby getting off the hook for the Brewers, it's the first day two pitchers did that since Scott Aldred of the Rockies and Minnesota's Brett Merriman on April 25, 1993. Walsh hit just the third grand slam by an Angels batter in the 9th or later at any version of Yankee Stadium; one was by Bobby Abreu on April 13, 2010 (off David Robertson), and Scott Spiezio took Juan Acevedo deep on May 13, 2003.

Problem: It's still tied. It's past 12:30. It's July already. Someone untie us. (PSA: Always agree on a safe word.) For tonight the word is Lucas Luetge, who comes on to replace Chapman and gives up a walk and two singles to make it 10-8, then a finishing double by Taylor Ward for an 11-8 final. But 8-4 to 11-8? That's another 7-run inning, the first time any game at the current Yankee Stadium had one by both teams. The last at the old place was a 13-9 affair with the White Sox on August 2, 2007. That was also the last time the Yankees scored 7 runs in the 1st inning and wound up losing.

If only they could've called it in the 5th.

Five, Six, Seven Times

There's another New York team that probably wanted to call Wednesday's game in the 5th. The Mets got a 2-run homer from Pete Alonso in the 1st against Atlanta, only to see Ronald Acuña-- who already holds every Braves leadoff homer record-- add to his total. The only one the Braves had ever hit against the Mets when already trailing by multiple runs was by Ralph Garr off Tom Seaver on August 24, 1974.

Soon enough they weren't trailing anymore. Two more singles and a wild pitch bring home Freddie Freeman. David Peterson gets through the 2nd but gives up a walk and three more singles in the 3rd for a 4-2 Braves lead. Still not a blowout "firework" game by any means. Until you leave Peterson out there for the 4th and then replace him with Sean Reid-Foley. And then replace HIM with a guy making his major-league debut.

Double, wild pitch, single, here's your first pitching change. Peterson would give up 6 runs and throw 2 wild pitches, the first Mets hurler to do so while getting 9 outs since Matt Harvey against Houtson on September 2, 2017. Reid-Foley commits an error on the first batter he sees, then gives up three more singles, a walk to Dansby Swanson, and a 2-run double to take our inning total up to 6. Welcome to the show, Thomas Szapucki. He's the first SZA- player ever to make the bigs (Matt Szczur sends a wave from down at triple-A Memphis). He's also the first pitcher in Mets history to make his debut as a reliever and give up 6 runs. That did take him until the 8th, however; back here in the 4th he's still dealing with inherited runs. Dansby scores on a groundout for the seventh run of that inning. And there's our magic number again. With an assist from Stats Inc, we discovered that Wednesday was the second time in MLB's modern era (1901) that five different teams scored 7+ runs in an inning. The other was April 29, 1930, a day which had only seven games because, well, there were only 16 teams. And we didn't even mention that the Marlins and White Sox each had a "6" in their games on Wednesday.

The Braves had a "6" as well. No, not the "7" we already mentioned. This is the "6" that finishes Szapucki's line in the 8th. He's already given up homers to Ozzie Albies and Ehire Adrianza before we get there, which is why the Mets would have just called this thing at 13-2 after five. (Yes, they still haven't scored again.) But Szapucki gives up a double and two walks to lead the bases starting the 9th before getting pulled. And on your depth chart, who is below a reliever making his MLB debut? Yep, that would be a center fielder who is also making his MLB debut. Kind of. That would be Albert Almora, who has never tried to find the strike zone before and needed some "onboarding". During which he walked Inciarte to force in a run, then hit Pablo Sandoval, then at least induced contact from Adrianza, then shot off a 3-run homer from Ozzie Albies. That made Albies-- who was also part of the 7-run inning-- the second player in Braves history to have 5 hits and 7 RBI in the same game. Joe Adcock was the other, doing so at Ebbets Field on July 31, 1954. Only five other players in MLB history have had that line PLUS a stolen base: Yoenis Cespedes (2015), Willie Stargell (1968), Bob Johnson of the A's (1937), Carl Reynolds for the White Sox (1930), and Pittsburgh's Reb Russell (1922).

And if you've been adding these up, the 7 plus the 6 plus a couple other homers along the way-- plus oh yeah, the Mets still never scored again-- gives us the seventeenth 20-2 score in major-league history. The last one was Oakland over Boston on August 31, 2012; the Mets have never been on either side of one, and the Braves were on the wrong end of one other-- playing as the Boston Rustlers against the Cubs on June 11, 1911.

And yes, this is the same Braves team that dropped a 20-1 score on the Pirates back on May 21. The last time they scored 20+ twice in the same season was in 1897, when they dropped a 25-5 against the Cardinals on Memorial Day, then two days later, unloaded a 21-3 against the Cleveland Spiders. (In between, they played a doubleheader with the Cards on Tuesday and scored 14 and 12.) As for the Mets, it's the fourth time they've ever given up 20 runs in a game, and three of them have now been prominently featured on this here blog. And they've all been on the last day of a month. There's the 25-4 game from July 31, 2018, where Jose Reyes pitched and gave up 6 runs (which we watched from the third-base side of Target Field), and there's the 23-5 game from April 30, 2017, which we wrote about in a motel room in North Carolina while in mid-road trip. (The fourth is a 26-7 loss to the Phillies on June 11, 1985.)

This week's title actually has its own disambiguation page on Wikipedia because it's been used as a song and album title several times. The most well-known is probably by The Brothers Johnson, who are also most well-known as the one-hit wonder responsible for "Stomp!". They had some other songs too, but you likely haven't heard them. And you won't now either, because, well, you've gotta out-noise the fireworks somehow. Take it to the top. Intermission!

Sparklers

Did we mention those other two big Mets losses from 2017 and 2018 were both to the Nationals? Who have a habit of shooting off some big numbers now and again themselves. Thought they wouldn't join this week's fun? C'mon now. In those five seasons since the start of '17, the Nationals have posted 15 runs or more in a game, a whopping twenty times. That's seven more than any other club. The latest one didn't come against the Mets, it came against the Rays. And you might have clicked on yet another eye-popping "ooh" and "aah" 15-6 game from Wednesday's scoreboard only to find not more 7-run innings, but one of a few sparklers-- the single player who exploded out of nowhere.

A cycle and a no-hitter occur with roughly the same frequency over MLB history; the no-hitter number is still closer to 300 while the cycle count is nearing 350. So in 2021 where pitchers exploded for seven no-hitters before the end of June, you would expect there to be... um... zero cycles yet this season? Yep. Not a one. Moreover, there weren't any last year with the shortened season. It had been 651 days since Cavan Biggio hit the last one on September 17, 2019, the longest break without a cycle since Charlie Moore of the Brewers hit one in the final week of the 1980 season, the strike season of 1981 didn't have any, and then Frank White of the Royals waited until August to have the first one of '82.

Trea Turner had one in that 2019 season before Biggio. Had one in 2017 at Coors Field too. So it must be an odd-year thing. Singles and steals second in the 1st. Doubles so he doesn't have to steal second in the 3rd. Scores both times. Homers in the 4th. And for his final trick, a leadoff triple in the 6th. (They let Ryan Zimmerman pinch hit for him in the 7th because, really, what's left to do. Also it's 11-5.) Turner has tied the MLB record with his third career cycle (Adrian Beltre was the previous one to do that), and he's recorded the third one ever at Nationals Park. He's got two of them, no visiting player has one, and the other Washingtonian with one was Cristian Guzman in 2008. And oh yeah, he's the first player in history ever to have all four hits on his own birthday. (He's also the rare player who really does age another year on June 30. Josh Rojas and Jesús Aguilar are the only others who are active this season.)

Turner joined Rondell White (June 11, 1995) as the only players in Nats/Expos history to hit for a cycle and steal a base in the same game. And that 15-6 didn't come entirely from him. Juan Soto also collected 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 2 stolen bases. Incredibly, in the live-ball era, only one other set of teammates has had that line in the same game: Seattle's Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr at Yankee Stadium on August 18, 1996.

And lest it get left out, the Dodgers went to Nationals Park for the weekend and exploded for a 9-run inning in Friday's 10-5 comeback victory. They still hold the season high with their 11-run 1st against the Cardinals, which was exactly a month prior on June 2. The Dodgers haven't had a pair of 9-run innings in the same season since 2005, and it's only the second 9 ever hung by a visiting team at Nats Park. Remember way back when we started this with a 10-run Brewers inning, and how it was their first of those since April 18, 2010? Yep, that was also the other one by a visitor at Nationals Park.

Stay Till The End

Almost all fireworks shows have that big finale where they just launch everything they possibly can into the night sky and you know it is time to start heading to the car if you're not already there. (Postgame fireworks traffic, the worst.) Games can be like that too, and the Orioles gave us another one of those on Tuesday.

Cedric Mullins fired a lone rocket to begin the display, the first leadoff homer the Orioles had ever hit in Houston. That leaves only one current AL opponent whose home field they've never hit one at-- and it's the Rays, despite being in the same division.

This is, of course, not the end of Mullins' involvement. By the 7th we've back-and-forthed our way to a 3-3 tie before he greets Ryne Stanek's presence on the mound with an RBI double. That gives the O's a 4-3 lead, and gives Mullins both a go-ahead homer and a go-ahead double in the same game-- a feat last accomplished by Jimmy Paredes against Boston on April 25, 2015.

Now the fun begins. Stanek returns for the 8th and gives up a solo shot to Anthony Santander. He follows that up with two walks and a single to set up Maikel Franco for a grand slam. Which he doesn't hit, but he does clear all three runners with a double. Franco would end up scoring when Austin Hays sends Blake Taylor's fifth pitch back up the middle. Franco is thus the first Orioles batter to have 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI batting 8th or 9th in a road game since Floyd Rayford did it at Fenway Park, 36 years earlier to the day (June 29, 1985).

And just in case, let's send up another round of fireworks in the 9th, with Ramon Urias and Austin Wynns each hitting 2-run shots. The Orioles hadn't done that (multiple multi-run homers in the 9th inning of a road game) since Ken Singleton and Gary Roenicke hit them in Anaheim on May 6, 1982. Mullins would follow Wynns with a 2-out single, uninteresting aside from the fact that it was his fourth hit of the game. The only other Orioles to post 4-hit games against Houston, home or road, are Adam Jones (2017), Hyun-Soo Kim (2016), and J.J. Hardy (2013), meaning no one ever did it in interleague play. Kim's 4 hits came in a 13-5 win on August 18, 2016, a game that had been Baltimore's largest victory margin against Houston-- until Tuesday came along.

Sixteen Roman Candles

Another game that might have screamed "click me!" was the Thursday matinee between the Red Sox and Royals. It's a 15-1 score, the largest victory margin the Sawx have ever had against Kansas City at Fenway. And when we say "Kansas City", we intentionally include the A's years as well. Their only other 14-run wins against either team came on April 13, 1983 (18-4 at Kauffman), and August 26, 1957 (16-0 at Municipal).

Again, this one had no one big inning, just a couple players who lit up the boxscore. Enrique Hernandez actually recorded the only run of the first 3 innings with a leadoff homer. If that sounds familiar, it's because he's doing his best Kyle Schwarber impression. Hernandez led off Monday's opener with the Royals in home-run fashion, one day after closing the series with the Yankees the same way. He's the first player in Red Sox history to crank three leadoff homers in a 5-day span.

After that, however, most of the damage involved Rafael Devers (hitting 5th) and Danny Santana (hitting 8th) driving in all the runners in between them. Each of them ended up with 3 hits and 5 RBI, the first Boston teammates to do that in the same game since Edgar Renteria and Trot Nixon (again, three spots apart in the order) in a 17-1 demolition of the Yankees on May 28, 2005.

And you know how once in a while you find one stray firework that fell through the hole in the box, or you knocked it off the deck by accident, and you've gotta shoot it off by its lonesome after you're all done? That would be Jarrod Dyson. After the Sawx piled up 15 runs on all those RBIs from Devers and Santana, Dyson comes up with two outs in the 9th and Ryan O'Hearn on base only because of a 2-out error. As we say, never do the shutout notes early. Dyson proceeded to begin the comeback with a double down the right-field line, the second time in Royals history that they've broken up a shutout of 15-0 or worse when down to their final out. Wilson Betemit also had a double against the Twins on July 26, 2010, to score Mitch Maier and make the final tally of that game "only" 19-1.

One For The Road

Just time for one more outburst from the Brew Crew from earlier. By Saturday the Brewers had made it to Pittsburgh, where they proceeded to explode for an 11-2 win. Turns out all 11 of those runs involved Omar Narvaez, Avisaii Garcia, and/or Jace Peterson-- the middle third of the Brewers' order. In the 1st Avisail doubled home two runs and then scored himself when Jace doubled. In the 2nd Omar and Avi hit back-to-back singles to knock Cody Ponce out of the game. Duane Underwood shut them down for a few innings, but once he left in the 6th, we would find Omar and Jace with singles, the latter driving in a sixth run, and then Omar later scoring on a wild pitch. In the 8th, look again-- Omar and Avi both single, and Jace reaches on an error for two more runs. Now up 9-2, Avi and Jace provide the final runs in the 9th with a double and a sac fly.

The final tally: Omar had 5 hits, and bizarrely all of them were singles. No Brewers batter had pulled that off since Jean Segura on May 28, 2013, and the only other 5-hit game by a Brewer IN Pittsburgh was by Jeff Cirillo, 22 years earlier to the day (July 3, 1999). Omar scored 3 runs, thanks mostly to Avisail right behind him. Garcia collected 4 hits and 5 RBI, a first for Milwaukee since Ryan Braun on August 27, 2012, and a first in Pittsburgh since yet another first-week-of-July game. Damian Miller did it at PNC on July 2, 2007, 14 years plus 1 day before Garcia. Braun is also involved in the last pair of Brewers teammates where one had 5 hits and another had 5 RBI in the same game; Keon Broxton was his other half against Arizona on August 6, 2016.

And Jace Peterson ended up with only 2 hits but did drive in 4. We started a note about Brewers teammates with 4 RBI each but remember where we started this post? Luis Urias and Willy Adames just did it against the Cubs on Wednesday! And we can't even talk about doing it twice in four days because the Brewers did that once last season, and in Pittsburgh again in 2019. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Haase That Eric Built

If you've ever gone to a minor-league fireworks display (and really, they have them like every two days), you might have been fortunate enough to watch them actually get lit and set off. We can recall at least two places (Durham and Hartford) where there are larger non-baseball-related structures beyond center field and they have to carefully trot the fireworks out on the field and shoot them off from behind second base. To paraphrase a great movie line, the fireworks are coming from inside the park.

In this case, the homers are coming from inside the Haase. That's Eric Haase, Tigers mostly-catcher who platoons with Wilson Ramos. And on Saturday, all he did was flip the lead with a 4th-inning inside-the-parker of about 290 feet where Billy Hamilton missed the dive and it went all the way to the track. That was Detroit's first 3- or 4-run IHR since Curtis Granderson hit one off Bartolo Colón (and got a weird bounce off the wall in Anaheim) on September 15, 2005.

Tigers starter Tarik Skubal proceeds to give the lead right back to Chicago, but he's going to end up being the first Tigers starter in over 4 years (Jordan Zimmermann, April 25, 2017) to surrender 8 hits, 5 runs, and get a win. Jeimer Candelario ends Keuchel's night with a go-ahead single in the 5th, and the rest is just gravy. Including the other 3-run homer that Haase unleashes. Candelario walks to start the 7th against Jace Fry, Miguel Cabrera singles, and then Haase clears the wall with another bomb. He's the first Tigers batter with an inside-the-park homer and an outside-the-park homer since Nick Castellanos on August 22, 2017. And he's only the fifth batter in Tigers history to have 6 RBI in a home game against the White Sox. You've probably heard of the others-- Yoenis Cespedes (2015), Hank Greenberg (1934), and Charlie Gehringer (twice).

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Mets, Sunday: First 6-run inning (or more) at current Yankee Stadium. Last one at the old place was in their next-to-last game there on May 18, 2008.

⚾ Indians, Wednesday: First game where they scored 4+ runs, all of them on solo homers, since April 23, 1987, against the Yankees.

⚾ Garrett Richards & Nick Pivetta, Mon-Tue: First time Red Sox pitchers have given up 9 hits and 3 homers in consecutive games since Rick Wise & Diego Segui on July 28-29, 1975.

⚾ Seth Brown, Saturday: First Oakland better with an RBI triple, and RBI double, and an RBI single in the same game since Eric Byrnes on June 1, 2005.

⚾ Max Muncy, Thursday: First grand slam ever hit by the Dodgers in Washington. That's including the various 19th-century teams.

⚾ Mookie Betts & Max Muncy, Monday: First time in Dodgers history (1883) that they led off a game against the Giants with back-to-back homers.

⚾ Ronald Acuña, Friday: First player hit by a pitch to lead off the game, and score the only run in a 1-0 win, since Juan Pierre of the White Sox on July 8, 2010.

⚾ Pete Alonso, Sunday: First Mets batter to homer in both games of a doubleheader since Shawn Green against Atlanta on September 6, 2006. First ever to do it against the Yankees.

⚾ Matt Shoemaker, Wednesday: First Twins reliever left in long enough to give up 8 runs and 3 homers since John Pacella against the Tigers on July 15, 1982.

⚾ Freddie Freeman, Saturday: First time a Braves #1 or #2 batter had 3 hits and 2 walks but 0 runs scored since Kenny Lofton in Denver on June 9, 1997.

⚾ Royals/Red Sox, Monday: First game at Fenway Park to see five combined homers in the first 2 innings since August 7, 1984, against the Tigers.

⚾ Clay Holmes, Thursday: First pitch to walk three batters and commit a balk while getting 0 outs since Ray Hayward of the Rangers on July 5, 1988.

⚾ Tigers, Wednesday: First time winning both games of a doubleheader in Cleveland since September 14, 1977.

⚾ Braves, Sunday: First time receiving 5 intentional walks in a game since September 29, 1982, by the Dodgers.

⚾ Jake Fraley, Friday: Second batter in Mariners history with 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and 2 stolen bases. Mark McLemore did it at Toronto on May 12, 2001.

⚾ Gavin Sheets, Tuesday: First player to make his MLB debut with the White Sox, and have 2 hits and 2 RBI in it, since Craig Wilson on September 5, 1998.

⚾ Emmanuel Clase, Sunday: Second pitcher in Indians history to allow 0 hits, 0 walks, 0 hit-by-pitches, and take a loss. Rip Hagerman did it against the Browns on June 1, 1914, in what is described only as "a stream of errors".

⚾ Marlins/Phillies, Tuesday: First game in Philadelphia where neither team had more than 4 hits, but both of them still scored 3 runs, since July 22, 1947 (at Shibe Park vs Indians).

⚾ Brad Miller, Friday: Second walkoff double ever hit by Phillies against San Diego. Del Unser off Mike Caldwell, August 21, 1973.

⚾ Michael King, Saturday: First Yankees reliever to allow 0 runs and strike out 9 batters since Steve Hamilton on May 11, 1963. Hamilton came on the 1st inning of that game after Stan Williams was named an "emergency starter" and it didn't go well.

⚾ Kyle Schwarber & Trea Turner, Monday: First time Nationals led off a game with B2B homers since Denard Span & Ryan Zimmerman at Citi Field on September 9, 2013.

⚾ Freddie Freeman, Thursday: First Braves batter in (at least) live-ball era to strike out four times and then hit a walkoff anything.

⚾ Red Sox, Sunday: First 1-0 win where the lone run scored on a double play since Lefty Grove hit into one, also against the A's, and also on July 4-- of 1936.

⚾ 10:41 pm EDT, Friday: The so-called "baseball equinox". With the end of the Tigers/White Sox tilt we had completed 1215 games-- exactly half of the 2430 that are scheduled in a standard regular season. Meaning we're now closer to the end of the season than to the beginning.

Baker's Dozen

If you're of a certain age, you probably know the term "baker's dozen". Most sources believe the term was coined in jolly old England in the days where merchants (bakers, in this case) could be fined for not delivering enough product by weight. BUT they also didn't always have accurate scales back then, so if a customer ordered 12 of something, they would often throw in a 13th one just in case the first 12 were slightly under the advertised weight, and then they wouldn't get flogged. Good luck getting a free 13th of something these days, where mass production dictates that there shall be exactly 0.45 of an ounce of glaze on every donut, because, you know, the focus groups said 0.44 was not enough glaze, but 0.46 might cut into our profits and thus our stock price and we can't have that, now can we? You, however, can still have 12 of some things, and frequently a 13th, as we journey through the week in baseball.

Dusty Dozen

What better way to begin our collection of 13's than with the team managed by Dusty Baker? That, of course, is the Houston Astros, and Wednesday's contest with the Orioles turned out to be a Baker's dozen of eggs-- goose eggs, that is. Carlos Correa, Kyle Tucker, and Yuli Gurriel knocked in 4 runs in the first 2 innings, while Jose Urquidy was busy retiring 15 of the first 17 Baltimore batters. It's already 7-0 before Yordan Alvarez and Abraham Toro both go deep off Mickey Jannis in the 7th, and the Astros wind up with a final blowout score of 13-0. That was the team's second-largest win ever in Baltimore (although they didn't play there often prior to switching leagues in 2013); there is a 23-2 game from August 2019 that messed up a bunch of notes on Wednesday's affair. That game, and Wednesday, were the last two road games where 10 different Astros batters scored a run, 11 different Astros had a hit, and/or 10 different Astros did both.

Wednesday was also just the fifth road shutout of 13 or more in Astros history; the only two that were larger were a 14-0 at Dodger Stadium in June 2018, and a 15-0 in Montréal on April 26, 1998 (which we think is more like 11½-0 with the exchange rate). Toro drove in the final Houston run with a single in the 8th and became the second player to have a 4-RBI game against Baltimore while hitting 7th or lower; Jason Castro did it in a 12-2 win on August 20, 2016.

O's starter Thomas Eshelman, along with Jannis, both got tagged for 8 hits and 6 runs, the third time in the last 15 seasons that multiple O's pitchers have done that. Dylan Bundy and Gabriel Ynoa did it in a 16-4 loss to the Rays two seasons ago; before that you have to go back to (of course!) The 30-3 Game against Texas in 2007. And as for Jannis specifically, he was on the wrong end of 8 hits, 4 walks, and 3 homers, the first "Orioles" pitcher ever to post that line in a single outing. The last to do it in a Browns uniform was Tommy Fine against Boston on June 24, 1950.

And oh yes, did we mention this was Jannis's major-league debut? No pitcher had gotten knocked around for 7 runs and 3 homers in a debut since Zach Eflin in 2016, and the only other in Orioles/Browns history to do it was John Stephens on July 30, 2002. (Stephens pitched 12 games this season and never made it back to the majors.)

Dirty Dozen

There aren't quite enough 13's to fill up a whole week, so we'll be mixing in some more-traditional dozens as well. Fortunately the Astros had another one of those the very next day. They left Baltimore behind for the wetter climate of Detroit, but they remembered to bring the bats. The Tigers at least scored 3 more runs than the Orioles did against them, but those 1's on the scoreboard couldn't make up for the four straight 2's the Astros hung from the 2nd through 5th. They began two of those innings with multiple base hits in a row, eventually collecting 18 for the game on the way to a 12-3 victory.

It was Houston's first time scoring 12 runs in back-to-back road games since September of 2017, but the hit column was more impressive. They had 17 in the 13-0 game on Wednesday, so with the 18 on Thursday, it was the first time they'd reached that number in back-to-back road games since September 8 and 9 of 2000 at Wrigley Field. Myles Straw collected 4 of those hits on Thursday, along with a stolen base and 3 runs scored. No Astros leadoff batter had done all that in a game since John Cangelosi against the Giants on July 22, 1995.

And after those four 2's, the final blow would be delivered by Yordan Alvarez in the 9th. Against actual pitcher Bryan Garcia, the Astros went single, double, walk, and naturally, grand slam. That was the first slam that the Astros had ever hit against the Tigers, home or road, and thanks to switching leagues a few years back, there are only two remaining teams-- Cleveland and Tampa Bay-- against whom they've never hit one. After the slam, Harold Castro would have to get the final two outs, making him the second player in Tigers history to play shortstop and pitch in the same game. The other was Mark Koenig in a 13-4 blowout by the Red Sox on July 27, 1931.

Alvarez and Carlos Correa would end up hitting back-to-back homers on Saturday, also the first time the Astros have ever done that in Detroit (at either stadium).

You Must Be An Angel

The Giants are no strangers to the southern half of their own state, but usually they're just passing through Orange County as they go between Dodger Stadium and Petco Park. They don't often take that off-ramp from the 57 where the big "A" is. This week, however, we saw a strange interleague match between the Giants and Angels, and we're pretty sure the free-runner rule is designed for the AL West.

It is 1-1 after 9 innings, with only one of those innings really having anything happening-- the 5th when Mike Yastrzemski and Luis Rengifo traded solo homers. The last four innings saw only four combined baserunners, and the second-most-exciting thing was that the Giants had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at the plate. So let's plop some free runners out there and hope someone can do something.

If by "something" you mean three strikeouts in the Giants' half of the 10th, then okay. The Angels, as most every team does when the opponent doesn't score, bunt their free runner over to third, walk the bases loaded, and then ground out to the pitcher to send us to the 11th. Neither team gets a ball out of the infield in that frame. Steven Duggar hits a leadoff double in the 12th which seems promising at the time. But then Juan Lagares hits a slow roller to short that nobody can get to, it's a game-tying infield single, and we play on.

In our New World Order (as we're calling the set of rule changes that was hurled upon us last season), only four games have even reached a 13th inning (and none has gone 14). A team from either the AL West or NL West-- or both-- has been involved in all of them. But finally the Giants are awake and done with this "1 run at a time" junk. Alex Claudio manages to walk the bases full and then still not find the zone, forcing in the go-ahead tally by walking Brandon Crawford. By inning, that was the Giants' latest go-ahead walk in a road game since Ed Goodson scored Derrel Thomas at Dodger Stadium on April 20, 1975.

Claudio would finish with the bizarre pitching line of 0 hits but 4 runs; only Chris Knapp (1980) and Bo Belinsky (1962) had done that in Angels history. The reason those other runs scored is because Junior Guerra didn't fare an ybetter. He wild-pitched in another run, gave up a 2-run single to Duggar, and then watched Mike Tauchman hit the Giants' third-ever extra-inning homer in Anaheim. Barry Bonds (2000) and Bill Mueller (1998) had the others, but neither of them polished off a seven-run inning. No team had scored 7 runs in an inning numbered 13 or higher since the Red Sox dropped a 9 at Tropicana Field on September 15, 2017. But the Giants hadn't done it in over a century. They played 16 scoreless innings against Pittsburgh on July 16, 1920, before erupting for a touchdown (and extra point) in the top of the 17th.

Four-Four Time

While we're on the topic of crooked numbers (and dozens), another 12 came rolling across our screen on Saturday. This would be the number of runs scored by Toronto in knocking off that same Orioles team at Sahlen Field. And it's not the 12 itself that's interesting, it's how they got there.

Since runs are a counting stat, and thus we are restricted to positive integers, there are 77 different scoreboard combinations that can end up with 12 runs in a game. (We do actual research for these sometimes.) The one where you score 1 run in 12 different innings is gonna be hard, since the game probably ends after the 9th. You could score all 12 in the same inning, which the Cardinals famously pulled off back in 2012 against the Cubs. But generally you're going to have a couple 1's and a couple 2's and maybe a stray 5 in there. Back to Saturday.

Jays 3rd: Marcus Semien double, Bo Bichette double (1), Vlad Junior's league-leading 26th homer (3), Teoscar Hernandez homer (4). In the 5th it's a double, a walk, a George Springer single (1), then Randal Grichuk unloads a 3-run bomb (4 again). The next inning, the same group again. Starting from bases-loaded, Hernandez, Springer, and Grichuk hit three straight singles off Konner Wade for a third 4-run inning... and a game total of 12. We actually didn't have to go very far to find the last team to assemble 12 runs via three 4's. In fact, we only had to go to the other dugout; the Orioles did it against the White Sox on April 22, 2019. But trailing 12-0, watch what the O's do in the 7th. They load the bases for Pedro Severino who hits a 2-run single. Then Cedric Mullins follows that with a double to score the last run plus Severino. They too have a 4-run inning. And there's your ballgame. A 12-4 final with all the runs coming via four 4-run innings. We scoured about 600 boxscores for every game in the modern era that ended with a score of 16-0, 12-4, or 8-8. Guess how many of them broke down to four 4-run innings? Yep, one-- Jays and Orioles on Saturday.

Straight A's

We do like to give the AL West grief because most of their games are 3-1 snoozefests that somehow still take 3½ hours. But once in a while they throw us a curveball, and once in a while it falls right in line with our theme. So we'll show the A's a little love for scoring 13 runs in Tuesday's contest with the Rangers. More notably, they wasted no time. Mark Canha drew a walk to start the game, and Matt Chapman immediately followed with a 2-run homer. The last time Oakland did that against Texas (i.e., the second batter of the game hit a 2-run dinger) was by Jose Guillen off Joaquin Benoit on September 24, 2003. Taylor Hearn then gave up a single and two more walks to reload the bases before getting yanked from the game. Normally we'd have a bunch of notes about a starter giving up 4 runs and not finishing the 1st inning, but Hearn isn't even the first Rangers pitcher to do that this year. Kyle Gibson didn't get through the first inning of the season without allowing 5 to the Royals on Opening Day.

Demarcus Evans would join Hearn in the "4 runs, 2 outs" club later on in the game as the A's continued to pile up runs. The last time two Rangers pitchers did that in the same game was also against Oakland; Mike Venafro and Brandon Villafuerte were the unlucky ones who got battered on August 8, 2001. In between, it fell to Jordan Lyles to try and keep things calm for 6 whole innings on Tuesday. Lyles has been a starter for much of his career, so is no stranger to being out there for a while (78 pitches on Tuesday). Appropriately, he also threw 6 innings of "relief" on September 11 of last season, also against Oakland. The last Rangers pitcher with multiple such games was John Barfield in 1990.

And while the Athletics did blow up the scoreboard early, scoring 9 runs in the first 3 innings, they denied us another research project by failing to score in the 4th. A sequence of 4-3-2-1 hasn't happened at the start of a game in at least 15 years (we stopped looking when the A's stopped scoring). But it was the first time the A's scored 9 by the 3rd in a road game since September 10, 2019, on their way to a 21-7 blowout in Houston. The last time they did it in Arlington was June 30, 2001, when they started 4-5-1-2 in a 15-4 thumping of Kenny Rogers and Mark Petkovsek.

Rays Your Glass

If we're going to mention the A's scoring 13 runs, it's only fair that we mention the Rays doing it also. Here we catch up with the Angels again, who are now over in St Petersburg and staring down the wrong end of those 13 runs. They didn't start out there, however. Yes, Alex Cobb may have given up a homer to Manuel Margot, but the Angels got 3 runs in the 3rd on doubles from Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon. Unfortunately that would be the only 3 runs they scored in the game as the Rays dropped 11 unanswered on them. Cobb had a little meltdown in the 4th, allowing three singles, a 2-out triple, and then wild-pitching in Brett Phillips who hit said triple. Only Kevin Kiermaier (2019) and Mallex Smith (2018) had hit go-ahead triples for the Rays against the Angels, and this made it 6-3 before Jose Quintana could cough up two more runs. And now you have to pay attention. Because for the 7th, it is not Jose Quintana who comes out to pitch for the Angels... it's Jose Quijada. They are not in fact the same person despite the amazingly similar names. And even forgetting the first name, Saturday was the first time in MLB history that one "Q" pitcher had directly replaced another "Q" pitcher. (There have only been about 20, this wasn't hard.)

The second "Q" would leave more Q's than A's, giving up a walk, two doubles, another walk, striking out Joey Wendle, and then surrendering a 2-run single to Phillips to make it 11-3 before leaving. Quijada would ultimately get charged with 5 runs on just 1 out, the first Angels pitcher ever to post that line against the Rays. Randy Arozarena would finish off the scoring with a bases-loaded single; he would be the first Rays batter with 3 hits and 3 runs scored against the Angels since Evan Longoria and Dioner Navarro both did it on June 9, 2008-- which also happens to be the only other game where the Rays scored 13 runs against Anaheim.

Thanks to our various "countdown"-style posts, we've struggled for a long time to find songs with 12's or 13's or 14's in the title. Nothing new there. But this week we have the "Baker" theme. So we're pulling in '80s R&B diva Anita Baker. And what, according to Wikipedia, is her dozen-th solo single. Also the highest-charting one. It's the best that we got. Intermission!

How Long Has This Been Going On

You can measure how "long" a game is either by innings or by time (or the less-scientific "yawn factor"), but all innings are not created equal. So even though the Giants and Angels played 13 of them on Wednesday, that game "only" took 4 hours 51 minutes (also kind of defeating the purpose of a "getaway day").

We take you to Minneapolis on Monday. Where even the light rail makes its last departure from Target Field at 11:20. You might have been just as well off waiting for it to start up again at 4:45 am. Or just hanging around, since there was another game at noon on Tuesday.

The Twins start things by cobbling together 3 runs in the 2nd, starting with a Nelson Cruz solo homer. Counting his time as a visitor with the Rangers, Cruz has hit 14 go-ahead homers at Target Field, breaking a fifth-place tie with Trevor Plouffe. The third run of the inning scores on a foul sacrifice fly which Aristides Aquino doesn't bother to let drop. Not to worry, he's going to redeem himself for that extra run with a solo homer in the 4th. That came back-to-back with Eugenio Suarez's 2-run shot, and now we are tied up. Aquino hit only the second game-tying homer for the Reds ever in Minneapolis; Ruben Rivera took Bob Wells deep for the other on July 7, 2001.

From here on out there is only one 1-2-3 inning left in the game. That means 18 more baserunners with all of them stranded (except for one who was caught stealing). It's already 11:06 when Andrelton Simmons grounds out to end the 9th, and oh yeah, we're still tied. Ding ding, Blue Line leaving in 11 minutes.

If you have decided to stay and pony up for an Uber, it would be quite frustrating that Nick Castellanos immediately singles to score the Reds' free runner in the 10th. Suarez then hits a sac fly to score Castellanos, making him the first Reds batter ever to homer and hit a sac fly in the same game against the Twins. But then Minnesota must play its half of the 10th also. With free runner. Luis Arraez hits a leadoff double to score him. Two batters later, rookie Trevor Larnach also connects for a sacrifice fly to score Arraez and put us back at 5-5. It's now 11:44.

The only notable thing that happens in the 11th is that the clock flips to midnight and we have a 5-hour game on our hands. (Also, that last Blue Line train has just arrived at Mall Of America and has gone to sleep for the night.) Two walks load the bases for the Reds in the 12th, but Suarez whiffs to leave us tied at 5. And therein lies the opening, for Miguel Sano to blast a 2-run walkoff homer. On that list of go-ahead homers at Target Field, guess who's right above Nelson Cruz. Yep, Monday was Sano's 16th such dinger, putting him in a tie with Max Kepler and trailing only Eddie Rosario (21) and Brian Dozier (24). The walkoff made a winner out of Matt Shoemaker who pitched the 11th and 12th, the first Twins pitcher to throw 2 hitless extra innings and get a win since Michael Tonkin against the Angels on April 17, 2016.

Sano's homer was the first of the multi-run, walkoff variety for the Twins in the 12th or later since Joe Crede brought an end to a 13-inning game against the Tigers with a grand slam on May 13, 2009. And it was also the Twins' first-ever walkoff win against the Reds (whom they don't play very often due to being in the other league). That leaves five current franchises (all in the NL, of course) against whom the Twins have never hit one-- Arizona, Colorado, the Dodgers, Philadelphia, and Washington. And if you forgot to mark down the time, it's 12:24. And you have just witnessed the longest game in MLB history (by time) that did not reach the end of the 12th inning. (There have been three longer 12-inning games, including a 5:40 at Fenway two years ago, but in all of those the visiting team won so B12 had to be played to its conclusion.) See ya back here in 11½ hours for that getaway game.

25 Or 6 To 4

As you can see, we haven't really been able to decide between 12's and 13's here in our little post about dozens. So we head back to Wednesday again, where another game will give us the best of both worlds. That, of course, would be the one that ended 13-12 and was destined to be That Game that we had to write about.

The Phillies shot out of the gate with 5 early runs against Erick Fedde of the Nationals, and this one looked like it might not be very interesting. The Nats couldn't solve Vince Velasquez, although they did have a grand old time running his pitch count up, forcing him out of the game by the 5th inning after 86 offerings. So with that out of the way, it's time to unload on Archie Bradley and Sam Coonrod and get those 5 runs back and, oh yeah, make this interesting after all.

Velasquez had started the 5th with a pair of walks and was finally pulled after Starlin Castro and Victor Robles brought those runs home. That left Kyle Schwarber to take Bradley deep and get us back to 5-5. (Yes, there's plenty more on Schwarbs coming up next.) Meanwhile, Erick Fedde has been pinch-hit for and replaced with Kyle McGowin, who has now replaced those clean white bases with three Phillies runners via two singles and a walk. Someone order a pinch-hit grand slam? Because that's what Andrew McCutchen just dropped off. It was the first one the Phillies had hit at all since Ty Kelly in San Francisco on August 19, 2017, but their first to take a lead since Ryan Howard orr Arizona's Brandon Medders on May 9, 2007.

McCutchen the pinch hitter was doing so in the pitcher's spot, which puts Coonrod out on the mound for the 6th. And in "three true outcomes" mode, he faces five batters, striking out two and walking the other three. (Hope they didn't change out those nice clean white bases between innings.) Trea Turner greets David Hale with a 2-run single to get the Nats back to 9-7, but another walk sets up... would you believe another grand slam? (Of course you would, because that's why we're talking about this game.) This one comes off the bat of Josh Bell, and because of Turner's single, it actually flips the lead back to 11-9 in favor of the Nationals. In franchise history, the Nats/Expos have only hit one other lead-flipping slam in Philadelphia; it was by Henry Rodriguez off (!) Curt Schilling on September 26, 1996. Bell joined Jayson Werth (2015), Ian Desmond (2013), and Ryan Church (2006) as the only Nationals batters to hit any grand slam at Citizens Bank Park. And with McCutchen doing it some 34 minutes earlier, it's the first game in CBP history where both teams connected for a 4-run homer. For those who loved Veterans Stadium (we think there are still one or two of you out there), the curse of the cookie-cutter (and their swirling winds) meant it also only happened once in that park's 33-year history: Darren Daulton and the Cardinals' Todd Zeile on July 28, 1993. Also recall that both of Wednesday's slams took the lead; the last MLB game to have go-ahead slams in consecutive half-innings was May 13, 2005, when Adam LaRoche of the Braves and the Dodgers' Milton Bradley (he got game) traded them.

We neglected those 5 early runs that the Phillies scored against Erick Fedde. (Sorry, 5 early runs.) But the first 3 of those came on a homer by Travis Jankowski. Didn't really seem relevant until the slams happened. Because now the Phillies have a go-ahead 3-run homer (Jankowski) and a go-ahead 4-run homer (McCutchen) in the same game. Hadn't pulled that off since August 13, 1993, against the Mets when Wes Chamberlain did the honors in the 2nd and then Kim Batiste did the real honors with a walkoff slam in the 9th.

We spoiler-alerted you that this game ends 13-12 to fit our theme. It's only 11-9 right now. Well, the Phillies are going to chip away with three more RBI singles in the 7th and 8th to hold a precarious 12-11 advantage. Alec Bohm, who tied things at 11, would join Jankowski in having 3 hits and 3 runs scored; they are about to become the first Phillies teammates to do that in a loss since Milt Thompson and Phil Bradley against the Braves on July 18, 1988.

That's all because Hector Neris gets the 1-run save opportunity and in the 9th and, in kind, then provides Nationals closer Paolo Espino with a 1-run save opportunity in the bottom half. Neris allows two singles to lead off the inning, Alex Avila lays down a sac bunt to put runners at second and third, and then Starlin Castro comes through with a lead-flipping 2-run single for our final tally of 13-12. The Nats/Expos hadn't hit a lead-flipping single (which must, by definition, be a multi-run deal) in the 9th inning of a road game since Brian Schneider did it in Cincinnati on September 28, 2001. Since the start of the 2017 season, the Nationals have piled up thirty games where they scored at least 13 runs, the most in the majors (the Cubs have 27, while the Angels and Mariners have but 7 each because (we told you!) AL West). The Phillies had never scored 12 runs in a game at CBP and lost. And even for you one or two Veterans Stadium fans, they never did it there either! Their last such home game was August 3, 1969, at Shibe Park (by then renamed Connie Mack Stadium).

It also means those go-ahead homers by Jankowski and McCutchen went for naught. The last team to have a go-ahead 3-run homer and a go-ahead 4-run homer and still lose was the Royals on May 22, 1998. And there was one even stranger fact about Wednesday's game that was brought to our attention: Between Jankowski, McCutchen, Schwarber, and Bell, both teams had both a 3-run homer and a grand slam. Although we did find one instance of a 4- and a 3- against two slams, we were able to confirm that it was the first game in major-league history where both teams had both 4- and 3-run homers.

Schwarbombs Away

You were promised More Kyle Schwarber. More Kyle Schwarber you shall get. Although how much more Kyle Schwarber can we take?

Let's explore the last two weeks in the life of Schwarbs. June 12, leadoff homer to start a doubleheader with the Giants. June 13, homers in his first two at-bats to almost single-handedly beat the Giants, and the only reason he didn't hit leadoff homers in back-to-back games is because of the doubleheader. June 14, homers in the 7th to give the Nats a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh. Naps for a few days. Goes 1-for-4 a few times. No problem, maybe this little outburst is over with.

June 19, leadoff homer against the Mets, plus another 3-run dinger later in the game. June 20, a three-homer game that includes yet another leadoff bomb. Wednesday in that 13-12 game, the 3-run tying homer we mentioned. Thursday in Miami, homered in his first two at-bats again. That joined Bryce Harper (July 29, 2015) as the only Nationals to have a 2-HR, 4-RBI game at Marlins Park. It was also his fourth such game this season, already tying the franchise record for 2-HR, 4-RBI games in a season. The others to do it are Henry Rodriguez (1996), Adam Dunn (2010), Bryce Harper (2015 and 2017), and Ryan Zimmerman (2017). Did we mention it's the last week of June?

That first homer on Thursday also gave Schwarbs five leadoff homers in the span of 13 days. There are 25 teams who haven't hit five all year yet. In the 21st century only one other player has cranked five leadoff bombs so quickly-- Ronald Acuña in August 2018. Schwarber also now trails only Brad Wilkerson (2004) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) on the Nats/Expos single-season list; they each had 9 leadoff homers in their respective campaigns.

And for good measure, or maybe in case you are worried about not getting fined for underselling your baked goods, why not one more homer for Schwarbs in Friday's game in Miami? If you've lost count, that gives him 13 (theme again!) home runs in the 14 games the Nationals played between June 12 and June 25. Only six players in MLB history have had such a prolific span, and none of them is Sammy Sosa (remembering when he broke the single-month record in 1998. Schwarbs follows in the footsteps of another Washingtonian, Frank Howard in May 1968; the others after that are Albert Belle (1995), Barry Bonds (2001 when they would still pitch to him), Troy Tulowitzki (2010), and Nelson Cruz (2019).

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Tigers, Sunday: First walkoff win on an "SHX" (sacrifice bunt with no out recorded) in at least 80 years. Before that we start to lose play-by-play and the record gets incomplete.

⚾ Freddie Freeman, Wednesday: First Braves batter to have 4 hits in a loss in Queens since Terry Pendleton on September 14, 1996.

⚾ Manny Machado, Monday: First Padres batter with 3 hits & 3 RBI in a home game against the Dodgers since Geoff Blum on August 23, 2006.

⚾ Kevin Pillar, Saturday: Third game-tying pinch-hit homer in Mets history in the 7th or later against the Phillies, after Val Pascucci in 2011 and Jim Hickman in 1962.

⚾ Yasmani Grandal, Tuesday: Second White Sox batter ever to hit a lead-flipping homer against the Pirates. Brian Anderson had the other off Jeff Karstens on May 24, 2009.

⚾ Jimmy Lambert, Sunday: Second reliever in White Sox history to give up 4 runs, hit a batter, and commit a balk in a home game. Rube Peters did it against Cleveland on May 4, 1912.

⚾ Dean Kremer, Thursday: Third starter in Orioles/Browns history to walk 5 batters and not finish the 1st inning, joining Rob Milacki (1991) and Sig Jakucki (1945).

⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Sunday: Second designated hitter in MLB history to have a homer, a triple, a double, 3 runs scored, 3 RBI, and a stolen base all in the same game. Hal McRae did it for the Royals on May 28, 1977.

⚾ Hunter Renfroe, Friday: Second Red Sox player ever to have a double, a sac fly, 2 walks, and an outfield assist in the same game. Dwight Evans against Texas on April 21, 1981.

⚾ Luke Voit, Tuesday: First Yankees batter to homer and triple in a loss to Kansas City since Charley Smith did it on July 31, 1967-- and yes, that's against the A's.

⚾ Antonio Senzatela, Saturday: First Rockies pitcher to be called for multiple balks in a game since Tyler Anderson at San Francisco, April 14, 2017.

⚾ Jonathan Schoop & Daz Cameron, Wednesday: First Tigers teammates to homer and steal a base in the same game since Omar Infante & Bobby Higginson in Chicago, August 17, 2004.

⚾ Jazz Chisholm, Sat-Sun: Second batter in Marlins history with a leadoff triple in back-to-back games. Jose Reyes did it against the Red Sox on June 11-12, 2012.

⚾ Trent Thornton, Friday: Second pitcher in Jays history to give up 0 hits and 0 earned runs but also walk 3 batters and take a loss. Roy Lee Jackson did it against Seattle on June 22, 1982.

⚾ Trevor Bauer, Wednesday: First Dodgers pitcher to strike out 10+, but also walk 4 and allow 3 homers, since Ben Wade against Pittsburgh on May 17, 1952.

⚾ Aaron Nola, Friday: Second pitcher in Phillies history to strike out 12 Mets batters and not get a win. Chris Short worked fifteen innings of a scoreless tie on October 2, 1965.

⚾ J.C. Mejia, Thursday: First Cleveland pitcher called for 2 balks in the same game since Steve Woodard aganist Chicago on September 9, 2001.

⚾ Braves, Monday: First time held to 4 hits or fewer in 4 consecutive games since August 1942.

⚾ Julio Urias, Saturday: First Dodgers pitcher to strike out 12+ against the Cubs and NOT get a win since Kevin Gross on May 18, 1992.

⚾ Jonathan Loaisiga & Aroldis Chapman, Tue-Wed: Second time in Yankees history that a pitcher has allowed 5 baserunners, 2+ runs, and blown a save in back-to-back games. Goose Goosage pulled it off by himself on September 28 and 30 of 1980.

⚾ Kyle Muller, Sunday: First Braves pitcher to allow 1 hit and strike out 9 against the Reds since Phil Niekro did it in the next-to-last game of the 1976 season.

⚾ Rays, Thursday: First team to win a 1-0 game via "bounce-off" (game-winning wild pitch) since the Henderson Alvarez no-hitter on September 29, 2013.

⚾ Keston Hiura, Friday: Brewers first sac-fly-off in the 11th or later since Henry Blanco against Houston on May 16, 2000.

⚾ Charlie Morton, Tuesday: First Braves pitcher to allow 1 hit but also throw a wild pitch and hit 2 batters since Ray Boggs against the Cubs on September 17, 1928.

Back, Jack, Do It Again

There is something to be said for consistency. Whether consistently good or consistently bad, at least it's predictable. We spend a lot of time in these posts looking at the unpredictable, the teams that score 18 one day and get shut out the next. That pitcher who strikes out 14 batters and somehow doesn't get a win. This week, however, we found a bunch of teams offering us repeat performances. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Bears Repeating

We begin at Wrigley Field, where change has been fairly slow over its 108 seasons. There's a couple of videoboards now. And lights (that only took 75 years). A World Series banner finally got added 5 years ago. So it's a work in progress. You might say the same for the Cubs offense.

Their week actually started at Citi Field, with Jake Arrieta headed to the mound against David Peterson and his 1-5 record and his 6.32 ERA and his WHIP of 1.51. This should be a no-brainer. And maybe that's why the Cubs never got started. Maybe they got on the wrong train (they're letters and numbers here, guys, not colors). And 2021 has certainly not been Arrieta's year so far (more to come). But Peterson shut the Cubs down to 1 hit over 6 innings while Arrieta walked four and gave up a 2-run double to Kevin Pillar plus a home run to Dom Smith. It's 5-0 by the time Anthony Rizzo and Patrick Wisdom hit back-to-back homers off Trevor May in the 7th. On the up side, that was the first time the Cubs had ever gone back-to-back in the 7th or later of a road game with the Mets, at any of their three stadiums. On the down side, those would be the only other Cubs hits in the game. They were held to 3 hits at Citi Field for just the second time; the other was against Mike Pelfrey on April 20, 2010. And as for Peterson's 6-inning, 1-hit outing-- and your "flashback" theme-- no Mets pitcher had done that since, well, Jacob deGrom the Friday before. The last time two Mets pitchers had such a line in a 4-day span was June 15 and 17 of 2003, by Steve Trachsel and Jae Weong Seo.

By Tuesday the Cubs apparently figured out their transit problems (it's okay to get on the "purple" train, you're not going to end up in Evanston) and even found a "7" in the hits column. Unfortunately, they ran into the buzzsaw that was Taijuan Walker, who became the first Mets pitcher in 45 years to strike out a dozen Cubs and get a win. Jerry Koosman did that in 1969 and again in 1976; the only other in team history was Nolan Ryan in 1970. It had been 5 years since Noah Syndergaard struck out 12 batters (April 12, 2016, vs Miami), and no other Mets pitcher except deGrom had done it since. Walker did get tagged for two early runs, meaning it was up to Pete Alonso to first tie the game with a 2-run single in the 3rd, and then win it with a sacrifice fly in the 5th. He's the third batter in Mets history to have 3+ RBI, account for all the team's runs in a game, and do it without an extra-base hit. Hubie Brooks did it against the Dodgers in 1982, and Rusty Staub in a loss in San Diego in 1974. Alonso's sac fly was the first go-ahead one for the Mets against the Cubs in the 5th or later since Rey Ordoñez off Kerry Wood on April 10, 2002.

On Wednesday the Cubs were back to their familiar 3-hit routine, and they might have been lucky to get that. Mets fans have likely blocked out this game in spite of their 6-3 win, because it's the one where Jacob deGrom left the game after the 3rd with another bout of "shoulder soreness". In a repeat of Monday, Anthony Rizzo and Rafael Ortega each homered to provide the Cubs' only runs and only hits until Sergio Alcantara lined a meaningless single with 2 outs in the 9th. It marked the first time the Cubs had ever been held to 3 hits by the Mets twice in the same series; the last time it even happened twice in the same season was 1976.

On the other side of this one, Robert Stock made his Cubs (though not MLB) debut after a decade of bouncing around the minor-league systems of seven different teams. All he did was walk six Mets, hit Dom Smith (who then homered in his next at-bat), and throw a wild pitch. The last pitcher to do that in his Cubs debut was Joe Vernon, and he didn't even do it at Wrigley. That was at West Side Park against the Phillies on July 20, 1912, and it was Vernon's only game for the Cubs. He showed up in the Federal League 2 years later and played one game for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops. He walked 5 in that one and never appeared again.

Meanwhile, deGrom's early exit did make for a rather unique pitching line. You see, the Mets' ace had been perfect the first time through the order, striking out 8 of the 9 batters he faced. Then he was unable to come out for the 4th, meaning he also finished with that line. Only one other Mets pitcher had left a game in the 4th or later with a perfect game still intact-- Seth Lugo in a doubleheader spot-start last August 25. (Lugo hadn't started a game in 2½ years and was on a pitch count.) And only one other Mets pitcher has ever had his final line for a game show 0 hits and 8 strikeouts. You might be able to guess it.

The Cubs did avoid a series sweep with Javier Baez's 2-run homer in the 1st inning of Thursday's game. Once again, however, that would end up being all the offense they really got, finishing with those 2 runs on only 4 hits. Happily that was double the Mets' total, the first time the Cubs had held them to 2 hits at home since May 12, 1996. Kyle Hendricks not only won Thursday's game, he was the pitcher the last time the Cubs had 4 hits at Citi Field and won; that was a 1-0 game on June 30, 2015. And exactly two months after that was the last time that a 1st-inning homer accounted for all the Cubs' runs in a game and they still won. Granted, it also helps when Jake Arrieta throws a no-hitter.

Fish-tory Repeating

By Friday the Cubs were back in Chicago, but apparently their offense was still back on the 7-train in Queens. Against the Marlins, in a rare Friday-night home game, they trotted out that old reliable line of 2 runs on 4 hits. In this case both the runs came from Joc Pederson, and it looked promising when he homered to start the game. He would end up being the second Cubs leadoff batter to have a multi-homer game against the Marlins, joining Dwight Smith in Florida's inaugural season (August 12, 1993).

However, it wouldn't be long until Adam Duvall came to the plate with the bases loaded in the 3rd and proceeded to unload them with the fifth grand slam of his career. His previous one famously provided runs 26 through 29 of that 29-9 game against the Marlins last September. On Friday, however, he would join Adeiny Hechavarria (2013) and Carlos Lee (2012) as the only Marlins batters to hit a grand slam at Wrigley. He then reappeared in the 7th and added the final runs of this game as well, with a 2-run dinger to give Miami a 10-2 victory. Duvall also had a 6-RBI game (actually 7) against his old team, the Braves, on April 13, and is the first player in Marlins history with multiple 6-RBI games at all, much less in the same season. He's the first Marlins batter to have a multi-homer game at Wrigley since Giancarlo Stanton did it on July 16, 2011, in a 13-3 win that was also the previous time the Marlins hit double digits in Chicago.

So go back, Fish, and do it again. This time, instead of waiting until the 3rd to hit a grand slam, Duvall lofted a 2-run homer in the 1st, already putting the Marlins well on their way. Then we get to the 3rd after all, and apparently forgetting that he already homered in the 1st, Duvall goes yard again. That's two more runs, a 6-0 lead, and a second straight 2-homer, 4-RBI game for Duvall. The Marlins' list of consecutive 2-HR games contains only three players, and the 4-RBI list contains only four players-- and Duvall is the only one to appear on both lists. The other batters with back-to-back multi-homer games are Giancarlo Stanton (July 2016) and Derrek Lee (June 2002). The other 4-RBI players are Cody Ross (July 2008), Preston Wilson (May 2000), and Gary Sheffield (September 1995).

We mentioned 2021 hasn't been Jake Arrieta's year so far. Because guess who's on the mound to give up those 6 runs on Saturday. That was his fourth start already this season where he allowed 5 or more runs, didn't get through the 4th inning, and lost. That's the most such starts by any Cubs pitcher in a season since Shawn Estes in 2003. By the end things would be so bad that Eric Sogard became the first player in Cubs history to play second base, play third base, and pitch in the same game. He was also the only Cubs "pitcher" on Saturday not to allow a run.

It's 11-0 after Lewin Diaz hits his second career homer in the 8th, and it does give the Marlins a nice repeat to add to their collection. Now in their 10th season as "Miami", it's only the second time they've scored 10+ runs in back-to-back games, home or road. The other was September 22 and 23, 2017, in Arizona. And no visiting team had scored 10+ in consecutive games at Wrigley Field since the Tigers did it on August 18-19, 2015.

The Cubs did at least avoid a shutout when Jason Heyward hit a solo homer off Anthony Bass in the 8th. The last Cubs batter who homered to break up an 11-0 (or worse) that late in a game was Kyle Schwarber against Milwaukee on September 9, 2017. (Much more Kyle Schwarber fun to come.) The problem, once again, is that Heyward's homer was only their second hit of the game. Pablo Lopez allowed only a 2nd-inning single to Sogard and then retired him on a double play. Rafael Ortega added a meaningless double in the 9th so the Cubs finished with 3 hits. Yep, 3 hits. Again. After 4 on Friday, 4 on Thursday, and 3 on Wednesday. The North Siders hadn't been held to 4 hits or fewer in 4 straight games since, well, they weren't the North Siders. They were the West Siders, playing back-to-back doubleheaders with the Pirates on Labor Day weekend... of 1905. (We actually had to check to see if Labor Day was a holiday by that point. It was.)

And so needless to say, when it happened yet again on Sunday, we really don't have any precedent for the last time the Cubs did it. At this point we extend to all of MLB to find that no team has posted 4 or fewer hits in 5 straight games since the Giants did it in September 2016. And no team in the live-ball era has ever done it in six straight (set your DVR for Monday night!).

The bizarre-est highlight of Sunday's game was that, for a while, it stood a chance of being another no-hitter-that-wasn't. Zach Thompson walked three batters and the Cubs managed to score a run on a passed ball, even though they didn't have a hit until Patrick Wisdom's 15-pitch at-bat in the 5th. Problem is, they were the home team, so if that 1 run on 0 hits had stood up, they wouldn't have batted in the 9th. No worries; Wisdom became the second Cubs batter in the "pitch-count era" (which is usually 1988) to get a hit on the 15th pitch; Jon Jay did it against Brandon Woodruff on Septembre 22, 2017. However, that came off Ross Detwiler, not Thompson. Thompson was pulled after 4 due to a pitch count, having struck out 7 but still not allowed a hit. The last Marlins starter to leave a game with a no-hitter intact was Jarlin Garcia on April 11, 2018 (after 6 in what was a very controversial move at the time).

And even though the Cubs would get a couple more hits and score another run, that first unearned run on the passed ball ended up costing Thompson the loss. How many pitchers in MLB's modern era can say they gave up 0 hits, struck out 7, and got stuck with a loss? Well, that club is now three, and it's no longer an Astros exclusive. The other members are Houstonians Erik Bedard (July 20, 2013) and Ken Johnson (April 23, 1964).

Over And Over

Although they did lose that series finale to the Cubs on Sunday, the Marlins were no doubt happy that on Friday and Saturday they were on the right side of that 10-run repeat. Because they were coming off another set of repeating history in their midweek series with the Cardinals.

Monday's opener gave us a hint as to what the pattern would be, as the Cards and Fish were tied going to the bottom of the 8th. That's when Tyler O'Neill came through with his second double of the day, scoring Dylan Carlson and putting St Louis ahead for good. O'Neill was the first Cardinals batter with a multi-double game against Miami since Tommy Pham on July 5, 2017, and it was the team's first go-ahead double in the 8th or later of a home game since Matt Adams hit one on September 21, 2018. Only five teams had gone longer without one.

Tuesday found our combatants knotted at 1 in what was less of a "pitcher's duel" and more of a "who ARE these people?". Trevor Rogers and Kwang-Hyun Kim held the opposing offenses, most of whom had never seen them before, to 3 hits each and sent us to the 9th still tied. That's when Paul Goldschmidt decided to spare everyone the free-runner escapade and crank a leadoff homer off Yimi Garcia for a 2-1 Cardinals win. The complete list of Cardinals batters to hit a walkoff homer against the Marlins is Paul Goldschmidt and... um... Paul Goldschmidt. He also had one on June 19, 2019, off Adam Conley, to say nothing of the one he hit against them with the Diamondbacks on June 18, 2013. (Don't pitch to him in the third week of June.) Tuesday's loss was the first time the Marlins had been held to 3 hits at Busch Stadium since they faced Adam Wainwright on July 16, 2016.

Back-to-back walkoffs, anyone? (We warned you, things are gonna repeat themselves.) Wednesday's game was a slightly-better battle between Sandy Alcantara and Johan Oviedo, both of whom scattered 6 hits and no runs until we get to the 9th. Alcantara is still in the game as who else but Paul Goldschmidt leads off the 9th inning again. No, he doesn't homer again, it's not quite that exciting. He hits a grounder to short. But Jazz Chisholm boots it and Goldy is safe at first representing the winning run. Three batters later he is scoring that winning run as Yadier Molina singles through the left side for a 1-0 walkoff. The Cardinals had one other 1-0 walkoff against the Marlins, and it was in the very first series the two teams ever played. Todd Zeile also singled on May 16, 1993. The only other 1-0 win by St Louis against Florida was August 11, 2004, when Edgar Renteria had an RBI double in the 6th.

The Cards hadn't won any 1-0 game in walkoff fashion since Peter Bourjos's single beat the Pirates on September 3, 2014. And with the 2-1 win on Tuesday, it was the first time St Louis had walked off in back-to-back games without scoring more than 2 runs in either one since May 1-2, 2015, also against Pittsburgh.

Thanks to the leadoff error, Goldy's run was unearned, and thus Alcantara got the distinction of throwing a complete game, allowing 0 earned runs, and losing. No pitcher in Marlins history had ever pulled that off. And no pitcher for any team had done that and lost on a walkoff since Kenny Rogers, then with the Yankees, on May 28, 1996.

As for Goldschmidt, he had the walkoff hit (and also scored the walkoff run) on Tuesday, and then scored the walkoff run again on Wednesday. The last Cardinals batter to pull off either combination (hit plus run, or scoring the run in both games) was Albert Pujols when he homered to win consecutive games against the Cubs on June 4 and 5, 2011.

D.C. You Again

We left the Mets in Flushing after the Cubs departed on the 7-train back toward Hudson Yards, but the New Yorkers would take a little trip of their own for the weekend. They ended up on the Green Line to Navy Yard for a four-game set with the Nationals that included a makeup game for the lone rainout we had on Opening Day. The teams may be different, but here we are locked in another 0-0 game as Erick Fedde and Joey Lucchesi match wits in Friday's opener, while both teams forgot to check the area around them when getting off the subway and let their bats ride all the way to Suitland. Through 8 innings the Nationals have 5 hits and the Mets have managed only 2 singles.

No worries, Edwin Diaz will take care of this. Bottom of the 9th, leadoff walk to Juan Soto. Ryan Zimmerman single. Yan Gomes single to score Soto for the 1-0 walkoff. The last time the Nationals beat the Mets in a 1-0 game was September 14, 2016, on a Wilson Ramos homer in the 7th. They'd never had a 1-0 win over the Mets via walkoff. It was also the Nats' second 1-0 walkoff win this season, after Kyle Schwarber homered against the Diamondbacks on April 16. The only other season in Nats/Expos history where they did it twice was 1972. That Arizona game, thanks to its "scoreless tie" nature, also saw Max Scherzer throw 7+ innings with 2 hits and not get a win-- just as Erick Fedde did on Friday. That's the first time in franchise history that two different pitchers had that line in the same season, through John Patterson did it twice by himself in 2005.

And if you've forgotten the last game of that Mets/Cubs series, it's the one where Chicago staved off a sweep by shutting out the New Yorkers on 2 hits. Look what happened again Friday. It's only the second time in Mets history doing that in back-to-back games; the other was only two years ago, May 18-19, 2019, in Miami.

Starting Over

Someone say Kyle Schwarber? Turns out he's not only capable of hitting walkoff homers such as the one against Arizona in April, he's also capable of hitting leadoff homers. Well, now he is, since last weekend the Nats decided to move him to the top of the order.

After dropping the day game of Saturday's doubleheader by a 5-1 count to the Mets, Schwarber decided that wasn't going to happen again. Or, if it was, at least he would be responsible for the "1". He greeted Robert Gsellman with a leadoff homer in the night game, the Nats' first in a home game against the Mets since Ian Desmond off Dillon Gee on September 3, 2011. Schwarber would tack on another homer in the 4th to lead the Nationals to a split of the twinbill. To find the last Washington batter to hit a leadoff homer, and then add another dinger later in the game, well, our theme should be a hint that you don't have to go too far. Because Kyle Schwarber did it last Sunday against the Giants in the second game after they moved him to the leadoff spot. The only other player in franchise history to have two such games in an entire season was Alfonso Soriano in 2006, and he didn't do it in the same week.

Did we mention that Schwarber likes leadoff homers all of a sudden? That one last Sunday was his second game in the #1 slot, but guess what that was a repeat of. Yep, his first game in the #1 spot the day before (June 12). The only other player in Nats/Expos history to crank out three leadoff homers in an 8-day span is Brad Wilkerson, who did it in late August 2004 in the next-to-last homestand at Stade Olympíque. And he's not done, either. Because in the final game with the Mets this Sunday, guess what. Four in nine days, a first in franchise history and just the sixth player to do it this century (Ronald Acuña, George Springer, Brian Dozier, Jose Altuve, Derek Jeter). Only one other player in Nats/Expos history had even hit leadoff homers in back-to-back games; that was Tony Tarrasco on May 8 and 9, 1995.

Schwarbs wouldn't be satisfied with just the leadoff homer on Sunday, however. He repeated his trot in the 5th and then again in the 7th for just the sixth 3-homer game in Nationals history. (The Expos also had six.) Anthony Rendon had the previous one, in that wacky 23-5 game with the Mets on April 30, 2017, where he also had 10 RBI. Rendon, Bryce Harper (2015), and Adam Dunn (2010) are the others to do it at Nationals Park, with Kris Bryant of the Cubs (May 2019) being the only visitor with a 3-homer game there. The only other leadoff batter in franchise history with a 3-homer game was (of course, when you think leadoff) Alfonso Soriano against the Braves on April 21, 2006.

While Schwarber's leadoff homers this Saturday and Sunday were in consecutive games, the ones last weekend were not because of doubleheaders. So on Monday, when he went yard again against the Pirates, it was not in fact a third consecutive game, but a third consecutive day. Also that one wasn't a leadoff homer per se because it came in the 7th inning. But it did come out of the leadoff spot, and once again we look to Alfonso Soriano for all things leadoff. He was also the last Nationals batter with any homer from the leadoff spot on three straight days, May 18-19-20 of 2006.

Now that we're into that Pirates series, that 7th-inning "Schwarbomb" on Monday gave the Nats a 3-2 win, but Kyle had also tied the game with a single in the 3rd. In the 17-year history of the "Washington Nationals", only two other players have recorded a tying hit and a go-ahead hit in the same game against the Pirates: Anthony Rendon on April 12, 2019, and Ronnie Belliard on June 10, 2008.

Unfortunately for Pittsburgh those 2 runs would be the high point of the series. On Tuesday the Nats exploded for 5 runs in the 1st inning including a Yan Gomes grand slam. Since the move to Washington, the only other 1st-inning slam they'd hit in any home game was by Austin Kearns against the Marlins on April 18, 2009. Trea Turner would add 4 hits including a triple on the way to an 8-1 win, his third game with that line. That's a record for the current incarnation of Washington baseball; the last Washington batter to have three such games (4 hits including a triple) was Eddie Yost from 1949 to 1957.

And the Pirates limped to a 3-1 loss (and sweep) on Wednesday where the highlight was pitcher Chase DeJong hitting a double. Jameson Taillon (2018) and Zach Duke (2010) are the only other Pirates pitchers with a two-bagger at Nationals Park, and this week was just the second time the Pirates had scored 2 runs or fewer in three straight games at the Navy Yard and lost them all. The other such streak was June 19 through 21, 2015.

Take It To The Bridge

The Pirates were back in the friendly yellow shadow of the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Friday, and this is The Game we have to talk about. And it is not a repeat of earlier in the week, although it does feature some repetitive things within the game. Let's start with a 5-run 1st inning off Cleveland starter J.C. Mejia, Pittsburgh's largest B1 in an interleague game since April 2, 2018, when they rode a 5-spot against the Twins all the way to a 5-4 win. They'd never before dropped a 5-run 1st on the Indians, home or away. Mejia survived all the way to the 5th, giving up only another solo homer to Bryan Reynolds, so it's 6-1 when Kyle Nelson attempts to take over in the 6th. Two walks and a single load the bases with 2 outs. And then, well, strike zone much?

Bases-loaded walk to pinch hitter Phillip Evans. Plunks Adam Frazier with an 0-2 pitch to extend the inning. Bases still loaded for Ke'Bryan Hayes to fire a double to the warning track in right. That would be another 5-run inning, the first time the Pirates have had two in a game since May 2, 2017, in Cincinnati. They hadn't done it at PNC Park since August 1, 2007, against the Cardinals. That also gives them 10 runs (actually 11 now) in a game for the first time this season, the last of the 30 teams to achieve a fairly bland milestone. They'd been the last team not to do it after Seattle dropped a 10-0 on the Twins on Tuesday.

Note how Evans and Frazier got a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. Back-to-back. Incredibly, that's a repeat of just two weeks ago when Kevin Newman and Ka'ai Tom did it against the Marlins on Saturday the 5th. In the entire vault of play-by-play on the great Baseball Reference Stathead site, which covers nearly every game for the past 75 years, the Pirates had never even done that twice in the same season.

However, if our metaphor is that we're in a musical bridge, that means our song still isn't over. Sam Howard is given an 11-1 lead to, well, not do what he did with it. Walk, single, walk, single (11-2), strikeout, single (11-3), lineout, Cesar Hernandez grand slam. That is a 6-run inning to go with the pair of 5's for the Pirates, the first game in PNC Park history with three 5-run frames. The last time it happened at Three Rivers was a 12-8 slugfest with the Marlins on June 15, 1996.

Rene Rivera would get the Indians to 11-9 with a bases-loaded single in the 8th, and Bryan Reynolds would boot said single to instantly make it 11-10. Richard Rodriguez escaped two baserunners in the 9th for the save, giving the Indians their fourth-ever interleague game where they scored 10 and lost. The most recent had been June 15, 2009, against Milwaukee (14-12), and the one before that had also been in Pittsburgh-- a 13-10 loss at Three Rivers on July 17, 1999. The only other time they did it was, oh yeah, in Game 3 of the 1997 World Series against Florida, the wacky 14-11 game.

And getting back to Cesar Hernandez and his grand slam. He had also driven in that first run for Cleveland an inning earlier, and is thus the first leadoff batter in Indians history with 5 RBI in a loss. As we mentioned, the slam was hit with the score 11-3, the first one the Indians have hit with the team trailing by 8 runs since Bill Knickerbocker did it against the non-Knickerbocker New York team (the Yankees) on September 9, 1936. And in nearly a quarter-century of interleague play, no Indians batter has hit a grand slam against the Pirates, home or road. To find the last "Cleveland" slam against Pittsburgh you have to go back to the days when the Spiders roamed the National League. Jack O'Conner was the batter who hit it... on July 17, 1893.

Admit it, you've had the post's "title track" in your head ever since you clicked it. Over here the wheel's been turnin' round and round since about Thursday. Release the Steely Dan. Intermission!

Let's Twist Again

Cleveland arrived in Pittsburgh on Friday after presumably following their previous opponent down the Turnpike. The Orioles had been getting swept at Progressive Field to extend their road losing streak to 19, so they were more than happy to keep driving right past Pittsburgh and go home to Camden Yards.

Cedric Mullins wasted no time, opening Friday's game with the Blue Jays by blasting his third leadoff homer of the year (all at home, naturally). He also hit Baltimore's previous leadoff homer against Toronto, way back on September 18, 2018, and joins Brady Anderson, Phil Bradley, and Brian Roberts as the only Orioles to have multiples against them. On the way to a 7-1 win, Mullins then hit a 3-run bomb in the 8th, duplicating a feat he pulled off on April 26 against the Yankees. The last Orioles batter to have two multi-homer games that included a leadoff, in the same season, was also Brady Anderson, in that 1996 season that always comes with its own asterisk.

If you guessed there might be a repeat performance on Saturday, you'd be very close. No leadoff homer this time, but Mullins cranked out two more as Baltimore once again scored 7 runs. The last Orioles batter with back-to-back multi-homer games was Chris Davis in September 2015, and in franchise history no player had ever done it batting leadoff in both games. And Ryan Mountcastle, who's hit only 2 homers on the road all year, enjoyed watching Mullins so much that he decided to do an imitation. And then raise the bar by hitting three. He joined Juan Beniquez (1986), Eddie Murray (1980), Boog Powell (1963), and Moose Solters (1935) as the only players in franchise history to have 3 homers in a loss. And only three sets of Orioles/Browns hitters had each had multiple homers in the same loss; the others are Manny Machado and Delmon Young (2015), Bobby Bonilla and Brady Anderson (1996*), and Frank Robinson and Boog Powell (1966).

A loss, you say? A-yup, because the Jays didn't score 1 run this time like they did on Friday... they scored 10. After rallying for six 2-out runs in the top of the 9th for just the third time in team history. One of the others was at Camden Yards two seasons ago, and the third was in Milwaukee 13 years earlier to the day. Marcus Semien drew a bases-loaded walk to open that floodgate in the 9th, his third RBI of the day. And it turns out he got in on this "multi-homer game" thing as well with solo shots in the 1st and 8th. He joined Alex Rios (2006) and Jose Cruz (2001) as the only Jays leadoff batters with a multi-homer game against Baltimore, and the other two did it at home. And a leadoff batter who homered in the 1st?, well, pretty good chance that also came as the first batter of the game. He's the eighth batter in Jays history to hit multiple leadoff homers within a 4-day span; Cruz and Rios are also on that list, but the most recent was Eric Sogard in April 2019.

Flip Fantasia

Which begs the question, Marcus Semien repeated his leadoff homer feat from 3 days earlier? Why yes he did. It was one of the few things that went right for the Blue Jays this week. Last Sunday we had to hastily bring you tales of Toronto's 18-4 jamboree at Fenway Park that included a whopping 8 home runs. Maybe they shoulda saved a few. From Monday to Saturday they hit 8 homers total. In six games. And they lost five of them, including a midweek sweep by the Yankees in which many games looked alike. And they looked like a lot of other Yankee games in which the offense suddenly blows up right at the end.

On Tuesday it was 5-3 before Brett Gardner opened the 7th with a solo shot. Anthony Castro then wild-pitched in the tying run to blow the save, the third pitcher in Jays history to perform that neat trick after Aaron Loup in 2012 and Jason Frasor in 2010. And while there's no lead-flipping homer in this one (wait for it!), there were two game-tying homers when Gary Sanchez (in the 2nd) and Chris Gittens (in the 4th) both answered Jays runs from the inning before. Only twice before had the Yankees hit multiple tying homers in a game against Toronto; Tyler Austin did it by himself in the third game of the 2018 season, while Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon did it on Independence Day 2009.

The game being tied up on the wild pitch also gives Clint Frazier the chance to be today's hero with an 8th-inning RBI double for the win. That was the Yankees' first go-ahead double in the 8th or later against Toronto since Vernon Wells hit one in September 2013, and just their second ever against the Jays by a pinch hitter. Dan Pasqua took Mark Eichhorn for a two-bagger on September 11, 1986.

On Wednesday we get to Semien's other leadoff homer of the week, irrelevant at the time aside from being their first one against the Yankees when already trailing since Former Yankee Melky Cabrera in April 2014. That left us knotted at 1-1 until Cavan Biggio hit a solo dinger in the 5th, leading the Yankees to summon pinch hitter Gary Sanchez in the top of the 7th. Given that Miguel Andujar had started the inning with a single, Sanchez then took the lead with a 2-run homer, the Yankees' first lead-flipper by a pinch-hitter against Toronto since Carlos Beltran in August 2015. That also sent starter Ross Stripling to a defeat despite allowing only 3 hits and striking out 9; only Brandon Morrow (2011), Ted Lilly (2006), and Jimmy Key (1987) had done that in Jays lore.

Wednesday wasn't without its nervous moments, however, as Aroldis Chapman gave up a single and a double to start the 9th before getting a strikeout, an ill-advised fielder's choice at home (there's no force, why are you running on a grounder to third?), and a fly ball to center for the save. We could find no other game in Jays history where they trailed by 1 in the 9th, had runners on second and third with no outs, and failed to score in the inning to at least tie the game. (They did pull it off in a 10th inning once, 2008 against Seattle.)

Stop us if you've heard this one, but the Yankees had a 7th-inning lead-flipping homer for a win over the Blue Jays. Yes, this is now Thursday's series finale, and they trail 4-3 before Rougned Odor opens the frame with a single. It's then Giancarlo Stanton's turn to launch a 2-run bomb, start a 4-run inning, and cruise the Yankees to an 8-4 win. Combined with Gary Sanchez's homer on Wednesday, it's the first time the Yankees had a lead-flipping homer in the 7th or later of consecutive games since Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez did it in September 2010. Anthony Castro, of the wild-pitch blown save on Tuesday, gave up all 4 runs this time to not only blow another save but also take the loss. He joined a short list with Jason Grilli (2016), Tom Henke (1986), and Matt Williams (1983) as Jays pitchers to give up 4 runs and take a loss against the Yankees while getting only 1 out.

Maybe Castro could have used the Yankees defense behind him. Because the memorable part of Thursday's game was not him facing 6 batters and getting 1 out. It was the Yankees facing 1 batter and getting 3 outs. Yes, it's the old triple play, the Yankees' first since, oh, only May 21 against the White Sox. They'd never before turned two in the same season, and it was the first one started by a Yankees pitcher since Dooley Womack to Bobby Cox to Mickey Mantle on June 3, 1968. But it's the other shenanigans of having both runners at third base that make Thursday's play so fun. If you're scoring at home, it goes ((1-3)-6-2-5)-6, the first TP in MLB history to have that exact combination. It's only the second one in Yankees history to involve five different fielders, after a ((3-2-5)-4-6-4)-3-6 escapade in Detroit on May 22, 1946 (sorry, video not available).

And oh yeah, the Blue Jays still haven't been able to return to Toronto. This is all still happening at Sahlen Field in Buffalo. So when, you ask, is the last time a triple play got turned in Buffalo? Why, that's "only" September 29, 1890, when Billy Nash hit a liner that was snared by the second baseman and the two baserunners were both doubled off.

Buffalo (N.Y.) Evening News, September 29, 1890 (via Newspapers.com)

Back (Bay) In The High Life Again

And that first Jays loss that started the week was the finale of that wraparound series at Fenway that included the 18-4 game. Monday was nowhere near a repeat of that; instead it was a repeat of the first game of the series on the previous Friday. With Boston holding a 1-0 lead, Vlad Guerrero Jr said, let's make this series go a little bit longer so we don't have to go back to Buffalo. (All in good fun, Buffalo.) It was the first tying or go-ahead homer the Jays had ever hit when down to their final out in a game at Fenway; their only other one against Boston was a walkoff by Roy Howell on May 26, 1979.

Except in the bottom of the 9th, Rafael Devers overrules Vladdy and says, no, you've been here too long, back to Buffalo you go. He delivers a walkoff single to score Alex Verdugo (who led off the inning with his own single) for the 2-1 victory. That followed Verdugo's own walkoff single from the Friday before, and it's the third time the Sawx had walked off twice against Toronto in the same series. Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek hit singles in back-to-back games on April 29 and 30, 2008, and Luis Alicea and Bill Haselman had back-to-back walkoffs on June 26 and 27, 1995.

This is, of course, just leading into Boston's next series, the one against Boston's former team (now in Atlanta by way of Milwaukee). And that escalated quickly too, with Rafael Devers and Hunter Renfroe hitting back-to-back homers in the 1st inning on Tuesday. That's only the second time the Red Sox have ever hit back-to-back homers in Atlanta (any inning); Damon Buford and Mike Stanley led off the 4th against Bruce Chen on July 9, 1999.

The Braves would eventually claw all the way back to tie the game in the 6th on a passed ball and a sacrifice fly. So we're 7-7 going to the 8th when our buddy Alex Verdugo unloads another 3-run homer that would hold up for the win. The only other 3- or 4-run go-ahead homers hit by the Sawx against the Braves were by Travis Shaw in 2016 (in the 1st) and Cody Ross in 2012 (in the 4th). Their only go-ahead ones in the 8th or later were by Brandon Phillips in 2018 (a 2-run version) and Nick Green in 2005 (solo walkoff). The 10-8 final would be the first time the Braves scored 8 runs in an interleague game and lost since September 5, 2018, also against Boston.

So by now you know what happens on Wednesday. It's almost like they forgot to reset the scoreboard. Red Sox, 10 runs on 14 hits-- again. Braves, 8 runs-- again (this time 12 hits instead of 9). This one took a slightly different path to get there, with Boston collecting 8 doubles out of their 14 hits, their most ever in a National League park and their first time doing it in any road game since June 21, 2015, at Kansas City. Xander Bogaerts joined Alex Verdugo (2020) and David Ortiz (2016) as the only Bostonians with 3 doubles in a game against the Braves, and even pitcher Garrett Richards got in on the party at second base. Josh Beckett (2007) and Derek Lowe (2004) are the only other Red Sox pitchers to hit a double against the Braves.

Atlanta, however, would counter all those doubles with a couple of well-placed long balls. Dansby Swanson tripled and scored in the 4th, then provided a game-tying 3-run shot in the 5th. Martin Prado (2010), Kelly Johnson (2007), Andruw Jones (2003), and Chipper Jones (1998) make up the other Braves players to homer and triple in the same interleague game. And that homer was only the second 3- or 4-run one in Braves history to tie an interleague game in the 5th or later; Gerald Williams hit the other against the Yankees on July 17, 1999. Freddie Freeman gave the Braves a brief 7-6 lead with a solo homer in the 6th... which just meant that lead was ripe for taking back.

Shane Greene gives up a double and two walks to start the 7th and then it's time to go. Bring on A.J. Minter. Red Sox, bring on pinch hitter Christian Arroyo. And then bring on the pinch-hit, lead-flipping grand slam notes. There have now been four such homers in Red Sox history, after Shea Hillenbrand (2002 at Tampa Bay), Rich Gedman (1986 at Detroit), and Clyde Vollmer (1950 vs Cleveland). And ignoring the pinch-hit part, there have only been two other lead-flipping slams hit by the Red Sox against an NL opponent. Brian Daubach hit the first one against the Marlins on June 14, 2001, and you might remember the second. Daniel Nava certainly does.

For the Braves, well, we know the last time they scored 8 runs in an interleague game and lost. But the last time they scored 8 runs in back-to-back games against any opponent and lost them both was July 26-27, 2008, in Philadelphia. And our exact matching scores of 10-8? Well, specific to that score, it's only happened one other time in the past 85 years, and if you thought Coors Field might be a good place for a couple of 10-8 affairs, yeah, you'd be right. The Rockies won a pair from the Mets by that count, 3 years ago this weekend.

Turn It On Again

We had already written nearly all of this post about history repeating itself when the Yankees dropped another one in our lap. Remember that wacky triple play they turned in Buffalo on Thursday? Fast-forward all of three days to Sunday's series finale with Oakland.

Gary Sanchez briefly continues the Yankees' theme of late lead-flipping with a 2-run double in the 6th. The Yankees hadn't hit one of those so late in a game against Oakland since Ruben Sierra on May 4, 2004. But in the 9th, it's time for Aroldis Chapman to make the Yankee faithful sweat nearly as much as he does. Leadoff walk to Jed Lowrie. Four-pitch walk to Tony Kemp. And then, boom, perfectly placed ground ball by Sean Murphy to Gio Urshela at third. Ballgame over. Thaaaaaaaaa Yankees. Win. That is yet another triple play, the more-conventional ((5)-4)-3 variety that is the most common of all types, but it's their second one this week. That's the closest together that any team has recorded two TPs since July 17, 1990, when the Twins famously became the only team ever to turn two in one game. But as for different games? No team had done it in two separate games within a four-day span since the Tigers turned them in back-to-back games on June 6 and 7, 1908. The only other before that was the 1886 Brooklyn Dodgers who recorded them on April 26 and 29. The 31 days it took the Yankees to collect three TPs was also a major-league record.

The Athletics had not hit into a game-ending triple play since July 24, 1915, and on that day they were trailing Cleveland by 8 runs anyway. The Yankees hadn't turned one since May 6, 1911, against the Red Sox, although that one last month against the White Sox was also in the 9th inning. No team had ever turned two in the 9th inning or later in the same season before. And check out the bizarre pitching line this created for Chapman. 1 IP (3 outs), 3 batters faced, but 2 walks. (Huh?) The only other pitcher in Yankees history to post that line was Wilt Gaston against the Senators on May 28, 1924. We couldn't find an exact play-by-play of his 9th inning, but there appears to be a caught-stealing and a double play involved. And totally bringing this full circle? That 1924 Gaston appearance was in the second game of a doubleheader. In the first game that same day... the Yankees turned a triple play.

Oops I Did It Again

We're not sure what got into the Giants this week, unless you consider that they were playing the Diamondbacks. Still, though, it's not like these were blowouts. On Tuesday Arizona collected 7 runs in the first 2 innings, including knocking Zack Littell out of the game before he recorded an out. Littell faced 6 batters, walked 2, gave up 4 singles, and became the first Giants starter to give up 4 runs while getting 0 outs since Gil Heredia on June 4, 1992. By the 8th, however, the Giants had inched their way to back to an 8-5 deficit, and a leadoff double and an error have helped them load the bases with 2 outs. Did we mention there's a guy named "Yaz" coming up? And not the synth-pop band from the early '80s, although this Yaz did indeed create a "situation", hitting the team's second lead-flipping grand slam in as many Tuesdays. Mike Tauchman did it last week; the last time San Francisco even hit two in a season was 1967. And since you're wondering, Grandson Mike and Grandpa Carl already have an equal number of lead-flipping slams in their careers; the elder Yaz hit his only one on April 12, 1979, in Milwaukee. Tuesday was the first game in D'backs history where they scored 7 runs in the first 2 innings and still ended up losing.

Wednesday's game had all the fun of nine innings jammed into three! Around a bunch of zeroes, the Giants hung two 4's and a 5 en route to a 13-7 win in which the D'backs also had a 5-run frame. It was the eighth game at the current stadium where both teams had a 5-run inning, and the second to involve Arizona, the other being September 7, 2003. The Giants had piled up 13 runs by the 5th inning, something they also did in that 19-4 game against the Reds back on May 20. They hadn't pulled that off twice in a season since 2004. Wilmer Flores, hitting in the pitcher's spot, cranked a pinch-hit homer with the Giants already ahead by 6 runs; only Travis Ishikawa (2014) and Ken Oberkfell (1989) had done that in their San Francisco history. And for Arizona, they scored 8 runs on Tuesday and lost, only to score 7 more on Wednesday and lose again. Four times in their history have they had 7+ runs in consecutive road games against the same opponent and lost both contests; two have been in San Francisco and two have been at Coors Field. The other instance against the Giants was September 3 and 4 of 2004.

And since this post is all about broken records, what about a 10-spot from the Giants on Thursday? Kevin Gausman held the D'backs to only 3 runs this time in running his record to 8-1, the best start for a Giants pitcher since Jason Schmidt in 2003. So we don't have any notes about the D'backs scoring 7+ in three straight games. But we do have one about the Giants scoring 9+ in three straight games: It's the first time they'd done that at home since August 23-25, 2010, against the Reds. Brandon Belt had a homer and a triple in Wednesday's victory before Curt Casali came along and matched that line on Thursday. The Giants hadn't had a player do that in consecutive games since Jeffrey Leonard did it by himself on August 14-15, 1983.

And as you know by now, the Diamondbacks returned home for the weekend and dropped three more contests to the Dodgers to run their losing streak to 17 games. (Had it not been for the 1st, they would currently be 0-for-the-month.) We know about a few other long losing streaks. The Orioles' 21 to start the '88 season. The Royals had a 19-gamer in 2005. The Mariners rattled off 17 around the All-Star break in 2011. But the last National League team to hit "L16" on the streak meter was the 1977 Braves-- and it so frustrated owner Ted Turner that he usurped actual manager Dave Bristol and decided he would manage the team himself. That lasted one game-- the 17th straight loss in the streak-- before the commissioner decided Ted was breaking the old Connie Mack Rule that prohibited owners from also being managers. Ted was removed the next day, Vern Benson got credit for managing that day's streak-breaking win over the Pirates, and then Bristol was reinstated for the rest of the season.

Bottom Of The Bag

⚾ Shohei Ohtani & Jared Walsh, Fri-Sun: First teammates in Angels history to each homer in the same three consecutive games.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Thursday: First Angels pitcher to draw 2 walks as a batter since Joel Piñeiro at Dodger Stadium, June 11, 2010.

⚾ Willy Adames, Saturday: Second batter in Brewers history with the combo of a homer and 3 doubles in the same game. Damian Miller vs Cincinnati, April 22, 2006.

⚾ Aaron Civale, Wednesday: First time a Cleveland pitcher has been the first in the majors to reach 10 wins in a season since Greg Swindell in 1988.

⚾ Odubel Herrera, Friday: First Phillies batter to hit a leadoff homer in San Francisco since Len Dykstra at Candlestick on April 20, 1994.

⚾ Sean Murphy, Monday: Second player in A's history with 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, and 2 hit-by-pitches in same game. Jimmy Dykes at Washington, July 3, 1921.

⚾ Twins, Friday: First team since at least 1950 (we start losing play-by-play before that) to have a triple and two bases-loaded walks in the same extra inning.

⚾ Jose Altuve, Tuesday: Astros' first walkoff grand slam since Brian Bogusevic off the Cubs' Carlos Marmol, August 16, 2011.

⚾ Astros, Wednesday: First game in team history where the bottom third of thair batting order combined to hit 4 homers.

⚾ Adam Wainwright, Sunday: First Cardinals pitcher to throw a complete game with 11 strikeouts against the Braves since Bob Gibson in Milwaukee on September 15, 1964.

⚾ Luis Urias, Thursday: First Brewers batter with a 3-run double accounting for all the team's runs in a game since Prince Fielder at Cincinnati, May 23, 2006.

⚾ Rhys Hoskins, Saturday: Joined Von Hayes (1989) and Dolph Camilli (1935) as the only Phillies batters to have 2 homers and 6 RBI in a game against the Giants.

⚾ Julio Urias, Tuesday: Became second pitcher in Dodgers history to record at least 1 RBI on offense in 5 straight games. Don Drysdale did it in their first season in Los Angeles, 1958.

⚾ Chris Paddack, Friday: Second pitcher in Padres history to strike out 11 and execute 2 sac bunts on offense. Andy Benes did it against the Mets in a 1-hitter on July 3, 1994.

⚾ Tony Watson, Wednesday: First Angels pitcher to give up 6+ runs and not record an out since Donne Wall at Seattle, April 22, 2002.

⚾ Shed Long, Sunday: Mariners' first walkoff grand slam since Mike Zunino, also vs Rays, August 8, 2006.

⚾ Dodgers, Monday: First game against the Phillies where they had 3 hits and won since April 25, 1974 (Tommy John pitching, 1-0 on a Jim Wynn sac fly).

⚾ Ronald Acuña, Friday: Second Braves batter in modern era to walk twice and be hit by a pitch twice in the same game. Bob Horner did it against the Padres on July 27, 1982.

⚾ John King, Saturday: Second pitcher in Rangers history to throw 3+ hitless innings and take a loss. Danny Darwin did it against Detroit on July 30, 1979.

⚾ Mariners, Monday: First team to score exactly 4 runs and have an RBI single, RBI double, RBI triple, and RBI (solo) homer-- in that order-- since the Yankees did it on August 23, 1956 (Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Jerry Coleman, Mickey Mantle).

⚾ Reds, Tuesday: Second time in modern era that they had 2 hits in an extra-inning road game and won. The other was May 2, 1917, in Chicago, and is famous as (still) the only game in MLB history where neither team had a hit through 9.