trivial occurrences 2020

With four straight home runs, the White Sox tied a major league record in their game yesterday against the Cardinals. Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, and Jose Abreu were also the first three Cuban-born players to go back-to-back-to-back in MLB history.

washington's luis garcia is the first player born in the 2000s to homer in the major leagues

and apparently he was starting in place of starlin catro...the first player born in the 1990s to hit a home run

awooooooo

*castro

The @Padres are the first team EVER to hit a grand slam in four consecutive games.

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) August 21, 2020

holy shit they did it

before yesterday

We have a winner.

Last time there were multiple MLB games played on a day, and none of them lasted 9 innings: Jun 21 1943. American League off-day. pic.twitter.com/E1H9PnYj64

— Doug Kern (@dakern74) August 28, 2020

Padres and Rockies combined for 14 runs and 28 hits at Coors tonight with only 1 Home Run. Got me looking for the highest scoring games with no extra base hits and it led me to this wild 2005 Phillies vs Marlins game: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200509170.shtml

D-train takes a complete game shutout into the 9th with a 2 run lead and ends up losing 10-2, on a ton of hits, errors, and hit batsmen.

Jacob deGrom just became the first pitcher to induce at least 31 swings and misses in a game and LOSE since Pedro Martinez had 37 misses (and 17 K's) in a 1-0 loss to Steve Trachsel on May 6, 2000.

— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) August 31, 2020

because of the marlins' earlier covid-related schedule issues, new outfielder starling marte could possibly play 65 games in a 60-game season

MILWAUKEE -- Josh Hader and the Brewers closed their homestand with a Major League record.

Hader finished the Brewers’ 8-5 win over the Tigers on Wednesday night at Miller Park with a record-setting 12th consecutive hitless appearance to begin the season, snapping a tie he had shared with three others and capping a winning homestand that kept Milwaukee in the thick of the postseason chase -- losing record and all.

Nobody’s perfect, and Hader certainly hasn’t been. His velocity is a tick down this season and his walks were up even before an outing Saturday against the Pirates when he blew a save by walking five of the six batters he faced, forcing home the tying and go-ahead runs. The Brewers bailed him out that night with Eric Sogard’s walk-off home run, and the next day, Hader threw a rare bullpen session to, in his words, “make sure I was able to throw it over the plate, at least.”

Back on the mound on Monday, Hader struck out the side in a win over Pittsburgh. On Wednesday against Detroit, he hit the first man he faced before retiring the next three.

With that, Hader had 12 straight hitless games spanning 11 2/3 innings to begin 2020. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s the longest season-opening streak of appearances without allowing a hit in history, snapping a tie he had shared with 2017 Tiger Justin Wilson, 1999 Phillie Scott Aldred and 1987 Red John Franco.

...“He's good at baseball,” Christian Yelich said.

Do people even care about hitless streaks anymore if you're walking 5 straight batters in the thick of it?

it's pretty trivial, i'd say

Today is just the 23rd day in MLB history with 20+ games. First time since 1974 pic.twitter.com/Xxx6TRWCco

— Dan Hirsch (@DanHirsch) September 4, 2020

13 XBH today is a brewers franchise record

19 runs, of which yelich got 1, which feels representative of his season so far

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29863609/tampa-bay-rays-first-mlb-modern-history-start-all-lefties

Luke Voit hit a game-ending sacrifice fly leading off the 10th inning

Cavan Biggio is the 7th player (since stolen bases became an official stat) to steal 20 bases without being caught to begin a career.#BlueJays

— Rodney Hiemstra (@therodbot) September 18, 2020

SABR-approved percentage

From Jon Couture:

Jon Lester, regular season with Red Sox: .636 winning pct. (110-63), 3.64 ERA
Jon Lester, regular season with Cubs: .636 winning pct. (77-44), 3.64 ERA

who led MLB in HR, RBI, and Runs from 1950-1959?

ugh, a hint: not MLB, but just one of the leagues. this player was 1st in MLB in 2 of the categories, and 2nd in MLB in the other

I know this because this player played in 3* different HOME stadiums during this stretch. He would have had even better numbers if his team had stayed put.

*Kind of a trick question but I'm shameless: Name all 3

Ebbetts, the LA Coliseum, and...?

For some reason I watched his HOF speech last night (maybe the first one I’ve ever sat all the way through?)

He spent the entire speech telling stories about teammates and family, it was great

It was used for 15 "home" games by the Brooklyn Dodgers during their last two seasons in Brooklyn – seven in 1956 and eight in 1957.[7] The games were played partly as a negotiating tactic with the Borough of Brooklyn, in pursuit of a new stadium to replace Ebbets Field.[8] While it had just 24,000 seats as opposed to Ebbets Field's 31,497, Roosevelt Stadium had 10,000 parking spaces compared to Ebbets Field's 700. The Dodgers' negotiation came to naught, and the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Stadium#Sports

Incredible to think back at how much power BigAuto used to have.

(Dodger Stadium has 16k parking spaces... if you've ever gone to a game there you'll never forget the hour plus spent coming in & out Chavez Ravine).

Don't know where to put this--it's not an occurrence, it is trivial.

Posnanski mentioned Alex Gordon today, so I was looking at the 2005 draft (Gordon was drafted second). Within the first 11 picks, there were three guys who seemed like a very good bet for the HOF at one point midway through their careers, then all three, for one reason or another, fell off a cliff: Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, and Andrew McCutchen. (Two are still active, and McCutchen's playing reasonably well at 33, but he'd have to stage some kind of a comeback to make up for time wasted.) Justin Upton, and Ryan Zimmerman were also in the top 11--add Gordon, and that's six guys between 30-50 WAR. I would think that counts as a strong draft, I don't know--the value is spread around, at least, rather than one or two imposing players.

6 of top 11 with 30/50 WARs is extremely impressive, i would think! tough to comprehensively compare that draft year until all the players from it are retired, but that's gotta be up there for a top 10 cumulative WAR

Found this piece, which counts 2005 as the best ("sickest," actually, but I'm up on my lingo, so I know that means good) first-round ever, and the fifth-best overall. It was written in 2012, though, when the three headed-for-the-Hall guys were all at their peak--might get a bit of a downgrade today. But it does seem to be one of the best ever.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1462043-which-mlb-draft-class-is-the-best-of-all-time

Looking at their rankings today, think I'd go with the '85 class as the best (third on their list). Bonds, Randy Johnson, Larkin, Smoltz, Palmeiro--wow. And Will Clark still may make the HOF one day via the Veteran's Committee.

i knew that pitchers sucked at hitting. i didn't realize they suck a little more each year!

https://i.imgur.com/snOJv8M.png

(xposts) The first round of the 2011 draft is looking pretty great right now. All mid-career, among the first 11 picks: Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer, Anthony Rendon, Francisco Lindor, George Springer.

I love to get excited about Opening Day starters, especially when they have outings that could be mistaken for bad openers. 1.1 IP, 6 R for Brad Keller (KC), 0.1 IP, 5 R for Kyle Gibson (TEX) https://t.co/e2rmJurMR7

— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) April 1, 2021

This is the Giants' first 10-run FIRST INNING since June 29, 1967 at the Cardinals, when they scored 11 in the 1st

Scoring summary from that inning ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/shoem2nEZD

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 4, 2021

Is this what they mean by a "counting stat"?

https://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2021/5/6/22422240/blue-jays-pitchers-matz-kay-ray-ryu-ties-mlb-name-record

just wait until the diamondbacks promote the Ng quadruplets

How do you hit .000 and match Babe Ruth in the record books?

You do what White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal just did -- go 0-for-3 with 13 walks in four games. With the strange stat line, Grandal joined the Bambino (1930) as the only players in American League history to walk 13 or more times in a four-game span.

If you add in the National League, you're only going to add one more player to the list -- Bryce Harper, who accomplished the feat in 2016.

wow, grandal's current line is:

.121/.388/.259

Carlos Martínez, a nine-year veteran, raised his career ERA from 3.55 to 3.64 in less than an inning.

— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) June 3, 2021

It was a tough day

yankees (taillon) vs red sox (eovaldi) today is the first MLB game in which both starters have had multiple tommy johns

Since 1901, the Twins are just the 4th team to hit 7 HR in a 9-inning game and lose.

White Sox (6/25/16 vs Blue Jays)
Tigers (8/8/04 vs Red Sox)
Tigers (5/28/95 vs White Sox)https://t.co/fHLzbRR4BO

— Stathead (@Stathead) July 28, 2021

OK I’m interrupting my vacation one more time for this incredible tidbit.

2 teams in the last 100 years had scored in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th innings of any game. And then last night 2 teams did it in the same game! #Royals #Yankees

Baseball!

Now back to the beach

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) August 10, 2021

HISTORY at Dodger Stadium: Austin Adams ties the all-time record for hit batters in a season in the modern era (21) by plunking Will Smith in the ninth inning. He's done it in 47 2/3 innings. Most recent guy to hit 21 (Kerry Wood in '03) needed 211

— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) September 12, 2021

Paul Goldschmidt is now the all-time leader in hits for a player born in Delaware with 1,549. He surpassed Delino DeShields with that double.

That makes him first in hits for the First State.#Cardinals #stlcards #MLB

— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) September 15, 2021

Gavin Sheets with a hit off Lance McCullers, Jr., radio broadcast just said there's family history as Gavin's dad Larry had a hit off Lance McCullers, Sr.

Terrance Gore:

- 102 MLB career games
- 0 career Home Runs
- 1 career RBI
- 2 career Doubles
- 3 World Series rings. He has more World Series rings than Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, and Mike Trout combined (2).@LoCronitaTV pic.twitter.com/IwRVNwUHiH

— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) November 3, 2021

guy's a winner

amazing!

102 games, 77 PAs, 3 world series rings

0 HRs

2022 is official terrance gore HR watch imo

in 2016, with the royals, in 27 games he finished with .000/.000/.000 and 0.4 fWAR, due to his defense

Terrance Gore WS-Ring Watch.

extrapolated over a full 162 game season, he would be .000.000.000 and 2.0 fWAR

Amazing that teams manage to find space for a player like him in an era of 12 and 13-man pitching staffs.

ya well how else are they gonna win a WS?!

Jays tried this with Munenori Kawasaki, didn't take.

Roel Ramírez has made two big-league pitching appearances, one each in 2020 and 2021 with the St. Louis Cardinals. The 26-year-old right-hander — now in the New York Mets organization — has been charged with nine earned runs in one inning of work. Ramirez’s 81.00 currently ranks as the highest in the modern era among pitchers who have recorded at least three outs.

hell yeah

I wonder how Yu Darvish's two starts stack up historically in the schizophrenia department:

1st: 6.0 IP, 0 runs, 0 hits, 4 walks, 3 K, GS of 71
2nd: 1.2 IP, 9 runs, 8 hits, 2 walks, 2 K, GS of 3

Bo Bichette's go-ahead grand slam tonight was his first; also the 25th anniversary of Carlos Delgado's first slam.

take that, chicago

COAST TO COAST 📈

For the first time in MLB history, all four LA and NY teams are leading their respective divisions. pic.twitter.com/1t729bcd0a

— ESPN (@espn) May 4, 2022

The Orioles are now 0-6 when Anthony Santander hits multiple HR in a game -- Santander is the only player in MLB history to lose the first 6 multi-HR games of his career. pic.twitter.com/E2e26g6siW

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 17, 2022

The Braves' bid to win 15 in a row falls short as the Cubs become the first club since 1999 to beat a team with a 10+ game winning streak while on a 10+ game losing streak.

This is so ephemeral it's not even an occurrence, but I noticed that Machado, Devers, and Ramirez are 1-2-3 on Fangraphs' WAR list today. Those are arguably the three most underappreciated players in baseball, all at the same position.

Starting next year, every team will play each other for at least one series per year. So I got to thinking who has hit a home run in every park, and came up with this list. Currently no active player has done it.

https://www.quora.com/Who-has-hit-a-home-run-in-every-active-MLB-park

now this is trivial

First time in modern history (since 1900) that an MLB player has driven in the only run of a game off his brother.
Austin Nola’s RBI single off Aaron Nola in the sixth inning gives Padres a 1-0 victory over the Phillies.

— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) June 25, 2022

well that was rude. breaking one of the unwritten rules there

Every team in the A.L. East is .500 or better tonight--is that the latest date ever for such a thing in the wild-card era?

Found this piece from June 25, 2013 (A.L. East again).

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1683743-can-the-2013-al-east-make-history-with-all-5-teams-finishing-above-500

Not even close:

In 2005, the entire NL East actually finished at or above .500: Braves (90-72), Phillies (88-74), Marlins (83-79), Mets (83-79) and Nationals (81-81).

If they can hang on for three more days, it will mark the second-latest date for this.

https://www.mlb.com/news/all-al-east-teams-at-500-or-better

A reader on James's site:

"Over the course of his career, Vin Scully called a game involving a manager who was born in 1863 (Connie Mack), and a game involving a player born in 1996 (Julio Urias)."

Derek Law, making history for the Tigers in Toronto: The first pitcher to allow a homer, commit an error, hit a batter and throw a wild pitch in a single relief appearance.

— Ryan Ford (@theford) July 30, 2022