trivial occurrences 2014

Daniel Rathman, BP:

On Sunday, (Raul Ibanez) followed Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the year’s first sequence of back-to-back-to-back home runs—and a unique one, at that.

Jeff Fletcher, who covers the Angels for the Orange County Register, was the first to observe that the three players who slugged the homers were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, respectively. Research by our own Russell A. Carleton and Andrew Koo confirmed Fletcher’s claim that the sequence was the first of its kind, at least since 1950.

On August 3, 2004, Pedro Feliz (then 29), Barry Bonds (40), and J.T. Snow (36) smacked consecutive homers, but the order disqualified that entry. On July 8, 1986, Kirk Gibson (29), Lance Parrish (30), and Dwight Evans (39) slugged three in a row for the Tigers; Evans missed the quadragenarian requirement by 11 months. In fact, before Ibanez’s homer on Sunday, Bonds was the only 40-plus-year-old player to partake in a back-to-back-to-back display in at least 64 years.

Kurkjian grits his teeth at having been scooped.

Daniel Rathman of BP on the late innings in Philly last night:

B.J. Rosenberg faced three batters—Gattis, Dan Uggla, and Andrelton Simmons—and all three of them found the seats, becoming the second troika of the season to go back-to-back-to-back. It had been at least 64 years since another reliever was so badly bludgeoned.

With the Braves now up 5-1, Luis Avilan decided to one-up Rosenberg. He served up only one tater, but that one was a three-run bomb off the bat of Domonic Brown, which scored the third, fourth, and fifth runs of the frame and put the Phillies ahead 6-5. Little did Avilan know that, an inning later, he would become the first pitcher since Jack Knott in 1934 to be credited with a win after allowing at least five earned runs and recording no more than three outs*.

*Micah Owings allowed five runs and got the win on September 27, 2011—in a game in which Ryan Roberts hit an ultimate grand slam—but one of the five runs was unearned.

And the Pirates and Reds resume their rain-suspension today with 10 combined HRs; the record is 12.

let's never use "ultimate grand slam" seriously again

Ike Davis is the first to hit two grand slams in the season's first month with two different teams.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, a record 10 pitchers -- one-third of all of Sunday's starters -- threw at least seven innings while allowing three or fewer hits.

Adrian Beltre just became the 5th guy to collect 100 HR for 3 different teams.

(name the other four)

a-rod
word up thome
...

two before them, in their primes in the '70s

reggie and i would never have gotten evans

According to STATS, Yovani Gallardo’s double was the first walk-off hit by a pitcher since 2003, when Glendon Rusch’s pinch-hit single in the 14th inning gave the Brewers a 3-2 walkoff win against the Astros.

the clearwater threshers (phillies high-a) are 10-40 this season and 2-20 at home

According to Major League Baseball, Lonnie Chisenhall became the first player to go 5 for 5 with three homers and nine RBIs since the RBI became a statistic in 1920. The only other major league players to have at least five hits, nine RBIs and three homers in a game were the Dodgers' Gil Hodges, the Reds' Walker Cooper and the Red Sox's Fred Lynn.

phil hughes only has 2 walks since april 20th (10 starts) and theyre both to brian mccann

when brett tomko pitched a scoreless inning for the colorado springs sky sox on june 11, he became the first person to play for nine different pacific coast league teams in its 111-year history

• 2B Jose Altuve set an Astros franchise record by recording a steal in 6 consecutive games…has recorded multiple steals in 4 consecutive games…is the 3rd player in the Modern era and the 1st since Ray Chapman in 1917 to record multiple steals in 4 straight games

Marlins are first team in MLB history to lose five-or-more 13+ inning games in a calendar month (via @EliasSports)

A genuine achievement (from SweetSpot):

They went 1-for-24 on Monday and finished June with a .171 batting average--the lowest team average for a month since the lively ball era began in 1920.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BreFxuICMAEHyJX.jpg

california league pitcher strikes out five in one inning

Rick Porcello first to throw a shutout with 0 K, 0 BB since Jeff Ballard in '89.

Padres’ Rene Rivera delivers the first three-run single in six years

jason grilli and ernesto frieri ran into each other in an o'hare bathroom while traveling to their new teams after being traded for one another

13 years ago today, the aforementioned brett tomko no-hit oklahoma city as a member of the tacoma rainiers, allowing one walk and retiring the last 25 batters in order

tonight he faces oklahoma city again, this time for colorado springs

circle of life

Tanaka is the first rookie to win 12 before the break since a '70s pitcher no one remembers--the other guy was 13-1, 2.69, then proceeded to win all of 23 games the rest of his career.

Posnanski on Porcello's 0/0 shutout:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/02/porcellos-0-walk-0-strikeout-shutout-was-miraculous/related/

The thing that jumped out at me: while the nine 0/0 games since '69 were thrown by exactly the kind of pitcher you'd expect (Mike Caldwell/Ray Barr/Ross Grimsley-types, low-K guys--Porcello himself fits), Clemens is on the list for this game in '87:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198707210.shtml

That was a huge year for runs too.

Via a reader e-mail to James: Jose Abreu currently has the second-highest SLG/OBP ratio (1.89) ever, just barely behind Matt Williams' coulda-been 1994 season (1.90). Dave Kingman, Tony Armas, and Juan Gonzalez each show up in the Top 10 twice.

Mets got one hit per inning last night, seventh time a team has done that since 1950.

http://bit.ly/onehitperinning

@pedromoura
Dee Gordon has reached base three times in five innings without recording a hit or drawing a walk. Weird stuff

E4, HBP, WP on strike three

That third time, he advance to second on a walk, then to third on another wild pitch, and then scored on a throw from home to first on a third strike.

advanced

wau

Didn't see tonight's Jays game, but to lose to somebody 14-1, and then exactly one week later beat the same team by the exact same score, well, it probably belongs on this thread.

what was the last major trade between the previous season's World Series teams? particularly in-season?

yasiel had three triples last night

that happened like a week ago bro

lol

@KSeaboldt
CG, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 BB, Loss. David Price is the first pitcher in at least 100 years to do that...

David Price, Dallas Keuchel, and Tyson Ross all lost complete games yesterday. First time at least three lost complete games since June 25, 2004.

via AceballStats

Tomas Telis became the first player to catch a shutout in his first career game since Jason Kendall did it for Pittsburgh on April 1, 1996, according to baseball-reference.com.

Ryan Rua will become Texas' 59th player this season, tying a major league record.

Rua, a rookie first baseman/outfielder, was promoted when outfielder Jim Adduci was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list. Rua is scheduled to play in Friday night's game against the Houston Astros.

The San Diego Padres twice used 59 players in a season (2002 and 2008), while the Cleveland Indians did it in 2002.

The Rangers will likely break the record, as left-handed starter Derek Holland, who has been out the entire season while recovering from knee surgery, is close to coming off the disabled list.

VVIP: very very isolated power.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/09/05/93181018/four-hitters-mlb-history-200-average-25-home-runs-chris-davis

Torii Hunter is the first player with three multi-hit innings in one season since Dustin Pedroia and Curtis Granderson (both 2008).

*Kurkjian titter*

via Sam Miller of BP:

"Ryan Howard is about to be the first player with 100 RBIs and a sub-.700 OPS since Joe Carter, and just the fifth ever."

i didn't even know ryan howard was alive

Jerome Williams made baseball history, becoming the first pitcher to earn three wins against the same opponent in a season as a member of three different teams.

Entering Saturday, Williams had already defeated the A's on April 26 with the Astros and on July 25 with the Rangers. He threw seven scoreless innings Saturday and held Oakland to four hits.

In 247 PA, Jose Molina had a .187 slugging pct and an ISO of .009 (one of the 3 worst in the last 50 years, 200+ PA).

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/8/22/6053517/jose-molinas-legendary-power-outage

4 runs scored!

lol he had more stolen bases (3) than extra-base hits (2) this season

Not exactly trivial, but

@JonHeymanCBS
national league had no one w/ 300 total bases for 1st time since 1942. stanton led w/ 299. enos slaughter led in '42 w/292

are walks rising along w/ strikeouts? that plus injuries to sluggers/stars (Cutch, Goldschmidt, Stanton) would explain that partly.

Kind of surprising that the NL got through the '60s without that happening...although with Mays and Aaron and a few others, maybe not. (Closest either league got in the '60s was Zolio Versalles' 308 in '65; Billy Williams led the NL with 321 in '68.)

It seems like a freak occurrence to me, with Cutch, Stanton, Rizzo, and Goldschmidt all injured for part of the year, leaving a catcher with doubles power as the best healthy offensive player.

Plus Tulowitzki--although, pro-rated, he only works out to around 340 total bases. I thought he was clipping along at a faster pace than that.

@Retrosheet
Players born on Tuesdays have 46,624 home runs, all-time MLB.
Fri - 41,975
Mon - 39,909
Sun - 38,989
Thu - 37,272
Wed - 37,007
Sat - 36,778

they are full of grace iirc

this explains why i never made the mlb, born on a weds, damn

Atlanta's Bob Seymour is the first Seymour since Cy in 1913.

Three Seymours debuted this year and Tampa’s Ian Seymour debuted first

Maybe I got the team wrong? Bob Seymour is on the Rays, yeah...either that or the internet's not to be trusted! And I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that.

Ian Seymour...who's the other? Maybe the FB post I saw dated back to the beginning of the year. Maybe the three of them are the first since Cy.

Oh wait, Bob Seymour is a Ray too…only debuted on the 5th August this year. Ian Seymour threw five scoreless innings for the Rays last night but debuted back on the 5th June. Finally Carson Seymour on the Giants is a reliever who debuted 29th June. Carson Seymour came into a game I was watching to relieve Carson Whisenhunt; I remarked “Talk about Carson City” to my better half but was met only with an unimpressed stare.

Ian Seymour actually 9th June but still the first.

Checking BRef, the post I saw was half-right: Bob, Ian, and Carson this year, Cy from 1896-1913, and Jake in 1882. And that's it for Seymours (Bart Simpson to weigh in).

found another post-1913 Seymour:

Seymour "Cy" Block: 1942-1946
wartime infielder for the Cubs

Which catcher has hit the most homeruns in the past 30 days?

I love baseball because there are statistical oddities almost every day. Tonight the Barves won by 9 despite being outhit (first time they'd done that since 1908). Last night the Marlins hit for the cycle, their only four hits, and won. (turns out that's more common)

This is probably famous, but I'm pretty sure it's something I never knew...I'm just finishing Roger Khan's October Men, about the '78 Yankees season, and they're just about to play their one-game playoff with the Red Sox.

He (Guidry) felt confident, but had one curious concern. Mike Caldwell of Milwaukee defeated him. Then it was Mike Flanagan of Baltimore and after that Mike Willis of Toronto. Only three losses all year and each time to someone called Mike. Who would be starting for Boston? Michael Augustine Torrez, known as Mike.

As you may have heard, Guidry didn't lose to a Mike that day and finished the season at 25-3.

mets hit home runs off both the LF and RF foul poles in yesterday's marlins game