Sad as it may be, there are only two weeks left in the 2015 regular season. Our roundup of baseball's oddities found quite a few notable home runs this week, and since autumn starts in a couple days, a few other pitchers who "rake."
Sunday was dominated by Kendrys Morales, who hit three home runs and legged out a triple for a Kansas City Royals-record 15 total bases. He's the first Royal with a three-homer game since Danny Tartabull on July 6, 1991, and the first in the majors with three homers plus a triple since Ryan Braun in 2012. Morales also walked on Sunday, and is the first player with three homers, a triple and a walk since catcher Wes Westrum did it for the New York Giants (at the Polo Grounds, naturally) on June 24, 1950.
Ian Kinsler led off the 11th Saturday with a walk-off homer. It was Kinsler's second of the season; James McCann has Detroit's other two. They are the first pair of Tigers to each have two walk-off homers since their championship year in 1968. Willie Horton and Gates Brown combined for four of their seven that season. Both Kinsler and McCann also have a walk-off homer in the 11th inning; the last Tigers teammates to do that in the same season were Cecil Fielder and Mickey Tettleton in 1994.
Nolan Arenado's 16th-inning homer finally brought an end to Tuesday's Rockies/Dodgers marathon. By inning, it was the latest home run in Rockies history, surpassing two 14th-inning ones hit in Denver. Ryan Spilborghs had a walk-off slam in 2009, while Dante Bichette hit a three-run version on April 26, 1995, in the first game ever played at Coors Field. Tuesday's was also the second-latest homer ever hit by a visiting player at Dodger Stadium. Randy Johnson (no, not that Randy Johnson; this one was a Braves infielder for three seasons) went deep in the 18th on Sept. 6, 1984.
Monday's first pitch was thrown at 7:05 p.m. By 7:06, Anthony Rendon had already rounded the bases, having taken said first pitch out of Citizens Bank Park. Alex Gordon did likewise in Cleveland just a few minutes later, the 10th and 11th times this season that a homer has been hit on a game's first pitch. The Royals have three of those, the most since the 2008 Marlins. Jason Kipnis would tie the score with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first; it's the fourth game this season where both teams started with a dinger.
The last time two first-pitch-of-game homers were hit on the same day was July 21, 2004, by Carl Crawford and Mark Kotsay. A couple hours later on Monday, Wil Myers hit Monday's fourth leadoff homer (tying the season high from June 26) en route to a four-RBI game. He became the first Padres hitter with a leadoff homer, plus three additional RBIs later in the game, since Rickey Henderson on July 2, 1997.
Jake Peavy's first home run since 2006 made him the fifth different Giants pitcher to go deep this season. That ties the major-league record for such a thing (the last team to do it was the 2002 Dodgers), and the last Giants staff with five home-run hitters was the 1935 squad of "Slick" Castleman, Carl Hubbell, Hal Schumacher, Allyn Stout and Al Smith. The Giants' nine total homers (Madison Bumgarner has five) are the most by their pitching staff since 1934, when Schumacher had six and Roy Parmelee and Freddie Fitzsimmons each had two.
Reds rookie Josh Smith legged out his first career triple Saturday. There have been only five pitcher triples in the majors this season, and Cincinnati has three of them. While the Phillies had three just two years ago, the Reds had three total from 2010 to 2014. Their last time with three in a year was 1970 when Gary Nolan, Jim McGlothlin, and Don Gullett led them to the World Series.
The Cubs pounded out seven doubles Thursday, their most in Pittsburgh since 1946, with one of those by reliever Clayton Richard who was pressed into hitting when the Cubs batted around in a six-run inning. Both of Richard's hits this season have been doubles, but the other came in a spot start. He's the first Cubs reliever to hit a double since Roberto Novoa pitched three innings against the Cardinals on June 3, 2006.
More Kernels
Jackie Bradley Jr., Saturday: Third game this year with a homer, a double, and three RBIs while batting ninth. Joins Kevin Elster of the Rangers (1996) as the only players ever to have three such games in a season.
Alfredo Simon, Sunday: 13 hits allowed vs Royals; first Tigers pitcher to throw two 13-hit games in same season since Fernando Arroyo in 1977.
Stephen Strasburg & Gio Gonzalez: First pitchers in Nationals/Expos history to strike out at least 12 opponents in consecutive games.
Travis Wood, Thursday: Threw Cubs' first "perfect" save (no baserunners) with at least five strikeouts since Bruce Sutter on June 26, 1978.
Lance Lynn, Friday: First Cardinals starter to issue six walks in an outing of 3 1/3 innings or less since Fernando Valenzuela in July 1997.
Slade Heathcott, Monday: Youngest Yankee to hit a go-ahead homer with two outs in the ninth since Don Mattingly walked off on May 13, 1985.
Yunel Escobar, Sunday: First Nationals batter to have four hits and four RBIs without a home run since Ryan Church on May 7, 2005.
Tucker Barnhart, Friday: Second game this year with three walks (also July 24), first Reds catcher to do it twice in a season since Johnny Bench in 1979.
Jason Heyward, Tuesday: First Cardinal with two doubles and an extra-inning homer since Lonnie Smith on May 15, 1982.
Omar Infante, Thursday: Second seven-RBI game of season for Royals (Mike Moustakas); second time ever that team has had two. Bo Jackson and Kevin Seitzer did it in 1987.
Carlos Carrasco, Saturday: First Indians starter to strike out nine in five innings or less, allow three runs or less, and lose since Herb Score in 1955.
Eduardo Rodriguez, Monday: Youngest Red Sox pitcher with a nine-strikeout game (or more) since Roger Clemens threw a three-hitter against Cleveland on Aug. 26, 1984.