Weird & Wild: Cal Raleigh vs. catching greats, powerful pitchers, and oh no Orioles!

New York Times

a day ago

So … did you miss us out there? I apologize for taking a little time off from all forms of Weirdness and Wildness. But what do you know — I returned to find a million wacky developments rolling off the Weird and Wild assembly line. Such as …
A kid pitcher did something breathtaking in his first start that Sandy Koufax never did in any start. … And two guys named Yastrzemski and Devers homered against the Red Sox. … And I'm still trying to figure out how a team could hit back-to-back-to-back homers in a game in which it got zero hits in any other inning.
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But before we get to all of that, it's time to talk about that catcher in Seattle who is breaking baseball … and also baseballs.
And now a word about Cal Raleigh:
Ohmygod.
The nitpickers out there might tell me that's three words, or possibly not a word at all. But around here, we beg to differ — because the Mariners' sweet-swinging catcher isn't just having a season for the annals. He's having a season for the Weird and Wild annals.
So let's tell you about Cal Raleigh's season — as only the Weird and Wild department is wacky enough to tell it.
He's already up to 32 home runs! You want a short list of just some of the men who never hit 32 home runs in their first 80 games of a season? Here it comes.
Henry Aaron … Willie Mays … Mickey Mantle … Aaron Judge … Jimmie Foxx … and Ted Williams … just to drop a few names that might sound vaguely familiar.
He's ripped off back-to-back months with 10-plus homers! That's as many 10-homer calendar months for the man we call Big Dumper, just since we flipped our calendars to May, as Joe Mauer, Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, Bill Dickey, Ted Simmons, Jorge Posada, Brian McCann, Will Smith and Russell Martin had in their whole careers … combined.
He just launched 20 home runs in only 37 games! Does that seem like a lot? Here are some active thumpers who have never hit 20 in that short a span: Kyle Schwarber, Salvador Perez, Mike Trout, Pete Alonso, Nolan Arenado and Bryce Harper. But Big Dumper? Yup!
He was the first man in baseball to hit 30 homers! And you know how many catchers in history besides Raleigh have won that race to 30 in any season? Exactly one, according to our friends from STATS Perform: Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, in 1985. Which reminds us …
Has anyone mentioned he's a catcher! So how about this handy dandy list of slugging catchers who never hit 32 homers in any season (by which we actually mean any full season):
Yogi Berra … Ted Simmons … Jorge Posada … Brian McCann … Darren Daulton … Willson Contreras … J.T. Realmuto … and do we really have to keep going here?
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But let's do this another way. Let's stack Raleigh's half-season up against the exploits of the greatest offensive catchers of modern times: Johnny Bench … Mike Piazza … Joe Mauer … and, of course, Erik Kratz.
(Yes, you read that right. Hang in there. We'll explain.)
RALEIGH VERSUS BENCH — Look, Johnny Bench is the greatest catcher who ever lived. You'll never hear otherwise in this column. But …
• Most HR in first 80 games of a season: Bench 26, Raleigh 32
• Consecutive 30-homer seasons: Raleigh — 3 in a row … Bench — never had 2 in a row
• Let's play the OPS+ card: Raleigh (so far) — 198 … Bench's career-best — 166
RALEIGH VERSUS PIAZZA — Moving right along, no catcher in the history of this sport ever mashed like Piazza, who blew everyone away with nine 30-homer seasons. But …
• Most HR before an All-Star break: Piazza 24, Raleigh 32 (and counting)
• Most HR by a catcher, first four full seasons: Piazza 127, Raleigh 123 (with half a season to go)
• Let's play the OPS+ card again: Piazza in 1997 — 185 (NL/AL record for a catcher) … Raleigh in 2025 (so far) — 198
RALEIGH VERSUS MAUER — And then there's the newest Hall of Fame catcher, Mauer. He and the Dumper were kinda different. Nevertheless …
• The 32-Homer Club: Mauer — no 32-homer seasons … Raleigh — 32 homers, and it's June
• The 100-100 Club: Mauer (incredibly) — never drove in or scored 100 in any season … Raleigh – on pace for 120 runs scored, 142 driven in
• Let's play that OPS+ card one more time: Mauer in his MVP season of 2009 — 171 … Raleigh in 2025 (so far) — 198
Before you start banging out your outraged comments, let's get the context straight. None of this is intended to diminish the distinguished trio of Bench, Piazza or Mauer. It's merely to give you an idea of where Raleigh might be headed … by which I obviously mean to a place no catcher has ever traveled.
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So now that we have that cleared up, let's move on to our final contestant. I know you've been waiting for this. And it's so much fun, he gets a Weird and Wild section all his own. It's time to consider this epic Battle of the Bashing Catchers …
Now here's the most important catcher home run leaderboard of them all:
Cal Raleigh — 32
Erik Kratz — 31
You want to talk about historical significance? What else do you need to know? It turns out Cal Raleigh is an incredibly similar hitter to longtime backup catching icon Erik Kratz, currently a co-host of the Foul Territory podcast … with possibly one minor caveat.
Raleigh — 32 HR … in half a season
Kratz — 31 HR … in his whole big-league career (11 seasons)
So yes, if you're one of those people who want to get all nitpicky about these sorts of statistical tidbits, you might look at those numbers and conclude that Mr. Big Dumper just blew past Kratz's career total before he even said: Hey, it's July. But here at Weird and Wild World HQ, we see two players so semi-clonish, we needed to know more.
That meant it was impossible to resist reaching out to Kratz himself for even more perspective. We did that … and laid out the microscopic gap between Raleigh's home run total and Kratz's. Kratz was just as impressed as you'd expect.
KRATZ: 'Did he have 900 at-bats this season, because I did mine in 900 at-bats.'
WEIRD AND WILD: 'He's a little short of that, actually.'
KRATZ: 'Yeah, it took me longer, but it was a similar amount of at-bats.'
W&W: 'Yeah, very similar. We're only talking 300 versus 900. I think we're just splitting hairs. So let's dig a little deeper. I looked at the left-right splits.'
Versus right-handers: Kratz 21 HR, Raleigh 21 HR
Versus left-handers: Raleigh 11 HR, Kratz 10 HR
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'Almost identical, right? And you didn't even need to switch hit. So advantage Kratz. Don't you agree?'
KRATZ: 'Right. Much better. So you're saying I was miscast throughout my entire career?'
W&W: 'I think you just authorized me to say that. So let's keep going.'
OPS batting 3rd in the lineup: Kratz 2.167, Raleigh 1.000
So advantage Kratz again, right?'
KRATZ: 'I'm trying to think when I ever hit third.'
W&W: 'Well, you never actually started a game hitting third, but you had six plate appearances hitting third. They went well (3-for-6, with two homers and a double). My one question is: Why were you pinch hitting for the No. 3 hitter?'
KRATZ: 'I bet it was a double-switch situation, but if you put that in there, that'll make your article way longer, because people don't know what double switches are now.'
W&W: 'That is so true. But let's keep going. You were a much bigger threat coming off the bench than him.'
Career OPS in games not started: Kratz .979, Raleigh .913
KRATZ: 'I definitely would agree with that. I mean, you're making me blush, with all this great information.'
W&W: 'How am I doing with this? I don't think this is misleading at all. Do you?'
KRATZ: 'It's not. The issue is going to be when you have people read it who are like: 'I don't know who Erik Kratz is. Are the Pirates gonna pick him up?''
W&W: 'So Raleigh versus Bench, Piazza, Mauer … that's no contest. But Raleigh versus Kratz, what do we think?'
KRATZ: 'It's very similar. But also, it's not fair for Cal Raleigh, because I am on the leaderboard in all of Yankees history for batting average. So it's not just home runs. Make sure you let people know that my 2017 Yankees batting average (1.000 … as in 2-for-2) still is tops for anybody with two or more at-bats.'
W&W: 'Done! So Erik, I try to do important work around here. Does it get much more important than this work?'
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KRATZ: 'Oh, this is serious business. I mean, seriously, what he's doing is a joke. And the only way to really write about what he's doing, I think, is exactly what you're saying. Do a historical comparison out there of the season that he's having. Just do me a favor — and leave out that what I did was my whole career, and his is in three months.'
Oops. I forgot to leave that out! Sorry, Erik. But at the very least, I think we've proved who the real legend is. Or not!
That's not just (almost) one of my favorite country song titles. It kind of describes what life is like for me on vacation — if only because apparently, baseball was not on vacation even though I was. So stuff happened. Weird stuff. Wild stuff. You implored me to look into that stuff.
Well, guess what? Since I love how interactive this column has always been, I did look into that stuff. Not during my actual vacation, but after I returned to Weird and Wild World HQ. So as you enjoy these, never let it be said that we don't take requests in this joint.
Catch 2-2 — Any time the wind whooshes out at Wrigley Field, that's a day that's a threat to wind up in this column. So last Friday, loyal reader John Ladenburg Jr. watched Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver pound two homers apiece in a game at Wrigley and thought: This seems weird. And also wild.
@jaysonst Looking for stat help. Raleigh and Garver both hit 2 homers today. Have two catchers that play for the same team ever hit two HRs each, even if one was DH?
— John Ladenburg Jr. (@JohnLadenburgJr) June 20, 2025
Good one, John! So you think it's rare for a team's two primary catchers to go deep twice apiece, huh? You have no idea how rare!
The amazing Kenny Jackelen of Baseball Reference spent way too many hours looking into this for us — and found only three games in the entire Baseball Reference database in which a team got multiple homers from two players who even caught a pitch that season! But they are not all the same.
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Aug. 7, 1979 — Steve Yeager and Joe Ferguson, Dodgers vs. Astros. These two also homered twice apiece that day. But Ferguson played 52 games in the outfield that year (including this one), while catching in 66 games. So did 'catcher' truly describe him? Discuss.
Aug. 8, 2004 — Pudge Rodriguez and Eric Munson vs. Red Sox. What should we do about Munson? He caught exactly one inning that season. So I'm bouncing him out of this discussion without waiting for your votes.
June 20, 2025 — Raleigh and Garver vs. Cubs. Garver was DH-ing in this game, but that actually helps his case. Why? Because these two have caught every inning this season for the Mariners — and neither has played any other defensive position. So unlike those previous two duos, they're legit. Can we really even compare them with the other two? Let's go with … no way!
Back-back-back in 15 — In the Mets' visit to Philadelphia last Saturday, everybody homered except Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez. And it led to this cool question from loyal reader Christopher Babos.
@jaysonst here's a stat for you! Lindor, Nimmo, and Soto all go yard in the 3rd inning — back-to-back-to-back against Mick Abel.
It was the 15th HR of the season for EACH batter this season.
— Christopher Babos (@CBabosWrites) June 22, 2025
Much like Christopher, I thought: It doesn't get much weirder (or wilder) than back-to-back-to-back 15th homers. And that led to another fun little massive research project for Kenny Jackelen, who I hope didn't have any other plans for his life this week.
My question was: What's the highest number of homers by any trio in a back-to-back-to-back quest for a place in this column?
Not surprisingly, your winner is … 15 … because of course it is. No other back-to-back-to-backers in history even made it into double figures!
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The old record was nine — by Eugenio Suárez, Jesse Winker and Derek Dietrich for the Reds, with nobody out in the first inning, on May 5, 2019. Winker is now a member of … those 2025 Mets. Think he remembered that game before the news in that last sentence reached him?
Let's play two — The Cardinals played a doubleheader against the White Sox on June 19. And something right in this column's wheelhouse happened.
@SlangsOnSports @jaysonst pretty cool that Andre Granillo of the @Cardinals got his first MLB win and first MLB save (and first MLB K) on the same day!
— Longtime_Cards_fan (@BB_MDN) June 20, 2025
So … how weird and wild was that, for Andre Granillo to put a check mark in the win and save column on the same day? So weird and so wild that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, he's merely the first pitcher ever — or at least the first since saves became a real thing — to collect his first career win and first career save in the same doubleheader. Excellent day at the office!
A man called Otto … and also Otto — Finally, if you ever thought about naming your next son Otto, you were probably reading a 'Popular Names of 1922' book. But when Gerald Mannion was watching the Phillies and Marlins play last week, in a game featuring Otto Kemp (Phillies) and Otto Lopez (Marlins), how could he not ask the most important baseball question of the season?
Hey @jaysonst @BoopStats any idea the last time MLB teams had two opposing Ottos playing against each other?
— Gerald Mannion (@gmannion11) June 18, 2025
Hey, I can't seem to find video evidence of this — but we have box scores that tell us two Ottos played in another game as recently as over a century ago: On Aug. 22, 1916, when Otto Knabe played second base for the Cubs and Otto Miller caught for the Brooklyn Robins. And I'm not sure which one was played by Tom Hanks in the movie! (Hat tip: Tom McCarthy and Bob Vetrone Jr.)
Another special tradition that seems to run through all my in-season vacations is the ceremonial Rattling of the iPhone. It's a moment everyone in my family shakes their head at because it almost never means my phone is rumbling because I'm getting a text from any loved ones wondering how the vacation is going.
It almost always means (yep) Weirdness and Wildness has busted out.
So you want to know who rattled my phone on this vacation? Christian Yelich. Who else? All because last Friday, he had a game unlike any we've ever seen. Literally.
Christian Yelich now has a career-high EIGHT RBI in tonight's game against the Twins 👏 pic.twitter.com/leq6piWibG
— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2025
But that eight-RBI stuff isn't even the Weird and Wild part. Here comes that part.
The box-score line! When the night was over, Yelich had a line of 6-0-4-8. And you know what we call that? A box-scorigami — because it's a box-score line no one has ever seen in the history of this sport. And why was that? Because of ….
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That doughnut in the runs column! Right. This guy drove in eight runs but never scored any runs. And that's a thing that had never been done in baseball. Since RBIs became an official stat in 1920, Yelich represented the 165th instance of a player driving in eight runs or more in a game. You know what the other 164 had in common? Right. They all made it across home plate. But not him. Which also had something to do with …
He drove in eight runs without a homer! Does that also seem hard? It should, because that too had never been done by any of those other 164 members of the 8-RBI Club. Instead, Yelich had to do this the hard way, in more ways than one. He somehow reached the sixth inning with no RBIs … and then drove in eight runs … by getting a clutch hit in four consecutive innings … and none of them were homers.
So I thought I would give you an idea of exactly how hard that really was to do.
You know those other 164 games of eight RBIs or more since 1920? Those 164 dudes combined for an incredible 370 home runs. Which means it's way more common for a guy to hit three homers in one of those games than zero. But our boy Yelich proved zero can be done.
And those other guys didn't need Google Maps to locate home plate, either. They combined to score 467 runs in those 164 games. That means they averaged nearly three runs scored. But somehow, Yelich did what they did — except for the part where he racked up zero runs scored.
You know what's cool about all that? No, not my phone shaking on vacation. It's the reminder that there's not a more beautiful or unpredictable sport than …
Baseball!
Once upon a time, in a previous life, there was a famous member of the Boston Red Sox named Rafael Devers. He hit 215 homers for those Red Sox. So that was cool. But you know what might have been even more memorable than any of them, as it turns out? How about this …
Rafael Devers hits his first @SFGiants home run! pic.twitter.com/6uV3XQ8H5L
— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2025
So the first home run this guy hit for a team not known as 'the Red Sox' was against … the Red Sox? C'mon. Really?
Now I know what you're thinking. Or at least I know what I was thinking: How rare is it for any player in AL/NL history to whomp at least 200 homers, all for one team, and then hit his next homer against that same team?
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I asked my friends from STATS to take a look. The list of names is as staggering as we hoped it might be. Thank you, baseball gods!
June 21, 2025 — Rafael Devers (Giants) vs. Red Sox
April 18, 2022 — Freddie Freeman (Dodgers) vs. Braves
April 19, 2008 — Andruw Jones (Dodgers) vs. Braves
May 14, 1972 — Willie Mays (Mets) vs. Giants
April 19, 1966 — Ken Boyer (Mets) vs. Cardinals
June 26, 1943 — Bob Johnson (Senators) vs. A's
April 16, 1936 — Jimmie Foxx (Red Sox) vs. A's
And how about we fire off a little salute to Juan Soto. He just keeps on doing stuff that keeps the Weird and Wild column in business. Stuff like this, for instance …
CAREER 2-HOMER GAMES BY FAMOUS MASHERS
Frank (The Washington Monument) Howard — 26
Bob (4-HR Game) Horner — 26
Luis (57-Homer) Gonzalez — 26
Roger (61-Homer) Maris — 25
Boog (Humongous Human) Powell — 23
George (52-Homer) Foster — 22
And then there's …
Juan Soto … with 27 — at age 26!
You know what else keeps this column in business? When a name in a box score isn't like all the other names. When it jumps off the screen, imaginary lights flashing and sirens blaring.
That happened twice in the last week, if you can imagine such a thing. I'd like to name-drop them for you now, because I can't help myself, OK?
MOST RECENT 2-HOMER GAMES IN CHICAGO BY GUYS NAMED SOSA
Sammy Sosa — Sept. 15, 2004 (for the Cubs at Wrigley Field)
Lenyn Sosa — Wednesday (for the White Sox at whatever they call that place these days)
MOST RECENT GAME-TYING HOMERS BY A YASTRZEMSKI IN A GAME INVOLVING THE RED SOX
Mike Yastrzemski — Sunday, off Lucas Giolito
Carl Yastrzemski — on May 21, 1982, off Rick Langford
The kids still love the long ball. But we were reminded again this week that there is nothing in this sport — N-O-T-H-I-N-G — more mesmerizing than the sight of a ferocious, unhittable starting pitcher stomping to the mound, making us wonder how anyone ever gets a hit.
Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about these two games:
WHAT A CHASE SCENE — Chase Burns. Remember that name. A year ago this time, he hadn't even entered professional baseball. But there he was Tuesday, making his major-league debut for the Reds, against a team known as The New York Yankees. And this happened.
Pretty good first impression?
Chase Burns recorded his first SIX outs via strikeout in his MLB debut 👏 pic.twitter.com/z3lqdMg7Z4
— MLB (@MLB) June 24, 2025
In the very first big-league start of his lifetime, this dude struck out the first five hitters he ever faced in a major-league game. No other starter in the expansion era has ever done that. But sometimes a better way to measure how stunning feats like this are is to ask another question:
How many legendary strikeout pitchers never struck out the first five hitters in any start?
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The great Katie Sharp of Baseball Reference looked into this for me. She looked at every pitcher in the top 10 in either career or single-season strikeouts. Here's what she found.
Nolan Ryan? He only did that once — in more than 800 starts. And not until he was 45 years old! But how about this group of four fabled strikeout machines who never did it. Not ever.
Sandy Koufax, in 321* starts
Steve Carlton, in 723* starts
Tom Seaver, in 655* starts
Bert Blyleven, in 691* starts
(*Counting postseason)
Koufax once struck out 382 hitters in a season. Seaver once struck out 10 hitters in a row. Carlton led his league in strikeouts five times. Blyleven finished with more than 3,700 strikeouts. But in 2,390 combined big-league starts, they never struck out the first five hitters they faced.
And Chase Burns just did it in his first start. Baseball. Who writes these scripts?
SKENES VS. MIZ — So maybe this duel wasn't quite as magical as we expected. Nevertheless …
On Wednesday in Milwaukee, we had a pitching-phenom matchup so electric that the Brewers drew more fans for that game — on a Wednesday afternoon in June — than they'd drawn for Opening Day.
Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers) versus Paul Skenes (Pirates). Wow.
Misiorowski blitzed 12 fastballs at 100 mph or harder just in the top of the first inning. And how many starting pitchers have thrown that many since we started keeping records of that stuff? Right. That would be none.
But then Skenes also topped 100 in the first inning. And that led us to this little tidbit:
GAMES IN WHICH BOTH STARTING PITCHERS THREW 100 IN THE FIRST INNING
Entire pitch-tracking era (2008-June 14, 2025) — 0 times
Last week and a half (June 15-now) — 2 times!
June 15 — Shohei Ohtani (1) and Dylan Cease (1)
Wednesday — Paul Skenes (1) and Jacob Misiorowski (12!)
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How must-watch is the NL Central going to be over these next few years?
THE (ALMOST) LONE RANGER
He was already the most famous Ranger in baseball history (not counting those Rangers who play in Texas). But as his free-agent payday approaches, Phillies left-hander Ranger Suárez is also about to become the highest-paid Ranger in baseball history (Texans again not included).
Suárez's ERA over his last nine starts: a ridiculous 1.17. Which would be eye-popping enough if he hadn't also had a nine-start stretch last season in which he had a 1.03 ERA.
So that got me to wondering: How many other starters could possibly have done this in recent memory. Now, after a trip down the Baseball Reference rabbit hole, here it comes — the list of active starters who have ever had sub-1.20 ERAs in nine-start stretches two seasons in a row (with a minimum of 60 innings in those stretches):
Ranger Suárez, 2023-24
Clayton Kershaw, 2014-15-16
That's a wrap!
And only two other pitchers have done that in this century. You've heard of them: Félix Hernández (2009-10) and Johan Santana (2004-05).
Here's how the Cardinals scored eight runs against the Cubs on Monday. Feel free to do the math at home. It's fun to play.
Two-run homer by Lars Nootbar — that's two runs.
Two-run homer by Brendan Donovan — that's four runs.
Two-run homer by Alec Burleson — that's six runs.
Two-run homer by Nolan Gorman — that's eight runs.
So what's so Weird and Wild about that? Oh, only this: According to STATS, it's merely the second game in history in which a team scored eight runs (or more) on nothing but two-run homers. The other:
Eric Wedge's 2003 Cleveland Indians, who put up eight runs against the Royals with exactly the same formula. Hitting the four two-run bombs that day: Matt Lawton, Casey Blake, Jody Gerut and Tim Laker. You were expecting maybe Jim Thome, Rocky Colavito, Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez? Sorry!
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It may be the age of swinging-and-missing, but Luis Arraez never got that memo. In case you missed it, he just marched to home plate for the Padres 112 trips in a row — and never struck out once. Amazing.
I'd even say you don't see that much, except … are you familiar with this guy's work? Just last August and September, he went 141 straight plate appearances without a K. And here comes the fabulous list that inspired, of the proud members of the Anti-K Club, thanks to the great work of STATS' Jake Coyne:
LAST 5 PLAYERS WITH AT LEAST 2 100-PA STREAKS WITHOUT A STRIKEOUT
Luis Arraez (2) — 2024 (141) and 2025 (112)
Juan Pierre (2) — 2001 (143) and 2004 (147)
Tony Gwynn (7) — spread out from 1984 (115) to 1995 (170!)
Felix Fermin (2) — 1990 (104) and 1993 (100)
Ozzie Smith (3) — 1979 (106), 1987 (100) and 1993 (123)
Luis Arraez: Reminding us every day that it's still legal in all 50 states to make contact with that …
Baseball!
No, that's not the old movie starring Alan Alda. It's the story of a pitcher for the Washington Nationals — who got traded to the Nats from San Diego … and, well, this happened:
MacKenzie Gore on June 25: started against the Padres at Petco Park
MacKenzie Gore last June 25: started against the Padres at Petco Park
MacKenzie Gore on June 25, 2023: started against the Padres at Petco Park
So who is in on this joke? The schedule makers? The coaching staff? The baseball gods? Correct answer from the Weird and Wild column: We don't care. Thank you!
(Hat tip: Dave Jageler)
Here at Weird and Wild World HQ, it's been tough staying patient as Shohei Ohtani worked his way back to the mound, to resume filling up the Strange But True section of this column. But are we happy he's back? What do you think?
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His day's work Sunday:
• Homer
• Triple
• Pitched to four hitters, struck out two of them
A reminder: This guy is a real person — and he does real stuff like this:
GAMES IN WHICH THE STARTING PITCHER HOMERED AND TRIPLED
Shohei Ohtani — 2
Everyone else in the last 60 years — 1*
(*Dick Ruthven on Aug. 16, 1977)
Here's another game you earthlings kept alerting me to while I was trying to log valuable beach time:
The good news for Braves pitcher Grant Holmes, in his June 15 start against the Rockies: He struck out 15!
The bad news: He still wound up taking the loss — and also … his team gave up 10 runs.
Just three of them were allowed by Holmes. Nevertheless, you know how many other pitchers in the modern era have struck out that many hitters on a team that still managed to score in double figures?
That would be exactly one — some guy named Randy Johnson, who K'd 16 Brewers on Sept. 27, 2001, in a game that finished Diamondbacks 13, Brewers 11. (Hat tip: @nuggetpalooza on X.)
My mother-in-law was an Orioles fan. Watched every game. Knew exactly what she was watching.
I once said to her, during another One of Those Years: 'Hey, your team is winning, 4-0.'
Her pithy, upbeat reply: 'Means nothing.'
And yeah, they lost that day. Sadly, she's no longer with us. But I've been thinking about her a lot this season, if only because I've decided that no team finds more innovative ways to lose baseball games than the Orioles. Let's take a look at some recent examples.
June 18: Eight was not enough — Normally, it seems kind of promising when a team scores eight runs in the second inning. But to quote a famous Orioles expert: Means nothing.
So in this game, the Orioles fired up an eight-run second inning against Tampa Bay. That seems good. In fact, over the last 10 years, all other teams that have scored at least eight times in the first or second inning have gone 66-0.
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Did you notice the phrase, 'all other teams'? Had to throw that one in there because the Orioles never even got another hit after that … and lost, 12-8.
Is that innovative enough for you? Well, according to STATS, more than 450 teams in the modern era (1900-now) have scored at least eight runs in an inning to kick off the scoring in a game. Only one of them then got zero hits and zero runs and lost that game. Guess which one. Correct!
June 18: Left, center, right … and wrong — Thanks to everyone who asked me about something that happened in that eight-run second inning that day. All three Orioles outfielders homered — in the same inning, for the first time in Orioles history.
That normally works out well, too. But it's not that kind of year in Baltimore. So, as you know, the Orioles lost that night. And according to Katie Sharp, that's a claim to 'fame' that only three other teams in Baseball Reference's entire play-by-play database (dating back to 1912) have ever done:
The Blue Jays on May 20, 2007 … the Cubs on May 6, 2000 … and the Padres on April 13, 1987 (after Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn and John Kruk led off the game with back-to-back-to-back homers).
Wait. Did someone say 'back-to-back-to-back?' That brings us to …
June 24: We interrupt this nightly no-hit bid to go deep — As I'm typing this, the Orioles have been no-hit into the seventh inning three times in their last five games. You know how many other teams in the last 50 years can say that? That would be none, according to STATS.
But that's not even the Strange But True part. The Strange But True part is what went on in a very odd game against Texas at Camden Yards on Tuesday. Let's recap the feats of the Orioles offense that night:
First six innings: Got no hits.
Seventh inning: Broke up the no-hitter, then mashed back-to-back-to-back homers with nobody out.
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Rest of game (7th-8th-9th-10th innings): Got no more hits and lost, 6-5.
What? Here was my question to Katie Sharp: Has that ever happened?
Hohoho. You can probably guess.
Katie again traveled all the way back to 1912. How many games did she find in which a team got no hits for the first six innings, went back-to-back-to-back in the seventh and then got no more hits for however many innings the game lasted after that?
Uh-huh. That would be exactly one. And it happened in Baltimore this week. It almost feels impossible, except for one thing. It's …
Baseball!
(Top photo of Cal Raleigh: Olivia Vanni / Getty Images)