Rangers 8, Orioles 2: Adrian Beltre hit two homers on a 4 for 4, 5 RBI night. He has an 11 game hitting streak and is 21 for his last 43. Wrecking crew. He’s not a member of the All-Star team despite a line of .319/.362/.551. Thank you, Jim Leyland, though, for giving us five middle relievers […]

Question: Of all the times a starting pitcher has gotten the hook before recording a single out, what is the most runs he’s allowed before marching to the showers? Answer: eight runs. Five times a starter has faced eight batters, seen them all get on base and score, and left the game with nary an […]

Brewers 4, Reds 3: Holy moly that was a crazy game-ending catch for Carlos Gomez, robbing Joey Votto of a walkoff home run. Just incredible. Rays 7, Twins 4: The Rays continue to roll, winning their ninth in 10 chances. Joe Maddon talked about his team going 10 games over .500: “The thing I like […]

Ten years ago, one of the greatest and most bizarrely humorous controversies ever to hit 21st-century baseball happened. It involved one of the game’s best recent traditions, and it added an extra level to silly to a fun seventh-inning stretch diversion. On July 9, 2003, Pirates player Randall Simon interfered with Milwaukee’s traditional sausage race. […]

Orioles 2, Yankees 1: Even Superman gets beat up once in a while. Adam Jones handed Mariano Rivera his second blown save of the year and the first blown save in Yankee Stadium in a dog’s age when he smacked a two-run homer in the ninth. Speaking of Superman, I finally got around to seeing […]

Tonight, Nationals pitcher Dan Haren comes off the DL—just in time for him to try to claim a bit of baseball history for himself. If things go according to schedule, Haren will start in the first game of this week’s Nationals-Phillies series, and if Haren picks up the “W” he will become the 13th pitcher […]

Ninety years ago today, a baseball milestone was reached for the first time. It was on July 8, 1923 that Walter Johnson became the first pitcher to strike out his 3,000th batter. The best strikeout pitcher of his generation, Johnson entered the game with 2,996 Ks in 4,904.1 innings pitched. Against the White Sox, Johnson […]

Thirty years ago, something happened that had never happened before, and has never happened since. Fred Lynn became the first (and still only) player to hit a grand slam in the All-Star Game. It actually occurred in a rather special All-Star Game. July 6, 1983 was the 50th anniversary game. Since it had been exactly […]

White Sox 3, Orioles 2: A walkoff homer for Adam Dunn won it, but seven shutout innings — with 11 strikeouts — from Jose Quintana helped make it possible. Athletics 1, Cubs 0: Offense-lovers need not apply. Dan Straily allowed only one hit in seven shutout innings. Travis Wood had six shutout innings of his […]

Sixty years ago today was, on the face of it, as routine a day as you could have. Certainly it was as routine as it got for Robin Roberts. He took the mound for the Phillies and completed what he started. So far, so normal. True, but just leaving it there would be like noting […]