Doug Kern 9y

Kernels: 'Top 10' stats of the week

In the spirit of the nightly "SportsCenter" Top 10, our weekly roundup of the interesting and unusual in baseball happened to notice a nugget that went with each number this week.

10: Number of hits and strikeouts in Max Scherzer's unusual pitching line on Wednesday. He's the first pitcher with 10 of each for the Nationals/Expos franchise since Pedro Martinez on September 15, 1997. (Mark Langston in 1989 and Bill Stoneman in 1970 are their only others.) The last pitcher in the majors to do it and win the game was CC Sabathia in a Yankees/Red Sox tilt in August 2011.

Scherzer also gave up five runs and walked zero. Tack on those qualifiers, and he's just the third pitcher in the live-ball era with 10 or more hits, five or more runs, 10 or more strikeouts, no walks, and a win in the game. Curt Schilling did it for Arizona on April 25, 2001, and David Cone did it with the Blue Jays on July 8, 1995.

9: Spot in the order from which Addison Russell hit two doubles for the Cubs on Tuesday. Joe Maddon's strategy of batting the pitcher eighth has yieldedsome interesting lines this season, and despite the known hitting prowess of many Cubs pitchers, Russell was their first batter with a multi-double game from the nine-hole since Ismael Valdez did it on May 24, 2000, at Coors Field. Their last non-pitcher to do it was rookie infielder Scott Fletcher, who was double-switched into that spot against the Phillies on October 2, 1981.

8: RBIs for Yasmani Grandal on Thursday. It was the fifth 8-RBI game in Dodgers history; James Loney had the previous one on September 28, 2006. Ron Cey did it in 1974, and Brooklyn legend Gil Hodges had 8-RBI games in both 1949 and 1950. Grandal's was the first 8-RBI game by a catcher for any team since J.R. Towles of the Astros had one in 2007.

Most catchers don't hit toward the top of the order, and when they do, they certainly don't have 8 RBI very often. To that end, Grandal joined Smoky Burgess of the Reds (three homers on July 29, 1955) as the only catchers ever to drive in at least eight runs from either of the top two spots.

7: Consecutive hits by Joc Pederson that were all home runs (streak ended Thursday). He's the first player in the majors to have seven straight hits leave the yard since Jay Bruce in June 2013, and according to Elias, he's the first rookie ever to do it ("rookie status" was officially defined in 1958).

6: Times A.J. Pollock reached base for Arizona in Wednesday's win (three hits, three walks). Although Ender Inciarte and Aaron Hill both had four hits, it was Pollock who became the third player in Diamondbacks history to reach base six times in a nine-inning game. Chad Tracy did it on May 10, 2006, against the Pirates; and Quinton McCracken also had the three-hit, three-walk combination at Coors Field on July 17, 2002.

5: Decisions lost by Corey Kluber to start the 2015 season, one year after he won the American League Cy Young Award. He's only the second reigning Cy Young winner to lose his first five decisions of the following year; the other was Frank Viola for the Twins in 1989.

4: Players who hit two solo home runs on Wednesday (Bryce Harper, Carlos Peguero, Evan Longoria, and Joc Pederson). Harper also hit a third homer, but it was a two-run job.

They are the first quartet of players to all hit two solo homers on the same day since July 22, 2012, when Miguel Cabrera, John Mayberry, Nate Schierholtz, and Ryan Doumit pulled it off.

3: Hitless innings pitched by Yusmeiro Petit on Friday in earning a save for the Giants. Petit faced 10 batters and a two-out walk in the ninth was his only baserunner. No Giants reliever had gotten a three-inning save without allowing a hit since Jeff Brantley retired all nine Astros he faced on August 20, 1991.

2: Games of Saturday's doubleheader in which Alexei Ramirez homered for the White Sox. He's the first White Sox batter to homer in both games of a DH since ... Alexei Ramirez on August 9, 2013, against the Twins. Before that they hadn't had a player do it since Magglio OrdoƱez in April 1999.

1: Pitches needed for Eddie Rosario to hit his first MLB home run. The Twins' callup went deep on the first pitch from Scott Kazmir on Wednesday, becoming the first player to homer on his first big-league pitch since Starling Marte in July 2012.

Rosario is the sixth Minnesotan to homer in his first at-bat, joining Rick Renick (1968), Dave McKay (1975), Gary Gaetti (1981), Andre David (1984), and Luke Hughes (2010).

Honorable mention to Carlos Perez of the Angels, who also this week became the first player to hit a walk-off home run in his MLB debut since Miguel Cabrera in June 2003.

Other notable items from the week:

Mike Leake: Pitched eight scoreless, walk-less innings and hit a double; first Reds pitcher to do that since Greg Swindell in May 1992.

Tim Hudson: 15 hits allowed Thursday, most by Giants pitcher since Gaylord Perry threw a 16-hit complete-game win on September 28, 1968.

Astros/Angels, Friday: First game with 0 walks and 0 extra-base hits since June 15, 1994 (Mets 1, Phillies 0).

Will Venable: Missed cycle by the double on Friday, now holds Padres team record having done that three times in his career. Steve Finley and Nate Colbert did it twice.

Hector Santiago: First Angels pitcher called for two balks in a game since Scott Sanderson in 1996.

Ben Revere: First Phillies leadoff hitter with three doubles in a loss since Juan Samuel against the Mets in July 1988.

Mookie Betts: First Red Sox batter to hit at least two solo homers accounting for all Boston's runs in a game since Lenny Green on June 19, 1965.

Stephen Vogt: Grand slam in first inning Monday, but Oakland would go on to lose the game; first 1st-inning slam for A's in a loss since Terry Steinbach in April 1994.

R.A. Dickey: Eight innings, no strikeouts on Monday vs Yankees; first Blue Jays pitcher with a win in such a game since John Cerutti in July 1988.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Turned first documented 4-5-4 triple play in MLB history on Saturday. Two others had gone 4-5-3 with a runner doubled off first; those happened in 1933 (by Cardinals against Pirates) and 1909.

The Diamondbacks converted a save on Sunday. It was their first save since April 7 -- the second game of the regular season.

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