Jun xxx, 2021

  • Tim KurkjianESPN Senior Author

    Shut

    • Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
    • Analyst/reporter ESPN television receiver
    • Has covered baseball since 1981

There was no June swoon for weird, wacky and wonderful in baseball. The greatest game provided some other load of strikeouts, including immaculate ones, domicile runs and unusual name connections, led by a threesome of Santanas on one play, and Griffin Jax and Skye Bolt in one week. It gave the states baroque plays, triple plays and a triple shot of Cedric Mullins. Then hither, with statistical assist from the Elias Sports Bureau, are The Quirkjians for June.

June one
On a day that Domingo German language (Yankees) and German language Marquez (Rockies) started for their teams, Ty France had three hits for the Mariners, Jonathan India had a single and a stolen base of operations for the Reds, and Derek The netherlands got the win for the Tigers.

When Reds infielder Alex Blandino pitched against the Phillies, information technology marked the third time this year that the Phillies had faced a pitcher wearing 0. Marcus Stroman and Adam Ottavino were the others.

The Phillies' Brad Miller went 0-for-iv with four strikeouts in a game in which his squad scored 17 runs. The last player to do that was Arizona'southward Christian Walker in an 18-ii win over the Giants on May 24, 2019.

June 2
In the Rays-Yankees game, the pitchers of record were Hashemite kingdom of jordan Montgomery and Shane McClanahan, whose names full 31 letters. Noteworthy, but that couldn't friction match Aug. nine, 1995, when the pitchers of tape in the Pirates-Giants game were Jason Christiansen and William Van Landingham, who totaled 38 messages.

June 3
Ryan Yarbrough pitched a complete game against the Yankees, ending the Rays' streak of 731 games without a complete game, the longest, by far, in major league history. Complete games have become close to obsolete. Over the past x years, six pitchers have thrown a no-hitter, and it was, and remains, their only complete game: Phil Humber, Hisashi Iwakuma, Alec Mills, Joe Musgrove, John Ways and Spencer Turnbull.

June iv
The Yankees' Michael King pitched an immaculate inning (iii strikeouts on nine pitches) in the 4th inning against the Red Sox. He went to Bishop Hendricken Loftier School in Warwick, Rhode Island. So did former Blue Jays bullpen Thomas Pannone, who besides had an immaculate inning in his major league career.

The Dodgers became the sixth team since 1900, and the beginning team since the Tigers in 1996, to score nine runs in a game in which they got only four hits. In Detroit'due south 10-9 win over the Mariners that 24-hour interval, Alex Rodriguez batted ninth.

The Royals led the Twins 13-0 subsequently ii innings (the first team to do that since the Phillies led the Nationals in 2017). In the game, the Twins' Willians Astudillo became the start position thespian to throw a scoreless inning in a game subsequently going 0-for-5 (with a GIDP and error) since the Orioles' Chris Davis went 0-for-8 (with a GIDP), then pitched 2 scoreless innings against the Red Sox in 2012. Davis was the winning pitcher that twenty-four hour period in Boston.

June 5
The Mets' Jacob deGrom allowed one or no earned runs for a ninth consecutive start, tied for the longest such streak since the mound was lowered in 1969. Among those tied was the Giants' Kevin Gausman, who did and so earlier in the day. (Gausman'south streak would stop his next time out -- only deGrom wouldn't allow his adjacent earned run until four starts later.)

The Orioles' Cedric Mullins recorded his 2nd five-hit game of the flavour, significant he had two more 5-hit games in nine weeks than Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott and Edgar Martinez had in their careers combined.

Padres reliever Austin Adams striking his tenth concoction of the season. It came in his 20th inning pitched. The last pitcher to hitting x batters in fewer innings was Orel Hershiser, who hit 10 in his first eighteen⅓ innings in 2000. Padres Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman hit nine batters in one,089⅓ innings in his career.

June half dozen
Yandy Diaz hit the starting time abode run by a Rays starting time baseman this year. The terminal team to go this deep into a flavour without a dwelling house run past its offset baseman was the 2010 Orioles, who got a home run from Ty Wigginton on June xxx, the 77th game of the flavour.

The Phillies' Travis Jankowski made the one,000th plate advent of his career and all the same was without a cede fly. The tape for most career plate appearances without a sac wing is 1,192 by Larry Jackson, a pitcher.

June 7
Royals pitcher Jackson Kowar threw three wild pitches in the first inning of his major league debut, two more than Orioles reliever Dick Hall threw in 1,269 innings in his career. The concluding pitcher to throw three wild pitches in the first inning of his major league debut was the Brewers' Chris Mabeus on May 29, 2006.

June 9
The Phillies' Luke Williams striking a walk-off home run in his first major league game. J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox, at that time, had 250 home runs without a walk-off. Norm Cash is the tape holder for the almost career homers (377) without a walk-off. Cash never had a walk-off RBI of any kind in his career.

June 10
In a 12-eight loss to the Blood-red Sox, the Astros led in the heart of the second, third, fifth and sixth innings, just didn't lead at the stop of any inning. They are the third team in the past fifty years to pb through the middle of four innings, only non pb at the end of any of the nine innings.

June eleven
The Angels' Shohei Ohtani balked twice during an at-bat to Eduardo Escobar, the first pitcher to do that since the Tigers' Ryan Carpenter in 2019. So, Ohtani had more balks during one batter than Mike Mussina (one) had in 3,562⅔ innings. And two more than balks than Jeff Samardzija has in his career, covering 1,645⅓ innings.

In the Dodgers 12-1 win over the Rangers, Los Angeles' line score in the runs column read like what looked to be an Arizona telephone number: 602-220-0012. We dialed the number. Thankfully, it was non in service.

June 12
4 days after the aptly named Griffin Jax, a reliever for the Twins, allowed the first two homers of his career, the aptly named Skye Commodities, an outfielder for the A'south, hitting his commencement career abode run.

The A'due south used two pitchers of Armenian descent, starter James Kaprielian and reliever Cam Bedrosian, in the same game. This note was written past a writer of Armenian descent, Tim Kurkjian. It has been confirmed that that is the get-go time in baseball history that an Armenian has written about ii Armenians pitching for the same team in the same game.

June 14
The Tigers beat the Royals 10-3 merely used 9 pitchers in the victory. The terminal team to utilize nine pitchers in a game in which information technology scored at least 10 runs and won by at to the lowest degree seven runs was Sept. 27, 2019, when the Yankees crush the Rangers 14-vii.

June sixteen
The Astros' Jose Altuve became the outset histrion always to hit a leadoff domicile run the game later hitting a walk-off m slam. Iii players take striking three walk-off grand slams in their career: Cy Williams, Vern Stephens and Alex Rodriguez.

June 17
Dusty Baker (age 72) and Tony La Russa (76) managed against each other, marking the get-go time since 1900 that managers of that age managed against each other. From June iii-six, the Mets' Luis Rojas managed against the Padres' Jayce Tingler, neither of whom was alive when La Russa made his managerial debut in 1979.

June 18
In the fourth inning of the Red Sox-Royals game, Boston'due south Danny Santana, batting confronting Ervin Santana, grounded out to Carlos Santana.

June 19
The first six hits for the Orioles were home runs in a x-7 loss to the Blue Jays: three by Ryan Mountcastle, two by Cedric Mullins and ane past DJ Stewart. The last team whose beginning six hits were homers was the Indians on June 24, 1989, against the Rangers: iii by Joe Carter and one each by Cory Snyder, Pete O'Brien and Andy Allanson. They were the only hits the Indians got that day in a 7-2 victory. Half-dozen hits, all habitation runs.

The Ruddy Sox'due south Bobby Dalbec recorded the first three-hit game of his career. By the time he got there, he had x games of at least three strikeouts, 3 of which were 4-strikeout games. Unlike times, different era, different player, just Tony Gwynn finished his career with 1 3-strikeout game and 297 three-hit games.

The Orioles' Cedric Mullins and the Marlins' Adam Duvall had multi-homer games for the second consecutive mean solar day. The only other time in major league history that the aforementioned two players had multi-homer games on consecutive days was May 12-13, 1958, past the Giants' Willie Mays and Daryl Spencer.

June 20
The Yankees turned their third triple play in 31 days. No team in baseball history has ever turned three triple plays so quickly. This ane ended the game, the third fourth dimension in the expansion era (since 1961) that a triple play concluded a game, but the first time that it protected a i-run lead. So the Yankees had equally many triple plays (3) in 31 days as the Rays have had in their franchise history, and more than than the Diamondbacks (two) or the Marlins (i) accept had in their franchise history.

Braves third baseman Austin Riley entered the day with 17 hits in thirty at-bats this flavour on Sundays. That .567 average was the highest past any actor on any day this season. Then, in a Sunday doubleheader against the Cardinals, he went 1-for-six.

June 21
The Diamondbacks ended their 17-game losing streak, but extended their modern (since 1900) major league record by trailing in a 38th game in a row during one flavor, breaking the previous mark of 37 set past the 2019 Tigers and the 1982 Mets. As for the longest streak with a lead in every game, in one season or over two seasons: 48 by the Yankees from June 30 to Aug. 19, 1998.

June 22
Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar made his major league debut and promptly offered to donate a vowel to two former players, Twins start baseman Kent Hrbek and Brewers/Cubs catcher Joe Kmak.

June 23
The Giants' Mike Tauchman joined Ray Lankford (1998), Sammy Sosa (2000), Brian Dozier (2017) and Dexter Fowler (2019) as the only players in major league history to hit a domicile run in a game in which they struck out five times. Tauchman and Lankford are the only ones to striking a homer after already striking out v times in a game.

June 24
Four Cubs pitchers no-hit the Dodgers despite having more walks (8) than strikeouts (7), the start no-hitter similar that since 2011 when the Twins' Francisco Liriano had half-dozen walks and 2 strikeouts in his no-hitter. The near walks in a no-hitter is 10 by Jim Maloney on Aug. 19, 1965. In 10 innings that 24-hour interval, Maloney struck out 12 and, according to his catcher, Johnny Edwards, Maloney threw 187 pitches.

The Rays won 1-0 on a wild pitch in the 9th inning, the first team to do that since 2013 when the Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton scored on wild pitch thrown by the Tigers' Luke Putkonen.

The Royals' Salvy Perez has played in all 78 games for the Royals this year. Three times in major league history has a primary catcher played in all of his team's game for an entire season: Mike Tresh (150 games in 1945), Frank Hayes (155 games in 1944) and Ray Mueller (155 games in 1944).

June 25
The Phillies' Aaron Nola became the 2nd pitcher e'er, joining Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, to strike out x consecutive batters in one game. Nola whiffed 10 straight Mets. On April 22, 1970, Seaver struck out the terminal ten Padres of the game to finish with nineteen. Seaver didn't have whatsoever problem going through the Padres' order a tertiary time.

The Cubs' Javy Baez struck out twice, making him the first player to 100 strikeouts this flavor, edging out the A'due south Matt Chapman (99). Baby Ruth never struck out 100 times in a season. Neither did Hank Aaron. The worst strikeout flavor of Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial combined was 85. Baez got to 100 in 67 games. Chris Davis and Adam Dunn hold the tape for fewest games (64) to 100 strikeouts.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit 3 home runs in his kickoff four at-bats, the offset Padre ever to do that. He joined Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the major league home run atomic number 82 with 25. In their honor, here is the all-time All Junior Team. C: Junior Ortiz. 1B: Vlad Guerrero. 2B: Jerry Hairston. SS: Fernando Tatis. 3B: Cal Ripken. OF: Ken Griffey. OF: Ronald Acuna. OF: Jose Cruz. P: Lance McCullers.

June 26
The only ii players in major league history with the commencement name Keegan -- bullpen Keegan Akin of the Orioles and pitcher Keegan Thompson of the Cubs -- each got a loss.

The Cubs' Jason Heyward entered Dominicus night's game 0-for-26 on Sundays this flavor. (He and then sat against the Dodgers.)

June 27
In the pinnacle of the seventh inning at Great American Ballpark, the Reds' pitcher, Art Warren, wore No. 77. In the bottom of the 7th, the Braves' bullpen, Luke Jackson, wore No. 77. Jackson was replaced past A.J. Minter, who wore No. 33, and faced Jesse Winker, who wore No. 33.

June 28
The Nationals' Kyle Schwarber hit 2 more than home runs, giving him xv in June, nigh e'er in a calendar month by a leadoff hitter, and almost as many as the Diamondbacks take hit (17) in June. The 15 homers all came starting June 12, roofing in 17 games. Merely Barry Bonds (2001) and Sammy Sosa (1998) accept always hit fifteen homers in a 17-game span. In that span, the Cardinals had 11 homers, the Diamondbacks 9 and the White Sox eight. By the mode, from 1926 to '32, Baby Ruth outhomered the Washington Senators 343-327.

The Phillies had an atrocious month from their pitcher, and it's certainly not the fault of rookie reliever Bailey Falter, who has been skilful this season: thirteen innings, 10 hits, four runs, ane walk, 15 strikeouts. Merely the Phillies have lost all five games in which he has pitched, fittingly, we guess, for a reliever named Falter.

The Rockies won at Coors Field, improving their record to 26-16 (.619) at habitation against 6-31 (.162) on the route. That .457 difference would exist the largest disparity in home and road winning percent in major league history. The 1897 Cleveland Spiders had a difference of .451, following by the 2020 Astros (.433). (They'd win again at Coors Field the side by side day on a near-no-hitter -- increasing the disparity to .466.)

June 29
And then ... Schwarber homered over again.