Chris Sale Set To Return Against Orioles On Saturday; Also: Giants Linescores, Four Consecutive Bases-Loaded Walks, & Nine Yankees Contract Covid-19 In Past Three Weeks

Chris Sale will return to the Red Sox's rotation this Saturday (August 14) against the Orioles.

Sale's return will be two years and one day after his last major league appearance. The 32-year-old left-hander had "Tommy John" surgery in March 2020. Sale pitched 20 innings over his five rehab starts, striking out 35 and posting a 1.35 ERA.

Assuming MLB actually does away with the odious runner-on-second-base-in-extra-innings after this season, any funky linescores from 2020 and 2021 will need an asterisk indicating they were not played under the same rules as the other 140+ years of baseball history.

Giants  - 000 100 001 34 - 9 14 0
Brewers - 001 100 000 31 - 6 10 1

The above game (from Saturday, August 7) is still noteworthy (it's the Giants' first game in (at least) the modern era in which they had multiple 3-run extra innings), but it is less so knowing the four half-innings of the 10th and 11th were each juiced by an invisible leadoff double. It was also the Giants' third consecutive extra-inning game and their fourth in their last six games.

Two days earlier, on August 5, the Giants trailed the Diamondbacks 4-0 after eight innings before winning 5-4 in 10 innings, snapping a streak of exactly 800 consecutive losses in games they trailed by 4+ runs entering the ninth inning (last win: April 18, 1993 (the Phillies and Cubs also played a wild game that day)).

Giants       - 000 000 004 1 - 5  9  0
Diamondbacks - 202 000 000 0 - 4  7  0

The Cardinals gave Atlanta four bases-loaded walks on August 5. You'd think that would be a somewhat uncommon event, but it last happened only four years ago: September 9, 2017 (G1), with the Astros being generous towards the Athletics). Atlanta's four run-scoring free passes were consecutive! And the  inning six-run rally began with two outs!! St. Louis reliever Alex Reyes threw 21 pitches and although none of them were put into play, the five batters he faced all reached safely: 3-1, F8, 1B, HR**, HBP, BB, BB*, BB*, BB*, BB*, L4. [Update: See comments for link to game with eight bases-loaded walks in one inning.]

Nine Yankees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the All-Star Game. Four players tested positive this week: Gerrit Cole (August 2), Jordan Montgomery (August 3), Gary Sanchez (August 5), and Anthony Rizzo (August 8). In June, Rizzo said he was not vaccinated, telling reporters he was "taking some more time to see the data on all of it." It's unknown whether Rizzo has further educated himself. Aaron Judge, one of five MFYs infected during a separate outbreak last month, is also not vaccinated: "I'm not going to get into that. It's something I like to keep talking to my doctor about."

August 7 was Mike Trout's 30th birthday. Trout's career OPS is 1.002, he has hit 310 home runs, and he has 203 stolen bases. Trout is the only player in major-league history with a 1.000+ OPS , 300+ homers and 200+ steals when he turned 30.

Other (possibly) interesting things, thanks to Doug Kern:

July 28-29: Dodgers/Giants: First time trading shutouts in San Francisco since September 29-30, 2015. Strangely, exact same scores. 8-0 Dodgers and 5-0 Giants. [Mentioned because I was at the Giants' recent 5-0 win.]

July 29: Joey Votto & Jesse Winker: First teammates in (at least) the modern era to each have at least one extra-base hit in seven consecutive team games.

July 29: Gerrit Cole: Second pitcher in Yankees history to strike out 10+ but also give up eight runs in a game. Hippo Vaughn vs BOS, April 13, 1912 (L 4-8 . . . a week before Fenway opened)

August 1: Phillies: First time scoring 15+ runs in a game without homering since August 17, 1941 (G2) vs NYG (W 18-2 on 23 hits). First time recording nine doubles in a game since June 23, 1986 against the Cubs (W 19-1).

August 2: Andrew Heaney: First pitcher ever to give up four homers in his first appearance for the Yankees.

Some Fun MFY Reading Material, thanks to Defector:

July 23: "If George Were Alive, This Would've Killed Him Again"

July 26: "Things Somehow Got Worse For The Yankees"