It's Odd Stats Time!Featuring: Ohtani, 28-5, And A POOP Game

Angels scoreboard, July 28, 2022

Red Sox Players With HR, 2 BB, 2 SB In Same Game

Larry Gardner, July 29, 1911 (G2) vs Browns (L 4-5 (10))
John Valentin, June 13, 1995 at Blue Jays (W 11-7)
Julio Lugo, April 27, 2007 at Yankees (W 11-4)
Xander Bogaerts, July 28, 2022 vs Guardians (W 4-2)

In the first game of that 1911 doubleheader, Smoky Joe Wood pitched a no-hitter (9-0-0-2-12). Also, Gardner tripled, singled, stole a base, scored a run, and knocked in a run. Boston won 5-0.

Garrett Whitlock recorded a pair of two-inning saves in the just-completed series against the Guardians (July 25 and 28, 2022). He's the first Red Sox pitcher to do that since Greg Harris (September 13 and 15, 1993, against the Orioles; Harris went 2.2 innings on the 13th).

Shohei Ohtani leads all major league pitchers this season with nine games of 10+ strikeouts. (All other Angels pitchers combined have one game with 10+ K in 2022.)

Shohei Ohtani has struck out 11+ strikeouts seven times, the first pitcher in 20 years to do that in his team's first 99 games.

Ohtani has struck out 10+ in each of his last six starts. The only pitchers in history with longer streaks?

Gerrit Cole (nine games), Chris Sale (eight games (twice)), Pedro Martinez (eight games, seven games), Justin Verlander (seven games), Randy Johnson (seven games), and Nolan Ryan (seven games).

Ohtani currently leads all pitchers in K/9 (13.1) and all batters in intentional walks (nine).

Different eras and all that . . . but still  . . . Through his first 50 career starts as a pitcher and 500 games as a hitter, Shohei Ohtani has: 

-More strikeouts than Jacob deGrom
-Lower ERA than Gerrit Cole
-More home runs than Ted Williams
-More RBI than Ken Griffey Jr.

Jayson Stark unloaded a bushel full of factoids about the Blue Jays' 28-5 win at Fenway last Friday. I'll try to sum them up.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was only the second opposing player to get six hits (or more) in a nine-inning game against the Red Sox in the last 60 years. (I checked Stathead and learned that other guy was C.J. Cron, on July 2, 2016. Before that, it was Floyd Robinson of the White Sox, on July 22, 1962.) Only five players have ever had six hits in a nine-inning game at Fenway; none of them have played for the Red Sox.

From the opening of Fenway in 1912 until two months ago, the Red Sox had never allowed a home run cycle [grand slam, three-run homer, two-run homer, solo homer] to an opposing team. But they've allowed two of them this season — May 17 and July 22.

Kevin Gausman became only the fourth starting pitcher in the last 74 seasons years to pitch with a 22+-run lead. The others are:

Chuck Stobbs, Red Sox, June 8, 1950. Pitched a complete game (Stark: "because 1950") against the Browns, led 29-3 in the ninth.

John Candelaria, Pirates, September 16, 1975. Up 22-0 in the seventh at Wrigley Field.

Dave Frost, Angels, August 25, 1979. Complete game against Oakland, 24-2.

No starting pitcher had ever been up by 22 runs as early as the fifth inning.

Toronto became the first team to score 11 runs in an inning after its first two batters had been retired. 

Gurriel had a run-scoring single and a two-run double in that 11-run fifth inning. He's the third player in the last 60 years to have two two-out, run-scoring hits in the same inning.

Six Blue Jays scored at least three runs, but none of them batted in the lineup's top three spots. That had never happened before in major league history.

In addition to his inside-the-park grand slam, Tapia hit a bases-loaded triple against the Red Sox the next day. He's the first player to have two such hits in the same series. In fact, in the last 79 years, only two other players have done it in the same season. Overall, it's been done in the same season a total of 11 times, including by two players within a two-week span: Whispering Bill Barrett (13 days apart, 1926 White Sox) and Aaron Altherr (nine days, 2015 Phillies).

The Blue Jays had not scored 28 runs in any of their previous 29 series before rolling into Fenway and racking up 28 runs in one game.

The Red Sox bullpen gave up 19 runs. The Red Sox bullpen allowed 21 runs in the entire 2018 postseason (14 games).

Even the scoreboard operators at Fenway are committing errors

(The game ended 28-5) https://t.co/xRhymq7O9U

— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) July 23, 2022