The Walk Off: Edinson Volquez’s nightmare start among worst ever
Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.
Friday’s 15-game slate didn’t feature single marquee pitching matchup. With that in mind, it should come as no real surprise that the night was dominated by offense, with all 30 teams combining to score 173 total runs on 293 totals hits.
Yeah, it was a rough night for a lot of pitcher’s ERA. None more so though than Royals right-hander Edinson Volquez, who may have turned in the worst start of baseball’s modern era in Kansas City’s 13-4 loss to the Astros.
The numbers are downright awful. Volquez was knocked around for nine runs (eight earned) on seven hits in the first inning alone.
Ouch.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Royals’ manager Ned Yost rolled with Volquez again in the second inning, where he allowed three more runners to reach without recording an out. As you can probably guess, all three of those runners came around to score, putting Volquez’s outing in uncharted territory.
As R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports notes, the negative-18 Game Score ranks as the 15th-worst of all-time. But with most of those coming before World War II, there’s an argument to be made that Volquez’s outing is the worst of baseball’s modern era.
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On the flip side, it was a huge night for Houston leadoff hitter George Springer. In the first inning alone, he tripled and crushed a grand slam. He finished with three hits and five RBIs.
TOP PERFORMERS
San Diego Padres: The Padres are hardly an offensive juggernaut. They entered play Friday 19th in MLB in runs scored. Yet still, they nearly pulled an offensive feat that’s only been accomplished one other time in the last 50 years. In their 13-4 win against the Reds, San Diego’s offense scored at least one run in each of the first eight innings. Had they done so in the ninth, they would have joined exclusive company.
According to the Reds media relations, only four NL teams have done that since 1900.
Adam Lind: This night had a little bit of everything, including a walk-off home run. That was provided by Seattle’s Adam Lind, who took Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal deep for three-run homer in the ninth inning to win it 4-3.
Willson Contreras: The Cubs avoided their first five-game losing streak of the season thanks in large to their rookie catcher. Contreras certainly did the heavy lifting offensively, connecting for a two-run homer in Chicago’s four-run first inning. He later delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the seventh, which proved to be the game-winning in Chicago’s 5-4 victory.
Yasmany Tomas: The Diamondbacks outslugged the Rockies 10-9 at Coors Field thank to a pair of home runs from Tomas. The Arizona slugger hit a three-run shot in their six-run seventh. After Colorado scored six unanswered of its own, Tomas he then hit a game-tying solo shot in the ninth.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
Despite the Angels dropping a 7-4 game to the A’s, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols reached another milestone on Friday. Pujols connected for a 450-foot, two-run homer against A’s starter Eric Surkamp, giving him 13 for the season and 573 for his career. That tied him with Harmon Killebrew for 11th-most on the all-time list.
THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD
Pirates 8, Dodgers 6: Yet another wild offensive game was played in Pittsburgh. The Pirates scored four in the second and managed to hold on, snapping the Dodgers six-game winning streak.
Yankees 5, Twins 3: The Yankees get back to .500 (36-36) thanks to six quality innings from Masahiro Tanaka and consecutive shutdown innings from Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.
Orioles 6, Rays 3: Baltimore rallied from an early 3-0 deficit and got a home run from a returning Manny Machado.
Mets 8, Braves 6: The Mets nearly squandered an early 8-0 lead, but managed to hold on to snap a four-game losing streak against Atlanta. James Loney’s three-run homer in the fifth proved to be the difference.
Indians 7, Tigers 4: A little defense was played too. Check out this crazy juggling catch from Rajai Davis to secure Cleveland’s seven straight win overall and against Detroit.
Red Sox 8, Rangers 7: Boston rallied for four in the ninth, scoring the winning run on a Matt Bush wild pitch.
White Sox 3, Blue Jays 2: Chicago evened its record at 37-37 thanks Todd Frazier’s go-ahead single in the seventh.
Brewers 5, Nationals 3: Washington’s slide continues as they’ve now lost a season-high six straight.
Giants 5, Phillies 4: Make that 12 wins in 13 games for San Francisco, as they open up a seven-game lead in the NL West.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
