| Here's the kind of game you don't see every day: Wednesday in Montreal, the Cubs scored six runs off Expos pitcher Tomo Ohka in the top of the first inning before they made an out. And still lost. By seven runs (Expos 15, Cubs 8). Well, you may have been wondering: When was the last time a team gave up six runs or more in the top of the first inning and still wound up winning that day by six or more? Good question. And the answer, according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt, is that there had been exactly ONE game like that in the last 100 years: On April 16, 1989, Toronto's Dave Stieb gave up six runs to Kansas City in the top of the first. But the Blue Jays rampaged back against Floyd Bannister and reliever Bret Saberhagen to win, 15-8. (Winning pitcher in relief: David Wells.) But hold on. It gets better. The last time this happened in a National League game was way, way, wayyyyyyyy back on May 31, 1899. (Videotape highlights unavailable.) That day, the late, great Cleveland Spiders -- on the way to the worst season of all time (20-134, no kidding) -- blew a 7-0 lead to the Boston Braves at old South End Grounds and lost 16-10. The Spiders never recovered, either. They went 11-102 after that. And you can look that up. Now any time something happens that hadn't been done since those Cleveland Spiders, it's a tremendous thing. But the rarities weren't even finished. After Ohka departed with no outs, in came Bruce Chen to relieve him. After giving up an RBI single to Chris Stynes, Chen then struck out Robert Machado. "You knew," Montreal's Peter Bergeron told the Montreal Gazette's Stephanie Myles, "they were bound to make an out sooner or later." Turned out, though, the Cubs just had to get the hang of it, because after that, they made many more outs. In fact, Chen struck out three in a row. "He struck out the side in the first," Bergeron said. "It's an unconventional way, but he got it done." Nobody, however, had any idea just how unconventional it was. If you can't remember the last time a relief pitcher struck out the side in the first inning, it's because that hadn't happened in a quarter-century. Last to do it, according to Elias' Peter Hirdt: Jim Kern, for the Cleveland Indians, on Sept. 7, 1976, in relief of Jackie Brown, in a 17-4 loss to the Brewers. So what we had here, friends, was a very historic baseball game. And we're sure those fans in Stade Olympique that night will never forget it. Both of them. |
| Saturday, April 20 Wild Pitches: Straight from the Spider record book -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jayson Stark ESPN.com |