The Cycle, Issue 131: A Quick One . . .

A no-hitter, a record-tying cycle, a left-handed home run by a righty, the Guardians' ups and downs, a viewer's guide to Week 6, and my latest Infinite Inning appearance, among other things . . .

In this Issue of The Cycle . . .

• Did You See That? A solo no-hitter, a record-tying cycle, and the highs and lows of the Cleveland Guardians’ week.

• On Deck: A viewer’s guide to Week 6

• Shameless Self-Promotion: The Infinite Inning, Episode 225

• Feedback

• Closing Credits

Did You See That?

On Tuesday, Angels rookie Reid Detmers threw the second no-hitter of the season, and first by a single pitcher, when he held the Rays hitless in Anaheim on 108 pitches. The game was just the second quality start of Detmer’s young career and just the third complete game of the young season, following Walker Buehler’s April 25 outing, which still boasts the top game score of the year, and an eight-inning, complete-game loss by the Nationals’ Patrick Corbin last Wednesday. Detmers, universally considered the Angels’ top prospect coming into the season and a consensus top-40 prospect overall, allowed just two baserunners on Tuesday. The first, a leadoff walk to Rays third baseman Taylor Walls in the top of the sixth, was erased by a double play, turned beautifully by first baseman Jared Walsh. The second came on a one-out error in the top of the seventh by . . . Jared Walsh. Detmers stranded that runner at first base, thus preventing any Ray from reaching second base in the game.

Despite that stinginess, Detmers’s no-hitter is notable for its relative lack of strikeouts. Detmers struck out just two batters in the game, fellow rookie Vidal Bruján in the third and three-true-outcome catcher Mike Zunino in the fifth. The last no-hitter to include so few strikeouts was the one Francisco Liriano threw for the Twins 11 years ago on May 3, 2011 (Liriano walked six in that game). The last no-hitter to include fewer strikeouts was the one Clyde Wright threw, also for the Angels, on July 3, 1970 (Wright struck out one and walked three). Since Wright’s no-no, the only other no-hitter to include two or fewer strikeouts was Jerry Reuss’s for the Dodgers on June 27, 1980 (two strikeouts, no walks, the only baserunner came on a first-inning error by shortstop Bill Russell). Thus, Detmers is just the third pitcher in the last 50 years to throw a no-hitter while striking out two or fewer batters.

The Angels put up eight early runs against Corey Kluber in that game, and with his team failing to respond with so much as a hit, Rays manager Kevin Cash sent outfielder Brett Phillips out to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Phillips made his pitching debut last year and worked two innings in a blowout back on April 11 (when he also made the remarkable diving catch Steven Goldman and I discuss in the episode of The Infinite Inning embedded below). On this occasion, Phillips ran into two of the best players on the planet, surrendering a home run to Mike Trout and a double to Shohei Ohtani that made the game 10–0 with one out.

Perhaps out of pity, for Phillips or the Rays, or simply to match the absurdity of Phillips pitching, right-handed hitter Anthony Rendon then came to the plate left-handed, something he had never done before in a major-league game.

We have seen Javier Báez do this. Báez claims to be naturally left-handed (though he both bats and throws right-handed), he sometimes takes batting practice left-handed as a lark, and he has come to the plate left-handed three times when a position player is on the mound, going 1-for-3 with a double and no strikeouts in those plate appearances. This was a first for Rendon, however, but you wouldn’t know it from the fact that he hit Phillips’ second pitch, a 54-mile-per-hour floater down in the zone, into the right-field seats for a two-run homer that set the final score at 12–0.

Other notable pitching performances from the past week include Kyle Hendricks coming one out shy of a complete game against the Padres on Monday. Hendricks held the Padres scoreless on three singles and a walk, but his last two batters worked full counts to push his pitch count to 116, he walked the penultimate man, and the second out of the ninth was a deep drive, so, with Manny Machado coming up, manager David Ross called on Scott Effross for the final out. That same day, Yankee lefty Nestor Cortes held the Rangers scoreless on one hit for 7 1/3 innings while striking out 11. The next day, Justin Verlander held the Twins to a single and two walks over eight innings. Then, on Wednesday, the Rays’ Shane McClanahan got a bit of revenge on the Angels, holding them scoreless on three singles and a walk while striking out 11 in seven innings.

Back on the hitting side of things, Christian Yelich became the first player to hit for the cycle this season, doing so against the Reds on Wednesday. Yelich flew out in his first attempt to complete the cycle in that game, but got the triple in the ninth inning to complete the feat. That was the third cycle of Yelich’s career, tying the record set by John Reilly in the nineteenth century and tied by Bob Musial in 1928, Babe Herman in 1933, Adrián Beltré in 2015, and Trea Turner last year. Remarkably, all three of Yelich’s cycles have come against the Reds, the first two less than a month apart in 2018.

Yelich wasn’t the only player to compile 10 total bases in a game this past week, however. Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor went 3-for-5 with a double and two homers against the White Sox on Monday. Naylor walked in his first at-bat in that game, then struck out in his next two, but he doubled in a run in the eighth, then hit a game-tying grand slam off Sox closer Liam Hendriks with two outs in the ninth inning. The game subsequently went to the 11th inning, when Naylor came up again with two outs and runners on (one of them the Manfred man) and again delivered with a three-run home run, which would prove to be the game winner. For those keeping track, that was eight RBIs for Naylor in that game, tying Rowdy Tellez’s total from last Wednesday for the most in a single game this season. It also made Naylor the first player ever with a grand slam and a three-run homer in the eighth inning or later in a single game as well as the first player ever to drive in eight runs in the eighth inning or later.

The rest of the week didn’t go nearly as well for the Guardians. They lost to the Sox on Tuesday, 4–1, and the final of that series on Wednesday was postponed due to a breakout of COVID-19 among the Guardians coaches. At last word, manager Terry Francona and bench coach DeMarlo Hale had tested positive and five other coaches had been sidelined due to related protocols. Pitching coach Carl Willis will manage this weekend’s series against the Twins, with minor league coaches from the organization filling out the major-league staff. Wednesday’s cancelled game will be made up as part of a Saturday doubleheader on July 23.

Francona, meanwhile, has missed significant time in each of the last two seasons due to health issues. Francona is 63, and while I lost considerable respect for him after learning of his tolerance of Mickey Calloway’s behavior while the latter was Cleveland’s pitching coach, I still worry about Francona’s health and wish him (and Hale, of course) a speedy and complete recovery.

On Deck

This Weekend

Series to Watch:

Blue Jays @ Rays: It may seem like there’s always an intra-division series going on involving at least two of the top four teams in last year’s AL East standings. Yet, somehow, this weekend’s three game-set in St. Petersburg is the first Jays-Rays matchup of the year. Toronto arrives at Tropicana Field on a skid, having lost seven of their last nine, four of those to the first-place Yankees. The Rays are two games ahead of them in the division, but just dropped two of three to the Angels and were no-hit on Tuesday. The Jays have their pitching set-up, however, with Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah pitching the bookend games and Hyun Jin Ryu due to return from the injured list for Saturday’s start. The Rays will counter with Drew Rasmussen on Friday, but haven’t announced their Saturday or Sunday starters.

Guardians @ Twins: With the White Sox off to a disappointing, injury-riddled start, these are the only two teams in the American League Central with positive run differentials, and this is their first meeting of the year. Third-place Cleveland enters this series at .500, two games behind first-place Minnesota, but has the better differential, +10 to +7.

The Guardians have been perhaps the streakiest team in baseball thus far this season, but they’re on another good run, having won eight of their last 11. This could be the start of another downswing, however, as they lost their last game to the White Sox on Tuesday, scoring fewer than three runs for the first time since the last game of their last losing streak, then had to place seven coaches, including manager Terry Francona, in COVID-19 protocols on Wednesday, prompting the cancellation of that day’s game. The Guardians are thus entering this series coming off a loss and two days off. At the same time, the Twins enter the series having just been swept at home by the Astros in a three-game series in which they were out-scored 21–3, and they’ll have had no days off to lick their wounds from that one before this one commences.

The pitching matchups are Aaron Civale, Shane Bieber, and Triston McKenzie will start for Cleveland. Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan should bookend the series for the Twins with Dylan Bundy likely to return from the COVID-19 IL to make Saturday’s start.

Giants @ Cardinals: In terms of won-loss record and run differential, this is the best series of the weekend, though it lacks the intra-division significance of the two above. The weaker of the two teams in both regards thus far, the Cardinals are 17–14 (.548) with a +30 run differential entering this series. These two split four games in San Francisco last weekend in a series in which the aggregate score was 21-20 Giants, with each team winning both a blow out and a one-run game. They’ll play just three this weekend, concluding their season series in Sunday night’s ESPN game, but whetting the appetite for a potential postseason rematch. The Giants will start Logan Webb, Jake Junis, and Carlós Rodon. The Cardinals will counter with Jordan Hicks, Dakota Hudson, and, in an expected return from the COVID-19 IL, Adam Wainwright.

Yankees @ White Sox: This series started on Thursday with a wild game in which the Yankees got ahead 6–3 and 7–4, blew that lead in the bottom of the seventh on a game-tying, three-run home run by Yoán Moncada, who was appearing in just his third game of the season, then put up seven runs in the top of the eighth and won 15–7. As has seemingly been the case all season, sloppy fielding on the part of the White Sox contributed to their opponent’s big rally. The Sox rank 26th in the majors in defensive efficiency (the rate of turning balls in play into outs) and edge only the Pirates in fielding percentage (that ancient metric that measure’s a team’s ability to avoid errors). The Yankees, by comparison, are markedly better in the field this year compared to last having prioritized fielding in the offseason. Watch for that contrast in this series, which will see the Yankees sent Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery, and Nestor Cortes against Vince Velasquez, Dallas Keuchel, and Michael Kopech.

Friday, May 13

Pitching Matchup of the Day

• Corbin Burnes vs. Pablo López, Brewers @ Marlins, 6:40 pm ET

Burnes last start was his worst since Opening Day. In it, he held the defending champions to two runs, one earned, on six hits and a walk while striking out seven in six innings. Over his last five starts, all quality, he has a 1.34 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 9.20 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and has struck out 36.8 percent of the batters he has faced. López has allowed multiple runs in just one of his six starts this season and held the Padres scoreless for eight frames his last time out. He leads the majors with a 1.00 ERA, and backs that up with a 4.38 K/BB and 2.20 FIP, having allowed just one home run in 36 innings on the season.

Game of the Day

• Blue Jays @ Rays, Kevin Gausman vs. Drew Rasmussen, 7:10 pm ET

The Jays and Rays kick off their season series with a quality pitching matchup. Gausman has allowed one walk and no home runs in 38 innings on the season, while striking out 46. That works out to a 0.78 FIP, while, in practice, he has a 2.13 ERA. Rasmussen has been more ordinary in every way, but still has a 2.89 ERA (though that’s just a 116 ERA+ between the dead ball and Tropicana Field), which is largely supported by his peripherals. Rasmussen has been an 85-pitch, five-inning pitcher thus far this season, but he has also been the Rays’ second-best starter after Shane McClanahan.

Saturday, May 14

Pitching Matchup of the Day

• George Kirby vs. Chris Bassitt, Mariners @ Mets, 7:10 pm ET

Kirby is an elite rotation prospect. Entering the season, he was a consensus top-25 prospect and the fourth-highest-ranked pitcher on my aggregated list behind Grayson Rodriguez, Shane Baz, and Jack Leiter. In his major-league debut last Sunday, he dominated the Rays, holding them scoreless on four singles while striking out seven and walking none in six innings. Chris Bassitt has picked up with the Mets where he left off with the A’s, pitching like a down-ballot Cy Young contender with a  2.45 ERA (158 ERA+) and 4.22 K/BB in the early going.

Game of the Day

• Padres @ Braves, Sean Manaea vs. Charlie Morton, 4:05 pm ET

Beyond the starting pitchers, the Mariners-Mets matchup doesn’t move me, but in Padres-Braves you have the defending champions against a serious contender in a Padres team that had the second-best record in the NL in 2020 and is 20-12 (.625) heading into this weekend. Manaea threw seven hitless innings in his Padres debut and has turned in four more quality starts in five turns since. Morton has had a rougher go of things thus far and is still looking for his first quality start of the seaon, prompting some to wonder if age is finally catching up with the 38-year-old righty. However, his last start was his best of the season, as he held the Brewers scoreless on two singles and three walks and got a double-digit number of swings and misses for just the second time all season.

Sunday, May 15

Pitching Matchup and Game of the Day

• Giants @ Cardinals, Carlos Rodón vs. Adam Wainwright, 7:08 pm, ESPN

There are a handful of compelling pitching matchups this Sunday for fans who want to watch some Sunday-afternoon baseball. It starts with the early game on Peacock, with Joe Musgrove and Kyle Wright facing off in Atlanta at 11:35 am ET. Then there’s Robbie Ray vs. Carlos Carrasco at 1:40 pm ET in Queens, Nestor Cortes vs. Michael Kopech in Chicago at 2:10 pm ET (1:10 Central), Noah Syndergaard vs. Frankie Montas at 4:07 pm ET in Oakland (1:07 Pacific), and Aaron Nola vs. Julio Urías at 4:10 pm ET at Dodger Stadium (1:10 Pacific).

This Sunday Night Baseball matchup isn’t even a sure thing yet, but the Giants have announced Carlos Rodón, and the Cardinals are expected to activated Wainwright from the COVID-19 injured list for this start, setting up a matchup of aces from two of the league’s top teams on national television. Rodón has been outstanding thus far, striking out 39 percent of the batters he has faced, while not allowing a home run or allowing more than two walks or two runs in any single start. Wainwright last pitched on May 4 and held the Royals scoreless over seven innings on a single and a walk. There’s no way to tell how sharp he'll be on 10-day’s rest and a COVID-related layoff, but given the quality of the teams and his mound opponent, it’s worth finding out.

Next Week

Series to Watch:

Cardinals @ Mets: Only three of next week’s series pit two teams currently sporting winning records against one another. Only two pit two teams currently sporting positive run differentials against one another. The only series to qualify in both cases is this one, between the Mets, who enter the weekend tied with the Dodgers for the best winning percentage in the NL (.667) and trailing only the Dodgers and Giants in run differential (+36). The Cardinals are next on the run differential list at +30 right now, though they have the tough draw of San Francisco between now and the start of this series on Monday. This is a four-game set will conclude the season series between these two teams, though, again, a playoff rematch remains a legitimate possibility. The Mets will likely start Tylor Megill, Taijuan Waler, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassitt against Miles Mikolas, ex-Met Steven Matz making his second start as a visiting player at Citi Field, Jordan Hicks, and Dakota Hudson.

Diamondbacks @ Dodgers: Are the Diamondbacks good? They took two of three from the Dodgers in Phoenix in late April, and, dating back to those two wins, they have won 11 of 15 and haven’t lost a series. They still have a -13 run differential, but they’re 17-15 (.531) heading into this weekend, which is a mark surpassed by only three NL teams not in their division (but also three that are). The recently called up centerfield prospect Alek Thomas, and he is raking. Zac Gallen looks like a budding ace again. Merrill Kelly has been very good. Then again, they’re hitting just .199/.289/.354 as a team, which is an 86 OPS+ even after adjusting for the dead ball. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are world beaters once again, with a +76 run differential that is by far the best in the majors. This four-game set at Dodger Stadium will be a big test for the D’backs. They’ll likely send Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly, Zach Davis, and Zac Gallen to the hill, while the Dodgers have some work to do to sort out their rotation in the wake of Clayton Kershaw hitting the injured list due to sacroiliac joint inflammation.

Braves @ Brewers: The Braves have neither a winning record nor a positive run differential, but they are they defending champions, and the Brewers are perennial hopefuls these days as the defending champs and pre-season favorites, in the NL Central. So there’s intrigue here beyond what you might get from Giants @ Rockies (both teams have winning records) or even Padres @ Phillies (both teams have positive run differentials). The Brewers took two of three from the Braves in Atlanta last weekend, and this three-game set will the finale of their regular-season series. The Braves should start Max Fried, Charlie Morton, and Kyle Wright against Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser, and Corbin Burnes.

Monday, May 16–Thursday, May 19

I’m realizing that projecting pitching matchups beyond the coming series has a pretty low success rate, so, with nothing particularly compelling coming up in those projections, I’m going to skip the day-by-day for next week. I’ll only mention that Tuesday is Shohei Ohtani’s next scheduled start, while the most compelling projected matchup, both on Tuesday and arguably for the entire week, is Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler at 6:45 pm ET on Tuesday.

Shameless Self-Promotion

The Infinite Inning, Episode 225

I made my latest appearance on Steven Goldman’s Infinite Inning podcast last Friday. We discussed Brett Phillips, pitchers fielding, and this year’s dead ball, among the usual digressions (though I suppose some of those were the usual digressions). When spent the second half of the conversation on Kelsie Whitmore and women in baseball, specifically women playing baseball, something I hope we will see a lot more of in the coming years. Give a listen:

Feedback

I want to hear from you. Got a question, a comment, a request? Reply to this issue. Want to interview me on your podcast, send me your book, bake me some cookies? Reply to this issue. I will respond, and if I find your question particularly interesting, I’ll feature it in a future issue.

You can also write me at cyclenewsletter[at]substack[dot]com, or @ me on twitter @CliffCorcoran.

Closing Credits

If this week’s issue seems a little lean, it’s because I somewhat accidentally, but not at all regrettably, overbooked myself this week and simply ran out of time to write any more (note the publication time). One of the things I committed myself to was chaperoning my daughter’s middle-school big band to a local competition, where they played “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Green Onions.” My daughter plays guitar, and she was on-point with those stabs in the latter tune, so I thought I’d end today with the live video of Booker T. & the M.G.s crushing the groove on “Green Onions,” a video I showed her after her bandleader first introduced the song to the band. The original studio recording of “Green Onions” was made and released in 1962, but this video is from the European Stax-Volt tour in 1967 (for a longer video with performances by Otis Redding and Sam & Dave, click here). The band is really cooking on this one, with the classic lineup of Booker T. Jones on Hammond organ, Steve Cropper on guitar, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass (Lewie Steinberg played on the original), and Al Jackson Jr. on drums.

Jones and Cropper are still out there performing and making music, though not necessarily together. In fact, Cropper’s last album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. I’m not sure how many times they’ve played this riff at this point, but it’s the kind of groove that never grows old.

The Cycle will return next Friday. Until then . . .