We could almost devote our entire weekly look at the interesting and unusual in MLB to Saturday's outburst by the Los Angeles Dodgers. But we'll make a few other stops first.
• The Los Angeles Angels put together a 10-game win streak that was finally snapped Sunday. It tied for the longest in the majors this season and was one shy of the longest win streak in franchise history, done way back in June 1964. (Shortstop and future manager Jim Fregosi led that team in most offensive categories among qualified players.) Embedded in this week's wins was a streak of eight straight games where the Angels scored at least seven runs.
That was the longest such streak in the majors since the Rangers did it across July-August 2003, and it tied the franchise record set in June 1979 (the Angels lost three of those eight games!).
More From This Week
Albert Pujols went single-double-triple on Wednesday, just the third time in his career he's had all three of those hits in a game (last in 2007). On Thursday he struck out four times-- all swinging-- to record his first career "sombrero" in his 2,102nd game. That leaves only one active player to have appeared in 2,000 games without a four-strikeout outing: Ichiro Suzuki.
• Cincinnati Reds pitcher Alfredo Simon helped his own cause with two doubles on Wednesday. The Reds have eight extra-base hits from their pitchers this season, all by Simon or Mike Leake.
The Dodgers' Josh Beckett is the only other pitcher this year with two doubles in a game (July 1). Simon's feat, however, hadn't been done by a Reds hurler in nearly two decades. Pete Schourek had a pair of doubles in a 7-4 win over the Expos on September 18, 1995.
• Carl Crawford posted his 35th career four-hit game in the Dodgers' win over San Diego on Wednesday. He included three doubles, the first Dodger to have three doubles while batting sixth or lower since catcher Chad Kreuter did it batting eighth on June 30, 2001 (also against the Padres). And the last Dodger with three doubles and two RBIs from so low in the order was shortstop Alfredo Griffin on April 18, 1989.
• Josh Donaldson of the Oakland Athletics posted his first career five-hit game on Tuesday. Donaldson had a double and four singles, drove in four runs, and thus became the first Oakland player with five hits and four RBIs since Mark Ellis did it on the same combination of hits on August 10, 2009.
• Donaldson wasn't the only Bay Area hitter to lay down five hits on Tuesday. Giants rookie Joe Panik also did it in a win over Arizona. Panik's line featured five singles, and he neither scored a run nor drove one in.
The last player with five hits, zero scored, and zero driven in, was Oakland's Adam Kennedy on August 15, 2009 (8-1 loss to White Sox), and Panik was the first to do it in Giants history.
Now about that Dodgers game...
• The 17 runs were the team's most since 2009, and their most scored against the Giants since a 19-3 win on May 26, 1970. The Giants had not allowed 17 runs since another 19-3 game, against Montreal in May 1997.
• The 24 hits were an MLB season high for any team, and the most ever posted at AT&T Park. The Dodgers hadn't accumulated 24 hits against the Giants since August 13, 1932, in an 18-9 win at the Polo Grounds.
• Dee Gordon became the first Dodgers hitter ever to have seven at-bats in a nine-inning game. Starting pitcher Zack Greinke not only hit his fourth career homer, he also doubled, walked, and scored twice. He's the first pitcher in the majors with a homer, a double, and a walk since fellow Dodger Chad Billingsley posted that line against the Reds on June 5, 2011.
• Giants starter Tim Hudson faced 11 batters and got just three of them out; he was charged with eight hits and six runs. Tim Lincecum made a three-inning relief appearance and gave up five runs. Mike Kickham pitched parts of two innings and gave up four runs. They are the first trio of pitchers this season to each give up at least four runs in no more than three innings, and the first Giants to do it since the last time the team allowed 24 hits-- to Oakland on June 26, 2005.
• Saturday's 17-0 score came on the heels of the Giants blanking the Dodgers 9-0 on Friday. That marked their largest home shutout of Los Angeles since June 25, 1968. And the 26-run swing in back-to-back shutouts? That was the most in the live-ball era, surpassing the 24-run swing done three times, most recently done on July 6-7, 1996, between the Blue Jays and Tigers (15-0 and 0-9). According to some number-crunching by SweetSpot contributor Diane Firstman, it's one shy of the all-time record... set in 1886!