MLB Splinters | August 19, 2011

By Kyle Soppe

Another week, another set of box scores filled with a blend of historic and unique happenings.

Mariano Rivera has reached the 30 save plateau for the 9^th consecutive season. By getting there this year, he broke a tie for longest consecutive 30 save seasons with Trevor Hoffman.

Zack Greinke’s first 9 decisions at home this year have all been wins. His 9-0 mark sets the record for most consecutive home victories to start a season for a new team. He and the Brewers have the major’s best home record at 47-15 and lead the NL Central by 6.5 games

Dan Uggla fell short of DiMaggio’s hit streak mark, but he did tie an impressive stat. Uggla clobbered 15 homers in his 33 game streak, tying Joey D for most homers hit during a hit streak of any length.

When the LA Angels lost on a walk off hit to the Blue Jays on Sunday, a few milestones were reached. The Angels upped their MLB leading total of walk off loses to 11 this year. With that win, the Blue Jays have now won 11 straight extra inning games played at home, the longest such streak in 26 years.

Tim Wakefield failed for the 4^th consecutive start to record career win number 200. That ties him for 3^rd place all time in number of starts needed to get to the 200 win plateau. Another 4 winless starts would give the knuckleballer the all time record, currently held by Steve Carlton.

To go along with Monday’s triple play, the Brewers also recorded a shut out and hit 3 homers. That marks the first time all 3 have been done in the same game in ML history.

On Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, Albert Pujols hit home run number 30.He has now hit more home runs versus the Pirates than any other team over his 11 year career Pujols hitting another homer isn’t noteworthy, but this is his 11^th consecutive season reaching the 30 home run mark. That moves him out of a tie with Sammy Sosa, and alone into third place for consecutive seasons hitting at least 30 bombs. He trails only Alex Rodriguez (13 seasons and counting), Barry Bonds (13), and Jimmy Foxx (12). Arod’s streak seems destined to end this year, as he only has 13 home runs and hasn’t been healthy over the past month.

On Tuesday night, the White Sox recorded 5 triples, the most in a single game since 1920. Led by 2 triples from backup Alejandro De Aza, the White Sox recorded almost as many triples in 9 innings as the Orioles have in 121 games.

Derek Jeter’s career has been full of hits, but never in bunches like what we have seen in 2011. Wednesday saw Jeter record 4 hits for the fifth time this season, more than any other season in the future hall of famer’s career.