In the fourth inning on Saturday night, Gavin Williams loaded the bases against the Padres, then walked Luis Arraez and two batters later hit Jake Cronenworth.
It was just the ninth time in the last 100 years a Cleveland pitcher walked a batter and hit a batter with the bases loaded.
Everyone on the list except Williams and Feller did it to consecutive batters.
Eckersley’s meltdown was a historically embarrassing moment for the team. In the bottom of the 9th, with the Indians leading 2-1 at Chicago, rookie manager Frank Robinson called up Eck – a rookie reliever making just his ninth career appearance. Eck promptly hit the first batter, tying the game, then issued a walk-off-walk to the next batter.
Bo Naylor collected a walk-off RBI on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly last night against the White Sox. It was just the 5th pinch-hit walk-off sac fly for Cleveland over the last 100 years.
The others:
Smith’s walk-off in 1976 gave the Indians a 1-0 victory and secured a 10-inning shutout for Dennis Eckersley. Eck and Luis Tiant had taken dueling shutouts into extra innings.
Ben Lively has a 2.80 ERA with 43 strikeouts through his first eight starts.
Lively’s previous low ERA through an stretch of eight starts was 3.70 as a rookie with the 2017 Phillies.
He’s the 13th pitcher in franchise history with at least 40 strikeouts and an ERA under 3.00 through eight starts with the franchise.
The others:
- Danny Salazar, 2013
- Bert Blyleven, 1981
- Dennis Eckersley, 1975
- Milt Wilcox, 1972
- Gaylord Perry, 1972
- Stan Williams, 1967
- Tom Kelley, 1965-66
- Luis Tiant, 1964
- Jack Kralick, 1963
- Herb Score, 1955
- Allie Reynolds, 1943
- Gene Krapp, 1911
On this date in 1977, Star Wars was released.
On that day, Dennis Eckersley pitched a 12-inning compete game and Bruce Bochte hit a walk-off single to give the Indians a 2-1 win over the Mariners.
Gavin Williams struck out 10 Rays in his 10th career start on Saturday.
It was his second straight double-digit strikeout performance. He’s the 36th pitcher in MLB history with multiple 10-K games within his first 10 career games.
He’s also the 8th rookie in franchise history with multiple 10-K games, joining:
Over the last 40 seasons, only two Cleveland rookies have started at least 15 games while posting an ERA under 3.50: Cody Anderson in 2015 and T.J. House in 2014.
It’s odd that such a list would feature such irrelevant players, as neither had much hype as prospects or did much beyond their rookie years.
Here’s a few others who accomplished the feat, dating back to 1955 (it was slightly more common before then):
1975 – Dennis Eckersley
1972 – Dick Tidrow
1964 – Luis Tiant
1958 – Gary Bell
1955 – Herb Score