A few milestones worth noting after Tuesday’s extra-innings Red Sox win over the Reds. First, though, a little about the Cincinnati team.
You might think of the Reds as “the other red socks.” The club, which was once called the Red Stockings, joined the National League in 1890, though for six seasons (1954-59) they were known as the Redlegs. Cincinnati has made 15 playoff appearance (most recently in 2013), won 5 World Championships (the last in 1990), and 9 National League Pennants (the last in 1990).
It’s a bizarre quirk of scheduling that Tuesday’s game vs the Reds was just the 7th regular season matchup between the clubs in history. It’s the club the Red Sox have faced the least in the regular season. The two teams last met at Cincinnati in 2008. They’re last series at Fenway was in 2005, which the Red Sox swept. Since that series all 28 other MLB teams have visited Fenway, most on multiple occasions.
Including Tuesday’s win, the Red Sox are 6-1 vs the Reds in regular season play. Of course all of this dances around the series that mattered most between these clubs: the 1975 World Series, which the Reds won in 7 games.
Ortiz Game 2,000
Tuesday was regular-season Game No. 2,000 for David Ortiz. He’s now one of 11 active players to play 2,000+ games. Among those, Derek Jeter has the played in the most (2,627). Beside Ortiz, the only other active player with 2,000+ games who has also played for Boston is Adrian Beltre, now with the Rangers, with 2,294 career games.
Ortiz has hit 437 home runs in his career. With Tuesday’s 2,000th career game he joins a list of just 36 other MLB players for all time with 2,000+ games and at least as many HRs. Besides Ortiz, the only active players on that list are Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi.
Ortiz’ 2,000 career game Tuesday was his 1,545th as a member of the Red Sox, the 10th most in club history. He played his first 455 as a member of the Twins. Carl Yastrzemski leads the Red Sox all-time list with 3,308 total games played, followed by Dwight Evans (2,505), and Ted Williams (2,292).
In baseball history, 25 players have more than David Ortiz’ 437 career home runs within their first 2,000 games. 13 of those are in Baseball Hall of Fame.
Pedroia hits 300th career double
Dustin Pedroia reached another career milestone Tuesday with his 300th career double in the 11th inning. He’s the 10th Boston player to reach that mark with the club.
Carl Yastrzemski had the most career doubles with Boston (646), followed by Ted Williams (525) and Dwight Evans (474). Pedroia is now one of 36 active MLB players with 300+ doubles. Bobby Abreu leads that list with 567.
Odds and Ends
Tuesday’s was the Red Sox’ 2nd walk-off victory of 2014. They also walked off with a win on April 20th vs the Orioles…It was Boston’s first extra-innings win at Fenway this season. They’re now 1-2 in extra frames there…Mike Napoli reached base safely in his career-high 27th straight game going 1-for-4 with 2 walks…Andrew Miller pitched 2.0 perfect innings of relief, dropping his Fenway ERA to 0.90…Grady Sizemore had his 4th career walk-off hit, his first since August 11, 2006 with Indians vs Royals.