Stats of the Day: No place like home for Mets
Here are four interesting items from around the big leagues on Monday …
• The Mets claimed their eighth straight win, defeating the Marlins at Citi Field, 4-3. New York improved to 46-24 at home this season, a .657 winning percentage. Three Mets teams have produced better home winning percentages. In 1988, the club was 56-24 (.700); the 1986 team went 55-26 (.679); and in 2000, that Mets finished 55-26. In Monday's win, Yoenis Cespedes hit his ninth home run of the month to tie him with Darryl Strawberry (1984 and '88) and Mike Piazza (2002) for the third most in a September/October for a Mets player. Gary Carter hit 13 in 1985, and Howard Johnson connected for 10 in 1991.
• In the Indians' 8-3 win over the Royals, the teams -- thanks to Alex Gordon and Jason Kipnis -- traded leadoff homers in the first. It marked the fourth time this season each team led off the first with a home run, the previous three coming May 1 (Toronto's Josh Donaldson and Cleveland's Kipnis), June 26 (Minnesota's Brian Dozier and Milwaukee's Gerardo Parra) and Sept. 8 (the Dodgers' Justin Ruggiano and the Angels' Kole Calhoun). Monday's homer marked the 14th time in his career Gordon opened the first with a home run -- the most in Royals franchise history. The homer also gave Gordon 414 career extra-base hits, a tally that ties him with Willie Wilson for the sixth most in franchise history.
Video: KC@CLE: Gordon launches a leadoff homer to right
• Melky Cabrera's single in the bottom of the 14th gave the White Sox an 8-7 win over the Athletics, and gave Cabrera his 12th career walk-off hit (his first came in 2006). In the past 10 seasons, those 12 tie Cabrera with Andre Ethier for the second most in the Majors, behind Ryan Zimmerman and his 14. The others with at least 10: Albert Pujols (11), Ryan Howard (10) and Miguel Cabrera (10).
• In Chicago's win, John Danks fanned six in a no-decision, and raised his career total of K's to 1,076 to pass Ted Lyons (1,073) for seventh most in White Sox history. With Danks moving into the seventh slot, the Pale Hose have a list dominated at the top by southpaws. Lefty Billy Pierce has the most (1,796), and southpaws also occupy the fourth (Mark Buehrle, with 1,396), fifth (Wilbur Wood, with 1,332) and sixth (Gary Peters, with 1,098) spots. The five southpaws with at least 1,076 strikeouts make Chicago one of four franchises to have that many. The Dodgers have six, while the Yankees and Athletics also have five.
Video: OAK@CWS: Danks fans six over seven solid frames
Milestone watch for Tuesday
• Mark Melancon needs one save to tie Mike Williams (46 in 2002) for the most in a season for the Pirates.
• Donaldson needs two RBIs to tie Joe Carter (121 in 1993) for the seventh most in a season for a Blue Jays player. A four-RBI day would tie Donaldson with Shawn Green (123 in 1999) for sixth most.