Five to forget for Rios
By Gordon Edes, Yahoo! Sports
10 hours, 14 minutes ago

No one would quibble that Randy Johnson deserves props for his 300th victory, but the San Francisco Giants left-hander is one of 24 pitchers to reach that mark. Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios(notes) stands alone for what he did Thursday, and he went all but unnoticed.

Rios struck out in all five of his plate appearances in a 6-5 loss to the Angels in the Rogers Centre. He is not the first player to have done so, of course. Forty-one players since 1954 have whiffed five times in five plate appearances in a nine-inning regular-season game, according to Baseball-Reference.com, the terrific on-line research tool. (Reggie Sanders(notes) is the only player to whiff all five times in a postseason game dating back to 1903; he did so for the Reds in Game 3 of the 1995 division series against the Dodgers).

But here’s where Rios sets himself apart. He is the only player in the last 55 years to have had two nine-inning games in which he whiffed in all five of his plate appearances. Rios had his first five-K game on July 29, 2006. (Two other players, Dick Allen and Andruw Jones(notes), also performed a double 5-K, but they needed extra innings).

Rios also became the first player to whiff five times in five plate appearances in the same game in which another player went five for five, in this case Blue Jays teammate Adam Lind(notes), who tied a club record with eight consecutive hits over two games.

Being fitted again with what is known as the platinum sombrero obviously didn’t set well with Rios, who can be seen on YouTube cursing a heckler after he walked past a child seeking an autograph while out on the town Thursday night.

A review of Rios’ afternoon: He took a called third strike in the first inning on a 92-mph fastball from Angels right-hander John Lackey(notes). And he went down swinging in his final four at-bats: Lackey got him on an 84-mph curve in the fourth, an 82-mph slider in the sixth and an 83-mph slider in the seventh, and Brian Fuentes(notes) whiffed him on a 77-mph slider in the ninth.

In all, Rios faced 22 pitches. None of his at-bats went more than five pitches, and he made contact with just three of them: foul balls in at-bats in the first, seventh and ninth innings.

And here is where it gets a little weird. While this was the first time one player whiffed five times while another went five for five in the same game, I was curious if it had happened on the same day. Turns out it has happened Turns out it has happened four times, and the most recent was Rios’ previous five-K game. While Rios was whiffing five times in Oakland, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski(notes) was going five for five in Baltimore, and Tampa Bay utilityman Tomas Perez(notes) was doing the same in Yankee Stadium.

And yes, five-K games are increasing in frequency. Between 1954 and 1970, only five players struck out in all five plate appearances in a nine-inning game. It has happened eight times since the start of the 2006 season.

One last Rios whiff note: He also struck out in his last two at-bats Wednesday, giving him seven straight Ks and prompting this observation from Toronto manager Cito Gaston on how overmatched he was by the Angels: “They’ll call him on his cell, that’s how much they had his number.”