:) Saturday recap

On the same night that the 1st overall pick of 2010 made his big-league debut, the 68th pick in that draft, Drew Smyly, earned his first win by holding the Yankees to 1 run on 2 hits in 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts.

Smyly, who logged just 128 IP in the minors, has begun his MLB career with 4 straight starts allowing 1 run. Since 1918, only Fernando Valenzuela has a longer streak of starts allowing 1 run or less from the start of his career. Fernando went 7 straight in 1981, with 5 shutouts. (His 10 games in 1980 were all in relief.) Smyly is the eighth pitcher and first Tiger to reach 4 straight.

  • For the second straight start, Freddy Garcia didn’t survive the 2nd inning, allowing 6 runs. He had just 4 such starts in his career before this year.

— Boston’s still in last place, but they’ve reached .500 for the first time this year. They had scored 44 runs in the first 5 games of their win streak, but Jon Lester kept the White Sox off the board for 7 IP and Ryan Sweeney scored the game’s only run after a leadoff double in the 4th. He’s now hitting .391 (25-64), without a HR but with eleven doubles and a triple. The last four 1-0 games between the Sox have all gone Red.

  • Jake Peavy followed up his 3-hit shutout with a CG 4-hit loss. It’s the first consecutive CGs this year by any pitcher, and the first ever for the former CYA winner. Peavy’s 37.2 IP over 5 starts ranks 2nd in MLB; he hasn’t topped 112 IP since 2008.

Erik Bedard finally got his first NL win after 4 losses, allowing a run over 5 IP. Pedro Alvarez had 2 doubles and his third 2-hit game in the past 6, after starting the year 2 for 30.

Kyle Lohse gave up his first 2 HRs in his 5th start, but both were solo shots, allowing him to set a personal best with his 9th straight Quality Start, dating to last year. Yadier Molina paced the Cardinal attack with 4-2-4-2 and his 4th HR, pushing his OPS up to 1.000.

— The Angels had their 6th straight game scoring 3 runs or less, but they still beat Cleveland 2-1 behind Dan Haren, ending a 5-game slide. Scott Downs got the save, a day after the team announced that Jordan Waldenwould no longer be the closer.

  • Downs has been one of the best relievers in baseball over the last 5 years; his 196 ERA+ ranks 4th among the 127 relievers with at least 200 IP in that span, and 2nd in WPA among non-closers.

Albert Pujols (4-0-1-0) set new personal lows with:

  • his 27th straight game without a HR (dating t0 last year);
  • his 12th straight game without an RBI; and
  • his 8th straight with negative WPA.

He’s also gone 8 straight games without an extra-base hit (his record is 12) and 8 straight with 1 hit or less (his record is 11).

You may remember Pujols starting slowly last year. But there’s no comparing the two seasons. After 21 games last year, his slash line went .250/.309/.512, with 7 HRs and 17 RBI. This year, he’s at .226/.278/.310, with no HRs and 4 RBI.

— Albert’s not the only premier 1B to have a power outage after signing a giant contract this spring: Joey Votto has gone 19 games without a HR, one shy of his longest streak. The good news for Cincy was 7 scoreless innings by Johnny Cueto, lowering his ERA to 1.39 through 5 starts.

Brandon Morrow had his first HR-free game this year, fanning 9 without a walk over 6 scoreless innings. Morrow began this year with a career average of 10.1 SO/9, but had just 12 Ks in his first 4 starts — the first time he’d ever gone more than 2 games without topping 4 Ks.

— Baltimore has 13 wins after 21 games for just the second time in the last 15 years.

— How long ’til the playoffs start? The 16-5 Rangers have outscored their opponents 118-62. They’ve outscored their foes in in all seven series to date, and have yet to lose two straight games or more than one game in a series. Three of their five losses have been by one run. They’re 8-1 on the road. The only time they were held under 2 runs, they won.

— Arizona scored 2 in the first, but Miami got singletons in the 7th, 8th and 9th. Anibal Sanchez had the year’s high game with 14 strikeouts, also a career high. He allowed no hits after the 1st, and retired his last 18 batters before leaving for a pinch-hitter. That was Omar Infante, whose triple began the comeback; he’s now slugging .764. Randy Choate extended his season-long hitless streak to 9 games (5.2 IP).

— Tim Lincecum’s first Quality Start of the year got the Giants back over .500. Lincecum has a 1.96 ERA in 19 starts against the Padres.

— After 22 career starts, Stephen Strasburg has a 2.18 ERA, 10.9 SO/9 and a SO/BB ratio of exactly 6. On the other hand, Matt Kemp is on another planet, orbiting a sun far larger than our own. In fact, the sun may be orbiting him.

Erik Bedard finally got his first NL win after 4 losses, allowing a run over 5 IP. Pedro Alvarez had 2 doubles and his third 2-hit game in the past 6, after starting the year 2 for 30.

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Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
11 years ago

I know it is silly and “bush league,” but I am still waiting to see an outfielder try to throw his glove at a ball sailing over the fence. You throw your glove it is an automatic triple, which is better than walk-off home run. I’d bet that Rick Ankiel could hit a flying ball with his glove.

And tell you what, Bryce Harper will have a memory of an Amazing first game in the Show, both his performance and the Show itself.

Nadig
Nadig
11 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

Unfortunately, the umpire would rule it a home run in that situation:

7.05 Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out, advance—
(a) To home base, scoring a run, if a fair ball goes out of the playing field in flight and he touched all bases legally; or if a fair ball which, in the umpire’s judgment, would have gone out of the playing field in flight, is deflected by the act of a fielder in throwing his glove, cap, or any article of his apparel;

Evil Squirrel
11 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

I’ve seen the “thrown glove” trick used by the designated shaggers during batting practice many, many, many times over the years. I have yet to see any instance in which the thrown glove actually made contact with the ball (outside of Bugs Bunny cartoons)…

Mike L
Mike L
11 years ago
Reply to  Evil Squirrel

Evil-excellent Bugs Bunny reference. How could anyone be a Gashouse Gorilla fan?

Ben
Ben
11 years ago
Reply to  Evil Squirrel

I saw Joba Chamberlain do it in right field during BP at a Yankees/Angels game a couple years ago. everyone out there flipped out.

Neil L.
Neil L.
11 years ago

“You may remember Pujols starting slowly last year. But there’s no comparing the two seasons. After 21 games last year, his slash line went .250/.309/.512, with 7 HRs and 17 RBI. This year, he’s at .226/.278/.310, with no HRs and 4 RBI.” Your comment about Albert Pujol’s slow start gives me a chance to complain about Jose Bautista losing his batting stroke and eye. Which is more concerning to their respective fans? Pujols’ .226/.278/.310 no HR and 4 RBI or Bautista’s .187/.337/.333 3 HR and 10 RBI Add to Bautista’s horrible line his very poor second half last year and… Read more »

Michael Sullivan
Michael Sullivan
11 years ago

it’s interesting, looking at Harper’s minor’s state, he seems just solid/average in his AA and AAA stints. admittedly both very short — does he get the callup now just because it didn’t take him long to adjust to either? The only place he really creamed it was in A ball.

Tristram12
Tristram12
11 years ago

Listening to the GM (Rizzo?), it was more about the team needing a better hitting option in LF, and Harper was the best available. The other piece that is missing from the ‘official’ stats record is the Arizona Fall League, where he tore it up last year, against much older competition.

bstar
11 years ago
Reply to  Tristram12

Indeed this was more about need than anything else. The Nats’ two primary leftfielders this year, Xavier Nady and Mark DeRosa, were hitting a combined 5 for 64(.078) with one extra-base hit in their collective 16 starts in LF for the Nats.

brp
brp
11 years ago
Reply to  bstar

When your LF options are both players the Cubs didn’t even want anymore, I can see the desire in calling up a teenager.

birtelcom
Editor
11 years ago

Highest OPS for the Dodgers in the team’s first 21 games (1918-2012) (min. 3.1 PAs per team game):
Matt Kemp (2012) 1.428
Ron Cey (1977) 1.365
Jack Fournier (1925) 1.347
Roy Campanella (1953) 1.280
Wally Moon (1961) 1.264

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago

I’m not sold on Todd Helton going to the HoF. I understand he has the BA and OBP, but he also has a lot of average years after age 30. He doesn’t have a ring and not much done in the playoffs really. Can 5 years as a great first basemen get your ticket punched? That’s 5 years before the humidor.

Lawrence Azrin
Lawrence Azrin
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Helton’s biggest problem is that there are just too many first basemen with similar records in the past few decades. To start, Jason Giambi and Carlos Delgardo are roughly as good, but are not getting a whole lotta HOF love or buzz right now. Fred McGriff has better career numbers (tho probably not a better peak), and he’s only gotten up to 23.9% after three years on the HOF ballot. Frank Thomas and Jim Thome are clearly better and Helton is probably not going to come close to the career totals of those two. That’s not even considering the great… Read more »

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago

Tim McCarver said global warming is causing more home runs.

Evan
Evan
11 years ago
Reply to  Timmy Pea

He seems to think that the air is getting thinner. Perhaps the concern is that Rick Moranis is orbiting the earth in a giant vacuum cleaner sucking the air out of the atmosphere.

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago
Reply to  Evan

I wonder if global warming causes senility?

Mike L
Mike L
11 years ago
Reply to  Timmy Pea

Actually, Timmy Pea, senility causes global warming.

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago

I just heard Elvis Andrus has not made an error in his last 53 games.

Mark in Sydney
Mark in Sydney
11 years ago

Looks like Joey V broke his streak today. Not quite sure what they were thinking throwing a nice juicy one down the middle, but there you go.