Sorry, West Coast fans, but I won’t get to those games tonight as well as some others.
Nationals 7, @Braves 4: First meeting of the year between Washington and host Atlanta, and the series winner will take away at least a share of first place. The Braves had fallen off the perch by losing 5 of 6, averaging 2 runs and 5.5 hits per game while going 2 for 22 with RISP. Tonight, the visitors jumped out with 4 in the 1st, but Tim Hudson tightened and Atlanta chipped it down to 1. Then with 2 gone in the top of the 7th, it all went south for the Braves.
Chien-Ming Wang, coming out of the pen in his first appearance this year, batted with the bases empty and drew Huddy’s first walk of the night. Wang might have scored on Steve Lombardozzi‘s double, but Hank Steinbrenner put up the stop sign. No matter; after a 4-pitch walk to Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman cracked the game open again with a 3-run double.
- Wang got the win, allowing a run of his own (and 2 inherited) in 3 innings of relief.
- Tyler Clippard worked a clean 9th and has earned the Nats’ last 2 saves, giving him 3 for his career.
- Washington split the season series with Atlanta last year, including 2 wins that started the Braves’ fatal 5-game slide out of the playoff picture.
@Mets 6, Padres 1: He gave up the first run as usual, but Dillon Gee rallied with a career-high 9 Ks in 7 IP and chipped in a double (his first hit of the year) and the go-ahead run. The Mets mostly bunched their 8 hits into a pair of scoring thrusts, including a 2-out, 3-run rally in the 5th that closed out the scoring.
- Hit sign, win sandwich? Lucas Duda hums: “Four … Four hundred … Four hundred foot-long….”
- Mike Baxter made this nice grab at the wall in the 1st inning to start a DP, then laced a go-ahead double in the 3rd — his 10th extra-base hit out of 19 hits. Baxter, who grew up just a Whitestone’s throw away from Shea, is hitting .352/.975, with 12 runs and 9 RBI in 62 PAs. He’s still a rookie at 27; he and the trieuw freshman Kirk Nieuwenhuis have bulwarked the Mets outfield through the injuries and slumps of Jason Bay and Andres Torres.
Rays 7, @Red Sox 4: A grand slam by Matt Joyce was his 4th in 44 chances, but just the 2nd ever allowed by Jon Lester (though hitters have otherwise hit him pretty well with the sacks full). Joyce’s career OPS was just .609 against southpaws, .884 against righties. After a strong first start, recent call-up Alex Cobb labored through 5 IP (4 walks, 51 strikes & 45 balls) but allowed just 2 runs, and the late-inning crew kept Boston off the board for the last 3 frames. Fernando Rodney set down the top of the order and picked up his 15th save in the team’s 46th game, matching the fastest start in club history (Roberto Hernandez, 1999); his 0.72 WHIP is tops among closers.
- In 3 games batting leadoff, Carlos Pena has reached base 8 of 16 times, scored 5 runs, hit 2 HRs and driven in 4. Tampa has scored 20 runs and won all 3.
- The Rays have started 7 different cleanup hitters — 4 more than the rest of the AL average — yet they’re above average at that spot in BA, OBP and OPS.
- A BoSox highlight was work of Scott Atchison, who came on after Lester dug a 7-1 hole and kept the Rays at bay for 3 innings to let the bats make a game of it. He’s allowed just 3 runs in 27 IP for the best ERA of any pitcher with 25+ IP.
- Sorry, but the Play Index doesn’t cover brawls.
@Rangers 14, Blue Jays 3: There are now 6 batter games of 8+ RBI in Texas Rangers history, and only Nelson Cruz has two — both against Toronto. Cruz had a 3-run double in the 6-run 1st and ended the onslaught with his 4th grand slam, to finish 1 shy of the club RBI record set by Ivan Rodriguez. Handed a big lead, Derek Holland threw strikes (75 of 105) and finished with 9 Ks and 1 walk in 7.1 IP.
- Not to be a party pooper, but 25 of Cruz’s 31 RBI have come when Texas scored 10+ runs; his season WPA before tonight was -0.50, one of the worst in the majors.
- Coming off a shutout of the Mets, Brandon Morrow didn’t survive the 1st. He walked the first 2 batters, then gave up 5 hits and 6 runs in the shortest start of his career. In his 5 wins (including 2 shutouts this month), Morrow issued 6 walks in 36.2 IP; in his other 5 games, 14 walks in 25.2 IP.
- Josh Hamilton snapped his 11-game HR drought.
- Here’s a shock: Even with this game, Texas has been more potent on the road this year, averaging 5.9 R/G compared to 5.2 at home.
@Orioles 8, Royals 2: Twenty straight days in first for the 29-17 O’s. They went 6 for 10 with RISP, 5 of those in the 5th when they scored 5 off Bruce Chen to bust the game open.
- Baltimore’s OPS against righties is just average, but they’re near the top of the league against southpaws.
- In 3 years starting for Colorado, Jason Hammel (tonight: 6 scoreless, 7 Ks) averaged 6.3 SO/9. Facing DHes and tougher competition in the AL East this year, he’s now averaged 8.7 SO/9 through 9 starts. If Denver’s high-and-dry conditions affected his K rate, you can’t tell it from his career splits.
- The Matt Wieters free-fall continues: Two weeks ago, he was at .300/.961. In 14 games since, he’s 5 for 50, dropping to .233/.773.
@Marlins 7, Giants 6: San Fran out-hit Miami 14-7, but the hosts won the battle of walks and HRs, dropping Tim Linecum (6 ER in 5.2 IP) to 2-5, 6.41.
- Giancarlo keeps finding interesting things to bounce a ball off of.
- Biggest blow was a tiebreaking 3-run HR (on a big-time hanger) by 2009 Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan, recently back from the minors. He’s now 6 for 50.
- Am I reading this right? Lincecum has one quality start in 10 games this year?
- Melky hit his 3rd HR and 6th triple. He had 5 triples all last year, and his career high is 8.
Phillies @Cardinals: Big win for the Phils, who got back over .500 with their second straight hard-earned win over the Redbirds. Cliff Lee walked 3 (he came in with 5 walks in 44 IP), but none figured in the scoring. In the 7th, Lee singled leading off (he’s 6 for 16), then scored the tying run from there on a double by Juan Pierre (I kid you not!), his 4th extra-base hit out of 40 safeties.
- The last player with 100+ hits and at least 90% of them singles was Otis Nixon, 1998.
- I’ll admit, I have no idea what they said — but this doesn’t look good. It probably had something to do with this play. Maybe Cliff is a little frustrated at being winless in 7 starts.
@Pirates 1, Cubs 0: Five pitchers combined on a 10-hitter — one hit for each game in Chicago’s 10 game losing streak, longest in the NL this year. The Cubbies went hitless in 12 tries with RISP. A.J. Burnett has allowed 6 runs in his last 4 starts, 27.1 IP, with 22 Ks against 6 walks. Pittsburgh has won 5 of his 7 starts, and if he could have a mulligan on his one disaster start (12 R in 2.2 IP), his ERA would drop from 4.19 to 1.79.
- Meanwhile, it’s not funny any more for Ryan Dempster (7.1 IP, 7 Ks, 1 BB), who’s now 0-3, 2.19 in 8 starts. This was his 6th start of 6+ IP and 2 runs or less, in which he’s 0-2 with 4 no-decisions. In all other MLB starts meeting those criteria, the SP has won 60% of the games and lost 10%.
- The Cubs know from losing, but they hadn’t lost 10 straight since 1996, when Amazing Grace and Ryno still closed off the right side and Sosa was just another Sam. No other NL team has lost more than 6 in a row this year.
- That’s 13 games since the last walk by Starlin Castro, which is just the 4th-longest streak of his career. With 58 hits and 4 walks, he’s on pace for 209 hits and 14 walks. No batter has ever had 200+ hits with less than 15 walks.
- Pittsburgh has played 21 one-run games out of 45, winning 12. Their bullpen still leads the NL with a 2.41 ERA.
Tigers 10, @Twins 6 (7th): Before tonight, 11 of the first 14 runs off Tigers rookie Drew Smyly had come on 7 HRs. Opponents were 3 for 20 with RISP, and 0 for 8 with 2+ men aboard. Among all first-years, he’s second to Yu Darvish in total strikeouts and SO/9 (44 Ks in 43.2 IP), and first in SO/BB ratio (3.38).
__________
Random notes:
It’s sad, but there can be no more doubt: Ichiro is slowing down, literally and figuratively:
- SB attempts as a percentage of opportunities: 2001 through 2011 — 13.6% // 2012, 9.7%
(On pace for 24 SB attempts, 11 fewer than his previous low and about half his career average.) - Reaching on error: 2001-11 — averaged 10 ROE per year (including 11 last year) // 2012 — zero
- BA with RISP: 2001-11 — .333 // 2012 — .170 (8 for 47)
The Mariners are last in the AL with 16 RBI from the #3 spot in the order; the other teams average 27.
That’s a lotta whitewash: Updating the Angels’ shutout pace: 7 shutouts for, 8 against; both are more than any other team. On pace to be involved in 53 shutouts (25 for, 28 against). In the AL/DH era, the most shutouts thrown was 20 by the 1989 A’s & Angels; the most allowed was 21 by the 1973 Yanks & ChiSox.
Through Thursday, there have been:
- Just 2 games in which both teams scored in double figures. That’s 1/4 the average for 1996-2005 through the same number of team games.
- 26 batter games of 3+ extra base hits. The 1996-2005 average for the same period was 46.
Searching for another Met with an early-season performance similar to what David Wright has done so far. I think the closest is John Olerud in 1999 (surprisingly, that’s the year after he set the Mets BA record at .354). Here are their numbers through 41 player games; if you look past the BA, the rest is uncanny:
- Wright, .405 BA/.500 OBP/.628 SLG/1.128 OPS/16 doubles/1 triple/5 HRs/28 RBI
- Olerud, .346 BA/.503 OBP/.624 SLG/1.127 OPS/16 doubles/0 triples/7 HRs/28 RBI
Leftover notes from Wednesday:
Boston scored a run off both Luis Ayala and Darren O’Day. There have been 26 games in which Baltimore used at least 2 of their 4 top relievers (Ayala, O’Day, Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson. This was just the 2nd game in which two of them were scored upon, and the 4th in which the group was charged with 2 or more runs in total.
In 2006, Nick Johnson had three 2-HR games in a span of 6 weeks. His next one came 6 years later.
Scott Podsednik had a HR, a sac bunt and a GIDP — first time this year for that particular odd combination, which happens 2-3 times in an average year. (Last year it was Howie Kendrick and Roger Bernadina.) Shane Victorino‘s HR/SH/2B combo happens about 5 times a year. Just one player this century had all of the above in one game — HR, 2B, SH, GIDP — and he did it while tossing a 4-hit shutout.
Through 1986, just 40 players from Venezuela had played in the majors. Since 1987, 235 more have made the Show; 64 have played in the majors this year alone.
NL ERA split by role: Starters, 3.80; Relievers, 3.82. In the “closer era,” NL relievers are typically 0.3 to 0.6 runs below the starters, though there have been scattered years where the gap was smaller.
I continue to be fascinated by the repeated chances given to Andrew Miller, the 6′ 7″ southpaw who seems unlikely to develop enough control to be effective for long. He’s 27 now, has averaged 5.3 BB/9 in his big-league career, and 5.1 in the minors, and doesn’t get nearly enough whiffs to justify that walk rate. Before being called up this year, he tossed 11 innings at AAA, with a dazzling 23 strikeouts and just 4 hits — but an equally amazing 14 walks, and thus a 5.73 ERA. His results with Boston have been very good so far — 8.2 IP, 2 walks, 2 runs, 11 Ks. It won’t last, but I suppose the Sox are just happy to get anything out of him.
John, excellent summary as usual, and I know you didn’t use the common baseball locution I’m going to refer to below, but when Cliff Lee batted in the seventh the announcers did, and I have on numerous occasions. It had to be the 34,852nd time in my life that I’ve heard it, but it was the first time that it really struck me. I am speaking of the phrase “bat/hit for himself,” which of course is often employed in the context of a pitcher or good field-no hit shortstop taking his scheduled at-bat in the late innings of a close game in lieu of being replaced by a pinch hitter. I mean, when you think about it, huh? What’s up with this?
I think we can all agree that, taken literally, the phrase is nonsense. I mean, we don’t say that the pitcher/GFNH SS fields for himself or, in his normal daily life, shaves for himself or walks the dog for himself. So it forces us to fall back on metaphor. Can it be that the pitcher/GFNH SS normally bats “for” his girlfriend, or his kids, or the organist, or a groundskeeper biting on a candy bar in the bullpen, or Young Reg Dwight sitting in the 22nd row (yes, I’m well aware young Reg / later-to-be Elton John was actually sitting in row two-two of a movie theater in Merry Ole scoping on Marilyn and not of some NYC ballpark like those Boomer blowhards Billy Crystal or Bob Costas watching – cue jingle – Willie, Mickey and the Duke, but you catch my drift and, besides, in a case like this you gotta prefer the lyrical to the literal, and the whole thing is probably just a made-up fantasy of Bernie Taupin’s anyway) in the sense that Jesus died “for” our sins or those C-level local celebrities back in ’60s game shows spun the prize wheel “for” a housewife at home so she could win a toaster oven, and that he only does it “for himself” – in the sense that, say, a mother of five who cooks and cleans and irons and does the dishes and the laundry and the shopping all day long might join a book club “for herself,” i.e., to maintain her sanity and an image of herself as an autonomous human being after all that tedious, family-focused work, or that, say, a writer who produces a lot of crap copy for high-paying clients might take a break during his day to craft something humorous and unconstrained by convention “for himself,” i.e., for yuks and to prevent himself from hauling off and hitting said clients – on certain occasions, like the late innings of close ballgames? I’m dubious to say the least. Though I’m not ruling out that it could be semi-true of Carlos Zambrano.
Plus it doesn’t work in the metaphorical sense of “going to bat for someone/oneself” – i.e., championing someone/oneself to someone else in hopes of achieving some goal, as dedicated attorneys go to bat for their clients or Dick Cheney goes to bat for the oil industry.
(Pitcher, pondering: “I’ve been getting some pretty iffy calls from the ump, and my manager and catcher ain’t said a darn thing about ’em. Maybe when I go to bat I’ll go to bat for myself.” Again, I’m not buying it, even though this may in fact occur, and not only with Zambrano.)
Could the phrase have some metaphysical spin to it that we mere baseball fans are too crude to cotton to, hint at something beyond the abilities of our coarse antennae to register? I’m no Wittgenstein but, nuh-uh, I’m inclined to doubt that too.
Nope, the plain fact of the matter is that the locution doesn’t make a lick of sense, literally, metaphorically, metaphysically, however you slice it. Said pitcher/GFNH SS is just stepping to the plate as his position in the batting order dictates instead of being replaced by a pinch hitter. He is simply taking the AB, according to the prescribed rules and protocols of baseball, rather than yielding to someone else and letting him do it in his stead. And we’ve all been a bunch of morons all this time for saying that he is “batting for himself.” The joke is on us.
tag, If you want to avoid cliches, you’re going to have to stop using them. As soon as I saw Dick Cheney follow Billy Crystal I thought, uh-oh, now here comes Wittgenstein. And sure enough . . .
The point, e pluribus, which admittedly was made long-windedly and humorously, is not that the phrase is a cliche. It’s that it makes zero sense. I realize I am slow on the uptake quite often, but it only dawned on me, after many many years, when a friend who speaks English as his third language and has recently become interested in baseball asked me to explain it to him, and in doing so I realized that it is nonsensical.
And had I written Heidegger, whose critique of traditional metaphysics I still haven’t wrapped my head around, and which in fact I originally did write, would you have deduced that as well? 🙂
Oh, no. Linking Cheney and Heidegger goes beyond cliche to banality. Not what I’d anticipate from you, tag.
Seriously, I did get your point, and I hadn’t thought of it before. Shows what can happen when someone thinks for himself.
Yes, perfect, e pluribus. We all need to think “for ourselves” more often. Really, the post was just meant to point out what an idiot I am – parroting a phrase for years that is itself idiotic, without thinking about what I’m saying.
e pluribus, you might be missing the point. the above rant was, in fact, David Foster Wallace’s missing suicide note.
Kudos to Voomo for (almost) identifying the style. It’s actually modeled on Lester Bangs, who also influenced DFW highly (and, also, sadly, committed suicide). Thus the reference to Elton John, whom Lester hated. He also hated baseball and every other sport. It can be – and has been – argued that his is the voice of the internet, and so I employ it (badly in e pluribus’ opinion) in posts to do the occasional rant. It’s been 30 years since the great man walked this earth. I miss him more than ever.
tag, I wasn’t dissing your style – I thought it was witty enough to draw attention to. I laughed when Ludwig walked in. Sorry to have come off as negative.
Does Bruce Wayne go to Bat for himself? Discuss.
Excellent, John, awesome. And I think the answer depends on which movie you watch. In the dark, brooding first two Tim Burton flicks, I think you can definitely argue he does it “for himself” – to expunge personal demons and give free reign to his obsessive psychological need for revenge. In some of the later ones, he seems more to go to Bat “for” Gotham – the city is simply out of control and someone’s gotta tidy the place up. I think Bale strikes a nice balance – you can argue either way.
If a batter lays down a SH, or “takes one for the team” (a HBP), is he NOT batting for himself? How about good ol’ Rickey Henderson and his third-person references? Was Rickey always batting for Rickey?
Yes, Shping, you make a very good point. So when the pitcher / GFNH SS goes to bat in the seventh, down by one with no outs and runners at first and second, we / the announcers should say, he’ll bat “for the team.” Though come contract time, wouldn’t some GM conversely and perversely argue to the pitcher’s agent that he was in fact batting “for himself” – since his sacrifice advanced his chances of the two runs scoring and him getting a W – i.e., a fatter contract?
As for Rickey, the great thing about him is that he was beyond good and evil, grammar, metaphysics, you name it.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Bloggy Award for Most Entertaining Thread That I Don’t Quite Follow But Dig Nonetheless.
Condolences to Timmy Pea & Friends, who ran a close second. 🙂
To take this more seriously than perhaps was intended. I think this phrase is an example of a back formation. If Smith PH for pitcher/BHGFMI Jones we would say that “Smith goes to bat for Jones.” From this came the form you are speaking of. When Jones stays in the game and bats in a situation where we might think there could be a PH we use the illogical variation, “goes to bat for himself.” The common usage outside baseball, “Cheney bats for oil”, is a metaphoric use, and illustrates the great influence of baseball on our culture through our language.
Yes, kds, this was not very seriously intended, but I think your explanation is right. The weird thing is that illogical locutions – e.g., self-addressed stamped envelope – usually come about because they make things easier for speakers. But in this case we’re actually adding an unnecessary word. All we want to say is that the pitcher / GFNH SS is batting himself, instead of giving way to a PH. Adding the “for” is ridiculous and, to me, hilarious.
I would make a joke about redundant words, but I’m trying to remember my PIN number for the ATM machine.
BTW, the firm I work for has a network document management system, and when someone wants to work on a document that another person has opened, they ask the other to “close out of the document.” I keep trying to close into one, just to see if the universe would collapse on itself.
I hear that “close out of” probably a dozen times a day. I feel your pain, John.
In Seattle’s game tonight, Pujols had a 3-run jack in the 6th with the Halos trailing 4-0. It was his second HR in as many nights, 3rd in his last 4 games, and 5th in his last 10.
The Angels completed the comeback with 3 runs in the 9th as Brandon League was roughed up for the 3rd time in his last 4 appearances. The key play came after a leadoff hit and a walk – Erick Aybar attempted to sacrifice the runners over but his bunt was hard and right back to the mound. League had a play at 3rd, but threw it away allowing the tying run to score. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Howie Kendrick delivered a 2-RBI pinch-hit single on a first pitch rocket into center field.
Nick Johnson, career .400 obp.
Exhibit A that occasionally the sabermetrics community can be just as deluded as everyone else
Eh? “Deluded” in regard to what, exactly?
Excessively enamored.
Developing a man crush.
Overvaluing a players worth in the real world.
And yes, I understand that if he could have stayed healthy he may likely have been an outstanding player. But long after it became evident to most, some (and I should have used that word in my post above) still overvalued the extent of what his contribution was likely to be.
Would I have taken a flyer on him if I were a GM on a potential contender with a shoe-string budget? I don’t think I would have but of course it all depends on other factors as well. Might I have signed him as a plan B alternative on a team with a larger payroll, then yeah, maybe.
JA, I assume you’d approve of Ozzie Guillen’s postgame comments regarding the possibility of intentionally walking Melky with two outs and a man on second in the ninth:
“I ain’t walking the go-ahead run. I don’t care what people say. All of a sudden you walk the go-ahead run, [on] a ball in the gap he will score to win. You hit a home run, good for you. I mean, what’s the chance? You got more of a chance to hit the ball in the gap. The guy behind him is not Ozzie Guillen. That guy behind him [Posey] can hit the ball out of the park and can hit the ball in the gap.”
RJ, thanks for that wonderful example of Ozzitude. It’s good to know that his distaste for walks is applied consistently.
“The guy behind him is not Ozzie Guillen. — Now I’m dying to hear his reaction to a similar situation in which the guy at bat with a base open is “Ozzie Guillen”.
Ozzie can be crazy, but he’s never dull and is often quite thought-provoking.
I watched that game. One of the Giants announcers, either Krukow or Fleming (both pitchers), said, after the count went to 3-1 and it was clear that they were going to keep coming after Melky
“I’m really surprised they’re going to throw this pitch.”
Wicked side-arm frisbee ball, strike two.
Wicked side-arm frisbee ball, strike three.
Melky didn’t take the wood off his shoulder during the at bat.
And he really has been in the zone. The previous at bats he tripled and homered. The homer was one of those down-the-line laser beams that ALWAYS curve foul. This one didn’t curve. Doing! Off the Foul pole in about 1.3 seconds.
Look for this Cishek guy to take over Gorda Bell’s closer job.
Bell was snorting and twitching like a bull, and throwing straight balls right down the middle before he got yanked.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cishest01.shtml
Thanks for the color commentary, Voomo.
One thing Cishek has going for him: The lowest HR rate of any active pitcher with 50+ IP. The only HR off him in 80 career IP was hit by Josh Hamilton last year.
One correction – it was Krukow and Kuiper, not Fleming.
I realized that watching the pre-game on espn this morning as they showed their faces. Kuiper has this deep, deep voice that doesn’t seem like it should come out of an old-school 2nd baseman’s body… except that he’s actually a big guy – just looks tiny next to Krukow.
4 hits today, including another laser homer, two steals, and great D out of Melky.
Not to mention he scored each of the Giants 3 runs in a one-run victory. Matt Cain is only two wins away from having a winning career record!
Since 1918, Cruz and Josh Hamilton are just the 6th teammates to have an 8 RBI game in the same season. This doesn’t include Lou Gehrig in 1930 and Jim Spencer in 1977 who both had two in the same season.
… proving that, just as no man can “bat for himself,” no man can team up with himself, either.
The other 5 sets of teammates:
Ted Williams-Rudy York 1946
Gus Bell-Smoky Burgess 1955
Lee Thomas-Leon Wagner 1961
Willie Mays-Orlando Cepeda 1961
Eric Chavez-Miguel Tejada 2001
How about those cheeky Astros? Unjustly ignored in this space during their 4-game win streak that has them on the very brink of .500! And with the NL’s 5th-best run differential to back it up. El Caballo among the MLB top 20 in WPA, partly by staying out of the DP — just 1 in 25 chances. Their bullpen is 3rd in NL ERA, 2nd in WHIP and SO/BB.
Now to get the home fans’ attention. Houston is next-to-last in NL attendance, even though they’re 16-10 at home.
– MIL 7, ARI 1: First meeting of these 2011 NLDS foes finds both several games under .500 … Yovani has produced a Strong Start (6+ IP, 2 runs or less in this category that I made up) in 7 of 10 games, but ERA is over 4 due to 2 disasters … Now that his arm is in form, he can get to work in the cage — 1 for 20, Yovani?
– CHW 9, CLE 3: ChiSox win 7th in 8 games in the debut start of Jose Quintana (4th pitcher ever from Colombia) … 19 HRs in the 7 wins … first-ever HR/3B game for A.J. Pierzynski; now he needs a HR/SB game like Shelley Duncan just got.
– NYY 6, OAK 3: Yanks have four streaks of 3+ wins and the same for losses … They have more HRs in the Bronx, but their OPS and R/G is higher away … Four straight saves for Rafael Soriano, who hasn’t blown a lead all year … Is it too soon to talk about Jeter’s slump? — .240/.554 in his last 18 games, with just 5 runs.
– LAA 7, SEA 4: First 4-game win streak for the Halos … B-League has blown 4 save tries, allowing 2+ runs and taking the loss each time; walked the first man in 3 of the 4 BS, with 8 BB total out of 28 BF in those 4 games … Hey, I didn’t know that Izzy’s still around!
Does anyone know why American League teams are doing so well on the road? Eight of the fourteen teams have better road than home records. The league as a whole is 169-154 (.523 WL%) on the road. Last year the record was .470. It seems as if it has been a complete reversal of the script. In the NL, teams are only 168-194 on the road (.464 WL%), and only three teams are better on the road than at home.
Some of that is the result of inter-league play. The AL was 16-8 on the road, 8-10 at home. That leaves the AL in intra-league games with a negative HFA, unexpected and almost certain to disappear by the end of the season.
In general, announcers in any sport make the game horrible to watch. As much as baseball can be long, tedious, drawn-out, and boring (especially Yankee-Red Sox games that take 3 hours and 51 minutes to play a 5-3 9 inning game), I LOVE being AT the ballpark for those, since you don’t have to listen to the morons behind the microphone (with all due respect to guys like Vin Scully, Jon Miller, and a few others. Mostly the “color” guys I am referring to).
I think the all-time line from a color guy, and probably the one who anyone can use to trace back the EXACT moment of “color man” ineptitude, was the line used week after week…often numerous times in the same game…by Joe Garagiola when he used to team with Curt Gowdy on the NBC Game Of The Week….
(Referring to the pitcher)…”Here is his pitch of decision, he wants to make it happen here on 2-and-2, he doesn’t want to go to 3-and-2 on this guy”.