Tuesday game notes (caught-on-the-fly edition)

I’m just gonna toss stuff up on the fly here, for whatever it’s worth.

Orioles 1, @Rays 0: The game’s lone run scored when Chris Davis extended his HR streak to 6 games, tying a franchise record set in July 1976 by Reggie JacksonMiguel Gonzalez kept Tampa off the board into the 7th, allowing 2 hits in his 3rd straight win and 4th straight Quality Start. But will it pull them even? Things are happening awfully fast up in the Bronx.

  • “Hello, my name is…”: Big Game James Shields went the route, allowing 2 hits and no walks, with 15 Ks in just 106 pitches. His 94 Game Score is the highest in a loss since 1980-08-10, when Steve McCatty went 14 IP to lose 2-1. It’s also a franchise record Game Score, breaking the mark of 93 shared by Shields (twice) and Ryan Rupe. And it breaks David Price‘s club record of 14 strikeouts, set last August (in just 7 IP). Finally, it’s the second 15-K loss in the bigs this year.
  • Baltimore’s other 1-0 win this year was also at Tampa’s expense and pitted Gonzalez against Price, both gone before the O’s won it in (what else?) extra innings.
  • It’s the 3rd win in MLB this year with 2 hits or less, the others both happening on 2012-06-27. Baltimore’s last win with 2 hits or less was 1996-09-21 (you’re gonna love that box score).
  • Last time that both teams had 2 hits or less: 2011-07-09. (Rubby!”)

@Yankees 4, Red Sox 3 (12): Update — Dang, wasn’t it roughly yesterday that Ibanez logged the highest WPA game this year by anyone who came in as a PH? The magic number is down to one.

  • The words “taking advantage of the short porch in right” had barely escaped Coney’s lips before Raul did just that. And later, against a lefty, he did this.
  • No-win situation for the BoSox — beating the hated Yanks would aid the team that took their lunch money last fall.
  • No redemption after all for Teix, who made the first out of the 12th to finish at 0-6.
  • After wasting more scoring chances than the number of Derek Jeter’s club records, New York finally tied it in the 9th on a 2-run pinch-HR by Raul Ibanez, his 19th HR and 14th at home. But Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano couldn’t bring the winning run home starting with 1 out, and so the teams played on….
  • The Bombers lead the AL with 6 pinch-hit HRs.
  • Just a hunch, and he may get another chance, but … Teix may have amassed the worst game WPA by a Yankee this year; and if there was a way to compound it for the seasonal importance of the game, he’d have it hands-down. His 4 ABs so far: Yanks down 2-0, 2 on, 1 out — GDP. Down 2-1, 3rd-and-1st, 1 out — GDP. Down 2-1, 2 on, 2 out — groundout. Leading off the 8th — foulout. Tied in the home 9th, bags full, 1 out — popout. (Put the Bob Marley on your headphones, Teix: “Redemption … redemption songs.”)

@Athletics 3, Rangers 1 (5th): In case you haven’t heard, Oakland is just 29-29 in games started by a southpaw. And Matt Harrison came in with a career 6-1 mark against them. But never underestimate the defensive adventure that is Nelson Cruz, or the ability of Jonny Gomes to take southpaws deep.

Reds 3, @Cardinals 1: The door was left open….

Giants 4, @Dodgers 1 (6th): … but can the Dodgers get a foot in? Or will they be eliminated by Barry Zito, looking to win his 5th straight start? (Not to make light of the Buster & Marco Show.)

____________________

Astros 3, @Cubs 0: Are you kidding me? I thought I was just futzin’ around early this evening when I looked up consecutive shutouts in Wrigley!

  • Houston’s 3rd straight shutout ties the franchise mark set in 1974 and matched in 1986. Do I even need to say that both of those were in the Astrodome?
  • The last time a team failed to score in consecutive Wrigley games was in 2010, but that comes with an asterisk — a 9-game road trip intervened. The last truly back-to-back shutouts at 1060 West Addison came in 2006, Cubs over the Nats. The last time the Cubs were the victims at home was in 2004, consecutive games but different foes. For the last time one team blanked Chicago in consecutive ivy-bordered games, we go all the way back to 2000.
  • It’s the third shutout trifecta in MLB this year, including SF’s “quad erat demonstrandum” back in June.
  • Looking ahead: The Cubs were last blanked in triplicate in April ’92, by Glavine, Leibrandt & Smoltz, down in Atlanta. (Maddux, still a Cub, didn’t pitch that series, having absorbed a 1-0 loss 2 days before it started.)
  • It seems that no team since at least 1918 has ever stoned the Cubs 3 straight on their turf. There is one searchable case of 3 straight Cubs shutout losses at home, in 1924, split among the Braves and Dodgers. I believe that predates the ivy by 13 years….

@Royals 4, Tigers 2: Cabrera was 2 for 3, now hitting .3307 (205/620). Trout’s 1-3 (so far) has him at .3249 (180/554); a 4-for-4 would get him to .3297, while 5-for-5 would nudge him to .3309, just past Miggy. (Mauer would need … oh, forget it, he’s out.

@Marlins 4, Mets 3 (11): A fittingly drawn-out game, as nobody wasted more of their fans’ time in the 2nd half than these teams.

@Indians 4, White Sox 3: Who doesn’t love a game where a guy who came in to pinch-run gets the winning hit?
____________________
Tyler Thornburg started tonight for Milwaukee, but I encourage you just to type “Thornburg” in the B-R search field. (Or just click here.)
____________________
I already told y’all about Darin Ruf‘s emerging power.
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topper009
topper009
11 years ago

Nori Aoki stole his 30th base tonight, making the Brewers the 13th team since 1901 to have all 3 regular outfielders with 30+ SBs.

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago

Topper, I think you love the Brewers too much.

topper009
topper009
11 years ago
Reply to  Timmy Pea

I just watch all their games and whenever they do anything its never reported anywhere

topper009
topper009
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Its hard to be an opportunist when you are top 10 in the league! (which only Gomez is this year)

bstar
bstar
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

I feel your pain, topper.

Timmy Pea
Timmy Pea
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

That’s great, and I was only kiddin’ you Topper. Dedication to one’s team is a plus, never a minus.

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

Are you talking about the Padres? 😉

RJ
RJ
11 years ago
Reply to  Luis Gomez

Here’s a Padres nugget I stumbled across yesterday Luis: this year’s Giants lead the majors in triples but are dead last in home-runs, thes first team to do this since… last year’s Padres.

Given San Diego’s second-half form, is there hope for a better year in 2013?

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
11 years ago
Reply to  RJ

I really think there is a lot of hope for the Padres next year, RJ. As you know, the Padres´ offense is the team´s Achilles´tendon, but it took a big leap forward this year when unproductive veterans were let go earlier this season (Barttlet, Hudson), when rookies begun to hit like major leaguers (Grandal, Alonso, Forsyte) and when average players became league leaders in offensive categories (Cabrera, Headley). The outfield defense is as good as anyone with Maybin making spectacular catches in center field, Venable and Denorfia, both good defenders. The bullpen featured strong arms that made a great job… Read more »

birtelcom
Editor
11 years ago

No Yankee had had a game with a WPA over .765 in over four years (Johnny Damon in June 2008); now Ibanez appears to have done it twice in less than two weeks.

Fangraphs has Teixeira with a -.618 WPA tonight, which if B-ref’s calculation is comparable would be the worst WPA game by a Yankee since 2003.

Mike L
Mike L
11 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

And that, Birtelcom and my HHS friends, is sabremetric agony and ecstasy.

topper009
topper009
11 years ago

One thing that stuck out to me about that previous Baltimore 2 hit win was seeing Eddie Murray hitting 7. It seems like when obvious HOFers are nearing the end they still get to hit up in the order where they always did. Maybe not but it would seem odd to see Babe Ruth batting 8th even if he was way over the hill. I also noticed Steady Eddie’s salami knocked in Palmeiro and Ripkin (plus Bobby Bonilla and himself) and had me wondering about finding a grand slam where all 4 runs were scored by HOFers? Without looking too… Read more »

topper009
topper009
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

Found one, in this game Yogi Berra hit a grand slam that knocked in Phil Rizzuto, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

On 5-18-26 Tony Lazzeri drove in Combs, Ruth and Gehrig.

Tmckelv
Tmckelv
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

Eddie batted 7th and Ripkin hit 6th. A couple of automatic* Hall of Famers at the back 1/2 of the lineup. *Automatic = we knew they would 1st ballot at the time.

Mark in Sydney
Mark in Sydney
11 years ago

…And the AL West goes into sudden-death (As win 3-1). Who would have guessed it?

(Giants 4-3, bottom of the 8th, with “Blown-save Casilla” stepping up with 1-out, none on, and Hanley stepping up… Be still my quaking heart 😉 )

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
11 years ago

Just learned about the wonderful story of Adam Greenberg.
Though, of all the hundreds of pitchers he could have faced in his return at bat, it had to be a knuckleballer.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121002&content_id=39363856&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Jason Z
11 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

I made sure I was watching the Marlins game. They pinch hit
him to lead off the bottom of the sixth.

It was a great moment. One of those moments when I force my
wife to watch baseball, something she doesn’t often do.

I would love to see him try again this spring. He almost
made the Royals in 07, was one of the final cuts.

tag
tag
11 years ago

John,

Loved the Latin. You rarely see Q.E.D. spelled out.

But I still insist that when you refer to the post-August 1 2012 northside professional Chicago baseball team you write Cubs* or “Cubs” or quasi-Cubs because this is not an MLB-caliber club. This is a mad TheoJed experiment that I hope over the course of the next couple years will prove to have had some method to it.

nightfly
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

You cannot stop Marco Scutaro – you can only hope to contain him.

nightfly
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

If he isn’t he really should be.

There’s a shortstop that’s on my mind…
All the time!

RJ
RJ
11 years ago
Reply to  nightfly

I like to think Scutaro and Brandon Crawford are singing this to each other whilst making double plays.

tag
tag
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

John,

Phil fathered four kids, but I’m thinking one might be estranged or something. He adopted his first wife’s daughter but I’m guessing resentment issues after the divorce here or maybe just plain good taste.

So let’s say three fellow fans. Now maybe he wrote a song about one of the early wives and enough time has passed that she’s gotten sentimental. That would make four aside from you.

Actuarial calculations have me believing his parents are deceased. Siblings? Well, if he has them, not even blood is that thick.

So who, pay tell, is the sixth fan?

tag
tag
11 years ago
Reply to  tag

Bravo. And just to set the record straight: the cuckoo clock is not from Switzerland. Its origins are in the Black Forest, not too far north from where I live.

nightfly
11 years ago
Reply to  tag

Kyle Farnsworth co-opted “Enter Sandman” for a while – not exactly obscure for a closer, but Mariano just owns it now, the way he’s owned the bats of the American League for nearly two decades. This led me to compose a more apt walkup for Farnsworth, back when he was the torment of fragile fanbases:

Enter Kyle
Good bye, smile
His pitch lands
Way off in the grandstands!

Evan
Evan
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

That’s more or less correct. There are some minor differences. 1) The game would have been played on Thursday instead of Friday. 2) The winner of the game will play the team with the best record regardless of division affiliation 3) The stats won’t count toward the regular season (if you don’t think this is relevant consider the possibility of Josh Hamilton hitting a couple of home runs) 4) Tampa would have been eliminated on Sunday (if you subscribe to the theory that that might have affected the way they played the Monday game against Baltimore) Regarding point 2 I… Read more »

nightfly
11 years ago
Reply to  Evan

There could be six 90-win teams in the American League, with none of them coming from the Central Division. I’m rooting quite hard for this to happen.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago

The Indians-White Sox game was sent into extra innings by a bottom of the 9th, pinch hit home run by Travis Hafner, the 200th home run Hafner has hit as a member of the Indians (he also has one as a Ranger). That could very well be the final PA of Hafner’s career. He’s indicated that he wants to play next year but it’s hard to see how there’s a market for a slow, 36 year old, extremely injury prone DH. So…here’s a question….has anyone else ended their career with a pinch hit 9th inning home run? Ted Williams of… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Ed

On 9-23-69 John Miller of the Dodgers hit a PH HR in his last ML at-bat but it came in the 8th inning. A few days later he was announced as a PH but when the pitchers were changed Miller himself was pinch-hit for. I have previously posted that Miller is the only player to hit a HR in his first and last AB.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago

Interesting, thanks Richard!

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  Ed

As I suspected, Hafner’s in the lineup tonight. Oh well, so much for that!

topper009
topper009
11 years ago
Reply to  Ed

Now Chipper Jones’ first and last career PAs were pinch hit singles.

Dave
Dave
11 years ago

I don’t watch a lot of baseball on TV (follow it online daily, just don’t have time to watch a lot on TV) but I did watch the O’s/Rays game last night and Shields was ridiculous. Other than the HR I don’t recall one semi-hard hit ball out of the 12 outs that weren’t strikeouts.

Jason Z
11 years ago
Reply to  Dave

I believe I saw last night that Jamie Shields is the first pitcher to strike out 15, give up 1 un or less and lose since…1900.

Richard Chester I am sure can confirm me correct or confirm that I need
to get to sleep earlier.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Jason Z

I ran a PI search and found 4 other games that meet the criteria, 15 SO, 1 R and a loss.

Nolan Ryan, 8-20-74,11 IP
Jim Maloney,6-14-65, 11 IP
Pedro Martinez, 5-6-2000, 9 IP
Floyd Youmans, 9-27-86, 9 IP

Jason Z
11 years ago

Thanks Richard. You the man.

Brent
Brent
11 years ago

Let me get this straight, if the O’s win and the Yankees lose, then, despite the fact that both teams have a better record than the Tigers and the same record as the winner of the Rangers/A’s, they will have to play a game to determine who won the division (somewhat negating the whole idea of rewarding the division winner by letting them rest while the Wild card teams play an extra game). The upshot is that if they tie, the Yankees will have to go to Baltimore to determine who won the division and if the Yankees lose that… Read more »

Brent
Brent
11 years ago
Reply to  Brent

Let me take this one step further. Let’s suppose the O’s, Yankees, and winner of the A’s/Rangers all finish with 94 wins, so a playoff game between the O’s/Yankees ensues. Who has home field advantage in the ALCS in the following situation:

Winner of the A’s/Rangers (94-68) plays winner of the O’s/Yankees (95-68). Does the AL East team get the benefit of home field advantage on the basis of their extra win in an extra game?

Evan
Evan
11 years ago
Reply to  Brent

Once the tie has been broken the teams are seeded based upon their 162-game record. Assuming there is a game 163: If Baltimore wins it is the 2 seed and heads to Detroit (loses both tiebreakers) If New York wins it would be the 1 seed if Texas wins today and the 2 seed if Oakland wins today (NY wins tiebreaker over Texas, but loses to Oakland) I can’t find this explicitly stated anywhere by MLB, but it can be inferred from the tie breaking procedures for situations where 2 teams in one division tie for first and are tied… Read more »

Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago
Reply to  Brent

I’m not sure about the rest but they could fly to Philadelphia & only be about an hour away from either place if they wanted to go today.

deal
11 years ago
Reply to  Hartvig

“only an hour” if their flights left on time, which would never happen out of PHL.

birtelcom
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  deal

You don’t have to fly to NY or Balt from Philly. Just take a train or a bus. Not much further than a commute from the suburbs to a downtown ballpark for a home game.

tag
tag
11 years ago

Totally off topic but TR finally won the President’s Race in DC. John, I don’t care what happens in the Texas/Oakland game today. This has to lead off your notes.

Evan
Evan
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

It’s not likely but also not impossible that Miggy could lose the HR lead tomorrow if there is a AL East game 163, especially if Granderson gets one or two tonight in a losing effort.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  Evan

Another possibility is Hamilton getting two home runs this afternoon.

The other question is whether Cabrera plays tonight. Trout could pass him in BA is he goes 4-4 and Cabrera goes 0-4. If Cabrera doesn’t play, then Trout needs to go 6-6 to pass him.

Jason Z
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I would add the 56 games to this short list.

Jonas Gumby
Jonas Gumby
11 years ago

From the irrelevancy files: a solid day for the Kelly Johnson–John McDonald– Aaron Hill trade, as all three players homered Tuesday, Hill’s being a walk-off. What’s the record for most players having homered on the same day who were all involved in the same trade? The answer, and other fun activities for your weekend, after the break.

Jonas Gumby
Jonas Gumby
11 years ago

Much to my surprise did I discover that the Herman Millville Meteor was not from Pynchon’s Vineland, not even Vineland, California, but yet another ubiquitous appearance of Mike Kilgore Trout. The most literarily linked halo in MLB history, a man of letters, a liaison, not just one of the best pros in the league, but an amalgamation of prose? And where the hell was I?

tag
tag
11 years ago
Reply to  Jonas Gumby

Hey Jonas,

As a Pynchon fan (I own two first editions of GR, both found at flea markets) and someone who has read a lot of Vonnegut, you’ve lost me here. Um, what?

Jonas Gumby
Jonas Gumby
11 years ago
Reply to  tag

For this caught on the fly edition, I got mine caught in my fly.

topper009
topper009
11 years ago

Not sure where to put this, but according to rWAR Michael Bourn is having THE greatest defensive season of All-time, for any position. Interestingly enough he is playing in the same spot where another all-time great defender once roamed, so to Braves fan with vivid recollections of the 90s, how did Bourn this year compare to Andrew Jones in his prime?

Brent
Brent
11 years ago

Post season roster question.

Normally, you get to reset your roster between each series in the playoffs. What do you do for the extra WC game? Surely you don’t get to set your roster for just that one game and then reset it for the NLDS (because, to take the Cardinals for instance, you would then NOT put Wainwright, Carpenter and Garcia on your WC game roster, carry only 9 pitchers and have a whole bunch of extra bench players)

Brent
Brent
11 years ago

Watching a little of the Oakland/Texas game. It borders on being creepy to see the Coliseum full of fans rather than empty seats. Kind of Twilight Zonish.

nightfly
11 years ago
Reply to  Brent

Think of it as a 70’s heyday throwback. I am loving the yellow unis.

Jason Z
11 years ago

Did you see the “Balfour Rage”?

That was crazy.

A’s, first team to overcome a 5
game deficit with 9 games left.