Notes on Sunday early games

@Mets 4, Marlins 3: Miami squandered umpteen baserunners, then donated the game in the 9th. Ahead 3-2 with 1 out and none on, Steve Cishek aimed inside on a 2-2 count to Ruben Tejada, and nicked him. Kirk Nieuwenhuis looped a single to left-center, and Tejada dared the rag-armed Juan Pierre to catch him at 3rd.

With a 1-run lead and 1 out, Pierre’s play was to 2nd base: Keep the DP in order, keep the winning run at 1st. But he threw to 3rd, badly, and when the rookie 3B came off the bag for the throw and kept his head down afterwards, Nieuwenhuis waltzed over to 2nd. Then came the manager’s move I don’t think I’ve seen before:

 

Mike Redmond brought his infield in — with the game-ending run on 2nd base.

Marlon Byrd bounced one sharply down the line, beyond the dive of the drawn-in third sacker, and the Mets walked off happy-go-lucky — very, very lucky.

What do you think of Redmond’s decision? I don’t see the logic. If the Mets had a good bullpen, that would be some reason not to concede the run and thus face extra innings on the road. But the Mets have a bad bullpen, and they had already used 5 relievers and all but one bench player.

_______________

Twins 4, @Orioles 3: Make it O’s-and-3 in 1-run games, now, while the 4-2 Twins held their share of 1st place. Minny’s small-ball forged the lead in the 7th — a sac bunt by #8 put 2 in scoring position, who came in on a sac fly and a basic bingle by the .050-hitting leadoff man. Baltimore had more baserunners and the game’s only HR, but hit 2 inning-ending DPs with 2 men aboard.

Yankees 7, @Tigers nada: Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia, nos. 1 and 2 in wins since 2006, met for the first time since the 2011 ALCS, and the big southpaw came out ahead with 7 hard-earned scoreless innings. Verlander walked Vernon Wells in the 2nd and later hung one to Jayson Nix, and that was about it. He gave up no more runs in his 7.1 IP, but his mates went 0-5 with RISP and left 11 men on.

  • JV’s 17 career games against the Yanks have averaged 3 runs and about 6-1/3 IP, including the postseason (omitting a rain-shortened 1-inning start).
  • Detroit’s bullpen ERA was 6.43 going in, 8.04 coming out.

@Braves 5, Cubs 1: Jeff Samardzija fanned 13 of the first 21 batters — a new career high in Ks, and the Cubs’ high since Mark Prior 2004. But he let in the tying run with 2 wild pitches in the 5th (use your chest, Dioner, not your hands!), and lost his command with 2 out in the 6th, when the Braves tallied thrice. Ramiro Pena hit a tiebreaking 2-run single on a 1-2 count, Samardzija’s 105th pitch (and his last).

  • Freddie Freeman may have reason to be irked about the communication, but not the decision. “They didn’t even give me a choice. It’s my career. I should be able to make that decision.” I’ll assume that’s heat-of-the-moment logic, and that, on calmer reflection, he sees that in a team sport, management makes that call, for the good of the team. Either way, how do you improve communication by venting the issue to the media?

Indians 13, @Rays zilch: It was a mismatch, but not the one we expected: David Price had won 5 of 6 prior starts against Cleveland, with a 1.64 ERA. Justin Masterson had been 1-7, 7.74 against Tampa. The 8 ER off Price is a new career high. Masterson’s 2-0, 0.69 start to this year echoes 2011, when he won his first 5 outings with a 2.18 ERA. Convertible BenZ had both the Rays’ hits when he left after 6 innings.

  • What happened to Masterson last year, when his ERA jumped from 3.21 to 4.93 despite decent peripherals? In a sense, bad timing. He was dominant with bases empty, but with anyone on his BA shot from .228 to .318, his OPS from .640 to .850 — each the 2nd-biggest gap of its kind out of all 2012 qualifiers. It’s been a problem for him before; 2011 was the exception. This year he just hasn’t let many reach base. He faced one challenge in this game, loading the bags with 2 out in the 1st on a hit and 2 walks, but he fanned Yunel Escobar on 3 pitches and was barely touched afterwards.
  • Carlos Santana went 5-3-5-3, two doubles and a dinger. He’d never had 4 hits in a game before.
  • Mark Reynolds has 6 hits, 4 of them HRs. Last year’s Cleveland DHs batted .226/.702, with 22 HRs, 72 RBI. Reynolds, a .213 hitter over the past 3 years, should feel right at home.

@Reds 6, Nationals 3: Of the teams he’s faced twice or more, only the Phillies have hit Stephen Strasburg harder. Cincinnati got 13 baserunners off him, 2 more than his prior high. He has consecutive starts with 5 Ks or less; the only other time he’s done that was Sept. 2011, coming back from T.J. surgery on an 80-pitch limit.

  • In the 6th, the Reds broke it open after Danny Espinosa’s bad gamble/bad throw on a play at the plate. Know your baserunners, Danny: Derrick Robinson is a 4-time 50-steal man in the minors, and he’s not up here for his bat. And even if you make that play, it’s still 2 on, 1 out, and meat of the order hitting. Take that risk in the 8th, when a run means Chapman comes in with a lead — but not in the 6th.
  • Strasburg twice whiffed with a man on 2nd and a chance to get the lead.

Red Sox 13, @Blue Jays zip: Boston captured the series with their biggest outburst of HRs and total bases since 2011, and Jon Lester’s first scoreless start since last April.

  • Since 1916, Will Middlebrooks is the 3rd BoSox third baseman with 3 HRs in a game; all three did it on the road. He flied out in the 8th, bidding for Boston’s first 4-HR game.
  • He’s the 6th BoSox with 14+ total bases, joining (game links) 2B Dustin Pedroia, SS John Valentin, CF Fred Lynn, LF Yaz and 1B Norm Zauchin. Their record is 13 TB for the other hitting positions: RF, Jim Rice; C, Jason Varitek; DH, Jack Clark. For pitchers, their record is 10, shared by Jack Wilson and another guy who faded from memory.
  • No one should panic over R.A. Dickey’s first two starts; I still think he’ll be good for the Jays. But Mets fans should see why trading him last winter was the best course. His value was never going to be higher.

Royals 9, @Phillies 8: A 5-run lead turned into a nail-biter, and again it started with a leadoff walk. With the winning run on 2nd, Eric Kratz fouled off 5 straight 1-2 pitches before he finally succumbed.

  • So, you can get salami in a Country Breakfast, after all. That’s a first for Butler in 64 tries, and his 104th career HR. His 7 RBI ties the Royals record, shared by 10 others.
  • Phils had 14 Ks and 15 hits — first regulation game since 2011 where a team had 14+ Ks and more hits. The first such game was in 1967, then 1975 and 1990 — and 9 times since 1998.

@White Sox 4, Mariners 3: It’s not easy to fall behind free-swinging Dayan Viciedo, but those who do often pay like this. The Tank has hit .348/1.072 when ahead in the count, but .260/.738 overall — among the biggest such splits you’ll find.

  • Hisashi Iwakuma worked 8 innings on 89 pitches, with no walks and 4 hits, but 2 of them HRs.

Athletics 9, @Astros 3: Well, if he’s going to slug 1.000, why not put Jed Lowrie at cleanup?

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Albanate
Albanate
10 years ago

The Marlins left at least one runner in scoring position in seven of the nine innings. They outfit the Mets 13 to 6. And their rookie pitching phenom was as good as we’d heard he’d be. It was a lucky win for the Mets. Game seemed to go on forever though.

tag
tag
10 years ago

Hey JA, Like you, I’ve been keeping tabs on those O’s and one-run games. It would be awesome if they inverted their record of last year with a team that is pretty similar. I won’t trot out the “L” word, but I doubt you’ll be forced to wear any scarlet and gray this year. Man, the Cubs keep finding new ways to lose. Next outing Spellcheck is gonna strike out 21 to best Wood and they’ll still come up short. Theo never fails to point out that it’s a process, and some of the young players look pretty good, but… Read more »

deal
10 years ago

In Nats game Strasburg’s 114 pitches was the 2nd highest of his career. His pitching game score of 27 was tied for his 3rd worst (47 career starts).

Ed
Ed
10 years ago

A few notes on the Carlos Santana game. *It’s just the 18th time that a catcher has gone 5-5 with 3+ extra base hits. A few details on those 18 games: *It’s the third time an Indians’ catcher has pulled off this feat, all since 2000. The other two were by Einer Diaz and Victor Martinez. *Two catchers – Victor Martinez and Gabby Hartnett – have done this twice. * 8 of the 9 most recent occurrences have been by an AL catcher. Whereas 7 of the first 9 occurrences were by an NL catcher. Mike Piazza is the only… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Ed

Ed: two points concerning your last sentence.
First my PI search shows only 8 catchers who performed that feat.

Second, here’s how you can get the list of those catchers. When you run PI set it to All Matching Games, Catcher, AB = 5, H = 5, RBI = 3 and R equal to or greater than 2. Sort by R and by ascending order. Up comes a result sheet with data for the lower nine rows which contain the data you are searching.

Doug
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Ed

As an honorable mention, Kelly Shoppach went 5 for 6 for the Indians in 2008, with all 5 hits going for extra bases (3 doubles and 2 HR). http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200807300.shtml One of only 7 games with 5 XBHs (Josh Hamilton did it last year), and the only one by a catcher. None of the seven had a triple, and only Shawn Green had an additional single, for a 6-6-6-7 line in 2002. Here are those 5-3-5-3 games by a catcher. Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB 1 Carlos Santana 2013-04-07 CLE TBR… Read more »

Ed
Ed
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Thanks for the additional input Richard and Doug! BTW, there are also two catchers who have gone 6-6 with 3+ runs scored, 3+ RBIs (both with only 1 XBH).

Ernie Lombardi in this game:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI193705090.shtml

And Paul Lo Duca in this one:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200105280.shtml

Interesting that Lo Duca was the lead off hitter….not something you see a catcher do very often.

deal
10 years ago

Cole Hamels gave up his 13th ER of 2013 y-day. Didn’t happen till 5/18 a yr ago. His 2nd loss of the season didn’t come till June.

BBB
BBB
10 years ago

Hey all,

first time poster, long time reader here.

Just an observation after the first full week of the 2013 season…

Is it me or have there been a ton of home runs hit so far? I don’t think we’re talking 1998, 1999, 2000 numbers, but it seems like a lot more thus far compared to the last few seasons. Is there any easy way to compare the number of hr’s hit thus far compared to the first week last season, via the play index?

Doug
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  BBB

Don’t know about homeruns, but there have been 8.53 runs per game (both teams) so far this season, as compared to 8.04 after a week of play in 2012.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

So far in 2013 there have been 195 HR in 91 games or 1.07 HR per team. In 2012, after the first 7 days of games played, in which 96 games were played, there were 103 HR in 96 games or 0.54 HR per team.

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago

I looked at the first six games played by all teams in 2013 (180 games played in total — actually of course 90 games with two teams for each game) and then again the first six games played by all teams in 2012 (again, 180 games played in total). I get 190 homers hit in those first 180 games played this season (1.06 per team game) compared to 173 last season (0.97 per team game)

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

It looks like a lot of the difference I’m seeing is 13 homers by the Rockies in 6 games this season, only three by Colorado through 6 last season.

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

I also ran the numbers for the first six games in 2011. That came out to 175 homers, virtually the same as 2012. On a per 600 PAs basis, the 2011 and 2012 numbers both come out to the equivalent of 15.2 homers per 600 PAs through 6 games, while 2013 comes out to 16.7 homers per 600 PAs through 6 games.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

birtelcom: There seems to be a discrepancy in our numbers for 2012. I went to BR Boxscores and determined that the first 7 days of ML baseball were 3-28, 3-29, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6, 4-7 and 4-8. From PI I went to the standings for 4-8 and determined that there were 96 games played to that date. Then I went to PI Event Finders, Batting by Team, set the year to 2012, selected All Teams and Home Runs, and got the report, a list of all HR hit in 2012 in chronological order. I scrolled to 4-8 and saw that there… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Follow-up to my post #18. My face is red. I miscounted the games played total for 2012. There were 48 games played up until 4-8-2012, not 96. The HR rate was 1.08 per game, almost the same as this year. In terms of absolute numbers there were many more HR in the first week of 2013 due to more games being played. In 2012 there were two dates ,3-28 and 3-29 when only one game was played.

BBB
BBB
10 years ago

Oh wow. so maybe I’m not crazy after all. What give with the sudden boost? Or is this a case of a lot of hitters starting off hot/warmer(ish) April weather/struggling ‘Ace’ pitchers?

just wondering, did you pull those numbers from the b-reff play index?

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  BBB

My numbers I got by going to PI’s Team Batting Game Finder. hitting the Teams With Most Matching Games in a Season button, putting 6 into the the “Team’s First __ Games” space, searching first for 2012 then for 2013. The output in each case gives you collective stats for the first 6 games for each of the thirty teams, which I then copied to a spreadsheet to make adding up the list of thirty team homer totals easier.

mosc
mosc
10 years ago
Reply to  BBB

What I see is a bunch of control issues from very good pitchers, particularly fastball control. I do not remember a year where the best pitchers in baseball all looked out of sorts to start a season. Opening day went normal but overall a lot of the pitchers that made the last two years “the modern year(s) of the pitcher” are struggling with command. Hasn’t been particularly cold across the country, can’t think of why this is a larger trend.

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  mosc

Comparing the first six games over 2011, 2012 and 2013, walks are down and strikeouts are up this season.

2011: 1273 Ks, 577 BBs
2012: 1345 Ks, 563 BBs
2013: 1413 Ks, 545 BBs

on a per 38 PAs basis (roughly the average length of a game in PAs):
2011: 6.99 Ks, 3.17 BBs
2012: 7.49 Ks, 3.14 BBs
2013: 7.87 Ks, 3.04 BBs

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

This is why I generally read your game notes but not those those of The New York Times (which I otherwise read rather intensively).

Doug
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Here’s my take on Redmond’s move. It was fine (playing for the win on the road), except he forgot one important piece of the strategy. You first have to walk the bases loaded. If you do that, then I can buy the strategy. You have the force and/or double play in order and, having the runners close to their bases (because the fielders are close to their bases) will give the outfielders a better chance to gun down the winning run at the plate, if it comes to that. Even if you walk or wild pitch the tying run in,… Read more »

Haymaker Jim
Haymaker Jim
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

That’s it in a nutshell. The cardinal sin was not loading the bags. Since the winning run was at 2nd, putting a runner on first via IBB only helps the defense, not the offense.

As for the gambling part of the strategy, I have no problem with a 1-4 team that lost 90+ games last year trying to play the high-risk high-reward game.

Brent
Brent
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

RE your last paragraph. Odd play by the Twins yesterday in the bottom of the 8th. With the Twins leading 1-0, Cain on 3rd and Gordon at the plate, and one out (which Ned Yost had just given the Twins by having Getz sacrifice), the Twins brought the infield in to cut off the tying run. Gordon hits a line drive over the 2Bman’s head to tie the game. It appeared to me that had the Twins been playing normal depth, Dozier catches the line drive. The Royals string together a couple more hits and win 3-1. That seems odd… Read more »

bstar
10 years ago

JA, thanks for the heads-up on Freddie Freeman. Of course the Braves telecast didn’t mention that tonight.

Freeman is young and running his mouth a bit, but I can understand his frustration. If the Braves see you wince at anything, you’re out of the next 5 games, no matter what. They’ve had this ultra-conservative attitude for a long time, and I’ve got to admit I get a little frustrated with it sometimes too.