Mets 1, @Reds 0 — Daisuke Matsuzaka bested Reds ace Mat Latos on both sides of the ball, leading the Mets to the first visiting 1-0 win since 2010 in Great American Ball Park. And before the day shift was over, events in the Gateway City knocked the Reds out of the division race.
Dice-K put down a small threat in the 2nd, and his second career sacrifice set up the Mets’ run in the 3rd, on Eric Young’s squib through a drawn-tight infield. In the Reds’ half, he worked past a leadoff double, helped by a Latos bunt popout. Cincinnati went hitless in 8 ribby chances, two each by Billy Hamilton and Joey Votto. Matsuzaka worked 7.2 innings, his most since April 2011, whiffing Hamilton with his 105th pitch and the tying run on 2nd. Shin-Soo Choo’s huge platoon gap called for a southpaw, but Pedro Feliciano walked him on 4 pitches, then moved up the runners with a wild one to Votto. But Pedro pulled out of the nosedive, getting Joey to fly out. Hard-workin’ Hawkins closed it up cleanly, as the Mets claimed the series and a little revenge for Cincinnati’s visiting sweep back in May.
We knew it would happen, someday: “B Hamilton caught stealing second, catcher to shortstop.” It was almost a pitchout, but it still took a beautiful throw to catch Blazin’ Billy. And who’d have guessed that the honors would fall to Mets rookie catcher Juan Centeno, who’d been victimized twice in this game by Jay Bruce (career 36 SB, 26 CS), and once in his lone prior MLB game by Buster Posey (6-4 career)? Not to mention Dice-K, who had suffered 25 straight successful steals, dating back to 2010. Hamilton had swiped 13 in a row (just 11 games) before this first nipping. (Centeno did have outstanding CS rates in the minors.)
- Even stranger: Three weeks back, Matsuzaka seemed on the verge of a DFA. Now he has four straight good outings, totaling 6 runs (4 ER) in 26.1 IP.
- I like his chutzpah: After Aroldis Chapman had toasted the first two Mets in the 9th, he fell behind to Anthony Recker, who cut on the 3-and-0 pitch (and missed), before walking. Had Recker put the ball into play, it would have been the first ever on 3-0 against Chapman.
- Hamilton has attempted a steal in 14 of 19 opportunities, 78%. Granted, many have come in cherry-picked spots as a pinch-runner. But among those with 10 or more steals, the next-highest attempts rate is 46% by Rajai Davis. Hamilton has not tried to steal 3rd.
- Just for fun … Who’s the best quadragenarian closer in Gotham since the All-Star break? Mets closer Bobby Parnell went down at the end of July, and 40-year-old LaTroy Hawkins got his first crack at the role since 2009. He’s been charged with runs in just 2 out of 24 outings since then, cashing in 12 out of 13 save chances, 7 for 7 in one-run tries.
- While waiting to go into Opening Day, I was asked to predict the Mets’ record. I said 75 wins; my friends said more like 70. They’re now 73-85. I don’t know why it’s mostly been a fun year; maybe I finally got my expectations down to absolute zero, and just enjoyed Matt Harvey, Marlon Byrd, and the good things that happened.
- The last time New York beat the Reds 1-0, it was Gary Carter’s second home run as a Met, and Bruce Berenyi’s only win of the year.
- But “Mets 1, Reds 0” in Cincinnati has happened just once before, and so long ago that Pete Rose was a second baseman, Frank Lary still pitched in the majors, Larry Bearnarth was doing, not teaching, and the Reds played in Crosley Field. But none of that touches the game’s fame: something about 10 innings, no hits, and 17 whiffs, all crashing down….
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@Cardinals 4, Nationals 1 — Jordan Zimmermann went after his 20th win, and perhaps a further point of pride, both for himself (beaten up by the Cards last September and October) and for his team, who sought to end a 6-game skid to St. Louis dating to last year’s NLDS shocker. But any revenge angle was spoiled by Shelby Miller and Matt Adams, two young birds who played no role in that playoff series, but who could be key figures this autumn. Miller, at 22 the youngest full-time St. Louis starter since 2000, let in a 1st-inning run built on two walks, but then set down 10 straight into the middle innings. His sacrifice helped the Cards draw even in the 3rd, between Daniel Descalso’s leadoff double and Matt Carpenter’s groundout (RBI #78).
Zimmermann plunked Matt Holliday to start the home 4th, and Adams, the burly first sacker who’s slugged .511 this year, stroked a double to left on an 0-and-2 pitch, putting ducks on the pond. Yadier Molina boosted his .364 RISP average with a humble ground hit through the middle, scoring both mates for a 3-1 lead, as Adams beat Denard Span’s throw. Miller faced the tying run in the 5th and the 6th, but got through those mild threats with a strikeout of Ryan Zimmerman and a swift DP turned against Ian Desmond. In the 6th, Jordan Z. again got ahead of Adams with two strikes, but the big boy’s big fly showed that not every lefty’s a pure low-ball hitter. That 3-run lead would suffice, as after the 1st inning, Washington never got 2 men on base at once.
- Trevor Rosenthal earned a save in each game of this sweep, as Mike Matheny has followed a Cardinals tradition with a late change of closers en route to the playoffs. In 2011, it was Jason Motte taking over from Fernando Salas in September and on through the World Series. In 2006, Adam Wainwright stepped in for the injured Jason Isringhausen with 2 saves in the final week, but 4 more in that title run.
- It was only 6 games, but this was the first sweep of a season series between these one-time division rivals.
- Shelby, meet Lindy: Miller became the youngest Cardinal since 1957 with a 15-win season. He’s also the first MLB player with the first name Shelby.
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@Cubs 4, Pirates 2 — For the first time in 5 tries against Francisco Liriano, the Cubs opened the scoring, when Anthony Rizzo drove in Darwin Barney. It would not be enough, as Jake Arrieta walked in the tying run with 2-out passes to McCutchen & Morneau. Liriano pitched out of danger in the 2nd through 4th, including two leadoff doubles by Darnell McDonald. The 34-year-old journeyman came in 11 for 47 this year, plus a sad .653 OPS at triple-A. But he’d seen Liriano before, going 3-for-8 with a homer. McDonald hit in the 6th with 2 on, game still tied one-all, and he planted a 1-and-1 fastball into the sun-dappled bleachers. The Bucs got the tying run up in the 9th, but Kevin Gregg fanned Marlon Byrd and Starling Marte to end it. Despite only 6 hits, Pittsburgh got 13 at-bats in RBI chances, but just one (non-scoring) hit.
- The afternoon’s games all but clinched the Cardinals’ division flag, as they lead the Pirates by 3 games with 3 left to play.
- Pittsburgh’s 12-12 this month, outscored 102-87, scoring 3.6 R/G.
- Liriano hadn’t served up a 3-run HR since last July 23, and had yielded just 8 taters all year — but he’s been touched in 4 of his last 5 games. With 2 or more men on base this year, Liriano had allowed just a .209 BA and .519 OPS.
- Pedro Alvarez reached 3rd on an error, when his liner ate up Starlin Castro, and Junior Lake did his best Sori impression while chasing it down. But Pedro got himself doubled off when he first broke towards home on a laser snared at the hot corner.
- McDonald set career highs with 3 extra-base hits and 8 total bases. He’s played 329 MLB games, but only 126 with 4 PAs or more.
- Marte swiped 3, and became the first 40-steal Buc since Tony Womack, 1998.
- Rizzo went 2 for 3 off Liriano. He was hitting .184 against southpaws, while Liriano had been a fate worse than death for lefty batters — 15 for 125, a .120 BA and no homers. Apparently, this is why they play the games.
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@Indians 7, White Sox 2 — Danny Salazar fanned 8 of his 16 outs for his 2nd MLB win, and Cleveland pulled away with 5 mid-game runs. Michael Brantley had 3 hits, Asdrubal Cabrera had 2 (each with a 2-out scoring knock).
- My brother, the Sox fan, says with confidence (and hope) that Dylan Axelrod will not spend next year in Chicago’s rotation. I’m inclined to agree with him. To be fair, the former 30th-round pick earned his way to the majors after the ChiSox plucked him off the minor-league scrap heap back in 2009. But his big-league results so far, in about 200 innings, have been intolerable.
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Rays 8, @Yankees 3 — No ceremony, no bobblehead — but Yankees fans bade farewell to Phil Hughes in their own special way (it rhymes with “you”), and New York was eliminated from playoff contention. Tampa took the lead in the 3rd against Hughes, and romped home behind David Price (8 Ks, no walks). Six straight wins by the Rays, who pulled out of their spin just in time.
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@Rangers 7, Astros 3 — Texas did what they had to with Houston, completing the sweep, but they’re getting no help from the Yankees or White Sox.
- “Some squall, eh?” With 2 outs in the 4th, Texas had no hits and a 3-1 deficit. Then seven straight Rangers reached base against Dallas Keuchel, with 5 hits, and they took a 6-3 lead. Keuchel went back for the 5th, and fanned 4 of his next 5 men. Martin Perez survived Houston’s 3-run 4th to pitch 7 solid innings, with 8 Ks to tie his career best.
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@Orioles 9, Blue Jays 5 — Filling in at third base, Ryan Flaherty hit 2 home runs — 364 days after the last 2-HR game by an Orioles third baseman (which was also home vs. Toronto).
- There was a Kyle Drabek sighting: He gave up a home run to his first man, the debuting Jonathan Schoop (make that Jonathan Rufino Jezus Schoop — love the “z”), and walked the next. Sad to say, even with Roy Halladay’s injured wing, I’d still take his future over Kyle’s.
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Tigers 1, @Twins 0 — Max Scherzer fanned 10 and walked 6 in seven 2-hit innings, finishing at 21-3 with a 2.90 ERA, as Detroit clinched the Central. Kevin Correia was tough in the clinches: Down a run after two batters, he got 2 GDPs and never had 2 on at once.
- Scherzer’s prior season high was 4 walks, just once. He finished with 240 Ks, joining Verlander, Lolich, McLain and Newhouser at that level in Detroit history.
- Scherzer’s .875 W% is a franchise record for a qualified season, and for more than 10 wins. A loss would have kept the record with Wild Bill Donovan‘s 25-4 for their first pennant-winner.
- Detroit’s last 1-0 win was the 2012 finale, also started by Max. (Before that … remember Jarrod Washburn?)
- Are you watching this, Cleveland? Minnesota played each game tough in this series.
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@Angels 3, Athletics 1 — For the first time ever in this series, neither side had an extra-base hit. Jered Weaver logged a quality start for the 12th straight time against Oakland (career 2.29 ERA, 26 starts).
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Brewers 4, @Braves 0 — I can recall just one other time that a guy hit a home run and did not touch home plate. (It was such a weird scene in the top of the 1st that one play-by-play scribe left out a batter.) Kyle Lohse gave up a leadoff bunt hit, then nothing else until a single with 2 outs in the 7th, finishing with his second career 2-hitter and a career-high in game score.
- Milwaukee’s blanked the Braves 4 times in 6 games this year, tying the most by one team since 1988. The 2010 Phillies and 1992 Giants each had 4 shutouts of the Braves, out of 18 games each.
- Atlanta’s 17 shutout losses are also their most since 1988. Meaning? Meh. The 2010 Giants were shut out 16 times, and that seemed to work out all right. (On the other hand … besides those Giants, the last WS champ with even 12 shutout losses was the 1980 Phillies.)
- Atlanta fell a half-game behind in pursuit of the NL’s best record.
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@Mariners 6, Royals 0 — And the Royals are out. Hisashi Iwakuma threw 8 shutout innings, matching his best.
- Iwakuma has allowed 3 runs in 35.2 IP this month. It’s the 16th-best ratio of IP to runs for Sept./Oct. since 1916 (min. 30+ IP).
- A lot of the years on that list are instantly recognizable — Hershiser ’88, Gooden ’85, Maddux ’95, Johan 2004, even Tug McGraw ’73. But here’s one that I’d not known about, which shocks me, given the context: Don Larsen, 1956. In his last 8 starts of that regular season, Larsen allowed 9 runs in 64 IP, a 1.27 RA/9.
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Red Sox 15, @Rockies 5 (7th inn.) — Rockies fans bade arrivederci to their Toddfather, who gave them one more home run and a double to cheer, among all the BoSox rallies. It’s his 2nd game with that combo this month, after two years without.
- Helton has at this writing 576 home extra-base hits, tying Jim Thome for 14th in the searchable database. This is not the time to go into the flip side.
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Random stuff
Go figure: Shutout leaders since 2011: 7–Cliff Lee; 6–Clayton Kershaw, James Shields and Derek Holland; 5–Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargas.
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Why would Mat Latos get into this discussion on the eve of the playoffs?
“I pitched real well all year and I hear nothing but good things,” Latos told the newspaper. “But I pitched against the Pirates and I have a bad start. [With] certain Reds fans, I’m not allowed to have that.
“Let alone, no fan knows that I’ve been dealing with an injury since the Texas Rangers game — and I’ve been pitching with it. So I’ve been pitching the way I’ve been pitching, but I’ve been pitching hurt.”
…
Latos insisted during the interview with the Enquirer that he was not discussing the injury in order to appease fans.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” he told the paper. “I [couldn’t] care less because I’m not trying to win over fans or anything like that.”
Got it, Mat: Your rationalization is for the benefit of some other audience.
Does anyone know if Carlos Gomez has a screw loose? I’ve heard that he plays “on the edge”, but that wild look in his eyes post-fight suggested a rage not seen since Carlos Zambrano last blew a gasket (also in Atlanta).
MLB Network showed a bunch of clips of him vs. Maholm. Apparently, Gomez has hit Maholm really well, Maholm has hit him a couple of times, once in a situation that seemed maybe intentional. And yeah, Gomez may have a screw loose.
Gomez did issue a thorough apology, blaming only himself for the events of this game.
I think I’d have a “screw loose” too if somebody blocked my way to the plate and got in my face because of the horrible crime of watching a home run go out of the park. McCann should count himself lucky that Gomez didn’t make him another Ray Fosse frankly.
Wow, OK. Gomez had a screw loose right out of the box, Jim, and the entire way around the bases.
He’s the one who issued a formal apology and got suspended for a game, not McCann.
Well that’s ridiculous, because he’s not the one who did anything wrong here, other than the umpire who should have told him in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of the basepath.
I think the Braves players were foolish to make such a big deal over Gomez’s home run stare, but Gomez upped the ante with his mugging to the point where leaving him in the game would have been an invitation to later chaos. I think the umpires did what they had to for the purpose of maintaining order.
But I’m not pleased Gomez was suspended; the Braves were just as responsible for the escalation, and, really, do we want to react to immature trash talk with suspensions?
But I agree with Jim that what McCann did was an ejectionable offense. I understand that McCann sees himself as the playground officer teaching the kids manners, but his actions – combined with umpire negligence – broke the continuity of baseball history. How in the name of Ventura could a run be credited without the plate being touched? The announcers referred to it as a “formality” – what?!! Formalities don’t create grand-slam singles. That this was allowed to stand – and I find absolutely nothing in the box score about fielder’s interference to mitigate it – why, it’s more than a crime. Forget the Mayan Calendar (I know, I know) – it’s the Omen!
And McCann wasn’t even ejected for bringing us to the end of the world.
epm, the Braves didn’t object to Gomez’s stare. They objected to him barking and gesturing at Maholm the entire way around the bases.
Still, I’ll concede the Braves have been involved in one too many brouhahas here lately, so any overall criticism is fair I suppose.
OK I’ve watched this a couple more times and this is outrageous if Gomez is the one who got penalized on this.
It’s true that Gomez was yapping at Maholm and Freeman as he went around the bases, even almost taunting Maholm I would say as he rounded third. Not good, but as John notes, there’s a previous history here and he apparently had been drilled by Maholm. It’s not against the rules to yell at somebody or stare at the ball going out. It IS against the rules to block the path of a baserunner attempting to make it to a base. Furthermore, the reason that Gomez had “screws loose” and went off, is clear from watching the video: Reed Johnson came charging off the bench and hit Gomez in the face, with more or less a sucker punch while Gomez was still lookig at McCann. Then watch what he does afterwards: he cowers behind his teammates!!! And Gomez is the one who gets ejected or suspended in this whole episode???!!!
I think the Atlanta Braves ought to worry about winning games instead of who’s staring at a home run ball or chirping at their pitcher.
The Mariners’ modest 2 game team shutout streak ties the franchise record … for the 15th time.
Line of the night goes to Will Middlebrooks with 5-2-2-7, just the second searchable game with that line by a Red Sox player. The first was by Carlton Fisk on 9-6-77 as the Red Sox beat up on Toronto 11-2. It was Middlebrooks’ career high for RBI and the second game this season for Boston with a player getting 7 RBI (Shane Victorino did it 4 weeks ago), the first time for the Red Sox since 1987 with two such games in the same season.
It was also Boston’s 105th searchable game with every starter scoring, but the first time since 1970 with the pitcher as one of those starters. Boston is just the 5th AL team (the Rays have done it twice) to have every starter score when playing in an NL park. The NL has also done this 6 times when playing the AL at home, but 14 times when playing in an AL park.
Indians have 12 players with 9+ home runs. Can someone who’s a PL subscriber confirm whether or not that’s a record? It looks like it probably is, but I’m not sure. Thanks!
Hi,
it ties the 2000 Orioles: B Anderson, Baines, Belle, Bordick, Will Clark, Conine, DeShields, Fordyce, Charles Johnson, Chris Richard, Cal Ripken, Surhoff.
Thanks Baltimorechop! Interesting that both teams were middle of the pack offensively and neither team had a big home run hitter. Baltimore was led by Albert Belle’s 23 home runs and Cleveland is currently led by Nick Swisher’s 21.
Another Indian factoid…they have 8 pitchers with 6 or more wins, tying them with lots of teams for 13th all-time. If Chris Perez wins one more game, they’ll have 9 pitchers with 6+ wins. Not sure if that will tie the record.
Regardless, it’s definitely been a team effort by the Tribe this year.
The record is 10 pitchers with 6+ wins, by the 1977 Red Sox.
Eleven teams have had 9 such pitchers; the most recent was the 2004 Yankees.
Thanks Doug but I only count 7 pitchers on the ‘77 Reds with 6+ wins. Perhaps it was a different Reds team?
It was the Red Sox, not the Reds.
Weird, I read that several times and I always saw Reds, not Red Sox.
Anyway…that Red Sox team pitching staff is pretty interesting:
1) They were led in wins by their closer, Bill Campbell (13 wins, 31 saves)!!! Yes, a 97 win team was led in wins by their closer. This, despite the fact that their starters included Fergie Jenkins, Luis Tiant, Rick Wise, Bill Lee and Reggie Cleveland, 5 guys who totaled 925 wins in their careers. This was actually the second straight year Cambell led his teams in wins while also closing – the year before he had 17 wins and 20 saves for the Twins.
(I found one other closer to lead a 90+ win team in victories…Eddie Fisher with the ’65 White Sox. Though he was actually more of a co-closer with Wilhelm).
2) Those 10 pitchers with 6 plus wins accounted for all but one of the Red Sox wins and all but three of their losses.
3) Every pitcher with at least two decisions had a .500 record or better.
4) Eight pitchers made 10+ starts. The one with the second best ERA – Jenkins – actually had the worst winning percentage (exactly .500).
@19/Ed,
That 1977 Red Sox team was quite interesting; boy could they hit (a team record 213 HR, 10 HR in one game), but the pitching came up a bit short. Tiant was near the end and Bill Lee missed a good part of the year.
Lawrence @22 Actually that Red Sox team led the AL in pitching WAR! The hitters on the other hand “only” finished 5th in Rbat and 5th in position player WAR.
Those 13 wins by Bill Campbell in ’77 are the second best total for any pitcher with more than 30 saves in a season.
Mike Marshall had 14 wins and 31 saves in 1973, the year before his famous ’74 season. Marshall “only” pitched in 92 games and tossed 179 innings in ’73.
Quiz in 1980 (33 saves) and Mitch Williams (30 for the Phils) in 1991 had 12 wins each.
@23/Ed,
I understand that Fenway was quite the hitter’s park in 1977, so their 4.11 ERA (vs. a league average of 4.06) could still produce a 109 ERA+.
However, that 109 ERA+ is _still_ behind two other teams, so how could they lead the league in pitcher’s WAR? Sorry, not buying it.
I can buy that the offense was merely good, and not great.
BTW, how do you find listings for “Park Factor” on B-R??
Lawrence: Go to team page for 1977 Red Sox. Multi- and one-year park factors are listed for both pitching and hitting near the top of the page.
1977 Red Sox, multi-year PF: batting-113, pitching-111
1977 Red Sox, one-year PF: batting-118, pitching-117
I’m pretty sure WAR uses the multi-year numbers.
@26/bstar,
Thanks, I was looking for the Park Factors below, under Team Batting and Team Pitching.
Wow,that’s a pretty hitter-friendly park factor. No wonder pitching looks better and hitting looks worse.
If Carlos Santana remains on 19 home runs and one of three Indians with 9 HR should hit another, then the Indians would tie the 2009 Tribe and 2004 Tigers with 9 players having 10-19 home runs. If two of those three hit another, they’ll have that mark to themselves.
I am not a PL subscriber, but allow me to introduce various members
of the 1980 Yankees followed by their HR total for that season.
Rick Cerone(14)
Bob Watson(13)
Graig Nettles(16)
Reggie Jackson(41)
Eric Soderholm(11)
Bobby Brown(14)
Jim Spencer(13)
Bobby Murcer(13)
Oscar Gamble(14)
That makes 9 players with 11 homeruns or more.
Is this a record?
The record is 10 players with 11+ home runs, by 5 teams, most recently the 2012 Yankees.
Mat Latos is a notorious blowhard.
How long has LaTroy Hawkins been around? In his major league debut, he pitched to Andy Van Slyke.
And he was purely a starter till his age 27 season. He has 98 career starts — and the most career relief appearances (844) by a pitcher with that many career starts (next after him is Julian Tavarez, who had 108 starts and 720 relief appearances).
Todd Helton now has 998 extra base hits. It would be nice for him to get to 1000, and he has three more games. He would still be 36th all-time in EXBH’s.
Of the 35 players ahead of him that are elegible for the HOF, only Craig Biggio, Luis Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa and Rafeal Palmeiro are not in. Biggio should’ve been elected easily last year, and the other three have PED suspicions of varying degrees around them.
Despite that, Helton is a just-above-orderline candidate who will be competing with an overflow of other reasonably qualified first basemen. He’ll probably be like Matttingly, getting decent support for some years, but never really coming close to 75% (13 yrs, peak of 28.2%).
Helton’s really elite comp group is with players having multiple 400 total base seasons. He and Sosa are tied with Ruth, Foxx and Hornsby for two such seasons, trailing only Klein (3) and Gehrig (5).
There are only 11 other players with one 400 total base season; six are in the HoF, two are on the ballot, and one will be eligible for next year’s vote (but probably has zero chance).
@17/Doug,
You’re right, though Helton’s 400+ TB seasons were aided greatly by Coors Field (then again, Klein also was helped a lot by the 280 foot fence in right field in the Baker Bowl).I was really hoping that either Chris Davis or Cabrera would make a run this year at 400 TB, too bad Cabrera got hurt.
I’m not sure how much of a selling point 400 TB are for the HOF voters; it sure didn’t get Jim Rice in the HOF quickly, though it was mentioned frequently by his supporters.
I decided to see the effect of the Baker Bowl on Chuck Klein’s TB total of 445 in 1930. The park factor for that year at the Bowl was 106 which struck me as a bit low.
Here’s how the Bowl stacked up against the other 7 NL parks.
BA: At the 7 parks, .296. At the Bowl, .351.
Runs: At the 7 parks an average of 834 runs. At the Bowl 1187 runs, an increase of 42%.
Hits: At the 7 parks, an average of 1604 hits. At the Bowl 2034 hits, a 27% increase.
Am I the only one here thinking that the Bowl factor is rather on the low side?
I’m with you, Richard. Does seem low.
The Phillies lost 102 games that year while scoring 944 runs. The next highest run total for a team that lost 100 games was 783 by the 1996 Tigers who lost 109 games. Those two teams are also 1-2 in runs allowed, both over 1100 runs. Only 5 other 100 loss teams have allowed 1000 runs.
Tiger pitching in 1996 allowed 1103 runs in a ballpark with a 99 pitcher rating vs 1199 runs by the Phillies in a ballpark with a 110 pitcher rating. The Tigers had a team ERA+ of 87 versus the Phillies at only 82. The two teams had almost identical earned run totals (1024 vs 1015) – guess the Tigers get the edge due to the longer schedule, but 5 points of ERA+ seems a lot.
@49/Richard,@50/Doug;
The entire NL in 1930 averaged 5.68 runs/game,the highest of the 20th century. So even though the Baker Bowl was quite the hitter’s park, the very high run levels of 1930 mean that it was that much harder to exceed the league average by a substantial amount.
Run levels were already inflated quite a bit in 1930,so the Baker Bowl wasn’t quite as ridiculous as it may have seemed for increasing offense.
Here are the park factors and R/G for the NL parks of 1930.
Park…………………….Factor……….R/G
Baker Bowl………….106…..7.71
Sportsman’s Park…..105…..6.00
Wrigley Field……….101…..6.28
Ebbets Field………101…..5.12
Forbes Field……….100…..5.75
Polo Grounds……..98…..5.51
Braves Field…………97…..5.51
Redland Field……..94…..4.35
For the 7 parks other than the Baker Bowl R/G = 5.40. There is a substantial differential between the Bowl and the other parks.
@52/Richard,
I retract my statement in #51 above – a Park Factor of 1.06 _IS_ quite ridiculous for the Baker Bowl in 1930. Looks like it should be a Coors-like 120-125.
Since 1916, Helton is 21st among major leaguers in career Total Bases at home and 113th in career Total Bases on the road (he has had the handicap, unusual among recent NL players of not being able to play any road games at Coors).
Most Career Regular Season Games Played at Coors Field:
1. Todd Helton 1,141
2. Larry Walker 597
3. Vinny Castilla 490
4. Troy Tulowitzki 437
5. Brad Hawpe 414
Fangraphs has a nice write-up of Billy Hamilton’s caught stealing:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/catching-billy-hamilton/
That was, indeed, a nice write-up of Hamilton’s CS. And, in my modest, unassuming way, I’m gratified that the author noted virtually everything that I had noted — the surprising identify of the battery, Dice-K’s difficulty holding runners, Centeno’s minor-league success, Hamilton’s extraordinary attempts rate — but one day later. 🙂
The best part of that piece, to me, was the pics of the throws (and no-throws) on Hamilton’s prior attempts. Small sample, but not a good body of work there.
The Padres tied their season high with 6 players having an extra-base hit in their 12-2 thumping of the Snakes. One of them was 29 year-old catcher Chris Robinson, a 9-year minor leaguer getting his first taste of the show this month; he joined the list of players with a pinch-hit HR for their first major-league hit.
Mario Soto lost that 1-0 game to the 1985 Mets. Interestingly for the early-to-mid 1980s, neither starter completed the game.
Soto was also the loser in Johnny Bench’s last game in Chicago, where Chuck Rainey did not allow a hit until 2 out in the top of the 9th (my 3rd Major League game in person, and the 3rd shutout)
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1983/B08240CHN1983.htm
For what it’s worth I was the the Tigers-Twins game on Wednesday.
And even though on paper it was a mismatch of mostly never-was-and-never-will-be’s vs. one of baseballs top run scoring lineups and best pitchers it was a nail biter all the way thru in large part due to Scherzer’s command of the strike zone. The pitching coach even had to make a trip to the mound in the first inning after Scherzer’s second walk and while he settled down some after that it still looked to me that he never really did get full command of his stuff.
Still, it was nice to see the Tigers warp up the Central division with plenty of time left to set up their rotation for the playoffs.
Hartvig, I’m putting “Tigers warp up the Central division” in my scrapbook of serendipitous typos. 🙂
Give me wrap speed, Scotty…
“I can’t do it, Captain!” (Said the remaining Yankees to Derek Jeter.)
FYI, no game notes tonight — I had to make a pilgrimage to Mo’s farewell. It was pretty touching. Girardi brought him in to get out of a jam in the 8th, which he did, deftly snaring a comebacker (as he’s so often done) for the last out of that one, and grabbing another in the 9th. After a pop-up 2nd out, Mo was lifted (Yanks were losing), and the fans’ response as he strode off was just what you’d expect — pure love.
One alternative showcase occurred to me afterwards: let him finish the inning, then have all the other fielders go off, while Mo stays on the mound. But that might not have suited his style — and besides, the Rays had to take the field.
John A, sending Jeter and Pettitte out to take Mo out of the game was a nice touch by Girardi. They make them smart at Northwestern.
Over Mariano’s 732 career regular season save opportunities, he turned 89.1% of them into saves. Trevor Hoffman converted his save opportunities into saves at an 88.8% rate. If Hoffman had had Mariano’s number of opportunities and saved them at his own career rate, Trevor would have ended up with 650 saves to Mariano’s 652.
birtelcom, I’m not sure if you meant to imply anything about Mo vs. Hoffman. Perhaps you only meant to show that the save numbers don’t tell the whole story. But just in case someone would read those numbers as putting Hoffman on a par with Rivera, I’ll note:
1. Putting the biggest point first, Mariano’s career edge over Hoffman in Win Probability Added was about 65% (56.1 to 34.1). If we just take their years as closers, it’s 47% (52.1 to 35.5). Either way, that’s far more than Mariano’s advantage in save chances.
2. “If Hoffman had had Mariano’s number of opportunities…” — The main reason Mariano had more save chances is that he outlasted Hoffman. Mo had 16 years as a closer, while Hoffman had 15. (In each case, omitting the years they were mostly injured or did not spend most of the year closing.) Mo had 55 more career save opps than Hoffman, which is about the season high for both pitchers.
3. Mariano’s overall superiority should not be sought merely in save conversion numbers. Mo’s best WAR came in his one set-up year, 1996. Hoffman had little value outside of closing.
4. In all blown saves, Mariano’s ERA was 11.06, while Hoffman’s was 17.29. That’s not the only reason Mariano had a much better W% in blown saves (.432-.279), but it’s a big one. Hoffman was more prone to the “big blow,” serving 42 HRs in 76 IP in blown saves, vs. 30 HRs in 98 IP for Mo. Rivera averaged -0.366 in blown saves, Hoffman -0.473.
5. Mariano had more than twice as many saves of more than 1 inning (119-55), and more than twice as many *blown* saves of more than 1 inning (36-15). Just in their closer seasons, Mariano finished 150 games with more than 1 inning (save chance or not), totaling 235 IP in those games, while Hoffman had 79 such games, totaling 128 IP. Longer outings are tougher.
6. Hoffman racked up 21 more saves of very low leverage (aLI of 1.0 or less), by 199 to 178, or 33% vs. 27%. Hoffman had more saves of less than 1 inning, by 48-42.
In sum, while their conversion rates were almost the same, I see no reason to think that Hoffman would have compiled the same total saves as Mo did, if he had been used in the exact same situations.
John, that was a classic moment tonite at Yankee Stadium.
Awesome that you went.
There is now talk that Giradi may let Mo play centerfield in the 8th inning in Houston on Sunday.
Then he would pitch the ninth.
I hope it happens.
How about the irony of Mariano Rivera playing the final game of his illustrious career in a city that the team he’s played 19 seasons for has played exactly three games in ever, and none of those in which Rivera appeared in. The Yankees lone series in Houston was a 3-gamer back in 2008, which is most memorable for Chien Ming Wang getting hurt running the basepaths and Hank Steinbrenner blasting the NL for not having the DH.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Houston, please give a nice round of applause for Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera as he plays for the final time here in Houston…. and um, for the first time here in Houston! Let’s pay tribute to the greatest closer of all time…. um, well, we’ve heard he’s the greatest closer of all time anyway! We’ll have to take their word for that. Um, is anybody out there in the stands? Hello? Testing, 1,2,3….”
They should sign Wang to pinch run for Mariano in case he gets a hit.
________
At the Stadium they should have had his “heir”, Robertson, relieve when he was taken out. I hope they do that on Sunday.
Their stats this year:
Rivera
Robertson
64 IP
64.1 IP
15 ER
15 ER
2.11
2.10 era
1.047
1.073 WHIP
Alright you bastards…
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zTMixF2Iwy4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzTMixF2Iwy4
Perfect, JasonZ!