Houston had been the hottest team in baseball until cooling off a bit last week. The Astros still have a very comfortable lead in the AL West, so if the defending division champion Rangers are going to make a move on their cross-state rivals, now would be a good time to start. More after the jump.
Houston enters this series having split four with the Royals in KC and then losing two of three to the Angels at home. Before that, the Astros had won ten straight, including sweeping three from the Rangers in Arlington. The Rangers also had a 10 game winning streak, but that was followed by a 4-12 slide before sweeping the Nats in Washington on the first leg of a two city road trip that finishes here in Houston.
Game 1 pitted Rangers ace Yu Darvish against second year man Joe Musgrove for Houston. Darvish was on his game this night, holding the Astros to a single run in 7 innings of one-hit ball. Texas got to Musgrove for a pair of runs in the 2nd inning but broke the game open in the 8th with a three run blast by Nomar Mazara. Final score: Rangers 6, Astros 1
This was Darvish’s fourth start of 7+ IP allowing only one hit; all of them have come against Houston. The Rangers’ second inning two-spot came courtesy of back-to-back two out triples by Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo; the last time two Rangers had consecutive triples in the same inning was eleven years ago against the Angels’ Jered Weaver, the only triples Weaver allowed in his 123 IP rookie season.
Mazara’s home run was his eighth of the season, keeping him within reach of 20 for the second straight season; if he and teammate Odor both reach that plateau, it will be the first time a Ranger team has had two players aged 23 or younger, each with a pair of 20 home run seasons under his belt. Quiz: which team would the Rangers join as the only clubs with two such players?
With three of Houston’s primary starters on the DL, swingman Brad Peacock drew into the rotation for the start in Game 2 against Nick Martinez for the Rangers. Houston took the early lead with solo home runs in the 1st and 4th innings, but the Rangers answered with singleton runs of their own in the 5th and 7th frames. Astro setup man Luke Gregerson got the call for the 8th inning and retired his first two batters before giving up a single to Ranger catcher Jonathon Lucroy. Next up was lefty batter Rougned Odor whose home run had tied the game the inning before. Gregerson stayed in the game and Odor went yard again to give Texas their winning margin. Final score: Rangers 4, Astros 2
The Rangers are repeating their comeback heroics of recent years, with their 16th come-from-behind win this season, and 6th when trailing after 6 innings. Part of that success is due to their late inning power surge, with more than 35% of their home runs hit in innings 7-9, the most in the AL. Odor’s two late inning homers yielded a 0.656 WPA, the best of his career; it was his first multi-HR game since opening day, after three 2-HR games last year, all between Jun 15 and Aug 31.
Astro manager A.J. Hinch rolled the dice, and lost, by staying with Gregerson to face Odor. In Hinch’s defense, Houston has only one southpaw reliever (Tony Sipp, who pitched an inning in game 1) and the game was only tied, so it’s not too hard to see why he would want to stick with Gregerson in that spot, with two out and only a man on first. Before this season, Gregerson had been the epitome of reliability, with eight seasons of 55+ IP and an ERA never higher than 3.28; but, it’s been a different story this year with an ERA more than two runs higher than his career mark, due mainly to 2.1 HR/9 (next worst is 0.9) and 3.5 BB/9, almost one full walk more than his career rate and his worst mark since his rookie season.
George Springer led off the home first inning with a home run, the 7th time this season that he has homered in the first inning from the leadoff spot. With 16 leadoff home runs for his career, Springer ranks second in Astro franchise history, albeit a distant second behind Craig Biggio with 53 leadoff jacks.
Eyeing a sweep, the Rangers started free agent acquisition Andrew Cashner in Game 3 against another fill-in starter for the Astros, rookie Francis Martes, making his first major league start after debuting with 3.2 relief innings in Houston’s previous series with the Angels. The Halos got to Martes for four runs, but he was solid this night, allowing just one run on three hits over 5 innings to collect his first W. Houston nibbled away at Cashner, with singleton runs in the 1st and 2nd innings and a pair in the 5th, extending the Ranger right-hander to 95 pitches over 4+ innings of work. Jeremy Jeffress relieved Cashner in the 5th after the first three Astros reached, and put out the fire by retiring his first three batters, keeping Texas in the game at 4-1 down after 5 innings. But, that reprieve would be short-lived as Jeffress had no answers in the 6th, giving up back-to-back jacks starting the inning, the first two of eight straight Astro batters who would reach base. When the carnage was over, thirteen Astros had batted, including three with a pair of hits, as Houston scored 9 runs in the inning to put the game away. Final score: Astros 13, Rangers 2
In his first tour of the AL, Cashner has seen his SO/9 plummet. Part of that is not getting to fan his opposite number, but opposing pitchers accounted for only 13% of Cashner’s strikeouts before this season, so that doesn’t explain a strikeout rate that has been cut almost in half. 
Looking at his pitch selection shows a fairly dramatic decline in his use of the fastball at only 57.5% this year compared to 65.2% a year ago, and 66.5% for his career before this season. Instead, Cashner has gone to his changeup and an even slower curveball 24.1% of the time, compared to 12.0% last year and 15.3% for his career before this season. Whatever the reason for that change, it has so far failed to befuddle AL hitters who are making contact on 85.6% of their swings (up 4% from 2016, and 6% from 2008-16 average) and offering at only 42.3% of Cashner’s pitches (down 1.4% from 2016, and 3.6% from 2008-16 average). That has translated into swings and misses amounting to just 10.1% of Cashner’s strikes this year, compared to 12.9% last year and 14.5% for his career before this season. Thanks to FanGraphs for the pitch type and batter result data.
Before this game Cashner was sporting a 0.97 SO/BB ratio; 2007 (Steve Trachsel) was the last season with a SO/BB ratio below one and 125 IP, 2004 (Kirk Rueter) was the last qualified season, and 1990 was the last such 100 IP season by a Ranger (Charlie Hough with 218.2 IP).
This was Houston’s second time this season scoring 9 or more runs in an inning, matching their total of such games over the 13 prior seasons. The last time the Astros twice scored 9+ runs in an inning was way back in 1974 when those two innings accounted for 2.9% of their total runs for the season. Strictly a footnote to this contest, but Joey Gallo belted home run no. 18, a 459 foot solo shot, to go with a walk and a strikeout for a 3 for 4 TTO game, upping his season TTO% to 56.1% of PAs.
Very unusual game tonight between the Angels and Yankees. No substitutes (other than relief pitchers) and every batter on both teams collected a hit. P-I won’t tell you when something doesn’t happen (i.e. zero players with H=0) but it must be pretty rare as there have been only 71 games since 1913 (62 of them have been in DH games) with just one player failing to collect a hit.
Doug: I think there may be a way to track this down but it will not catch all games. I’m leaving for the Yankee game now so I’ll explain later.
It occurred on 9-11-1935, Senators versus Tigers. (There were no relief pitchers.)
Also:
7-27-2016 ATL vs. MIN (with relievers)
6-5-2013 HOU vs. BAL (with relievers)
6-30-2016 MIL vs. MIN (with relievers)
I am not finished, there is a lot of copying and pasting.
Great find! I sure wish we had the play-by-play for that game: at least 36 base runners over 12 innings (probably a few more, since there were 8 errors), but it was nevertheless a 4-3 pitchers duel – and, of course, the pitchers were members of the lineup in which every player had a hit. Only one of the 28 base hits was for extra bases, a double.
I like that it was played in 2 hours, 35 minutes. But, I guess you can do that when there are no pitching changes. Eight errors in the game, 4 on each side (incl. one by each pitcher), with the walk-off game-winning run scoring on one of those miscues.
Third base umpire was Firpo Marberry, who played for the Tigers that season (???).
Good catch, Doug. Of course, Marberry was much more closely identified with the Senators, so perhaps everything was assumed to equal out. Perhaps even stranger, he was back in uniform the following year (though not for very long).
Your comment led me to follow up on Marberry, whom I knew only as one of several “First True Relief Pitchers Ever.” I learned from his SABR bio that he had a wonderful idea for confronting the sore arm that led to his umpiring career: he had fourteen teeth extracted in order to bring his arm back to pitching health. There is a powerful logic there, but somehow it didn’t work out for Firpo.
According to his SABR bio, Marberry retired after an injury early in the 1935 season and was offered a position as an AL umpire, but he only umped a few games and tried a pitching comeback in the 1936 season that failed.
There is something odd about the box score of that 9-11-1935 game. It was a 4-3 walk-off win for the Senators. The last player to bat was their #7 hitter Red Kress. But the 4 RBI for them were by Joe Kuhel, John Stone, Buddy Myer and Bobby Estalella.
The box score shows that Bridges pitched 11 innings. Estalella had to have scored the winning run batting in the fifth position. What seems likely is that he was given the RBI in error. He reached on a hit or error, the sixth position batter hit, walked, or ROE, and Kress drove in Estalella.
An interesting game for the personnel involved, too. Estalella in his fifth major league game; Cochrane, Gehringer, Greenberg, and Goslin—4 HOFers—batting 2 through 5 in the Tiger order; two players with great starts to their careers who dwindled later, Kress, and Jake Powell; Buddy Myer, not quite a HOFer; Joe Kuhel, potential slugger condemned to a career in Griffith and Comiskey; Cecil Travis, whose potential HOF career got torpedoed by WWII.
Think you must be right nsb. No way the box score can be right on the RBI if Kress was the last batter of the game. And, as you mentioned, Estalella must have scored the winning run since it scored with nobody out; also, his Player page records 10 RBI for the season, but his game logs add up to 11 RBI, so the error may have come in populating Retrosheet (the source data for B-R) rather than in the original box compiled at the time.
But the lead off batter, Joe Kuhel, has an RBI and the only player he could have driven in is Estalella, and that had to occur in an earlier inning than the 11th. Maybe Kress had an RBI and Kuhel did not.
Good point. Kuhel’s Player page shows 74 RBI, but his game logs add up to 76. Cecil Travis, who batted after Kuhel has the reverse: 61 on his Player page and 59 in his game logs. Kress’s RBI totals match. Jake Powell, who batted before Kress’ shows 98 RBI on his Player page but 101 on his game logs.
Probably more errors in these game logs than we realize.
Here is part of the game story from the 9-12-1935 Washington Post:
By Shirley Povich.
Estallella came up to the bat to plague the Tigers once more in the twelfth. With the Detroit outfield playing far back in deference to his slugging ability, he got a lucky single on a looper over second base. To second he went when Jake Powell drew a walk and then Red Kress was ordered to bunt. It was a poor bunt, directly at Bridges, who fielded the ball cleanly and threw to Owen at third base for a force play on Estallella, but his throw was wild. When the ball tore through Owen’s glove, Estallella picked himself out of the dirt at third, scrambled to his feet and dashed home to win the ball game while the ball was rolling into left field. The Nats reached Bridges for two hits in the third and tied the score after Myer singled and Stone was hit by a pitched ball. Travis drove into a double play to score one run and the tying run tallied when Owen muffed Estallella’s grounder. Again the Tigers contributed an error to put the Nats in a 3-2 lead in the seventh. With two out, Rogell fumbled Myer’s grounder and he completed the circuit on a single by Travis and Estallella’s line drive single to left.
Pretty detailed game summaries in the paper in those days. But, I suppose it makes sense when the only people who saw the game were those in the stands. So, from this account, an RBI would not have been scored, obviously, on the game winning run, on the run scoring on a muff with two outs, and also, based on today’s scoring rules, on the run scoring on the GIDP.
Here’s my take on the runs scored in the third inning. Kuhel led off the inning with a single. Stone was HBP and Myer singled to load the bases. Travis grounded into a DP scoring Kuhel, with Stone moving to third. Searching the Batting Event Finder for DPs in 1935 indicates that at the time a player was credited with an RBI on such a play. Estelella had an ROE scoring Stone, should be no RBI. In conclusion I feel that neither Kuhel nor Stone nor Myer should be credited with an RBI. By the rule of the day Travis should be given an RBI for his third inning GDP and Estelella should be given an RBI for his seventh inning single.
I think you are exactly right Richard. Crediting RBIs to Kuhel or Stone or Myer makes no sense given the game story. Almost looks like the scorer decided to give an RBI to every player that scored a run. These detailed game stories are of great help to Retrosheet when they are creating deduced files for games with no PBP.
By running the PI Batting Event Finder on a yearly basis it looks like 1939 was the first year that a batter was not given credit for an RBI on a ground out DP.
For those of you who are interested in how I found that game.
On the PI:
Set it for Player Batting Game Finder
Click on Find number of players matching criteria in a single game
Click on Started
Set Choose H > 1
Get Results
The Results page shows 125 such games with 18 players. Paste that segment of the list into an Excel spreadsheet.
Go back to the PI search page and select a number of years such as 1930-1939.
Click on Either
Reset Choose H > 0 to Choose = 0.
Click on Ascending order
Get Results
The results sheet shows 568 games in which there were 18 starters and no subs. Unfortunately this procedure filters out games in which a relief pitcher(s) make an appearance except for games with the DH. Paste those 568 games into the same Excel spreadsheet, sort by date and look for matching dates and teams. Do the same for the remaining years. I did it covering the years from 1919-1953 and 2007-2017.
The surprising Twins are above the .500 mark, and have a two-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. However, when they lose, they lose BIG; nearly half of their losses (13 out of 29) have been by five or more runs, with 4 other defeats arising from a four-run deficit.
Going into the season, Yu was 3-1, 2.34 in five starts (34 2-3 IP) at the park formerly known as Enron.
Seems to do well in bandboxes like Minute Maid:
– Rogers Centre 2-2, 2.67, 33.2 IP
– Tropicana Field 2-0, 1.35, 20.0 IP
But struggles in bigger ballparks:
– Safeco Field 0-3, 5.79, 23.1 IP
– Oakland Coliseum 1-4, 5.88, 33.2 IP
Except for:
– Comerica Park 3-0, 2.45, 18.1 IP
Albert Pujols has only 3 RBI over his last 10 games, but is still on pace for 105 for the season. He’s currently batting .236; if he reaches 100 RBI with a BA under .240, he would be just the 16th player to post that result. And, the only player to do it twice is … Joe Carter, of course, with the two highest RBI totals of this group.
Carter recorded 30.8% of PAs with RISP, the 18th highest mark of more than 1000 players with 3000 career PAs since 1961. These are his career OPS marks:
Bases empty: .761
Man on 1st: .741
Man on 2nd: .763
Man on 3rd: .848
Man on 2nd and 3rd: .923
Bases Loaded: .821
RISP: .805
Listened to the Sox-Orioles pregame on the Sox network this afternoon. They mentioned that the O’s starter Chris Tillman was 0-4 in his last 15 IP. He made it though 5 1-3 today.
This quiz question intrigued me (who am I kidding, they all do!) — the Bash Brothers came to mind first, but it looks like McGwire was already 23 when he debuted with his record-setting 49 that year (gosh, now I hope I’m understanding the criteria correctly…only one other team has ever done it?)…
Looks like it’s Dale Murphy/Bob Horner of the 1978-79 Braves.
The ’79 Braves is the correct answer. Murphy was 23 and Horner was 21. Both had 20 home runs that season and the year before.
In today’s Indians-Twins game, Edwin Encarnación did something that strikes me as unusual. He drove in all 5 Indian runs, with the 5 RBIs being spread out among 4 different plate appearances (solo home run, two-run home run, rbi single, sac fly). The combination of those two things together seems unusual though I doubt that can be searched for in the PI.
David, I know that this is not the exact search that you hoped for, but I did search player-games with >=5 RBI, >=3 H and =1 SF.
On average, that combo happens twice a season, most recently on April 27th of last year.
Sorry; I meant =5 RBI, not >=5 RBI.
No worries Daniel. I’m not even sure how to define what Encarnación did. But your search does mean it’s probably rare (whatever it is) since I imagine that many of the players from your search didn’t drive in all their teams runs.
On 5-13-1955 Mickey Mantle drove in all 5 Yankee runs in 4 PA, 3 HR and a single. I did it with the PI but there is a lot of manual searching involved. My search is incomplete.
Very nice work Richard! And yes, I imagine a lot of manual searching involved.
Driving in all of a team’s runs (min. 5) with 3+ hits. * are team losses, + is 6 RBI, ++ is 7 RBI, +++ is 8 RBI, ++++ is 9 RBI
2017 – Jay Bruce (Apr 19), Edwin Encarnacion (Jun 18)
2016 – Chris Carter (Jun 7), Giancarlo Stanton (Jul 5)
2015 – Kendrys Morales (May 22), Rusney Castillo (Aug 24), C.J. Cron (Sep 4)
2014 – Nelson Cruz++ (Sep 7)
2013 – Pedro Alvarez (Jun 20), Carlos Gomez (Sep 13)
2012 – Logan Morrison* (Jun 19)
2011 – Jason Giambi++ (May 19), Geovany Soto (Sep 19)
2010 – Derrek Lee* (Oct 1)
2008 – Justin Morneau* (Apr 25), Garret Anderson (May 6)
2007 – Nick Swisher* (May 21), Ryan Spilborghs+ (Jun 10)
2006 – Ryan Howard*++ (Jun 20)
2005 – Torii Hunter+ (Jun 1), Andruw Jones (Aug 31)
2004 – Rafael Furcal*+ (Jul 9), Russell Branyan* (Aug 18), Erubiel Dorazo (Aug 18), Miguel Tejada* (Aug 22), Aramis Ramirez (Sep 16)
2003 – Garret Anderson++ (May 8)
2002 – Richie Sexson++ (Apr 18)
2000 – Richard Hidalgo (Apr 4), Vladimir Guerrero (Apr 21), Mark McGwire++ (May 18)
1999 – Mark McGwire* (Jul 2)
1998 – Jeff King (May 29), Sammy Sosa+ (Sep 16)
1996 – Mike Greenwell++++ (Sep 2), Benito Santiago (Sep 15)
1995 – Terry Pendleton (Jul 3)
1994 – Hal Morris (Apr 20), Darrin Jackson* (Jun 7), Rondell White (Jul 24)
1993 – Carlos Baerga* (Jun 17), Cecil Fielder (Aug 8), Pedro Munoz (Sep 21)
1992 – Gary Sheffield (Apr 12), Derrick May (Jun 19)
1991 – Hal Morris* (May 10)
1990 – Darnell Coles* (May 11), Jose Canseco (May 22)
1989 – Willie Wilson (Jul 29), Von Hayes+ (Aug 29)
1988 – Bobby Bonilla* (Apr 6), Dave Winfield* (Jul 23)
1987 – Andre Dawson (Aug 1), John Kruk*++ (Aug 4), Carlton Fisk (Aug 31)
1986 – Kirby Puckett* (Apr 18)
1984 – Joe Carter+ (Aug 12)
1983 – Tony Bernazard* (Aug 13)
1982 – Terry Puhl* (May 22), Andre Thornton (Jul 29)
1980 – Larry Parrish*++ (Apr 25), Willie Stargell (Jun 13)
1979 – Bobby Grich (Jul 15), Eddie Murray++ (Aug 29)
1977 – Greg Luzinski* (May 24)
1976 – Bob Watson* (May 22)
1973 – Dave Nelson* (Apr 17), Ed Goodson (Jun 22), Bobby Murcer (Jul 13), Gene Tenace (Sep 14)
1972 – Rico Petrocelli+ (Aug 5)
1971 – Leo Cardenas (May 5), Tony Perez (Jul 11), Paul Schaal (Aug 15), Hank Aaron (Sep 14)
1970 – Billy Williams* (Jul 3), Lee May (Aug 15), Brant Alyea++ (Sep 7)
1969 – Frank Howard* (May 11), Rick Reichardt (Jul 27)
1968 – Ken Harrelson++ (Jun 14)
1967 – Roberto Clemente*++ (May 15)
1966 – Rocky Colavito* (Jun 24)
1964 – Bob Allison* (May 4)
1963 – Joe Adcock*+ (May 19), Tommy Harper (Jul 19)
1962 – Norm Siebern* (Aug 28)
1961 – Dick Stuart (Sep 2)
1960 – Ernie Banks*+ (Apr 29)
1958 – Yogi Berra+ (Aug 2), Ernie Banks (Aug 21)
1956 – Al Kaline (Aug 4)
1955 – Mickey Mantle (May 13), Willie Mays+ (Jun 29), Del Ennis++ (Jul 23)
1953 – Jim Busby (Apr 26), Roy Campanella (May 10)
1952 – Gus Zernial+ (Jul 13)
1951 – Hank Sauer (Aug 14)
1950 – Ken Wood*+ (Apr 23), Sid Gordon* (Sep 28)
1949 – Johnny Groth (Apr 20)
1948 – Joe DiMaggio+ (May 23)
1946 – Chet Laabs (Sep 4), Hank Greenberg++ (Sep 14)
1945 – Bill Salkeld* (Aug 4)
1944 – Mickey Rocco (Sep 2), Hersh Martin (Sep 25)
1942 – Bill Nicholson* (Apr 26), Bob Johnson* (Sep 12)
1940 – Enos Slaughter (Jul 21)
1938 – Bob Johnson+++ (Jun 12), Johnny Mize* (Jul 13)
1937 – Joe DiMaggio (Jul 18), Lou Gehrig* (Jul 24)
1936 – Wes Ferrell+ (Aug 12)
1935 – Moose Solters* (Jul 7), Wally Berger* (Aug 11)
1933 – Al Simmons+ (Jun 11), Chuck Klein+ (Jun 29)
1931 – Don Hurst (Jun 18)
1925 – Billy Southworth (May 8)
1924 – High Pockets Kelly+++ (Jun 14)
1922 – Howie Shanks* (Jul 25)
1914 – Gavvy Cravath* (Sep 11)
Only players to do it twice: Garret Anderson, Mark McGwire, Hal Morris, Ernie Banks, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Johnson
Through 72 team games, the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon has piled up 17 doubles, 10 triples and 15 home runs.
Players with 40+ doubles, 20+ triples and 30+ round-trippers in a season? Just one, in 1928. Lowering the bar to 30+ doubles yields just one more occurrence, in 2007. I figured out the most recent one, but who was the old-timer?
It was Jim Bottomley in 1928 and Jimmy Rollins in 2007.
90 extra-base hits with fewer than 35 home runs has been done only 7 times, by Bottomley, Greenberg (1934), Medwick (1936 and 1937), Musial (1953), Lance Berkman (2001) and Grady Sizemore (2006).
Thanks Doug, but I meant that question as an open quiz for everyone; should have phrased it better.
On the flip side…40+ doubles, 10+ triples, fewer than 10 home runs: only three times since 1940. Who are they?
Also, 80 or more extra-base hits with fewer than 20 dingers: just eight times since 1930, and none since 1946.
Got two of them right, but not the third. Some more clues:
– Two are HOFers, who each played on two WS championship teams, and who each batted .340 for their WS careers
– The third was a teammate of one of the other two, and also played on two WS champions
Thus far, Kenley Jansen has
50 SO, and
ZERO walks.
Will he keep that up for another 3.5 months?
Most IP in a season without a BB:
29.2 … Jansen (ongoing)
21.0 … Len Swormstedt (1906)
18.1 … Lew Burdette
18.1 … Edward Mujica
17.1 … Bill Scherrer
15.0 … Bret Saberhagen
12.2 … John Halla
12.1 … Jamie Walker
11.2 … Evan Scribner
11.1 … Mark Huismann
__________________________
Best SO/BB in a season with at least 25 IP
INFINITY … Jansen (ongoing)
21.00 … Julio Navarro
18.33 … Eck
18.25 … Eck
18.00 … Roberto Osuna (ongoing)
16.00 … Evan Scribner
16.00 … Noah Syndergaard (ongoing)
15.64 … Clayton Kershaw (149 IP)
Voomo, not sure if you caught this in the Cardinals-Cubs discussions, but I chatted about this very topic over there. Only 14 other players have even managed a SO/BB ratio better than 12 over a season with 15 or more innings pitched.
Of course, Jansen has the record for most consecutive appearances to start a season with at least one-third of an inning and no walks (29, although the Play Index doesn’t recognize his first outing on April 5th). However, he still has work ahead of him to beat the all-time record, which is 41 by ???
I’m guessing you meant 31 instead of 41, which Tom Morgan accomplished in 1958, though Morgan did allow a walk in his first game that season, but that was in a start. If you allow all relief appearances, not just those with an out, Mark Eichhorn also shows up, with 30 walk-less appearances to start the 1991 season (he got an out in 29 of them).
Strange, though, that P-I doesn’t credit Jansen with his first appearance to start this season as part of his streak. Wonder if that “bug” is preventing other longer streaks from showing up in the search results.
Actually, my PI search (outs >=1, BB=0) does show 41 as the top result, then two pitchers at 38, one at 36, and so forth. Am I doing something incorrectly? I didn’t check the “To start season” box, because I wanted to find out the longest streak in a season, or between two seasons.
I did my search for starting a season. So it seems Jansen is on the verge of breaking that record.
That’s strange; when I run the same search, but check the “To start season” box, I get 28 games as the record, followed by 24 straight games in second. Perhaps the PI isn’t giving me the whole story because I’m not a subscriber? :-}
Regardless, Jansen does have a long way to go to catch Bill Fischer, who tossed 84 1/3 consecutive walk-less innings for the Kansas City A’s in 1962, with all but one appearance as a starter.
That is quite a find, Daniel. Fischer went almost two months (from Aug 7 to Sep 26, plus portions of his Aug 3 and Sep 30 games) without allowing a walk. Included in that stretch were 3 complete games and 3 other games pitching into the 8th inning. However, he might have been better served to pitch a bit more off the plate as his ERA came in at 4.00 for the Aug 7-Sep 26 period, similar to his 3.95 for the full season.
For his career, Fischer posted a 2.3 BB/9, but it was 0.6 in 1962, with no other seasons under 2.0. Almost seems like he changed his approach just for that season, and it worked a bit as his 3.95 ERA was over half a run better than his career ERA before that season.
Fischer, incidentally, was traded in 1960 for the same Tom Morgan who shows up for the longest streak of walk-less appearances to start a season.
Just when most of us (including me) had given up Ichiro for dead, he has risen, phoenix-like, with a .417/.440/.542 clip for his last 25 PA. Along the way, he had four consecutive successful pinch-hit appearances to tie Tony Perez and Julio Franco for the longest streak aged 43 or older.
A couple of notes from last night’s Indians-Orioles game:
1) Jose Ramirez has 14 extra base hits in his last 7 games, which according to Elias Sports Bureau, is the most ever for a 7 game span.
2) Corey Kluber became just the 2nd Indians’ pitcher to throw a road shutout with 11+Ks and 0 walks. The other was Josh Tomlin against Seattle in 2014. If I counted correctly, it’s just the 37th such game in the searchable game era (9 innings or less), with the most famous one being Clemens 20 K game.
3) Indians came within one batter of hitting around the order for 3 straight innings. No idea is that’s been done before or if that can be searched for.
On 6-8-1950 the Red Sox batted around in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. There ‘s a good chance it has happened in other games, just search the PBP for high-scoring games.
Ramirez now has 8 straight multi-hit games, one shy of the record.
An incredible hot streak, reminiscent of George Brett: 21 hits in 38 ABs for a .553 average, including 10 doubles. Only 2 walks and 7 RBIs. 12 runs, 1 triple, 3 HRs.
May have just found the most bizarre sequence in baseball history. This is related to an earlier discussion we had about 2 runners occupying the same base (this is from 2013 so no idea if it’s been discussed before).
Jean Segura on second, Ryan Braun on first. Segura breaks for third but the pitcher catches him in a rundown. Segura makes it back to second before the tag but Ryan Braun is also now standing on second and get tagged out. Segura then gets up and leaves the base, and is tagged out. Except the ump doesn’t notice this. Presumably, Segura thought he was out from the first tag and was heading back to the dugout. But somewhere along the line, instead of going to the dugout. he decides to retreat to first base. And the umps let him stay there! Which more than likely makes Segura the only player in history to go backwards around the bases (at least since a rule was put in place in 1920 to prevent such a thing).
Later in the inning, Segura tries to resteal second and is thrown out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jewBHBP_9g4
https://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/sorting-out-a-reverse-trip-on-the-bases/
Talk about having a bad day at the office. Crew chief needs to take charge in a situation like that, huddle with the other umps to get the call right, and then provide explanation to benches. But, too often, umps decline to intervene when it’s another ump’s call and that ump hasn’t asked for help. At least Segura remedied the whole mess by getting thrown out.
If I did this correctly (meh), 3 active players with at least 800 PA’s through their age 22 seasons, are among the all-time top 10 in OPS+ for their position through age 22: Seager, Correa, and Lindor.
Where they go from here, who knows? But they are in some pretty good company with ARod and Hornsby…and Vaughan
Another Jose Ramirez note with a brief quiz:
Ramirez is one of two players to have 50+ games played at 2nd, Short, 3rd, and an Outfield position through his age 24 season. (that’s 50+ games in right, center, or left, not across two or three outfield positions).
Who is the other player to pull off this feat?
Hint: He’s far better known as a manager and was in the news earlier this year in a less than flattering manner.
Wouldn’t have guessed him.
There is a third player with 50 games at 2B, 3B and SS and 50 games total in the outfield through age 24. He has frequently been mentioned as managerial candidate, but so far done so only in the minors and the WBC – longtime Cardinal third base coach Jose Oquendo.
Doug – Is there a way to search total games across outfield positions? I couldn’t find one in the PI.
No there isn’t. I just looked at the players (I think there were about 25) with 50 games at 2B, 3B and SS, and checked the ones with outfield games (about half of them) as shown in the Position column of the search results.
Orioles have now given up 5 or more runs in 17 straight games, the second longest streak in history. The longest is 20 games, by the 1924 Phillies.
“Wow” is all I can say.
– Only 3 quality starts during that stretch
– 25% of ALL relief appearances (13 of 52) allowing two or more earned runs (MLB average this season in 12.7%)
Came close to breaking the streak tonight but Cleveland pushed across two runs in the 9th to give them 5. That also extended the game long enough for one final plate appearance by Jose Ramirez. He came through with a single, giving him his 9th straight multi-hit game, which I believe ties the record.
Nope. Rajah had 13
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?t=b&id=hornsro01&year=1923&share=1.87#1058-1070-sum:batting_gamelogs
Thanks Voomo! I thought 9 seemed a bit low. ESPN is now reporting that Ramirez tied the Indians’ team record. Although an Indians’ fan site is saying Shoeless Joe holds the record with 11. At the very least, Ramirez has the longest multihit game streak for an Indians’ player since 1936.
These are the longest multi-hit game streaks since 1913 (intervening games without an AB or SF are ignored).
Tony Perez had exactly 2 hits in all eleven games.
Hornsby preceded his 13 game streak with a doubleheader effort in which he had 3 hits in Game one, and was lifted after a single in one PA in game 2.
Billy Herman had eleven straight at the end of 1935, and then a 5-for-5 effort to open ’36.
Rich Dauer had his streak in a season where he slashed .264 / .301 / .353 / .654
Well Ramirez´streak ended last night (1-4, 1 walk). But the Orioles continued. Now 19 straight games of allowing 5 or more runs. one shy of the MLB record.
Repulski’s streak came in a season in which the Cardinals led the NL in hits, runs and BA … and finished 6th. For his first four seasons, Repulski was successful on less than 42% of steal attempts, third lowest percentage in 40+ attempts since 1951; the next year Repulski went 7 for 8 in steals.
Bob Nieman, famous for homering in the first two PA of his career debut game, had only 6 other multi-HR games in his career, including one during his 10 game multi-hit streak.
The Orioles streak reached 19 last night. Don’t know what the all-time record is, but I’m betting it’s 29 by the 1894 Louisville Colonels (from Aug 14-Sept 18).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LOU/1894.shtml
Here are some other long streaks from 1894-95:
1894 Cincinnati 23
1895 Brooklyn 19
1894 Brooklyn 18
1894 Washington 18
The longest streak in 1893 was 16 by the New York Giants.
Found some more long streaks of giving up 5 or more runs from the 1800s:
1890 Phil A’s 22
1883 Phil Quakers 21
1890 Buffalo Bisons 21
1890 Pitt Alleghenys 20
1896 StL Browns 20
The 1890 A’s streak was at the end of the season. On Sept 14, their record was 54-56, then they lost their last 22 games.
The 1890 Bisons had a 14 game streak from June 13-28, allowed 4 runs in their next game on June 30, then had the 21 game streak. So they just missed having a 36 game streak.
Wikipedia details what happened to the 1890 A’s. Basically, due to financial problems, they had to sell or release many of their players and by the end of the season were using what amounted to a pick-up team.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Athletics_(American_Association)
Very interesting team story, David. I’d never noticed the 1890 A’s before. On July 4 they won a double header to stand 40-20, in 1st place by 6. They were 14-58 the rest of the way.
“Pick-up team” may be a little strong. The team retained some of its starters to the end of the season (Ed Green, who pitched their 5th game of the year also pitched their third from last), and some of the people they brought in were bona fide pros, most notably William Stecher, whom they brought in from the Eastern League in September, and who became a stalwart of the pitching staff, pitching 10 of the team’s final 27 games, twirling a perfect 0-10 record with a record-setting ERA of 10.32 in 68 IP. The SABR bio of Stecher, who went on to a solid career (just not in baseball), gives a lot more detail about the team than Wikipedia. Stecher may be the only MLB player to have a SABR bio that narrates details of every game he ever played.
But at the very tail end, “pick-up team” may be warranted. The team’s final game was pitched by Sterling, who twirled a complete game, but lost a heartbreaker, 12-2, called after five innings (mercy rule?). It was his debut and his swan song, and apparently he left the grounds without anyone catching his first name.
Well the Orioles did it, tying the 1924 Phillies for the most straight games giving up 5+ runs (20). And if you’re going to tie a record, you might as well do it in style.
Baltimore gave up 15 runs on only 11 hits, just the second team to do that since 1995 (Boston against Cleveland on April, 27th 2006). Such games used to be fairly common – there were 10 such games from 1987-1995, though after that you’ve got to go back to 1973 to find such a game.
Just to be clear, that’s 15+ runs of 11 or fewer hits.
I guess it’s just weakness of will, but despite a good start today, giving up three runs in the third, the O’s were unable to surrender any further runs and failed to set a new record. Now they’ll have to start over.
And they have!
In the Royals 9th inning comeback yesterday to walk off Toronto, Aaron Loup took the loss after throwing one pitch. Just eyeballing it on my phone, but looks like just the 10th pitcher to do that and not finish the game, since 1988. Most of those games are from the last century, so have to think about why that might be.
I found 17 such games from 1988, 4 from 2000 and on.
Sheesh. Didn’t know my eyesight was THAT bad!
From 1903-2015 the Yankees never had a player with a first name of Tyler. In today’s (6-24-2017) game they have had 3 such players, Austin, Webb and Clippard. They also had a Tyler Olson last year.
Slight correction, Clippard debuted with the Yankees in 2007.
And now they called up Tyler Wade! (and recalled Webb). So they could soon make it 4 Tyler’s in the same game.
Billy Hamilton of the Reds has played 66 games and scored 44 runs while “sporting” a contemptible .587 OPS. If he reaches 100 runs (and fails to improve on his putrid rate), it would be with the lowest OPS by a wide margin; the current record is .636 by the Tigers’ Donie Bush in 1911.
Amazingly, Bush let the AL in walks that year AND managed to score 126 runs, but a .287 slugging percentage doomed him to the record books.
And, Hamilton’s putrid OPS+ of 55 would equal Hughie Critz’ all-time low for players scoring 100 or more runs
Hamilton is on pace to join the group of players in the latest Player Stats Quiz.
Here’s an earlier post on Bush and OPS.
http://www.highheatstats.com/2013/01/donie-bush-and-making-the-most-of-your-ops/
Indians have only played one extra inning game this season. Appears that the lowest for a full season is 3. Through a team’s first 73 games, 8 other teams played only one extra inning game (none played zero).
Longest streak of non-extra inning games since 1913 is 128 by the 1936 Browns. In an old BR blog post of mine from 2012 I mentioned that the 1951 Yankees and 1961 Pirates had no extra inning games at home and the 1996 Phils had no extra inning games on the road.
Those 1936 Browns is the team with the 3 extra inning games mentioned by David P above.
Baseball is weird.
Last weekend Cleveland went into Minnesota and swept a 4 game series, outscoring them 28-8.
This weekend Minnesota went into Cleveland and swept a 3 games series, outscoring them 13-2.
In thirteen games between them so far this season, the visitors have won twelve. Both Cleveland and Minnesota are playing significantly better on the road. The Indians are 15-20 at home (.429 winning pct.) and 24-15 (.615) away. The gap is even wider for the Twins, who are a miserable 16-25 (.390) at home but 23-9 (.719) on the road.
It’s interesting to note that Target Field, a pitcher’s park since it opened, has yielded the third highest rate of home runs so far this season. In searching for an explanation of why the park is playing so differently this year, a local radio host asked either Buster Olney or Tim Kurkjian (I forget which one), who said it might be a simple reason: the Twins have several lousy pitchers, and they are facing teams with really good hitters. Whatever the reason for their troubles at home, they do seem to rise to the occasion away from Target Field, which has made for an interesting season. Cleveland has a superior team, yet Minnesota has played right with them for nearly half the year. I don’t think either club has enjoyed a lead of more than three games.
Indians have actually outscored teams at home this year (161-148) but have been done in by their run distribution.
This is my next marquee matchup post.
Looks like we are reading your mind now, Doug…that’s twice in 48 hours!
Looking forward to reading it, Doug.
The Giants are 27-51, their 2nd worst start ever after 78 decisions, worst was 25-53 in 1901. Their 3rd worst was 29-49 in 1985. It seems odd numbered years have not been kind to them. Checking the same thing for the Phillies shows the contrast in the success of the two franchises. They have started out 27-51 or worse 19 times, and will probably make it 20 this year.
About odd-numbered years, the Giants did play in the World Series in 1905, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1923, 1933, 1937, 1951 and 1989. So, it hasn’t been all bad.
I did the math, since 2005 and including 2017, Giants are 507-543 .483 in odd years and 509-462 .524 in even years. But in their entire history, they are 5502-4714 .539 in odd years and 5476-4752 .535 in even years.
The big thing to me about the Giants historically is this: in the forty years from 1903-1942, they finished under .500 just three times. Over .600? 18 times. Since moving to SF in 1958 the team has best .600 just 3 times.
Their recent post-season success, 3 WS victories in the last decade, is deceptive. Highest W-L % in that time is .580 in 2012.
I think the Giants were actually under .500 five times in that period, nsb (maybe your eye shifted to the pyth% column?). But your general point is right. Perhaps a clearer way to see this is to restrict the range to 1903-1924: in 22 seasons, the Giants were over .600 15 times (and below .500 once). Then they were over .600 just five times the remaining 33 years in the Polo Grounds, and (actually) two in the 60 years in SF.
Part of the reason for the effect is that teams that happened to be dominant in the early part of the 20th century, when NL team parity was especially low, racked up very high percentages in an unbalanced league. (The NL saw four .700 teams in the years 1902, 1906, 1907, and 1909, but has had none since . . . For some reason the AL has been different: its five .700 teams have been spaced out: 1927, 1931, 1954, 1998, and 2001.) Something of the same effect applies to the Cubs, with six sub-.500 seasons and 12 over .600 in the period 1903-39, with only three .600 teams in the 77 years since . . . but then, of course, they’re the Cubs.
The other part, I think, is simply John J. McGraw. The Bobby Cox era in the history of the Braves is a little similar, although McGraw was far more of a force in scouting, player development, and trades in NY.
In a horrific relief appearance on Sunday, the Rockies’ Adam Ottavino threw four run-scoring wild pitches, allowing five runs to score—first time this has happened in the searchable era. (Phil Niekro threw three run-scoring WPs in a loss to the Phillies on August 14, 1969.) Dodgers’ starter Brandon McCarthy threw three wild pitches of his own, all in the second inning. The Play Index doesn’t contain any other searchable games in which more than one pitcher threw three or more wild pitches.
Ottavino is one of 10 pitchers to have 300+ innings pitched and 1+ wild pitch every 10 innings. Greg Holland (34 wild pitches in 347.2 innings) and Justin Grimm (31 in 310,1 innings) just miss out, though they’re both still active so could make the list by the time they retire.
Worst all time was Scott Williamson who threw 72 in 439.1 innings. Taking into account era, the worst all-time was probably Jack Hamilton who threw 74 wild pitches in 611. 2 innings between 1962-1969.
“the worst all-time was probably Jack Hamilton who threw 74 wild pitches in 611. 2 innings between 1962-1969.”
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196708180.shtml
Re Jack Hamilton, his worst victim was Tony Conigliaro. This, basically, was the beginning of the end of a promising career. I believe Conigliaro used to be the youngest guy to 100 career homers?
Conigliaro was (and remains) the second youngest to reach 100 home runs, 65 days older than Mel Ott. Eddie Mathews (95 days older than Conigliaro) is the only other player with 100 home runs before his 23rd birthday.
Conigliaro and Ott are the only players to reach 50 home runs before their 21st birthday, with Ott outpacing Conigliaro by 72 days.
An odd aspect of the trade that sent Conigliaro to the Angels. Two of the players they received back both had the last name Tatum (unrelated). One of those was Jarvis Tatum. Meanwhile, one of the players that was sent along with Conigliaro to the Angels was named Ray Jarvis.
Indians did something unusual last night. 15+ runs scored, 19 or fewer hits, 5 or fewer extra base hits, no home runs, 9 inning game. Only 20 games like that going back to 1978, though oddly 4 of them happened in the strike shortened ’81 season.
Seattle actually managed the feat with only 10 base hits (June 15th, 1991). They were aided by 14 walks, 2 HBP, and 1 ROE.
They had a nice comeback last night after falling behind 7-1 in the second.