Saturday
@Cubs 4, Diamondbacks 1: The 5th straight scoreless start by Ryan Dempster matched the longest since Orel Hershiser‘s record run of 6 in 1988; only Brandon Webb has had 5 in a row in any season since.
Nobody can possibly do what John Autin does with his amazing game reviews, but he’s been quiet for a couple of days, so I humbly chip in a few notes on yesterday’s games, and welcome others to add their own.
–Felix Hernandez’s Game Score of 93 was the highest against the Rangers since a Johan Santana 17K, 0BB game in August 2007.
–Jeff Francoeur of the Royals actually had two hits, a walk and an RBI, all in the same game, for the first time since April last season.
–Craig Kimbrel has now had 21 appearances in a row in which he has pitched at least one full inning and also allowed zero walks. There have been only five longer such streaks in MLB history (two by Mariano Rivera), the longest being a 26-game streak by John Smoltz that ran from September 2003 to June 2004.
–Oakland got home runs from four different hitters for the first time since they got homers from five guys on September 11, 2009.
–The Braves have now scored at least 7 runs in their last four games against the Mets and won all four. The last team to do that to the Mets was Arizona in 2002. The only team to beat the Mets five times in a row while scoring 7 or more every time was the Milwaukee Braves back in 1964.
–Andrew McCutchen has a homer and at least one additional time on base in each of his last three games. The last Pirate to do that three games in a row was Ryan Doumit in 2008.
The 1983 Yankees (the “Pine Tar Game” Yankees) started a left-handed pitcher in 127 of their regular season games. That’s the most lefty-starter games by any team in one season in the b-ref Play Index searchable era (1918-current). Ron Guidry, Dave Righetti and Shane Rawley, all lefties, were the three primary starters for the Bombers all season long (this was the season Righetti pitched his no-hitter). The fourth and fifth spots in the rotation were covered by a number of guys, but more than anyone else by two other lefties, Bob Shirley and, after he was called up from the minors in late June, Ray Fontenot. The 1983 Yankees won 91 games, but in the pre-wild card era that wasn’t enough to get them to the post-season. More lefty-heavy starting staffs after the jump. Continue reading
There has been discussion here at HHS about the fact that even today, half a century after the first wave of major league franchise expansion, generally speaking the fourteen teams that have been created from the 1960s on have a tougher time being consistently successful than the sixteen teams that date back to the beginning of the 20th century or before. It follows that serving as manager of one (or more) of the those fourteen expansion franchises can be a task with special challenges. Mike Scioscia has handled that task as well as anyone. Indeed, Scioscia needs just four more more wins as manger of the Angels to become the winningest expansion franchise manager ever. The numbers are after the jump. Continue reading
Still 26 hours before Counting down to the next pitch that really matters (Friday 1:20pm CDT). Some empty calories will help pass the time….
2012-04-18 — Only game this year where both starters went 9+ scoreless innings. Also the only game in 7 years where one starter went 10+ scoreless frames. Here’s the last time both starters went 10+ scoreless.
(Wait … you mean there’s pro baseball going on right now?)
Using the Day by Day Database over at David Pinto’s Baseball Musings blog, one can do leader boards covering specific in-season time periods, without being bound by the beginning and ends of seasons. So, for example, one can (and I do, after the jump) compare the MLB On-Base Percentage leader for each of the past four full seasons (502 PA minimum) with the OBP leader for each of the the past four year-long periods running from All-Star Break to All-Star Break (same 502 PA minimum): Continue reading
@Rangers 4, Twins 3 (13): Ian Kinsler‘s game-winning gapper was his 2nd career walk-off, both against Minnesota. The other one was a home run off R.A. Dickey.
“Who am I?” In my 9th year, and 3 years after being jettisoned by my original team, I currently have career highs in BA, SLG and OPS+.
@Cardinals 5, Marlins 4: Another Heath Bell crunch. Austin Kearns had put the Fish out front with a 3-run pinch-clout in the 7th, but the Redbirds scored 3 in the 9th to win. Rafael Furcal brought home the last two with a 1-and-2 single to left, as leadfoot David Freese slipped under a high tag. Furcal got his chance when Bell couldn’t finish .223-hitting Daniel Descalso, who battled from an 0-2 hole in a 10-pitch AB that ended with a walk.
HHS reader with the moniker “Insert Name Here” was lamenting that a recent quiz was too easy, and was pining for something really challenging as in days past. So, just for INH, here’s something a bit harder.
The 12 players in this quiz have achieved a hitting feat related to the television series Seinfeld. This has been accomplished only 13 times in the game-searchable era, so one of the twelve has done it twice.
Can you figure out what that accomplishment might be?
Click on the link below to see the list of players and get started on your sleuthing.
Congratulations to Richard Chester! He identified that these are the only players since 1918 to compile a 0-0-0-0 box score line in a game with 5 or more PAs. Like Seinfeld, a game about “nothing” (at least as far as the box score is concerned).