Reds 3, @Dodgers 4 -Dodger left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu flirted with perfection for 7 innings, one day after teammate Josh Beckett had tossed a no-hitter in Philadelphia. Whether it was the 30 minute-plus Dodger ABs in the bottom of the 7th or something else, Ryu was off the mark in the 8th and barely escaped with the lead, much less a no-hit game. Brian Wilson got the second out of the inning but then allowed a two-run double and two walks, leaving the bases loaded for closer Kenley Jansen, who struck out Brandon Phillips to end the threat.

Continue reading →

Rangers 12, @Tigers 2, Rangers 12, @Tigers 4 – Texas took the four game set 3-1 with these two weekend shellackings of Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander. It was the just the 9th time since at least 1914 that Detroit has surrendered 12+ runs to the same opponent in consecutive games at home. For Verlander, it was only the second start of his career surrendering 9 runs in under 6 innings. His 14 game score is a career low.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

With apologies to Samuel Beckett, and congratulations to Josh!

Dodger right-hander Josh Beckett has authored the first no-hit, no-run game of his career, and of this season, as the Dodgers took the rubber match of a weekend set in Philadelphia. Beckett walked three and struck out six, including Chase Utley for the game’s final out.

Backett threw 128 pitches, 80 of them for strikes. After going to a 3-0 count on the leadoff hitters in both the first and second innings, Beckett hit his stride and retired 23 Phillies in a row, throwing a first pitch strike to all but two of them. The Phillies helped out by putting 5 first pitches in play, four of them in the last 3 innings.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Looking at the NL slate today.

Rockies 2, @Braves 3 – Gerald Laird‘s two-out single in the 8th inning scored Ramiro Pena from second to break a 2-2 tie and Craig Kimbrel did the rest, striking out the side in the 9th for his 13th save. For Kimbrel, it was his 21st time facing 3 batters and striking out all of them, tying him with Armando Benitez for the second highest career total, trailing only Billy Wagner‘s record 32 games.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Indians 8, @Orioles 7 After sweeping the division-leading Tigers, the suddenly resurgent Indians outlasted the Orioles in 13 innings for a 4-game winning streak, tying their longest of the season. Baltimore suffered its 3rd loss when leading after 6 innings, and 2nd when leading after 7.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

The first list are pitchers who began their careers between 1893 and 1919. The second list are pitchers who played their entire careers between 1920 and 2000.

For both lists, only these pitchers had a particular career accomplishment. What is it?

Hint: while rare in the above periods, this feat has recently become more common, accomplished by 15 retired pitchers active since 2001.

I evidently stumped our readers with this one. The solution is that, among starting pitchers with 1000+ IP careers played entirely between 1893 and 2000, only the quiz players had a career FIP either below their SO/BB ratio, or no more than 20% higher than their SO/BB ratio. More after the jump:

Continue reading →

How is WAR contributed by major league pitchers? At what age do pitchers become most valuable to a team? I’ll be looking at those question in response to a suggestion by mosc, a regular and thoughtful contributor to our discussions here at HHS.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Johnny Cueto is thus far having a pitching season for the ages. While his level of dominance is surprising, Cueto’s past performance coming into this, his age 28 season, did project to a superior performance and possibly a career best year.

After the jump, more on Johnny Cueto and prime pitching seasons.

Continue reading →

On Monday night, Seattle had its way with Tampa Bay, with a 12-5 thumping that stood at 8-0 after two innings. Mariner hitters feasted on the offerings of Rays’ starter Cesar Ramos who was abandoned by his defense which committed 4 errors in those first two frames.

What was notable about this game, though, was this – Ramos stayed in to pitch 6.2 innings, holding Seattle scoreless over the last 3.2 IP of that stint. It was the first game this season with a starter going 6+ innings and allowing 9 or more runs. There was only one such game last year, by Ramos’s teammate David Price, and none in 2012.

These games haven’t always been so rare (this was the 268th such start since 1946), but staying in for 6+ innings after allowing 8 runs over the first two frames is very rare indeed. More on starters who “take one for the team” after the jump.

Continue reading →

Willie Wilson, all-star center-fielder with the dominating Kansas City Royal teams of the 1970s and 1980s showed up recently as one of the players in a quiz I was researching. Rest assured you quiz afficionados will get your chance to try your luck, but first I wanted to tell you about what I found to be a truly startling result.

Those who remember Willie will recall a lightning-fast singles hitter who, unfortunately, couldn’t take a walk to save his life. Thus, he ended up his playing days with a .285/.326/.376 slash, good for just a 94 OPS+. But, wait. Wilson parlayed that 94 OPS+ into a nice 46 career WAR in just over 2000 games. How many outfielders have done that? Actually, only Willie. And, among those with a career OPS+ of 95 or worse, there’s nobody else even close.

So, how did Willie rack up the WAR? More after the jump.

Continue reading →