@Athletics 12, Rangers 5: The turnabout’s complete. Call it comeback or collapse, the AL West is draped in gold and green. Trailing Texas by 9 at the Break, and by 4 with 6 to play after a split in Arlington, Oakland won out, while the mighty Rangers — two-time AL champs, preseason favorites, alone in 1st from April 9 through October 1 — lost 5 of 6, and went 15-16 from September 1.
In the wake of last night’s sterling hurling by the O’s and Rays, here’s a look back at the six previous Baltimore games in which both teams had 2 hits or less. (Why Baltimore games? Well, I could bluster, “Because history is written by the winners!” Or I could just note that Tuesday’s was the first such game in Tampa history.)
Curt Schilling rates as the 16th best pitcher of all time, according to wWAR. (Photo via Wikipedia)
Last month, I asked you to talk about David Cone, a pitcher who my latest version of wWAR (weighted WAR) deems as Hall-worthy. What makes Cone unique is that he accumulated quite a bit of value in a limited amount of time. It’s not that he didn’t have a long career—it’s just that injuries limited the number of innings he threw.
For example, Cone ranks 50th all time in Wins Above Replacement but 40th all time in Wins Above Average. So, he didn’t last forever and pad his numbers, but he still provided value above average on par with many all-time greats.
Today I want to talk about somebody who is similar to Cone, but takes things to a whole new level.
Let’s talk about Curt Schilling.
Curt Schilling is a polarizing figure. There’s the bloody sock. There’s 38 Studios. There’s the outspokeness. There’s the postseason dominance.
DId I mention the bloody sock? Continue reading
I’m just gonna toss stuff up on the fly here, for whatever it’s worth.
Orioles 1, @Rays 0: The game’s lone run scored when Chris Davis extended his HR streak to 6 games, tying a franchise record set in July 1976 by Reggie Jackson. Miguel Gonzalez kept Tampa off the board into the 7th, allowing 2 hits in his 3rd straight win and 4th straight Quality Start. But will it pull them even? Things are happening awfully fast up in the Bronx.
Now with infinitely more Shanty Hogan mentions!
Astros 3, @Cubs 0: Houston’s last back-to-back shutouts of 4 hits or less came 2 years ago. Their
last-but-one came in brighter days, a fun streak with a memorable capper.
A miscellany of numbers on David Wright, Boston Red Sox pitching and a slugging second baseman, all after the “Read the rest of this entry” thingie. Continue reading
Now with all a moderate amount of new material!
Astros 7, @Brewers 0: Jordan Lyles is the first since 2009 to throw a shutout before his 22nd birthday, the first pitcher since 2010 to homer in his shutout, and the first since 1968 to combine those feats.
This season has witnessed offensive contributions from the catcher position at levels seldom seen before.
After the jump, I’ll look a bit closer at the different dimensions of this phenomenon.
Tigers 6, @Twins 4 / Rays 10, @White Sox 4: Each Central challenger had their ace on the hill for the last time in the regular schedule. The veteran and reigning MVP left in the 8th with a 6-0 lead, allowing no ER for the 3rd time in his last 4 outings and collecting his 5th September win. The youngster had his worst and shortest start, departing in the 4th and charged with 5 ER. The Tigers came away with a 2-game lead.
Ryan Vogelsong / USPRESSWIRE
Check out some of Ryan Vogelsong’s stats in 2011 and 2012:
Stat 2011 2012 G 30 30 IP 179.2 184.2 H 164 169 HR 15 17 BB 61 61 SO 139 151 WHIP 1.25 1.24
The numbers above are, for all intents and purposes, identical. But there’s one big difference: in 2011, he allowed 54 earned runs, whereas in 2012 he’s allowed 71. Those translate into seasonal ERAs of 2.71 (2011) and 3.46 (2012), and ERA+s of 129 in 2011 and 101 in 2012.
Why has a guy who has seemingly performed exactly the same on the mound allowed such different amounts of earned runs?
Let’s dig in to find out… Continue reading
