@Giants 5, Royals 0, Giants go up 3-2 — Madison Bumgarner’s eight strikeouts are fairly modest by today’s standards for an utterly dominant game. But he got them when they counted most:
What do a few modern pitchers have in common with several old-time hurlers? That’s for you to consider in Quiz #1 on this World Series off day.
Quiz #2 is entirely frivolous and inspired by the Fox network when they made mention that Game #4 was the first ever in a World Series with both starters having a surname starting with the letter V. Thus, your job in Quiz #2 is to determine the starting pitchers in a World Series game whose first and last initials can combine to form the words shown. Bolded and underlined words have more than one solution. How many other words can you come up with?
| Rk | Quiz #1 | Quiz | #2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tim Lincecum | JABS | DARK | DEAD |
| 2 | Clay Buchholz | SEAS | CARE | PEAS |
| 3 | Dwight Gooden | CRAB | HEMP | BASE |
| 4 | Dutch Leonard | CLAN | CREW | DREW |
| 5 | Rube Foster | CADS | COPS | DARN |
| 6 | Iron Davis | REEK | SECT | LEND |
| 7 | Weldon Henley | SHOD | JELL | ARMS |
Congratulations to John Autin on solving Quiz #1 and to several of our readers (particularly Luis Gomez, Steve, Scary Tuna and Richard Chester) on having some fun with Quiz #2. The answer to Quiz #1 was that only the quiz players authored a no-hit game for a pennant-winning team but failed to start a game in that year’s World Series. More after the jump.
World Series, Game 3: Royals 3, @Giants 2 — Kansas City’s first run scored on a groundout. Typical, right?
Couldn’t quite pull together a WS preview, so I’ll offer this up as a chat space.
There have been many prolific power hitters in baseball history, but only these eight have a particular career accomplishment. What is it?
| Rk | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Albert Pujols |
| 2 | Lou Gehrig |
| 3 | David Ortiz |
| 4 | Todd Helton |
| 5 | Albert Belle |
| 6 | Hank Greenberg |
| 7 | Chuck Klein |
| 8 | Babe Ruth |
Hint: the active players shown here are not in danger of dropping off this list by the time they retire.
This one stumped everyone but Sir Richard who elected to let others have a go. The answer is that only these players have multiple seasons of 40 doubles and 40 home runs. Those seasons are after the jump.
This post is for voting and discussion in the 75th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG). This round adds players born in 1911 to the list of eligible candidates. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
For the second round in a row, Circle of Greats voters wasted no time inducting a player who the baseball writers voting on Hall of Fame candidates had egregiously overlooked. Following the example of Johnny Mize last round, Arky Vaughan had no problem gathering well more than enough support to become, in his first round of eligibility, the 74th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Arkansas native Joseph Floyd Vaughan, and the voting, after the jump. Continue reading
On Wednesday’s NLCS game, Tom Verducci remarked on this factoid.
| Rk | Tm | Year | Games | W | L | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SFG | 2014 | 5 | 4 | 1 | Ind. Games | 189 | 169 | 15 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 13 | 18 | .243 | .301 | .284 | .585 | 2 | 2 |
Above is a list by team of the number of 2014 post-season games with 4 or fewer batting strikeouts. So, where is the rest of the list, you ask? Actually, that is the whole list. The Giants have had no more than 4 batting strikeouts in 5 of their 10 post-season games. The other 9 playoff teams – nada.
Verducci has expressed how impressed he is by the Giants’ ability to score without the need of a base hit, a knack he attributes to their low strikeout total. The rationale is that fewer strikeouts mean more balls in play, more pressure on the defense and, therefore, more runs scored. Is he right? Let’s find out.
The players in this quiz were all well traveled. But, what career accomplishment distinguishes them from all other players since 1901?
| Rk | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Frank O’Rourke |
| 2 | Denis Menke |
| 3 | Eric McNair |
| 4 | Barry McCormick |
| 5 | Buck Herzog |
| 6 | Tony Fernandez |
Congratulations to Richard Chester! He knew right away that only these players were regulars for three different franchises, and had a season playing 100 games at a different position with each of those teams. For the players in this group, those positions were 2B, 3B and SS, with Denis Menke adding in a season at 1B for good measure. More on these in-demand and versatile players after the jump.
NLCS Game 2: @Cardinals 5, Giants 4 — A thrilling, confounding ballgame, to remind us of all that we’ll miss in the dark months ahead.