[Lots of words in here, but don’t miss the table way down under Friday’s White Sox-Mariners score.]

@Mariners 3, White Sox 2 (14 inn.) — Baseball’s oldest cliche is also the best loved: It just takes one pitch to turn a goat into a hero. Brad Miller came up in the 14th toting an 0-for-5 albatross — 0-3 in ribby chances, each with two aboard — and his error starting the home 9th had set up a White Sox walk-off threat. Now, Michael Saunders was on first with a one-out single, and Miller quickly fell into a two-strike hole.

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Columns by Buster Olney and Tyler Kepner today bemoan this year’s scoring average of 4.13 runs per game. Naturally, I have some thoughts, too.

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Dodgers 3, @Rockies 2 — Zack Greinke gave up the tying run in the 8th, on Justin Morneau’s long triple. But he buckled down and held the tie, popping up Tulo, then pumping eye-high 94 past Nolan Arenado. Juan Uribe helped get the run back with his third hit, and Kenley Jansen put Zack’s 11th win in the books.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the 63rd round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This round adds to the ballot those players born in 1920.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

After a number of closely contested voting rounds, this week voters strongly embraced Warren Spahn from the outset and put him on 54 ballots, the most for any candidate in a single round since Mantle and Mays in the 1931 voting. Spahn becomes the 62nd inductee in the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Warren and the voting, after the jump. Continue reading →

@Blue Jays 7, Brewers 4 — Just like old times in Toronto … like, May 1 through June 6, when they averaged 1.6 HRs and 5.5 runs, going 26-9 with three walk-off wins. But something new, too: The long-ball leaders owned none of this year’s 39 walk-off blasts — until Edwin Encarnacion worked a 3-and-1 count against Brad Kintzler, and then lifted off.

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The players in this quiz are the only catchers with a particular season accomplishment since 1961. What is it?

1. Brian McCann
2. Jason Kendall
3. Einar Diaz
4. Mike Piazza
5. Terry Kennedy
6. Rich Gedman
7. Ted Simmons
8. Bill Freehan
9. Randy Hundley
10. Clay Dalrymple
11. John Romano

Hint #1: McCann and Kendall accomplished this feat in the same season, the first time since 1955 that two catchers had done so in the same year.

Hint #2: A player is currently on pace to join this group in 2014.

Congratulations to Gary Bateman! He correctly identified the quiz players as the only catchers since 1961 to lead their league in the same season in most successful steal attempts against and also most unsuccessful steal attempts against, the latter being an artifact of the former. More after the jump.

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Cubs 2, @Red Sox 0 — Not Stephen Drew … Really? Stephen, eight-for-sixty-two, Drew, who’d fanned in both at-bats?? … Well, he had seen 19 pitches from Jake Arrieta by that point.

So, what would you have done, if Arrieta had gotten Drew out with pitch #120, to complete eight no-hit innings?

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Reds 4, @Giants 0 — It had to be “Buster,” right? With two out in the 8th seventh, Buster Posey’s clean line-drive to right broke up Homer Bailey’s bid for a third no-hitter, and second against the Giants. Now, Homer had to focus on his 1-0 lead.

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A lotta stuff happened in a long day of baseball. Let’s dig in!

Red Sox 2, @Yankees 1 — An epic duel between Jon Lester and Masahiro Tanaka, with a big twist at the finish. Tanaka was one strike away from nursing a 1-1 tie through the top of the 9th. But he was also living on borrowed time; he wasn’t finishing all his pitches. The first two batters hit liners, but the one by Big Papi turned into a double play. Tanaka then hung one to Mike Napoli, but the slugger swung through it. On one-and-two, everyone looked for the knockout splitter.

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