Random Recap for Sunday, June 5
Posted by John Autin on June 6, 2011
Washington 9, Arizona 4 (11 innings): In a game that featured 5 hit batsmen and a pair of manager/pitcher ejections, 4 things stand out:
- Mike Morse broke the game open with a grand slam in the 11th, his 8th HR and 2nd salami of the year. At the end of April, Morse had a .211 BA and .268 SLG. Since May 1, he has hit .378 and slugged .707, with 7 HRs in 82 AB.
- Aaron Heilman served up a 3-run HR in the 8th. Besides his 8.84 ERA and 6 HRs in 19.1 IP, Heilman has allowed all 5 inherited runners to score this year.
- Another strong start by Ian Kennedy: 7 IP, 1 R, lowering his ERA to 3.01. If not for one disastrous game back in April (9 R in 3 IP), Kennedy would have a 2.15 ERA.
- Tyler Clippard fanned 6 of the 8 batters he faced. He came on with a 1-run lead in the 6th after Jason Marquis was ejected with 1 out and 2 aboard, and struck out Stephen Drew and Justin Upton. Clippard has 42 Ks in 34.2 IP, a 2.08 ERA and 0.92 WHIP; his 13 holds are tied for the MLB lead.
Tigers 7, White Sox 3: The streaky Tigers closed within 2.5 games of slumping Cleveland. Ryan Raburn exited the interstate with a grand slam in a 6-run 4th, raising his BA to .201.
- Alberto Albuquerque struck out 4 in 2 scoreless innings. In 19.2 IP, the rookie has fanned 35 and allowed just 9 hits, no HRs.
Cardinals 3, Cubs 2 (10 innings): When Rodrigo Lopez faced Albert Pujols in the bottom of the 10th, he held the distinction of having retired Pujols more times without allowing a hit than any other pitcher. But that torch was passed to Ryan Madson when Albert snapped that 0 for 12 streak by driving a 2-1 pitch some 440 feet for his 2nd straight walk-off HR.
- Carlos Zambrano had some typically frothy remarks after watching his win washed away by Ryan Theriot's 2-out, 2-strike double off Carlos Marmol. After opining that "We're playing like a AAA team," he added: "We should know that Ryan Theriot is not a good fastball hitter, we should know that as a team. We stink. That's all I have to say." (I've heard of the royal "we," but this is the first time I've heard "we" used to mean "everybody except me.")
Boston 6, Oakland 3: Did you know ... Adrian Gonzalez may have 50 RBI, but the Red Sox team leader in HRs, OBP and SLG is David Ortiz.
Dodgers 9, Reds 6: Chad Billingsley was so-so on the hill but oh-so-good at the plate, driving in 3 with a HR and a double and becoming the 1st pitcher this year with a HR and another extra-base hit in the same game. The Reds fell to .500, 5.5 games back of St. Louis.
Mariners 9, Rays 6: In a see-saw game, Miguel Olivo's 3-run HR in the 8th gave Seattle its 6th straight series win as they moved 3 games over .500.
- Ichiro Suzuki's hitless streak reached 16 AB before his 2-run triple (his first 3-bagger since last August) started the Mariners' comeback from a 3-0 hole; he then scored the tying run on a squeeze by Brendan Ryan.
Giants 2, Rockies 1: Ryan Vogelsong (8 IP, 1 R) has allowed 1 run or less in 6 straight starts, the longest such streak of this year.
- Each team had 4 hits; it was the 3rd straight day with a game featuring 4 hits or less by each side and the 11th such game this year.
- Carlos Gonzalez struck out in all 4 trips, the 2nd 4-K game of his career and the first without at least one ball in play.
- The Rockies were in 1st place less than 3 weeks ago, but have lost 13 of 18, falling 5.5 games back of SF and just 1 game out of last place.
Padres 7, Astros 2: San Diego ran its season-best home win streak to 3.
- Chase Headley extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a pair of doubles, adding a walk and a steal. Headley has just 1 HR, but has 17 doubles, a .385 OBP, and 7 steals in 8 tries.
Texas 2, Cleveland 0: Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus homered, while C.J. Wilson pitched 7.2 scoreless innings in the Rangers' 2nd straight shutout.
- It was the 6th scoreless start of 7+ IP this year and the first by Wilson; the club had 7 all of last season, 4 by Wilson. All 5 starters have at least 1 this year, and Texas SPs have a 3.29 ERA.
- Moreland now has a .907 OPS.
Milwaukee 6, Florida 5 (11 innings): Josh Wilson, signed off waivers a week ago, homered off Mike Dunn in the 11th as the Brewers completed a 3-game sweep in Miami, after coming to town with a 9-19 road record.
Toronto 7, Baltimore 4: In his 2nd game since a 4-week DL stint, Adam Lind went 4-4 with 2 HRs. But Yunel Escobar had the biggest blow, a go-ahead 3-run shot in the 4th. Jo-Jo Reyes pitched competently in winning his 2nd straight start.
- Lind has 9 HRs and 30 RBI in 34 games this year, with 8 HRs and 18 RBI in his last 12 games.
- Mark Reynolds hit his 9th HR, connecting in consecutive games for the first time this year.
- The O's got 3 hits in the 1st inning for the first time this year, scoring twice.
Phillies 7, Pirates 3: Pittsburgh's ascent of the .500 mountain will have to wait for another series. Roy Halladay buckled down after Neil Walker's 2-run HR in the first, and the Phils had a season-high 21 baserunners.
- Hallday got his 2nd hit of the year, raising his lifetime BA to .112, and he added his 2nd career walk in 175 PAs. He's still looking for his first extra-base hit, but I don't think it keeps him up nights.
- 13 of Philly's 14 hits were singles -- the first time since 1999 that they've collected that many hits with just one for extra bases.
Yankees 5, Angels 3: Mark Teixeira took over the club lead in HRs with a pair of drives off Joel Pineiro.
- Torii Hunter capped off a miserable day at the plate by grounding into his AL-high 16th DP with 2 men on the 9th; his WPA of minus-0.416 was the 4th-worst recorded this year in a regulation game. Hunter and Vernon Wells have a combined salary of $41 million this year, but have a combined offensive value that is below replacement level.
- Teixeira has 9 HRs and 19 RBI in his last 16 games, but has not hit a double or triple in his last 25 games. Teix averaged 41 doubles per 162 games in the past, but has just 8 doubles so far this year. (Not that it means anything.)
- Meanwhile, Curtis Granderson has just 1 HR in his last 12 games -- but has been just as productive as when he was belting one every other day. In those 12 games, his slash line is .313/.411./521, with 14 runs and a WPA of .687. In his previous 16 games, Granderson had 8 HRs, but a .333 OBP and .689 combined WPA.
- Derek Jeter trudged another step towards 3,000 hits ... and perhaps the day when the Yankees can pull him out of the leadoff spot, if not the everyday lineup. But that's a discussion for another day.
- On Saturday, C.C. Sabathia won his 4th straight start, going 8+ IP each time. The last Yankee with a streak like that was Andy Pettitte, late in his rookie season (1995).
June 6th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Great round-up of the day's games. Well written. I prefer it to websites like mlb.com or yahoo.com. Thank you!
June 6th, 2011 at 8:19 am
Just one small error - The Brewers did not finish off a 3-game sweep of the Marlins on Sunday, as they play the 4th and final game of the 4 game wraparound series Monday night.
June 6th, 2011 at 8:23 am
Nice job on these round-ups. They are like the internet version of the old "This Week in Baseball" weekly show, only we get them nearly every day.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:30 am
In yesterday's Yankees-Angels game, Derek Jeter got his 2986th hit.
For the past several days, the "next player" on the career Hits list for Jeter to catch has been Sam Rice (who has the most hits without reaching 3000).
Now the YES network (which carries the Yankee games) has been showing Rice's total as 2985 (meaning according to the network, Jeter has passed Rice). But on this site, Rice has 2987 (still one more than Jeter).
Obviously Baseball-Reference has the correct number, but does anyone have any theories as to why the YES Network is convinced Rice's hit total is 2 less than BR (other than someone made a mistake, because they have been showing it for days and someone would have had them correct the error by now)?
I apologize if this has been discussed on the site before, I haven't seen it.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:12 am
@2, Randy -- Thanks for the correction on my faulty sweep assumption. It's been a while since I've seen a wraparound series that didn't include a makeup game.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:19 am
@3, Jeff H -- I'm honored to be mentioned in the company of "T.W.I.B."!
I wish I could hijack their closing theme music and the slo-mo of Pete Rose sliding head-first into 3rd base. I still get goose-bumps whenever I see that credit sequence.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:27 am
@4, Tmckelv -- MLB officially credits Sam Rice with 2,987 hits, same as B-R.
The only lead I have on the source of the 2,985 error is this from the LoHud Yankees Blog:
"Baseball Reference lists a different hit total for Sam Rice, but according to the Yankees -- and Elias -- Derek Jeter tied Rice tonight, moving into a share of 28th place all time with career hit No. 2,985. Baseballreference.com says Rice had 2,987." [emphasis added]
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2011/06/05/postgame-notes-some-things-never-change/
Many websites are quoting the 2,985 number. I haven't found any discussion of a disputed total, but I feel certain that at least one of our readers knows something about it.
June 6th, 2011 at 11:50 am
No real comment, just chiming in to say that these are great!
June 6th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
@6,
I have a similar feeling for a later version of the TWIB closing credits during a face on shot of Will Clark showing that sweet swing and the crowd behind him jumping up after he hits (presumably) a HR.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
@7 JA,
Also, thanks for the info on the 2985 hits from Elias - that is definitely it, since they are always quoting Elias during the broadcast.
thankfully, Same Rice didn't finish with 2999 thru 3001 hits (depending on which number is the adjustment) - talk about a controversy. Yikes, that would be a mess.
June 6th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
With Escobar, Bautista and Lind, the Jays have 3/4 of a formidable top of the lineup. Will be interesting to see if Escobar can stay disciplined - he's making contact now, but still seems too much a free swinger to be a good leadoff man on a consistent basis. If Lind stays hot, except Bautista to get hot(ter) too as he starts seeing some better pitches.
Unfortunately, having Corey Patterson hitting second kind of gums up the works. Just in the past week, casually watching a few Jays games, I've seen him take the bat out of Bautista's hands with plays like stealing 2nd with Bautista batting, and sacrificing baserunner to 2nd with Bautista following. Hard to fathom what a veteran player like Patterson could be thinking with plays like those.
June 6th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
@11, I don't know, I'd rather have 2 runners on, one in scoring position, then one on.
However, for Bautista. He has 20 homeruns in 235 PAs. Here are his 'RISP' vs. 'Man On' splits:
RISP .262/.551/.595
Men On .375/.554/.700
So maybe for him, taking the bat out of his hand isn't the best, but only because he isn't lighting it up with runners in scoring position.
June 6th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Or to be more precise for your post, I'd rather have Patterson do his job on getting the leadoff hitter into scoring position with the risk of walking bautista then swinging and getting out.
June 6th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
@12. @13.
Other than his BA, hard to see much difference in Bautista between RISP and Men On. OPS is 1.146 and 1.254 - yes, it's a difference, but both numbers are fantastic.
My point in harping on Patterson is that, in the two situations I described, he's doing something which, even if he's successful, will likely result in taking the bat out of Bautista's hands. And, by walking Jose, it would appear the Jays' opponents agree with me - they would rather pitch to someone else, even it means there will be more men on base.
June 6th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Wow, didn't know Mike Dunne (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dunnemi01.shtml) was still around...
June 6th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
@15, Todd -- Thanks for the correction. I suffered a momentary loss of muscular coordination and wound up with a link to the wrong guy.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
@1 @3 @8
JA, can you stand all the praise?
You have taken BRef to a new level.
Nice catch on Adam Lind's second game back off the DL
@11
Doug N., gotta agree with you about Escobar's long-term suitability as a lead off hitter for the Jays. His impatience will ultimately come to the surface.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
@17, Neil L. -- Don't try to give me a fat head! 🙂 I've gotta stay hungry.
Re: Yunel Escobar leading off -- If it ain't broke....
Would you agree that Derek Jeter has been an effective leadoff man over the course of his career?
Jeter's career OBP is 13% above the league average.
Escobar's OBP this year is 14% above league.
Discounting his poor 2010 season, Escobar's other 3 seasons had OBPs that were 13%, 9% and 12% better than league.
His career walk rate is a little better than Jeter's: 9.6% of PAs for Yunel, 9.0% for Derek.
It looks to me like Escobar is performing very well overall this year, on pace for a career-high 5.9 WAR. The Jays' leadoff men are 4th in the AL in Runs, OBP and OPS. Why upset the apple cart?
June 6th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
I've been busy all day and just now am getting around to post this:
On Pujols' back-to-back walk-off HR, a Chicago radio station commented about it being the first since Ron Santo (but maybe they said first in the NL). I decided to check this out and got the following list of back-to-back walk-off HR since 1950:
Don Dillard, CLE, 1962, Jul 4-5
Ron Santo, CHC, 1966, May 28-29
Tom Paciorek, SEA, 1981, May 8-9
Fred Lynn, BAL, 1985, May 10-11
Alvin Davis, SEA, 1986, Aug 15-16
Albert Belle, CLE, 1995, Aug 31-Sep 1
Albert Pujols, STL, 2011, Jun 4-5
So Santo was the last (and only) in the NL before Pujols.
I got this list by using the Event Finder, Batting By Team, and choosing 2011, All teams, HR, doing the search, and then choosing Game-Ending and re-running the search. Then you can expand the years (not too many because it takes too long) and rerun the search again. Back-to-back games can be found by perusing the list of games at the bottom of the page. Then repeat for other years (it's a pain). Since I did it by hand, there may be some missing.
A few people hit walk-off HR in 2 of 3 games:
Claudell Washington, 1988, NYY, Sep 9, 11
Sammy Sosa, CHC, 1996, May 3,5
Damion Easley, DET, 2004, Sep 17, 19
Jim Edmonds, STL, 2000, Sep 1,3
There are many more teams with back-to-back walk-off HR, but only a few with three in a row (all different players except for the first case):
DET, 1998, Sep 17-19 (see Damion Easley above, who had the first and third games)
ARI, 1999, May 10-12
KCR, 2000, Apr 10-12 (their only 3 walk-off HR of the year)
DET, 2004, Jun 26, 27, 29 (Jun 28 was a day off)
Three teams had back-to-back HR in both ends of a doubleheader:
NYM, 1962, May 12
CHW, 1967, Jul 25
PIT, 2004, May 28
Once again, there may be some missing, but that's all I found. I think in all of the cases listed above there were no repeat pitchers within a streak, except for Alvin Davis, who hit both off of Keith Atherton.
June 6th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
@18
JA, a mind-blowing post about Jeter vs. Escobar! You sure know how to yank a baseball fan's chain.
Jeter has a much more established production record than Yunel Escobar. At this point in their respective careers, Escobar has a bit more pop than Jeter, I think.
Jeter suffers from age and .... with apologies, from playing in New York right now.
I don't think Jeter is the best lead-off hitter for the Yankees. IMO, Brett Gardner should be at the top of the lineup. But Joe Girardi will not pull the trigger on moving Derek down.
As you said, with the Yankees winning, if it ain't broke.....
June 7th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
With the Sam Rice discussion above, it should be noted that Cap Anson's hit totals have fluctuated above and below the 3000 mark, due partially to his 5 years in the NA. The last time I checked, he was at 2995.