Nine Is Usually The Magic Number For Torre’s Yanks
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 3, 2007
The Yankees lost their game yesterday, by a score of 13-9. Thanks to Baseball-Reference's Play Index Team Batting Gamelog Finder, we can see that it's just the 20th time since 1996 (aka the "Torre Era") that the Bronx Bombers have scored 9+ runs in a game and lost:
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB Batrs
----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+-----
1 2007-08-02 NYY CHW L 9-13 43 41 9 15 2 0 2 9 2 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 7 11
2 2007-05-04 NYY SEA L 11-15 47 41 11 16 3 0 2 11 6 0 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 9 12
3 2006-06-17 NYY @WSN L 9-11 46 42 9 15 4 0 3 9 3 1 7 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 10 17
4 2005-09-27 NYY @BAL L 9-17 44 39 9 12 1 0 3 8 5 0 8 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 8 10
5 2004-07-24 NYY @BOS L 10-11 46 42 10 12 4 0 1 9 3 0 7 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 9 10
6 2004-07-03 NYY @NYM L 9-10 44 36 9 12 4 0 2 8 6 1 6 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 8 18
7 2003-08-11 NYY @KCR L 9-12 43 38 9 15 8 0 2 8 3 0 5 1 1 0 0 1 2 1 7 9
8 2002-06-20 NYY @COL L 11-14 48 46 11 19 5 1 3 11 0 0 9 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 7 19
9 2000-07-13 NYY FLA L 9-11 47 38 9 12 3 0 1 9 8 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 11 10
10 2000-06-17 NYY CHW L 9-10 45 41 9 15 3 0 1 9 4 0 9 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 9 9
11 1999-09-11 NYY BOS L 10-11 49 42 10 12 0 0 2 9 7 0 5 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 12 14
12 1998-08-23 NYY @TEX L 10-12 40 38 10 13 3 0 4 9 2 0 11 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 9
13 1998-05-27 NYY @CHW L 9-12 43 34 9 6 1 1 1 6 9 0 7 0 0 0 3 1 0 1 7 9
14 1997-09-23 NYY @CLE L 9-10 43 39 9 13 2 0 1 9 4 0 7 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 11
15 1997-09-05 NYY BAL L 9-13 43 41 9 16 5 0 1 9 2 0 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 9
16 1997-04-08 NYY @ANA L 9-10 54 50 9 19 6 1 2 9 2 0 7 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 9 10
17 1996-09-19(2) NYY BAL L 9-10 41 37 9 11 1 0 4 9 4 0 9 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 13
18 1996-09-03 NYY @OAK L 9-10 43 36 9 12 1 0 2 9 5 0 6 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 7 12
19 1996-08-18 NYY SEA L 12-13 60 53 12 19 5 0 1 12 7 1 11 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 12 13
20 1996-07-17 NYY @BOS L 11-12 52 45 11 19 4 0 3 11 6 0 6 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 14 13
In the "Ouch!" Department, in 6 of these 20 losses, the Yankees lost the game by one run.
Further, the game yesterday was just the 8th time since 1996 where the Yankees have scored 9+ runs in a game at home and lost the game.
Lastly, in these 20 losses, 3 times Jeff Nelson was charged with the loss - while, Hideki Irabu, El Duque Hernandez, and Mo Rivera took two of these 20, each, as losses as well.
Twice, Nelson blew the game in the last frame - as did Rivera in both of his losses. In fact, of the 20 losses, there were 6 times in total where the Yankees lost the game with their last pitcher of the contest on the hill.
On the brighter-side, for Yankees fans, in the "Torre Era," the Yankees have scored 9+ runs in a game and won 337 times.
A record of 337-20 since 1996 tells you that, most times, if the Yankees score 9+ runs in a game, they're going to win it.
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
While interesting, not, in my eyes, a terribly useful stat. The Pirates, who can probably best be defined as the anti-Yankees (no winning seasons in the Torre era) are 171-15 when scoring 9 or more runs. The difference in winning percentage is very slight, considering the chasm between the two teams overall. (Yanks .944, Pirates .919).
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Overall in 2007, when teams score 9 runs, they are 379-25 (.938). It looks like the truly good teams win one or two extra games while the bad teams lose one or two extra games.
Of course, the true measure of a team is how it performs in lower-scoring games.