Random recap for Tuesday 8/9
Posted by John Autin on August 10, 2011
-- James Shields threw his 4th shutout, tying Derek Holland for the AL lead, and his 8th CG, tops in MLB by 2.
- He's the first pitcher with a CG shutout over the Royals in over a year.
- This century's high in CG was 10 by CC Sabathia in 2008.
- Shields is Tampa's career leader with 66 wins and 6 shutouts, also leads in IP, Ks, CG and GS.
- Tampa got just 5 hits, all from their top 3 hitters, and no walks. Evan Longoria drove in all 4 runs
-- Chien-Ming Wang has not allowed a hit through 5 IP in Chicago. Wang has a pair of 2-hit CGs on his resume.
- The Cubs have not been no-hit since 1965, when Sandy Koufax (perfect game) and Jim Maloney (10 IP, 10 walks) both turned the trick.
- (Never mind.)
-- Speaking of unlikely pitching performances, did you think you'd ever see another game like this from Dontrelle Willis? -- 8 IP, 10 Ks, 1 walk; and for good measure, an RBI triple (now 6 for 12 with a "season cycle"). Alas for him, he came out on the wrong end of a 3-2 score.
- Did I say unlikely? Willis now has 5 quality starts in 6 games, with a 3.41 ERA and a reasonable 12 walks in 37 IP.
- Willis is the first pitcher this year with a HR, triple, double and single. Travis Wood was the only pitcher to do that last year.
- Todd Helton had 4 strikeouts for just the 2nd time in his 2,033 career games, and did so in just 4 PAs for the first time ever. Helton fanned 3 times against Willis and once against Aroldis Chapman, who ran his scoreless streak to 12.2 IP (2 hits, 3 walks, 21 Ks).
-- Brent Morel homered tonight, his 2nd and the 2nd all year by a ChiSox 3B. Four other AL teams have gotten 5 HRs or less from the hot corner.
- After a 6-game skid, the White Sox have won a season-high 5 straight to get back within a game of .500. They haven't been over .500 since Tax Day.
-- In his last appearance, A.J. Burnett allowed a career-high 13 hits, but no walks. He got through 5 scoreless innings tonight without a walk. In 300 career starts, Burnett has never had consecutive walk-free games, and has just 11 such games in all.
- Ah, but a leopard does not change his tattoos so easily. After a leadoff HR by Bobby Abreu in the 6th, Burnett walked the bases loaded (one intentionally), allowed 2 runs on a double by Jeff Mathis (now hitting .185), then brought in a 4th run with a wild pitch, his MLB-high 15th. Burnett has not won in his last 6 starts.
- For those who read the NY papers ... no word on whether A.J. had fun tonight.
- Head-scratcher: In that 6th inning, with 2 out, a man on 2nd and the game still tied at 1, Burnett intentionally walked ... Maicer Izturis?!? Sure, Izturis is a switch-hitter and was 2 for 2 tonight, while Bourjos is a righty with a decent platoon differential. But in the 6th inning, with one runner on, you want to walk a #7 hitter batting .272 with 5 HRs?
- Abreu homered again in the 9th, a tiebreaking 2-run shot off Mariano Rivera that put the Angels ahead for good. It was the 2nd HR Rivera has allowed this year.
- The Yanks' 9th-inning threat ended when Curtis Granderson was picked off on the ol' fake-to-3rd/throw-to-1st play that "never works."
-- Francisco Liriano allowed 7 walks in 6 IP against the Red Sox, matching the MLB season high. It's been over a year since any pitcher issued more than 7 walks in a game. (Ian Kennedy walked 9 in a D-backs loss, one day after teammate Edwin Jackson's 8-walk no-hitter.)
- Erik Bedard walked 4 in the 1st inning and fell behind 2-0, but allowed no more runs in his 5-inning stint. Boston's go-ahead run scored on a David Ortiz infield single ... to the pitcher. (Now that's one I've gotta see.)
-- The Mets rallied late to win for the 2nd straight night. Ruben Tejada sent home the winning run with his 4th bases-loaded walk in 17 trips.
- Australian phenom Josh Spence had been nearly untouchable in 20 IP since his callup, allowing 1 run and stranding all 9 inherited runners, but he couldn't get out of an inherited jam tonight, and walked 2 in a row to force in the game-winner.
-- Duane (Fire Down) Below threw 4 perfect innings, after a long rain delay ended Doug Fister's night. Below has retired 22 straight batters over 3 perfect relief outings.
-- Jason Marquis and an error by Willie Bloomquist left the D-backs in a 7-1 hole after 4 innings. But Micah Owings blanked the Astros in the 5th and 6th and hurt them at the dish in each inning; he singled and scored in Arizona's 4-run 5th, then bunted up 2 runners in the 6th to set up Bloomquist's game-tying hit.
- Justin Upton's 23rd HR put the Snakes on top to keep the pressure on the Giants, who lead Pittsburgh 3-0 in the 8th.
- In 10 games, Houston rookie J.D. Martinez has 4 HRs and 12 RBI, slugging .722 at this writing.
-- Cliff Lee is through 7 IP in a bid for his 2nd straight shutout and 6th of the year, and hit his 2nd HR off Ted Lilly for a 2-0 lead.
- Lee had been 2 for 26 with 16 Ks against lefties before the HR.
What else?
August 10th, 2011 at 12:40 am
For the second straight Tuesday the Brewers and Cardinals played an extra inning game, and for the second straight Tuesday the away team won. In both games the Brewers had an inning begin with the bases loaded and no outs but failed to score.
The Brewers have now won 12 of 13 games
August 10th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Brewers are 16 games above .500 for the first time since 1992
August 10th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Lee gets pulled after 8 innings and 120+ pitches. No chance for the CGSHo.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:06 am
By losing to Oakland tonight, 4-1, the thoroughly mediocre Blue Jays fall to 58 wins and 57 losses. The Jays have been as many as three games above .500 on only three days this season, and as many as four or five games below .500 on only seven days. They've had a run differential above +30 or below -10 on only three days.
Yes, it is a rut, and it may be the best their fans (me included) can expect in 2011.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:09 am
@2, On August 31, 2008 the Brewers were 24 games above .500 at 80-56. That game also should have been a no-hitter by CC Sabathia but the official scorer awarded the only hit of the game by the Pirates on a ball that rolled 40 ft in front of the plate which Sabathia bobbled and dropped.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:15 am
You are right Topper.
I forgot to add, that the Brewers haven't been 16 games above .500 at this point of the season (August 9) since 1992. They had a great August in 2008 and were 24 games above .500 at the end of that month.
They were 66-51 on August 9, 2008.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:32 am
@4.
Kahuna, Thanks for the particulars on the Jays treadmill season. I had an inkling it was something like that, because, watching them on a fairly regular basis, it just seems like they've been right around .500, basically the whole year.
Evidently, the inkling was right.
August 10th, 2011 at 2:15 am
It is reported that the Giants' last 18 homeruns have been solo shots, one short of the ML record held by the 1914 Phillies.
August 10th, 2011 at 2:47 am
Doug, my post was just a closer look at the same inkling. (-;þ
August 10th, 2011 at 3:43 am
Last Saturday, the only player ever whose surname begins with E-O (Nathan Eovaldi) made his big-league debut for the Dodgers, giving up two runs in five innings to earn the win. The Dodgers pinch-hit for Eovaldi with the only active big-league player whose surname begins with O-E (Trent Oeltjen).
August 10th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Only one pitcher with 10CG since 2000. It used to be that 10CG was the requirement for the ERA title.
August 10th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Micah Owings pitched to Brian Bogasevic of Houston in that game. Both played for the Tulane CWS team of 2005. Four other players from that team have made the majors at least briefly; Tommy Manzella, Brandon Gomes, Mark Hamilton, Brad Emaus.
August 10th, 2011 at 9:47 am
Walk-off hit by pitch in the 14th inning in Cleveland. First run since the top of the 2nd.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Gang -- That's a nice assortment of "what else"!
August 10th, 2011 at 10:28 am
The game-ending HBP was the 2nd this year and 28th since 1991 (out of 31,364 HBP). No pitcher or hitter has had more than 1.
Career leaders in HBP since 1901, and their game-ending HBP totals:
-- Craig Biggio (285) ... 0
-- Don Baylor (267) ... 0
-- Jason Kendall (254) ... 0
-- Ron Hunt (243) ... 0
August 10th, 2011 at 10:29 am
I guess Cliff Lee was tired from jogging the bases....
August 10th, 2011 at 10:59 am
A minor nitpick. the pickoff that "never works" was actually fake to first and throw to 2nd. Granderson broke the wrong way so Walden calmly threw to Aybar who chased Granderson back towards first where Trumbo made the asy tag.
Meanwhile Mark Texiera, the potential winning-run was left watching in the batters box.
August 10th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
@17/Spartan Bill -I saw Tim Wakefield earlier this year successfully execute the "fake to 3rd/throw to 1st" pickoff, so that phrase may need to be altered to "ALMOST never works".
August 10th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
@18
Wakefield managed to do a fake to 3rd/throw to 1st pickoff successfully last year.
August 10th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
I put "never works" in quotes because it seems that no one is allowed to mention that play without adding that "it never works" -- even though, you know, it sometimes does.
August 10th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
The Red Sox-Twins game had 14 walks and only 12 hits between the two teams, I wonder how many times that happens.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
"•Abreu homered again in the 9th, a tiebreaking 2-run shot off Mariano Rivera that put the Angels ahead for good.---"
Back-to-back rough outings for Rivera. To give Joe Girardi his credit, he brought Mariano into the game in a non-save situation.
It didn't work out, but maybe we're seeing the passing of the torch to Robertson or somebody else.
Nice analysis of the Yankees' game, including the AJ implosion inning.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
The Red Sox-Twins game had 14 walks and only 12 hits between the two teams, I wonder how many times that happens.
Cameron, I wasn't sure exactly how you wanted that broken down, so I searched for games where both teams had exactly six hits and each team's hits total was less than its walk total times 1.25 (the Twins had five walks and six hits in the 8/9/11 game). I found 79 games between 1919 and 2011 matching those criteria.
Would you have set the search parameters differently?