Random Recap for Thursday 8/4
Posted by John Autin on August 5, 2011
[Rounding up the day's action while still pondering the scoring of Brendan Ryan's "infield triple"....]
-- Cliff Lee became the 4th pitcher this century with 5 shutouts in a season, joining CC Sabathia, Dontrelle Willis and A.J. Burnett. (See, I can say something nice about A.J.!) The last pitcher with more than 5 was Randy Johnson in 1998 (6).
- Madison Bumgarner (8 IP, 2 runs, 9 Ks, loss) now has 13 starts this year in which he's allowed 2 runs or less in 6 IP or more. In those 13 games, he's allowed 17 total runs (13 ER) in 82.2 IP, a 1.42 ERA -- yet has gone 5-5. Every other pitcher with at least 10 such starts has a winning record in them; the median W% for that group is .875.
- Hunter Pence went from the team with the worst record to the team with the best, and the difference has shown from day 1. He's been with the Phillies for 6 games, all wins, and has hit in all of them. He hadn't experienced more than 4 straight wins since 2008; his last 6 wins with Houston took 19 games. He had endured six 5-game losing skids this year alone; the Phillies haven't lost 5 straight since May of last year.
-- Justin Masterson (3 runs, 9 Ks in 6 IP) had a difficult 2010 season, but one bright spot was his domination of his former Red Sox teammates: 2-0 in 2 starts, 1 run and 6 hits in 14 IP. Now that he's found a groove (2.63 ERA this year), he still has that touch: 2 quality starts in 2 tries against Boston this season, raising his mark to 3-0, 1.95 against his old team.
-- From bad to worse for Pittsburgh: Leading 6-4 after 7 innings -- thanks largely to a 2-out, 3-run double by pitcher James McDonald -- three straight relievers failed to get an out in the 8th, as the Cubs scored 3 runs to hand the Bucs their 7th straight defeat. Chicago's winning rally featured a HBP after the batter fouled off 2 sac bunt attempts; base hits on counts of 0-2, 0-1 and 1-1; a walk that scored the tying run; and the game-winning sac fly on a 1-2 pitch.
- While the lead was vanishing in the 8th, Joel Hanrahan -- who has a 1.13 ERA and had pitched just 1 inning in the club's last 6 games -- stayed in the bullpen, awaiting the save chance that never came. Then, like salt in the wound, Clint Hurdle brought in Hanrahan for the 9th.
- McDonald got his first career RBI in his 70th AB.
- The Cubs, who had their first 3-game win streak just 10 days ago, have won 5 in a row, 4 of them in Pittsburgh.
-- Alex Gordon (4 for 5, MLB-best 34th double) is now hitting .311/.382/.505 for the season. He's 18 for his last 37, with 3 HRs and 8 doubles.
-- The Detroit pitching sequence I've waited 2 weeks for has finally happened: Below-Alburquerque. That's Duane "Fire Down" Below and Al "No Left Turn" Alburquerque, of course ... Alas for the Tigers, our nickname heroes were preceded by Brad "Bad" Penny (11 hits and 5 runs in 6.2 IP), whose turn in the rotation just keeps coming around, to the delight of opposing batsmen and the occasional chagrin of his catchers.
- Despite lingering concerns about his elbow, Alburquerque has allowed neither a run of his own nor an inherited run in 5.2 IP since his return from the DL. His 93% strand rate -- only 2 of his 27 inherited runners have scored -- is 2nd in MLB among the 86 pitchers who have inherited at least 20 runners; only the LOOGY George Sherrill (2 of 29) has been better.
- I call him "No Left Turn" because -- besides the Bugs Bunny quip -- no one currently on a MLB roster has an extra-base hit off him. All but 1 of the 18 hits he's allowed in 34.2 IP was a single; the only double was hit by Minnesota's Luke Hughes, who's back in the minors. His .156 SLG would be the 2nd-lowest on record in a season of 30+ IP.
- It's now 47 games since the last HR by Victor Martinez. In that span, he's hitting .345 -- 60 for 174, with 30 RBI (a 103-RBI season pace) and just 17 strikeouts -- but with just 9 doubles and 51 singles. Weird.
- And yet ... is there a more consistent hitter from year to year than V-Mart? This would be his 7th year qualifying for the batting title, his 7th with an OPS+ between 122 and 130, and his 6th with a BA between .302 and .322.
-- Ivan Nova (1 run in 7.2 IP) had a career-best 10 strikeouts with no walks, and his 2nd straight strong outing since his recall from AAA carried the Yankees into a 1st-place tie.
- He's the first Yankee in over 5 years with 10+ Ks and 0 BB (Jaret Wright, 2006-07-07).
-- Desmond Jennings (3-6, game-tying HR in the 10th, double in the 11th) has 17 hits in 12 games, 9 for extra bases (.708 SLG), with 10 RBI and 9 runs.
-- In all the majors, there are 5 qualifying SPs with a sub-1 WHIP, and two of them are Angels. Dan Haren is improving his mark tonight, allowing 1 hit and no walks through 7 IP.
- In the previous 4 seasons, no qualifying SP had a WHIP below 1.
- In Angels franchise history, the only qualifying sub-1 WHIP was by Frank Tanana in 1976.
- Haren already has a 1-hitter and a 2-hitter this year, both shutouts. The last pitcher with 3 shutouts of 2 hits or less in a season was Mike Moore in 1993, a year in which he had a 5.22 ERA.
- ... and no sooner did I finish that sentence than Haren gave up a HR to start the 8th, followed by 3 straight singles. On the last of those hits, Danny Valencia was gunned down at home, for the 1st out of the inning, with his team trailing by 6 runs. Oy, Valencia!
- With his 12th win, Haren joins CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay as the only pitchers to reach that mark every year since 2005.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:41 am
John, you really have a talent for this. Much appreciated, my favourite AM reading material.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Before Thursday, the last two-out, three-run double by a Pirates pitcher was on July 21, 1989, by John Smiley in the bottom of the seventh inning of game one of a doubleheader, off the Dodgers' Tim Belcher, scoring Bobby Bonilla, Glenn Wilson, and Benny Distefano.
The Pirates' other run in that game came on a solo homer by the leadoff hitter, a young outfielder named Bonds.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:45 am
WIll be looking forward to the "Yankees 3rd team in last 100 years or so to sweep a 4-game series and not give up a walk" thread.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:47 am
How about Jose Molina tripling in Tampa Bay, only the 3rd of his career?? And Tampa isn't an odd shaped park, how the heck did he hit a triple? OFer fall down?
August 5th, 2011 at 8:38 am
Pence's HR last night was an absolute monster rainmaker to left. He went 3 for 4. He's definitely doing his part for those wins.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Noticing that Pence hit his home run on the first pitch on his first at-bat, it sent me on a research.
Pence is always among the leaders on first pitch swings. This year, he goes for it on 37% of his at-bats.
It was his 3rd first pitch home run of the year and 20th of his career.
Before last night, there had been 466 home runs on the first pitch of an at-bat in MLB. In 2010, there were 769.
In 2011, Aramis Ramirez (surprise, surprise...) is the leader for first pitch home runs with 10. Last year, Vladimir Guerrero (surprise, surprise again...) ranked first also with 10.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:23 am
"From bad to worse for Pittsburgh: ....."
JA, what a crushing way to lose a game. It dwarfs (almost) the two blown saves and eventual loss by another team yesterday that Andy posted about in the next blog. A series sweep at home by the Cubs is the sound of the clock striking twelve for the Pirates, I think. Their deficit isn't insurmountable but they have to catch two teams to win the division.
Aren't the baseball gods cruel? We have been wondering all year how Pittsburg was getting it done with relatively little talent. And now they lose a game they "deserved" to win.
"While the lead was vanishing in the 8th, Joel Hanrahan -- ...."
Hindsight is perfect, but is Hurdle's decision going to re-kindle the whole debate about the wisdom of the one-inning-only closer? Hanrahan will be fresher for the next game, ........
August 5th, 2011 at 9:37 am
7 in a row for Pence and his teammates, not 6! No off days despite the travel.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:39 am
"Hanrahan will be fresher for the next game, ...."
Except they ended up using him anyway. Pittsburgh has lost several games in this fashion this year I believe.
Washington trailed Colorado 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth and used a lesser reliever who gave up three runs to make it 6-1. Turned out to be a "high leverage situation" after all when they scored two off of overpaid Huston Street in the top of the ninth and lost 6-3. Street's ERA is now>4.0.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:44 am
And ditto #1. I really enjoy this board
August 5th, 2011 at 10:27 am
@9
Stan, thanks for correcting me regarding Hanrahan's appearance in the game yesterday. John did mention it originally in his blog.
So your point in the Washington-Colorado example is that Street got a cheap save? Or ....??
Seems to me the circumstances of your game are substantially different than the Pirates-Cubs of yesterday. The Pirates had a two-run lead that was in jeopardy in the bottom of the eighth and their primary closer remained on the bench because it wouldn't be a one-inning save opportunity, as I understand it.
My question is "Is it just hindsight talking or should a manager be willing to use his closer when he needs 4, 5 or 6 outs to earn the save"? And by having Hanrahan pitch the ninth after the horses were out of the barn, well, perhaps he needed the work, but his arm got used up anyway.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:34 am
No street didn't get a save at all. My point is that he is mediocre.
The circumstances were quite different, I agree. Few managers would have used a "good relief pitcher" in the Washington situation; I probably wouldn't have. Your point is correct about the Pittsburgh situation, especially when they start getting base runners.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:43 am
@3/ Dave Says: "WIll be looking forward to the "Yankees 3rd team in last 100 years or so to sweep a 4-game series and not give up a walk" thread."
Well Dave, I think that you will be waiting a very very very very very very long time for that to happen.
A sweep, I can see as unlikely but possible, but _no_ walks in four games?
August 5th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Correction: The Phillies have won 7 in a row, but Pence has only been with them for the last 6.
August 5th, 2011 at 11:53 am
bold prediction: gordon and pujols will end up with the same average at the end of the season: .301
August 5th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@4, Dave:
There IS an odd wall in left-centre field and the ball caromed off it to the right that Upton had to chase down.
See the replay:
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17638689
See the seating chart, in particular ate section 149:
http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/ticketing/seating_pricing.jsp
August 5th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
@6
Imbroglio, concerning Hunter Pence. He looks so far like a great acquisition for the Phils. Why does everything the Phillies touch turn to gold? The Pat Gillick effect?
Anyway, my point about Pence is that his power production is down quite a bit this year. He has been consistent on 25 HR per season but last night's only makes 12. Would he be better advised to wait a bit and look for HIS pitch rather than the first pitch?
You'd figure advance scouts would be all over Pence's first pitch tendancies.
August 5th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Saw Pence in person in Denver the other day. He very definitely can be pitched to.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Masterson had 4 strikeouts in the second inning.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
@13/ Dave, I see {now that I have done some further reading} that you were referring to the just-concluded four-game sweep of the White Sox by the Yankees, not the upcoming series of the Yankees vs. the Red Sox.
I am properly chagrined.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
@3 @13 @16
Lawrence, I missed the astuteness of Dave's observation in #3 as well. Thank you.
August 5th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
@3, Dave -- Excellent observation re: Yanks issuing no walks in 4 straight games. I didn't realize just how rare that is; and if they can make it 5 straight -- against Boston, no less -- it will be really impressive.
(BTW, is it really possible that A.J. Burnett was part of this streak?!?)
It's the first time since 2002 that a team went 4 straight games (regardless of series) without issuing a walk. The team was the Yankees, and the 6-game streak did include a 4-game series, but they only won 3 of 4, so it doesn't meet Dave's strict criteria. Oddly, the Yanks used 6 different SPs in that streak: El Duque, Wells, Mussina, Clemens, Pettitte and Jeff Weaver.
There have been just 2 other 4-game walkless streaks since 1977, by the 2000 A's and the '92 Royals.
Besides the '02 Yanks' 6-game streak, the only other walkless streak longer than 4 games since 1919 was 5 games by the '65 Dodgers.
Summing up: Since 1919, the longest streaks issuing no walks were 6 games, by the 2002 Yankees, and 5 games, by the '65 Dodgers. There were 11 four-game streaks, including the Yanks' current streak.
No other team in the last 2 seasons has gone even 3 straight games without issuing a free pass.
Wow!
August 5th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
P.S. re: walkless streaks and 4-game series:
-- Besides the Yankees' just-completed sweep of the White Sox, the only other 4-game, no-walk sweep since 1919 was by the '68 BoSox, also against Chicago and also starting in the first week of August.
-- Three others included a 4-game series, but not a sweep: 2002 Yankees (vs. Detroit), the 2000 A's (vs. Tampa), and the '32 Reds (vs. Braves).
Dave, did you do the search, or was it just intuition that the walkless 4-game sweep was extremely rare?
August 5th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
You forgot Masterson's 4 strike out inning in there.
August 5th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Neil L. re: Pirates game:
My point is, it's confounding that, trying to end a 6-game losing streak, holding a 2-run lead but with bases loaded and no outs in the 8th, Clint Hurdle's SOS went to Jason Grilli, a journeyman with no particular penchant for DPs, strikeouts, or anything else good (unless you put great weight in this year's 9-inning sample, in which case his awful walk rate must also be considered).
Of course there's no guarantee that Hanrahan would have bailed them out of that jam, no matter his 1.13 ERA and 90% strand rate. But he is unquestionably their best pitcher. And if you absolutely won't use your best pitcher in the highest-leverage situation, you will certainly lose more games over the course of a season than you would otherwise.
August 5th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
I did fail to mention Masterson's 4-K inning.
For those who don't know my method of operation:
I only use stuff that I notice myself, from the box score, the play-by-play, or watching on TV (mainly the Mets). I sometimes listen to Baseball Tonight while composing my notes, but I don't use any nuggets they provide unless I came up with them independently. I'm not saying there's any great principle involved; it's just the path I've chosen. I like the challenge.
I pore over the box scores, but I only skim the play-by-play unless something draws my attention to a particular inning. Since the Red Sox didn't score or even threaten during Masterson's 4-K inning, I wasn't looking closely; and while I'd like to think that I might notice a 4-K frame anyway, this time I missed it.
Congrats to those who noticed it themselves!
August 5th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Is there a way to search for series sweeps with the PI? I know that last night, the Cubs got their first 4-game sweep in Pittsburgh since 1959, but I can;t find the Pirates' last 4-game sweep of the Cubs in Chicago.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
@27, Tony Miller -- The P-I can't directly search for series sweeps. But by indirect means, I think I found the last 4-game sweep by Pittsburgh in Wrigley Field:
June 11-14, 1962.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1962-schedule-scores.shtml
(BTW, total attendance was less than 20,000 for the 4 games.)
My method: I did a Team Pitching Streak Finder, Team=Pirates, Opponent=Cubs, Visitor, clicked on "Consecutive Ws", then Get Report.
Then I just eyeballed every result that was 4 games or more to see if the dates made a 4-game sweep possible; and if so, I went to the team Schedule and Results page to get the details.
For some reason, the Team Streak Finder doesn't add links in the results table, so it's a little more effort than it could be.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Dan Haren really has been a great pitcher. He's probably the least celebrated top-shelf pitcher of recent years.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@29, Zachary -- Right on about Haren. And durable; since 2005, he's made more starts than anyone, and is 2nd to CC in IP.
August 5th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
@19 Brendan and @24 Jim,
In defence of JA, I know you guys aren't being critical but he packs so much interesting detail into one recap and there can be up to 15 games a night so some little tidbits can be overlooked or the blog will never get posted.
That's why John often invites readers, like yourselves, to add to the recaps.
And now I'm going to go and look at the Cleveland-Boston play-by-play and see if the 4K inning was a pass ball, a wild pitch, a catcher's interference or some other event.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
@17 - It's payback time for all sorts of bad deals that the Phillies made in the 1980s, 1990s, and earlier in the 2000s.
However, as things stand right now, thinking back on another trade that the Phillies and Astros made almost 20 years ago, some may think that it takes 12 Pence to equal one Schilling.
August 5th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
@32, Double -- Given that "Bad" Penny was part of the original post, I heartily endorse your pecuniary punnery! (If I may coin a phrase.)
August 5th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
I heartily endorse your pecuniary punnery! (If I may coin a phrase.)
Standard surveillance, East Coast Region. Will advise if higher level of scrutiny becomes necessary. Groan quotient medium.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Say, aren't you the same copper who submitted about a dozen themed lists of clever search/results combos on a recent thread? 🙂
August 5th, 2011 at 11:19 pm
[...] noted by B-R reader Dave in another thread, the Yankee pitchers did not issue a walk in their recent 4-game sweep of the [...]
August 6th, 2011 at 12:03 am
@32 @33
Double and JA, you guys are waaay too clever for me.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:38 am
Oh come on, Neil ... ante up a loonie and take your best shot!
August 6th, 2011 at 3:39 am
aren't you the same copper who submitted about a dozen themed lists of clever search/results combos on a recent thread?
Can neither confirm nor deny.
References to "copper" and "thread" within the same sentence have alerted us to possible plumbing-themed violations. We will be watching carefully for suspicious utterances concerning lead (the substance), pitted fruit, and artificially folksy ways of saying "altogether" or "very." Conduct your bad self accordingly. (-;þ
August 6th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Pipe down, ya plumbum! (?) 🙂
August 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
@39
Pun Police, you even ripped off the Tuna's avatar! 🙂
JA, good try. I like the "plum-" but the "bum" doesn't fit, other than being the Latin word for lead. I'm stuck on the third clue. I wanna say "ultra-" or "uber-" but can't make it work and am getting a mental block.