Shutouts in 2008
Posted by Andy on July 31, 2008
With Matt Garza throwing a shutout two days ago, Tampa Bay has joined Cleveland as the only teams in 2008 with 4 complete-game shutouts.
Tm Year Games Link to Individual Games +---+----+-----+-------------------------+ TBR 2008 4 Ind. Games CLE 2008 4 Ind. Games TOR 2008 3 Ind. Games LAD 2008 3 Ind. Games PHI 2008 2 Ind. Games MIN 2008 2 Ind. Games MIL 2008 2 Ind. Games BOS 2008 2 Ind. Games TEX 2008 1 Ind. Games STL 2008 1 Ind. Games SFG 2008 1 Ind. Games OAK 2008 1 Ind. Games LAA 2008 1 Ind. Games COL 2008 1 Ind. Games ATL 2008 1 Ind. Games ARI 2008 1 Ind. Games
And here are the leaders for overall shutouts in 2008 (not necessarily complete games by the starting pitcher):
Tm Year Games Link to Individual Games +---+----+-----+-------------------------+ CLE 2008 11 Ind. Games BOS 2008 11 Ind. Games TBR 2008 10 Ind. Games TOR 2008 9 Ind. Games NYY 2008 9 Ind. Games LAD 2008 9 Ind. Games LAA 2008 8 Ind. Games ARI 2008 8 Ind. Games WSN 2008 7 Ind. Games SFG 2008 7 Ind. Games MIN 2008 7 Ind. Games
For some reason (probably the team name change) the "Ind. Games" links for the Rays are broken. But here's a bit more info on the CG SHOs:
Cleveland:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 C.C. Sabathia 2008-06-10 CLE MIN W 1-0 SHO9 ,W 9 5 0 0 0 5 0 106 77 82 29 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.00 2 C.C. Sabathia 2008-05-14 CLE OAK W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9 5 0 0 2 11 0 117 77 86 32 30 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 3 Fausto Carmona 2008-05-12(1) CLE TOR W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9 5 0 0 4 3 0 108 69 76 33 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 4 Cliff Lee 2008-04-24(2) CLE @KCR W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9 3 0 0 0 9 0 120 86 90 29 29 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
So they got 2 from Sabathia (who of course no longer plays for them) and 1 each from Carmona and Lee.
And for Tampa Bay:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 Matt Garza 2008-07-29 TBR @TOR W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9 5 0 0 1 5 0 106 74 81 30 29 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 2 James Shields 2008-05-09 TBR LAA W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9 1 0 0 0 8 0 92 61 93 28 27 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 3 James Shields 2008-04-27 TBR BOS W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9 2 0 0 1 7 0 99 66 89 29 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 4 Andy Sonnanstine 2008-04-19 TBR CHW W 5-0 SHO9 ,W 9 3 0 0 1 4 0 106 77 84 29 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
Two from Shields, one from Sonnanstine, and Garza's the other day. They haven't gotten one yet from arguably their best pitcher, Scott Kazmir.
I know that the Rays stumbled badly around the All-Star break, and almost certainly Boston will win the division, but they have a very solid pitching staff. They are going to be playoff contenders for the next 5 years.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:26 am
Do you still anticipate them beating out NY for the Wild Card?
July 31st, 2008 at 9:09 am
thebest--that's a tough call. There are a lot of factors:
- The Rays are young. It's not unusual to see young teams with little playoff experience crumble, and the Rays did seem to crumble a little bit around the AS break. Will they recover from that? Probably.
- The Yankees are old. Mussina and Pettitte have pitched very well this year but do they still have the stamina to pitch well in September and October? Pettitte probably yes, Mussina I'm not so sure.
- Will Chien-Ming Wang make it back this year in time for it to matter, and will he be effective? My guess is no.
- The Yankees have a VERY difficult schedule the rest of the way, including a majority of away games, as well as a majority of games against winning teams. They have a bunch left against the Angels, who have pummeled Boston in their last 2 series WITHOUT Teixeira.
Personally, I hope it's a close race between all 3 teams (Boston, Tampa Bay, and New York) for both the division and the wild card. Races are great for baseball, especially when teams with long playoff droughts are involved.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:42 am
I watched the LAA-BOS sweep as well as the sweep in ANA last week, and I think the Red Sox winning it is anything but a foregone conclusion. Although some may see it as the "resurgent Angels" stepping up, Boston appeared to be a beaten team.
You could luck at the body language and see this was a team with the life sucked out of them. Perhaps Manny will be traded today and the team will get a jolt of adrenaline, but what I saw was so out of context from the other BOS teams in the past few years I was amazed.
This was far more than Manny being Manny or J.D. Drew being whoever he is. Even the ones known as all out gamers Pedroia, Varitek, Lowell and especially Youkilous seemed beaten before the game started.
On Monday Dice-K had a 2-1 lead after 5, but when Kotchman hit a 2 run homer in the 6th, a literal pallor came over Fenway.
I don't know how much of this is the Manny issues, but the team is 11-16 since he beat up the traveling secretary. I don't think they can turn it around. Forget the Rays if you want, but the Yanks are just one game back, as are the Twins in the wild card race.