Odds & Ends
Posted by Raphy on August 5, 2008
I was playing around with PI and came across a couple of things that I wouldn't have thought actually happened. They're not related to this season, but interesting none-the-less.
1. Pitching 1 inning and recording all 3 outs via pickoff. Tippy Martinez in 1983.
2. 2 Batters faced, both intentionally walked. Ron Bryant in 1973 and Moe Drabowsky in 1961.
I was also suprised to learn that there have been over 30,015 217 appearances by a pitcher (since 1956) in which the pitcher has intentionally walked the only batter he faced. 4 of those pitchers (including 1 in 2006 and 1 in 2007) received the loss in their game.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
30,015? Wouldn't that be 3.5 of those per day since '56?
August 5th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Yeah. I must have messed up my search. There have been 217.
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/cQQb
Thanks.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:06 am
There's a story behind the Martinez game, though I'm not sure I'll get the details right. It's something like the team was forced to use as catcher someone who didn't ordinarily play that position, so all the runners were taking big leads & planning to steal second, so Martinez picked them off.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:51 am
gerry,
Yeah, Lenn Sakata was catching. You can read about it here...
http://swingandmiss.blogspot.com/2004/07/greatest-game-never-seen.html
August 6th, 2008 at 11:38 am
That's a great article, statboy. Thanks for the link.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Wow! Statboy , thanks for that article. It is a great read.