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Thursday night in the Bronx, 22-year-old Matt Moore, Tampa's latest pitching phenom, struck out 11 over 5 scoreless innings and earned his first big-league win in his first start, as the Rays roared out early and cruised to a 15-8 victory to move 2 games back of idle Boston. Moore allowed 4 singles and a walk, threw 59 strikes in 84 pitches, and permitted just one runner as far as 2nd base. He matched the high strikeout game against the Yankees this year, by Jered Weaver on Sept. 9. (Sorry, no video links available yet.)

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Jacoby Ellsbury is currently tied with Adrian Gonzalez for the major-league lead in total bases with 340. The odd thing is that Ellsbury isn't tied or leading in any other statistical category. The guy who leads in total bases usually also leads in something else--homers, batting average, slugging percentage...

Here are the yearly leaders for total bases. Can you find another player to lead in total bases only?

I did a little bit of manual searching to find out which players have appeared in all their team's games so far and thus have a chance to appear in all 162 this season. Read the rest of this entry »

Yankees 4, Rays 2 (2nd game): Deja vu all over again. The Yankees had clinched a playoff berth in the opener with an 8th-inning rally and a 4-2 win; the used the same formula in the nightcap to clinch the AL East, their 12th division title in 16 years. In 2 weeks they'll begin to work in earnest on ending their long championship drought....

Jorge Posada, who was just 2 for 24 as a pinch-hitter the past 2 years and .210 for his career, came off the bench with the game tied in the 8th, 2 out and the bases full -- after Robinson Cano was intentionally passed with men on 1st and 2nd (?) -- and pulled a pitch from Brandon Gomes into RF for a 2-run single. Read the rest of this entry »

If the Giants are indeed done -- pending their own Wednesday outcome, they trail Arizona by 6 full games, and Atlanta by 4 for the wild card -- then Clayton Kershaw is as much to blame as anyone outside the organization. Ditto if Tim Lincecum finishes at or below .500 for the first time in his career.

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Yankees 4, Rays 2: We knew it wouldn't be easy for Tampa to catch Boston while playing 7 of their last 10 games against the Yankees. But this one really hurt them.

In the 8th inning, Robinson Cano waited calmly on a 3-1 curveball from lefty J.P. Howell -- LHPs haven't bothered Cano in about 5 years -- and ripped it to deep CF for a tie-breaking 2-run double. Then, Mariano Rivera did what a shut-down closer does, retiring the top of Tampa's order without a hitch for his 603rd save, as New York claimed the first 2 games of this 4-game set and secured the 16th postseason berth in the 17-year careers of Rivera, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.

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Courtesy of Night Owl cards, I forgot that the Rays (then called the Devil Rays) once wore uniforms that were mostly green.

How did I miss the elegant beauty of the Fister-Furbush trade?

Here are players in 2011 with at least as many walks as hits (minimum 50 plate appearances):

These guys are all "batting average challenged", hence how they amassed more walks.

Here are the folks in the last 40 years (1971-2011) to have more walks than hits in a season with at least 450 plate appearances:

It's quite a polarized group--on the one hand there are guys like Dunn, Tettleton, and, yes, Deer, who have low batting averages but good walk totals. On the other hand, there are guys with high batting averages who walked a lot and simply didn't get enough at-bats to amass a lot of hits. Note that Barry Bonds' 2002 batting average is more than double Dunn's from this year, and yet both qualify.

It's interesting to see a list with HOF-caliber players--Henderson, McCovey, Bonds, McGwire, and Sheffield--with a bunch of other guys who got no consideration for the hall.

-- Marlins 6, Braves 5: With 2 out in the last of the 9th, Omar Infante drilled a tailing-in fastball from Craig Kimbrel for a game-ending 2-run HR, his 6th HR of the year. Atlanta's wild-card lead is down to 2 losses over St. Louis; they've lost 8 games in the standings since August 23, going 9-15 while the Cards went 17-7.

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