Belated Friday Roundup – AL Edition |

A poor substitute for the original, but will do what I can while John is taking some time off.

Game wraps follow the jump.

Athletics 14, Orioles 9 – In a slugfest at Camden Yards, Orioles closer Jim Johnson blew just his 3rd save in 33 chances as Oakland tallied 6 in the 9th for the victory. After retiring the lead-off hitter, Johnson allowed 5 hits and a walk to the next 6 batters, before he was mercifully relieved by Luis Ayala. This was Johnson’s second game in less than 2 weeks allowing 5 or more runs, after only one such outing (in 2009) in 253 previous career games.

Angels 3, Rays 1 – Dan Haren got the win, allowing 5 hits over 6 innings, though all were for extra bases. It was only the second time in 275 career starts that Haren allowed as many as 5 XBHs and no other hits. Jeff Keppinger was the most frustrated Ray, getting 3 of those hits off Haren, but managing only a solo HR. It was the 3rd time this season that a Ray has had as many as 8 total bases, but drove in no runs other than himself (the Rays also did this 3 times in both 2011 and 2010).

Twins 11, Indians 0 – Scott Diamond tossed a 3-hitter for a shutout in his first career CG. Diamond is now 9-4 in 100 IP over 15 starts, with a 2.88 ERA and just 1.4 BB per 9. In a Trout-less season, probably a strong RoY contender (can someone out there confirm if Diamond is a rookie – he had just 7 games before this season, but not sure if there are different eligibility rules for pitchers).

Yankees 10, Red Sox 3 – In a rarity, these two clubs completed a 9-inning contest in comfortably under 3 hours, as the Red Sox lost for the 6th time in 7 tries, to drop two games under .500, their worst showing in the first 100 games of a season since 1997. Each team had 3 players homering, the first time that has happened in a Yankees-Red Sox tilt since May 8, 1994 (that game was also a quick affair – under 2.5 hours).

Mariners 6, Royals 1 – The Mariners, 9-6 since the All-Star break, got to Jeremy Guthrie early and often as Guthrie logged his 7th disaster start (more runs allowed than IP) of the season, matching his total for 2011. Those 14 disasters in his last 47 starts match Guthrie`s career total for the 124 preceding starts.

White Sox 9, Rangers 5 – After dropping 5 in a row, the Sox have righted the ship with 4 straight wins, the latest over Yu Darvish, After going 6-1, 2.60 through May 20, Darvish is 5-6, 5.12 since. The Ranger have also been sliding of late, going 8-11 for July after a 13-2 run to end the month of June.

Blue Jays 8, Tigers 3 – After an 8-2 run coming out of the All-Star break, the Tigers have now lost 3 of 4. Carlos Villaneuva is now 4-0, 2.54, with 29 Ks in 28.1 IP since joining the Jays` rotation. Omar Vizquel, batting 2nd, keyed the Blue Jay attack with a triple and double while rookie Anthony Gose recorded his first career double, RBI and stolen base. Vizquel becomes just the 5th player with a triple in an age 45 or older season.

If I find the time, I`ll add an NL wrap.

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John Nacca

12 years ago

Good job as a pinch-hitter deluxe……I just have to decide if you are the Manny Mota or Jerry Lynch of pinch-hitters.

MikeD

Yeah, what the heck with that Yankee-Red Sox game on Friday. I came home about two hours into the game, expecting to pick it up as the teams headed into maybe the bottom of the third, only to find it was almost over. Joe West might approve, but I felt cheated!

Hartvig

John- With John A’s Tigers connection I think it appropriate we call Doug the Gates Brown of pinch-hitters. And allow me to repeat again- I never saw the Athletic’s coming, especially their offense. I thought there was a chance they might score 100 fewer runs than any other team in the league. And granted, they are second to last, but needing just 10 runs to move up 3 spots and with at least 1 fewer games than 2 of those teams. They are 93 runs behind the league leader in runs scored which translates into the 150 range over the… Read more »

Albert Pujols has almost caught Josh Hamilton in OPS+ (133 vs 138). Who would have guessed that on how differently their seasons started?

Tristram12

Reply to Ed

Since May 5th, Albert has virtually matched his career averages across the board. The Angels are getting exactly what they payed for and expected. One bad month is allowed.

The rookie criteria for pitchers is (1) less than 50 IP, and (2) less than 45 days of Major League service. Diamond had 39 IP in 2011. Baseball Reference says he has 38 days service, so he’s a rookie….but not ROY this year.

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Doug

Reply to Tristram12

Thanks for checking this out, Tristram.

On Yu Darvish, minor correction – since 5/21, he has lost 6 games, not 10. While he is susceptible to bad starts, his last 7 GameScores (from most recent) are: 38, 70, 29, 63, 62, 69,69 – clearly hasn’t fallen apart. What I find interesting is that he has received a decision in every start but one – 19 starts, 11 wins, and 7 losses. What is the modern record for highest % of starts receiving a decision?

Richard Chester

This may come as a surprise to you but in the game searchable era there have been 703 occurrences of a pitcher to qualify for the W-L title and have gotten a decision in every game started. Maximum is Pete Alexander with 45 decisions in 45 stars in 1916.

Reply to Richard Chester

Make that starts, not stars. It’s funny how it’s so easy to pick up other people’s typos but finding your own ain’t easy at all.

There have been 15 pitchers who have gotten a decision in every lifetime start, minimum of 100 decisions. Maximum is Jack Coombs with 268 decisions in 268 starts.

Thanks Richard. While I’m sure some of the 703 did get a decision in every start, I think you may be allowing for relief decisions to inflate that number. For example, Coombs did have 268 decisions and 268 starts, he also had 86 relief appearances, which probably added some decisions to the mix. For Alexander, he also had 3 relief appearances in 1916, but since we don’t have game logs, we don’t know if any decisions came out of those. Any way to tighten up the search? How about in the expansion era (1961-current)?

Good point Tristam. When I have more time I may try to find those pitchers without relief decisions.

Very quickly, in 1904 Vic Willis started all 43 games in which he appeared and got 43 decisions.

I ran PI for pitchers, setting Decisions = Games. There were 43 players on the list, which of course reflects both starts and relief appearances. So there are at least 43 pitcher seasons with 100% of starts resulting in decisions. Alex Cobb and Daniel Bard are on the list for 2012. Vic Willis and Dummy Taylor had the most starts, 43. Babe Ruth, Cy Young and Walter Johnson are on the list.

Ryan Rupe (2002) and Gary Nolan (1969) are the only pitchers with a decision in every game (min. 15 starts) since WWII. Both had the minimum 15 starts.

Wade Miley (11-6) has a decision in all but one start this season. Scott Diamond is 9-4 in 15 starts. The longest streak this century to start a season is 26 games (16-10) by Tim Wakefield in 2007. Ironically, his next two outings, Wakefield got shelled early, usually the easiest way to get a decision, but had ND both times. For the season he was 29 for 31. Denny McLain, in his 10-22 season with the Senators in 1971, had a decision in every start but one. In that game, he got an early hook (or, maybe he was injured… Read more »

Reply to Doug

In 1972 Gaylord Perry started 40 games and had a decision in every game. In his one relief appearance he had a save.

Daniel Longmire

Doug asked me to re-post this tidbit here. MLB Notebook had this to say after the Blue Jays’ game on Friday night:

“At the age of 45 years and 94 days, [Omar] Vizquel became the oldest player in the modern era to hit a double and a triple in a game. In the live-ball era, Luke Appling (43 years, 119 days on July 30, 1950) was the oldest.”

I’ve always been fascinated by long careers such as Vizquel’s, and especially Julio Franco’s. Anyone else following the old guys this season (besides Jamie Moyer, of course)?