Selected Sunday Reviews |

Selected musings on Sunday’s action.

Game reviews follow the jump.

Rays 2, Angels 0 – In the latest sign of 1968 revisited, these two clubs played a three game series totaling 9 runs between them. The Rays ruined Zack Greinke‘s Angels debut on two leadoff doubles turned into runs, the only extra-base hits of the game for either team. Fernando Rodney picked up his 30th save, but not before putting the tying runs on base to bring up Albert Pujols with one out. Albert, though, went GIDP to end the threat (though much maligned for his GIDP proclivity, Albert is on pace for his lowest double-play total since 2008, and one of the lowest totals of his career).

Mariners 7, Royals 6 – The Mariners continued their post-All-Star hot streak, sweeping the Royals in a 4-game set, their first 4-game sweep since beating the Angels July 7-10, 2005. They are now 5-2 post-Ichiro. Tom Wilhelmsen picked up his 14th save to secure the win. Since assuming the role of closer on June 4th, Wilhelmsen has only one blown save while posting a 1.07 ERA with 30 Ks in 25.1 IPs, no HRs allowed and an opponents’ BA against of only 0.176.

Red Sox 3, Yankees 2 – After dropping the opener, Boston came back to win the 3-game set in New York. The key play came with 2 outs in the Yankees’ 8th and the tying run on 2nd. Eschewing conventional strategy, Boston brought in its closer, Alfredo Aceves, who promptly gave up an RBI single to blow the save. But, it was the right move to bring in your best reliever in a game situation and the Red Sox were rewarded with Aceves closing out the game to earn the win. Since sweeping Toronto on July 18th to cap a 9-2 run, The Yankees have won only 3 of 10, but have lost just 1.5 games off their division lead.

Reds 7, Rockies 2 – After allowing a walk and a Josh Rutledge HR to open the game, Matt Latos shut down Colorado for eight solid frames, allowing only one Rockie to reach 3rd base. Cincinnati’s sweep of Colorado extended their winning streak to 10 games, their 4th winning streak this year of 6 games or more. Cincinnati last had a 10 game streak and four 6-game streaks in 1999. Two more wins will tie for the Reds longest searchable in-season winning streak, previously accomplished in 1939 and 1957.

Astros 9, Pirates 5 – Houston broke its 12-game losing skid (the longest in team history) with the biggest offensive outburst since an 11-9 win over the White Sox on June 10th. Marwin Gonzalez led the way with a 5-1-3-3 line including a 2-0ut bases-loaded double in the 8th to score three and extend the Astro lead to 6 runs. Manager Brad Mills took no chances after that, going through 5 pitchers over the final two innings to nail down the win. Another 6 game slide by Houston will be its 4th such streak this season, matching their mark of futility accomplished 7 times previously, in 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1990 and 1991.

Marlins 5, Padres 4 – Miami won the series rubber match on a 10th inning walk-off single by Justin Ruggiano, his second RBI knock of the game. The Marflins are 8-3 in extras this year, but only 39-50 in 9 inning contests. Despite losing the series, San Diego is on a a 19-14 run since being swept by Texas on Jun 20-22.

Nationals 11, Brewers 10 – In a wild one in Milwaukee, the Nats prevailed 11-10 in 11 innings. John Axford blew his 7th save, twice giving up 2-run advantages, first allowing an inherited runner and one of his own to score on a double and wild pitch in the 8th, and again in the 9th on a walk and a Mike Morse HR. After converting his first 6 opportunities of the season, Axford has blown 7 of 17 save chances, apparently due chiefly to wildness (16 walks) and home runs (7) in that 34.1 inning stretch.

Dodgers 4, Giants 0 – Los Angeles completed a weekend whitewash of the Giants, the first time ever with back-to-back blankings of their arch-rival in San Francisco. The Dodgers have done this four times previously in Los Angeles, most recently in 2008. Five Dodgers collected 2 hits apiece, but Luis Cruz did the most damage with RBI knocks in the 4th and 8th innings, the former with 2 outs following an inning-extending error by 3rd-baseman Marco Scutaro.

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birtelcom

12 years ago

The Cardinals have now gone 22 games in a row in which they have held their opponents to both six runs or fewer and fewer than 2 homers. That is the longest such streak in the majors since 1993 (by the Braves, naturally, of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery). No Cards team has had such a streak since World War II. And the streak is active. The longest such streak in the expansion era is 32 games, by the 1963 Yankees and then by the 1976 Dodgers.

Reply to birtelcom

Impressive! Their next 3 games are at Colorado so that streak could end soon.

Reply to Ed

Which raises the interesting question, how much tougher is it for the Cards to keep the string going at Coors compared to elsewhere? In about 64% of MLB team batting games played this season, the batting team has produced both fewer than seven runs and fewer than two homers. The Rockies have produced both fewer than seven runs and fewer than two dingers in exactly half of their home games. As expected, it will be significantly tougher to keep this streak going against the Rockies at Coors compared to an average ballpark/opponent combination.

Well the Cardinals streak ended last night. They extended it to 24 games, holding the Rockies to exactly 6 runs and 1 home run in each of the first two games of the series. Looked like the streak would keep going but the Rockies scored three runs in the 7th and three in the 8th to finish with 8. Rookie Josh Rutledge homered in the 4th straight game.

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Doug

Thanks, birtelcom.

Before it disappears from people’s memories, just wanted to mention the Yankees streak of games scoring 3 or more runs that ended recentky at 43 games, trailing only the Indians 48 games in 1994 (the Yankees had a 49 game streak extending from 1950 into 1951, but I’m personally disinclined to recognize such season-spanning achievements). The Yankees have scored under 3 runs in 4 of the 10 games since, but are still riding a 60 game streak of not being shut out.

no statistician but

Doug:

1968 revisited? Hyperbole has its place, I suppose. To those of us with long memories, that year was like 1816, known historically as the year without a summer. Six, count them, six batters hit .300 or better, five in the National League. Yastrzemski was embarrassed to be declared the AL batting champ at .301.

Honestly, we aren’t even close to mid-1960’s levels.

Oh, ye of the younger generation, spoiled by prosperity, steroids, and the long ball.

Reply to no statistician but

Exaggeration is acknowledged … and was intended.

I would have preferred to say “This is the first time since ______ that two teams have played a 3 game series and scored a combined total of 9 or fewer runs.” But, since I didn’t have a reliable way of ascertaining how to fill in the blank, I went with option B.

brp

Brewers fired their bullpen coach; not a surprise when every reliever seems to have regressed from last year (Ax, Rodriguez, Parra, Loe…). I don’t think it’s going to matter much, though.