Friday game notes – very briefly

I ran out of steam. Wanna help fill in the gaps?

@Royals 4, White Sox 2: Chris Sale, the AL’s SO/BB leader, tied a career high with 4 walks and took his 2nd loss since May 12. He used 2 IBBs to get out of jams, but he went to well once too often: After he wide-oned Billy Butler to load ’em with 2 out in the 7th, Salvador Perez golfed an ankle-high 1-2 pitch off the LF fence for the winning runs.

Some thought it a fluke when Perez hit .331/.834 in 39 games last year. Maybe not: He’s at .302/.852 this year. He also threw out Alejandro De Aza stealing 2nd to end the 3rd inning
Butler hit his 25th HR, on pace for .302/34/104. KC hasn’t had a 100-RBI man since Carlos Beltran in 2003, nor a 30-HR man since Jermaine Dye in 2000. There are just four .300/30/100 seasons in club history: Dye, Danny Tartabull in 1987 & ’91, and George Brett ’85.
They said it couldn’t be done: Jeff Francoeur. Three walks. One game. First time ever. And only a spoilsport would note that two were intentional. Frenchy began the night with 20 walks in 450 PAs this year and a career rate of 1 walk per 20.2 PAs.

@Tigers 5, Orioles 3: Prince Fielder came in hitting .309/20/84, ranked 4th in OBP and RBI. Yet he didn’t have a signature game as a Tiger; his highest WPA game was 0.369 (tiebreaking single in the 7th on April 18), a mark he’d topped 20 times as a Brewer. But he stamped his royal signet all over this one: throwing out a runner at home on a tough play in the 1st; tying the game in the 6th on a 2-run bomb to CF; and matching that with a go-ahead rainmaker against fresh-for-the-occasion lefty J.C. Romero.

Tigers & O’s now tied for a wild-card berth. Feels like old times to this Tigers fan.
It’s a long, strange trip that brought Romero to this moment: Released by 3 teams last year (1.74 WHIP) and by the Cards this May (10.13 ERA), he signed with Baltimore later that month, but was released in July without ever pitching for the O’s. Cleveland snapped him up and stashed him at AAA, where he had a 3.12 ERA but allowed 3 HRs in 8.2 IP. Baltimore just had to have him back after that, so on Monday they shipped a non-prospect to Cleveland. They slipped Romero into two low-lev moments in the BoSox series, where he allowed 2 hits and a run in 1.2 IP. And then came Prince.
Sure, I understand that advertising makes it possible for me to watch video clips for free on MLB.com. But what marketing wiz decided that I’d be more likely to buy Head & Shoulders For Men if I had to watch the same damn 15-second commercial before every single clip? (And by the way, what agent thought that was a good career move for Joe Mauer? “Hey, Joe! Can we talk?”, indeed!)

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birtelcom

12 years ago

According to the PI, the longest streak (since at least 1918) of consecutive games by a pitcher giving up six or more earned runs is five games in a row, by;
Johan Santana (current)
Willie Blair (1999)
Jim Abbott (1996)
Earl Whitehill (1935)
Mike Hampton also had a five-game streak, but stretched across two seasons — September 2001 through April 2002.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Agreed on the repeating commercials.
Though I actually enjoy the Mauer commercial, for reasons of comedy that I myself dont fully understand.

Maybe I like it simply because it is 1000% better than listening to Lou Pinella berate a soda machine.

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Well those of us who don’t enjoy watching Mauer’s acting should probably just install adblock. Its for this reason I have no idea what you’re talking about regarding Lou Pinella, although I’m going to assume its an advert for dementia medication.

Jimbo

12 years ago

Nobody in baseball right now hits more impressive looking home runs than Prince Fielder. I hope he’s around for a long time and hit 550 or more home runs so I can watch them all. They are just such beautiful looking blasts.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

I was thinking about the same lines when I saw yesterday’s 574 ft. blast by Giancarlo Stanton. The guy’s a beast.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

I can’t remember anyone who hits the ball harder than Giancarlo.

But Luis, you were having a little fun with that measurement, right? I can’t believe 574 feet.

P.S. Stanton has played 5 games in Coors Field and homered in each. (Though maybe everyone knows that by now.)

MikeD

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Must be exaggerating for effect. If Stanton hit a HR 574 feet, then I’m pretty sure he hit the longest HR in MLB history.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to MikeD

Actually it was 494 feet. It WAS in Coors Field, but according to ESPN it was straight into a 10 mph wind.

Doug

12 years ago

In other action: Tampa Bay pasted the Angels at home for the second night in a row, this time a 12-3 romp in a 17-hit assault against Jered Weaver and supporting cast. Weaver allowed 8 ER over 3 IP and saw his formerly league-leading ERA balloon by more than a half-run. The new AL ERA leader is David Price, the Rays’ winning pitcher on Thursday. Weaver wasn’t the only starter to get shelled early. The Padres’ Ross Ohlendorf also allowed 8 earned, in just 2 1/3 innings, as the Melkey-less Giants mounted a balanced attack with every starter collecting at… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Cain would have had another hit (and RBI) but for a fantastic play by Logan Fosythe: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23991577

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Jeter also joined another club. He and Willie Mays are the only players with more than 250 HR, 3000 H, 300 SB and 1200 RBI.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

This kinda bothers me – I think when you get to four different categories, you lose a lot of the impact of the exclusiveness of any “club”. These cut-off points sound like they were chosen to specifically include only Jeter in the exalted company of Willie Mays. The key comparing anyone to Willie Mays is finding a category that doesn’t include Hank Aaron; in this case it was the 300 SB (Aaron had 240). This sort of misguided use of stats is why many baseball fans rail against the “stats nerds”. For instance, in the example above, if you lower… Read more »

mosc

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Absolutely Lawrence! I wish people would note that more often. The common trend is to find the nice round numbers the current player has achieved and only talk about those other players who beat them in ALL of those categories (in this case, only Mays over Jeter). That is intuitive with 1 category like saying who leads in hits or home runs but every time you add a stat it gets dumber and dumber. You can find some combination of stats with probably 3/4 if not more of the major league players in history that makes them the greatest in… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to mosc

#31/ Mosc, Well, you don’t even need esoteric stats, common ones will do – let’s say you wanted Ozzie Smith and Luis Aparicio to be the only members of an exclusive “club”: Name the only shortstops to have at least: -500 Stolen Bases -60 triples and -8 Gold Gloves? Bingo, Ozzie Smith and Luis Aparicio! Of course, I am being deliberately disengenuous, as deadball stars Bill Dahlen, George Davis, and Honus Wagner would also qualify if not for the “Gold Glove” part. Of course, the GG award didn’t start till 1956. Any SS “club” that includes Aparicio and Ozzie,but excludes… Read more »

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

And if you changed the club to 250 home runs, 3000 hits, 340 stolen bases, and 1200 RBI’s Jeter would stand alone. But we don’t like numbers like 340, so sometime next year someone will write an article that Jeter is the only player in history with 250 home runs, 3300 hits, 350 stolen bases, and 1250 RBI’s. What’s the big deal? Make all the clubs you want if you have fun doing it. You might be surprised at what you find.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Nice work, Doug. I *did* cover KC-CHW, though. 🙂

Can the Angels recover from what Tampa’s done to them in 3 games? Tonight the Angels led 8-0 in the 5th, but C.J. Wilson gave up 7 in that frame and TB went on to win 10-8. That’s 29 runs in 3 days, against the Angels’ 3 best starters.

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Big “Oops”, JA, on the KC-CHW game.

Angels seem to be having a big “team” slump right now. Started with the hitters, and now the pitchers have caught it. Bad timing!

12 years ago

I love how JC Romero tried to wave Fielder’s homer foul, that’s what I do when a shot of mine isn’t quite making it over the net in tennis. It doesn’t work.

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to RJ

Romero is living proof that if a human being merely THROWS left-handed, he will ontinue to receive multiple opportunitites and invitations to fail as a LH PITCHER.

He had a good three months with the Phillies like 4 -5 years ago (off a DFA, I believe)and the dopes in management gave him a 3-4 year contract…. a steroid/supplement suspension occurred in there somewhere, as well.

Paul E

12 years ago

I couldn’t help but notice that Toronto DH/1B Edwin “Reincarnacion” hammered out #31 employing the Dwayne Murphy approach to hitting. He currently sits at a 150 OPS+ for his age 29 season. He clocked in at 104 prior to this season… Amongst the twenty 3B who have had a career OPS + of 100 – 108 for their age 22-28 seasons with a total of 3,000 PA’s or greater, Tim Wallach (121), Larry Parrish (121), Don Money (119), and Dean Palmer (115) are the only guys to top 114 in their age 29 seasons. Brook Jacoby (123), Money (122), and… Read more »

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Reincarnacion – love it!

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Nice point, Paul. But what’s the “think what you wish” angle?

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John: Since his age 29 season is about umpteen standard deviations from what would have been the most optimistic prediction of performance (based on his prior seven seasons), perhaps Rob Manfred and the commissioner’s office can target for urination testing guys who pull this type of performancce out of nowhere. Melky Cabrera- same deal…. Career OPS+ of about 86 for age 21 – 25 seasons. Age 26 – 27, 136 !!! Amongst OF’ers (all-time), only Clemente approached this by going from like 100 to 133. However, Clemente was a “rushed” Rule V draftee who had to be on the roster.… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Chapman pitched an inning in a non-save situation.
Perfect.
But failed to strike anybody out for only the 2nd time this year.
Must have been taking it easy, throwing only 101.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Roy Oswalt just balked for second inning in a row. Is there some way to know if this has happened before?

Hey John, I thought you were a Mets fan!

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Milt Schoffner (5-12-30), Jim Owens (4-24-63), Bob Shaw (5-4-63), Don Heinkel (5-3-88), and Jim Gott (8-6-88)all balked three times in a single inning.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Thanks, Mick. I kind of knew it was done more than twice in a game, but not in a single inning.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Tried to post the game logs for the above balksters but was told my post was too spammy.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Luis, I wonder if 1963 and 1988 were years that had new balk rules, or if there was a mandate to enforce balk rules and such.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

I am no fan of Wikipedia, but according the them, the Shaw’s balks in 1963 were blamed on his difficulty adjusting to a then-new “point of emphasis” in the rules: umpires were told to enforce the section of the balk rule strictly that required the pitcher, when going from the stretch to the set position, to come to a complete stop with his hands together for one full second before pitching. That rule was completely ignored before.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Regarding the 1988 “Year of the Balk”, I found an interesting post here: http://reconditebaseball.blogspot.mx/2008/08/balks-story-of-1988-major-league.html

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Good one Luis. The top 5 in the list of balk leaders that year is pretty impressive. I can picture Dave Stewart glaring with that stare of his, and I can see steam coming from Jack Morris’s ears.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Luis, I root for the Mets in the NL and Tigers in the AL. In 2006 I was getting ready for the agonizing decision of whom I love more, but a funny thing happened to the Metsies on the way to the WS….

Just curious, what prompted you to ask?

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I knew you were a Mets fan, because of all the comments you made since the B-Ref blog to the HHS site (Remember we were chatting after the Santana No-hitter?), and on this Tigers-Orioles notes, you stated being a Tigers fan. Maybe I just didn´t noticed earlier comments from you about the Tigers. Too bad in ´06 you didn´t face that decision, I´m sure it was a win-win situation 🙂