Monday game notes |

Dodgers 5, @Pirates 4: Shane Victorino‘s first HR for LA put them up 4-2 in the 5th, and an 8th-inning run built on Juan Cruz‘s wildness turned vital when the Bucs scored twice in their half. Kenley Jansen converted his 24th save (his 10th of the one-run species) as the Dodgers forged a tie in the West.

Victorino also doubled home a run and sacrificed. He owns 2 of the 5 games this year containing a HR, another XBH and a SH.
LA is 4-0 against Pittsburgh, by a combined score of 14-8.
The Pirates have allowed 5+ runs in 7 straight games (2-5 record). They had not yielded 5+ in more than 3 straight before this stretch.

Rays 4, @Mariners 1: B.J. Upton‘s 2-run HR keyed a 4-run 3rd, and Alex Cobb had his 3rd straight win of 1 run in 7 IP, as Tampa won their 7th in a row.

Tampa has parceled out just 1.73 R/G over their last 15 games (12-3). They now lead the AL in fewest hits, runs and HRs allowed, in ERA and ERA+, in WHIP and strikeouts….
The only longer win streak in TB history was 12 games back in June 2004.

@Yankees 8, Rangers 2: Momentum (if you believe) swung in the 3rd: Texas up 2-zip, with 2 on, 1 out and a 2-and-1 count to slugger Nelson Cruz — but Elvis Andrus got picked off 2nd base and the rally fizzled. And just as quickly, Ryan Dempster, having retired the first 6 men, filled ’em up for Nick Swisher, who wiped ’em clean with his 200th HR and his 2nd in 7 ABs off Dempster.

The new Ranger was shot out of the saddle (8 R in 6 IP) for the 2nd time in 3 Texas starts, and he’s 0-4, 7.62 in 5 starts against the Yanks. FWIW, Dempster — a career NL’er before this trade — had a 4.63 ERA in 229 IP against AL teams.
Despite some struggles with RISP, the Yanks still know how to slice the salami. That’s 9 grand slams — 50% more than any other team — in 127 PAs with the sacks full.

Indians 6, @Angels 2: Justin Masterson delivered half-a-dozen goose eggs and Brent Lillibridge homered and scored 3 Runs for the first time ever. Cleveland went to 5-2 against the Angels, who lost their 3rd straight. C.J. Wilson notched a quality start but still lost his 5th straight decision; he has a 5.04 ERA in 9 games since July 1.

The Halos were 0-9 with RISP, scoring only on an Albert Pujols HR that ended Vinnie Pestano‘s scoreless streak at 21 IP.
After the HR trimmed the gap to 3-2, the Angels gave it all back and more in the next inning. Jason Isringhausen inherited a full load from Hisanori Takahashi and let them all score; Izzy has now let in 9 of 10 inherited runners this year.

@Blue Jays 3, White Sox 2 (11): The outcome may have seemed in doubt, but Toronto’s win (on David Cooper‘s walk-off single) was all but guaranteed by their win the day before. Blue Jays wins and losses rarely travel solo; they have just 6 singletons among their 55 wins, and 7 among their 60 losses.

Casey Janssen is closer-perfect no more, his first pitch ridden out by Adam Dunn for his 1,000th RBI. The Sox DH broke his 13-game HR fast with a binge, including this whopper in the 4th.

@Twins 9, Tigers 3: Rookie Sam Deduno allowed 2 hits over the first 7 frames to win for the 4th time in 7 starts, without a loss. Detroit’s 3rd straight defeat (7 runs on 17 hits total) kept them 2 back in the division, and they fell 1.5 games out of a wild-card spot.

Turning point: Detroit tied the game at 1 in the 5th and had men on the corners with no outs. But Austin Jackson swung through a 2-2 pitch, and then a liner through the box by Andy Dirks became a deflected DP instead of a go-ahead hit. In the bottom half, Dirks’s vertically-challenged leap at the wall came up inches short of a drive by slap-hitting Darin Mastroianni, and the Twins were never headed.
Whatever the question, Anibal Sanchez is not the answer. Detroit’s deadline headliner is 1-3, 7.97 since the trade, allowing 35 hits and 5 HRs in 20.1 IP.

Phillies 4, @Marlins 0: Cole Hamels joined Johan Santana as the only ones with consecutive shutouts this year. For the Phils, only Cliff Lee had done it since 2005 (3 in a row last June). For Miami, it’s their first consecutive blankings since late 2009.

Oddity: The 7 hits off Hamels equaled the most of any of this year’s 54 CG shutouts. Every previous year in MLB history has seen at least one individual shutout with 8 hits or more.
Hamels is 7-10 against the Marlins in 23 starts

@Rockies 9, Brewers 6: Young Mike Fiers got his first taste of Coors and wished he hadn’t, yielding 8 runs on 9 hits while getting just 6 outs, and snapping his 2012-best string of 9 starts with 6+ IP and 2 runs or less.

Colorado’s Will Harris got roughed up in his MLB debut. That will probably set his career back another 5 years, judging from the lack of organizational confidence suggested by his glacial progression through the low minors despite dazzling stats.

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brp

12 years ago

Does a shutout require 8 hits allowed for sportwriters to be forced by law to say the pitcher “scattered” said hits? Or can 7 hits be “scattered?”

Lawrence Azrin

Reply to brp

brp,

You need to consult the Unwritten Rules Of Baseball Writing.

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I actually own an old sportswriter’s handbook from 1980something… maybe it’s in there!

bpr,

First rule of the Unwritten Rules Of Baseball Writing:
NO ONE ever talks about the Unwritten Rules Of Baseball Writing.

Craig Kirkendall

The other day I read that someone “scattered” five hits over 5.1 when four of the hits came in one inning… comedy

Minor Leaguer

For the Blue Jays game, reliever Steve Delabar became the first Blue Jays pitcher to ever record a 4K inning. He also became the first Major Leaguer to record a 4K inning in extras.

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John Autin

Reply to Minor Leaguer

Great stuff, Minor! I’m SHOCKED to learn that no Jay ever had a 4-K inning before this. I guess they haven’t had a lot of strikeout artists, but still….

By the way, Delabar is also the first Jay ever with (a) 6 Ks in exactly 2 IP, and (b) 6+ Ks facing 7 batters or less. Only Tom Henke had ever done 6 Ks in 8 batters or less.

Reply to John Autin

You’d me more shocked to find out that when A.J. Burnett did it last year, he became the first Yankee to do it. Ever.

Can someone explain to me how Elvis Andrus had a OPS+ of 89 last year, yet an oWAR of 3.4? Baserunning?

Reply to RJ

RJ, baserunning would certainly be a part of it — Andrus is one of the very best in the game, and WAR credited him with 7 runs from baserunning, tied for 2nd in MLB (behind teammate Kinsler).

Also, oWAR contains a positional adjustment. OPS+ is measured against *everyone*, while oWAR is pegged to position. Out of 32 regular shortstops last year, the median OPS+ was 90, so Andrus’s hitting was right at the midpoint. I’m not sure this explanation covers everything, but it’s a start.

This is why I prefer Adjusted Batting Wins over oWAR, as a measure of “pure” offensive performance. B-R already lists {Rpos} as a positional adjustment; it seems to be redundant to also list oWAR, which is offensive performance adjusted for position.

Just tell me how a hitter compares to all the other hitters, I can figure out the rest.

Thanks John (and Lawrence for directing me to Rpos and adjusted batting wins)! That clears things up for me.

Doug

With Nick Swisher now at 200 HR and Granderson almost there at 197, the Yankees will soon have 8 players (the others are Rodriguez, Jones, Texeira, Chavez, Ibanez, Jeter) at that mark, the most ever on one team.