Sunday game notes (just in time!) |

Cardinals 8, @Reds 2: With a 17-hit fusillade, St. Louis captured the rubber game of a series in which each winner scored 8 runs, and built a 2-game lead for the 2nd wild-card. With 18 runs and 43 hits in the series, they upped their NL-best marks to 4.94 R/G and .277 BA, the highest in the Senior Circuit since 2009 and 2008, respectively.

Allen Craig‘s combined 2011-12 stats (160 games): .317/.945, 31 HRs, 111 RBI, 99 Runs, 302 total bases. His 156 OPS+ ranks 9th in MLB among players with 500+ PAs in that span.
Adam Wainwright failed to complete 6 IP for the first time since June, but still won his 5th straight start; he’s allowed 2 runs or less in his last 7 outings.

@White Sox 4, Mariners 3: That’s what you get for walking Jordan Danks as the tying run with 2 outs — a rookie hitting .245 with 1 HR in 53 ABs (and just 2 walks). Tyler Flowers, who’s taken up where A.J. Pierzynski left off, followed with a 2-run blast — his 2nd straight game with a late HR that turned around a 3-2 deficit, and his 4th HR in his last 6 games. Then came the rains, assuring Chicago a 6-and-0 homestand.

The 4th run’s the charm: Seattle came to the Windy City with 8 straight wins, allowing 3 runs or less in each — then lost 3 straight one-run games yielding 4+ each time. They’re 11-7 when allowing exactly 3 runs, but 6-15 when allowing exactly 4.
In Chicago’s last 24 games, their catchers have 11 HRs and 28 RBI.

@Tigers 5, Angels 2: Batting 3rd for the first time this year, Andy Dirks tied the game with a 2-out triple in the 3rd; walked in front of Prince Fielder‘s go-ahead HR in the 6th; and scored their last run after a leadoff bunt single in the 8th. Detroit remained 2.5 GB Chicago in the Central, and moved within a half-game of idle Tampa and Oakland in the wild-card hunt.

Max Scherzer (14-6) now has 8 straight games with 8+ Ks. He won his 4th straight start (4 runs in 27 IP), and once again leapfrogged teammate Verlander for the MLB lead, 195 to 192. The only Tigers teammates with 200 Ks in the same year were Mickey Lolich and Joe Coleman, 1971-73.
Detroit pitchers held Mike Trout to one single and one run in 13 trips. Mark Trumbo went 1-11 with no RBI, a walk and 7 Ks; in his last 35 games he’s hitting .212 with 14 RBI, 8 walks and 51 Ks (team record 15-20).

Marlins 6, @Dodgers 2: Rob Brantly broke a tie in the 5th with his first big-league HR and RBIs, one of 4 Miami taters, and Mark Buehrle went to 4-2, 2.16 in 6 career games against LA. The Dodgers became the first team ever with 3 SB in a game against Buehrle, but none of them scored, as LA went 2 for 17 with RISP and stranded 16 men.

Your new NL slugging leader is the just-qualified Giancarlo Stanton, at .601 after swatting his 29th. No Marlin has ever won the slugging title, and only Gary Sheffield (1996) ever qualified at .600+. Stanton has 10 HRs in 71 ABs since coming off the DL, with 8 on this 11-game road trip.
Buehrle has yielded just 54 SB in 416 games (4 SB per 200 IP), with a 43% success rate.

@Phillies 4, Nationals 1: Cliff Lee beat Washington for the 2nd time in as many tries this year; broke a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the 5th; and trimmed his between-wins wait time from 27 days to 26.

See, if it is a home run, they let you circle the bags at your leisure — so what’s your hurry, Adam LaRoche? (Or should we blame the Werewolf for not scoring from 2nd base on an easy double?) Either way, instead of no outs and 2 in scoring position in the 7th, they wound up with 1 out and a man on 3rd and 1 out.
For the first time in searchable history, Philly has won 4 straight games scoring exactly 4 runs. There have been 2 matching streaks by other teams since 1991. Since 1918, only the ’67 Tigers ever won 5 straight with exactly 4 runs.
Lee is 5-2, 2.28 in 7 career starts against the Nats. If the Phils go on a 5-man rotation, Lee would miss their last two Washington series, Sept. 25-27 and Oct. 1-3. But he could pitch in both if they use a 5-day rotation.
Juan Pierre‘s 586th SB tied him with Maury Wills for #19 all-time (#14 since 1901).

Yankees 4, @Indians 2: Cleveland totaled 6 runs on 17 hits in the 3-game series, and went 2 for 22 with RISP.

Jason Kipnis had the first 3-SB game by a Cleveland second baseman in almost 12 years.

Padres 5, @Diamondbacks 4: A second straight sweep by the visiting Friars knocked the Snakes back to .500 again. Yasmani Grandal reached base 4 times and scored twice, and Edinson Volquez won his 2nd straight strong start.

Trevor Cahill allowed 4 runs in 3.2 IP, in 3 separate 2-out rallies. It was his 11th loss, but just the 2nd in which Arizona scored more than 2 runs.
Grandal has walked in 10 of his last 11 games. In that time, his BA has dropped 20 points, but his OBP has risen by 57.
Aaron Hill homered in the 8th, reaching 20 for the 3rd time in 4 years. Since being traded a year ago, he’s hitting .302/.869 in 156 games, and .331/.960 at home.

@Mets 2, Astros 1: Lucas Duda, freshly returned from Buffalo, let the tying run score in the 9th on a “double” off his glove, but he seized a chance for instant redemption by gunning down the go-ahead run 2 batters later. That set up Ike Davis for this just-enough jack, his 2nd of the game and 2nd game-winner of his career.

It was the Mets’ first walk-off HR in over a year. Four teams still lack one this year (with links to their last one): Houston, Seattle, SF and St. Louis.
Jeremy Hefner has given just 11 walks in 69.2 IP, or 1.42 BB/9. Only 10 others have had a rate that low with 50+ IP in their first year.
Wilton Lopez, who gave up the game-winner, has given just 5 walks in 50.2 IP this year. It would be the 2nd time he’s had 50+ IP and more than 10 times as many IP as walks; only 9 other pitchers have had 2 such seasons, and only 4 have done so in the live-ball era (3 by Quisenberry, 2 each by Saberhagen, Tewksbury and Eckersley).
But sometimes there’s a price for throwing strikes: Batters putting Lopez’s 2-0 pitch in play (as Davis did) are 9 for 21 with 3 HRs.
The last Met to hit 2 HRs in a 2-1 win was Ed Charles on 1968-05-20 — the 2nd one also a game-winner.

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Jonas Gumby

12 years ago

After the D-Backs loss, they are, as you mention, again back to .500. It feels like their wins and losses have been dancing a neck-and-neck tango for a while now. By my count, they’ve been .500 on 20 different occasions this year, not including opening day. That seems like a lot, though I don’t know if it’s the most this year. I recall you or someone saying the Blue Jays hadn’t been more than 5 games away from .500 for a rather long span earlier in the season. However, it looks like they landed on .500 about 17 times, before… Read more »

Oh, and great analyses, as always!

MikeD

How Pujolsian from Allen Craig.

As for Giancarlo Stanton, I seem to remember some articles questioning if his power would translate to the Marlins’ new park. I think it was driven by a slow start HR wise from him. It was as ridiculous then as it is now. No park can hold him.

Reply to MikeD

Speaking as a someone who usually prefers defensive plays when it comes to the highlights reel, watching Giancarlo belt one into next year is a whole lot of fun.

Hartvig

As annoying as I fine Pete Rose to be, one thing he would never have been guilty of is dogging it. I mean these guys are young- run it out. Sprinting 90 or 180 feet a couple of times a game ain’t going to kill anyone.

Along with strikeouts, it’s another problem with a game where everyone is swinging for the fences.

e pluribus munu

Haven’t commented on these summaries for awhile. A day or two ago I amplified Doug’s posted rant about long, boring games by trashing the contemporary ballpark experience and excruciating TV announcers – geezer whining. But I’m following the game more closely than I have in years, because of the pleasure of working my way through the summaries, commentary, and well selected links of John’s game notes.

Richard Chester

Prior to 1991 there have been 7 streaks of 4 straight wins with exactly 4 runs per game.

Jim Bouldin

“A second straight sweep by the visiting Friars knocked the Snakes back to .500 again”

I like it.

AlbaNate

Of all the “advanced” stats, the one that irks me the most is WPA. Sure, there are a lot of questions about fielding metrics (except when it comes to evaluating Derek Jeter’s lack of range–all baseball nerds agree that he’s the worst ever,) and a lot of people don’t understand WAR, but I still think that WPA is the most confounding. Sunday’s Met’s game is a good example of why this is. Jeremy Heffner started the game and pitched 8 innings. He actually started the ninth but gave up a hit, a stolen base, and a “hit” that alleged outfielder… Read more »

no statistician but

Reply to AlbaNate

Used to be called “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Phil Gaskill

I think Wilton Lopez has 10 times as many IP as walks, rather than the other way around. . . . (Sorry for being picky.)

Author

John Autin

Reply to Phil Gaskill

Never apologize for factual corrections! You have done me a favor, Phil.

There have been 47 games in which a player hit 2 HR in a 2-1 game. The last one prior to Ike Davis’ was by Garrett Jones on 7/17/2009.

Doug

Reply to Richard Chester

Interestingly, Ike Davis also hit 3 solo HRs for the Mets’ only runs in a 6-3 loss to Arizona on Jul 28 this year. That is one of only 8 games with 3 solo HRs by one player being all of a team’s runs. The only players to do this in a winning cause were Del Wilber (3-0, 1951-08-27), Hank Sauer (3-2, 1952-06-11) and Boog Powell (3-1, 1964-06-27).

Reply to Doug

Wilbur had only 3 PA in his 3 HR game. Only two others have done that, Art Shamsky and Bo Jackson.

The most famous of those 2 HR 2-1 games was probably the one that occurred on 9/10/34. The Tigers were currently in first place battling the Yankees for the pennant. That day was the Jewish New Year and the Tigers had a scheduled game with the Red Sox. Hank Greenberg, who was religious, was torn over whether or not to play. He consulted with a Detroit rabbi and the ruling was that because it was a joyous Holiday he could play. He did and ended up with the 2 HRs for a 2-1 victory. The headline of the Detroit Free… Read more »

tag

John,

I’ve just had the pleasure of reading three weeks’ worth of your roundups after a lengthy vacation, and just want to thank you for enabling me to catch up with what’s been going on. I attended a few games – Cubs, Sox and Gary RailCats – but wasn’t able to stay abreast otherwise. Your notes are the most enjoyable way I know of getting back in the swing of baseball things.