Friday game notes (gratuitous no-hit edition) |

Reds 1, @Pirates no-no: Carl Hubbell (1929), Sam Jones (1955), Bob Gibson (1971): These were the only men to baffle the Bucs in the live-ball era. And now, Homer Bailey.

Two men reached base, on an error in the 3rd and a 4-pitch walk to Andrew McCutchen in the 7th. McCutchen stole 2nd, but tried to swipe 3rd as well — on a 1-0 pitch to the cleanup hitter, a LHB — and was an easy mark for Ryan Hanigan, who only leads the majors with a 48% CS rate.
Here’s the closest thing to a standout defensive play. Barajas hustled up the line, but … he’s still Barajas.
There are 155 pitchers with a no-hitter since 1918, and 134 of them have 100+ starts; four of those 134 have 1 career shutout, while Bailey and Jon Lester have 2 each.
Bailey’s previous low-hit games: 2 hits in 7 IP and 2 hits in 5 IP, both in 2007. His 2 CG were both 4-hitters.
It’s the 2nd 1-0 individual no-hit win this year, the 12th since 1969, and the 28th since 1918. Pop quiz: Name the two pitchers with two 1-0 no-hitters. Hint(?): One guy had two in one year.
The last Reds no-no was also a 1-0 affair, with something extra.
By my count, the teams with the longest active hitting streaks: Yankees, 8,600 games (last on 1958-09-20); Cubs, 7,496 games (last on 1965-09-09).

@Twins 4, Tigers 2: You want Win Probability Added? Ryan Doumit snapped a string of 13 zeroes with a 2-run HR in the 7th, then turned around and unleveled again in the 8th with a ~~2-out,~~ 2-run laser double up the middle after Brayan Villarreal had filled the bags on passes.

Fill-in starter Drew Smyly stymied the Twins on 2 singles into the 6th, but Minny rook Scott Diamond‘s had the Tigers by the tail in all 3 starts this year — 5 ER in 21.1 IP.
Status quo in the HR chase. Two harmless singles raised Miguel Cabrera‘s BA to .327; Joe Mauer‘s 0-for 2 left him at .322, with Mike Trout (2-5) at .321 and dark horse Adrian Beltre (2-4) at .319.

@White Sox 3, Rays 1: Gavin Floyd used 105 pitches in 5 innings, but held the Rays to Ben Zobrist‘s 1st-inning HR, and a relief quintet gave just 1 hit in the last 4 frames. Alex Rios gave the Sox a lead in the 4th with a solo HR, reaching career highs of 25 HRs and 89 RBI, then doubled and scored the insurance run in the 6th. Tampa’s 8-win streak, 2nd-most in club history, bit the dust, along with most of their playoff hopes; unlike last year, Boston seems disinclined to do them any favors.

Jesse Crain, one of the best anonymous set-up men, got 8 outs, a season high. He’s in the top 10 in ERA+ among non-closers with 100+ IP in the last 2 years.
Wade Davis fanned the side in the 7th. He has 23 Ks in his last 10.2 IP, and 86 in 68.2 IP this year. His 11.4 SO/9 in relief is nearly double what he did in 388 IP starter’s IP (5.9).
A heady play by Zobrist.

Angels 7, @Rangers 4: Mike Trout‘s leadoff HR put the Halos up for good, Mark Trumbo had his first doubles and second 3-ribby game since July 17, and Jered Weaver beat Texas for the 4th straight time to earn his 20th win — just the 2nd Angel to fly that high since Nolan Ryan (1973-74).

The clock ticks on against the Angels: the Yanks and O’s both won and the A’s are nearly home. Anaheim trails wild-cards Oakland and Baltimore by 2 and 3, respectively.
Weaver’s 102 wins ties him with Frank Tanana and John Lackey at #4 on the franchise list.
Through 2011, just 2 pitchers ever had 20 wins and less than 200 IP. As of now, there are 2 this year; Gio (199.1) ought to cross the border, but Jered (187.2) likely won’t. If he doesn’t pitch again, Weaver will be the first since 1942 with 20 wins and less than 30 games.

@Cards 12, Nats 2 /@Dodgers 8, Rockies 0 / Astros 7, @Brewers 6: LA’s 3 back; Milwaukee’s tragic number is 1. Clayton Kershaw fanned 10 but stayed 1 off the NL lead.

Yankees 11, @Blue Jays 4 / @Orioles 9, Red Sox 1: T.C.B. for the Eastern powers. Baltimore’s run differential finally tips into the black, 697-690.

Two more defeats will put the BoSox on 90 losses, unseen since 1966.

Mets 3, @Braves 1: Jon Niese and Lucas Duda put a crimp in Atlanta’s odds of avoiding the all-or-nothing game. For the 3rd straight time against Atlanta, Niese allowed just a solo HR by a lefty, and Duda spoiled 2-strike pitches until Tim Hudson — the pitcher he’s seen more than any other — finally missed his target.

Niese has lasted 6+ IP in 20 straight start, one shy of this year’s longest streak and the longest by a Met since the glorious arrival of Pedro. Of his 22 HRs allowed, just 4 came off lefty bats — 2 by Freeman, 1 by Heyward. Freeman has 18 RBI in 15 games against the Mets thi syear.
Nothing across for Chipper in the start of what could be his final home series. He turned a nifty DP to keep things close in the 8th.

@Marlins 2, Phillies 1: Hey, at least they got Cliff Lee off the hook, right?

Lee and Mark Buehrle each got no decision and crossed the 200-IP threshold — Buehrle for the 12th year in a row.
Giancarlo Stanton set a personal best with his 35th HR. His 91 career HRs have come against 77 different pitchers. Stanton nipped in front of Ryan Braun in the slugging race, .605 to .602, but he needs 23 PAs in the last 5 games to qualify. (The hitless-ABs provision may yet be invoked!)
Which baseball cliche do you prefer for the Lee-Buehrle matchup: classy lefties, or stylish southpaws? They’re a little too good to be just crafty.

@Indians 8, Royals 5: With one more HR, Billy Butler will become the 4th Royal and the 10th DH with a .300/30/100 season.

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12 years ago

John – I love your hedging on Weaver’s IP. 🙂 I’m trying to think what weird confluence of events could possibly get him over 200.

Doug

Something extra, indeed.

Browning’s perfecto and Tim Belcher going the distance on 3 hits, allowing only an unearned tally. What a perfecto, too – no 3-ball counts and side retired 5 times on 10 pitches or less.

The field conditions are described as “Soaked” and weather conditions as “Rain”, yet the game completed in just 1:51. You’d think there would have been frequent delays with pitchers scraping mud out of their cleats and the grounds crew applying that white stuff (or was this before they did that). Must have been the home plate umpire (Jim Quick) who kept things moving.

Voomo Zanzibar

The Yankees were no-hit by six Astros during a Clemens-300 attempt:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200306110.shtml

Brooklyn Mick

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

The Yankees starter and pitcher of record was Jeff Weaver. Clemens got career win 300 two days later.

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Huh. I just did that from memory, and didn’t even look at the Yankee details in that link. I watched that game with a friend of mine who is an Astro fan, and I remembered it as a Clemens 300 game. It took Roger 4 tries to get there, though NOT on June 11th. He won in Boston for 299. Then faced them again in NY 5 days later and got hammered. Got smacked around a bit the next game, too, but left in line for the victory. But his relief protectors were Sterling Hitchcock and Antonio Osuna. David Wells… Read more »

Jason Z

For all the criticism lobbied at Clemens for his supplement regimen, it should be noted that at 6am the next morning, after winning #300, at age 40, he was seen running a few miles on the streets of Manhattan.

Your comments above remind me of Nolan Ryan. After
either his sixth or seventh no hitter, I am not sure
which, he was spotted working out after the game, on
the bike.

It’s funny how the great ones are also the hardest workers.

Must be a correlation…

Author

John Autin

Thanks, Voomo. I knew there was a reason to hedge.

I always, but always, get tripped up by combined no-hitters. Since I obviously cannot change, I propose that we call those by another name entirely. 🙂

Luis Gomez

Reply to John Autin

The Yankees were no-hit by Tigers legend Billy Chapel as well 🙂

Ryan

During the broadcast, the Pirate announcers said the only teams with longer streaks than the Pirates 41 years without being no hit were the Cubs and Reds.

Reply to Ryan

The Cubs love their streaks! 🙂

tag

Reply to Ed

Yes, but poor Darwin Barney lost his errorless one. He ranged up the middle and had to make an off-balance throw, which short hopped and got past 1B Anthony Rizzo, allowing a runner to score. But Rizzo certainly did him no favors, pulling a Prince Fielder by butchering a fairly easy scoop.

Jonas Gumby

Reply to tag

I was thinking the same thing. I’m assuming Rizzo was aware of the streak, but he gave about as little effort as possible on this particular attempt.

Since it was late and I was lazy, here’s how I arrived at my claim: 1. Ascertained that the last (individual) no-hitter vs. Pittsburgh was on 1971-08-14. 2. Searched for (individual) no-hitters from 1972-2012. 3. Sorted by Opponent. 4. Counted 27 unique Opponents; thus, three teams missing, one of them Pittsburgh. 5. Formed a hunch that the other two teams were NYY and CHC, and tested that with a targeted search that confirmed their last dates as pre-1971. So where did I go wrong? Why didn’t I find that the Reds were last victimized in June ’71 (twice!*), two months… Read more »

The other day Alex Gordon took a home run away from Miguel Cabrera. Here’s what I found interesting…from an article at fangraphs: “According to Greg Rybarczyk, during the Home Run Tracker era — 2006 to the present day — the longest hang time for a home run is 7.13 seconds, and that home run was hit by Miguel Cabrera, just a few days ago. Had this been a home run, it wouldn’t have beat out that other home run, but it would’ve come close.” http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/miguel-cabrera-gets-robbed-a-tale-of-consequences/ Watch the video in the article. Alex Gordon waits and waits and waits for the… Read more »

bstar

I read that too, Ed. According to Rybarcyk the HR with the second most hang-time in his HR Tracker era is A-Rod’s 500th home run in August of 2007, off of KC’s Kyle Davies. It is the only other HR besides Miggy’s blahst to hang for more than 7 seconds since 2006 to the present.

Thanks for the link, Ed! Indeed, I think Gordon had a shot & a beer before finally making his jump.

That’s nothing. I gave up a homer to Ron Kittle in high school that has a hang time of 36 years and counting. That thing has never and will never come down.

OK, tag, but if we’re going to talk Wiffle Ball…. 🙂

If it had been wiffle ball, John, my cousin, who played 2B, wouldn’t still be reminding me about it 🙂

Not much hang time on today’s Miggy laser. 🙂

nightfly

Baltimore’s Chris Tillman (8 IP, 1 hit) owes Homer Bailey a beer. Then there’s also TB’s three-hit showing in the loss to Chicago, and two other four-hit games (Minnesota won theirs). It’s just an impression, but I seem to recall a lot of days this season where a half-dozen teams are held to fewer than five hits in a game. I don’t have the time to verify the impression right now, however.

Reply to nightfly

Most teams with 4 hits or less: 7, on 4/29, 5/18 and 8/10:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201204290.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR201205180.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI201208100.shtml

Most teams with exactly N hits on a single day this year:
0 – 1
1 – 2, 6/16
2 – 2, 4/14, 6/6, 6/27, 8/19
3 – 3, 4/11, 4/29, 5/1, 5/3, 5/27, 6/6, 6/20, 7/24, 8/5, 8/10
4 – 5, 9/1

FWIW, Doumit’s WPA was only 0.398. I misread the P-B-P — his 2-run double came with 1 out, not 2, which makes a *big* difference in win expectancy with the bases loaded.