Wednesday game notes

@Brewers 8, Braves 2: For 4 innings, Paul Maholm had a lead and a tight rhythm: out, on base, out, out. But when Chipper Jones‘s boot broke the pattern, all hell broke loose — an 8-run foam-over that featured both a sac bunt and an RBI double by Yovani Gallardo, who won his 7th straight decision.

  • Remember when St. Louis had the NL’s top offense? Over the teams’ last 43 games, the Cards have averaged an OK 4.30 R/G, while the Crew has bubbled up to 5.67.
  • Gallardo isn’t just consistent from year to year (ERA+ from 105-111 each of the last 4 seasons); he’s sneakily consistent in putting up Quality Starts. Would you have guessed that a guy outside the top 20 in ERA (3.72) is #1 in both number and percentage of Quality Starts? Gallardo has 24 QS in 30 starts, with a personal record of 15-3 and a 19-5 team mark in those games.

Tigers 8, @White Sox 6: The good news for Detroit is that the one team they must beat is the one team they can beat. Max Scherzer continued his mastery of the ChiSox (2.51 ERA and 5.1 SO/BB in 13 starts), allowing 1 run in 6 IP for his career-best 16th win.

A big moment of choice came with Prince Fielder up in the top of the 7th, 2 outs, 2 on, Tigers ahead 3-1. Robin Ventura summoned the rookie southpaw Leyson Septimo, but his first pitch got away and the runners moved up. Despite the open base, and a count that eventually reached 3-and-1, Ventura turned down the option of walking Fielder and bringing in a RHP to face the far less gifted Delmon Young. It’s not an open-and-shut case, but know this: On a 3-1 pitch, Fielder is now 38 for 101 with 8 HRs.

  • Tigers are 12-5 vs. ChiSox, 63-62 against all others.
  • Wait-wait-wait — Down to his last out, with the batter representing the tying run, Ventura looked down his expanded bench — which included Dayan Viciedo (20 HRs) and Gordon Beckham (15 HRs, including each of the last 2 nights) — and decided that Orlando Hudson gave the best chance? (Papa Grande and Todd Tichenor did not concur.)
  • Yes, that was the Dan Johnson whose 9th-inning single kept the game alive.
  • Scherzer had 7 Ks and no walks in 6 IP, but 32 foul balls(!) cost him a chance to go deeper, and so ended his 10-game streak of 8+ Ks. The other pitchers with streaks of at least 10 are Randy Johnson (high of 17 games), Pedro Martinez (16), Nolan Ryan (12), Sandy Koufax (11), and 10 each by Tim LincecumCurt Schilling and David Cone.
  • Scherzer, the strikeout leader whom nobody talks about, is 6-0, 1.29 in his last 7 starts, and has 14 QS in his last 17 games (11-2, 2.56).
  • Scherzer’s career rate of 9.28 SO/9 ranks 8th all-time among those with 100+ starts, between Koufax and Kershaw.

Athletics 4, @Angels 1: Payback achieved. A week ago, the Halos took a broom to the Coliseum, ending Oakland’s 9-game win streak, and followed up with a home sweep of Detroit that left the Angels just a game out of the wild card. Now they’re 3.5 games out. A.J. Griffin delivered the 3rd and best of Oakland’s rookie wins in this series with 8 scoreless, walkless innings, and the A’s once again notched a pair of late insurance runs off secondary relievers, which rendered Anaheim’s 9th-inning rally moot.

  • Griffin’s 1.94 ERA would rank 4th since 1920 among the 933 first-year pitchers with 10+ starts, and would be the best such year in a DH league. A 13th-round draft pick in 2010, he’s the only player to reach the majors so far from that round — or from the 12th, 11th or 10th round.
  • Seriously, has Mike Scioscia been watching Jason Isringhausen for the last month? Since August 1, Izzy has faced 50 batters: 22 reached base, 4 hit home runs, and just 8 struck out; 11 runs were charged to him in 9.2 IP, and he let in 5 of 7 inherited runners. This is the guy trying to keep it close in the 8th?
  • Total innings for Ernesto Frieri in this series: zero. After Isringhausen gave up the 3rd run on a pair of doubles, he was replaced by Barry Enright, a career starting pitcher with 4.6 SO/9, who let in the last run on a fly ball and a single. I guess it wouldn’t be fair to the guests to bring in the guy with 14.5 SO/9 to try to strand a baserunner.

Giants 8, @Rockies 3: It was hardly vintage Freak, but San Fran fans are just happy he’s keeping them in the game.

  • On August 19, SF trailed LA by half a game. Since then: 15-7 for SF, 7-14 for LA, leading to the Giants’ biggest division lead since 2003.
  • At home this year, the Giants have scored 8+ runs in 6 of 71 games; in Coors Field, 6 of 9. They’ve averaged 8.44 R/G in Coors, 4.14 everywhere else. They’re 7-2 in Coors this year, 13-5 in the last 2 years.
  • Having already set the record for most HRs by a Colorado catcher, Wilin Rosario is now closing in on the backstop RBI mark — 65, by Chris Iannetta.
  • September baseball in the modern age: 9 different relievers pitched less than an inning, tying the season high. Six of those pitched for the Giants, who used 7 relievers for the last 3 innings; at no time had they less than a 3-run lead, and none of them faced the tying run.
  • “What about Bob?” The Giants were Gregor, Marco, Buster, Hunter, Joaquin, Brandon, Santiago, Jeremy, Aubrey, Guillermo, Javier, Sergio, Hector, Brandon, Angel, Justin, Jose, Tim and George. Two Brandons, but nary a John in sight?

@Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 2: LA’s offense stirred in the 1st, producing their first runs since Saturday and first multi-run inning since last Tuesday — and then took a powder for the rest of the game, generating just a pair of Luis Cruz singles in their final 28 PAs, with the last 16 going down in order. Still, Aaron Harang nursed a 2-1 lead into the 6th, when he issued a pair of 2-out walks. Decision time. Don Mattingly must have liked the numbers for Harang vs. Justin Upton — 4 for 25, one walk, no HRs — but the first-pitch cheeseball was ripped to left; tie game. Then Gerardo Parra foiled the LOOGY plan, and the Snakes had seized control.

  • When you’re going bad, every little mistake bites you. On Upton’s 2-out hit, Shane Victorino had virtually no chance to throw out Paul Goldschmidt at the plate, but his throw went through anyway, and Miguel Montero lumbered over to 3rd on the play. Naturally, followed with a hard single to LF that likely could not have scored Montero from 2nd, but from 3rd he waltzed in with the lead run.
  • It was LA’s 7th straight game scoring 3 runs or less, 4th straight without a HR, 3rd straight with 5 hits or less, and 2nd straight without a walk.
  • OK, so the Phillies & Brewers are officially back in this race at 72-71, 3 games behind the Cardinals; and every time LA thinks they’re out, St. Louis pulls them back in. So what do you say of Arizona, 71-72 but with a soft schedule? They have 7 with COL, 3 with the CHC, 3 with SD, and 6 with SF, whom they lead 7-5 so far.

__________________

August 14-15: The last time the Yankees won consecutive games, and the last time the Rangers lost consecutive games. New York then was 2.5 games ahead of Texas; but after respective stretches of 10-15 and 18-8, the Rangers now lead by 5 games in the chase for the AL’s best record. (Incidentally, during that 18-8 run, Texas actually lost 3 games off their division lead, with Oakland going 21-5.)

 

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topper009
topper009
12 years ago

Not a perfect stat but Yovanni Gallardo led the Brewers to their 9 straight home win with his MLB leading 24th quality start. Brewers are tied with Philly at 3 games out of the final wild card spot occupied by StL, with the Pirates and Dodgers between.

bstar
12 years ago
Reply to  topper009

Gallardo’s a Braves killer: 4-1 with a 2.01 ERA in 7 starts against them. I never felt we had a chance last night.

Ed
Ed
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Looks like the Brewers have a fairly tough schedule the rest of the way, at least compared to the other wild card contenders. The Cardinals seem to be in the driver’s seat based on their remaining schedule and being 3 games up. Still kudos to the Phillies and Brewers for not giving up on the season.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-impact-of-remaining-strength-of-schedule/

tag
tag
12 years ago
Reply to  topper009

Loved the name sequence, John, but also to be fair we might not have a Bob and a John but we do have a Bill and a Joe. Both just happen to be Spanish versions.

RJ
RJ
12 years ago

To be fair, Buster Posey’s real first name is Gerald.

Mike L
Mike L
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

actually, John A., they are Irving, Irvin, Irwin, and Isidore

Ed
Ed
12 years ago
Reply to  Mike L

And Posey’s middle name is Dempsey! His parents’ must have known that he was going to grow up to be a catcher!

Doug
Editor
12 years ago

I sure don’t like that NL turtle derby for the second wild card spot. You can almost sense that whoever wins it will find a way to take out a far more deserving club (whether Atlanta or Washington) in that 1-game crapshoot. Ugh!

kds
kds
12 years ago

It looks like the Nats might determine the wild cards. After 3 in ATL they have the Dodgers for 3 and MIL for 4. Then 3 in Philly, 3 in STL, and the Phil’s in for 3 at home.

Jim Bouldin
12 years ago

Hmmm, Verlander vs Sale, starting in about 1 hour’s time. I do believe that viewing same might reasonably be added to a baseball fan’s evening “to do” list, were he so inclined.

Or I could continue sitting here in the library of the alma mater of one Mr. Autin and work, like I’m supposed to have been doing today.

FPS
FPS
12 years ago

Yovani Gallardo, Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Tim Lincecum, and Justin Verlander are the only pitchers to have 200+ strikeouts and an ERA+ of at least 105 each year from 2009-2011. Looks like only Gallardo, Hernandez, and Verlander will make it 4 straight years.

Jimbo
Jimbo
12 years ago
Reply to  FPS

Oddly enough, despite all his struggles, Lincecum is still striking out plenty of batters.

tag
tag
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I am one of Timmy’s biggest fans but boy has this season been a cross to bear. He just can’t seem to locate pitches at all when he needs to. Batters have learned to better ID and hold off at swinging at the split/change, so he gets far fewer K’s when he needs them most. Then down in the count he’ll come in with the two-seamer and miss his spot by a half-mile, which results in a double into the gap and two more runs (because he’s walked the first two guys in the inning). He seems to be continuing… Read more »

RJ
RJ
12 years ago
Reply to  tag

Lincecum’s 3.33 ERA, 8 Quality Starts and 6 Wins since the Break lead all Giants starting pitching.

tag
tag
12 years ago
Reply to  tag

He definitely has improved, RJ, but still, some of those QS stretch the meaning of “quality” quite a bit. Since August he’s only gone 7 innings once, and he’s also gone 4, 5 and 5.2 innings. He’s walked 7 in one (relatively short) outing and 5 in another. He’s been relieved in the 6th inning a couple other times. This is not the quality we’ve come to expect from Timmy.

RJ
RJ
12 years ago
Reply to  tag

Oh absolutely tag. I was more trying to add credence to your point that he could still do a job in the postseason, especially with the rest of the Giants pitching faltering a bit of late.

Doug
Doug
12 years ago
Reply to  Jimbo

One guy who isn’t striking out so many guys as before is Jered Weaver. His Ks and IP are down markedly this year. Despite that 17-4 record, before last night he had only one W since Aug 6, similar to what happened to him at the same time last year. Looks like Weaver is on track to be only the 7th pitcher with 10-19 wins each year of his first 7, and 27th with 10+ wins in each of their first 7 seasons. Before Weaver, CC was the last of those 10-19 win guys, and before CC have to go… Read more »

tag
tag
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Managing in baseball is hidebound in so many ways. Football used to be the same but now you see a couple guys (Belichick, the bounty hunter once known as Sean Payton) occasionally challenging convention and actually going for it on fourth down near midfield, not playing a complete “prevent” defense to the let the other team back in the game, etc. Maddon used to be fairly reliable in thinking outside the Book but I’ve become disappointed in him recently too. As you consistently point out, this hidebound thinking is most egregious in the use of relievers. How hard is it… Read more »