I’m just gonna toss stuff up on the fly here, for whatever it’s worth.
Orioles 1, @Rays 0: The game’s lone run scored when Chris Davis extended his HR streak to 6 games, tying a franchise record set in July 1976 by Reggie Jackson. Miguel Gonzalez kept Tampa off the board into the 7th, allowing 2 hits in his 3rd straight win and 4th straight Quality Start. But will it pull them even? Things are happening awfully fast up in the Bronx.
- “Hello, my name is…”: Big Game James Shields went the route, allowing 2 hits and no walks, with 15 Ks in just 106 pitches. His 94 Game Score is the highest in a loss since 1980-08-10, when Steve McCatty went 14 IP to lose 2-1. It’s also a franchise record Game Score, breaking the mark of 93 shared by Shields (twice) and Ryan Rupe. And it breaks David Price‘s club record of 14 strikeouts, set last August (in just 7 IP). Finally, it’s the second 15-K loss in the bigs this year.
- Baltimore’s other 1-0 win this year was also at Tampa’s expense and pitted Gonzalez against Price, both gone before the O’s won it in (what else?) extra innings.
- It’s the 3rd win in MLB this year with 2 hits or less, the others both happening on 2012-06-27. Baltimore’s last win with 2 hits or less was 1996-09-21 (you’re gonna love that box score).
- Last time that both teams had 2 hits or less: 2011-07-09. (“Rubby!”)
@Yankees 4, Red Sox 3 (12): Update — Dang, wasn’t it roughly yesterday that Ibanez logged the highest WPA game this year by anyone who came in as a PH? The magic number is down to one.
- The words “taking advantage of the short porch in right” had barely escaped Coney’s lips before Raul did just that. And later, against a lefty, he did this.
- No-win situation for the BoSox — beating the hated Yanks would aid the team that took their lunch money last fall.
- No redemption after all for Teix, who made the first out of the 12th to finish at 0-6.
- After wasting more scoring chances than the number of Derek Jeter’s club records, New York finally tied it in the 9th on a 2-run pinch-HR by Raul Ibanez, his 19th HR and 14th at home. But Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano couldn’t bring the winning run home starting with 1 out, and so the teams played on….
- The Bombers lead the AL with 6 pinch-hit HRs.
- Just a hunch, and he may get another chance, but … Teix may have amassed the worst game WPA by a Yankee this year; and if there was a way to compound it for the seasonal importance of the game, he’d have it hands-down. His 4 ABs so far: Yanks down 2-0, 2 on, 1 out — GDP. Down 2-1, 3rd-and-1st, 1 out — GDP. Down 2-1, 2 on, 2 out — groundout. Leading off the 8th — foulout. Tied in the home 9th, bags full, 1 out — popout. (Put the Bob Marley on your headphones, Teix: “Redemption … redemption songs.”)
@Athletics 3, Rangers 1 (5th): In case you haven’t heard, Oakland is just 29-29 in games started by a southpaw. And Matt Harrison came in with a career 6-1 mark against them. But never underestimate the defensive adventure that is Nelson Cruz, or the ability of Jonny Gomes to take southpaws deep.
Reds 3, @Cardinals 1: The door was left open….
Giants 4, @Dodgers 1 (6th): … but can the Dodgers get a foot in? Or will they be eliminated by Barry Zito, looking to win his 5th straight start? (Not to make light of the Buster & Marco Show.)
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Astros 3, @Cubs 0: Are you kidding me? I thought I was just futzin’ around early this evening when I looked up consecutive shutouts in Wrigley!
- Houston’s 3rd straight shutout ties the franchise mark set in 1974 and matched in 1986. Do I even need to say that both of those were in the Astrodome?
- The last time a team failed to score in consecutive Wrigley games was in 2010, but that comes with an asterisk — a 9-game road trip intervened. The last truly back-to-back shutouts at 1060 West Addison came in 2006, Cubs over the Nats. The last time the Cubs were the victims at home was in 2004, consecutive games but different foes. For the last time one team blanked Chicago in consecutive ivy-bordered games, we go all the way back to 2000.
- It’s the third shutout trifecta in MLB this year, including SF’s “quad erat demonstrandum” back in June.
- Looking ahead: The Cubs were last blanked in triplicate in April ’92, by Glavine, Leibrandt & Smoltz, down in Atlanta. (Maddux, still a Cub, didn’t pitch that series, having absorbed a 1-0 loss 2 days before it started.)
- It seems that no team since at least 1918 has ever stoned the Cubs 3 straight on their turf. There is one searchable case of 3 straight Cubs shutout losses at home, in 1924, split among the Braves and Dodgers. I believe that predates the ivy by 13 years….
@Royals 4, Tigers 2: Cabrera was 2 for 3, now hitting .3307 (205/620). Trout’s 1-3 (so far) has him at .3249 (180/554); a 4-for-4 would get him to .3297, while 5-for-5 would nudge him to .3309, just past Miggy. (Mauer would need … oh, forget it, he’s out.
@Marlins 4, Mets 3 (11): A fittingly drawn-out game, as nobody wasted more of their fans’ time in the 2nd half than these teams.
- R.A. Dickey‘s luck evened out: No run support and he left after 6 on the short end of a 3-0 score, but his pals got him off the hook, with a bit of help from ex-Met Heath “How many more years on this deal?” Bell, wasting a strong start by young Jacob Turner (7.2 IP, left with a man on base). Dickey finished with 230 Ks, a 20-6 record and 2.73 ERA.