Belated notes on Tuesday games with Eastern clubs: Bless Dusty and Charlie … what would a nerd like me do without ’em?
@Phillies 7, Marlins 3: This year’s first 2-HR game by a substitute was a little short of a “Shamsky,” but a better result for his team …
John Mayberry, Jr. has had some big pinch hits, but he whiffed in the 7th with 2 outs and the go-ahead run on 2nd base. He got over it. When the Phils got behind in the 10th (after a leadoff walk to Juan Pierre), Mayberry led off the bottom half with the answer, his 3rd homer this year. He came up again the next inning, 2 outs and the bags full without a hit. He had never hit a grand slam or a walk-off HR….
- Dad had terrific numbers off the bench, including one huge game, but never a game-ending hit in that role.
- 8 of the last 10 walk-off slams were immediately preceded by a walk or HBP. Six of the last 12 had an IBB in the inning.
- Glad I stopped searching: I checked the Event Finder for several seasons looking for the last player with 2 extra-inning HRs in the same game. Then I read that Mayberry was the first ever, but I can’t verify.
- Ironically, Laynce Nix, for whom Mayberry first batted, has brilliant extra-inning numbers — 16 for 42, 4 HRs, 5 doubles.
- Mayberry’s winner came exactly 2 years after Albert hit the first of back-to-back overtime walk-offs.
- Shocker! Albert’s 14 extra-inning HRs are the most by far since his 2001 debut; Raul Ibanez and Dunn are next with 9 (plus one in the postseason for Raul). Hank and Mickey also had 14 in their careers; the searchable leaders back to 1945 are Willie (19), Jack Clark (18, out of 340 total!), and Frank Robinson (16).
Plenty of moves here to think about … Tied in the home 11th, man on 1st and 1 out. Kyle Kendrick pinch-hit in the #6 spot, with Freddy Galvis and Erik Kratz next, and sacrificed. On the hill for the 2nd night in a row, the 2nd game of his career, was young Edgar Olmos, with a minor-league rate of 5.0 BB/9. They IBB Galvis to face the righty Kratz — but Olmos walks him on 4 pitches.
Charlie Manuel ran through his assets like a sailor on a 2-day pass. In the 7th, Erik Kratz, the 2nd PH of the game, tied it with a 2-out double, the 3rd double that inning, on Ricky Nolasco‘s 100th pitch. I’m guessing Nolasco would’ve come out regardless (he hasn’t gone much beyond 100 pitches all year), but with the pitcher’s spot due up, Mike Redmond wisely waited for Manuel’s move. Charlie sent in LHB Laynce Nix; he’s helpless against southpaws, so Redmond countered with LHP Mike Dunn. Charlie sent Mayberry for Nix, and he whiffed. Mayberry stayed in to play RF, and the new pitcher took Delmon’s spot in the order. After 7 innings, the Phils had one bench player left.
Charlie could have saved a move by using switch-hitting infielder Cesar Hernandez instead of Nix; Hernandez was hitting .305 at AAA, and has speed. He could have stayed in at 2B, with Freddy Galvis either leaving the game (which would have delayed by one the pitcher’s spot in the order) or moving to the OF in place of Delmon; Galvis has started 4 games in LF this year.
Next, Manuel brought in Mike Adams to pitch the top of the 8th. Now, look ahead in the Philly batting order: The pitcher is 6 spots away, so about an 80% chance he’ll come up in the last of the 9th. Wouldn’t you like to use one pitcher who can get you to that spot? Adams hasn’t pitched 2 innings in a game in 3 years; maybe he could do it, but Charlie wasn’t gonna let him. Jonathan Papelbon hadn’t pitched since last Wednesday, and he had a couple of multi-inning stints last year. Charlie used Adams in the 8th, Pap in the 9th, and then had to PH for Pap in the bottom half. At the end of 9 innings, the Phillies were out of bench players, and had burned 3 relievers, including their 2 most dependable. (Never trust Bastardo, as shown in the 10th.)
- Olmos made his MLB debut the night before, inheriting the bases loaded and retiring Ryan Howard to escape.
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Orioles 4, @Astros 1: The happy road trip had to end sometime. The ‘Stros are 9-22 in the Juice Box, 1-7 vs. the AL East.
- Lucas Harrell dashed the hopes of all who loved late-’40s baseball, fanning 6 without a walk to nudge his SO/BB ratio above 1.0. There were more walks than strikeouts every year from 1947-51. Harrell, who leads the bigs in passes, broke a streak of 27 starts with at least 1 walk.
- Raise your hand if you remember Danny Valencia running 3rd in the 2010 R.O.Y. vote. In the ensuing 2+ years, he’s been traded for a minor-leaguer, and sold outright. But he hit the snot out of it with Norfolk earlier, and here he is again with 3 HRs in 9 games. Not likely to get much action at his native hot corner, though.
- Work on that wind-up: With no one aboard, batters have 12 HRs in 181 PAs against Chris Tillman, and an .855 OPS. With anyone on, 3 HRs and a .684 OPS in 111 PAs.
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@Red Sox 17, Rangers 5: Ron Washington figured, David Murphy‘s hitting like a pitcher, anyway; might as well get some work out of him.
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@Yankees 4, Indians 3: Mark Teixeira has a career .279 BA and, but with 2 or more on base, it’s a .313 true BA and just over half his career RBI. David Phelps has a 2.77 starting ERA, if you drop the worst of his 7 outings. No HRs in his last 6 home starts; since the new park opened in ’09, only CC has gone 7 straight tater-free.
- Drew Stubbs showed two things — (1) the only polite way to shush Joba, and (2) the Yanks don’t get all the cheapies at the new Stadium.
- Tribe has won this season series once in the last 21 years.
- Jason Giambi as a Bronx visitor: 2 HRs in 36 games, .230/.646. There as a Yankee: .269/.930.
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@Giants 2, Blue Jays 1: More 1st-inning woes for Tim Lincecum, with a single and HR in the first 3 batters — but Bautista‘s GDP halved that cost, and Timmy shot straight to the 6th. Then he wobbled: a walk to the pitcher and a line single. Bautista hit a bullet, but right to the Panda, and Josh Johnson was doubled off. Edwin Encarnacion‘s 2nd error in 4 games at 3B doubled the value of a 2nd-inning HR, and that was your scoring.
- The Jays’ silver lining: Johnson was sharp in his DL return (no walks, 6 Ks in 7), and he didn’t get hurt again.
- Joey Bats has 8 GDP this year; he averaged 10 for the past 3 years.
- The Panda Power outage isn’t just about homers. He has 7 doubles out of 61 hits, about half his career rate.
- Since 2010, SF scoring 2 or 3 runs at home is 48-47.
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@Braves 5, Marlins 4 (10): The last out of the 6th eluded Jeff Locke, who left with a 4-2 lead and a man on 1st. His successor quickly got up 1-and-2 on B.J. Upton. The demoted Bossman had 3 singles in 51 ABs that began 1-2, but you still have to make a pitch better than this one. Each bullpen bent without breaking for 3 frames, but a leadoff walk in the 10th proved fatal for Mark Melancon when Andrelton Simmons found the fairway in right-center for his 3rd hit of the game and his first game-winner.
Freddie Freeman started their comeback from 0-3 with a 2-out, 2-run double on 1-and-2. He’s 21 for 44 with RISP and 13-24 with 2 or more on.
- Melancon took his first loss, but he still hasn’t given up a lead this year and leads the world with 18 holds, 3 more than #2.
- Starling Marte‘s last 22 games: .195 BA, 1 RBI.
- Atlanta’s 20-7 at home, best in the bigs, and 6-2 in extras.
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@Tigers 10, Rays 1: A 4-run 2nd wiped out the lone blemish on Anibal Sanchez‘s line, and finally hung a loss on Matt Moore. The Tampa lefty allowed 6 walks for the 2nd time this year; he’s doled out 34 passes in 64 IP, the 2nd-worst rate among qualifiers, and just 1.7 SO/BB.
- Sanchez ranks 2nd in strikeouts and SO/9, 5th in HR/9 (3 HRs in 78 IP).
- Detroit’s staff .315 BAbip is right behind Houston for worst in the majors, and 20 points above the MLB average.
- Distribute the wealth! Detroit has scored exactly 10 runs 3 times in Sanchez starts, and 6+ runs in half of his dozen. But the other 6 saw 9 total runs. Detroit leads the majors at 5.3 R/G average, but despite their fine rotation, they’re 6-22 scoring 5 runs or less.
- Matt Tuiasosopo‘s .480 OBP (20-59, 14 walks, 2 HBP) is tops among those with 50+ PAs, and his 167 OPS+ is 7th. In his 3 prior stints in the bigs, Tuiasosopo had 13 walks and 70 Ks; this year, 14 and 15.
- We’re a long way from seeing any definitive action on the Biogenesis case, but the potential loss of Jhonny Peralta would be huge to Detroit, among the biggest such on the contenders. He’s hitting .338/.878, and despite average range, his defensive stats are solid, and just 3 errors.
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@Nationals 3, Mets 2: Steve Lombardozzi got his first game-ending RBI as the Nats touched up Bobby Parnell for a come-from-behind win. The Mets’ lead was a gift, built around shoddy fielding around the 1B bag in the 5th and cashed by Omar Quintanilla‘s 2-out triple. But only one other Met got a hit, as Jordan Zimmermann shaved his ERA to 2.16. Jeremy Hefner‘s 4 best starts (5 runs in 28 IP) have ended in 4 Mets losses.
- Ian Desmond (HR, 2B to set up the game-winner) is tied with Tulo for the SS lead with 27 extra-base hits. He leads all shortstops in XBH and total bases since 2012.
- John Buck has started 47 of 55 games with the gear on. I still think the workload is reckless, and what’s the point, now? His last 25 games: .169, 1 HR.
- Seriously, Rick Ankiel is now 12 for 62 (.194) for both the Mets and the Astros. Let’s see someone younger than 33 out there. (Glove goes in the suitcase this time, Rick.)
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Bonus coverage
@Dodgers 9, Padres 7: What took you so long, Yasiel? If the track-to-the-back DP assist that capped his debut was a muscular calling card, this game was a boldface “be there!” Puig doubled to the opposite corner leading off the 1st, with a natural all-fields stroke; bashed a tying 3-run no-doubter to left-center in the 5th; and went deep to RF off a righty the next inning, extending the lead. The Yasiel eruption led LA to tie their season high in runs, overcoming another poor start by Ted Lilly (and more pinata pokes at Ronald Belisario, whose BA has gone from .187 last year to .325 this), and completely eclipsed the return of Hanley Ramirez after his latest month-long absence.
- Puig is the first searchable Dodger with a 2-HR game within his first two career contests. The last in the majors was Manny Machado, and that promotion’s worked fairly well.
- The previous quickest Dodger to a 2-HR game was Charlie Gilbert, his 3rd game, in 1940. Gilbert was a pint-sized 20-year-old rookie OF who made the starting lineup after a good year at AA Nashville, but he hit his way out of the lineup by July. Gilbert had no more HRs the rest of that year, or the next three (almost 500 PAs), and finished with 5 HRs in almost 1,000 PAs.
- Last Dodger with 3 XBH from the leadoff spot was Rafael Furcal, 2009.
- Puig’s 10 total bases matched this year’s leadoff high, by Shin-Soo Choo and Michael Saunders.
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Rockies 5, @Reds 4: Guess what inning proved disastrous for the Reds, with 2 outs and the tying run on base?
To recap: Cincinnati’s last 3 games were bookended by huge leverage spots with 2 down in the 8th and the tying or go-ahead run at bat in the form of a slugger. Chapman pitched the middle game, with a 3-run lead.