Game notes from Monday, May 13

Damn it. Jose Fernandez faces T.J. surgery, after just 36 major-league games. Damn it!

OK, a few notes from Monday, and some Sunday junk.

 

Mets 9, @Yankees 7 — Lucas Duda capped his brilliant defensive(!) game with his second 3-6-3 double play, sealing the win with the tying runs aboard. The Mets overcame another Buddha boo-hoo, overcoming two 3-run deficits with 8 runs in the 5th through 8th innings, and hitting 4 home runs for the first time in over a year.

Brett Gardner wiped out the Mets’ usual 1st-inning run with a 2-out grand slam in the 2nd, first for the Bombers this year, and just their second tater worth at least 3 runs. Travis d’Arnaud popped a short-porch solo, and Curtis Granderson tied it in the 5th with his first-ever 3-and-0 homer, devouring a cookie from Hiroki Kuroda.

But Bartolo Colon blew up again, as the Yankees went up 7-4 in the 6th. They lost a run at the plate that inning, as catcher d’Arnaud perfectly executed a one-throw rundown by racing the runner towards third, getting the out without letting the batter take second. That seemed important when Gardner singled for first-and-third with two outs, but then d’Arnaud parasailed a throw to second, giving the run back. Back came the Mets with a pair, with d’Arnaud’s leadoff walk cashed by Eric Young’s liner to the corner seats off Alfredo Aceves. With Granderson up as the lead run (but facing a lefty), Daniel Murphy tried to steal second, but was nipped for the last out.

The final Mets rally started with a pinch-double by rookie Eric Campbell. Duda’s single on Thornton’s 3-1 pitch tied it, and then Chris Young cracked their fourth homer, off Preston Claiborne.

Colon yielded 11 hits in 5.2 IP, and it could have been more, as Duda snared two liners. Yangervis Solarte led off the home 8th with his third hit, but Duda snagged Kelly Johnson’s one-hopper, pirouetting to start the double play, so that Brian Roberts’s two-out hit went nowhere. Kyle Farnsworth opened the final frame in the worst way possible, walking Derek Jeter. Jacoby Ellsbury flied deep to center, and then Mark Teixeira pinch-hit. Teix was resting what he called “cement legs,” and those were in view when he ripped a sure double into the corner on a 3-1 pitch, but could only make first. Farnsworth fell behind 2-and-0 to Brian McCann, who pulled a bullet. But Duda did it again, diving to his right for the one-hop stop, then a strong throw, and back just in time for the return.

  • The Grandy Man has 65 HRs in 257 games in new Yankee Stadium, 61 of them to right or right-center.
  • Yanks now have five Subway Series slams, the Mets two.
  • Derek Jeter’s first 3-hit game since the end of 2012, and the 284th of his career, breaking a tie with Hank Aaron. Since 1941 (Stan Musial’1 debut), only Pete Rose (387), Stan the Man (319) and Rod Carew (304) had 300 such games; Tony Gwynn had 297, Paul Molitor 290, Roberto Clemente 288, Wade Boggs 286, then Jeter.
  • Jeter reached four times, but didn’t score, first time since July 2011.
  • Eric Young has a modest .336 OBP and just 5 XBH, but he’s scored 24 runs in 27 starts. He’s been a big part of their 1st-inning tallies, reaching safely in 12 of 27 first-inning PAs, and 9-for-9 in steal tries.

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Cubs 17, @Cardinals 5 — Samardzija wept.

  • The Cubs’ highest run output in the last 5 years, and their third time with 17+ against St. Louis since at least 1914 (1974, 1954); all three of those games had just 2 HRs.
  • Emilio Bonifacio is the first this year to score 5 runs in a game. Only Mark Trumbo did that last year, none the year before. If you knew that the last Cub to score 5 was Jody Davis, you truly bleed Cubbie blue. (Last Cub before that was Bill Madlock, ’74, but the star of that game was The Baron: 4-3-4-8, 3 HRs and a double.)
  • Randy Choate had pitched 554 times and never allowed more than 5 hits or runs. Tonight, he was asked to take one for the team: 6 runs on 7 hits in the 9th, and he couldn’t even get through the inning. Infielder Daniel Descalso stepped in for the last out.
  • Mike Olt’s 8th HR was his 16th hit, and his 5th HR in 30 ABs against lefties.
  • Welcome home from your 9-game road trip, Cardinals.

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@Blue Jays 7, Angels 3 — Mark Buehrle won his 7th with a solid start, despite walking five for the first time in almost four years, second time in 11 years.

  • Jose Bautista’s 10th homer. He hit 152 in the past four seasons; with 28 more this year, he would reach 10th all-time for ages 29-33. Only six players hit 200+ in that range: Sosa 292, Ruth 232, Thome 227, Bagwell 205, Mays 203, A-Rod 202.
  • Not a great night for Clan Rasmus: Colby went 0-for-3 and left the game after the 6th, missing a chance to bat against his brother. Cory got just one out and gave up a 2-run single to Colby’s replacement, Juan Francisco.

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Tigers 4, @Orioles 1 — Rick Porcello threw grounders for six innings to win his 5th straight start, and Detroit made the most of their 5 hits. Two Tigers walked, each leading off, and both scored, while the free-swinging O’s got no free baserunners. When Porcello tightened up in the 7th, Ian Kroll worked past a leadoff double by Steve Clevenger, who had half the Birds’ six bingles and their lone RBI. Ian Kinsler’s 2-run shot in the 8th made a cushion for Joe Nathan, who closed it on six pitches, tying his low for a 3-batter save.

  • There are seven 3-pitch, 3-batter saves in the database, last one by Mariano in 2003.
  • Porcello is 15-3 in 21 starts since last July. He allowed a two-out, none-on single in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, but only one wound up as a run. He’s allowed 18 two-out hits this year (.316 BA), but only 5 runs: no HRs, and 10 of the 18 hits came with bases empty. Just 2 walks in 59 two-out PAs helped keep those bases clear. He’s always had good control — 2.2 BB/9 in the past 4 years, 17th out of 94 with 500+ IP — but this year he’s walked 6 in 44.2 IP (1.2 BB/9).
  • Andrew Romine fouled out to pitcher.” This, I gotta see. By the way, Andrew has 4 extra-base hits (doubles) out of 52 career hits, for the lowest isolated power of any live-ball non-pitcher with 50+ hits.

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Rangers 4, @Astros 0 — And we have our first 11-hit shutout of 2014. Houston’s resources included 8 singles, 2 doubles, a triple and 3 walks. But their 1-for-11 with RISP included 7 strikeouts.

  • No other shutout in the 100-year database matches those exact numbers. There are two prior shutouts with at least 14 times on base safely, three extra-base hits and a triple. Five prior 9-inning shutouts with 14+ TOB and 15+ total bases.
  • Rougned Odor got his first RBI with a single, then a homer for his first extra-base hit.
  • Career-high 11 Ks for Brad Peacock, but also 10 baserunners and 4 runs in 6 IP.

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Marlins @Dodgers — Wait, now: Miami dropped Carlos Marmol … and they brought up Henry Rodriguez? I don’t quite know what to say, but the words “frying pan” and “fire” come to mind. Henry got through Sunday’s inning with just a walk and a steal, but tonight he came into a one-run game and did all the things he’s known for, retiring 2 of 7, with a wild pitch and four walks — the leadoff man, and then three straight (including the pitcher) with two outs, forcing in a run.

Henry Rodriguez is not a major-league pitcher; he’s a baseball sideshow freak. He was promoted this year after walking 23 in 19 innings at triple-A, with 7 wild pitches. Promoted! His career minor-league rates are 6.7 BB/9 (this is in 372 IP over 9 seasons), with a wild pitch every 5 innings. His major-league stats are much the same.

Since seems to have unlimited chances, Henry might actually put up a decent year somewhere down the line, and folks will marvel at how he’s finally put it all together. It won’t last. Nuke Laloosh was a movie character.

Hey, I’m all for second chances. But prove yourself in the minors. How in hell can you call up a guy after 23 walks in 19 innings? What incentive does he have to make the changes needed to improve his control? And what a great message for the rest of your farm system. Good luck preaching “throw strikes,” when a guy with no clue where the ball’s headed once he lets go keeps getting looks in the Show.

(Soapbox show over.)

____________________

A batch of pure stats stuff from Sunday. Or impure stats stuff. But definitely stats stuff.

Cardinals 6, @Pirates 5 — Down by two as the home 9th began, Pittsburgh ripped three hard hits off Trevor Rosenthal, plating one run. A four-pitch walk to Clint Barmes filled the bases with no outs, raising their win expectancy to 72%. A first-pitch foul pop by Ike Davis dropped those odds to 51%, and Jordy Mercer’s tapper to Rosenthal became a game-ending 1-2-3 DP.

How cruelly calculating is our WPA mistress? Mercer had been one of the Bucs’ heroes before that inning, with a 2-run HR in the 4th that halved their deficit, and a no-out double in the 8th setting up a score to get them back within two runs. But that momentary loss of muscular coordination sunk his game WPA to -.285, lowest of the whole weekend.

Game-ending 1-2-3 throwing out the tying run at home: Just one other in the last 28 seasons — after B.J. Ryan had walked the bases full in a 1-0 game. There’s no such game involving either the Cards or the Pirates in the searchable database (back to 1938).

Last game-ending 1-2-3 turned by the Cardinals: 1988, Todd Worrell pitching to Tim Wallach. No particular reason to throw home on that play, as the Cards led 6-2.

Dates of the six game-ending 1-2-3 DPs since 2000: April 15, April 19, May 5, May 9, May 11, May 14. Last one later in a year was 1997.

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Mark Teixeira’s tying home run off Francisco Rodriguez was the second in MLB this year where a team was one strike from losing and then homered to tie or take the lead. For the Yankees, A-Rod hit two of their previous three. Last allowed by the Brewers was July 4, 2012, a tying solo in Milwaukee from John Axford to Gaby Sanchez; the Crew lost in the 10th.

For K-Rod, it’s just the second tying or go-ahead homer when one strike away. He gave up a walk-off grand slam in 2009 — with the Mets, of course.

Now that K-Rod’s been tarnished, the new “zero hero” among pitchers is Aaron Poreda, with just 8.1 scoreless innings. Aaron Crow has 15 IP with no earned runs.

Teixeira has 348 career HRs, but no walk-offs. I worked my way down the active HR leaders, looking for the next guy with no walk-off bombs. It was a trek, but I finally found one at #26. The numbers: A-Rod, 654 HRs, 9 walk-offs; Pujols, 502, 10; Dunn, 445, 9; Giambi, 438, 10; Ortiz, 438, 11; Konerko, 435, 3; Soriano, 411, 3; Beltre, 378, 7; Cabrera, 370, 6; Beltran, 363, 5; A.Ramirez, 359, 6; Teixeira, 348, 0; Howard, 318, 4; Hunter, 318, 4; Ibanez, 303, 6; Abreu, 288, 5; Fielder, 288, 4; Chavez, 258, 2; Jeter, 257, 1; Holliday, 253, 2; A.Gonzalez, 244, 2; Swisher, 233, 3; Uggla, 233, 1; Morneau, 229, 5; Wright, 224, 1; LaRoche, 222, 0.

Using the combined rate of those 26 guys (including the two with none), Teix is about 5 walk-offs below normal, and LaRoche 3. Incidentally, their walk-off rate is 1.35% of all homers, which exactly matches the MLB rate for 2000-14.

This Teixeira stuff is just a statistical oddity, not meant to make any point about him. In fact, his career high-leverage stats are excellent, far better than his overall stats. His hi-lev BA is .299, 21 points over his total, that gain ranking 14th among 159 active players with 500 hi-lev PAs, and his 72-point OPS gain is 6th-best in that group. (Now, if you want to call out a slugger for poor “clutch” hitting, try Carlos Gonzalez: His hi-lev BA is 34 points below his total, and his OPS is 133 points less, the biggest net loss in the group.)

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The Dodgers got 24 total bases in 45 PAs — 8 singles, 4 doubles and 2 HRs — but scored only 4 runs. It’s the fourth game in the last four seasons meeting those min/max criteria.

Hanley Ramirez tied it up with two outs in the 9th on a 2-run HR off Sergio Romo. Their last tying or go-ahead homer from death’s doorstep was May 2011, by Russ Mitchell — one of four HRs in his 40-game career.

Adrian Gonzalez tried to score on a single, but Angel Pagan threw him out to end LA’s 6th inning, saving an insurance run. Last year, Gonzalez scored from second just twice out of 17 singles. But at least he knew himself — he was never thrown out. (Pagan made a good throw, but gee — that’s a two-out grounder through the middle

With Brandon Belt on the DL and Brandon Crawford out of the lineup, it was up to Brandon Hicks to bring the Giants back. Which he did, with a 2-run HR off Clayton Kershaw.

__________

Derek Norris hit two 3-run homers off Gio Gonzalez, in consecutive innings, each on a 3-and-0 count with two outs. He had put only one prior 3-0 pitch in play, a single.

Complete pitch-count data goes back just to 1988 (with very scattered data before that). The database has 781 prior 3-and-0 homers, but I found just one other time that a player did it twice in a game: Chase Utley, 2007, in consecutive at-bats off Matt Belisle, both with one out. Utley has put a 3-0 pitch in play five times, with four HRs.

The last player with two 2-out HRs worth 3 runs or more in one game was Alberto Callaspo, 2010.

Before he reached the majors, Norris was part of the package Oakland received in trade for Gonzalez.

Oakland’s catchers are batting .336 with 6 HRs; their first basemen are at .200 with one HR. MLB catchers so far have out-homered and out-OPS’d every fielding position except first basemen.

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Aroldis Chapman debuted with a save, protecting a 3-run lead. Last year, 13 of his 38 saves started that way — which is why, despite his fantastic WHIP and strikeout rate, he ranked 42nd in reliever WPA, and 18th in WAR.

Colorado’s .355 home batting average is higher than that of any qualified batter on another team. Chase Utley leads that group at .338. Even dropping the threshold to 60+ PAs, only one non-Rockies player is batting .340 or better.

__________

Respect … or madness? With a one-run lead, two outs and a man on first, Huston Street walked Giancarlo Stanton on four pitches. He walked Casey McGehee to fill the bases, but he got Jeff Baker on a groundout.

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Conger, Kendrick & Cowgill each reached four times. But can you say those names four times, fast?

Mike Trout struck out four times, and hit an RBI double in his other trip, scoring a man from 1st with one out to boost LA’s lead to 3-1 in the 5th. That was enough to give him positive WPA for the game — the second such result this year with 4+ strikeouts and just one non-strikeout.

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Rangers whiffed 13 times, with no walks. It’s the sixth regulation game this year with those min/max criteria. The all-time high of 15 such games was set in 2012 (breaking the 2011 record of 12), and tied last year. Many seasons had no such games, the last being 1990. There were none from 1921-29, or from 1936-59.

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KC got a grand slam and a 3-run shot in the same game. Last time they did that was July 22, 2004, with both blasts by Mike Sweeney. (Thanks to Reliable Richard for this correction!)

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Too bad he didn’t do it in their home park: Arizona’s Chase Anderson won his MLB debut, with five innings of one-hit shutout ball, facing the minimum, before a solo home run in the 6th.

Arizona is 12-10 on the road, 4th-best road percentage in the NL. But that 3-15 home record … Four searchable teams had fewer home wins among their first 40 games:

— The 1932 Giants were 2-12 at home after 40 total games, but then won their next 8 home games. They finished 37-40 at home.

— The 1928 Braves had 2 home wins after 40 games, but they’d only lost 3. They had a 21-game road trip, came home for one game, then went back out for 8 more. Their 40th game was their 5th home game. But they did finish with a real bad home record (25-51), and were 6-20 at one point.

— The 1916 Giants were 2-11 at home after 40 games. Then they were 3-11, 3-14, 5-14, 5-17; but they rallied to finish 47-30 at home. But that team’s known for something else: They won the first 17 of an early 21-game road trip — tied with the ’84 Tigers for the longest searchable road win streak (and Detroit’s was spread over five trips) — so their overall record after 40 games was 22-18, despite the 2-11 home mark.

— The 1916 Browns were 2-8 at home after 40 games, then 2-9, but then won 6 straight home games. They finished 45-32 at home.

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The Mets’ offense has been good early and late … and nowhere in between. They’ve scored in the 1st inning in 17 of 36 games, and rank 4th overall in 1st-inning runs. They’re also 4th in 9th-inning runs, and are 3-11 when trailing after 8 innings — about four times this year’s MLB average percentage, and about one-ninth of all such comeback wins.

But they’re 28th in runs in the 2nd inning (7), last in the 5th (11), 27th in the 7th inning (9), 26th in the 8th (10). Overall, they are dead last in slugging, next-to-last in OPS (only the Padres are worse), 28th in BA. But somehow, they’re still NL-average in scoring.

__________

Carlos Marmol has been designated for assignment. I’m afraid he’ll find his way to Flushing.

__________

Still 13 AL teams within 2 games of a playoff berth, and the Rays are just 4 games out.

Interleague games have been split, 35-35.

 

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ReliefMan
ReliefMan
10 years ago

I’m sure Fernandez just wanted to get into a tie with Harvey so they can build a close rivalry going forward, with the hope that it will help fill all those empty seats down in the fishbowl for years to come and maybe one day they’ll actually have the finances to pay him a decent amount! It’s not like Jeff Loria has any intention of building up bright young talent and then flipping them to another city to be stars for someone else‘s team, right? Besides, Harvey and Fernandez both managed to squeeze in three times as many starts as… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  ReliefMan

First Two Years
Ages 21 and Under
Less Than 250 IP
WAR Leaders:

7.4 Jose Fernandez
5.6 Harry Krause
5.6 Fernando Valenzuela
4.9 Jack Russell
4.9 Paul Dean
4.9 Bob Feller
4.8 Eppa Rixey
4.6 Howie Pollet

Same Criteria
Strikeout Leaders:

257 Jose Fernandez
235 Oliver Perez
233 Kerry Wood
233 Rick Ankiel
226 Bob Feller
215 Scott Kazmir
209 Don Sutton
209 Matt Cain
207 Bill McCool
200 Tom Griffin

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

Same Criteria
Quality Starts:

26 Jose Fernandez
25 Mark Lemongello
22 Babe Ruth
21 Wally Bunker
21 Marcelino Lopez
21 Don Sutton

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago

HENRY RODRIGUEZ

Career of under 150 IP
Wild Pitch Leaders:

36 HENRY
22 John Briscoe
17 Rick Croushore
16 Stu Flythe
16 Ed Connolly
16 Kevin Coffman
16 Calvin Jones

* Stu Flythe threw 16 WP in 39 Innings
(That’s a -2.4 WAR)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/flythst01.shtml

Hartvig
Hartvig
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

Stu Flythe has one of the most wonderful pitching lines ever. Sixty-one walks (vs. 14 K’s) to go with those 16 wild pitches and an ERA of over 13 in 17 games- and yet somehow no decisions. In 4 of his outings he allowed 0 or 1 run, and thrice just 2 and once 3. In every other appearance he allowed 4 or more runs while only once going as many as 4 innings (and exactly 4 at that). As bad as the A’s were that year it’s still pretty remarkable he could put up that many truly awful outings… Read more »

RJ
RJ
10 years ago

Brandon “Adam Dunn” Hicks is currently triple slashing .200/.321/.463, good for a 125 OPS+. There’s plenty of similar-ish seasons out there from an offensive standpoint (although the batting average component is not often this low), but rarely is it combined with plus defense, let alone at a plus position: Hicks currently owns 5 Rfield at second base. The closest comp I could find is Darryl Strawberry, 1989: .225/.312/.466 (125 OPS+), 17 Rfield.

Mostly though it’s the Reynolds, Kingmans and Deers of this world posting this sort of line.

birtelcom
Editor
10 years ago

Here’s an oddity from Sunday’s Mets/Phillies game at Citi Field. Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy was on base five times (three hits, two walks, including one IBB) and had three extra base hits (two doubles and a homer). Now it’s true that there had been twenty previous occasions over the years in which a Met hitter has had a 5 TOB/3 XBH game. But every single one of those previous 20 games had been on the road. Murphy’s was the first instance of a 5 TOB/3 XBH game for the Mets at home.

David P
David P
10 years ago

Two items in the “It’s Never Too Early to Start Watching a Trend Department”: 1) Yankees pitchers are on pace to give up 192 home runs, which would break the team mark of 190, set just two years earlier. 2) That team that plays in Cleveland currently has a .600 OPS against left-handed pitchers. That’s the 10th worst mark in the database, which goes back to about 1955. You have to go back to 1972 to find a team that was worse (Texas with .577, Cleveland with .581). What’s really strange is that last year Cleveland had the highest OPS… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  David P

Before they were the “team that plays in Cleveland”, they were the Naps – but before that, in 1902, the players changed the name to the Broncos (Bronchos). This was a manly name. More manly than the official name of “Bluebirds”. They also played in five home parks that year: League Park I, Jailhouse Flats, Fairview Park, Neil Park I & Mahaffey Park League Park was their main digs, former home of the Spiders (which, seriously, they should change their name back to the Spiders). Mahaffey Park was in Canton, and was used on three Sundays. Neil Park was in… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

John: In that July 2011 game KC got a three-run HR from Melky Cabrera and from Eric Hosmer but there was no GS. On 8-13-04 Abraham Nunez and John Buck hit GS for KC. A few weeks earlier on 7-22-04 Mike Sweeney hit a GS and a 3-run HR.

robbs
robbs
10 years ago

Not sure how many clicked on Bud Norris dead sprint to catch Andrew Romine’s foul pop up. Can we award a gold glove, if only for (seeming to) waiving off the 3rd baseman at the end.

robbs
robbs
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I agree but I’m afraid the no more specialization ship has sailed. Used to be the pitcher was the best athlete on the high school team if not the whole school. Not sure the human arm was cut out to pitch a baseball given the torque modern power pitchers use. Tigers have had how many relievers come up lame after throwing in the high 90’s and low 100’s the last few years? I fear Rondon, who threw 104 last year and is out for the year now, will go the same way.

Darien
10 years ago
Reply to  robbs

Come now. Surely if there’s one field of human endeavour about which we can feel comfortable digging in our heels and resisting change that’s already long occurred, baseball is that field. I’m still bound and determined to refuse the DH, after all!