Tuesday game niblets (microwave edition)

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Enjoying the April roller-coaster? Already, five streaks of 7+ wins by five different teams, while 10 teams have lost 5 in a row. The Brewers are dead! No, they’ve won 8 straight! (Is it 9?) The Braves can’t be stopped! Wait, they lost 4 in a row? But now they’re flying again! The Rox streaked for 8, they’re perfect at home! Whoops, is that 3 home losses in 2 days?

Braves 4, @Rockies 3 (game 1): You can’t contain him. El Oso Blanco expanded his range to the mountains. He’ll soon be in your back yard, turning over your trash cans….

Oh, you thought I meant Justin Upton? Yeah, he’s doing OK, too. Hit his 10th in the sunshine and 11th in the gloom (Braves lead 10-1 at this writing), breaking Dale Murphy’s club record for the most HRs in the first 20 games. (But only 12 RBI on those 11 HRs.)
And you know they moved B.J. down to #2 just for highlights like this. (Yep, consecutive pitches.)
Is that Freddie Freeman back in the lineup? See, Freddie, 2 weeks on the DL went by like that.

@Astros 3, Mariners 2: Funny game, innit? Hisashi Iwakuma had made 4 sharp starts, allowing 5 runs on 12 hits and just 2 walks in 26.2 IP. But some folks noticed his modest 18 Ks and carped about his .119 BAbip. So tonight in Houston, Iwakuma whiffed 11 in 5 innings, including his last 6 outs — but he allowed 6 hits and 3 runs, with 3 walks and a bags-full HBP, and left trailing, 3-1. The ‘Stros are running away with the K crown, with about 20 more than any other team. Marwin Gonzalez hit his 3rd HR for the lead.

@Twins 4, Marlins 3 (1st game): Oswaldo Ar-cia later: his first, and the first off Jose Fernandez. Kevin Correia has gone 7+ on 3 runs or less in all 4 starts; first Twin since 2007 to start that way. (They’re hoping he’ll finish better than Ramon Ortiz.)

Dodgers 7, @Mets 2: No win for Kershaw, who needed 111 pitches for 5 innings … Even a polished pitcher goes on tilt sometimes. Clayton Kershaw was perfect for 8 batters, then he walked pitcher Robert Carson in his first MLB plate appearance. Ruben Tejada, Mr. Full Count, worked another walk, and Daniel Murphy goosed an 0-2 pitch through the middle for the tying run. Steam shot from Kershaw’s ears. He worked ahead of David Wright, 0-2, then left one up, and David lined it up the middle for the lead. Kershaw might have already been a little miffed at himself after his based-loaded GDP the previous inning. Mark Ellis made it all right, though with a couple of big HRs.

@Pirates 2, Phillies 0: Following games through play-by-play can lead to puzzlement. Help me picture this: 2 outs and Michael Young on 1st, Ryan Howard hits a double, Young doesn’t score. What kind of ball could that be, considering the way Howard runs now? Did Howard head for 2nd hoping to draw the throw and let Young score, but they let the throw go through?

Pirates twice had a man on 3rd with 1 out and didn’t score him, also a leadoff double that didn’t score. Phils had a leadoff triple, didn’t score; FC at home, then DP, and now 11 straight batters retired.
Jason Grilli is illi.

Marlins 8, @Twins 5 (2nd game): 3 in the 1st for Miami — their first crooked number in the first 3 innings this year. Bunch of hits off Mike Pelfrey, alas.

Athletics 13, @Red Sox 0: A rain-shortened CG shutout just makes the season feel official. There was one such last year, 2 in 2011.

Cubs 4, @Reds 2 (10): Must have been a relief for Chicago to come up in the 10th and not see Chapman. Is he not 100%? He worked yesterday, but only 13 pitches, and that after a day off. Anyway, Darwin Barney (who has never faced Steven Fife) homered off Manny Parra, who is extremely not Aroldis (to wit: he stinks), the Cubs tacked on, and 9th-inning hero Joey Votto couldn’t repeat in the 10th, whiffing with the tying runs aboard to end it.

The best-laid plans of managers & bloggers gang aft agley … Carlos Villanueva got through 8 IP on 1 run. Had he stopped there, or gone cleanly forward, he would have begun the year with 4 starts allowing no runs except 4 solo HRs. He would have been the 5th guy since 1916 to begin with 4 straight starts where HR=R (within 20 team games), the first ever with 4+ HRs in those 4 games.
But, as he’d thrown just 92 pitches and the Cubs lack a shut-down closer, Villanueva went out for the 9th. And walked Shin-Soo Choo on a full-count. (Choo reached 4 times in the game; his 2 soft hits were the only knocks on Villanueva besides the HR.) After a sac bunt, Carlos Marmol came in, and before I could even finish typing “come on, Marmol, one time!“, Votto had tied the game with a hit, the run being charged to Villanueva. (Don’t they even care how much time I spend on these pointless searches?) Marmol put on the rest of his act, walking the bases full before escaping.

@Orioles 4, Blue Jays 3: That’s 4 straight wins in one-run games for Balto. (Please, make it stop….) O’s drew about 11,000 Monday, 13,000 tonight, with seasonable weather. The gap in their attendance between Friday-Sunday and Monday-Thursday is amazing. Their 6 weekend games have averaged nearly 40,000, but the 5 weekday games all less than 15,000.

Cardinals 2, @Nationals 0: 10 runs in the last 8 losses for Washington, who’ve fallen back to .500. Adam Wainwright is tied for 7th in wins since 2007 — despite missing a full year.

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Doug

11 years ago

In addition to 4 straight one-run games, ESPN has the Os winning their 100th straight game tonight, when leading after 7 innings.

P-I would seem to agree, showing Baltimore in 2012 at 74-0 when leading starting the 8th inning (although they were 75-1 when leading starting the 9th inning). Guess we’ll assume that the one game they lost when leading to start the 9th was not one of the 74 games they were leading to start the 8th.

Doug

11 years ago

Sign of the times

The Dodgers’ Mark Ellis becomes the 42nd second-baseman to hit 100 home runs. 10 of those 42 (24%) are currently active, and another 10 were active within the past 10 seasons. Dustin Pedroia (sitting on 90) should join the club before the end of this season.

Incidentally, Rogers Hornsby was the career HR leader among second baseman for … about 82 years, from September 1922 to the second to last day of the 2004 season when he was passed by Jeff Kent.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

I think Robinson Cano is very well positioned to make a run at Jeff Kent’s HR record for second basemen. Here’s Cano thru age 29 and his rank among other second basemen in career HR: 1. Rogers Hornsby – 180 2. Robinson Cano – 177 3. Alfonso Soriano – 162 4. Joe Gordon – 142 5. Ryne Sandberg – 139 At the start of this year, Cano needed 201 more HR to pass Kent’s all-time mark of 377. How many second basemen have hit 200 HR past age 29? Only two – Kent (270) and Craig Biggio (212). No one… Read more »

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

My own personal preference for position-based hitting records is to look at performance when actually in the game at that position. Based on that criteria, the all-time HR as a second baseman list looks like this: Kent 351 Sandberg 277 Hornsby 265 Morgan 264 Boone 251 Gordon 246 Cano is at 175 in this count. The added question for this list is how long Cano will stay at second base. Until they reached age 30, Chase Utley and Dan Uggla were each zooming up the homers-as-a-second baseman list but Uggla’s hitting performance has been in significant decline since then and… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Cano’s played 159+ games for 6 straight seasons. Granted he’s DHed a few times during those 6 seasons. But it’s still amazing that someone playing second base has basically been injury free for 6 straight seasons.

Mike L

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Bstar, of Cano; Good comment, but it’s really hard to predict. Historically, middle infielders were smaller, and the more athletic with better arms went to shortstop. Some 2B, like Carlos Baerga, just flame out (20.7 WAR by the time he was 26, net negative after that!). A number of the great hitting 2B started out at different infield positions, but were blocked at the ML level. Soriano was blocked by Jeter, Sandberg was a shortstop in the Phillies system, was traded to the Cubs, and had a full season at 3rd, then moved to 2B. Gordon was a shortshop his… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Mike, I respect your opinion on this because you’ve seen Cano play a lot more, but his swing just screams Hall of Fame to me. It’s flawless. Could what happened to Chase Utley in the last few years (injury-wise) just as easily happen to Cano? Absolutely, and if it does it’s unlikely Robinson can approach Kent’s record. One other point I forgot to bring up: Cano’s rising HR rate. He’s gone 14-25-29-28-33 in the last five, so I’m not even convinced his power has peaked yet. As for whether or not Cano can stay at second base, why would the… Read more »

Mike L

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Bstar, I think Cano is a wonderful player, clearly the best on the team. He has a terrific swing, smooth, very quick hands. If they sign him long term I think he will be like Jeter in the sense that he’s unlikely to be moved off of his position. I probably did a poor job of explaining myself. Most second basemen just don’t seem to hold up long term. I was wondering if that was a result of some selection process early in their careers; perhaps a little too small, too little power for a corner position, and perhaps a… Read more »

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John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

No longer thinking that Uggla is in that race? 🙂

He’s only 5 years away, at his career pace — less, if we use birtelcom’s standard.

Favorite Toy would not agree, of course…

Editor

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Uggla’s recent season OPS numbers:
2010 (age 30): .877
2011 (age 31): .764
2012 (age 32): .732
2013 so far (age 33): .672

A trend can’t get much uggl-ier than that.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Well, I was just getting a little tongue-in-cheeky with our number-one Braves fan, there.

But, just to play devil’s advocate — Uggla is younger than Utley, who’s enjoying a bounce-back year. Different circumstances, for sure. But it wouldn’t shock me if Uggla had one or two good years left in him.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Uggla’s power stroke does seem to be alive and well this year. But his overall hitting? Well, let’s just say it’s a great, great thing that Danny Boy has morphed into one of the more patient hitters in the league as he’s once again among the league leaders in walks.

To me, Uggla always looks like he’s one more major year-long slump away from losing his job. I root like heck for him, but I worry. Often.

Jimbo

11 years ago

Gotta love Rick Ankiel’s line right now. .214 OBP, .619 SLG

Jimbo

11 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

And 26 k’s in 42 PA’s lol.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

Ankiel is channeling his inner Earl Wilson.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilsoea01.shtml#batting_standard::none

Are we *sure* Ankiel couldn’t pitch again?

Brent

11 years ago

Since the Royals got rained out in Detroit, I will add a couple notes for the other Missouri team today. — Wainwright started the season with 34 2/3 innings of no walks until he walked Harper in the 6th to load the bases. He proceeded to strike out LaRoche (for the 3rd of 4 times) to end the inning. — Matheny made some interesting choices in the 9th inning. He let Wainwright start the inning against Harper, the only person who had any sort of success against him yesterday, then after Harper doubled to get the tying run to the… Read more »

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John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Brent

My reading of Wainwright starting the 9th: Right now, Matheny is more concerned with building Mujica’s confidence and minimizing his stress than with who offers the fractionally better matchup. Mujica is off to good start and has done well as the fill-in closer, but his career stats say “just a guy.” If Mujica starts the 9th and blows the lead, it’s a story. He’s already the 3rd-string closer; if he stumbles, I suppose Rosenthal would be next, but I think Mike doesn’t want to go there just yet. Mujica had pitched in a tight game the day before. I just… Read more »

Brent

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I agree and I don’t disagree with the decisions, other than I probably would have let Wainwright continue after the K, since he dominated that part of the lineup yesterday. But since most managers only want their “closer” starting innings and not coming in with runners on base, it was different. Not necessarily a bad different.

And as a Cardinals fan, I have been impressed with Matheny in his 1+ years.

Brent

11 years ago

Pretty sure I saw somewhere that the Upton brothers are the 2nd brothers to ever go back to back. The Waner brothers did it in the 30s sometime.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Brent

The Waners did it on 9-15-38.

brp

11 years ago

Reply to Brent

Before Justin’s ridiculous start to this year, we could have probably called them Big Overrated and Little Overrated…

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Brent

Matty Alou and Jesus Alou homered as teammates in the same game on 1965-08-12. Jesus homered in the 6th inning and Willie Mays homered right after him to put the Giants up 3-1. Cap Peterson replaced Jesus defensively in the next half-inning, and he in turn was replaced defensively by Matty in the 8th inning. In the bottom of that 8th inning, Matty homered, breaking a 3-3 tie and providing the margin of victory in a 4-3 win. Not often you see defensive replacements replaced defensively. Hank and Tommie Aaron homered in the same game 3 times in the 1962… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Felipe and Matty Alou homered in the same game on May, 15 1961. Other brothers who homered in the same game:

Rick and Wes Ferrell
Al and Tony Cuccinello
Joe and Dom DiMaggio
Clete and Ken Boyer
Graig and Jim Nettles
Hector and Jose Cruz
Cal and Billy Ripken
Vladimir and Wilton Guerrero
Bret and Aaron Boone
Felipe and Cesar Crespo
Bengie and Jose Molina

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Richard,

Thanks for the correction on Felipe and Matty. No Felipe/Jesus game, but not surprising as they were only teammates for one month. As opponents, Jesus homered once against the Braves, and Felipe cranked 11 against the Giants (incl. 3 off Marichal).

Obviously, this list includes brothers homering in a game both as teammates and on opposing teams.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Yes there are teammates and non-teammates. I figured as long as I had the list I may as well print it in its entirety.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

What? No Jose & Ozzie Canseco?!?

Ozzie must have been blacklisted.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Well since Ozzie’s career home run total is 0….

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Brent

Just to flip things around a bit.

On 1934-06-05, Babe Herman homered off of Daffy Dean. The next day, he did the same to Dizzy. Later that season, Arky Vaughn homered off Dizzy on Sep 25th, then did the same to Daffy the next day.

Thomas

11 years ago

I was watching the Phillies game and now reading what you wrote am a little surprised that they gave Howard a double on that. Unless I’m confusing it in my mind with another play, I believe the play to was to left/center and the throw in was cut off, then tossed over to third, definitely not fired over to third, but a throw none-the-less. Then Howard rumbled into second. I seem to even recall the announcers saying that the Pirates player must not have realized that they had a play on Howard at second and probably would have had him… Read more »

Timmy Pea

11 years ago

Mark Reynolds is off to a nice start this year for the Indians. His strike out totals are low for him as well. I enjoy watching him hit, he can hit a pitchers pitch out of the park.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Tim, good point about M.R.’s K rate. Not only is it down (so far) for the 3rd straight year — from 35% to 32, 30 and now 23% — but it’s almost down to the AL average of 20%. Interesting break in his yearly BAbip numbers. For his first 3 years combined, it was an electric .343, allowing him to hit .257 overall despite big K and HR totals. But from 2010 to present, his BAbip is a subpar .268, helping produce an overall .216 BA. What does Mark Reynolds have in common with Joe Tinker? They’re the only guys… Read more »