Yes, it’s been quite a parrot-y season so far, but that’s not what we had in mind….
If you haven’t been numbed yet by the level of parity in major league baseball so far, here are more measures to glaze your glazzies. Through Thursday, June 5:
@Yankees 2, Athletics 1 — Victorious versatility by Masahiro Tanaka, who garnered his first win yet when backed by less than 3 runs. To say it wasn’t his most impressive effort — 4 Ks, a walk and 5 hits in six innings — discounts the level of the competition (MLB’s top offense, park-adjusted), and speaks to how quickly he’s become entrenched among the game’s elite, leading the AL in ERA and WHIP. But it was typical in other ways.
@Padres 3, Pirates 2 — Everth Cabrera’s perfect push bunt was the lone safety for the winners. But it sparked a 2-run opening frame, thanks to Francisco Liriano’s wildness and two defensive gaffes behind him (one mental, one physical). Three more free passes (one to Ian Kennedy) forced in the third run, and the San Diego bullpen locked down late as usual.
(I kept hoping to get to the late games, but life intervened. These are games of Tuesday, June 3.)
@Marlins 1, Rays 0 — Henderson Alvarez went all the way on just 88 pitches for his third shutout this year, his only wins. Eight hits, seven singles and a 2-out triple, and no walks; three DPs (one by bunt) and two caught stealing. He even helped produce the run, his 2-out single in the 5th filling the bags for Christian Yelich, who worked a walk from 0-and-2 start.
Mariners 10, @Yankees 2 — “Cycle-plus” alert! Kyle Seager tripled in his first two times up — one normal, one peculiar — then flied out, doubled, and capped the rout with a 3-run kaboom. We still haven’t seen a real cycle this year, but the cycle-plus is far more rare. A cycle-plus has no single, but at least four extra-base hits and one of each flavor. There have been 243 cycles since 1914 (four by Mariners), but this was just the 50th cycle-plus, and the 6th with two triples — the first of those since Montreal’s Hal Breeden in 1973.
Six team shutouts Sunday, 129 for the season. On a per-team basis, it’s the most shutouts at this stage of a season since 1989. But this year’s scoring average of 4.17 runs per game is no cause for hysteria. The post-WWII median is 4.34 R/G; the expansion-era median is 4.32. The median for the first 20 years of the DH era was 4.26. This year’s average is just 2%-4% below those marks, and it’s the same as last year’s average. It’s just normal fluctuation. (Oh, and if you’re feeling more historical than current, there’s a random box-score nugget at the bottom of the post.)
@Cardinals 2, Giants 0 — Welcome to the Show, Oscar Taveras. The highly anticipated prospect broke a scoreless tie with a no-doubt home run in his second time at bat, the first Cardinal debut HR since 2010. (Steven Hill?) Michael Wacha tamed the Jints for six innings before a rain delay, and Trevor Rosenthal whiffed the heart of San Francisco’s order for the save.
Atlanta 3, @Miami 2 — The Marlins could have claimed first place on their home field, but the guests would not cooperate. Top of the 7th, Atlanta down 2-1, Julio Teheran due to lead off, about 90 pitches in and looking sharp since a 1st-inning homer. What’s your call?
Game Notes savored every crawfish in the Crescent City. Now, let’s shake off that Abita Purple Haze, and get back to those hardball nines!
@Diamondbacks 4, Reds 0 — A 94-pitch shutout … by Josh Collmenter? A 3-hitter, facing the minimum? Pull the other one!
Game Notes is taking a few days off, for his godson’s wedding in New Orleans. See you again in a week or so.
Oakland scored 3 runs with just one hit, turning two Erik Bedard walks and two infield errors into a pair in the 2nd. As noted by contributor Daniel Longmire, it’s the first one-hit win in the franchise’s searchable history (since 1914); also the first in MLB since last July, another Bedard loss.