|
May 24, 2013
THT Essentials:
Rich Barbieri
John Barten Kyle Boddy Brian Borawski James Gentile Matt Hunter Frank Jackson Chris Jaffe Brad Johnson Jason Linden Dan Lependorf Bruce Markusen Jeff Moore Greg Simons Scott Spratt Dave Studeman Shane Tourtellotte Steve Treder And here's the full roster. Now available THT's latest e-book Most Recent Comments
It is inexcusable to release Jon Rauch (5)
10th anniversary: Curt Schilling vs QuesTec camera (1) And That Happened (1) And That Happened (8) And That Happened (5)   
Or you can search by:
 All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
Friday, May 24, 2013And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraIndians 12, Red Sox 3: The Tribe's bats had a nice night with Yan Gomes, Mark Reynolds and Michael Bourn all racking up multiple RBI. Oh, and you may or may not have heard this, but Terry Francona, currently the Indians' manager, used to be the Red Sox manager and this was his first time back in Boston since he was fired and some people were talking about it and stuff. Kinda surprised me, too! Angels 5, Royals 4: Trout, Pujols and Trumbo hit homers. The Angels have won five in a row. The Royals have lost 13 of 18. It's almost like that great spring training record they had didn't have a ton of predictive value for the long haul of the regular season. Tigers 7, Twins 6: Miguel Cabrera had his sixth homer in four games. Later Jim Leyland screwed up and had Torii Hunter bunt in front of Cabrera, leaving first base open and thus taking the bat out of the most dangerous hitter in baseball's hands when Ron Gardenhire walked him. Thankfully for Leyland Prince Fielder is pretty dangerous himself, singled and drove in the winning run. Blue Jays 12, Orioles 6: Orioles starter Kevin Gausman -- that kid who used to eat powdered donuts between every inning -- had a rude welcome to the majors, Edwin Encarnacion hit a grand slam and J.P. Arencibia homered and drove in four. Pirates 4, Cubs 2: Four in a row for Pittsburgh. And 11 of 13 overall. The anti-Royals, I guess. Andrew McCutchen had three hits and two RBIs. 10th anniversary: Curt Schilling vs QuesTec cameraby Chris Jaffe10 years ago today, a memorable act of anger occurred in baseball – star Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling destroyed a camera. It wasn’t just any old camera he destroyed, but a QuesTec camera. QuesTec cameras were new things to baseball. Major league baseball had signed a contract with the QuesTec company to install cameras in some major league ball parks to track pitches. The QuesTec cameras were special in that they would not just photograph pitches, but could record with precision where the ball was when it crossed the plate. In other words, it could tell us what pitches were balls and which ones were strikes. This was a big deal because ever since at least the 1980s, complaints had arisen that umpires didn’t call the rulebook strike zone. Instead, they abandoned the high strike and called many outside pitches strikes. The QuesTec cameras provided feedback on how accurate umpires were. With these cameras in operation, big brother was watching like never before. This was new. Since the cameras could be used to rate umpire performance, they started calling a more textbook strike zone. At least they did when playing in stadiums with QuesTec cameras. When the first roll out happened, only six stadiums had them. Not only were umpires concerned about the new cameras, but so were some pitchers. They’d gotten used to throwing in the umpires’ strike zone and felt threatened that some of their old, reliable strikes were now being taken for balls. Clearly, one pitcher who didn’t like the new camera was Curt Schilling. He was a pitcher whose game relied considerably on control. The year before he allowed the fewest walks per nine inning of any NL pitcher. In 2001, he’d been runner up in that category, and would be again in 2003. On May 24, 2003, Schilling took the mound at home against the Padres. Unfortunately, for Schilling his home stadium in Arizona was one of 13 stadiums that had a QuesTec camera by 2003. Looking at Schilling’s numbers, it doesn’t look like the cameras hurt him very much. He walked just two while fanning 11 in seven innings work. He allowed three runs and got the loss, but that had more to do with poor run support than anything. But Schilling was steamed, so he grabbed a bat and destroyed one of the two QuesTec cameras in the park. The powers that be in major league baseball would fine him $15,000 for his actions. Schilling admitted his action was immature, but said the umpires told him before the game that they affected how they call games, and Schilling didn’t like that. Ultimately, QuesTec cameras are no more in baseball, but the technology is still here. Now every baseball broadcast has their gadgets that can tell us exactly where the pitch was. We have pitch F/X data that does likewise. Ultimately, Curt Schilling lost the war. That tends to be the case with Luddites, and Curt Schilling’s anti-technology moment came 10 years ago today. Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary of “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... Thursday, May 23, 2013It is inexcusable to release Jon Rauchby Pat AndriolaI understand that the Marlins don't have a lot to fight for this season. The rest of the year will be dedicated to (1) developing core players like Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Jose Fernandez and Justin Ruggiano and (2) trying to hold on to whatever fan base they have left. But given that righty reliever Jon Rauch is already owed $1 million for the rest of the season (which is actually about 2.5 percent of the Marlins' entire payroll for 2013), all Miami is doing by releasing him is allowing another team to get a quality reliever for next to nothing, as well as decreasing the quality of its own bullpen (which is currently 10th in the NL in ERA). Before even looking at the quality of Rauch's performance this season, let's look to the quantity: He's had 16.2 innings, which is a really, really small sample size to decide to let a player go during a historically poor season. You would think he'd get a little more time to straighten the ship given that Miami isn't exactly in a rush to do anything, but apparently the front office has seen enough. Now to the quality. Rauch has a 7.56 ERA, which is obviously awful. However, even a cursory look at his peripheral statistics will show you that he has simply gotten unlucky and is actually not pitching too poorly. Rauch is walking 3.78 batters per nine innings, which is significantly above his career and recent season average and is likely to drop. But he's also striking out 8.10 per nine, which is also above his career trend but not likely to drop by much. That gives him a 4.22 xFIP, and a low home run per fly ball ratio puts him at a perfectly respectable 3.45 FIP. So why the high ERA? His BABIP is at an absurdly high .393 (for his career it's at .277), which is completely unsustainable and is probably compounded by Miam's below-average defense. He also has a left on base percentage of just 57.4, a number far below league average that will almost certainly regress. Rauch is having a career high season in his groundball rate, which is absolutely fantastic for a pitcher, but grounders also have higher BABIPs than fly balls, which also helps explain his lack of luck. ZiPS thins he's good for a 3.91 ERA for the rest of the season, and Steamer is even more bullish with a 3.56 mark. Miami's mistake will be some other team's gain, and there's one team in particular who makes a lot of sense for Rauch. He'll find a major league spot somewhere. And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraPhillies 3, Marlins 0: Cliff Lee shuts out the Marlins on three hits. Granted, it doesn't take anyone as good as Lee to shut out the Marlins, but that's nothing that Lee could help. He was dominant. Just like Benedict Cumberbatch in that scene when he killed all those [alien race redacted to avoid spoilers] in the Star Trek movie, which I went to go see last night rather than watch baseball. Braves 8, Twins 3: Evan Gattis broke it open with a grand slam but the Braves were on their way to tattooing the Twins as it was. Starter Vance Worley was demoted to Triple-A after this one. Know who else should be demoted? Whichever screenwriter or script supervisor didn't notice that within the space of about three minutes of the Star Trek movie that they (a) had someone get transported with the shields up; and then (b) had a plot point where no one could be transported because the shields are up. Look, the bar for tech continuity in Star Trek is really, really low after all of these years. But I would hope they could keep it internally consistent for more than five minutes. Too much to ask? Rangers 3, Athletics 1: David Murphy and Adrian Beltre homered in the three-run first inning, giving Texas everything it needed early. Know what else all got taken care of early? The plot to the new Star Trek, which was essentially written in [year redacted to avoid spoilers] for the [earlier Star Trek movie to avoid spoilers]. That's OK, I suppose, because it was still solid, well done and it was territory worth revisiting again. But wow, it was a little on the nose, I think, and makes me feel like it was phoned in. Dodgers 9, Brewers 2: Don Mattingly spent his time before the game saying things which seemed like they were calculated to get him fired. But Hyun-Jin Ryu had a nice game and the bats built up a seven-run lead early which allowed them to cruise safely. Apparently, based on what I saw in Star Trek last night, a ship can totally cruise safely if they're in warp, given how surprised Kirk was when the Enterprise was overtaken in a chase/fight scene. So apparently the decades of scenes filmed for the TV shows in which ships chased each other and were overtaken while in warp never occurred. Reds 7, Mets 4: Matt Harvey proves mortal. Zack Cozart is apparently his kryptonite, as he got four hits off the Mets' ace. Speaking of kryptonite, I saw the last Superman trailer last night. Not gonna lie: kinda stoked. I mean, it's Superman, not Batman, so it's gonna have inherent limitations. But it does look pretty good. Of course, like Trek, it's going back to an old well -- General Zod is in this one, which I can reveal because it's in the trailers -- but also like Trek it's a pretty deep well, so I think I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Blue Jays 4, Rays 3: Two homers and four RBI for Jose Bautista. Who began the first inning showing bunt just to mess with us, apparently. I feel like J.J. Abrams is messing with the Star Trek franchise a bit too. The movies are good, don't get me wrong. Better and more entertaining than anything which came out of the franchise from Star Trek VI-on. But you just feel like he's throwing out scenes and touchstones for fans like red meat without truly taking the universe seriously. Which is mildly concerning given that he has just been handed the keys to the Star Wars franchise. He can't be worse than George Lucas -- who took all of our red meat away in the prequels and demanded that we eat this new weird tofu dish he created -- but I sort of hope Abrams feels more invested in the Star Wars universe than he does in the Trek universe and doesn't feel like it's just something to play with. Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 1: The Rockies finish their latest home stand 5-2 and find themselves tied with Arizona and San Francisco for the NL West lead. Which is somewhat surprising as I figured they were playing way over their heads and would swoon come May. I guess there's still time for that swoon, but in the meantime they're having fun. OK, I think I've exhausted the Star Trek thoughts which don't discuss plot points which will spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. Please: if you go all Trekkie in the comments, try to give spoiler warnings. Angels 7, Mariners 1: Four in a row for the Angels as C.J. Wilson strikes out 10. The Angels' next 14 games come against the reeling Royals, the underachieving Dodgers, the awful Astros and the nearly as bad Cubs. This could be where the season turns around for them. Or the part of the season where they can be officially written off. But they have to make their move now. Nationals 2, Giants 1: Bryce Harper hit a home run. No word if Rafael Soriano's four year-old could do it better. Orioles 6, Yankees 3: Chris Davis went 4 for 4 with his 14th homer. Homers from Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis too. Baltimore takes two of three from the Yanks. Pirates 1, Cubs 0: Francisco Liriano has liked his change of scenery. After this gem -- two hits and no runs over seven -- he's now 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 18 innings. All of the scoring in this game came on an RBI single in the first. Somehow still took 2:45 to play. Tigers 11, Indians 7: 62- and 48-minute rain delays in this one, but they got it in. Justin Verlander actually came back after the longer delay to get two more outs and qualify for the W. Miguel Cabrera hit a homer that bounced off Michael Bourn's glove and into the stands. So I guess that's an assist for him. We should totally keep track of offensive assists in baseball. Red Sox 6, White Sox 2: Sox lose. Astros 3, Royals 1: Jordan Lyles pitched six solid innings and J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer. James Shields pitched well but didn't get the run support. In other news, don't eat the snow cones at Minute Maid Park. Cardinals 5, Padres 3: Tyler Lyons won his major league debut. Got a hit too. Guess he can do everything. Know who else can apparently do everything? Ensign Chekov, who was promoted from ops to acting Chief Engineer in the movie last night because the plot needed him to. How many ensigns are getting that promotion? There is probably some Lt. Commander down in engineering who has spent a decade busting his butt since leaving the academy, only to see him passed over for the Chief's job because some wet-behind-the-ears ensign happens to be the captain's friend. Every Trek movie is like this, though. Hundreds of crew members who apparently only exist to get tossed around when the ship is hit by enemy fire, or to die in spectacular set pieces with nary a thought given about them. Meanwhile, every law of Man, Nature and the United Federation of Planets is broken in order to save the life of one of the handful of superstar golden boys. Typical. Know what I'd like to see? A movie made in the vein of the "Lower Decks" episode of "Next Generation" in which we see what it's like to be canon fodder for Starfleet. OK, sorry. Just kinda preoccupied this morning. Promise tomorrow's ATH will not be about Star Trek. I think. Wednesday, May 22, 2013And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraRockies 5, Diamondbacks 4: One of four games to require 10 frames last night. This from the AP gamer: Reliever Matt Reynolds tried to outthink his former teammate, guess what pitch Wilin Rosario would be looking for and throw the opposite. Only, Rosario knew Reynolds was trying to get inside his head, so ... Long story short, Rosario spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder, thus his game-winning RBI single in the 10th. Angels 12, Mariners 0: As Matt noted, Trout hit for the cycle. May be the first bit of actual fun the Angels and their fans have had all year. Now, pardon me while I go re-litigate the 2012 MVP race again like the Cabrera people did when he hit three homers the other night. Oh, wait, I won't do that because I'm not a crazy person. Orioles 3, Yankees 2: This one ended on a Nate McLouth walkoff bomb. Chris Dickerson hit two homers. Those homers were Phil Hughes' only two blemishes, but they were enough to get it to extras. Pirates 5, Cubs 4: A pinch hit grand slam for Travis Snider in the sixth spoiled Matt Garza's return. Garza pitched well but, unfortunately, the Cubs have a bullpen. Tigers 5, Indians 1: Max Scherzer was dominant, allowing one earned run in eight innings and at one point retiring 22 straight Tribe hitters. Miguel Cabrera homered again and is now one bomb off triple crown pace. Braves 5, Twins 4: Evan Gattis hit a tying homer in the ninth and Freddie Freeman singled in Jason Heyward in the 10th. It was Bobby Cox' and Kent Hrbek's birthdays yesterday. Glad one of 'em is sad and one of 'em is happy. Rays 4, Blues Jays 3: The second straight Alex Cobb start that went 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER. If he made that his thing he'd have a pretty nice career. A late rally for the Jays but it fell just short. Reds 4, Mets 0: Mike Leake shut the Mets out on three hits over seven innings and the pen handled the other two. The Mets offense is, whoa. Athletics 1, Rangers 0: Yu Darvish's last start was billed as a pitcher's duel. It wasn't. This one was, but Drew Straily bested him, tossing seven two-hit shutout innings. Phillies 7, Marlins 3: I guess Ryan Howard's knee is OK. The big guy drove in three on a pair of RBI singles. Delmon Young homered. Most of the Phillies' damage came after Jose Fernandez left after five. Brewers 5, Dodgers 2: Zack Greinke had a nice run at Miller Park when he was with the Brewers. Not so nice last night as he surrendered five runs on nine hits in four innings. The Dodgers offense all came via Greinke's helping his own cause and a Nick Punto RBI. In other words, the big guns. White Sox 3, Red Sox 1: Sox win. Royals 7, Astros 3: Houston took a three-run lead into the top of the seventh and then the Royals put up two-, four- and one-spots in the seventh, eighth and ninth. Is a one-spot a thing? OK, sure it is. Cardinals 10, Padres 2: Adam Wainwright coulda sucked last night and the Cards still woulda been OK, what with five runs to play with while he was in the game. He didn't suck (7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 6K). And the Cards woulda bailed him out with five more late runs anyway. Giants 4, Nationals 2: The Braves rallied and won in the 10th, the Nats got rallied against and lost in the 10th. Trains heading in different directions this past week, with the Nats now 4.5 back. 20th anniversary: Blue Jays mascot ejectedby Chris JaffeEjections happen most every day in baseball, but the ejection that happened 20 years ago today was like virtually none other. Typically it comes when a player or manager argues with an umpire and says the magic word to earn the old heave-ho. But on May 22, 1993, it wasn’t a manager or player getting ejected. And the ejection didn’t happen due to an argument with the umpire. Typically the ejection happens after a call that doesn’t go the team’s way. But 20 years ago, strangely enough, that wasn’t the case. This was a very different ejection indeed. But the most notable part of the ejection was the person being ejected. You see, it wasn’t a person at all, it was a giant foam rubber costume. Specifically, it was BJ Birdy, the mascot for the Toronto Blue Jays. It was May 22, 1993 when Toronto hosted the Minnesota Twins and it didn’t take long for Birdy to go bye-bye. In the bottom of the first, Roberto Alomar came to the plate with none on and one out, and he promptly drilled one to left that Minnesota outfielder David McCarty tried to catch. Was it a hit or an out? The man in the form rubber mask was sure he knew—it was a hit! Of course it was a hit! He knew it was a hit! And that wasn’t all. Birdy also knew that second base umpire Jim McKean blew the call. Well no self-respecting mascot was going to take that lying down. So Birdy tried rile up the Saturday crowd of 50,510 against the ump. That’ll show him! Yeah, well, there are a few problems here. First the good news. Birdy was right—the ball was trapped. But he was wrong in thinking the umpire blew the call. In fact, McKean called it “no catch” and Alomar skated into second with a double. Oh, and Birdy doesn’t really have the authority to show up McKean. You know who does have the authority to show someone up? The umpire, that’s who. For trying to incite the crowd against the umpire—and not even realizing the umpire made the right call (a call that helped the home team), Birdy got the thumb. Oops. The rest of the game was pretty generic. Alomar scored a few seconds later on a Paul Molitor single, and Toronto went on to romp, 7-0. But not before the Jays' mascot got ejected for arguing on a call that went his team’s way. Weird. And that weirdness was 20 years ago today. Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... Tuesday, May 21, 2013And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraDodgers 3, Brewers 1: After the last scene of Don Mattingly's managerial life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that at many times along the path of his time in Los Angeles, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. Clayton Kershaw then whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you. Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." (9 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5K). Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 1: Patrick Corbin continues to roll on, and this time he added some strikeouts to skew dominant. He allowed one run on three hits, striking out ten. Marlins 5, Phillies 1: The Marlins have 13 wins this season, four of which have come against Philly. That's gotta make the Phillies angry. Cole Hamels was certainly angry, as he left the clubhouse in something of a huff. Maybe it's because Charlie Manuel pulled him early for a pinch hitter in an effort to get a run? Maybe it was because the Phillies have scored only 20 runs for him all season? Maybe because he saw Alex Sanabia throwing a spitball? Indians 10, Mariners 8: Two homers for Yan Gomes as the Indians continue to roll. Winners of 18 of 22 and a team that doesn't look like it's going anywhere. Braves 5, Twins 1: Sometimes I wish Gleeman and I were competitive rah-rah fans so when stuff like our teams meeting happens we could talk trash and all that. But we're not. I suppose if I sent him some "in your face" kind of message after this one he'd respond back with "oh well." Which is way better for the blood pressure, frankly. A three-run homer for Dan Uggla and a nice outing from Julio Teheran. Reds 4, Mets 3: Jay Bruce hit a tie-breaking homer in the sixth. Arolids Chapman, who blew his previous two saves, locked this one down. Dusty Baker on his closer: "Got to get back on the horse, right away," manager Dusty Baker said. "Otherwise it festers and grows." The horse? So confused. Blue Jays 7, Rays 5: R.A. Dickey is slowly righting the ship, winning his second in a row. You have to right the ship or else it gets all infected and oozes. Or something. Sorry, that Dusty Baker quote is still bugging me. Yankees 6, Orioles 4: The Orioles are in a flat spin, losers of six straight. People usually say "tailspin" but I liked "Top Gun" a lot when I was a kid and flat spins are far more ominous and scary for me, Goose. With the Yankees down 4-3 in the ninth, Travis Hafner homered off Jim Johnson, who has now blown three straight saves. Vernon Wells and Hafner added RBIs in the 10th to seal the win. Mariano Rivera did not, in contrast, blow the save. Because he is Mariano Rivera. Athletics 9, Rangers 2: It feels like these two teams have played 15 games against one another in the past couple of weeks. Oh well, too busy to check. Gonna assume that's right. Anyway, Seth Smith homered and scored three runs. Bartolo Colon pitched seven strong innings. White Sox 6, Reds Sox 4: Sox win. Padres 4, Cardinals 2: Jason Marquis has won five straight starts. He said after the game that he's "making better pitches." Bud Black said after the game that Marquis is "a guy that continues to make pitches when he needs to." I guess he's just making pitches, eh? Astros 6, Royals 5: Matt Dominguez hit a three-run homer. Jason Castro hit a solo shot. Miguel Tejada hit a homer too. It was his first bomb since 2011. Jeremy Guthrie was shelled and has allowed 19 runs and 11 hits in his past two outings. The Royals are now a sub-.500 team. Giants 8, Nationals 0: Ryan Vogelsong was cruising -- tossing five shutout innings -- until he broke his throwing hand while fouling off a pitch in the bottom of the fifth. Enter the DH people. Meanwhile, after the game Davey Johnson announced that Ryan Mattheus broke his pitching hand punching a locker in frustration Sunday. Jesus, people. 50th anniversary: Jim Maloney: a star is bornby Chris JaffeFifty years ago today, a star was born. Though the player’s career ultimately didn’t pan out as hoped due to injuries, his pure talent was something for all to see. It was May 21, 1963 when Reds pitcher Jim Maloney had his first great game. Maloney made it to the majors in 1960 barely out of his teens, but at first he was just a background pitcher. From 1960-62, he made just 38 starts and 22 relief appearances, posting a 17-20 record. But he had talent, and 1963 was his year to prove it. Maloney was already off to a nice start, with a record of 5-1 and a 2.60 ERA prior to this game. But May 21, 1963 would take him to a whole other level. On this day Maloney and the Reds would be in Milwaukee to take on the Braves, a club on the downswing but still with a formidable lineup. In fact, the Braves would finish third in runs scored, behind big hitters Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews. Today they wouldn’t have much success. In the first, Maloney fanned two batters, including Mathews to end the inning. Then Maloney struck out the side in the second inning. And then he did it again in the third. That was seven straight Ks, a nice achievement nowadays, and fantastic for 1963. In the fourth, Maloney fanned Lee Maye to run the streak to eight in a row. He needed just one more to go through the entire lineup. Unfortunately for him, that last man left was Hank Aaron, who grounded out. Well, it was a moral victory for Milwaukee, I guess. No matter—Maloney then fanned Mathews to end the inning. Through four frames, he’d allowed just one hit—and fanned nine. He was on pace for a record-setting performance. The one-game record for a game (not including extra-inning games) was 18 Ks. Maloney was already halfway there, with most of the game left. Maloney fanned two more in the fifth, giving him 12 strikeouts. He whiffed just one in the sixth, but a baker’s dozen still put him on pace to break the record. In the seventh he fanned two more, including Eddie Mathews again, keeping Maloney stay on pace with 15. The young fireballer looked unstoppable. However, it takes just one inning to mess it up, and Maloney didn’t strike out anyone in the eighth. In the ninth he finally fanned Hank Aaron, but he walked the other two batters he faced, and with just a 2-0 lead, manager Fred Hutchinson decided to pull him. Still, Maloney struck out 16 batters, including an amazing eight in a row at one point. A star had been born. He’d go on to win 23 games that year, and two years later post another 20-win season. Twice in 1965 he’d throw nine no-hit innings—but both games went into extra innings. He preserved the no-hitter for a 1-0 win in one of them, but lost the other game 1-0 when someone finally got a hit off of him. Maloney would throw another no-hitter in 1969. He remained a solid pitcher for the rest of the 1960s, but by 1969 he was wearing out. He fanned just 102 batters in 178 innings. Something was wrong with his arm, and in fact he never won another game, going 0-4 in 1970-71. It’s a shame, because the Reds had their Big Red Machine lineup just starting to take shape, with pennants in 1970 and 1972. If they had had a genuine ace—someone like Maloney—that awesome Reds team could’ve been even better. Born in 1940, he could’ve been around for their 1970s pennants, but life doesn’t always work out like storybooks. But Maloney did have a storybook day 50 years ago today, the day he fanned eight in a row and flirted with the one-game strikeout record. Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better items in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... Monday, May 20, 2013And That Happenedby Craig CalcaterraPhillies 3, Reds 2: Aroldis Chapman is usually automatic. But he surrendered back-to-back bombs to the murderers row that is Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis as Philly walked off Cincinnati. Heck, the inning started with Chapman walking Delmon Young on four straight pitches, so you know he wasn't on it yesterday. And Cliff Lee probably needs to buy Galvis dinner: Lee pinch ran for Young and was caught stealing. If he hadn't, Kratz's homer wold have been enough. Galvis saved his bacon. Cardinals 4, Brewers 2: The Cardinals beat old friend Kyle Lohse for the third straight time. After the game he said "Baseball is a stupid game. Baseball is weird, man." They should have sent a poet. Rangers 11, Tigers 8: Three homers, five driven in and a 4-for-4 night for Miguel Cabrera are still not enough for the Tigers to beat Texas. The Rangers rapped 18 hits, scoring five runs of Doug Fister and six off the bullpen. Four driven in for David Murphy. I was back and forth into this game all evening as I did and watched other things. It seemed to last eleventeen hours. Red Sox 5, Twins 1: This one featured a three-hour rain delay during which the fans who stayed got to see the movie "The Sandlot" in its entirety on the video board. Secondary game highlights included a nice start from John Lackey and homers from Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks. Pirates 1, Astros 0: Jeff Locke shut out the Astros for seven innings. A solo shot from Pedro Alvarez in the fifth was all Pittsburgh needed. This one was the anti-Tigers-Rangers game, as it was done in a cool two hours and 24 minutes. Rays 3, Orioles 1: I knew Matt Moore had pitched a great game the moment I learned that my girlfriend inadvertently left him on the bench on her fantasy team. There was much cursing and such. Moore's seven strong innings ups him to 8-0 on the year. Indians 6, Mariners 0: Justin Masterson struck out 11 in seven shutout innings and Cleveland roughed up Felix Hernandez for six runs (five earned) in five innings. The Tribe has won 17 of 21 and now leads the AL Central by two games. Marlins 2, Diamondbacks 1: Ricky Nolasco adds to the parade of nice starts yesterday, striking out 11 in eight innings and helping the Marlins end their seven-game losing streak. Mets 4, Cubs 3: When I was writing the Rangers recap I accidentally wrote "Daniel Murphy" instead of "David Murphy." I would have likely left that mistake up there had I not looked at the box score of this one and been reminded that Daniel plays for the Mets and David for Texas. I think I've made that mistake a half dozen times in the past couple of years. Anyway, here Daniel batted leadoff and hit the tie-breaking homer in the eighth. The Mets won their first series at Wrigley in six years. Rockies 5, Giants 0: Barry Zito being relatively good recently has probably made some forget how much of a disaster he was for several years. Putting him in Coors Field is a helpful reminder. Zito was touched for five runs on 11 hits in five and two-thirds. The Giants have lost five of six. Their rotation has gotten bombed lately and now has the third worst rotation ERA in the NL. Padres 13, Nationals 4: Speaking of beat up starters, Dan Haren surrendered seven runs in five innings and overall the Padres did a Gashouse Gorillas conga line around the bases against Nats pitching, getting the series split. Braves 5, Dodgers 2: This game featured two hours of rain delays and the Dodgers bullpen failing to hold a lead for Matt Magill, who allowed only one unearned run in five innings. Atlanta didn't hit a homer, which is kinda rare for the Braves in a win. Athletics 4, Royals 3: The Royals' skid continues -- they've lost 10 of their last 13 games and have sunk back to .500 -- as Oakland sweeps 'em. Yoenis Cespedes singled and scored and hit a homer. Angels 6, White Sox 2: Jake Peavy walked guys with the bases loaded twice. He walked five in all and allowed four runs on four hits. Which is weird because when you see a guy walk the bases loaded once, let along twice, it feels like he's giving up, like, a dozen runs no matter what. Or maybe that's just some weird hangup of mine about bases-loaded walks. Blue Jays vs. Yankees: POSTPONED: All at sea again. And now my hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain. To bathe me again. My ship's a sail. Can you hear its tender frame? Screaming from beneath the waves. Screaming from beneath the waves. All hands on deck at dawn. Sailing to sadder shores. Your port in my heavy storms. Harbours the blackest thoughts. I'm at sea again. And now your hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain. 5,000 days since Eric Milton’s no-hitterby Chris Jaffe5,000 days ago, one of baseball’s most impressive pitching achievements occurred, though for various reasons it was one of the least impressive examples of this most impressive achievement. On Sept.11, 1999, Twins pitcher Eric Milton threw a no-hitter, defeating the Angels, 7-0. Looking at Milton’s line, there seems to be no reason to minimize his achievement. Not only was it a no-hitter, but it was a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts. So it’s not like he relied very heavily on his defense. The outing wasn’t littered with line drives or anything. Also, Milton walked just two batters, so it’s not like he had terrible control but was lucky with balls in play. Yet, it’s still one of the least impressive no-hitters of recent times. While Milton did dominate the Angels lineup that day, the issue is exactly who was in that lineup. It was September, and just like all teams, the Angels had several minor leaguers called up to the big league squad. The best Angels hitters that season were first baseman Darin Erstad, DH Mo Vaughn, and outfielders Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon. None of them played on Sept. 11, 1999. In their place stood Jeff DaVanon, a 25-year-old who made his big league debut a few days earlier; Todd Greene, a journeyman backup with a career .286 on-base percentage; Steve Decker, a .221 career hitter who was one week away from the end of his unmemorable career; and Matt Luke, a backup playing in his third and final season. So half of the day’s lineup consisted of scrubs standing in for stars. As an added bonus, there were other starters missing the day, as well. Gary DiSarcina and Randy Velarde were never great-hitting middle infielders, but each was good enough to play in over 1,000 games. In this game, Velarde sat while someone named Trent Durrington played second base. Durrington played in 140 major league games—and had 46 hits. DiSarcina’s replacement at short was Andy Sheets, who hit .216 in 356 games. Finally, the normal catcher, Matt Walbeck, had the day off while a man named Bret Hemphill worked the plate. Hemphill had the least impressive career of them all: just three hits. So seven of the nine batting order spots consisted of fungible players. There are literally minor league lineups with more impressive talent on display. There were two starters in the game, with one a name worth knowing: third baseman Troy Glaus. While he’d develop into a fine hitter and All-Star, in 1999 the young Glaus was a .240 hitter, albeit one with power. The most dangerous hitter facing Milton was outfielder Orlando Palmeiro. When Orlando Palmeiro is your most dangerous weapon, you’ve got a pretty weak lineup. Still, Milton did dominate and no-hit them. He still deserves credit, and he did throw a gem. Saying it’s one of the least impressive no-hitters shouldn’t overlook the key point, that it was a no-hitter. And it was a no-hitter 5,000 days ago today. Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their “day-versary” or anniversary. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||