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June 18, 2013
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And That Happened (2)
30th anniversary: Keith Hernandez for Rick Ownbey and Neil Allen (4) Four teams, 38 innings, one historic day (9) 18 again! (3) 50th anniversary: Willie Kirkland brings the clutch (5)   
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Monday, September 24, 2012And That HappenedAngels 4, White Sox 1: Did you know that if you win the AL Central that you contract a horrible disease? If you answered yes, you must be either the Tigers or the White Sox. That's five straight losses for Chicago. Jered Weaver wins his 19th, allowing one run over six and a third. Kendrys Morales homers and Pujols drives in two. Twins 10, Tigers 4; Twins 2, Tigers 1: Joe Mauer drove in four in the opener, handing Max Scherzer a rare second half loss. In the nightcap the Tigers couldn't muster a lick of offense and blew a chance to gain ground on the Sox. This is just getting pathetic. Cardinals 6, Cubs 3: St. Louis wins its sixth game in the past seven and continues to hold off the horde. Pete Kozma and Allen Craig each drive in a pair. Brewers 6, Nationals 2: Milwaukee keeps pace with the Cards. Ryan Braun doubled, singled and hit a sac fly. I can't wait until no one gives him any MVP votes out of spite. Dodgers 5, Reds 3: L.A. keeps pace as well, beating the regular-resting Reds. Two homers for Adrian Gonzalez. Braves 2, Phillies 1: A pretty sweet pitcher's duel. It's a shame someone had to lose. But I suppose Cliff Lee has gotten used to that this season. The Braves have won 14 of their last 20 and are on the verge of clinching the wild card. Philly, in contrast, could not afford dropping two of three. The patient is not yet dead, but his next of kin have been told to hang around a phone. Athletics 5, Yankees 4: The Yankees' seven-game win streak is snapped and the A's get a much-needed win to hold off the Angels. Cliff Pennington homered and drove in three. Red Sox 2, Orioles 1: The O's win streak is snapped as well. And in a one-run game, no less. Quite unusual! What's next? Republicans admitting that Obama inherited, rather than created, a bad economy and has done a pretty decent job managing the recovery? Okay, now I've seen everything. Pirates 8, Astros 1: A.J. Burnett was sharp, allowing one run over eight innings while striking out 11, picking up his 16th win and stopping the Pirates' five game skid. Rays 3, Blue Jays 0: Your standard six-pitcher shutout for Tampa Bay. B.J. Upton with a solo shot in the first and Evan Longoria with a two-run double in the eighth. Indians 15, Royals 4: The Tribe outscored the Browns yesterday. I bet that's happened on more than one Sunday in recent years. Carlos Santana was 3 for 6 with two homers and five driven in. Mets 3, Marlins 2: Ruben Tejada singled in the winning run with two out in the bottom of the ninth. The Mets season may be a disappointing one, but they straight own the Marlins lately. Seven straight, in fact. Padres 6, Giants 4: Most of the Giants got a day off the day after clinching the division and the results followed. Rangers 3, Mariners 2: Texas avoids the sweep thanks to homers from Mike Napoli and Geovany Soto. They had the good sense to lose when the A's were losing, however, thereby keeping their four-game lead in the west. Diamondbacks 10, Rockies 7: Aaron Hill broke the 4-4 tie in the top of the eighth. The D-backs are four and a half games back of the Cardinals for the second wild card, but unlike Philly and the Dodgers, no one talks about them really being in it. Wonder why that is? 30th anniversary: 18th-inning walk-off wild pitchThirty years ago today, the Indians experienced one of the toughest losses in franchise history. It wasn’t an especially important game and ultimately it didn’t matter that much, but games don’t have to be especially important to have an ending that is especially painful. On Sept. 24, 1982, the Tigers hosted the Cleveland Indians. Well, sort of. For purposes of this story, it’s more accurate to say on Sept. 24, 1982, the Tigers got back to playing the Indians. Huh? There’s a background story that needs explaining. The game that ended 30 years ago today didn’t begin 30 years ago today. It actually began way back on June 9, 1982. On that day, however, the game ended regulation tied, 3-3, and went into extra innings. After 14 innings, it was still tied 3-3, but the clock struck the league curfew. The game couldn’t go on, not on that day, anyway. League rules stipulated that the Indians and Tigers would have to pick it up next time they could. Well, June 9 was the last game in a series, and Cleveland wasn‘t scheduled to come back to Detroit for over three months. To be exact, the Indians weren’t supposed to come back to Detroit until Sept. 24, 1982, which is where we pick up the story. The teams had to conclude their unfinished business before getting on with the day’s regularly scheduled game. Thus, in an oddity, the day began with the teams playing the 15th inning. The teams by-and-large kept the same lineups they had used three months ago. Tiger manager Sparky Anderson even kept the same pitcher in. In a sign of how times have changed, Detroit reliever Dave Tobik had lasted 5.1 frames back in June, so Anderson went with him. The Indians put in a new reliever, but it was no big deal since they’d only used three pitches in 14 innings last time. Like I said, it was a different game. Relievers kept dominating today. The 15th, 16th, and 17th innings passed with no runs and not even any serious threats to score. Things changed in the 18th. Von Hayes singled against Tobik (finally forcing him out of the game after a marathon 8.2-inning relief stint) and then stole second. A walk to catcher Ron Hassey gave the Indians two runners on in the same inning, something that had happened only one other time since the eighth. It was for naught as the Tigers snuffed out the mini-rally. Things got much worse for Cleveland in the bottom of the 18th. First, reliever Bud Anderson walked the leadoff man, Tom Brookens. According to baseball lore, you never want to walk the leadoff man. You know what else you don’t want to do? Make an error with a runner on and nobody out. But that’s just what Anderson did next. Shortstop Alan Trammell tried to bunt Brookens into scoring position and succeeded beyond his dreams. Anderson bumbled it and everyone was safe—runners on first and second, nobody out. Next, Larry Herndon singled to load the bases, and there were still no outs. Anderson bore down a bit better and got Enos Cabell to ground into a force play that nailed Brookens at the plate. Cleveland wasn’t out of the woods yet, but they were one out away from ensuring that a deep fly couldn’t win the game. With a force at every base, maybe a double play could end the inning. At the plate, Howard Johnson was slow enough to be doubled up. But Cleveland never got the chance. Instead, it got away from them entirely. More precisely, it got away from new reliever Ed Glynn, who entered the game right after Cabell’s grounder. The good news is that Glynn didn’t allow a hit. He didn’t walk anyone, he didn’t hit the batter, and he didn’t commit an error. Instead, he did something even more embarrassing; he threw a wild pitch. When the ball scampered to the backstop, Trammell scampered home with the winning run. Cleveland had lost an 18-inning marathon on a walk-off wild pitch. Yeah, that’s got to hurt. And it hurt Cleveland 30 years ago today. Aside from that, many other baseball 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... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||