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May 25, 2011

Paul Splitorff career highlights

Earlier today, former Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff died after a fight with cancer at age 64>.

I’ve never been a Royals fan but I do remember as a kid when he was a veteran pitcher, and all-time franchise victory in wins to boot. My main memory of him when I was a kid is something a bit more oddball, though: I always like the named “Splittorff.” It just sounds nice.

At any rate, I recently wrote a piece discussing Harmon Killebrew career highlights when Killer died, and though Splittorff isn’t nearly as big a figure as Killebrew, I thought I’d do the same.

Below is a list of big games Splittorff appeared in, his best/worst/most noteworthy achievements, and some oddball games/moments he happened to be on hand for, even if he had nothing to do with what made that game worthy of note. Hey, they’re all games he appeared in.

Sept. 23, 1970 Paul Splittorff plays his first game. He loses to the White Sox, pitching seven innings allowing 10 hits and five runs (three earned). In his first inning of work, Carlos May is out trying to steal third against him.

April 22, 1972 Splittorff tosses a complete game but loses 1-0 to Wilbur Wood and the White Sox. This is his only complete-game 1-0 loss.

May 3, 1972 Al Kaline, age 37, hits two triples in one game against the Royals. Splittorff allows the first.

June 27, 1972 Splittorff hits a triple. It’s his second and last extra base hit, as next year the AL adopts the DH rule.

Sept. 5, 1972 Splittorff fans 10 batters in a game, a career high he’ll tie on Sept. 16, 1973.

June 2, 1973 John Ellis of the Indians gets a second-inning single against Splittorff. It’s the only hit Ellis gets in 34 career at-bats against Splittorff.

July 26, 1973 Splittorff’s only complete-game shutout 1-0 win in a nine-inning game. He won 1-0 in a shortened five-inning game on Aug. 11, 1971. It’s over the White Sox, whom he three-hits.

Aug. 26, 1973 In the second inning of a game against the Orioles, Splittorff allows an inside-the-park grand slam to Paul Blair. It’s one of three inside-the-park home runs Splittorff ever allows and one of four slams. It comes in the worst start of Splittorff’s career: 6.2 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 2 K for a Game Score of 9.

Sept. 26, 1973 In his last start of the season, Splittorff wins his 20th game of the year, his only 20-win season. It looks like there was a definite push to get him to 20 wins. The team allowed him to start on Sept. 20, 23, and 26—all of which were victories for him. In his entire career, Splittorff started on two days rest exactly five times—and two were right here back-to-back as he made the final push for 20 wins.

June 26, 1974 Splittorff’s longest career start results in a complete game victory as the Royals beat the White Sox 2-1. Splittorff’s line: 12 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 4 K.

Aug. 11, 1974 Splittorff allows a leadoff home run to Ken Berry. It’s the only leadoff home run he’ll allow in 392 career starts.

April 9, 1975 Splittorff throws three wild pitches, his most in one game.

April 14, 1975 In his first decision of the year, Splittorff picks up the loss, giving him eight straight losses including late 1974. This is the worst losing streak of his career.

Aug. 3, 1975 Splittorff throws a complete game one-hitter. Oakland’s Claudell Washington singles with one out in the first inning, and that’s it for the day against Splittorff.

Sept. 15, 1975 Splittorff wins his 62nd game, all with the Royals, to pass Dick Drago as the franchise’s all-time leader in victories. Splittorff eventually retires with 166 wins and is still the all-time Royals leader in wins.

Oct. 10, 1976 Game 2 of the ALCS: Splittorff makes his first-ever playoff appearance, pitching in relief when Whitey Herzog gets a quick hook to Dennis Leonard in the third inning. The Royals trail 3-2 when Splittorff comes in, but have a 7-3 lead when he leaves for the ninth inning, and that’s the final score.

Oct. 14, 1976 Game 5 of the ALCS: Splittorff again relieves Leonard early. Leonard faces only three batters, and they all get hits, and then Splittorff enters. He also has troubles, allowing two runs in 3.2 innings, not including an inherited runner that scored in the first. The Yankees win 7-6 to take the pennant on a walk-off home run by Chris Chambliss.

July 1, 1977 Splittorff indirectly helps make Royals history. When he has to leave the game after facing only four batters—and getting none out (three hits and a walk)—reliever Marty Pattin comes in to pitch nine full innings, as the Royals beat the Indians 12-2. It’s the last time a Royal went nine innings in relief. Bruce Del Canton also did it for the team on May 5, 1973.

Sept. 2, 1977 Splittorff nearly throws a no-hitter. Charlie Moore singles with two outs in the bottom of the eighth for the Brewers, and Splittorff has to settle for a one-hitter. If it’s any consolation, according to Game Score it’s still his greatest start. His line: 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K in 3-0 complete-game win over the Brewers.

Oct. 5, 1977: Game 1 of the ALCS: Splittorff makes his first postseason start, and the Royals beat the Yankees, 7-2. He goes eight innings allowing two runs on eight hits and a walk while fanning a pair.

Oct. 9, 1977: Game 5 of the ALCS. Splittorff gets the start in the final game of the best-of-five ALCS. There’s an interesting decision made before the game: Yankees manager Billy Martin benches star Reggie Jackson because he doesn’t think the slugger can hit Splittorff. At that time, Jackson is 19-for-68 career versus Splittorff, but that’s because Jackson crushed him when Splitorff was a kid. Beginning in 1973, Splittorff held Jackson to an 11-for-54 line—actually, it’s 11-for-58 if you include Game 1 of the ALCS—with four doubles and one home run.

The Royals lead 3-1 after seven innings, but when Willie Randolph gets a single to leadoff the eighth, manager Herzog yanks Splittorff and puts the game in his bullpen’s hands. It doesn’t work, as the Yankees win 5-3.

April 22, 1978 Splittorff wins his 11th consecutive game—12th consecutive if you count last year’s postseason. That’s his longest career winning streak.

July 21, 1978 Splittorff wins his 100th game. He is the first Royals pitcher in history to reach this mark.

Oct. 6, 1978: Game 3 of the ALCS. Splittorff gets a no-decision when the Royals beat the Yankees 6-5. He throws 7.1 innings and allows five runs (four earned).

Aug. 21, 1979 Splittorff pitches a nine-inning complete game despite striking out zero batters. Yankees win, 6-2. Want to know how the game has changed? It's been four years since anyone had a complete game with zero Ks, but the Royals did it seven times by themselves in the 1970s. This was the only time for Spittorff, though.

Sept. 28, 1980 Splittorff is the starting pitcher when George Brett hits a pinch hit grand slam in the top of the sixth inning. Splittorff was removed from the game a half-inning before, and this shot ensures he won’t get the loss.

Oct. 10, 1980: Game 3 of the ALCS. Splittorff makes his last postseason start, and the Royals clinch their first pennant in the game. He doesn’t get the win, but he allowed only one run in 5.1 innings. A late Royals rally gives them a 4-2 win. I’m not sure what happened to get him pulled. While he’d just allowed a one-out double to Reggie Jackson, the Royals led 1-0 and Jackson was the first Yankee to make it to scoring position since the third inning.

Oct. 21, 1980: Game 6 of the World Series. Splittorff makes his only World Series appearance when he relieves in its final game. Was he injured? He was the team’s third best pitcher on the year, but was ignored for the first five games of the Series after his early hook in the ALCS. Here, he allows four hits in 1.2 innings.

April 30, 1981 In a rare relief appearance, Splittorff balks, his first in almost five years and more than 1,000 innings. He balks again three days later.

May 23, 1981 Splittorff stars in one of the greatest pitchers’ duels in KC history. He pitches 11 innings of shutout ball against the Twins, allowing only six hits and two walks—but the Royals can’t score either. A Willie Wilson RBI single in the bottom of the 15th inning finally ends it, a 1-0 victory for the Royals. It’s the last time a Royals starter has pitched 11 innings in a game.

June 11, 1981 Splittorff is the starting pitcher for the Royals when George Brett’s batting average reaches its all-time peak. A ninth-inning double gives him 1,307 hits in 4,094 at-bats, a .319248 mark. By that time in the game, though, Splittorff is long gone. He didn’t get out of the fourth inning.

May 2, 1983 Milwaukee’s Larry Hisle hits a pinch hit home run off Splittorff, the only pinch hit homer he ever gives up. It turns 3-0 Royals lead into a 3-2 game.

May 24, 1983 Never much of a strikeout artist, Splittorff fans his 1,000th batter, Jim Sundberg. He’s thrown 2,386.1 innings at that point in his career.

June 10, 1983 Splittorff allows only seven base runners (three hits and four walks) but still manages to pick two of them off in game against the Mariners. It’s the third time in his career he’s picked off two runners in one game.

July 25, 1983 Splittorff is Kansas City’s starting pitcher when the opposing Indians perform one of baseball’s stranger collective brain farts. In the bottom of the eighth inning and the Royals batting, the entire Cleveland team walks off the field with two outs. They thought the inning was over. Apparently, counting to three is harder than it looks. Splittorff had been removed from the game by that time, though. He did get the win, the 161st of his career.

April 4, 1984 Splittorff, in his first appearance of the year, gets roughed up by the Yankees and is removed in the fifth inning. In his place, the Royals turn to a kid making his big league debut: Bret Saberhagen. In his next start, Splittorff will pitch poorly again, and again the Royals will have Saberhagen enter the game in relief. A torch has just been passed.

June 26, 1984 Splittorff plays his last game. It’s a start—his first since getting demoted to the bullpen over two months earlier—and, as one might expect, it doesn’t go well. He’s taken out in the fifth inning, having allowed seven runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks. Relieving him yet again is Saberhagen, who finishes off the game. In Splittorff’s three starts in 1984, he throws a total of 10 innings. In those same games, reliever Saberhagen throws 14 innings.





Posted by: Chris Jaffe

May 19, 2011

Picked-off Royals

Royals are pretty good at being unique this week. Not in a good way, either.

Last night, bottom of the ninth, a possible superstar in the making ties the the game with a home run.

The next batter gets a walk and the Royals bring in a pinch runner. He gets picked off at first base. The next batter draws a one-out walk. Instead of first and second with no outs in a tie game you have a man on first with one out. Pinch runner, another pickoff. A strikeout ends the threat. Game tied and the Royals lose to the Rangers in extra innings.

Surely, it isn't unprecedented. Right? Two pinch runners picked off in the same inning this late in the game?

Nope, at least not by the play-by-play data from Retrosheet. But I did find something that might be worse:

A May 7, 1969 game, Dodgers in Chicago to take on the Cubs. The game was tied 1-1 after nine innings and it took the visiting Dodgers until the 12th inning to plate any more runners against Fergie Jenkins, but then they scored three. In the bottom of the 12th, the Cubs got a little bit of a rally going. After getting a run to make the score 4-2, the Cubs had runners on first and third with two outs. Nate Oliver pinch runs for Willie Smith, who was on first base. Nate Oliver the gets picked off. Ball Game. Cubs lose.

At least the pickoffs did not END the game for the Royals.

Posted by: Mat Kovach

May 02, 2011

Notes after the last weekend in April

Superman has renounced his U.S. citizenship. It’s okay Clark Kent, we can get bad guys on our own.

Your division leaders as of this morning are the Indians, Yankees, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, and Rockies. The Indians have the best record in the AL (and baseball), and the Phillies pace the NL.

(The NFL had a draft and was supposed to start its league season after the lockout was lifted. Then order to lift the lockout was stopped. Or it was not, or it was. Players are so confused now, they probably have no idea when to cycle off their off-season drug regiment.

Note to NFL fans: Take a chance and watch some baseball. Lot less legal talk...and get this...the INDIANS are the best team in baseball! No, really.)

The Indians have people befuddled. Where did that pitching come from? Of their 28 games, they have given up 15,10 and eight runs in three games and five or fewer in the rest, and they have lost two starting pitchers to the disabled list.

Their 2009 top draft pick makes his first MLB start, gives up two solo home runs in six innings, gets four strikeouts with only two bases on balls. He doesn’t get the win (the bullpen provided seven shutout innings to allow the offense to win the game in the 13th) but was a serviceable replacement. At least for now, the Indians have pitching depth. Who would of thunk it?*

*Hint: I did.

Conventional wisdom says Indians will cool off. But, hey, conventional wisdom does not help the cow understand that he just might be getting treated so well for the sole purpose of being slaughtered.

If the Indians cannot maintain this pace, a .500 winning percentage for the rest for the year makes this an 86-win team. The Indians are doing exactly what you expect of a good team.

They are beating bad teams, or beating times going through slumps. They are taking advantage of their good fortune and getting lucky in close games. They have already put 40 percent of their starting rotation on the DL and not been significantly effected by it. All this time, they are taking advantage of the bad play by people in their division.

Now, even when the Indians cool down, teams in their division are going to have to play significantly better than they are now to overtake the Indians. Yes, it is a long season, but which out of the Twins, White Sox, Tigers, or Royals** are capable of doing that? Are any of those teams able to do that with their current players?

**Yes, the second place Royals.

Posted by: Mat Kovach

January 14, 2011

One billion seconds since an odd story began…

At some point today, probably around 8:50 p.m. Central Standard Time, it’ll be one billion seconds since the beginning of one of baseball’s nastiest beanball incidents. You can’t quite call it a beanball war, as this was pretty one-sided.

In the top of the first inning in a Rangers-Royals game, KC leadoff batter Frank White got hit by a pitch from Texas hurler Ed Farmer. It wasn’t just a nick—the pitch broke a bone in White's hand and he missed a month of baseball.

In and of itself, that’s unfortunate, but that wasn’t it. Four innings later, Farmer drilled right fielder Al Cowens in the face, breaking his jaw. Cowens would miss more than 20 games while his bones mended. A lot of games have multiple HBP in them, but how often do two players in the same lineup get their bones broken as a result? Bill James once noted that this game is remembered in KC. I can see why.

Were the hit batsmen intentional? Farmer he had no history with White that I know of, and the HBP was just in his hand. As for Cowens, Farmer had never faced him before in the majors. That said, Cowens had sparked a rally with an RBI single in his previous a- bat, and Farmer blasted him with a fastball to the face.

It’s clear Cowens thought the pitch was intended because there’s an odd coda to this incident from the only time Cowens and Farmer ever faced each other after the beaning.

It was in a game the next season, and by that time both men had changed teams. Cowens now batted for the Tigers and Farmer pitched relief for the Chicago White Sox (who currently employ him as their radio announcer).

My father and White Sox Fan Brother were at that game and it was one of the stranger things they’d ever seen. In a tie game, Cowens led off the top of the 11th against Farmer in old Comiskey Park. For my dad and brother, it looked like a routine play – grounder to short, easy throw to first. The batter was out by . . . - hey, where is he? How come there’s no one running to first?

Oh—there he is: charging the mound! Huh?

There’s a new one. When’s the last time you saw a batter charge the mound on a routine grounder? (In a tied game in extra innings, no less!) Suffice it to say, Cowens wanted payback. Dad and White Sox Fan Brother figured it was due to some confrontation they’d had in the minors or something. I always wondered what Cowens’ Tigers teammates thought about it.

I don’t know if that incident shook Farmer up at all, but he immediately surrendered a walk and game-winning double.

Regardless, sometime tonight will be a billion seconds since first the White plunking and then later Cowens beaning.
Posted by: Chris Jaffe

December 09, 2010

10,000 days since a very famous mid-season homer

Most mid-season homers are easily forgettable. It doesn't matter how long or clutch they are, because we typically only remember the ones that take place in the most clutch of games. Carlton Fisk in Game Six. Kirk Gibson's homer off Dennis Eckersley. Bobby Thomson's Giants-Win-the-Pennant homer. Bill Mazeroski's jubilant Bambi-beats-Goliath Game Seven walk-off. For a regular season homer to be remembered, it must be quite special or unusual.

And boy, they don't get any more unusual than the one that happened 10,000 days ago today: George Brett's pine tar home run.

On July 24, 1983, the Yankees led the Royals 4-3 in the top of the ninth with two out and one on. George Brett, representing Kansas City's last hope, stepped to the plate against fellow future Hall of Famer Rich Gossage and went deep for an apparent game-changing homer. KC now led 5-4.

Or did they? Yankee manager Billy Martin charged out of the dugout armed with an obscure rule. A batter could only put pine tar on 18 inches of the bat to improve his grip. Martin knew Brett used too much pine tar, but wasn't going to make an issue of it - unless it could help his team to do so. Well, now it could help his team to do so. Martin conferred with the umps and the homer was disallowed because of the contraband bat. Brett was declared out and thus the game over.

Then came perhaps the most famous moment of Brett's career: not hitting the homer itself, but finding out his shot was disallowed. He rampaged out of the dugout out for blood and for the home plate umpire. The way he ran out, you would've thought he just saw the umpires stomp on some children.

As it turns out, the play and game didn't end there. The commissioner overruled the umps, saying that though they made the technically correct call, it was against the spirit of the rules. The decision actually went to court, and the bottom of the ninth was replayed - or actually, just played since they never played it on the original day after all (no need, it looked like the Yankees won) - almost a month later.

There was one final great twist in the saga. When they played the ninth, Hal McRae stepped up as the next batter for KC (he was after Brett in the lineup). Before the first pitch, Billy Martin, ever the schemer, claimed that Brett's homer should be disallowed because he hadn't touched every base. The umpire crew was a different one from July 24 and thus unable to verify it. However, Billy Martin had been a schemer for so long, MLB knew how to handle him. The original umpire crew signed an affidavit that they saw Brett touch all the bases. The homer was allowed, and the Royals went on to win 5-4.

That last part didn't come for a month, but the homer itself was 10,000 days ago today. And it might be the most famous mid-season homer of them all.


Brett, older and calmer than when he heard his homer was disallowed.
Posted by: Chris Jaffe


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