Diamond Rundown – Edition Twenty One
August 25, 2008 by Brian Joseph · Leave a Comment
Facts, figures and other tidbits from the twenty first week of the ’08 major league baseball season.
Camden Crowd: The Baltimore Orioles lost on Tuesday in front of their largest crowd of the season at Camden Yards where 48,515 turned out to see the O’s lose to the Red Sox 7-2. The sell-out pushed the lifetime attendance over the 50,000,000 mark in the 17-year history of Camden Yards. Oriole fan Kevin Gracie was recognized as the 50-millionth fan and awarded $50,000 and complimentary season tickets for five years.
Notable Quotable I: “He’s a good pitcher. I hope he opts out of his deal.” Johnny Damon of the Yankees on Toronto’s A.J. Burnett who beat the Yankees for the third time this year in Toronto’s 2-1 win over New York on Tuesday.
You Complete Me: Florida’s Ricky Nolasco went the distance for a two-hit complete game shutout to beat the Giants 6-0 on Tuesday. The complete game ended a Major League-high streak of 301 games without a complete game by the Florida Marlins. It was the first complete game since Anibal Sanchez on September 16, 2006.
Short Goes Long: Cleveland’s Jhonny Peralta hit his 20th home run in their 8-5 win over the Royals on Wednesday. It was the third time in his Indians’ career that Peralta hit 20 home runs in a season. The only other shortstop in Cleveland history to do so was Woody Held in 1959, 1960 and 1961.
Going Deep: Detroit’s Nate Robertson got hammered for five home runs in 3 2/3 innings in the Tigers 9-1 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday. Robertson became the first pitcher in the Majors to give up five home runs in a game since Carlos Silva gave up five home runs to the Orioles as a member of the Twins on August 22, 2006.
The Front-Runners: No, this isn’t about Jimmy Rollins. On Thursday, Cleveland’s Cliff Lee improved his record to 18-2, the most wins in the American League. He also lowered his ERA to a league-low 2.43. Over in the National League, Arizona’s Brandon Webb pitched seven shutout innings to improve to a Major League-high 19 wins. It marked the third consecutive start that both Webb and Lee notched wins on the same day.
A Game of Streaks: The Nationals beat the Phillies 4-3 on Thursday to snap Washington’s 12-game losing streak. In the loss, 45-year-old Jamie Moyer extended his streak of games where he has allowed three or less runs to 14 consecutive starts. It is the longest streak in Phillies history since Chris Short had a streak of 23 consecutive games in 1967. The Phillies only saw 41,568 fans turn out for the game which snapped their streak of 16 consecutive sell-outs.
One and Done: Carlos Delgado hit a walk-off single and the Mets beat the Braves 5-4 on Thursday. It was the 27th consecutive one-run road loss by Atlanta, increasing their Major League record of futility in one-run road losses.
Oh, Snap!: The Angels lost 2-1 to the Twins in 12 innings and Garret Anderson lost his 23-game hitting streak going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts on Thursday.
Notable Quotable II: “It was exciting. He had advice for how he deals with struggles and the mental side. It was nice the way he put things. I told him I can be afraid of contact, and he said, ‘I’m afraid of contact, too.’” Philadelphia’s Kyle Kendrick on a meeting arranged with then-San Diego pitcher Greg Maddux by Kendrick’s teammate Jamie Moyer. The advice paid off at the expense of Maddux who was outpitched by Kendrick in his Dodger debut on Friday. The Phillies beat the Dodgers 8-1 and Kendrick notched his 11th win of the season — his first since July 31.
The Hard Way: The St. Louis Cardinals scored 18 runs without a home run in their win over the Braves on Friday. They were the first team since the White Sox on September 27, 2003 to score at least 18 runs without the aid of the long ball and just the 10th team to accomplish the feat since 1956.
Bobbin’ Along: Milwaukee’s J.J. Hardy delivered with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th to give the Brewers a 4-3 win over the Pirates on Sunday. The game-winning hit came on J.J. Hardy Bobblehead Day at Miller Park.
Good for the Record… and the Bank Account: The Milwaukee Brewers had their 21st straight sellout on Sunday and have sold out every game since the CC Sabathia trade.
Keep on Hittin’: The Twins lost on Sunday but Joe Mauer extended his hitting streak to 16 straight games. Also, Justin Morneau joined Harmon Killebrew as the only Twins’ players to register three consecutive 100-RBI seasons.
‘90s Expansion Exterminator: Florida’s Ricky Nolasco notched the win over the Diamondbacks on Sunday and improved to 4-0 against the D-backs in his career. In addition to his dominance over the D-backs, Nolasco is a combined 8-0 against Arizona, Colorado and Tampa Bay.
Numbers Game
10: The Dodgers beat the Rockies 3-1 on Thursday. The game featured James Loney’s 10th home run, Derek Lowe’s 10th win (he’s 10-10), Hong-Chih Kuo’s 10th hold and Jonathan Broxton’s 10th save.
30: Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka went to 15-2 on the season with a win on Tuesday in the Red Sox 7-2 win over the Orioles. It was also Matsuzaka’s 30th career win — the most of any Japanese-born player in their first two seasons surpassing Hideo Nomo who had 29 career wins in 1995-96.
200: San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum struck out his 200th batter in their 5-0 win over the Padres on Friday. Lincecum improved to 14-3 and became the first Giant since Jason Schmidt struck out 251 in 2004 to do so.
206: Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon won his 206th game as the Rays manager on Saturday as the Rays beat the White Sox 5-3. The win moved Maddon past Larry Rothschild and he became the winningest manager in the Rays’ short history.
609: Ken Griffey Jr. hit his first home run in a White Sox uniform on Wednesday in the team’s 15-3 win over his first team, the Seattle Mariners. Griffey’s 14th homer for the year was his 609th home run of his career. The home run tied Griffey for fifth on the All-Time Home Run List with Sammy Sosa.
Grand Slams
Willie Harris, Washington vs. Chicago Cubs (8/22)
Walk-Off Archive
Single: Carlos Delgado, NY Mets vs. Atlanta (8/21); J.J. Hardy, Milwaukee vs. Pittsburgh (8/24); Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox vs. Tampa bay (8/24)
Double: None
Triple: None
Home Run: Omar Quintanilla, Colorado vs. Cincinnati (8/24); Pedro Feliz, Philadelphia vs. LA Dodgers (8/24)
Sacrifice Fly: Bengie Molina, San Francisco vs. Florida (8/20)
Wild Pitch: Emmanuel Burris (scored on wild pitch by Kevin Gregg), San Francisco vs. Florida (8/21)
