Diamond Rundown – Edition Seven
by Brian Joseph
Facts, figures and other tidbits from the seventh week of the ’08 major league baseball season.
One Small Step…: With their split of a Monday doubleheader, the Pittsburgh Pirates won their season series with the Atlanta Braves. Winning 5 out of 7, the Pirates won the season series for the first time since 1997.
How Low Can You Go?: Despite a no decision, Cleveland’s Cliff Lee lowered his major league leading ERA to 0.67 after 9 scoreless innings. Unfortunately, Cleveland could not score and lost in extra innings to the Blue Jays, 3-0. Later in the week, Lee would also lose the league lead in ERA.
2×2: Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun hit two home runs for the 2nd consecutive game on Monday in their 8-3 win over the Cardinals. Braun was the first Brewer to hit 2 home runs in back-to-back games since Geoff Jenkins did it on April 28th and 29th in 2001.
Notable Quotable I: “What a game! I guess y’all didn’t think we had a chance when we fell behind 5-0 to (Erik) Bedard. We fooled y’all and Bedard.” Rangers manager Ron Washington on their 13-12 win over Seattle in 10 innings on Monday that ended with a Ramon Vazquez game-ending home run.
Keep On Runnin’: Houston’s Lance Berkman scored for the 15th game in a row in their 7-3 win over the Giants on Monday. The streak tied a team record set previously by Carlos Beltran. Berkman failed to break the record on Tuesday when he was stranded twice including on third base with one out in the third inning.
New Ace In Town: Cincinnati’s Edinson Volquez pitched his 8th consecutive game in which he went at least 5 innings and gave up 1 or less runs. Volquez went 6 innings and gave up just 1 run in Cincinnati’s 5-3 win over the Marlins. He raised his record to 6-1 with a 1.12 ERA and a league-best 57 strikeouts at game’s end on Tuesday. Since 1956, only one Reds pitcher had a longer such streak – Bill Gullickson from July 29-September 2, 1986.
Notable Quotable II: “I just got a little too inside I guess.” Mets pitcher John Maine after hitting Washington’s Felipe Lopez with the first pitch of the game on Tuesday. Lopez was visibly angry but should have expected it. The plunking came a day after Nelson Figueroa complained that the Nationals were “bush league” because they were cheering like a group of “softball girls” in the game prior.
Hope #101 Comes Faster: San Diego’s Shawn Estes finally won his 100th game of his career in his 4-3 win over the Cubs on Tuesday. It was his first victory since September 9, 2005. Then, Estes had another solid outing on Sunday but Heath Bell blew the save and cost him victory #101.
Back To Form: After a slow start, Pittsburgh’s Damaso Marte is back on track. He made three appearances this week, gave up just one hit and picked up a win and 2 holds. In his last 12 appearances, Marte is 3-0 with 6 holds and a 0.63 ERA.
Dazzling Debut: Cincinnati’s Paul Janish’s first major league action ended with a walk-off single and a bloody nose on Wednesday. Janish entered in the 8th inning of a 6-0 game and was on the field as the Reds bullpen coughed up the lead in the 9th. The Marlins tied it up and the game went extras. With two out and runners on 1st and 2nd, Janish singled to score Johnny Cueto from 2nd as a pinch runner for David Ross. Cueto crossing the plate earned the Reds the win and Janish was mobbed and pummeled by teammates so hard in the post-game celebration, he received a bloody nose.
Second Guessing: Milwaukee’s Ned Yost said he had Eric Gagne available on Wednesday but went with Guillermo Mota in the 9th instead and the Angels made Yost’s Brewers pay as the Angels came back to win 6-4.
Ver(lander)y Big Problems: How serious are Justin Verlander’s problems? Detroit’s ace not only fell to 1-7 after going 6 innings and gave up 2 runs in their loss to the Royals but dropped his first loss in 10 career starts against Kansas City on Wednesday. Going into the game, Verlander was 6-0 with a 2.65 ERA against the Royals.
Torre Knows Best: With third baseman Blake DeWitt sidelined due to a back injury, the Dodgers’ brain trust had to make a quick decision about who would play third on Thursday. Third base coach Larry Bowa suggested Torre start Chin-Lung Hu but Torre ignored Bowa’s advice and moved Russell Martin to third and put Gary Bennett behind the plate. Bennett, told 15 minutes before the game started, went 2-for-4 including a 3-run homer and an RBI double. Russell Martin, playing third base for the 5th time in his career, went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. Bowa’s choice Hu did get in the game as a defensive sub and struck out.
Notable Quotable III: “Someone tell me why the (expletive) you’re talking to the closer. I didn’t even play. They’re over there, not being interviewed. I got it. They’re gone. (Expletive) shocker!” Mets closer Billy Wagner after their 1-0 loss to the Nationals. This explains why Wagner left Philadelphia because the fans were ripping his teammates; he wanted to be the main voice critical of his teammates.
Career First: Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels got his first complete game shutout of his career in his 60th start in their 5-0 win over Atlanta on Thursday. The 4-hitter was his 29th career win.
Overcoming The Odds: The White Sox bucked a trend on Thursday in their 4-3 win over the Angels… they beat Francisco Rodriguez. The Angels had won 25 consecutive games when Rodriguez appeared and it was the third 20+ win streak the Angels had experienced.
Werthwhile Game: Philadelphia’s Jayson Werth hit 3 home runs (including his 1st grand slam) and 8 RBIs (which tied a team record) in Philadelphia’s 10-3 win over the Blue Jays on Friday. Werth was the 18th Phillie to hit 3 home runs.
Lead-Off Drop-Off: Lineup position doesn’t matter? Don’t tell Kansas City’s Joey Gathright that. Gathright, the sometimes lead-off hitter of the Royals, hits .220 with a .272 On-Base % in games where he is in the lineup as the lead-off hitter. In any other lineup position, he’s hitting .277 with a .345 On-Base %.
Streak Snapped: St. Louis’ Albert Pujols streak of reaching base ended at 42 in their 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday. It was the 5th longest streak to start off a season since 1956 and the longest since Derek Jeter reached base in his first 53 games of the year for the Yankees in 1999.
Notable Quotable III: “How many people they hold here? I hope 45 (thousand) show up today and they can boo A.J. We get used to it. We boo A.J. when he takes batting practice, I think A.J. loves that. Every time they do that he has a good game.” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Giants’ fans booing A.J. Pierzynski who left San Francisco to play for the White Sox after the 2004 season. On Giants employee told Pierzynski that “he ruined the organization.”
Interleague Incredible: Mets ace Johan Santana’s mediocre outing against the Yankees on Saturday was good enough for his 5th win of the season and help raise his record in Interleague play to 17-4.
Déjà vu: Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn beat the Cleveland Indians for the 2nd time in 3 seasons with a walk-off home run. His 3-run homer on Saturday off of Masa Kobayashi gave the Reds a 4-2 win over their interstate rival. Dunn also did it with a grand slam on June 20, 2006 off of Bob Wickman to give the Reds a 9-8 win over the Indians.
Jump Start: Detroit’s Matthew Joyce hit his 4th major league home run in his 33rd plate appearance of his major league career on Saturday.
Caught I: Houston’s Michael Bourn had a tough weekend on the base paths on Saturday and Sunday when Texas’ Gerald Laird gunned down Bourn three times on stolen base attempts. Prior to this, Bourn had stolen 18 consecutive bases.
Night And Day: Kansas City’s Brian Bannister lost to Florida after giving up 6 runs in 6 1/3 innings of work on Saturday. The loss dropped Bannister to 0-5 with an 8.23 ERA in night games. He’s been a different pitcher in the day with a 4-0 record and a 0.62 ERA in day games.
Woe Is Z: San Francisco’s Barry Zito worked 5 innings, gave up 2 runs and picked up his 8th loss of the season on Saturday. Zito became the first Giants pitcher to open the season with 8 losses since Jesse Burkett in 1890. Zito is just one loss away from matching the longest streak since 1956 when Washington Senators pitcher Chuck Stobbs lost 9 in a row without a win from September 9, 1956 to May 24, 1957.
Marquee Match-Up: Cleveland’s Cliff Lee and Cincinnati’s Edinson Volquez’s squared off with league leading ERAs (0.67 for Lee and 1.12 for Volquez) on Sunday marking the third time in Interleague play that it happened. In 1998, Al Leiter took the loss against Hideki Irabu in a Mets-Yankees match-up and in 2002, Derek Lowe outpitched Tom Glavine in Boston’s win over Atlanta. Volquez got the win over Lee in the 6-4 Reds win over the Indians.
Caught II: Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing for the first time in his major league career on Sunday. It was his first time caught in 26 attempts. His 25 consecutive steals without being caught was a team record.
Numbers Game
14: Cleveland’s Asdrubal Cabrera turned an unassisted triple play on Monday, the 14th player in major league history to do so.
47: Chicago’s Alfonso Soriano hit his 46th and 47th home run to lead off a game on Wednesday and Friday. He is 3rd all-time behind Craig Biggio with 53 and Rickey Henderson with 81 in home runs to lead off the game.
44 1/3: Cleveland’s starting pitchers went 44 1/3 consecutive innings without giving up a run from May 9-15. They still managed to sweep Oakland with a 4-2 win on Thursday even with Aaron Laffery giving up an unearned run in the 2nd inning. It was the longest such streak since the Orioles’ starters registered 54 consecutive scoreless innings from September 1-7, 1974.
288: Another week, another win. Arizona’s Randy Johnson picked up his 288th career win on Sunday after going 7 scoreless innings against the Tigers. The Diamondbacks won 4-0 and Johnson is now tied for 24th on the all-time wins list, just 12 away from 300 wins.
498: Boston’s Manny Ramirez 498th career homer was one of the few highlights in Clevena’s 7-3 loss to the Twins on Monday.
1401: Detroit’s Gary Sheffield became the 26th player in major league history to walk 1400 times on Tuesday and added one more to his career walk total later in the week.
1502: Houston’s Brad Ausmus notched his 1500th hit on Tuesday and added two more to his career total by week’s end.
2401: Tony LaRussa’s Cardinals helped him achieve and surpass 2,400 wins with two walk-off wins on Saturday and Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
2405: Yankees Derek Jeter passed the 2400-hit mark on Thursday and ended the week with 2,405 hits.
Grand Slams
Jay Payton, Baltimore vs. Boston (5/14)
Carlos Quentin, White Sox vs. Angels (5/14)
Jayson Werth, Philadelphia vs. Toronto (5/16)
Rod Barajas, Toronto vs. Philadelphia (5/17)
Walk-Off Archive
Single: Gabe Gross, Tampa Bay vs. Yankees (5/13); Paul Janish, Cincinnati vs. Florida (5/14)
Double: Skip Schumaker, St. Louis vs. Tampa Bay (5/18)
Triple: None
Home Run: Ramon Vazquez, Texas vs. Seattle (5/12); Ryan Ludwick, St. Louis vs. Tampa Bay (5/17); Adam Dunn, Cincinnati vs. Cleveland (5/17)
