Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

I've tried a few mystery challenges in these pages, but I've yet to stump the experts for long.
Let's see if this one can up the ante:

What do the following totals represent?

.239 BA / .316 OBP / .392 SLG / .709 OPS

23 HR, 91 RBI, 87 R

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[Note: The mystery has been solved -- see comments 5, 8 and 10....]

What do these 34 pitchers have in common?

A tiny hint: I deleted one name from the list to prevent a dead giveaway.

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Last night, Colby Lewis had a game score of 64 and Jaime Garcia had a 77. That was the first time in a quite a while that both starters in Game 2 of the World Series reached a 64:

It's only happened 12 times, the last being by Jerry Koosman (77) and Dave McNally (71) in 1969.

The last time it happened in any World Series game was in Game 1 of 2009, when Cliff Lee (83) and CC Sabathia (64) did it.

WS Game 2 was the 7th postseason start for Colby Lewis, and the 6th time that he went at least 5 innings allowing 2 runs or less. His postseason ERA is 2.22 in 44.2 innings, with a 1.07 WHIP and no unearned runs.

Among the 144 pitchers with at least 6 postseason starts, Lewis ranks 16th in ERA (1st among active pitchers).

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The top of the 9th inning in game 2 was just the 2nd time in World Series history that a team got a tying sacrifice fly and a go-ahead sac fly in the same inning (according to the B-R Event Finder).

The other was game 1 of the 1930 Series, sac flies in the 3rd inning by the Cardinals' Taylor Douthit and Sparky Adams, off of Lefty Grove. The Cards got no other runs off Grove and wound up losing that game, and lost the Series 4-2 to the Athletics.

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With his 2-out go-ahead pinch-single in the 7th Thursday, Allen Craig became the 1st player with 2 go-ahead RBI as a pinch-hitter in World Series play (according to the B-R Event Finder).

Craig's RBI pinch-hits in games 1 and 2 were the 30th and 31st WS pinch-hit RBI that put the team in front. Here's the list in reverse date order, minus Craig's game-2 hit: Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the top players who appeared in the majors for both the Cardinals and the Rangers:

C: Darrell Porter
1B: Will Clark, Joe Cunningham, Andres Galarraga
2B: Don Blasingame, Luis Alicea
3B: Todd Zeile, Fernando Tatis
SS: Royce Clayton
LF: Alex Johnson
CF: Curt Flood
RF: Brian Jordan, Ryan Ludwick, Bobby Bonds

Starting pitchers: Bob Tewskbury, Ken Hill, Todd Stottlemyre, Jeff Fassero, Jamie Moyer, Sonny Siebert
Relief pitchers: Tom Henke, Rick Honeycutt, Darold Knowles, Rich Rodriguez, Jeff Brantley, Hal Woodeshick

Check out a limited cross-section of some great part-time seasons. Here are seasons back to 1901 where 290 to 350 plate appearances, 15 to 17 homers, and an OPS+ of 125 to 130:

John Mayberry has two such seasons--only it's not the same guy. One is from John Mayberry Sr (1981) and one is from John Mayberry Jr (2011).

Nelson Cruz's performance this year is all-the-more impressive considering that he bats 7th for the Rangers.

Here are the most post-season homers coming from the 7-hole:

One would assume that nobody hits too many homers from so low in the batting order because, if they keep hitting them, they get moved up. We'll see where Cruz bats in the World Series...

If they had known their team would out-homer the Rangers by 13-7 in the ALCS, many Tigers fans would have bet the house on going to the World Series.

Instead, the Tigers became the first team ever to hit 4 HRs while losing a postseason finale.

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