By Kyle Soppe
The New York Mets have lost the first game of 10 consecutive home stands. The Mets aren’t a great team, but this is crazy. The Mets are a .500 team at home after the opening game of the home stand, so why can’t they win the first game of a series? An inexplicable trend that has the Mets in the record books as the only team to open a season with 10 straight losses in the openers of home stands.
Tuesday night, the Phillies won. With the best record in baseball, this is nothing new. But it was the 12th straight start by rookie Vance Worley in which the Phillies have won. The longest run of consecutive wins by a team during one starting pitchers starts in the league this year. The Fantastic 4 of Philly gets all of the attention, but this rookie is a big reason why the Phil’s are winning on such a consistent basis. This streak has spanned over 3 months, with Worley registering 6 wins. Ivan Nova of the Yanks is having similar success, as his team has won each of his last 10 starts. What is more amazing about Nova, is that he has collected a win in 9 of those starts, the most wins by a starting pitcher over a 10-game stretch this year. Cy Young favorite Justin Verlander has not even accomplished such a mark, as he has 2 stretches of 10 starts in which has recorded 8 wins. Nova has pitched himself into the Yanks postseason rotation with his ability to simply win games; even if not always pretty (he got the win versus KC on August 16th despite allowing 10 base runners and 7 earned). Sometimes pitchers just have the winning touch, and these two rookies have proven more than capable of winning games in the big leagues.
The Pirates collapse has continued, setting numerous records along the way. They are the first team in the modern era to, in a 30 day period; go from leading their division to trailing by 15 games. We are used to seeing this from Pittsburgh, but usually they are tied for the division lead with a record of 0-0.
Craig Kimbrel tied Neftali Feliz’s rookie record for saves in a season with his 40th on Tuesday night. Kimbrel and Feliz are both headed to the playoffs this year, and it would be interesting to see which closer would perform better should they meet up in the World Series.
Curtis Granderson hit a 397 foot ball to center field in Minnesota, far enough to be a HR in 10 MLB parks. The speedy Granderson wasn’t happy that the ball stayed in the yard, and decided to touch em all anyway. The inside-the-park home run made Granderson the first Yankee to have a 35+ home run season that included an inside-the-parker since Mickey Mantle did in 1961.
Also in this series, it was the first time that 2 members of the 600 home-run club faced off against each other since 1973. Alex Rodriquez and Jim Thome took the field, representing 25% of the exclusive club.
For those fascinated with Ichiro’s chase for an 11th consecutive 200 hit seasons, the outfielder needs to hit .412 over his last 34 games to achieve the milestone. This is assuming he gets 4 at bats per game, which is a relatively safe assumption as the Mariners rarely get enough hits to turn the lineup over a 5th time. This isn’t the first time he is cutting it close: he registered 206 hits in 2005 and 208 hits in 2002. All of his numbers (batting average, OBP, slugging, etc) are at a career low, but the fact that he could still register a 200 hit season is amazing. The 37 year old may be trending downwards, but he is a hall of famer who has had an amazing career. I am rooting for him to get his 200 this year, maybe with a homer on the final day of the season.
Vlad Guerrero (ex-Expo great) is once again the convincing leader in fewest pitches seen per plate appearance. If you subtract the 2009 season, in which Vlad was injured and unable to swing as often as he would have liked, the 36 year old slugger has ranked in the top 3 in this category in each of the past 6 seasons. What I find more amazing than his free swinging style is the fact that he is a lifetime .317 hitter, with pitchers rarely throwing him strikes.
Got any MLB splinters? Share them here.
Thanks for the link, Kyle. I’m started to rethink some of the things I said in that post, but if the season ended today, Nova would definitely be one of the Yankees top three playoff starters…in my opinion.
Who were the last two members of the 600-home run club to face off against each other in 1973? Of course, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, since they were two of the three members of the club at the time, and the third (Babe Ruth) was no longer alive.
More great factoids, as usual, and I’m sure Casey will be happy you mentioned Les Expos de Montréal.
Not that he walks much anyway, but I suspect we’ll see Ichiro swinging at everything remotely close to the strike zone over this last month of the season. But, you’re right, Kyle, he needs to hit over .400 for the entire 34 game span … I didn’t do the math on this the other day when I said he needed to hit .400 for at least a couple weeks. But maybe he’ll get a handful of 5 or 6 AB games … the Mariners have actually been scoring a decent amount of runs lately and have been turning the line up over.
Chas – Nova has got to be in that rotation. Even the yanks are stubborn enough to ignore what he has done. As for the 4 spot, who knows. And all of this is assuming Hughes can stay healthy. They dont feel like a team that will win the AL pennant to me
Wally – For ichiro’s sake, I hope he comes out hackin. Although i kind of doubt it. Hitting 400 over a 34 game stretch is tough, but if someone is capable, its him. The Mariners could use a bright spot, and with Felix not in shape to win the Cy Young, Ichiro is their last hope.
This just in … It’s not just the NL West! Looks like we have another heated divisional race in the AL West as the Angels inch closer to the Rangers. (Looks like the rumors of the BoSox demise were greatly exaggerated). Anyway, I know an additional pennant race will bum Casey out, but the rest of us fans will appreciate it 🙂
Again … a sad day with the passing of former Oriole ace and good guy Mike Flanagan.
With all due respect, seeing the old photos of Flanagan pitching caused this random thought …. Is that old Orioles cap with the bird actually wearing a cap possibly the best baseball cap EVER?? I personally prefer the older one from the late ’60s-early ’70s that was just black and orange, but I just think that’s gotta be the best cap … or at least on the short list. I’ll put the A’s yellow and green right there with it. Sorry for the random thought digression. 🙁
’80s Brewers is my personal favorite. Here’s a somewhat relevant list to that discussion:
https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/3/17/2055008/top-30-best-defunct-team-logos-of-all-time
Chas … Logo’s are one thing, the caps are a bit different as they may or may not contain the logo … or part of the logo. Now, I do really like that ’80s vintage Brewers logo and the cap, too. Is that your favorite CAP?
Yeah…this one: https://images.bizrate.com/resize?sq=140&uid=2572028540
My favorite:
https://www.fansedge.com/Baltimore-Orioles-Cooperstown-400-Snapback-Adjustable-Hat-_293706413_PD.html
They should go back to this one … maybe some of that late ’60s early 70’s excellence would magically rub off on them 🙂
The two-tone Brew Crew lid is sweet. Two-tones have pretty much gone by the wayside.
3 grand slams from the Yanks tonight … MLB record
I saw that. Geez. The A’s must have rolled out the Iron Mike.
Have heard Worley’s name more and more. Is this Phillies’ squad going to be like the Braves’ teams that had great pitchers but couldn’t get over the hump of winning the World Series? Hopefully not. So to complete the comparison, that would make Worley like Steve Avery? Hope for Worley’s sake his career doesn’t mimic that.