|
Let's put the Yankees' homer-happy week last week in perspective:
Yankees: 21 home runs last week.
Pirates: 21 home runs all season.
On Friday, the Tigers had their first four-homer game since Aug. 8. That was 90 games ago. The Yankees had three games of four homers or more just last week. That's as many times as the Tigers have done that in their last 296 games.
The Yankees have outhomered every team in the American League. Which might seem like nothing new if you hadn't paid much attention. But for a team known as the Bronx Bombers, it's hard to believe they haven't led the league in home runs since 1961. The only other teams that HAVEN'T led the AL in homers since then are the Royals, who didn't come into existence until 1969, and the Devil Rays, who didn't come into existence until 1998.
More Bronx bombardments: On Thursday and Friday, the Yankees had back-to-back games of four and six home runs. It was only the second time since the Maris-Mantle heydey of 1962 they'd hit four or more homers in consecutive games. The other was last July 22-23.
Well, Greg Vaughn finally hit a home run last weekend. In fact, he hit four of them. But in the nine months and nine days in which Vaughn was hitting no home runs for those power-packed Devil Rays, ESPN research genius Jeff Bennett reports that all the other players out there not named Greg Vaughn hit 2,877 home runs. Yep, that's almost 3,000 homers.
Among the people who homered while Vaughn was hitting none:
Glendon Rusch (4 for previous 71)
Mike Matthews (Cardinals relief pitcher)
Kip Wells (former AL pitcher)
Rey Sanchez (0 HR in previous 1,000 plate apps)
Quinton McCracken (0 HR since 1999)
Trenidad Hubbard (2 HR last 3 years)
Curt Schilling's strikeout-walk ratio is currently a mind-boggling 107 to 8 -- which comes to 13.38 strikeouts to every walk. If he can somehow keep that pace up, it would blow away Bret Saberhagen's all-time record for this sort of thing, set in the '94 strike season (143 to 13, or one every 11.0).
But it's not just him. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Diamondbacks are on a pace to wipe out the all-time team record for strikeout-walk ratio.
They were at 391 whiffs, to only 111 walks, through Monday -- or one strikeout for every 3.52 walks. And that's far and away the best rate in modern history:
2002 Diamondbacks, 3.52
1966 Dodgers, 3.04
2001 Diamondbacks, 2.81
1994 Expos, 2.88
1996 Braves, 2.76
Mike Cameron hit four home runs in a game May 2. You might have heard about that. His next homer didn't come until May 16 -- 12 games later. That was the second-longest drought after a four-home run game since 1900.
The Elias Sports Bureau's Kevin Hines reports that of all the four-homer men since 1900, only Mike Schmidt (in 1976) hit a home run in the next game following his four-homer game. Here is the number of homerless games by everyone else before their next homer:
Bob Horner, 1986: 17
Cameron, 2002: 11
Willie Mays, 1961: 8
Pat Seerey, 1948: 8
Joe Adcock, 1954: 7
Gil Hodges, 1950: 7
Chuck Klein, 1936: 7
Lou Gehrig, 1932: 4
Rocky Colavito, 1959: 1
Friday night in Boston, Darren Oliver started for the Red Sox against John Halama. It was only the 33rd game in the major leagues this year in which both starting pitchers were left-handed, according to Elias' Kevin Hines. Of the first 599 games played in the big leagues this year, only 5.5 percent featured two left-handed starters, versus 57.8 percent featuring two right-handed starters.
Until Robin Ventura passed him in home runs Monday, Alfonso Soriano was leading the Yankees in homers and RBIs out of the leadoff spot. And let's just say you don't see that much.
ESPN research whiz Jeff Bennett and the Useless Information researchers checked all the players in history who had big RBI years As best we can determine, the only leadoff man since the deadball era to lead his team in both categories was Bobby Bonds, for the 1973 Giants.
The last leadoff man to lead his team just in RBIs was Nomar Garciaparra, who did it for the '97 Red Sox in a season in which he hit leadoff for all but one at-bat.
While we're on the subject of the Bonds family, Bobby's kid, Barry, pulled within one home run of Mark McGwire on the all-time homer list. As recently as opening day of the 2000 season, McGwire was still 77 homers ahead of him. Incredibly, Barry then made up most of that gap while Big Mac was still playing.
Last year, the Phillies won four of their first five games on the road. This year has gone just a little different: It took them an absurd 22 road games before they finally won their fourth Sunday.
They'll be happy to hear that's not a record. A bunch of teams have started 2-18 on the road. But the Phillies were the first to go 3-18 at the start of any season since the '94 Padres, according to Elias. And here's another way to look at this:
The Mariners lost 22 road games all last season -- meaning the Phillies would have to go 55-4 the rest of the way to match that.
Speaking of the Mariners, Pedro Martinez just went out to face them Saturday and -- nine pitches later -- became the second starting pitcher in modern history to strike out the side on nine pitches in the first inning. The other was somebody named Sandy Koufax, on June 30, 1962.
But Koufax did it against the '62 Mets, a team that finished 80 games under .500 and whiffed more than any team in the league except the Cubs. Pedro did it against the Mariners, who were leading the league in runs scored and had fanned less than all but seven teams in the whole sport. So these are two stats that obviously weren't created equal.
Martinez also became the sixth active pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches and the first in Red Sox history -- but not the first on his own staff. (Ugueth Urbina did it, as an Expo). Here are the other active pitchers who have done it:
Andy Ashby, Phillies, June 15, 1991 (4th)
* Pete Harnisch, Astros, Sept. 6, 1991 (7th)
Mike Magnante. Astros. August 22, 1997 (9th)
Ugueth Urbina, Expos, April 4, 2000 (9th)
Byung-Hyun Kim, Diamondbacks, May 11, 2002 (8th)
(* Harnisch on DL, out for season.)
And before we change the subject, punching out the side on nine pitches was about the only thing Pedro hadn't done to embarrass the Mariners before Saturday. He's now 10-0 lifetime, with a 0.94 ERA, against them. And as the Boston Globe's Gordon Edes reports, that record doesn't tell the half of it.
In 77 innings against Seattle, Pedro's totals are 37 hits, 110 strikeouts (yes, 73 more whiffs than hits). He owns seven games of 11 or more strikeouts, three starts allowing no runs, four more allowing one run and two more allowing two runs. Ridiculous.
And oh by the way, the Mariners are 100 games over .500 against everybody else since Martinez arrived in the American League.
The White Sox have now scored 10 runs or more in a game nine times. All the other teams in their division combined have done it seven times.
The drama is all but over in the Last Guy To Get A Hit competition. By last weekend, the Yankees' Alberto Castillo and Gerald Williams were the only two players left from anybody's opening-day roster without a hit.
But Castillo poked a hit-and-run single through the left side Saturday, prompting his teammates to ask for the ball and Eddie Layton to play the Hallelujah Chorus on the organ.
So that means Williams, currently 0-for-16, will win this derby -- as soon as he gets a hit. As recently as two years ago, Williams got 173 hits for the 2000 Blue Jays. So he'll rank among the most prestigious winners of the LGTGAH competition ever.
From our We Don't Play Little Ball department, we're excited to report that the Padres' Bubba Trammell laid down the first sacrifice bunt of his career last week -- in his 3,775th professional plate appearance.
So in his honor, here are all the active players with 2,000 or more big-league at-bats and no sacrifices on the back of their baseball cards:
Frank Thomas, 5,703
Eric Karros, 5,622
Mo Vaughn, 5,077
Mike Piazza, 4,762
Tim Salmon, 4,664
Carlos Delgado, 3,622
Tony Clark, 2,944
Vladimir Guerrero, 2,926
Scott Rolen, 2,914
Sean Casey, 2,063
Brad Fullmer, 2,025
It may be a nightmarish year for the Phillies so far. But it sure isn't Jimmy Rollins' fault.
Rollins leads all National League shortstops in hitting (.324), runs scored (tied with Juan Uribe, at 28), doubles (16), extra-base hits (25), total bases (98), multihit games (19) and triples (tied with Uribe, at four). Only Jose Hernandez has more homers and RBIs. Only Rafael Furcal has more stolen bases.
If anybody is paying attention, this guy is your All-Star shortstop.
So what's the only team in baseball without a blown save? It's the Pirates, of course (15 for 15, all by Mike Williams). The teams with the most blown saves? The Rangers and Devil Rays, with nine each.
Mike Piazza hit the 13th grand slam of his career last week -- the most of any catcher in history. Next (not surprisingly): Johnny Bench and Gary Carter, with 11 each.
Even more significant than the three straight games the Mets' starters tossed without an earned run last week is this fact about their rotation: They've used just five starters all season. The only other staffs that can make that claim: the Indians, Angels and Cubs (but only until Mark Prior debuts Wednesday).
Paul Byrd (seven of the Royals' 16 wins) continues on pace to challenge Steve Carlton's modern record for highest percentage of his team's wins (27 of 59, 45.8 percent, for the '72 Phillies).
But reader David Musicant points out that the real record holder is one of our heroes, Old Hoss Radbourn. He won 59 games for an 1884 Providence Grays team that only won 25 other games. (That's 70.2 percent.) Of course, it might not be a real fair comparison, since the great Old Hoss also started 73 games that year (or 64 percent of all the games those Grays played).
Reader Ryan Isley looked at our list of stuff that happened in between games in which somebody hit four homers -- and contributed this gem: In between Bob Horner's four-homer game and Mike Cameron's, Ellis Burks and Fred McGriff each hit a home run in 40 different ballparks.
Speaking of McGriff, loyal reader Doug Greenwald reports that when McGriff homered Sunday in his 40th stadium, Miller Park, it was his first home run in Milwaukee since 1988. He hit two that year -- both while pinch-hitting for the pre-Hanshin Tigers edition of Cecil Fielder.
Another reader, Justin Petrosek, contributes an All-Star team inspired by his crummy Rotisserie team -- the All-Mendoza Team. (Qualifications: You need a batting average below the Mendoza Line, of course.) We had to make a couple of substitutions when his picks lost their eligibility.
C - Toby Hall, T.B., .198
1B - Julio Franco, Atl., .194 (substituted for Tony Clark, who is up to .212)
2B - Delino Deshields, Cubs, .188 (substituted for Eric Young, who is now at .203)
SS - Jack Wilson, Pit., .191
3B - Chris Stynes, Cubs, .196 (substituted for Hank Blalock, who was at .200 when he was sent to the minors)
LF - Chuck Knoblauch, K.C., .183
CF - Carl Everett, Tex., .173
RF - Michael Tucker, K.C., .196
DH - Greg Vaughn, T.B., .128
Finally, the Fort Worth Star Telegram's T.R. Sullivan reports maybe the most amazing factoid of the whole season: Alex Rodriguez used the same bat all the way from opening day until May 19, without breaking it.
The Sultan's Corner
Jason Giambi's 14th-inning walkoff grand slam Friday turned a Yankees loss into a 13-12 win over the Twins. So the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, presents all the other game-ending extra-inning slams in history that turned a loss into a victory:
3 runs down
9/24/1925: Babe Ruth, Yankees, vs. White Sox, 10th inning, won 6-5
5/1/1979: Roger Freed, Cardinals, vs. Astros, 11th, won 7-6
2 runs down
8/23/1942: Dolph Camilli, Dodgers, vs. Giants, 10th, won 6-4
6/26/1963: Tim Harkness, Mets vs. Cubs, 14th, won 8-6
4/28/1964: Dick Stuart, Red Sox vs. Orioles, 11th, won 6-4
6/1/1987: Oddibe McDowell, Rangers vs. White Sox, 12th, won 11-9
4/4/1997: Tim Salmon, Angels vs. Indians, 11th, won 8-6
1 run down
9/6/1992: Carlos Martinez, Indians vs. Mariners, 12th, won 12-9
4/28/02: David Eckstein, Angels vs. Blue Jays, 14th, won 8-5
Meanwhile, Jimmy Rollins just became the first player in history to lead off consecutive games with a home run from each side of the plate (right-handed Thursday, left-handed Friday). Here, courtesy of the Sultan, are all the active players who have led off back-to-back games (or more) with a home run (all from one side):
Brady Anderson 1996 (4 in a row)
Brady Anderson 1999
Craig Biggio 2001
Craig Biggio 2001
Barry Bonds 1988
Ron Gant 1991
Rickey Henderson 1990
Rickey Henderson 1993
Rickey Henderson 2000
Ray Lankford 1994
Chuck Knoblauch 1996
Chuck Knoblauch 1999
Kenny Lofton 1997
Denny Hocking 1999
Brian Hunter 1996
Derek Jeter 2001
Jose Cruz Jr. 2000
Ron Belliard 2000
Julio Lugo 2001
Finally, in an event of great significance to us Starks, the Rockies' Dennis Stark and the Braves' Kevin Millwood became just the 11th set of pitchers since 1900 to allow home runs to each other in the same game, on Saturday at Coors Field. (Stark's homer was also the first by a Stark in big-league history, but that's another story.)
Here, courtesy of the Sultan, are the other modern pitchers to homer against each other:
May 23, 1995 -- Kevin Foster vs. Marvin Freeman
May 14, 1990 -- Fernando Valenzuela vs. Kevin Gross
July 3, 1966 -- Ray Sadecki vs. Tony Cloninger (the day Cloninger hit two grand slams)
April 14, 1965 -- Earl Wilson vs. Buster Narum
May 12, 1961 -- Pedro Ramos vs. Eli Grba
Aug. 16, 1955 -- Don Larsen vs. Dick Brodowski
June 8, 1950 -- Cliff Chambers vs. Ralph Branca
April 18, 1927 -- Milt Gaston vs. Ted Blankenship
Aug. 18, 1925 -- Dolf Luque vs. Johnny Couch
Aug. 20, 1901 -- Casey Patten vs. Clark Griffith
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
| |
|
