Just read this in ESPN's morning column...Very strange pitching line, but stuff like this isnt that uncommon in baseball. Thats the thing about baseball, is there are so many levels. You can just watch the game and ejoy it and have fun. But you can also get deep into stats and scoring and things like that, and it adds a whole other layer of complexity to the game.
But anyway, this is just a compilation of some wierd line scores from this month. If you dont know, line scores are the simplified recounts of what a player did that they put in the paper. They're made to give you the most information in the smallest space, usually one line. But sometimes they can just lead to more confusion.
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Box score lines of the month
First prize: Mathematical Impossibility Dept.
The bad news for Phillies pitcher Scott Mathieson last Saturday is that he only got to throw six pitches against the Braves before exiting with an elbow issue. The good news is, that quick departure allowed him to compile a box-score line that wouldn't even seem to be possible -- but still happened in real life:
0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
In other words, this guy faced one hitter and struck him out -- but still gave up an earned run and, according to the box-score gods, recorded more strikeouts (one) than outs (zero). So feel free to say this all together now: Huh?
OK, this was obviously all made possible by a wild pitch on strike three (to Pete Orr). Which was followed by a two-run homer served up by the reliever who replaced him, Eude Brito.
But it's still really hard to do. Loyal reader Michael Mavrogiannis combed through Retrosheet's box-score files and determined that, over the last 50 seasons, only one other starting pitcher had a pitching line with more whiffs than outs. That was Wilbur Wood, who spun off an 0-4-6-5-0-1 line against the Yankees on July 20, 1973. (The K came on a strikeout-passed ball to the legendary Horace Clarke.)
Second prize: Trifect Dept.
Mark Mulder
Loyal reader Mark Susman brought this one to our attention. If this is the end of Mark Mulder's season, he ended it by doing something you sure don't see much: He made three starts in a row featuring at least as many runs as outs:
Aug. 29: 1 2/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K (5 runs, 5 outs) Aug. 23: 3 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 4 BB, 1 K (9 runs, 9 outs) June 20: 2 1/3 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 0 BB, 0 K (9 runs, 7 outs)
Retrosheet founder Dave Smith reports that Mulder only made it halfway to the record for most times doing this in one year, at least in the last 50 seasons. Believe it or not, Larry McWilliams (1980 Braves) and Sammy Ellis (1965 Reds) each made six outings in one year featuring as many runs as outs. But they only beat Mulder in volume, because neither of them ever knocked off three of those in a row.
Third prize: Maximizing Your Baserunners Dept.
Nate Robertson
Lots of pitchers give up 10 runs in a game. (It's happened 14 times just this year, in fact.) But as loyal reader Jonathan Peck observed, not many do it the way Detroit's Nate Robertson did, Aug. 24, against the White Sox:
6 2/3 IP, 9 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 3 HR
So what made this so tricky? He allowed 11 baserunners -- and 10 of them turned into earned runs. You might see that happen in a start that lasts two innings. But you almost never see it when a pitcher works into the seventh inning.
In fact, Robertson was just the third pitcher in the last 37 seasons to make it through even six innings and turn 11 baserunners into 10 earned runs. The others, according to Retrosheet's Dave Smith, were Pedro Astacio, on July 13, 2000 (6 IP, 8 hits, 3 BB, 10 ER), and Russ Ortiz, on May 21, 2000 (6 2/3 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 10 ER).
Special Tag-Team Award
When Houston rookie Jason Hirsh gave up 10 runs to the Reds on Aug. 22, he became the third different Astros pitcher to allow at least 10 runs in a game this year. And that's not good. Their three lines:
Hirsh on Aug. 22: 2 2/3 IP, 9 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 2 HR Wandy Rodriguez on May 16: 3 2/3 IP, 10 H, 11 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 3 K Andy Pettitte on April 4: 4 2/3 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3 HR
Last team to have three different pitchers do this: The 2004 Rockies (Dennis Stark, Jason Jennings, Jeff Fassero). But no team in the last 50 years, according to Dave Smith, has had more than three. The only rotation in that span with four double-figure starts in one year was the 2000 Astros, but they had Jose Lima (who else?) do it twice.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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