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Box score lines of the year
Box score line of the millennium (one and done division): When historians look back on the Houston Astros' Jason Jennings Era, there's a good chance they're not going to rank it with, say, The Nolan Ryan Era. Or The Bagwell-Biggio Era. Or even The Jim Deshaies Era.
And once those historians are through picking apart the dubious three-for-one trade that made Jennings an Astro in the first place, they'll turn to this poor guy's July 29 start against the Padres as Exhibit A in their what-a-mess portfolio. Fasten your seat belts:
2/3 IP, 8 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 2 HR, 39 pitches to give up 11 runs.
So where does this one rate on the list of all-time box score train wrecks? Here goes:
Jennings was the first pitcher in modern history to give up 11 earned runs without getting three outs. ... He was the second pitcher since 1897 to give up 11 runs in the first inning. ... And he was the first pitcher in 113 years, as best we can tell, to give up 11 earned runs in the first inning.
Quote of the day (from the victim himself): "I was embarrassed for my teammates to be out on the field."
Mathematical impossibility division
• Oakland's Kiko Calero, July 12 in Minnesota: 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 pitch.
How'd that happen? How does a guy throw one pitch, give up a hit and still pitch 2/3 of an inning? Simple. Torii Hunter singled into a double play. That's how. Justin Morneau got thrown out trying to go from first to third. Then Hunter got nailed trying to make it to second on the throw.
• Philadelphia's Antonio Alfonseca, July 29 in Pittsburgh: 1 K, 1 pitch.
How'd that happen? Yeah, it's still three strikes, and you're out, even in Pittsburgh. But Alfonseca had to come in after an injury to reliever Ryan Madson, whereupon he inherited a 1-2 count and struck out Jason Bay with the next pitch.
• Atlanta's Chipper Jones, July 29 in Arizona: 1 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 5 RBIs, 0 HR, 0 BB.
How'd that happen? How does a guy accumulate five RBIs in a 1-for-1 day without a walk or a homer? He thumps a three-run double and two sacrifice flies. How else? It's the first 1-0-1-5 line of the past half-century, in case you were curious.
Mystery pitcher division
In a season in which six different position players were allowed to head for the old pitcher's mound, we have lots of tremendous mystery-pitcher heroes to choose from. But only one of those men got to pitch twice. So here's to Cardinals do-it-all utility wiz Aaron Miles. And here are his two dazzling pitching adventures:
• The good news: Aug. 4 vs. Washington -- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
• The bad news: Sept. 20 vs. Houston -- 1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR (to Astros rookie J.R. Towles).
What you need to know: Does it sum up the Cardinals' year that Aaron Miles made more pitching appearances (two) than Chris Carpenter (one), or what? ... Miles was the first position player to pitch more than once in a season since David McCarty got to twirl three times for the 2004 Red Sox, and the first NL position player to do it since Tim Bogar pitched twice for the 2000 Astros. ... And, since Tony La Russa also let Scott Spiezio pitch this year, that made the Cardinals the first team to let multiple position players pitch at least three times in one season since Vance Law and Tim Wallach combined to pitch four times for the '87 Expos.
Miles also became the first position player to give up a home run since Mark Grace served one up to David Ross on Sept. 2, 2001. But unlike Grace, at least Miles had a built-in alibi. He'd been overpitched, of course: "They had a scouting report on me," Miles told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Rick Hummel. "They talked about me in the hitters' meeting."
Since Miles let five of the first six hitters he faced reach base, his manager was nearly euphoric when Brad Ausmus ended the inning by bouncing into a double play: "If I had a chance," La Russa said, "I should send over a case of tofu for Ausmus hitting into that double play."
Wait. Did he just say tofu?
"I want to be true to my values," said La Russa, a longtime vegetarian.
Hummel then relayed that tofu offer to Ausmus, who replied: "I would like it better if he'd sent over a beer."
More spectacular box score highlights
• Milwaukee's Manny Parra, Aug. 30 vs. the Cubs: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, in what was (seriously) the first 3-3-3-3-3-3 line by any starting pitcher since Sonny Siebert unfurled one for the A's against Texas on Aug. 5, 1978. And did we mention the score when Parra left was (naturally) 3-3?
• Yankees rookie Edwar Ramirez, July 20 vs. Tampa Bay: 0 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 0 K, 19 pitches and just 2 strikes -- one of which was cranked for a grand slam by noted .179 hitter Dioner Navarro.
• Cincinnati's Phil Dumatrait, Sept. 9 vs. Milwaukee: 0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 3 HR (to the first three hitters he faced). How often do you see a starter unfurl a three-homer, zero-out line? How about one other time in the past 50 years -- by the Yankees' Wade Blasingame on June 27, 1972.
• Milwaukee's Yovani Gallardo, Aug. 8 in Colorado: 2 2/3 IP, 12 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 HR and a minus-12 game score (the only minus-12 of the year, according to baseball-reference.com).
• Philadelphia's Jamie Moyer, July 16 vs. the Dodgers: 5 1/3 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 2 BB, 4K, 2 HR, in a game that made Moyer (at 44 years, 240 days old) the oldest pitcher in the past half-century to give up 10 runs in a game.
• The White Sox's Mark Buehrle, July 23 vs. the Tigers: 6 1/3 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. Since Buehrle also had a slightly more attractive box score classic this year (9-0-0-0-1-8), he became the first man to pitch a no-hitter and a 14-hitter in the same season since Steve Busby in 1974.
• Oakland's Lenny DiNardo, June 5 vs. the Red Sox: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 6 BB, 0 K. Let's see now. Six walks, no strikeouts and no runs? How hard is it to do all that in an outing that long? Must be tough. Only one other pitcher in the past 30 years (Omar Olivares, in 1999) has done it.
• And don't forget Yankees rookie Chase Wright, April 22 in his second career start: 3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K and (in the lead story on Action News) 4 HR in a row. Counting his time in the minor leagues, Wright had given up four home runs to the previous 673 hitters he'd faced -- and then allowed four in 10 pitches. Hard to do!
More spectacular offensive box score lines • Garret Anderson, Aug. 21 vs. the Yankees: 6 AB, 3 R, 4 H, 10 RBI, 2 HR, 2 doubles. Anderson's coolest feat? He pulled off the RBI cycle, by driving in one, two, three and four runs with his four hits. The only other player in the past 50 years with one of those RBI cycles: A-Rod, on April 26, 2005.
• Diamondbacks pitcher Micah Owings, Aug. 18 in Atlanta: 5 AB, 3 R, 4 H, 6 RBI, 2 HR, 1 double. Just to pick one active player who has never had that many hits, homers, extra-base hits and RBIs in the same game, here's a name: Barry Bonds.
• That very same Micah Owings, Sept. 27 in Pittsburgh: 4 AB, 1 R, 4 H, 3 RBI, 3 doubles. So that makes Owings the first pitcher with two four-hit games in one season since Whitey Ford in 1953. And it gives him more four-hit games that included three extra-base hits, just in the last two months, than David Ortiz, Ryan Howard or Gary Sheffield has had in his entire career.
• Prince Fielder, April 10 vs. the Marlins: 4 AB, 0 R, 4 H, 1 RBI, 3 BB. So what's so tough about that? How about reaching base seven times in one game -- and not scoring a run. Fielder was just the fifth player to do that in the past 50 years. • Milwaukee's Bill Hall, during Justin Verlander's June 12 no-hitter: 0 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI, 3 BB. After way too much research, we determined that Hall was only the second man since 1900 to play a whole game during an opponent's no-hitter, come to bat at least three times and not make an out. The other: Dale Long, for the Pirates, against the Cubs' Sad Sam Jones, on May 12, 1955.
• The Angels' Chone Figgins, June 18 against the Astros: 6 AB, 1 R, 6 H, 3 RBI, 1 walk-off triple. Figgins was the first player to end a 6-for-6 game with a walk-off hit of any kind since Jim Northrop in 1969. "I don't think I've gone 6-for-6 in a video game, let alone a big league game," he said.
-------------------- 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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