sluggo
1741
Good point, and Terry might have gotten them riled up for the final 2 weeks.
Basically, with 9 games to go, any lead is hard to overcome. If you’re 3 back you need to go 7-2 and hope the team in front of you goes 4-5. And teams have collapsed before, but that’s far more the exception than the rule.
It’s generally the exception but weirder things have happened; in 2009 the Tigers had a 3-game lead with 4 games left to go and were the first team ever in baseball to not make the playoffs in that kind of situation.
— Alan
Yes, it’s a difficult task, and none more difficult than the Giants taking the pennant, but it puts a little bit of juice in the home stretch (though one day can blow it all).
Lorini
1744
Dodgers would love nothing better than to ruin the Giant’s chances!!
nKoan
1745
That’s what good rivalries are all about. Even if one team is out of it, the other still has a chance to play the spoiler! The Giants and Dodgers have done it plenty of times to each other over the years.
I didn’t really think the Padres were this offensively bad until I saw this today:
Despite not playing his first game until June 17, Jesus Guzman leads all current Padres with 44 RBIs. Only Ryan Ludwick, now with Pittsburgh, has more.
- 44!!!
Looking at offense another way, if Cruz (84), Hamilton (91) and Beltre (94) hadn’t had extensive stays on the DL this year, the Rangers could have had 4 players with 100+ RBIs (Young has 102).
— Alan
Lorini
1747
Doesn’t seem to be Lincecum’s night so far.
sluggo
1748
Yanks win, Rays lose, and Papelbon blows a lead in the 8th inning to lose to the O’s, so Boston remains 2 up in the wild card race. And the Angels, who won today, creep a little closer in the wild card race themselves, as they’re 3.5 out.
The Yankees could actually clinch the division Wednesday if they were to sweep the doubleheader and a Boston loss.
Texas is beating Oakland 6-0 at the moment; am not thinking LA will be gaining on them tonight.
— Alan
Cardinals trailed at one point tonight 4-0. Then they made it 4-3 and looked to be getting closer…
…and surrendered a ground rule double to Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey that scored a run and put the Mets up 5-3 in the 5th.
Bottom of the fifth, Albert Pujols steals second to put guys on 2nd and 3rd, and both score on a Berkman single. Tie game!
Cardinals then walk in a run (3 walks in the inning!) to trail 6-5 in the 7th. In the bottom of the 7th, first two Cardinals go down easily…and then Albert singles. Berkman singles. A walk to Freese to load 'em. And then the Cards break through for 6 runs.
11-5 final. Atlanta wins as well. Pressure’s still on 'em.
prolix
1751
Mine is John Lackey. He leads the AL in runs allowed and has the highest ERA and ERA+ of any Red Sox pitcher in the last 110 years (150+ IP). His record? 12-12.
sluggo
1752
I’ll admit, I have no idea what to make of Nova yet. He might be decent, he might just be having a lucky year. But he made a LOT of fans tonight in his 5-0 win against the Rays, after getting out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the 7th. Girardi left him in to fend for himself, and he paid that faith back by getting a shallow pop and then a double play to end the inning, after which both he and the crowd went nuts. I think right there he cemented himself in the #2 slot as they head into the playoffs.
Or there’s this: Since July 1, Nova is 9-0 in 11 starts, 7 times going 7+ innings. During that same time span, AJ Burnett has won 2 games in 14 starts, only twice going 7+ for a team playing .600 ball during that span. It can’t all be luck – as unimpressed as people seem to be with Nova’s stuff, he’s got to be doing something right.
Nova reminds me of Pavano last year, or Silva in his one good year, or Blackburn two years ago. He may be one of those very rare pitchers who make a mockery of all our vaunted predictive stats, but I won’t be surprised if he turns back into a pumpkin next year.
That said, there is of course quite a bit of value in innings pitched, which I feel like otherwise useful stats like FIP and whatnot miss.
Thongsy
1754
I should stop watching Giants games again, I’m a curse to them. Great pitching duel last night. Lincecum struggled a bit early but only allowed two runs, while Kershaw only allowed one run. An interesting stat Jon Miller mention yesterday was how little run support Timmy gets, in 10 starts this year the Giants gave him a run support of 0 runs and in another 5, well 6 starts now, they gave him a run support of 1 run. Now while he wouldn’t have won all those games, if they actually got him some real run support he would be a 20 game winner or close to it. Thus another reason to hate the pitcher wins stat.
The Giants drop to 4 1/2 back of the Braves making the wild card a bit more difficult, but luckily the Diamondbacks also lost so they’re still only 5 games back in the divisional race. It’s going to be a tough road but they can do it, and facing the DBacks themselves, they control their own destiny.
sluggo
1755
I’m not really sure how they did it, as they had to start a guy I’ve never heard of and used 8 pitchers while Shields basically had them on lockdown the entire game, but the Yankees rally for 3 in the 8th and beat the Rays to lock up a playoff spot.
The magic number for the AL East is now 2, which the Yankees could get tonight with CC going for #20.
Tampa Bay is pathetic. The playoffs is in their grasp, they just need to beat a bunch of nobody Yankee pitchers and they can’t. Jeez. They’re as bad as the Red Sox right now.
— Alan
Thongsy
1759
No, no I don’t. Though I did have him on my fantasy team. Boy what a player he was. Giants are still winning so it’s all good.
LockerK
1760
Not related to any meaningful result, I lucked into a set of club seats for tonight’s Indians game. What a great atmosphere. Of course, Chad Durbin did what Chad Durbin does and gave up three(!) home runs in the eighth, and Cleveland ended up losing 8-4.
