Extra Effort

On August 16, Boston and Detroit combined for the highest scoring tenth inning in at least 35 years, and the highest scoring extra inning outburst in a losing cause in more than 25!

Tied 3-3 after nine, the Red Sox scored seven in the top of the tenth, and the Tigers answered back with four in the bottom (a grand slam, no less), making the final score an incredible 10-7. No home team has scored more than four runs in an extra inning and lose since June 30, 1979, when the Cubs scored five in the bottom of the eleventh, but still lost to the Mets because they allowed them to score six in the top of the frame.

And the 11 tenth-inning runs are the most since at least 1969 in a tenth inning. The last game with more total extra-inning runs was a Colorado-San Diego game on June 28, 1994, when they compiled this amazing boxscore:

SD   1  0  0    0  0  0    0  0  0    1  9  -  11 14  0
COL  0  0  0    0  1  0    0  0  0    1  1  -   3  8  4

That was actually a 1-1 game at Coors field after nine, the first of only three times that has happened. And in typical Coors fashion, a team still managed to score more than ten!

But Wait, There's More!
On the same day, Minnesota also had a big extra inning, scoring five in the top of the 16th in their 9-4 win. The only other time that three teams had four-run-plus extra-innings (since at least 1969) was May 23, 1991, when San Diego (4), Atlanta (4), and Texas (5) did it.

And to top it all off, including Tampa Bay's 11th inning run, the 17 extra inning runs scored that day were the most since an insane August 15, 1998 saw 19 runs in extras. On that day, seven games went to extras, and 10 of the 14 teams involved pushed across an extra-inning run.

And Yet More!
On Saturday, Minnesota did it again, putting together a five-run eleventh. It's not as unusual as you'd think, though. Seattle did it twice last year (April11 and May15). But it's the shortest time period (11 days) between occurrences since 1994, when the White Sox actually did it on consecutive days against the Angels! (August 6 and 7).

Extra Esoterica: What's the most runs scored in extras?

• Both teams: 13, in that crazy 19-inning Mets-Braves game on July 4, 1985. They went into extras at 8-8. Ten innings and countless hours later, the final was 16-13.

• One team: would you believe...12?! On July 3, 1983, Texas had a mind-boggling 12-run 15th inning. What is it about Independence Day that makes teams put in that "extra" effort?
  

Next Week -- Most Efficient Thieves

Tune in next week for the answer to the question: Which team had the highest stolen base percentage over a season? You will be very surprised by the answer. Any guesses? Leave a comment.

Mets, Mets, Mets!

It's been a heady two days for the young Mets. Here's some of what they've done:

• Before August, the Mets hadn't scored more than seven runs in any consecutive games, but have since scored at least nine on back-to-back days three times.
  
  
• Before scoring 32 runs over the last two nights, the most they'd scored over two games was an unimpressive 20.
  
  
• And they did it on the road (where they had been 24-35). The last team to score more than 32 runs in consecutive road games was Seattle on April 15-16, 2000, when they destroyed Toronto pitching in 17-6 and 19-7 victories. Unbelievably, they lost 18-11 the next day! Seven other teams have also done it since 1969:

  Runs	Dates	Team	Game 1	Game 2	Road Record
  36	5/16-17/1979	Philadelphia	13-0	23-22	41-40
  35	5/4-5/1991	Cleveland	20-6	15-6	27-53
  35	4/24-25/1996	Minnesota	24-11	11-1	39-41
  34	6/12-13/1990	NY Mets	19-8	15-10	39-42
  34	6/14-15-1969	Oakland	21-7	13-5	39-42
  33	8/20-21/1986	Boston	9-1	24-5	44-36
  33	4/24-25/1993	Detroit	17-1	16-5	41-40

  
  
• We've all heard that Mike Jacobs has hit four homers in his first four games. He has also driven in nine runs in 13 AB. The Dodgers' Mike Edwards has nine RBI's in 166 AB!


• Jacobs has also reached base in 10 of his first 16 plate appearances (that's gotta be a record), including three walks. Last night, Jeff Francoeur worked his first non-intentional walk in his 139th appearance!


• They hit five homers last night: two by 24-year-old Jacobs, two by 22-year-old David Wright, and one by 22-year-old Jose Reyes. That makes the average age per home run: 22.8!


• Besides those home runs, those three young'uns went for variety--each was a hit away from the cycle: Wright and Jacobs needed a triple and Reyes needed a double.


• Ramon Castro had five RBI's from the eight-hole Tuesday and two more yesterday. When's the last time someone drove in seven runs in two games from down there?


• The Mets' 3-4 hitters last night: 1-for-11. Everyone else: 17-for-32.

Extra Esoterica: Check out the Braves 3-6 lineup spots last night:
C. Jones
A. Jones
J. Franco
J. Francoeur

Triple and SB Fun I - What's up with Roger Metzger?

Jayson Stark's interesting recent column on triples and stolen bases has inspired me to expand upon his research with some additional interesting findings.

More Triples than Doubles
Considering the rarity of our beloved triple, it seems impossible to hit more of them than the common double. Consider the following chart, which plots the ratio of doubles to triples since 1950...that is, the number of doubles hit for each triple.

2B/3B since 1950

Even in the fifties, there were five doubles hit for every triple. These days, that's doubled to 10 to one. That said, unsurprisingly, there have been only 22 player-seasons since 1950 (min 250 AB) in which a player achieved this feat. Here they are, and, for some context, I've included the doubles to triples ratio for the year it was done. You'll NEVER guess who done it the most.

Player Deion Sanders	Year 1992	2B 6	3B 14	Year's 2B/3B 7.76
Wes Covington	1957	4	8	5.05
Rafael Belliard	1988	0	4	7.62
Roger Metzger	1973	11	14	6.62
Roger Cedeno	2000	2	5	9.32
Lance Johnson	1994	11	14	8.16
Sonny Jackson	1969	3	5	5.71
Luis Alicea	1992	9	11	7.76
Larry Bowa	1972	11	13	6.24
Mike Felder	1987	5	7	7.59
Roger Metzger	1975	7	9	6.12
Andy Pafko	1955	3	5	4.66
Mike Phillips	1976	4	6	5.43
Craig Reynolds	1981	10	12	6.09
Craig Robinson	1974	4	6	6.15
Carlos Bernier	1953	7	8	4.82
David Hulse	1993	9	10	7.94
Jerry Lynch	1954	4	5	4.38
Tom Upton	1950	5	6	4.69
Roger Metzger	1979	7	8	6.02
Jorge Orta	1973	9	10	6.62
Fred Kendall	1972	3	4	6.24

It's not surprising that the inimitable Deion Sanders would head this list. His eight more triples than doubles is twice the second largest difference. And you've gotta love Mendoza-clone Rafael Belliard's zero double, four triple season...huh? (This is actually the only modern 250 AB season with no doubles!) But the king? Why, it's...Roger Metzger?? I can't quite explain his three appearances on the list...no one else has done this even twice! I mean, he was a stolen base threat early in his career, but...um...any ideas?

Deion and Roger appear on the career list as well. While no one has sustained such a pace over a career, these eight guys have hit more than half as many triples as doubles (min 2000 AB).

Name	2B	3B	2B/3B	3B/H	SB
Roger Metzger	101	71	1.42	7.3%	83
Lance Johnson	175	117	1.50	7.5%	327
Rodney Scott	43	26	1.65	5.2%	205
Deion Sanders	72	43	1.67	7.7%	186
Mike Felder	59	32	1.84	5.7%	161
Willie Wilson	281	147	1.91	6.7%	668
Omar Moreno	171	87	1.97	6.9%	487
Vince Coleman	176	89	1.98	6.2%	752

And just for good measure, here's the bottom of the list.

Name	2B	3B	2B/3B	3B/H	SB
Ramon Hernandez	118	1	118.00	0.2%	4
Mike Lowell	205	2	102.50	0.2%	17
Scott Servais	130	2	65.00	0.3%	3
Willie Aikens	129	2	64.50	0.3%	4
Rich Dauer	193	3	64.33	0.3%	6
Chris Hoiles	126	2	63.00	0.3%	5
Joe Oliver	174	3	58.00	0.4%	13
John Flaherty	171	3	57.00	0.4%	10
Mike Sweeney	228	4	57.00	0.4%	45
Jim Leyritz	107	2	53.50	0.3%	7
Charles Johnson	207	4	51.75	0.4%	6

What's Mike Sweeney doing on that list with a bunch of cathers? He's got a lot of doubles, and he's gotta run better than Charles Johnson! He's must be on the list of most doubles in a season without a triple.

Name	Year	2B	3B	SB
Craig Biggio	1999	56	0	28
Edgar Martinez	1995	52	0	4
Craig Biggio	2004	47	0	7
Mike Sweeney	2001	46	0	10
Shawn Green	1999	45	0	20
Jody Reed	1990	45	0	4
John Olerud	2000	45	0	0

Ah yes, there he is...but, now, what's up with Craig Biggio?? How do you hit 56 doubles, have the speed to steal 28 bases, and never manage get to third on a batted ball...even once? (a la Carlos Delgado's 2000 campaign: 57 doubles, 1 triple) Heck, teammate Mike Hampton had three triples that year! I guess that's why we love this game. (By the way, John Olerud and Frank Thomas have the most 20-plus double/zero triple seasons with seven. Which I'm sure you were wondering.)

That's it with triples for now...check back soon for some stolen base feats.

When It's Not Good to Hit Like Your Father

Poor Pedro Feliz. Last Tuesday, the Giants' cleanup hitter had his first five-hit game, including two doubles and a triple, but managed to knock in exactly zero runs! Huh? How does that happen in a game in which your team scores 10 runs on 19 hits and you're the cleanup hitter?? Most of the credit for this can be given to his predecessor in the lineup, number three hitter Lance Niekro. Not only was Niekro hitless in five at-bats, but he also made a third out in four of them! (the first, fourth, sixth, and eighth innings) The only time Feliz got to hit in the middle of an inning, he doubled with Niekro on first from a fielder's choice, but of course Niekro couldn't score without help from a Willy Mo Pena error, so no RBI.

I'd love to find the last time this happened, but I don't have the individual game data to do more research. Does anyone know if there's player-game data available anywhere?

Interesting Streaks III - Willis, Ichiro, & Carpenter

Gotta Be Perfect
Dontrelle Willis has gone since June 13 (12 starts) without a win in a game in which he allowed a run...any run! In part this is because he has been bizarrely Jeckyll and Hyde during this stretch. Check it out:

Date   R
6/18   0
6/23   0
6/28   5
7/3    0
7/8    8
7/17   8
7/22   7
7/28   0
8/2    1
8/7    0
8/12   1
8/17   0

How about that 8-start stretch in which he allowed no runs four times and five or more runs four times?!

Slump!
Unlike last year, Ichiro is not having an eye-popping season. So Ichiro's 5-game, 22 at-bat hitless streak was unexpected, but not shocking. But it's more unusual than you'd think. He's actually been just as consistent as last season, if less prolific. Before the streak, only twice had he gone even two games without a hit, hitting safely in 83 of Seattle's 103 games--similar to last season. Also, he hit in 12 of 13 games before, and now has an 11-game hit streak after. Love those anomolies!

Carpenter's Finishes
Chris Carpenter has completed 6 of his last 11 starts! He has gone at least 8 innings in 10 of those 11. Unsurprisingly, he is 9-0 in that stretch. Compare that to Kirk Reuter, famous for his 195-start incomplete streak, or to the Devil Rays, who have, um, zero all year.

Interesting Streaks II - Texas Feast and Famine

We all saw Texas manage to lose six games in a row while scoring 5 runs in each...wow...but wait, there's more! Including those six, the Rangers actually scored at least 5 runs in 12 consecutive games (Aug 2-13), and went an astonishing 3-9 in that stretch. For the season, they have lost more than 35% of these high-scoring games, with an incredible 25 such losses.

One Is Enough

Something amazing happened recently that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. Over three days last week there were a total of SIX 1-0 games: two on August 12, two more in the 13th, and two more on the 14th. To put that in perspective, consider:

• There is only one other three-day span in the last 40 years with more than five 1-0 games: August 8-10, 1968, when there were seven. That's easy to imagine for The Year of the Pitcher, but unbelievable in this hitters' era!
  


• Just having two or more 1-0 games on the same day has never been a common occurrence. From 1993-2001, no season had more than three!

Days with Multiple 1-0 games


1965  4   1975  2   1985  5   1995  2
1966  6   1976 13   1986  1   1996  1
1967  6   1977  2   1987  3   1997  1
1968 15   1978  5   1988  9   1998  2
1969  6   1979  4   1989  6   1999  2
1970  2   1980  6   1990  4   2000  3
1971 14   1981  1   1991  6   2001  3
1972 14   1982  1   1992  5   2002  4
1973 10   1983  3   1993  3   2003  1
1974 11   1984  5   1994  1   2004  4

• Only once since 1991 has there been as many as four 1-0 games in a three-day period, with at least one on each day.
  

Now that's improbable!

Extra Esoterica:

• There were four 1-0 games on September 2, 2001, the most on any one day in the past 30 years. Those four accounted for 11% of the season's 36 1-0 games!
  
• There were 1-0 games on nine consecutive days (and 11 of 12) in May of 1968.
  
• There was exactly one 1-0 game on eight consecutive days from April 24 to May 1, 1989 (and on 10 of 11 days from April 21 to May 1).

1-0 Games: 1965-2004

Interesting Streaks I - Kirk's K's

Oakland starter Kirk Saarlos, earlier in the season, went nearly four weeks between strikeouts! On May 28, he struck out Casey Blake leading off the fifth inning. He then pitched to 82 batters over 19.1 innings without striking out any of them, until he threw that elusive third strike by Richie Sexson on June 23. (If I had more time, I'd love to find out how many hitters he got two strikes on and didn't finish off.)

He actually went three consecutive starts without a single K! Impressively, two of those starts were against Atlanta and Philadelphia, teams that are near the top 10 in whiffs. Of course, in his next start he fanned 7.

He's struck out one or none in an incredible 55% of starts (11 of 20), and has exceeded three only twice! In addition, before this K-less streak, he had another 36-batter steak, making Blake the only strikeout in a 119-batter stretch!

He's the only pitcher in history to have more K's in his name than in his game!

Extra Esoterica: The scores of the last five games Saarloos has started: 5-2, 5-4, 5-2, 5-4, 5-2. In fact, Saarloos hasn't started a game in which either team scored more than five runs since May 28! Only twice in his 20 starts have teams combined to score more than ten runs, including his last 17. Weird.

Quantrill's Quota

Check out Paul Quantrill's ERA over the years. I've read articles about how relievers are notoriously inconsistent from year to year, but Quantrill has been the absolute poster child! Here they are:

Year    ERA    Diff   %Diff
1992    2.19
1993*   3.91   +1.72   +79%
1994    4.92   +1.01   +26%
1995**  4.67   -0.25    -5%
1996*   5.43   +0.76   +16%
1997    1.94   -3.49   -64%
1998    2.59   +0.65   +34%
1999    3.33   +0.74   +29%
2000    4.52   +1.19   +36%
2001    3.04   -1.48   -33%
2002    2.70   -0.34   -11%
2003    1.75   -0.95   -35%
2004    4.72   +2.97  +170%
*Also started more than 1 game
**Used primarily as a starter

Wow. Only in 1994-95 did he ever have an ERA even beginning with the same number! He seems to have career arcs, such as the amazing 1997-2003 stretch: 1-2-3-4-3-2-1. And this after starting his career 2-3-4-4-5, which included stints as a starter.

Another way to look at it:

ERA range Count
1.xx      2
2.xx      3
3.xx      3
4.xx      4
5.xx      1

If his ERA stays above 6, he'll add yet another dimension to his game!

But while Quantrill's performance is numerologically interesting, I wonder if is it statistically unusual among relievers. Has a comprehensive study has been done on this? It would be interesting to see the comparison between relievers and starters, as well.

Check out this interesting article on the proposed stat Quality Reliefs. You need to be an ESPN "Insider" to view it.

Extra Esoterica: In yesterday's Mets-Cubs game, Mets starter Jae Seo was relieved by Dae-Sung Koo. Seo-Koo has got to be the shortest name combo ever. I think that's Seo-Koo(l)!