June 3, 2003

What a great weekend of games.

On Saturday, the Cubs-Astros game was astounding. Sure, it was 16 innings, but it was 16 innings of scoreless ball! I was watching it with some people, my parents, who don’t normally watch baseball, and it was high drama even for those half-interested. In the 11th inning, Alex Gonzalez doubled with two outs. What happened next was dumbfounding. Jimy Williams intentionally walked Corey Patterson to face Sammy Sosa. And Sosa struck out. For the fifth time in the game. Even my mom knew that was an unusual move.

<game log>

Bottom of the 11th inning
-D Miller struck out swinging.
-M Grudzielanek struck out looking.
-A Gonzalez doubled to deep center.
-C Patterson intentionally walked.
-S Sosa struck out swinging.

That is simply crazy talk. It’s certainly never going to happen with Barry Bonds. Sosa redeems himself later by knocking in the winning run.

In the ninth inning, Morgan Ensberg pinch-hit and singled to left with Lance Berkman on second. Berkman heads for home, and Cub left fielder Moises Alou comes up throwing. I’m thinking, "how fast is Berkman?" knowing the answer is "not very." I know Alou’s arm isn’t very good either. Alou uncorks a throw that isn’t a textbook effort – it couldn’t be cutoff by Shawn Bradley, and hits Cub catcher, Damian Miller (just in the game for Paul Bako), right in the mitt, and Berkman is out by a mile. Berkman doesn’t take a shot at Miller either – no crashing into the catcher to knock the ball loose. Back and forth it went. Every inning was filled with "Can this guy hit it out?"

The game ended when Jimy Williams remembered what happened in the 1996 World Series Game Four with Steve Avery and Wade Boggs:

CHICAGO CUBS 16TH
-Bottom of the 16th inning
-M Grudzielanek flied out to center.
-A Gonzalez walked.
-C Patterson singled to right, A Gonzalez to second, A Gonzalez to third on error by right fielder B Hunter.
-S Sosa reached on infield single to second, A Gonzalez scored, C Patterson to second.

With the game on the line, and one out, Williams did not intentionally walk Sosa to load the bases. I suppose Williams doesn’t believe in "he’s due". What I suppose Jimy didn’t think about was the on-deck hitter, Moises Alou, and that in four of Alou’s six at-bats, he had hit a nice double-play ground ball to the shortstop. They weren’t turned into DPs because DPs weren’t needed, but if you needed a routine grounder to the shortstop, Alou was just the man to do it. Jimy should have been scoring the game.

CHICAGO CUBS 13TH
-B Wagner relieved B Lidge.
-Bottom of the 13th inning
-M Grudzielanek struck out swinging.
-A Gonzalez struck out looking.
-C Patterson struck out swinging.

People with Astros on their fantasy teams took a beating as Jeff Kent had the anti-Rennie Stennett game – 0 for 7. Four of the Astros starters went hitless in at least 5 ABs.

So what happened on Sunday? Yankees and Tigers! Roger Clemens goes for number 300 against the "lowly" Detroit Tigers. He pitched well for 4 innings. In the fifth inning, he got roughed up pretty good, but Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano kicked the ball around pretty good, allowing two extra runs to score. Clemens had a funky outing – he got 18 outs (6 IP) – 10 by himself. Clemens struck out 6 and made 4 plays off the mound, including getting a runner going to third.

Little help out there, fellas!

Clemens leaves the game, leading 8-6, with three innings to go. Clemens flashes back to nightmare seasons in Boston (deedle-eedle-eedle, deedle-eedle-eedle).

A Hitchcock Presents…

<game log>

-S Hitchcock relieved R Clemens.
-Bottom of the 7th inning
-R Santiago singled to center.
-B Higginson fouled out to third.
-D Young singled to right, R Santiago to second.
-C Monroe hit for K Witt.
-A Osuna relieved S Hitchcock.
-C Pena hit for C Monroe.
-C Pena singled to deep right, R Santiago scored, D Young to third.
-O Infante ran for C Pena.
-E Munson walked, O Infante to second.
-S Halter hit sacrifice fly to deep right, D Young scored, O Infante to third.
-B Inge struck out swinging.

And win 300 goes up in smoke. But wait – the game is just getting started. It’s tied 8-8, so the teams play another whole game.

The Tigers closer Franklyn German started the 10^th – he threw 8 pitches. All balls. He walked two guys and got hooked. Steve Avery came in and Robin Ventura bunted the runners to second and third - which is the correct move. Then Avery IBBs Mondesi; yes, the Tiger manager Alan Trammell offended statheads around the globe by intentionally walking the bases loaded to set up the double play at any base. Trammell also remembers the 1996 World Series Game Four and doesn’t leave Avery in to face the next hitter. He brings in knuckleballer Steve Sparks to face the Yankees left fielder Juan Rivera and – gadink! – 4-6-3. Rivera would hit into three DPs on the day.

The Yankees use really expensive relievers Chris Hammond and Mariano Rivera in the 10th and 11th, and they are effective and do their jobs. In the 12th, David Wells comes in. Basically, we’re now looking at a game with Wells vs. Sparks. And it’s an ugly one. Wells hits the first guy he faces, Dmitri Young. After Young gets sacrificed to second, Wells strikes the next two guys out. After hitting Young, Wells sits down Tigers like you would think Wells could. The Yankees, facing Sparks would get a base runner pretty much every inning – and bounce into a double play. In 8 extra innings, the Yankees hit into three DPs. Finally, Soriano and Posada homer and the Tigers get one back in the bottom of the 17th, ending the game at 10-9.

Sparks threw more pitches (91) than the Tigers starter, Jeremy Bonderman (90). He also threw three more innings.

Outstanding ball games. I wouldn’t be surprised if David Gee and Larry Mahnken, two of Primer’s most passionate fans, pulled whatever hair they have out of their heads, and well, their bodies.

In the May 29 Mets-Phillies game, the side was struck out in order twice. Yes, TV announcers often say "he struck out the side", but that is supposed to be three up, three down, three Ks. It doesn’t happen very often. I have scored about 50 games this season, which is 450 innings, and it has happened four times (Juan Cruz of the Cubs did it to the Mets on Opening Day and Tomo Ohka did it to the Mets on April 11). It’s a pretty rare occurrence, in case anyone wants to check Retrosheet bevent, or Ray Kerby’s ASS – Ray’s ASS is really nice (yes, I love making that joke).

On my home scoresheet, I track things like retired the side in order in the line score by putting a dot in the 0. If all three outs are the same, and it is three up, three down, the out form also goes in there. So tracking a "circle K" is easy – it’s called the Ranch, as in "Welcome to the Ranch, Mets!"

Of course, when Eric Gagne struck out ten consecutive batters, he had two innings in a row with the circle-K.

On April 24, the Astros hit into three 6-3s. I think it’s snappy to see the same out three straight batters.

The Red Sox traded Shea Hillenbrand for BK Kim. The Diamondbacks promptly dropped Matt Williams. That’s one tough treatment of Williams, who while not good the last few seasons, had been hitting all right in the last two weeks. I think Kim will be dominant in Boston, and Lowe may get shifted to the bullpen.

The season series with the Braves is even, 3-3. The Maddux-Glavine match up wasn’t bad at all. The Braves got four hits at first – all home runs. The Mets bounced back to take the last two, with an 8-run bashing in the 6th, with Jeromy Burnitz leading the inning off with a double and ending the run-scoring with a 3-run bomb. Interestingly, in that inning pinch-hitters made all the outs. Actually, the second batter of the inning Jason Phillips had doubled and Marco Scutaro pinch-ran. The inning lasted so long Scutaro actually got to bat.

Mark DeRosa has about half his hits this season against the Mets. Fortunately, it was his throw from left field that ignited the Mets rally. Why was DeRosa in left? In the previous game (a Met win), Chipper Jones stretched a single into a double, and slid poorly, injuring his wrist – he’s day-to-day, but I’m guessing he misses another game. He may have been out too. It was close. Andruw Jones, in the same inning, almost got doubled off on a fly to left field. Well, he did get doubled off, but the 2B umpire thought it was "opposite day." Andruw fell awkwardly over second, and took the next game off.

I saw the Braves lineup and thought, "We have to beat this weak lineup." Then I saw the Mets leadoff with McEwing, Sanchez and Wigginton. Urf.

Jae Seo is the NL ROY.