Daily United States League update: The only two extant teams, Pittsburgh and Richmond, were rained out on June 14, 1912. They have a doubleheader planned for June 15.

Meanwhile, the president of the USL is meeting with the guy behind the abortive Columbian League and they plan to launch the Columbia [sic] League on July 1. Teams will be placed in Pittsburgh, Richmond, Reading, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and will have "oodles of money" behind them. It's almost as if the USL is just making stuff up and have totally forgotten that two days ago they claimed to have five teams in their league and that Reading was out.

If someone had the time and energy to do the research well, they could write a terrific book about the U.S. League. I'm fascinated by the USL but have almost exactly zero spare time.

This is a fantastic Birthday Team.

Seven of the eight position players were All-Stars, two of the eight are in the Hall of Fame. The ace starter has 243 career wins, four Top 5 finishes in Cy voting, and was a key part of five World Series championship teams. Lincecum may well be done as an effective pitcher, but two Cy Young Awards, three strikeout titles, and a World Series ring at Age 26 ain't half bad.

And I know most of us can't stand Dusty Baker as a manager, but three Manager of the Year awards, two second place MoY finishes, a pennant, and more career wins than Earl Weaver, Clark Griffith, and Miller Huggins means he's got a better resume than about 95% of Birthday Team managers.

C: Lance Parrish
1B: Tony Clark
2B: Gene Baker
3B: Wade Boggs
SS: Cliff Pennington
LF: Billy Williams
CF: Brett Butler
RF/Manager: Dusty Baker

SP: Andy Pettitte
SP: Tim Lincecum
SP: Monte Weaver
SP: Bruce Dal Canton
SP: Lou North
RP: Ramiro Mendoza

Fun Names: Peek-A-Boo Veach, Champ Summers, Washington Fulmer
Governor/Minor League Outfielder: Mario Cuomo

The 10-12 year old little league I coach in had it's championship game last night (alas I was a spectator, we were knocked out in the first round). The Astros (best team in the league during the regular season) emerged with a 5-3 victory when the only girl in the league hit a two out grand slam to overturn a 3-1 deficit. They then survived a late rally to hang on to the victory. That the girl hit the grand slam was no real surprise, she is unquestionably the league's best hitter and she launched it a good 30-40 feet beyond the center field fence.

I have to say having coached for two years now it is 1000% more fun than I ever dreamed it would be. The kids at that age are a lot of fun and it is great to share a love of baseball with kids who are willing to listen. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes baseball and kids and frankly, having no kids of my own actually takes away some of the hassle. No "you're playing your kid too much" B.S.

Historical article at THT notes that today is the 10th anniversary of Shawn Estes stealing the show at the Clemens-Piazza rematch.

Also, in the above link, there's a TRIVIA QUESTION:
Who first passed Rollie Fingers on the all-time save leaderboard? Fingers was #1 until this guy came along. For the answer, check the bolded 1992 item in the link above. (Hint: it might not be the first guy you'd think of).

Jeff Reardon?

Who first passed Rollie Fingers on the all-time save leaderboard? Fingers was #1 until this guy came along. For the answer, check the bolded 1992 item in the link above. (Hint: it might not be the first guy you'd think of).

I guessed right. I answered that guy on a Sporcle quiz yesterday. It wasn't this one, but the every 20+ home run season quiz is a great way to waste your entire work day.

Yup, it's Reardon. Guess it wasn't as hard as I thought.

Are the Cubs and Red Sox some sort of interleague rivals now? They played last year and this year.

Jose, I agree that coaching kids' baseball is a blast. Have been doing it for 20+ years, and never had a son of my own either. Though I usually coach 12-18 year olds, since I don't have the patience for the younger ones.

jose

that's a great story

thanks

Is there some way to use PI to find the longest at-bat stretch of someone hitting over .500? Over his last 19 games, Joey Votto is 34-67, last 18 games 33-64. Just trying to find the longest such streaks in history.

It wasn't this one, but the every 20+ home run season quiz is a great way to waste your entire work day.

I got up to 2700... I can't take it any more.

Is there some way to use PI to find the longest at-bat stretch of someone hitting over .500? Over his last 19 games, Joey Votto is 34-67, last 18 games 33-64. Just trying to find the longest such streaks in history.

I don't know if there's a way to search, but I remember Rod Carew started 48 for 96 in 1983.

A couple of weeks late, I guess, but since there's a Clemens thread going and I just found out about this, I wanted to throw it in somewhere:

June 1, 1901: "At the Polo Grounds‚ the first-place Giants top Boston Somersets' Kid Nichols‚ 2-1‚ behind Christy Mathewson's 5-hitter. Matty fans 10 Boston batters‚ much to the delight of the overflow crowd. He strikes out Gene DeMontreville in the 6th and when the bat sails out of the DeMontreville's hands on the 3rd strike‚ Matty tosses it to 1B to complete the play."
(from baseballlibrary.com)

I don't know if there's a way to search, but I remember Rod Carew started 48 for 96 in 1983.

That's quite impressive. Looking at the game log though, I see that Rod got some mad hits in the last 6 games or so of that stretch to get back to .500. If we could go back and say that May 25 was game one of this year, Joey's BA would not only be over .500, but, it would never have dipped under .500. He's been a .500+ hitter for the last 18 games. 13 of those games he had an in-game batting average of .500 or better. That seems pretty amazing to me.

GotD has been delayed by that Sporcle link, which I've now spent well over an hour on. I'm calling it off at about 3100, and am now going to induce self-head-banging against the wall because the 2 players I missed from 2010 were on the Giants (who won the World Series) and the Cubs (who I root for).

Off to start cheating. Actual post to come soon.

Record watch: Jason Giambi has grounded into three double plays through six innings in Detroit.

Game of the day (yesterday): Royals 4, Brewers 3. That looks awfully familiar... Milwaukee's Shaun Marcum and KC's Luke Hochevar traded scoreless innings until the top of the fourth, when Ryan Braun's 2-out solo homer gave the Brewers the game's first run. Kansas City had a pair of runners reach in the fifth, one on a K/WP, but didn't score until Eric Hosmer went yard with a runner on in the sixth to put them ahead 2-1. Milwaukee promptly retied the score on a 2-out homer by Aramis Ramirez in the seventh, and picked up a pair of singles after that, but stranded both runners. In the top of the eighth, Carlos Gomez reached on an infield hit and moved to second on a sac bunt; Hochevar was then lifted for Jose Mijares, and one out later, Mijares gave up a tiebreaking hit to pinch hitter Cody Ransom. Marcum and Francisco Rodriguez combined on a scoreless eighth, and John Axford came in to work the ninth for the Brewers.

It went even worse than it did yesterday. Mitch Maier led off the inning by reaching on a strikeout/wild pitch, the second time the Royals had done that in the game. He moved to second on a groundout, then with two out, saw Jarrod Dyson walked behind him. The next batter, Brayan Pena, singled; Maier scored the tying run from second, with Dyson moving to third. Pena, meanwhile, took a wide turn around first, drawing a throw to second that was bobbled, and Dyson raced home with the winning run. No error was assessed on the play, but looking at the video, it seems like there should have been.

Anyway, this game is the best of a group that was... I hesitate to use the word boring, because it's still basebal, but of the 11 games yesterday, only 3 were better than 30th percentile. Thank goodness for the Brewers and their sloppy fielding.

Game of the day (last year): Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5 (11). This one had a slightly more eventful start than this year's entry. Baltimore's JJ Hardy led off with a single against Carlos Villanueva. Nick Markakis also singled, moving Hardy to third; Markakis, however, tried for second and was thrown out on a boilerplate 8-5-4-3-6-4 putout. Adam Jones then drove in Hardy with a sac fly to open the scoring. The lead was short lived, as Toronto countered against Chris Jakubauskas with a walk to Jose Bautista and an RBI double by Adam Lind. The O's put two on with one out in the third, but stranded them; the Jays' first two runners reached in the bottom of the inning, and that effort should have been equally fruitless, as Bautista hit a potential double play ball to third. After recording the force at second, however, Robert Andino threw the ball away, allowing Yunel Escobar to scamper home with the go-ahead run. Toronto extended their lead in the fourth, starting with a single by Aaron Hill and a Jayson Nix HBP, then scoring on a hit by Escobar and an RBI groundout by Corey Patterson. Villanueva made the 4-1 lead stand up through 6; the Jays tried to pad it in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with two out, but didn't score.

Luke Scott led off the top of the seventh with a bunt hit, and Mark Reynolds followed it with a walk; that was enough to get Villanueva yanked for Jason Frasor. Naturally, Frasor uncorked a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third; the first of them scored on an Andino sac fly, the second on a Hardy double, bringing Baltimore within a run. Toronto answered in the bottom of the inning when Aaron Hill homered off of Jeremy Accardo, but the Orioles came right back in the eighth against Marc Rzepczynski, who walked Vlad Guerrero (which is impressive) before serving up a game-tying 2-run shot to Matt Wieters.

With the score now tied, Toronto did its best to untie it; they loaded the bases in the eighth on a pair of infield hits and a walk, but Jim Johnson survived the scare courtesy of a force at home and a flyout. Baltimore got a one-out double from Markakis in the top of the ninth before Jon Rauch stranded him; Rauch got back into trouble in the tenth, putting a pair of ex-Cubs on base with a walk to Derrek Lee and a single by Felix Pie, but he kept those runners in place as well. Koji Uehara worked a flawless tenth, and Shawn Camp restrained the O's in the top of the eleventh; that set the stage for Adam Lind to lead off the bottom of the inning, which he did by homering against Uehara to end the game.

So let's see... 11 innings, reasonable-sized comeback in the late part of regulation, plenty of close and late scoring chances, and a couple of fairly weird plays? Yeah, that'll work. #39 on the year so far, 96th percentile.

Rockies won 12-4...in 10 innings. How often does a team win by 8 in extras?

Jose, I agree that coaching kids' baseball is a blast.

This is my first year of head coaching in baseball (been an assistant for my eldest son's team 2 of the past 3 years; currently assisting for my middle son's t-ball...t-ball stinks, btw). We're in Mustang, in a community that has recently introduced "Live-Arm" (I think it is "Town and Country" ball) at the same age group (9-10 y.o.) so MOST of the local rec leagues have very few good 10 year olds playing machine pitch. Our team is probably a contender for "Best in Class" for this grouping (which means we have a shot to make the quarters of our end-of-season tourney), being 10-3 with two of those losses to teams with lots of good 10-year-olds.

Our performance as a team aside, the thing I am MOST proud/happy of is that tonight one of our weakest players broke a string of 8 straight strikeouts (and 9 in his last 10 AB) with a hard double and, at the end of the game (an 18-3 win including 3 legit IPHR, and 8 3B), when I was about to present the game ball, the whole team was calling for him to get it. When I did give it to him (duh!), everyone was excited and enthusiastically congratulating him. Simply an awesome moment to see a group of 9 and 10 year olds being unselfish and celebrating a high point for a teammate who just hasn't had many.

We have 3-5 games left in our season (before we face a team from one of the stacked leagues), and I don't think it can be enough time with this team.

Glad I'll have tonight to keep in my mind as a "happy place" when I'm coaching our All-Star team over the next month and some guy whose team lost two games to us by an aggregate of 50-10 is complaining about how I don't see how great a player his kid is....

How I wish WE had more non-parent coaches. My best experience as a player was just such a case --- a high school kid whose team seemed to win the title every year. With largely the same players (we were broken into teams by neighborhood) we had a four year stretch of 3-14, 14-2, 5-10, 4-12...odd how that one year without a dad coaching us stands out.

[4] Historical article at THT

It included this interesting note:

Day-versaries...

15,000 days since Hank Aaron receives three intentional walks in one game, something that never happens to him in any other game. The Mets do it—and win the game, 8-7.

From B-R PI:

From 1918 to 2012, (requiring IBB>=3), sorted by greatest IBB

<pre>                                                                                     
Rk                 Player          Date  Tm Opp    Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB
1            Andre Dawson    1990-05-22 CHC CIN  W  2-1  8  3 0 1  0  0  0   0  5   5
                                                                                     
2             Barry Bonds    2004-09-22 SFG HOU  W  5-1  5  1 0 1  0  1  0   1  4   4
3             Barry Bonds 2004-06-12(2) SFG BAL  L  4-5  6  1 1 0  0  0  0   0  5   4
4             Barry Bonds    2004-05-01 SFG FLA  W  6-3  5  1 1 0  0  0  0   0  4   4
5             Barry Bonds    2004-04-23 SFG LAD  L  4-5  6  2 1 2  0  0  0   1  4   4
6           Manny Ramirez    2001-06-05 BOS DET  W  4-3  8  4 1 2  0  0  1   1  4   4
7         Garry Templeton    1985-07-05 SDP PIT  L  4-5  6  2 1 1  0  0  0   0  4   4
8             Roger Maris    1962-05-22 NYY LAA  W  2-1  6  1 0 0  0  0  0   0  5   4

   [129 player-games tied with 3 IBB]
 [2,971 player-games tied with 2 IBB] 
[65,964 player-games tied with 1 IBB]

Wins by batting team in high IBB player-games:

Player IBB   Bat-W   Games   Bat-W%
         5       1       1     100%
         4       4       7      57%
         3      92     129      71%
Grand Total     97     137      71%

[20] Rockies won 12-4...in 10 innings. How often does a team win by 8 in extras?

I count 11 times since 1948, obviously all road teams.

Using B-R PI Event Finder:

   Date   Tm @ Opp     Rslt Innings Runs in Final Inning
8/29/54  BRO   MLN  W  12-4      11                  8-0
6/21/69  MIN   OAK  W  14-4      10                 11-1
 8/1/70  MIN   DET  W  12-4      10                  8-0
 6/3/72  NYY   CHW  W 18-10      13                  8-0
 7/8/73  BOS   CHW  W  11-2      10                  9-0
 5/2/80  CHC   CIN  W  12-4      12                  8-0
 7/3/83  TEX   OAK  W  16-4      15                 12-0
6/28/94  SDP   COL  W  11-3      11                  9-1
6/28/95  SDP   PHI  W  13-5      10                  9-1
8/28/98  OAK   CLE  W  14-6      10                  8-0
8/16/09  LAA   BAL  W  17-8      13                  9-0

Game of the day (yesterday): Rockies 12, Tigers 4 (10). Starters Casey Crosby and Jeff Francis (good to see him in a Rockies uniform again) kept the offenses under control for the first two innings. Colorado broke through very loudly in the third, with a single by Wilin Rosario, a triple by Chris Nelson, and a double by Dexter Fowler; they then drew a pair of walks from Crosby to load the bases, still with nobody out, but Michael Cuddyer hit into a force at home and Jason Giambi grounded into a double play (his second of the day, as noted above by Tom N). Detroit made some noise of its own in the bottom of the inning, with doubles by Bryan Holaday, Austin Jackson, and Miguel Cabrera plating a pair of runs to tie the game, and Prince Fielder's single knocking in Cabrera with the go-ahead tally. The Rockies quickly struck back on a two-run homer by Nelson in the fourth; that home run and the subsequent walk chased Crosby from the game early in favor of Duane Below and the Tiger bullpen, who pitched much better... for a while.

Haven been given a new lead, Francis proceeded to put it in danger on a regular basis. A leadoff double by Ryan Raburn in the fourth led to a first-and-third, two out situation that was defused when Brennan Boesch fanned; Fielder added another double in the fifth, this one with one out, but Francis worked around that as well. In the sixth, the Tigers finally broke through. Holaday singled with one out, Jackson drew a walk, the runners moved up a base apiece on a wild pitch, and Holaday came in with the tying run on Boesch's groundout. Francis intentionally walked Cabrera before being yanked; reliever Rex Brothers walked Fielder as well before striking out Delmon Young to leave the bases loaded.

The seventh passed quietly; in the eighth, Giambi batted with the bases empty for the first time, keeping him from hitting into a double play (for what would have been the fourth time). He singled, and was lifted for pinch runner Eric Young, putting history on hold. Young, meanwhile, was promptly caught stealing, so the Rockies still managed to wring some futility out of their DH spot this inning, which looks all the more egregious because they eventually left two runners on base. Matt Belisle worked the eighth and ninth for Colorado, and Joaquin Benoit finished the eighth and pitched the ninth for Detroit, both of them doing well enough to send the game to extras.

Closer Jose Valverde entered in the top of the tenth, and had the kind of outing that makes people psychoanalyze the difference between save and non-save situations - like tie games aren't tense or something. Cuddyer led off with a single, and Young attempted to sacrifice him to second, at which point Valverde threw the ball away, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. He then issued an intentional walk to Todd Helton (with no outs - just threw up in my mouth a tiny bit); Jordan Pacheco hit into a force at home, which is why you do that intentional walk, but Rosario followed it with a two-run single, which is why you don't do it with nobody out. Nelson walked to reload the bases, Fowler hit a sac fly, and Marco Scutaro added a RBI single to make it an 8-4 game. Valverde was lifted for Luis Marte, who you'd think couldn't do any worse; somehow, he managed, giving up back-to-back homers to Carlos Gonzalez and Cuddyer to extinguish Detroit's few remaining embers of hope. Rafael Betancourt breezed through the shell-shocked Tiger hitters in the bottom of the inning to nail down the game.

Odd note of the day: The two #9 hitters, Nelson and Holaday, combined for a cycle.

Don't have time to do yesterday's game at the moment, but I'll try to get it posted later in the evening.

i don't know how unusual this is, but i can't imagine it's happened very often:

joe savery has now pitched in 16 games for the phillies this season. the phillies are a combined 0-16 in those games.

Re #11 -- Ichiro had a pretty a long stretch at or near .500 in the July-August part of his hit record season. July 18 to August 12 -- .504 in 117 at bats.

mfranknba: Phillies have suffered 8 walk-off losses this season. Papelbon hasn't pitched in any of them.

In his most recent video Q&A, someone asked Rob Neyer if baseball has a "mercy rule", pointing out that managers might not want to risk pitchers (or position players-as-pitchers) in lost causes. Neyer said that there's nothing in the rules prohibiting a team from forfeiting at any time, but that if a manager did forfeit just because the team was losing, he'd be fined "potentially millions" and would be "vilified."

Does that sound right to you guys? I mean, maybe if it were 10-0, or if it were still early in the game. But if it were 20-0 in the 8th inning or something and a team clearly had no one left to pitch and decided to just pack it in, I don't think there would be all that much shock and horror.

Cardinals, Royals and the umpires did an impromptu tribute to the Vern Ruhle non-triple play from the 1980 NLCS today.

Only difference is, on Ruhle's play, his catch was temporarily ruled a non-catch. Today, Joe Kelly's non-catch was temporarily ruled a catch.

Ollie Perez is back.

And doctors fear he may be malignant.

Game of the day (last year): Phillies 5, Marlins 4 (10). Hopefully it was clear before that I meant "last year" instead of "yesterday;" obviously I'd already done yesterday's games at that point.

Anyway... Roy Halladay started for the Phillies, so of course the Marlins scored twice in the first - Hanley Ramirez doubled and came around to score on a pair of groundouts, and then Gaby Sanchez scoffed at the productive outs of his teammates by launching a solo homer. Philly countered in the bottom of the inning when Jimmy Rollins led off with a walk and came home on Chase Utley's double; Utley took third on the throw home to get Rollins, but was stranded there. The teams put single runners on in each of the next three half innings, but nobody scored again until the top of the fourth, when Greg Dobbs doubled with one out and Jose Lopez followed that with a double that somehow only moved Dobbs to third. John Buck's ensuing two-run single stretched the Florida lead to three runs. The Phils loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the fourth, but didn't score; in the fifth, however, Shane Victorino singled, stole second, and trotted home on Utley's triple. Halladay and Sanchez traded perfect innings in the sixth and seventh, then turned it over to the bullpens with the Marlins ahead by two.

Philly picked up a two-out double in the eighth without scoring; Florida put a pair of runners on (walk and HBP) against Michael Stutes in the ninth, but also couldn't bring them around. The bottom of the inning brought on Marlins' closer "Leo Nunez," who gave up a one-out single to Carlos Ruiz. The Phils then sent up pinch hitter Ross Gload, who singled and was lifted from the basepaths for Michael Martinez. Jimmy Rollins was up next, and advanced both runners on what's listed as a lineout to the mound; I assume "Nunez" knocked it down and threw him out, because it's nonsense otherwise. Anyway, Victorino singled both runners home to tie the game, then stole second and moved to third on a Buck throwing error before Utley flied out to strand him.

Ryan Madson entered for the top of the tenth. He walked Hanley, who then moved up on a sac bunt. One out later, Sanchez was intentionally passed to get to Mike/Giancarlo Stanton (which will probably never happen again). Stanton struck out. The bottom of the inning put Michael Dunn on the hill for the Marlins. He started inauspiciously, hitting Ryan Howard with a pitch, but retired the next two hitters. Domonic Brown then drew a walk, moving the winning run to second, and Ruiz singled up the middle, driving it home.

It's a good game, with the ninth-inning rally and the 2-out game winner in extras, but it could have been beaten by a really excellent nine-inning game. Despite the fact that 6/15/11 had 16 games (this one was the second half of a doubleheader), it couldn't produce a better one.

i don't know how unusual this is, but i can't imagine it's happened very often:

joe savery has now pitched in 16 games for the phillies this season. the phillies are a combined 0-16 in those games.

When it comes to pitching in lost causes, Terry Felton is the gold standard.

Career record: 0-16 (MLB record for most losses without a victory)
Record in 1982: 0-13
Twins overall record in games where he appeared: 6-49
Consecutive games Twins lost to start 1982 season in which Felton appeared: 19
Consecutive games Twins lost from 1980-82 seasons in which Felton appeared: 24

OTOH,

Career Saves: 3

Game of the day (yesterday): Marlins 4, Rays 3 (15). Miami jumped out to an early lead against James Shields. Jose Reyes singled to lead off the top of the first, moved to second on a grounder, and scored when Giancarlo Stanton reached on a throwing error by Sean Rodriguez. They added two more unearned runs in the second, when Gaby Sanchez reached on a dropped fly ball by Matt Joyce, moved to third on Scott Cousins' ground-rule double, and after the second out, accompanied Cousins home on Reyes's single. Anibal Sanchez, meanwhile, mowed down the Tampa hitters for the first two innings; the same could not be said of the third, which featured a leadoff triple from Elliot Johnson and an RBI single from Jose Molina. The Rays would put the tying run on base in the inning before Joyce lined into a double play. The Marlins put two runners on with one out in both the fourth and fifth innings, but Shields kept them from scoring both times. In the bottom of the fifth, Molina struck again, this time with a solo homer that narrowed the lead to one.

That gap would close in the seventh. Carlos Pena led off with a single; Sanchez went on to strike out Johnson, and since the next batter was Molina, his nemesis, he was then replaced by Steve Cishek. Molina fouled out, but Sean Rodriguez then tripled, driving in the tying run. Desmond Jennings struck out to leave the go-ahead run at third, and the teams settled into something of a routine from there.

Miami picked up two-out hits in the eighth (chasing Shields) and the ninth (against Fernando Rodney), the latter of which was a double. The Rays managed a Pena single in the bottom of the ninth against Edward Mujica, but nothing else. The Marlins put single runners on in the tenth and eleventh; the Rays had two reach in the tenth before BJ Upton's double play ball ended the inning, and managed only a two-out HBP in the eleventh. Burke Badenhop entered for Tampa in the twelfth and gave up a one-out double to Logan Morrison and an intentional walk, but still no runs. The bottom of the inning was the first 1-2-3 half since the bottom of the eighth, courtesy of Miami's Ryan Webb. Badenhop served a two-out triple to Reyes in the thirteenth, but escaped by striking out Hanley Ramirez; Webb gave up a one-out single to Upton, who moved up on a grounder, and then intentionally walked Ben Zobrist in order to face one-time cleanup man Drew Sutton, who flied out. Brandon Gomes entered in the top of the fourteenth and retired the Marlins in order, the first Tampa pitcher to do that since Shields in the seventh. The bottom of the inning, Webb's third, saw the Rays waste Johnson's leadoff single.

Gomes stayed in for a second inning in the fifteenth; when it's the fifteenth inning, everyone stays in for a second one. After starting the inning with a groundout, he gave up a double to Justin Ruggiano, followed by a go-ahead triple to Cousins (which put him a home run away from the cycle). A popup, an intentional walk to Reyes, and a groundout combined to leave the potential second run of the inning on third, but Heath Bell made it a moot point by striking out the side in the bottom of the inning.

This wasn't the only long game yesterday, of course; we also had Yankees 5, Nationals 3 (14). That game grades out as the second-best second-best game of the day of the year, which is a statement that probably needs parentheses to be properly understood: second-best (second-best game of the day) of the year. Much better. Yanks-Nats is #14 so far; Marlins-Rays is #12. They're also two of the six worst 14+ inning games I've recorded so far, which mostly speaks to how very good 14-inning games are. (Mostly what that means is that they're both beaten by a few 11, 12, and 13-inning games, sometimes by healthy margins. Yanks-Nats is slightly behind one 10-inning game, from the 1980 NLCS. And of course, all of this is based on a sample that's not exactly small, now containing over 3000 games, but still a tiny fraction of the total number of baseball games ever played.)

It's worth pointing out that the second-worst 15+-inning game I've seen so far had a tie maintained from the 7th inning to the 15th, and of the 14 half-innings of tied baseball, only three of them went 1-2-3. There were five runners left in scoring position during this period. The game was hanging very carefully in the balance the entire time, often within a single of ending. That's why the system I use really likes long extra-inning games - even the ones it doesn't like as much as some others are constantly tense.

Speaking of extra innings...

Game of the day (last year): Yankees 3, Rangers 2 (12). Texas's starter was CJ Wilson, the best pitcher on their solid staff. New York's was Brian Gordon, whose resume doesn't quite rise to the level of "journeyman;" he was making his first MLB appearance in three years (his last having actually come for the Rangers), and his first MLB start, period. It's the kind of game you might tend to write off if you're the Yanks, and indeed, their starting lineup featured neither Derek Jeter nor Alex Rodriguez; of course, it was also a Thursday game, so the Rangers weren't playing all of their regulars either - Taylor Teagarden and Endy Chavez, in particular, were both in the lineup.

Gordon's day got off to a fairly inauspicious start when he hit Elvis Andrus, the second batter he faced. Fortunately for the Yankees, Andrus was promptly thrown out trying to steal second. In the bottom of the first, Wilson gave up singles to the first two hitters, but Nick Swisher was thrown out trying for third on the second of them, and Curtis Granderson was then caught stealing after the second out. Which means that the first inning saw as many outs made on the bases as it did at the plate.

Texas picked up a pair of singles in the second, but couldn't score. New York's half of the inning started with a hit by Cano and a walk to Andruw Jones. Wilson induced Jorge Posada to hit into a double play, but Russell Martin followed that with an RBI single. After Gordon retired the side in order in the third, the Yanks went back to work. Swisher was hit by a pitch, and Granderson singled (with Swisher stopping at second this time). Mark Teixeira grounded out to advance both runners, but Wilson struck out both Cano and Jones to strand them in scoring position. Gordon gave up another pair of singles in the fourth, but worked around them; Wilson walked Martin in the bottom of the inning, but Eduardo Nunez hit into a double play to erase him from the basepaths.

In the fifth, the Rangers finally acted like one of baseball's best offenses facing a pitcher making his first career start at age 32. Teagarden led off with a walk, Chavez followed with an infield hit, and Ian Kinsler doubled to drive in the tying run. Andrus struck out, Josh Hamilton was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Michael Young popped up for the second out. Gordon then went to an 0-2 count on Adrian Beltre, and maintained it for a couple of foul balls... and then hit him with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run. Mitch Moreland flied out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

Wilson held the lead in the bottom of the fifth, working around an HBP of Granderson. In the sixth, David Murphy drew a leadoff walk; not content to see if Gordon would let them have another chance at a big inning, he tried to steal and was thrown out. Gordon then gave up a hit to Teagarden and was pulled for Hector Noesi, who recorded the last two outs of the inning without further event. The bottom of the sixth began with Wilson walking Cano, who scored the tying run on Posada's one-out double. Noesi stayed on in the seventh, which Andrus led off with a double. Noesi intentionally passed Hamilton (with no outs - gag), then coaxed a third-to-first DP out of young and ended the inning with a Beltre flyout. Wilson worked a 1-2-3 seventh on two groundouts and a strikeout, and David Robertson followed the same sequence for the Yanks in the top of the eighth. Wilson responded with another scoreless inning, and that brought Mariano Rivera in to work a flawless ninth. Darren Oliver replaced Wilson in the bottom of the inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Martin, who moved up on a sac bunt. A-Rod then entered as a pinch hitter, and was promptly intentionally walked (how often does that happen?). That was followed by an unintentional walk to Swisher, loading the bases with one out. Oliver struck out Granderson, and Teixeira grounded out to complete the wasting of a golden opportunity for New York and send the game into extras.

Both teams managed one-out singles in the tenth, but couldn't advance their runners against Rivera and Michael Kirkman, respectively. Cory Wade pitched a perfect eleventh for New York, and after Kirkman worked around a walk in the bottom of the inning, Wade also retired the Rangers in order in the twelfth. Kirkman's third inning of work started with a hit by Granderson, and after Teixeira flied out, Kirkman hit Cano with a pitch to move the winning run into scoring position. Brett Gardner (who'd entered as a defensive replacement for Jones in the ninth) singled, and the run came home.

Kind of an odd game for the Rangers - Kirkman, not an especially distinguished reliever (6.48 ERA after the game; it would have been higher before, since he went 2.1 innings and gave up one run) was only their second arm out of the pen, thanks to Wilson's longevity, and yet was left in to pitch a third inning. Meanwhile, Teagarden and Chavez played the entire game, and Nelson Cruz (who played the day before and the day after, and thus was presumably healthy) never left the bench. And it wasn't a "we can afford to lose the last game of the series" situation, either; it was the third game of a sweep by the Yankees. I actually think pretty highly of Ron Washington as a manager, but this doesn't seem like one of his better efforts.

Eri Yoshida update. (good news, if you're rooting for her)