Today's Birthday Team had better cowboy up on offense, because those pitchers aren't getting anybody out.

C/Manager: Mike Gonzalez
1B: Rafael Palmeiro
2B: John McDonald
3B: Eric Soderholm
SS: Hubie Brooks
LF: Kevin Millar
CF: Dixie Walker
RF: Bernard Gilkey

SP: Jeff Karstens
SP: Don Kirkwood
SP: Cyclone Miller
SP: Nate Cornejo
SP: Carlton Loewer
RP: Jim Acker

Buy a Vowel: Mike Krsnich
Fun Name: Kewpie Pennington
Backup 1B/Singer-Songwriter: Ben Broussard

That's unfair to Karstens, who at least in 2012 has shown he can get outs. He just has the funniest pitch face ever while doing it.

Up at THT: The 1951 NL pennant race in reverse. It's still one of the best races ever when run in reverse, but with an entirely different narrative.

In baseball history news, today is the 30th anniversary of a walk-off wild pitch in an 18-inning game.

Game of the day (yesterday): Diamondbacks 10, Rockies 7. Jeff Francis (who pitched his 100th inning in his last start) worked a perfect first inning for Colorado, while Arizona's Ian Kennedy hit one batter and walked another, but stranded both of them. In the second, Francis allowed a one-out single to Jason Kubel, then hit Chris Johnson with a pitch (Johnson was removed from the game for a pinch runner; ESPN says he has a bruised hand). Cody Ransom followed with an RBI single, and Wil Nieves (who? Wil Nieves. Who in 12 years, has never hit a home run...) picked up an RBI hit as well. Kennedy bunted the runners to second and third, and Adam Eaton flied out to end the inning.

Having been given a lead, Kennedy shut down the Rockie position players over the next two innings, although he did allow a hit to Francis in the third. Francis, meanwhile, allowed a two-out single to Paul Goldschmidt in the third and a one-out double by Ransom in the fourth, but no additional runs. Kennedy worked around a Willin Rosario single in the bottom of the fourth, keeping Colorado scoreless. Francis, having thrown exactly 75 pitches, was pulled for Adam Ottavino to start the fifth. Aaron Hill and Justin Upton both singled with one out, a wild pitch moved them to second and third, and Goldschmidt walked to load the bases. After Kubel struck out, Ryan Wheeler drew a full count walk to force in a run.

The Rockies finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, pinch hitter Matt McBride singled. That hit initiated a death-by-paper-cuts rally, as Josh Rutledge, Charlie Blackmon, and Jordan Pacheco all singled as well, bringing in two runs between them, and Rosario tied the game with an RBI double. Kennedy recovered, striking out Chris Nelson and Tyler Colvin to leave the go-ahead runs in scoring position, but the damage was done.

Nieves led off the sixth with a single against Rob Scahill, but was later caught stealing second, defusing any potential rally. DJ LeMahieu doubled with one out in the bottom of the inning, and took third on a groundout by Scahill (the rather rare reliever batting for himself). Rutledge walked, and Blackmon singled in the go-ahead run, although Rutledge was thrown out going for third on the play. Hill started the seventh with a double, eventually advancing to third before being left there. Rosario singled against Matt Albers in the seventh, but his teammates failed to advance him.

In the top of the eighth, John McDonald led off with a pinch-hit single against Rex Brothers. Miguel Montero pinch hit as well and struck out against the newly-inserted Matt Belisle. Nieves followed with a single, and Mike Jacobs, the third pinch hitter of the inning, also singled, bringing McDonald home with the tying run. Belisle then fanned Eaton, but Hill then broke the game open, launching a tiebreaking three-run homer. Colorado managed a pair of singles in the eighth against Matt Lindstrom, bringing the tying run to the plate, but failed to score.

Arizona piled on in the ninth with a two-run single from Jake Elmore and an RBI double from AJ Pollock, which was set up by a Nieves double. Colorado managed three runs of its own on a single by Pacheco, a double by Nelson, a two-run double by Colvin, and an RBI single by LeMahieu, which gave Arizona the chance to get JJ Putz his easiest save of the year (up by 3, runner on first, two outs); Putz induced a game-ending groundout, earning a WPA of .018.

This is another one of those games that's far more exciting if you can flip the linescore. Colorado's three-run rally in the fifth would have given them the lead, with Arizona coming back to tie in the bottom of the inning. More importantly, rather than being an afterthought, the three runs the Rockies scored in the ninth would have tied the game, with the D'Backs then walking off in the bottom of the inning. But of course, you can't do that. And it's not like it's a bad game anyway; it's already in the 91st percentile and the best of an unspectacular but very solid day of baseball (8 of the 16 games were 70th percentile or better).

Also, check out the year Aaron Hill is having - .301/.361/.518, 130 OPS+ while playing a credible second base. Very nice.

The Rockies' loss yesterday gave them a nine-game losing streak with ten games left to play. They finished last year by losing 11 out of their last 14. They finished 2010 by losing 13 out of their last 14.

Eric - Do you have a list of the top games of the season? You mentioned the other day that the Yankee/Oakland game was tied for third. I'd love to know the top ten and the top ten that weren't extra innings (I'm guessing the top ten is heavily populated by extra inning games).

Just guessing at the other top three besides Saturday's I assume the Sox/Orioles 17 innings, the Mariners/Orioles 18 innings and...something else. Or do the perfectos jump in there?

EDIT: If you've already answered this, I'd appreciate you pointing to where so I can find it. I probably missed it. Thanks.

The Rockies' loss yesterday gave them a nine-game losing streak with ten games left to play. They finished last year by losing 11 out of their last 14. They finished 2010 by losing 13 out of their last 14.

This is all payback for 2007.

EDIT: If you've already answered this, I'd appreciate you pointing to where so I can find it. I probably missed it. Thanks.

Eric posted that the White Sox game the day after the ASB was number 1 on the year. The Mariners/Orioles is not top 3.

Eric - Do you have a list of the top games of the season? You mentioned the other day that the Yankee/Oakland game was tied for third. I'd love to know the top ten and the top ten that weren't extra innings (I'm guessing the top ten is heavily populated by extra inning games).

The top 10 is entirely extra-inning games; in fact, the top 33 is entirely extra-inning games. You can argue that my perfect game bonus should be higher than it is, but I'd be hard pressed to put it high enough that Felix's perfecto (the best of the three, because it was the closest game) would threaten the top 10 (it's currently 58th).

Anyway, the top 10 (which is of course subject to change over the last 10 days of the season):

10. 7/14, Orioles 8, Tigers 6 (13). Tigers forced extras with 3 in the ninth. Tigers went ahead in the 11th, Orioles tied it up; Tigers went ahead again in the 13th, Orioles came back to win.

9. 6/17, Twins 5, Brewers 4 (15). Six separate go-ahead or winning runs were left in scoring position from the ninth inning on. Not a bad finish on the year for a game that wasn't even the best of its own day...

8. 9/18, Orioles 4, Mariners 2 (18). As you guessed.

7. 5/26, Rangers 8, Blue Jays 7 (13). I attended this game. It was thoroughly awesome. Texas left the winning run at third in the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings, Toronto scored twice in the 13th to take the lead, and Texas won on a Josh Hamilton walkoff in the bottom of the inning.

6. 5/11, Brewers 8, Cubs 7 (13). Pitcher's duel through 6, Brewers ahead 1-0. Cubs scored 4 in the seventh, and so did the Brewers. Chicago went back ahead with 3 in the ninth, Milwaukee tied it with a two-run homer by Corey Hart. At least one runner reached base in every half-inning of extras, frequently more; the Brewers won in the 13th on two HBPs and two singles.

5. 5/6, Orioles 9, Red Sox 6 (17). Winning pitcher: Chris Davis.

4. 9/22, Yankees 10, A's 9 (14).

3. 6/17, Royals 5, Cardinals 3 (15). KC forced extras on a two-out, ninth-inning homer on an 0-2 count by Billy Butler. Yuniesky Betancourt, who came on as an injury replacement early in the game and still ended up with 7 at bats, hit an RBI double in the top of the 14th; Yadier Molina tied it with a 2-out RBI hit in the bottom. Then, with two outs and one on in the fifteenth, Yuni came up again, this time hitting a 2-run homer that provided the winning margin.

2. 8/19, Pirates 6, Cardinals 3 (19). Yankees-A's gave up the biggest extra-inning comeback of the year. This one provides the latest, as the Cards went behind in the 17th, then came back to tie before losing two innings later.

1. 7/13, White Sox 9, Royals 8 (14). This one is like a five-act play. Act I: Sox score three in the first, Royals tie with three in the second. Act II: Royals go ahead with two in the fourth, Sox strike back with three in the fifth. Act III: Two-run triple by Alcides Escobar gives the Royals the lead in the eighth; AJ Pierzynski singles in the tying run in the ninth, and the go-ahead run is thrown out at home on the same play. (Note that this kind of play is not really handled well by my system, so the raw score for this game is actually too low, even though it's already the highest of the year.) Act IV: Two-out Gordon Beckham double gives Chicago the lead in the twelfth; Royals rally to tie. Act V: Sox finally win on a Kevin Youkilis sac fly in the fourteenth.

9-inning list to follow shortly.

Thanks for the list in #9 and in advance for the 9 inning list. This is great stuff.

Top 10 9-inning games:

10. 5/2, Nats 5, D'Backs 4. Maximum number of possible lead changes for a game with this final score - 1-0 Nats, 2-1 D'Backs, 3-2 Nats, 4-3 D'Backs, 5-4 Nats. The final change is on a two-out Ian Desmond homer in the bottom of the ninth.

9. 5/22, Dodgers 8, D'Backs 7. Arizona led 6-1 before LA scored five in the seventh to tie. Lyle Overbay homered in the eighth to give the Snakes the lead again, but Ivan DeJesus hit a two-out, two-run double against JJ Putz to put the Dodgers ahead for the first time, and Jason Kubel hit into a game-ending double play with runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning. You might guess (correctly) that blown saves will be a theme on this list; Putz has two already, and we're two games in.

8. 7/25, Reds 5, Astros 3. Not one, but two blown saves here. Cincinnati led 2-0 going into the bottom of the eighth, but the Astros scored three runs on three doubles to take the lead. (How did they score three runs on three doubles? The Reds helpfully made not one, but two errors on the last one, allowing JD Martinez to come all the way home.) Cincinnati came back on a two-out, two-run double by Drew Stubbs in the top of the ninth.

7. 4/21, White Sox 4, Mariners 0. Humber's perfect game.

6. 8/5, Dodgers 7, Cubs 6. Impressively crazy WE graph. Cubs led 1-0 early, Dodgers tied it in the fifth. Wellington Castillo homered in the sixth to put Chicago in front, but the Dodgers scored three in the bottom of the inning on a hit batter, three walks, and a two-run single. The Cubs went back ahead in the seventh on two singles, a walk, a sac fly, and a two-run Alfonso Soriano double, but LA took the lead once more on Andre Ethier's two-run double in the bottom of the inning. The Cubs' first two runners reached in the eighth, but neither team scored. In the ninth, Anthony Rizzo led off with a game-tying home run, but the Dodgers went walk-single-single with one out in the bottom of the inning to walk off with the win.

5. 4/6, Rays 7, Yankees 6. The Yankees led 6-5 after three innings. The Rays kept putting runners on, and they kept not scoring: leadoff walk in the fourth, corners with no outs in the fifth, corners with no outs again in the eighth. Finally, in the ninth, Ben Zobrist tied the game with a triple, and two intentional walks, one strikeout, and one five-man infield later, Carlos Pena brought in the winning run. This game contains the only runs Mariano Rivera allowed in the entire 2012 season.

4. 8/21, Reds 5, Phillies 4. Phils led 1-0 through 6, despite the Reds loading the bases with nobody out in the sixth. The Reds went double/walk/single+error/sac fly/single to score three times in the seventh, and the Phillies tied it on Jimmy Rollins's two-run double in the bottom of the inning. Todd Frazier homered in the eighth to give the Reds the lead, and Kevin Frandsen countered with a two-out RBI triple. Zack Cozart then led off the ninth with a homer against Papelbon, and the Phils couldn't score against Aroldis Chapman despite Jimmy Rollins stealing his way to third.

3. 8/15, Mariners 1, Rays 0. Felix's perfect game.

2. 6/8, Mariners 1, Dodgers 0. Seattle's six-pitcher joint no-hitter. Even though the no-hitter bonus is smaller, the system likes this game a bit better, mostly because the Dodgers were threatening to win in the late innings: a one-out, two-base error in the seventh, and two walks to start the eighth, with a sac bunt moving the runners to second and third with one away and putting the game within a sac fly of being taken to extras. How awesome would THAT have been?

1. 5/17, D'Backs 9, Rockies 7. Colorado led 4-3 through 7. Arizona scored four in the eighth on a sprawling, 11-play, 9-batter rally: groundout, walk, wild pitch, game-tying RBI single, steal, intentional walk, strikeout, go-ahead RBI single, RBI single, RBI single, flyout. The Rockies rallied to tie on a similarly extended sequence of single, popup, walk, infield single, flyout, bases-loaded walk, ROE, bases-loaded walk to tie the game, lineout. Justin Upton hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to give the Snakes the lead once again, but the Rockies loaded the bases with nobody out on three consecutive singles. Of course, they then ran out of players and had to use pitcher Alex White as a pinch hitter; he struck out, and Ramon Hernandez hit into a double play to end the game.

The only way this one could have been any wilder is if it had been delayed by a swarm of bees. Oh, wait: it was.

Up at THT: The 1951 NL pennant race in reverse. It's still one of the best races ever when run in reverse, but with an entirely different narrative.

Fun article. Thanks.

Other notes on the 9-inning list: Cain's perfect game is the #31 9-inning game of the year with the perfect game bonus in its current form; it was such a massive blowout that had it not been a perfect game, it would be the #2288 game of the year out of the 2288 games that have been played so far. Being a perfect game moves it into the top 150 overall.

The overall rankings of the games from the 9-inning list: 84, 82, 80, 76, 70, 68, 59, 58, 49, and 34. Yes, the system is very, very fond of extra innings, especially lots of them. I'm not sure it's wrong about that, though, because long extra-inning games inherently have more opportunities for dramatic things to happen.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Game of the day (last year): Indians 6, Twins 5.

Minnesota took the early lead against Justin Masterson as Ben Revere led off the top of the first with a single, Trevor Plouffe walked, Michael Cuddyer hit a groundout to advance both runners, and Chris Parmelee singled in a pair of runs. (Ah, September.) Kosuke Fukudome led off the bottom of the first with a single against Carl Pavano, and Jim Thome doubled him home to cut Cleveland's deficit in half. The Twins left runners on second and third in the top of the next inning, which allowed the Indians to tie the game when Lonnie Chisenhall singled and Matt LaPorta doubled.

The Twins recaptured the lead in the top of the third with a Parmelee home run, and extended it further when Brian Dinkleman singled, Rene Tosoni walked, and Joe Benson hit into a forceout that Jason Kipnis tried to turn into a double play, instead making a throwing error that allowed Dinkleman to score. But Cleveland rallied once more when Kipnis walked and Thome homered in the bottom of the inning. Minnesota loaded the bases with none out in the fifth when Masterson walked Luke Hughes and Dinkleman and hit Tosoni with a pitch. Benson hit into a 1-2-3 double play, but Masterson then walked Drew Butera and was removed from the game. Frank Herrmann escaped the jam by getting Revere to foul out, ending one of the more exciting innings you can have without either a hit or a run.

Chisenhall and LaPorta combined on another run in the sixth, this time reversing the order of the previous sequence: Chisenhall doubled, LaPorta singled. LaPorta took second on a groundout and third on Lou Marson's hit, but Fukudome then hit into an inning-ending double play. The Twins promptly came back against Rafael Perez in the seventh when Hughes led off with a double and Tosoni matched him one out later. Joe Smith replaced Perez and gave up a single to Benson, who took second when Cleveland threw home to stop Tosoni from scoring. Butera then hit a grounder that got Tosoni thrown out at the plate, and Revere grounded out to leave the go-ahead run at third.

The next four half-innings passed fairly tamely, with Pavano's plunking of Asdrubal Cabrera the offensive highlight of otherwise excellent moundwork. That stretch ended abruptly when Matt Capps came on for the bottom of the ninth; his first pitch to Carlos Santana was hammered over the right-center field fence for a walkoff home run.

I think my insight tank is dry for today. This was a very good baseball game; it actually beats an 11-inning Detroit win over Baltimore for the top spot. Also today: Braves win, Cardinals lose, giving Atlanta a three-game lead with five to play.