stats n' facts Week 10: long games

There were two crazy days of free baseball this week.

** Saturday, the terrible Marlins and awful Mets went into the 20th inning tied 1-1 until the Marlins broke through with a run. The Amazings were shut out of the last 18 innings (that's two full games), went 0-19 with runners in scoring position (is that a record?) and stranded 22 runners on base. Against the Miami Marlins. And there were actually spectators still in the stadium at the end of this epic matchup.

Miami and New York are no strangers to long meetings. April 29 they went 15 innings, and Sunday (the day after going 20), they went into extras again, although just one extra.

Perhaps it was appropriate to play an extra game (or two). The Mets/Marlins were rained out on Friday, and the Mets were also rained out on Thursday while Miami had a day off, so there  was certainly not a logjam in the bullpens. The scheduled starter for Saturday before the rainout was Shaun Marcum, and he pitched 8 innings of relief, and he was terrific, retiring 16 straight batters before running out of gas and allowing three singles in the 20^th inning. According to Jayson Stark, this was the third time this season that a reliever has thrown 100 pitches in a game. 

A few minutes earlier, the Blue Jays finally scored to beat the Rangers in 18 innings. They won it when (with two outs) Ross Wolf made a bad pickoff attempt at first, allowing Emilio Bonifacio to race all the way to third, and he scored on a single by Rajai Davis.

This was the first time in major league history that we had an 18 inning and 20 inning game on the same day.

** But those were not the only marathons of the week. The White Sox and Mariners went scoreless into the 14^th inning on Wednesday and that was where the scoring began. Chicago scored five runs in the 14^th, only to completely blow that lead in the bottom of the inning, but scored a pair of runs in the 16^th to win it. So after playing 13 innings with zero runs, the two teams scored 12 runs in innings #14-16.

So those were three games this week that went 5.5+ hours long.

** There are surprise teams (good = Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Pirates; bad = Angels, Dodgers, Blue Jays) and then there are streaky teams. 

   - On May 16 the Oakland Athletics were seven and a half games back of the Texas Rangers in the West. Just a little bit over three weeks later the A’s were leading in the division. Prior to losing a pair this weekend in Chicago, Oakland was 18-3 since May 17.

   - Atlanta has been a streaky team all year. After sprinting out of the gate 12-1, the Braves stumbled greatly 10-17 over the next month. Since then they are 17-6, and hold a comfortable seven and a half game lead in the NL East.

   - Cleveland has been very hot and cold all year. In April they went on a 3-10 slump. The next week began a hot 18-4 stretch to get into first place. That was immediately followed with their current cold run, where the Indians are just 4-15 since May 21. It doesn’t get any easier this week with a trip to Arlington.

   - It is widely agreed that the Marlins are the worst team in baseball. Well, the Mets have lost 7 of their last 8 meetings against the Marlins this year (despite Matt Harvey pitching in three of those). So what does that say about the team in Queens?

The good news for Mets fans = you don't face the Marlins again until July 29!

The bad news = there are no minor league teams on the schedule

** Weird stat of the Week (actually two weeks): Since May 27, Padres shortstop and leadoff man Everth Cabrera has been red hot, getting on base 30 times (in 14 games). But he has made it to home just 3 times. (He's only knocked in 4 runs, too). More like 'Useless Teammates of the Week'...

** Terrific Teammates of the Week: On Wednesday, Rockies Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki combined to hit 5 home runs and 9 RBI against the Reds.

Players of the Week

Change things up and go with leadoff hitters this week.

   * AL: Brett Gardner, Yankees. Surprisingly, it was the speedy center fielder who carried the Yankees to a 6-1 week. Gardner got on base 15 times, took 7 extra bases (five doubles, a homer and stolen base), and produced 10 runs for an offensively challenged Pinstripes team.

   * NL: Yasiel Puig, Dodgers. The way things have been with Kemp and Ethier, you wonder why the Dodgers didn't go to their young phenom outfielder earlier. After tearing it up in Spring Training, Puig picked up right where he left off since getting called up Monday. How about this MLB debut: 13 hits (including five multi-hit games), four home runs, two doubles, and 10 RBI.