Notes from last night’s Red Sox / Blue Jays game
Posted by Andy on April 27, 2010
Well that game was the very definition of a barn-burner.
Here are some statistical notes:
Since 1920 (excluding 1940-1951, for which we do not have detailed box scores), this was just the 13th game in which both starting pitchers went no more than 3 innings and allowed at least 7 earned runs:
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TOR | BOS | 2010-04-26 | 2 | |
| 2 | TEX | LAA | 2008-09-19 | 2 | |
| 3 | CLE | DET | 2006-07-25 | 2 | |
| 4 | COL | CIN | 2003-04-30 | 2 | |
| 5 | SDP | SFG | 2003-04-09 | 2 | |
| 6 | COL | SDP | 2001-09-27 | 2 | |
| 7 | CHW | ANA | 2000-09-03 | 2 | |
| 8 | COL | LAD | 1999-09-17 | 2 | |
| 9 | NYY | TEX | 1998-05-06 | 2 | |
| 10 | BAL | DET | 1997-07-04 (2) | 2 | |
| 11 | FLA | COL | 1996-08-05 | 2 | |
| 12 | COL | SDP | 1995-08-04 | 2 | |
| 13 | BOS | NYY | 1987-06-26 | 2 |
If you add in allowing at least 8 hits, the #2 game between the Rangers and Angels is the only other one in addition to yesterday's that qualifies.
This is one of 3 games so far this season in which 12 different players got at least 1 RBI:
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TOR | BOS | 2010-04-26 | 12 | |
| 2 | MIL | WSN | 2010-04-18 | 12 | |
| 3 | FLA | PHI | 2010-04-16 | 12 |
(But actually, the other two games on that list are more impressive to me because they featured fewer runs overall.) As recently as last year, this Red Sox-Yankees game featured 16 different players with an RBI.
The Red Sox are the first team this year to boast five different players with at least 3 hits in the same game:
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BOS | TOR | 2010-04-26 | 5 | |
| 2 | LAD | ARI | 2010-04-14 | 4 | |
| 3 | LAD | CIN | 2010-04-21 | 4 | |
| 4 | KCR | MIN | 2010-04-18 | 4 |
And the two teams combined for a whopping 8 players with at least 3 hits:
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BOS | TOR | 2010-04-26 | 8 | |
| 2 | ARI | LAD | 2010-04-14 | 6 | |
| 3 | KCR | MIN | 2010-04-18 | 5 |
The last game with more was this 2008 Rangers - White Sox game in which 9 players got 3+ hits.
The game featured the largest WPA for any one team in a game so far this year:
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | ROE | GDP | SB | CS | WPA | RE24 | LOB | # | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010-04-26 | BOS | TOR | W 13-12 | 50 | 45 | 13 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.988 | 8.268 | 1.225 | 10 | 10 |
| 2 | 2010-04-10 | FLA | LAD | W 7-6 | 40 | 34 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.912 | 3.779 | 1.489 | 8 | 17 |
| 3 | 2010-04-20 | CIN | LAD | W 11-9 | 37 | 31 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.891 | 6.983 | .755 | 2 | 18 |
| 4 | 2010-04-11 | DET | CLE | W 9-8 | 53 | 42 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.825 | 3.781 | 1.647 | 18 | 11 |
| 5 | 2010-04-14 | PHI | WSN | W 14-7 | 43 | 36 | 14 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.814 | 9.937 | .894 | 5 | 16 |
That's what happens when you score gobs of runs, then your pitchers give them back, then you score gobs more, your pitchers give them back, etc. Incidentally, this certainly will not be the most WPA in a game for all of 2010. In the last 3 seasons there have been 43 games with more WPA.
April 27th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Ah, I was thinking the infamous Cubs / Phils 23-22 game from 1979 would fit, but in looking at the box score Dennis Lamp gave up 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning whilst Randy Lerch gave up 5 runs in his 1/3 of an inning (and hit a bomb as well).
Not to comment-jack, but that 23-22 game featured a plethora of past and future closers (or at least those that led their team in saves).
The Phils trotted out Tug McGraw, Ron Reed and Rawly Eastwick.
The Cubs, though, pitched Lamp, Donnie Moore, Willie Hernandez, Bill Caudill and Bruce Sutter. All of them would be come closers or relief pitchers of repute (or was already in the case of Sutter).
April 27th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Comment-jacking does not bother me. Anybody who has anything interesting to say can comment. Well, interesting about BASEBALL.
April 27th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
[...] B-Ref notes on last night’s rollercoaster: Since 1920 (excluding 1940-1951, for which we do not have [...]
April 27th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I'm rather impressed that the Red Sox only collected four extra-base hits and that they were all doubles.
April 27th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Wow, another game I saw in person (#7 on the first list). 9-4 after the first inning. You don't forget a game like that.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:42 am
[...] B-Ref notes on last night’s rollercoaster: Since 1920 (excluding 1940-1951, for which we do not have [...]
April 28th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
What I'd really like to see is games ranked by total WPA+ - WPA- for both teams; that would be the total change in win probability over the whole course of the game and would be a pretty solid measure of "back and forthness." This game, at 14.6 or so, might be hard to beat. (You might want to divide by number of innings, to be fair.) Can Play Index sort by WPA+ only, or WPA+ - WPA-?
April 28th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Messed up the html: I'm talking about White Sox / Brewers, May 8, 1984, which if I can get my tags right should be linked . If no link, I'll have to ask people to find the box score on their own!
April 28th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
JSE - It would seem to me that team WPA seems to do a much better job of finding see-saw battles. The game you linked to has barely any lead changes. Compare that to these games which have the 2 highest single team WPAs in the PI years.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MON/MON200005140.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL199606300.shtml