Here are a few random World Series thoughts as well as two polls at the bottom for you to vote in.

• Has there ever before been a Game 1 of the World Series where the two starting pitchers were teammates the previous season, but not on either World Series team? I'm referring of course to Cliff Lee and C. C. Sabathia, who were teammates on the Indians last season. Seeing them face each other in the World Series has got to be extremely bitter for the Indians franchise and their fans.
• The Phillies are looking to become the first team to win back-to-back World Series championships since the Yankees in 1998-2000. Prior to that it was the Blue Jays in 1992-1993 and the Pirates in 1979-1980. It feels weird to mention the Pirates and the World Series in the same paragraph.
• The Yankees and Phillies last met in the World Series in 1950.
• These two teams played earlier this season in a wild 3-game series in May starting with this game. Brad Lidge blew two saves in the series, Brett Myers started one game, Chien-Ming Wang pitched in relief, A-rod had been playing for just a couple of weeks, and Bret Tomko was pitching for the Yankees. Seems like a million years ago.

Anyway, here are two polls. First is what you think will happen and second is what you'd like to happen.

Yesterday Joey Votto was 4-for-4 with 4 RBI but no runs scored. He also drew a walk.

Here are the most recent games where a player had at least 4 hits and 4 RBI but no runs scored:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Ramon Vazquez     2008-07-29    TEX  SEA W 11-10  5  5  0  4  1  0  0   4  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 9th 3B

    2 Jacque Jones      2007-08-09    CHC @COL W 10-2   5  5  0  4  1  0  0   4  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd RF
    3 Ramon Hernandez   2007-05-06    BAL  CLE L  6-9   5  5  0  4  1  0  0   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  1  0 4th C

    4 Matt Murton       2006-08-03(2) CHC  ARI W  7-3   4  4  0  4  4  0  0   5  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th LF
    5 Khalil Greene     2006-05-07    SDP  CHC W  6-3   4  4  0  4  2  0  0   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  1  0 6th SS

    6 Ray Durham        2005-07-15    SFG @LAD W  6-0   5  5  0  4  3  0  0   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th 2B

    7 Morgan Ensberg    2003-09-06    HOU @SDP W 10-4   5  4  0  4  2  0  0   4  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd 3B
    8 Nick Johnson      2003-08-30    NYY @BOS W 10-7   5  5  0  4  1  0  0   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd 1B
    9 Kevin Millar      2003-06-24    BOS  DET W 10-1   5  5  0  4  1  0  0   5  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th 1B
   10 Albert Pujols     2003-06-06    STL  BAL W  8-6   5  4  0  4  1  0  0   4  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd LF 1B
   11 Mo Vaughn         2003-04-17    NYM @PIT W  7-2   5  5  0  4  2  0  0   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th 1B
   12 Paul Bako         2003-04-05    CHC @CIN W  9-7   5  5  0  4  0  1  0   6  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th C
       

The full list of such games is here. It's roughly 2-3 per year.

And here's a slightly different set. Adding in Votto from yesterday, here are 19 games in history where the player was on base 5+ times, had 4+ RBI, but no runs scored:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB TOB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Morgan Ensberg    2003-09-06    HOU @SDP W 10-4   5  4  0  4  2  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd 3B
    2 Albert Pujols     2003-06-06    STL  BAL W  8-6   5  4  0  4  1  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd LF 1B

    3 Omar Vizquel      2001-08-05    CLE  SEA W 15-14  7  6  0  4  1  1  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd SS
    4 Jeremy Giambi     2001-07-18    OAK @MIN W  7-2   5  4  0  4  2  0  0   6  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd DH

    5 Bernie Williams   1998-08-22    NYY @TEX W 12-9   6  5  0  4  1  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th CF
    6 Ben Grieve        1998-06-26    OAK @COL L  6-12  5  4  0  4  1  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  1 3rd RF

    7 Andujar Cedeno    1994-07-04    HOU @STL W 13-6   6  4  0  3  0  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   1  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th SS

    8 Darryl Hamilton   1992-08-28    MIL @TOR W 22-2   8  7  0  4  0  0  0   5  1   5   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd CF RF

    9 Eddie Murray      1991-08-17    LAD  HOU W  8-7   6  5  0  4  2  0  0   4  1   5   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th 1B

   10 Chris James       1988-07-18(1) PHI  ATL L  8-9   6  5  0  4  0  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th RF

   11 Cal Ripken        1985-05-05    BAL @MIN W 10-5   6  6  0  5  2  0  0   4  0   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd SS

   12 Al Oliver         1982-08-12(2) MON  PHI W  8-7   5  3  0  3  1  0  0   4  2   5   1  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th 1B
   13 Mike Ivie         1982-06-11    DET @MIL L  6-8   5  4  0  4  2  1  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th DH
   14 Biff Pocoroba     1982-06-09    ATL @LAD W 11-5   5  5  0  5  1  0  0   5  0   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 7th C

   15 Graig Nettles     1971-09-14(2) CLE  WSA L  6-8   9  6  0  2  2  0  0   4  3   5   0  1   0  0  0   0   1  1  0 4th 3B
   16 Orlando Cepeda    1971-05-22    ATL @NYM L  7-8   6  5  0  4  0  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   1  0  0 4th 1B

   17 Curt Flood        1965-09-15    STL @PIT W  7-3   6  6  0  5  1  0  0   5  0   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd CF

   18 Ron Fairly        1961-09-16    LAD  MLN W  8-7   6  5  0  4  2  0  0   4  1   5   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd CF 1B     

Here's a frivolous weekend post for you. Remember this crazy game? Third-baseman Jeff Hamilton played 20 innings at 3rd base, then retired the side as pitcher in the 21st, then took the loss in the 22nd? And he pitched only after Orel Hershiser pitched 7 innings in relief!

Crazy.

This is a Game Finder search setting "times on base" to zero and sorting by most runs scored.

Turns out that two different players have scored 3 runs in a game without officially reaching base:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  **R**  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB TOB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+------+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Sandy Alomar      1975-07-20(1) NYY @MIN W 14-2   4  4    3    0  0  0  0   1  0   2   0  0   0  0  0   2   0  0  0 9th 2B
    2 Whitey Ford       1958-07-20(2) NYY  KCA W  8-0   4  3    3    0  0  0  0   0  0   2   0  0   0  1  0   2   0  0  0 9th P

It was achieved by a Yankee each time.

Most recently it was done by Sandy Alomar Sr in 1975. If you check out the box score above, you'll see that he twice reached on error and came around to score, and also reached on a fielder's choice and came around to score. Interestingly, in his other at-bat, he also reached on a fielder's choice with none out and could possibly have scored again without officially reaching base.

The first time, it was achieved by pitcher Whitey Ford. Just like Alomar, Ford did it by reaching on error twice and reaching on a fielder's choice once, although Ford's FC came on a bunt.

Notice something else interesting? Both games were played on July 20th, though17 years apart!

Following on a bit from yesterday's Mattingly post, here is some info on all plate appearances in 2007 that ended on a pitch thrown with a 3-0 count. So keep in mind as you read below, this doesn't include any PAs that went to 3-1 or 3-2, but rather those that ended on the pitch coming with a 3-0 count. In most cases, this means a 4th ball, leading to a walk. But there are the occasional HBP, fly-outs, HR, etc. (Just to hammer the point home, there could be no strikeouts in this stat since there are no strikes when the count is 3-0. Similarly, a PA that goes from 3-0 to 3-1 on a strike doesn't count here. It's only those PAs that end on a pitch thrown with a 3-0 count.)

So it turns out that there were 4380 such PAs in 2007:

   G     PA     AB     H    2B   3B   HR   RBI    BB   IBB   SO   HBP  SH   SF   ROE  GDP   BA     OBP    SLG    OPS
+-----+------+------+-----+----+----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+----+----+----+----+----+------+------+------+------+
  1968   4380    245    97   30    2   23   159  4118 1249     0   11    0    6    2    5   .396   .965   .816  1.781

So that's a little more than 2 such PAs per game. As you can see, 4118 of those became walks (94.0%), including 1249 that were intentional walks. Incidentally, this doesn't differentiate between PAs that started off as intentional walks (4 intentional balls) and those where the last ball or two were given intentionally after the pitcher fell behind.

You can see the full results of this search here.

Barry Bonds (surprise, surprise) had the most PAs ending on the pitch thrown with a 3-0 count.

In his 64 such PAs, here was his batting line:

   G    PA    AB    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF ROE GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS
+----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+
   53    64     1    0   0   0   0    0   63  43    0   0   0   0   0   0  .000  .984  .000  .984

Incidentally, you can't get this line from the above search. Rather, you need to go to Bonds' Batting Event Finder page.

So in 63 out of 64 PAs, Bonds ended up walking (including 43 times intentionally.) But he did swing and put the ball into play once on a 3-0 count. It was in this game, where he grounded out to second on a 3-0 pitch.

Now from above, we see that 23 times a guy homered on a 3-0 pitch. To get that list, we need to go to the Batting Event Finder and look it up through home runs.

So here is the full list of 3-0 homers in 2007:

   Yr#    G# Date          Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-------+---+-------------+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
       1   1 2007-04-09    Jim Thome         CHW @OAK Rich Harden       down   0-1  t 4 ---   0 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF)
       2   1 2007-04-27    Casey Kotchman    LAA @CHW Jose Contreras    down   1-3  t 6 1--   2 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Anderson Scores
       3   1 2007-04-28    Josh Willingham   FLA @PHI Francisco Rosari  ahead  7-4  t 6 12-   2 3-0   4   3 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Cabrera Scores; Jacobs Scores
       4   1 2007-04-29    Adam Dunn         CIN @PIT Shawn Chacon      ahead  6-4  t 5 1--   1 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF); Gonzalez Scores
       5   1 2007-05-23    Alex Gordon       KCR  CLE Cliff Lee         ahead  7-4  b 5 ---   1 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF)
       6   1 2007-06-01    Jason Michaels    CLE  DET Mike Maroth       down   3-5  b 6 1--   2 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Garko Scores
       7   1 2007-06-04    Casey Kotchman    LAA  MIN Boof Bonser       ahead  3-1  b 6 ---   1 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF)
       8   1 2007-06-05    B.J. Upton        TBD @TOR Roy Halladay      ahead  4-1  t 4 -2-   1 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF); Harris Scores
       9   1 2007-06-24    Jason Varitek     BOS @SDP Scott Linebrink   ahead  3-2  t 8 ---   0 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF)
      10   1 2007-06-28    Chase Utley       PHI  CIN Matt Belisle      tied   0-0  b 1 -2-   1 3-0   2   2 Home Run (Line Drive to CF); Rollins Scores
      11   2               Chase Utley       PHI  CIN Matt Belisle      down   2-4  b 3 -2-   1 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF); Rollins Scores
      12   1 2007-07-04    Adam LaRoche      PIT  MIL Claudio Vargas    tied   3-3  b 6 1--   0 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Sanchez Scores
      13   1 2007-07-14    David Ortiz       BOS  TOR Dustin McGowan    tied   0-0  b 1 ---   2 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Line Drive to RF)
      14   1 2007-07-14    Josh Willingham   FLA  WSN Matt Chico        ahead  3-0  b 6 1--   0 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF); Jacobs Scores
      15   1 2007-07-21    Pedro Feliz       SFG @MIL David Bush        ahead  1-0  t 4 -2-   2 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Klesko Scores
      16   1 2007-07-24    Jeff Kent         LAD @HOU Jason Jennings    down   0-1  t 2 ---   0 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF)
      17   1 2007-07-24(2) Jim Thome         CHW  DET Chad Durbin       down   3-7  b 7 12-   2 3-0   4   3 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF); Pierzynski Scores; Owens Scores
      18   1 2007-08-07    Aaron Rowand      PHI  FLA Carlos Martinez   ahead  7-1  b 4 ---   1 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF)
      19   1 2007-08-25    Victor Martinez   CLE @KCR Kyle Davies       ahead  6-0  t 2 ---   2 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF)
      20   1 2007-08-25    Milton Bradley    SDP @PHI Tom Gordon        down   1-2  t 8 ---   1 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF)
      21   1 2007-08-26    Carlos Pena       TBD  OAK Danny Haren       ahead  4-2  b 6 ---   1 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Line Drive to RF)
      22   1 2007-09-11    Brian Giles       SDP @LAD Esteban Loaiza    ahead  2-0  t 2 -2-   2 3-0   4   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF); Bard Scores
      23   1 2007-09-26    Lance Berkman     HOU @CIN Tom Shearn        tied   0-0  t 1 1-3   0 3-0   4   3 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Burke Scores; Everett Scores

Holy smokes! Chase Utley did it twice, in the same game, off the same pitcher! MVP Rollins scored on both. Casey Kotchman, Jim Thome, and Josh Willimgham also did it twice this year, but Belisle is the only pitcher to give up two. There were no slams, but a few three-run jobs.

Now, if you check out the data above, you can see that there were 150 outs recorded on a 3-0 pitch. Again using the Batting Event Finder, we can find all such outs on 3-0 pitches.

Here are the batters to do it the most:

Victor Martinez 6, Chase Utley 4, Frank Thomas 4, and Matt Holliday 4. All good hitters. Utley must swing a lot on 3-0.

Here (from his personal Batting Event Finder) are the 6 times Martinez did it:

  Car#  Yr#  G# Date          Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1    1   1 2007-05-18    CLE  CIN Victor Santos     ahead  9-4  b 3 1--   2 3-0   4   0 Popfly: 3B
     2    2   1 2007-06-09    CLE @CIN Dave Weathers     tied   6-6  t 9 ---   2 3-0   4   0 Flyball: LF
     3    3   1 2007-06-17    CLE  ATL Kyle Davies       tied   0-0  b 4 ---   1 3-0   4   0 Groundout: 1B-P
     4    4   1 2007-07-05    CLE @DET Justin Verlander  ahead  2-1  t 3 1--   1 3-0   4   0 Flyball: CF
     5    5   1 2007-07-17    CLE  CHW Dewon Day         tied   5-5  b10 ---   0 3-0   4   0 Groundout: 2B-1B
     6    6   1 2007-08-18    CLE @TBD Jason Hammel      ahead  3-0  t 3 ---   1 3-0   4   0 Flyball: RF

Ouch, he did it twice in the 9th inning or later or a tie game. That's not good.

He did also have these 4 hits on a 3-0 pitch:

  Car#  Yr#  G# Date          Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1    1   1 2007-06-17    CLE  ATL Kyle Davies       ahead  1-0  1B     b 6 ---   0 3-0   4   0 Single to RF (Ground Ball)
     2    2   1 2007-07-07    CLE @TOR Shaun Marcum      tied   0-0  2B     t 1 ---   2 3-0   4   0 Double to RF (Line Drive)
     3    3   1 2007-07-22    CLE @TEX Robinson Tejeda   ahead  2-0  1B     t 5 --3   0 3-0   2   1 Single to CF (Ground Ball); Blake Scores
     4    4   1 2007-08-25    CLE @KCR Kyle Davies       ahead  6-0  HR     t 2 ---   2 3-0   4   1 Home Run (Fly Ball to RF)

But these games were all either early or tied...much better times to take such a chance.

Anyway, there are so many cool things like this you can find on the PI. Get cracking!

I have to say--last night's Padres / Rockies game was one for the ages. I give both teams a huge amount of credit, and Padres fans, you have nothing to feel bad about. Your team did you proud; no closer is perfect and unfortunately it was a bad spot for Hoffman to have an off night.

Some observations about the game:

• This was the only tie-breaker game to ever go into extra innings. (See here for links to previous games' box scores.)
• It was Peavy's second worst start of the year, with 10 hits and 6 ER for a game score of 31. He had one recent game with more earned runs (8) and a lower game score (17)  and two previous games with as many hits (10.)
• Amazing, the 10 pitchers used by the Rockies was not an outright team record; it just tied the previous high of 10, which had been "accomplished" three times. Amazingly, one of those games was a 9-inning job, and they gave up only 4 runs. Why the heck did they use 10 pitchers?
• The NL MVP race got even more interesting. Both Holliday and Rollins performed well late in the season, and both played huge roles in their team's final (and clinching) game.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to this post-season a lot more than in recent years. The American League looks to be much stronger than the National League, but the gutty performances by all four NL teams (Cubs overcoming season-long leading Brewers, Arizona holding off both Colorado and San Diego, Phillies ousting the Mets largely on 7 consecutive wins head-to-head, and Colorado's 11-game win streak followed by the epic victory last night) have impressed me.

What's also cool is that for the first time in a while it seems, all 8 teams have a legitimate shot of reaching the World Series. Imagine some of the neat possibilities: Cubs vs Red Sox, or a rematch of Diamondbacks vs Yankees.

Grab on to your seat--I think it's going to be pretty wild the rest of October.

• Not to go too crazy here, but Micah Owings just completed the greatest hitting season for a pitcher ever (well, since 1901, and, well, if you're judging just by OPS.) He capped off an amazing season yesterday with a ho-hum 4-for-4 performance with 3 doubles and 3 RBI. (And he pitched shutout ball into the 7th inning in a critical game for the Diamondbacks.) He finishes the year with a 1.050 OPS, tops among pitchers with at least 40 plate appearances in a season since 1901. His 12 extra-base hits are tied for 28th all-time and are the most singe Ferguson Jenkins' 14 in 1971. It's time for the Diamondbacks to seriously think about using him as a pinch-hitter, and if the kid can play some outfield, he might even get a few starts there in between mound appearances. (Editor's note: much to my surprise, Arizona did use Owings as a PH and his OPS for the season dropped a bit. See the comments below.)

• Lost in the hoopla of the Mets' collapse is that Jesus Matty Moises Alou had a 30-game hit streak snapped yesterday. That's the longest in the majors this year. Ichiro had a streak of 25 and another of 19 this year...not too shabby. (I kept in the Jesus and Matty because I did actually start to type those names by accident...only Felipe's name didn't come out.) By the way, Alou is hitting .344 on the year, giving him 4 seasons in his career with at least 300 ABs and a batting average higher than .330. Not too shabby.

• Ryan Howard did it! In yesterday's game, he finally broke the tie with Adan Dunn and moved into first place all-time for most strikeouts in a season. Of course, nobody cares since it happened after his 2-run first-inning HR put the Phillies up 4-0 and allowed them to tie the Mets for first place. I'm sure Howard would love to avoid striking out 3 times in the last 3 games, to finish below the magic number of 200.

• Yesterday I was reminded of something I had forgotten: Braves reliever Ron Mahay actually made it to the big leagues as an outfielder with Boston in 1995, getting a homer and 3 RBI in 20 ABs. As you can see from his minor league stats, starting in 1996 he went back to single-A to become a pitcher. He had a very nice season as a lefty reliever this year.

• Jimmy Rollins hit his 30th homer last night, joining the 30/30 club (the other 30 being stolen bases, in case you've been living under a rock since 1987.) Courtesy of some stats given out during the Phillies' radio broadcast of last night's game, Rollins becomes only the second Phillie ever to have a 30/30 season (Bobby Abreu has done it twice,) and just the 3rd full-time shortstop to do it. That should earn him a few more MVP votes.

• Manny Ramirez returned to the Boston lineup yesterday after missing 24 games with an oblique strain, but he batted 2nd instead of his customary 4th. I assume that Francona was trying to prevent Manny from swinging for the fences and instead just try to make contact, as Manny's oblique is almost certainly not fully healed. Anyway, before last night Manny had just 9 of his career 8331 plate appearances from the 2-hole, and most of those came in his early years with Cleveland. He has batted 4th the most by far, with 5474 PAs hitting cleanup.

• Matt Cain. It's too painful to even go into details of last night's game, but let's just say he was robbed again.

• Prince Fielder homered twice last night to give him 50 on the season, and now he and his Big Daddy are the only father-son combo to each have 50-homer seasons. However, I am very disappointed in both generations of Fielder for airing their family dispute publicly. Cecil has called Prince disrespectful, and now Prince says he's glad to stick it to his father. I understand that people sometimes have differences, but family issues should stay within the family. Public jabs like that only make everyone involved look increasingly immature and irrational.

In a shocking bit of frivolity, this game between Boston and Baltimore a couple of weeks ago featured opposing pitchers whose names sound the same but are spelled differently.

The starter for the Red Sox was Jon Lester, who has overcome off-season cancer to pitch again in the majors this year. Daniel Cabrera started for the Orioles, but was relieved by Jon Leicester, whose last name is pronounced like "Lester." (Those of you familiar with Leicester Square in London will be familiar with its pronunciation.)

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other two baseball players with exact homophonic names (except those that are actually spelled the same, such as Chris Young and Chris Young,) much less two players pitching for opposing sides in the same game.

But surely you readers out there can think of some other examples? Please comment.

As a general baseball fan, I'd really like to see Kansas City become a competitive team once again. That region is great for baseball, and a lot of great bits of MLB history have happened there.

I'm thoroughly encouraged by Kansas City's pitching staff.

First of all, everybody laughed when KC picked up Gil Meche. Well, he's got an ERA+ of 129, has pitched 202 innings, and has put together one of the most solid seasons for a Royals starting pitcher in a long time. Brian Bannister (who I didn't know until just now is the son of Floyd Bannister) has been equally solid, and together they make a great 1-2 punch.

Now, add that Zack Greinke made his best all-time career start last night, and he might be back on track to becoming another solid starter.

KC's relief pitching has also been good. As of today, here are the splits for relief pitching in the American League. Altogether they've got the 6th best AL ERA and allowed the 3rd-fewest walks with the 2nd-most strikeouts.

My feeling is that solid pitching is a lot more important than hitting, because it's significantly easier to either develop (from within) or attract (as free agents) good hitting, especially with a good young pitching staff. Ultimately they'll need both to be successful, but I think they're pretty close to having the more difficult one nailed.