Following Steve's lead, let's take a quick look at some historical post-season happenings, specifically the 1996 AL Division Series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees. Or, as I like to call it, the Juan Gonzalez show.

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• Curtis Granderson became the founding third member of the 20/20/20/20 club (HR, SB, 2B, and 3B.) Here are the members of the 15/15/15/15 club. Carl Crawford (2005 & 2006) and Juan Samuel (1984 & 1987) have done it twice. Jimmy Rollins needs 2 SB and 3 3B this year to join the 20/20/20/20 club, so he's got a shot.

• Who's got the longest streak in the 2000's of most starts without allowing a walk? Yes, the answer is Greg Maddux, but it's not his current streak of 8 starts. In 2001 he did it in 9 straight games. The list includes streaks of 7 straight games by David Wells and Javier Vazquez. The longest streak since 1957 was by Bill Fischer in 1962, with 11 straight starts with no walks. Fischer did have a relief appearance in the middle of his streak, earning a blown save. Over the 11 starts, Fischer went 2-8 with 71 IP, 86 hits, 0 walks and just 18 strikeouts. That's a pretty weird streak.

• The Brewers led off their game on Sunday with 3 straight homers. It's just the third time it's been done, with the first occurrence back in 1987 by the Padres. It took me a while to find the second time it was done. I went to the Team Batting Event Finder, set it to all teams, home runs, then limited the events to homers in the 1st inning with no outs. Here's the list for 1994. Reading down the list, you'll notice the game where three such homers occurred, but that's not the game. From the boxscore, we see that Jacob Brumfield led off with a homer, and Bret Boone followed with one. But then Barry Larkin reached on an error, ahead of Kevin Mitchell homering. Here's a 1996 game by the Rockies where something similar happened. And one by the Mets in 1999. Finally, here's the game: in 2003 by the Braves, when Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa, and Gary Sheffield homered in the bottom of the first.

• Coming in to Sunday, there were 7 pitchers who had 30 starts allowing 6 or fewer earned runs. The ERAs of these players were Dontrelle Willis 5.01, Brandon Webb 2.91, C. C. Sabathia 3.15, Scott Kazmir 3.79, Tim Hudson 3.47, Dan Haren 3.03, Aaron Harang 3.64. Remember that song "One of These Things is Not Like the Others"? Maybe that explains why Dontrelle Willis finally gave up 7 ER on Sunday against the Phillies.

• Before yesterday, Jake Peavy was 3-0 in 4 starts this season against Arizona, allowing 5 ER in 26.1 innings for a 1.71 ERA, with 8 walks and 45 (!!) strikeouts. Yesterday, he gave up 8 ER alone in just 4 innings.

• Carlos Pena set the record for RBIs in a game by a Devil Ray. He's already got the Tampa Bay record for HR in a season. With 13 RBIs, he'll have that season record too. Not bad for a guy who's been traded or released 5 times.

• The use of the Play Index by baseball journalists is becoming quite prevalent. Here's an example by Peter Abraham of the Journal News.

I have seen a lot of stats mentioned in different places about various records of Red Sox pitchers vs the Yankees, and the reverse. (Many over at Peter Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog.)

Let's take a look. First, Red Sox starters this year against the Yankees:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Schilling        3  3  0  0  1  0  0   0  18     7.00  29  15  14  6   2   0  10   0
  Matsuzaka        3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  19.1   6.98  19  15  15  3   8   0  16   3
  Beckett          3  3  0  1  1  0  0   0  19.2   5.49  30  13  12  1   6   0  18   0
  Wakefield        3  3  0  0  3  0  0   0  14    10.93  19  17  17  4  17   0   7   1
  Tavarez          2  2  0  2  0  0  0   0  10.2   4.22   6   5   5  1   6   0   4   0

There you have it, folks. Julian Tavarez, your Yankee-killer. (Joking aside, I think Tavarez has done a great job for Boston this year. He's got fantastic stats as a #5 starter and has helped keep their bullpen fresh.)

Now, as turnabout is fair play, the Yankee starters' performance against Boston this year:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Pettitte*        6  5  0  2  1  0  0   0  30.1   4.75  36  16  16  4  12   0  19   1
  Wang             3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  18     4.50  23   9   9  2   8   0   7   2
  Mussina          2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0  11.2   9.26  19  12  12  4   5   1   3   0
  Clemens          1  1  0  1  0  0  0   0   6     1.50   2   1   1  1   5   0   2   1
  Karstens         2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0   4.1  14.54  11   7   7  1   2   0   1   0
  C. Wright        1  1  0  0  0  0  0   0   3    12.00   5   4   4  4   3   0   3   0 

*Numbers include 1 scoreless inning in relief on 4/22/07

I guess the Yankees' numbers are somewhat better, especially that the three truly unimpressive performances above are by guys not currently in the rotation.

Here are the total lines for pitching by each staff (not just starters) against the other team:

Pitching Team      G   W   L   S   CG SHO   IP     ERA    H    R   ER   HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP
+-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+
Yankees (vs BOS)   14   7   7   4   0   0  122     5.61  145   79   76  21   68   5   75   7
Boston  (vs NYY)   14   7   7   4   0   0  121     5.43  135   75   73  18   59   0   86   7  

Pretty similar, although the edge goes to Boston.Their bullpen has been a lot better than the Yankees' in their head-to-head matchups.

Now, those 7 HBP by each team are a bit ominous...

Reader denniscookfanclub posed the question of how many times a team has scored at least 10 runs while at least half were unearned. I've done a search for almost this: a pitching game finder where at least 10 runs were allowed, but no more than 5 were earned. (This is actually slightly more restrictive than denniscookfanclub's idea.)

I was shocked to see how many such games there have been. The full list is shared here. There have been a whopping 352 such games since 1957! Here is a sample:

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There is an absolutely fantastic interview with Tim Raines over here at Baseball Prospectus (shout out to the guys over at The Book for pointing it out.) I'll let you read the interview on your own, but I'll use the PI to point out a few of the things that Raines mentions. Read the rest of this entry »

Johan Santana struck out 17 batters in 8 innings today, and was replaced by Joe Nathan starting the 9th, meaning he missed out on a chance of tying the record for K's in a nine inning game.

Getting 17 in 8 innings isn't even the record. Not counting Santana's game, here are the leaders since 1957 for K's in a game while pitching 8 innings or less:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB **SO** HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+------+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
    1 Randy Johnson     1992-09-27    SEA @TEX L  2-3  GS-8       8    6  2  2  4   18    0 160 111   76       34 30  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   2.25 

    2 Randy Johnson     1999-06-30    ARI @CIN L  0-2  CG 8  ,L   8    7  2  2  0   17    1 134  96   77       30 30  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  2  0  1  0  0   2.25 

    3 Jake Peavy        2007-04-25    SDP @ARI L  2-3  GS-7       7    2  0  0  3   16    0 116  74   86       25 22  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
    4 Jake Peavy        2006-05-22    SDP  ATL L  1-3  GS-7  ,L   7    3  2  2  1   16    1 114  74   78       25 24  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   2.57
    5 Mark Prior        2003-06-26    CHC  MIL L  3-5  GS-8       8    4  2  2  0   16    1 127  86   82       27 27  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  1  0  0  1   2.25
    6 Randy Johnson     2001-09-27    ARI  MIL W 13-11 GS-7  ,W   6.2  7  5  5  2   16    1 126  81   54       30 28  2  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  1   6.75
    7 Randy Johnson     2001-08-23    ARI @PIT L  1-5  GS-7  ,L   7    5  4  4  2   16    1 115  78   65       28 26  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   5.14
    8 Randy Johnson     2001-07-18    ARI @SDP W  3-0   3-9f ,W   7    1  0  0  1   16    0 109  68       0  0 23 22  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
    9 Pedro Martinez    2001-04-08    BOS  TBD W  3-0  GS-8  ,W   8    3  0  0  3   16    0 112  75   89       29 26  0  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
   10 Kerry Wood        1998-08-26    CHC @CIN W  9-2  GS-8  ,W   8    3  2  1  3   16    1 133  85   83       30 27  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   1.12
   11 Curt Schilling    1997-09-01    PHI  NYY W  5-1  GS-8  ,W   8    7  1  1  0   16    0 124  86   80       31 31  3  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   1.12
   12 Roger Clemens     1997-07-12    TOR @BOS W  3-1  GS-8  ,W   8    4  1  1  0   16    0           86       30 28  1  0   0   2  0  0   0  1  1  0  0  0   1.12
   13 David Cone        1997-06-23    NYY @DET W  5-2  GS-8  ,W   8    4  2  2  2   16    2 127  82   80       30 28  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  1   2.25
   14 Hideo Nomo        1995-06-14    LAD @PIT W  8-5  GS-8  ,W   8    6  3  2  2   16    0 125  76   74       33 30  1  0   0   1  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  1   2.25
   15 Sid Fernandez     1989-07-14    NYM @ATL L  2-3  CG 9  ,L   8    6  3  3  0   16    1 121  91   74       30 29  1  0   0   0  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   3.38
   16 Nolan Ryan        1987-09-09    HOU  SFG W  4-2  GS-8  ,W   8    6  2  2  2   16    0           76       33 30  0  0   0   1  0  0   0  2  0  0  0  0   2.25
   17 Jose Rijo         1986-04-19    OAK @SEA W  7-2  GS-9  ,W   8    5  2  2  4   16    0           76       33 29  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  1  0   2.25
   18 Dwight Gooden     1984-09-17    NYM @PHI L  1-2  CG 8  ,L   8    7  2  1  0   16    0           78       30 30  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  5  0  1  2  1   1.12
   19 Steve Carlton     1970-05-21    STL @PHI L  3-4  GS-8       8    9  3  3  2   16    1           66       32 30  1  1   0   0  0  0   0  0  3  1  0  0   3.38
   20 Steve Carlton     1967-09-20    STL @PHI L  1-3  CG 8  ,L   8    8  3  3  3   16    0           67       35 31  2  0   0   0  0  1   0  2  0  0  0  1   3.38 

So Randy Johnson retains that record since 1957 (and I'm not sure if anybody before 1957 can tie or beat his 18, so it might be an all-time record.)

How about #6 on that list above? RJ got 16 strikeouts while pitching 6.2 innings. That's 20 outs with 16 coming by the K. Pretty impressive.

And here were the leaders for strikeouts in a game by a member of the Twins, prior to Santana's game today:

 Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB **SO** HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+------+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
    1 Bert Blyleven     1986-08-01    MIN  OAK W 10-1  CG 9  ,W   9    2  1  1  1   15    1           93       31 30  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   1.00
    2 Jerry Koosman     1980-06-23    MIN  KCR W  4-1  CG 9  ,W   9   10  1  1  2   15    0           76       38 35  3  1   0   0  1  0   0  1  1  1  0  0   1.00
    3 Joe Decker        1973-06-26    MIN @CHW W  4-0  SHO9  ,W   9    4  0  0  3   15    0           91       34 30  1  0   0   1  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
    4 Camilo Pascual    1961-07-19(1) MIN @LAA W  6-0  SHO9  ,W   9    5  0  0  1   15    0           91       34 33  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
    5 Camilo Pascual    1960-04-18    WSH  BOS W 10-1  CG 9  ,W   9    3  1  1  3   15    1           89       33 30  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   1.00 

    6 Johan Santana     2005-06-02    MIN  CLE W  4-3  GS-8       8    4  3  3  1   14    2 107  78   75       29 28  0  1   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   3.38
    7 Johan Santana     2004-09-19    MIN  BAL W  5-1  GS-8  ,W   8    7  0  0  0   14    0 103  78   82       29 29  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  1   0.00
    8 Bert Blyleven     1986-09-24    MIN  KCR L  1-2  CG 9  ,L   9    9  2  2  0   14    1           75       36 36  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  1  0  0   2.00
    9 Dave Goltz        1977-07-25    MIN  OAK W  2-1  CG 11 ,W  11    8  1  1  1   14    0           90       41 40  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  3  0  0  0  1   0.82
   10 Bert Blyleven     1974-08-30    MIN  BOS W  3-2  CG 9  ,W   9    4  2  0  2   14    0           87       35 32  0  0   0   0  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
   11 Dave Boswell      1969-09-19    MIN  SEP W  2-1  CG 9  ,W   9    5  1  1  1   14    0           86       32 31  1  1   0   0  0  0   1  1  0  0  0  1   1.00
   12 Camilo Pascual    1964-10-01    MIN  KCA L  4-5  CG 12 ,L  12   12  5  1  3   14    1           77       52 49  2  1   0   0  0  0   2  1  1  0  0  0   0.75 

How about my man Bert Blyleven!

I love performances such as Santana's. Too much offense, too many homers, and not enough pitchers kicking butt. I had the pleasure of being at one of Randy Johnson's 19 K games in 1997, and it was the most exciting game I've ever been at (and that includes numerous walk-off wins, Red Sox-Yankees games, and near no-hitters.)

Congrats to Santana.

Well Micah Owings just set some records for offense by a pitcher. In his start against Atlanta, he went 4 for 5 with a single, a double, two homers, 4 runs scored and 6 batted in. Click through for the details. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 2: Hey, that's 3 homers in 3 games for Ankiel. The last story I can remember of a young top-flight pitcher disappearing then coming back as a power-hitting outfielder is that one about Roy Hobbs.

UPDATE: Ankiel powered a 3-run homer in his first game with the Cardinals as an outfielder. A very nice start.

Rick Ankiel was called up to the Cardinals (Thanks to Tim at MLBtraderumors.com for the link.)

You probably remember Ankiel as one of the guys who suffered the condition named after Steve Blass, namey losing the ability to throw strikes with any regularity. It was in the third inning of Game 1 of the ALDS vs. the Braves in 2000 when Ankiel unexpectedly threw 5 wild pitches and had to be taken out of the game. His career as a an effective major league pitcher ended right there.

But as you may have heard, Ankiel accepted assignment to the minor leagues and started over as an outfielder. He's had some injuries in the last couple of years, but finally put together a full season this year and has shown tremendous power in the minors. In 2000, before that playoff game, he hit 2 home runs in 68 at-bats.

Ankiel has shown tremendous tenacity and dedication. Most people, after suffering such a public type of failure, would choose to shrink away into anonymity. Ankiel obviously feels he can contribute, and I for one hope he finds success again at the major league level. Don't forget, he's still a couple of weeks away from his 26th birthday! he just turned 28! He has plenty of time for a second major league career.

If I ask you what the record is for most stolen bases in a season without getting caught (since 1957), a bunch of you will probably shout out "Kevin McReynolds, 1988", and you'd be right. McReynolds was not a particularly fast base runner (he topped double digits in steals only 3 times), but by all accounts he was a very skilled base runner.

Here are the top seasons since 1957 with no caught stealings:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Kevin McReynolds     21    0 1988  28 NYM NL 147 600 552  82 159 30  2 27  99  38   3  56   4   1   5   6  .288  .336  .496  .832 *7/8
    2 Paul Molitor         20    0 1994  37 TOR AL 115 515 454  86 155 30  4 14  75  55   4  48   1   0   5  13  .341  .410  .518  .928 *D/3
    3 Gary Thurman         16    0 1989  24 KCR AL  72 105  87  24  17  2  1  0   5  15   0  26   0   2   1   0  .195  .311  .241  .552 897
    4 Jimmy Sexton         16    0 1982  30 OAK AL  69 154 139  19  34  4  0  2  14   9   0  24   1   2   3   0  .245  .289  .317  .606 *6/5
    5 Davey Lopes          15    0 1984  39 TOT ML  88 290 247  37  63 12  1  9  36  37   1  41   1   2   3   8  .255  .351  .421  .772 94/8D75

I don't know a thing about Jimmy Sexton (feel free to tell me about him in the comments), and we've already discussed McReynolds. Certainly the other guys on this list were all great base-stealers. Although, Gary Thurman's problem was that he couldn't steal first base, and otherwise got on base at a rate of just .297 in his career.

If we relax the CS criterion to allow one caught stealing, here are the leaders since 1957:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Carlos Beltran       31    1 2001  24 KCR AL 155 680 617 106 189 32 12 24 101  52   2 120   5   1   5   7  .306  .362  .514  .876 *8/D
    2 Brady Anderson       31    1 1994  30 BAL AL 111 525 453  78 119 25  5 12  48  57   3  75  10   3   2   7  .263  .356  .419  .775 *78/9
    3 Chris Duffy          26    1 2006  26 PIT NL  84 348 314  46  80 14  3  2  18  19   1  71  10   4   1   1  .255  .317  .338  .655 *8
    4 Ken Griffey          23    1 1980  30 CIN NL 146 615 544  89 160 28 10 13  85  62   4  77   1   3   5   4  .294  .364  .454  .818 *9/8
    5 Jason Bay            21    1 2005  26 PIT NL 162 707 599 110 183 44  6 32 101  95   9 142   6   0   7  12  .306  .402  .559  .961 *78
    6 Jason Bartlett       20    1 2007  27 MIN AL  98 387 350  48  91 15  1  3  27  31   3  50   5   0   1   4  .260  .328  .334  .662 *6
    7 Stan Javier          20    1 1988  24 OAK AL 125 440 397  49 102 13  3  2  35  32   1  63   2   6   3  13  .257  .313  .320  .633 *789/3

Note, of course, that's Ken Griffey Sr., not Jr. But it is Stan Javier, not his father Julian. Check out Jason Bartlett's active streak at 20. He got caught stealing July 3 by Jorge Posada.

Once again, if we relax the criterion to allow for 2 CS's, here are the leaders:

  Cnt Player             **SB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Ichiro Suzuki        45    2 2006  32 SEA AL 161 752 695 110 224 20  9  9  49  49  16  71   5   1   2   2  .322  .370  .416  .786 *98/D
    2 Doug Glanville       34    2 1999  28 PHI NL 150 692 628 101 204 38  6 11  73  48   1  82   6   5   5   9  .325  .376  .457  .833 *8
    3 Amos Otis            33    2 1970  23 KCR AL 159 700 620  91 176 36  9 11  58  68   3  67   1   6   5   8  .284  .353  .424  .777 *8
    4 Jack Perconte        31    2 1985  30 SEA AL 125 542 485  60 128 17  7  2  23  50   0  36   3   2   2   9  .264  .335  .340  .675 *4
    5 Ichiro Suzuki        30    2 2007  33 SEA AL 109 497 455  77 156 16  5  5  45  37   8  46   2   2   1   5  .343  .394  .433  .827 *8/D
    6 Alfonso Soriano      30    2 2005  29 TEX AL 156 682 637 102 171 43  2 36 104  33   3 125   7   0   5   6  .268  .309  .512  .821 *4/D

Now you're really cooking. 45 steals with only 2 CS is a huge offensive boon It's like turning 40+ of your singles into doubles. And note that Ichiro makes the list (at least at the moment) for 2007 too.

Honorable mentions to Carlos Beltran and Dave Roberts, who in 2004 stole 42 and 38 bases, respectively, each getting caught only 3 times. Of course, as Red Sox and Yankees fans can both tell you, Roberts' most important stolen base in 2004 happened in the post-season.