During the TV broadcast of the Rockies-Phillies game, one of the announcers mentioned that the Rockies have 4 hits so far--a single, a double, a triple, and a homer. This game might not finish that way (it's the 8th inning at the moment) but here are the 56 regular-season games since 1957 that did finish that way, with a team having 4 total hits, one of each variety.

Plus, it happened once in the post-season, when the Indians beat the Red Sox 4-0 in Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS.

I have a feeling that the post-season portion of the Play Index is going to get used a ton in the next few weeks. Let's all give Sean  a big cheer!

This season, the Colorado Rockies and the New York Yankees became just the 18th and 19th teams in big league history to have FIVE players on their team with 90+ RBI in the same season.  Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder, here's the complete list of all teams to have five batters on their team with 90+ RBI in the same season: 

 Year Lg Team                              Number Players Matching
 +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+
  2007 NL Colorado Rockies                       5 Matt Holliday / Garrett Atkins / Troy Tulowitzki / Todd Helton / Brad Hawpe   
  2007 AL New York Yankees                       5 Robinson Cano / Alex Rodriguez / Bobby Abreu / Jorge Posada / Hideki Matsui   
  2002 AL New York Yankees                       5 Alfonso Soriano / Jason Giambi / Bernie Williams / Jorge Posada / Robin Ventura   
  2000 AL Anaheim Angels                         5 Mo Vaughn / Troy Glaus / Garret Anderson / Tim Salmon / Darin Erstad   
  2000 AL Chicago White Sox                      5 Frank Thomas / Magglio Ordonez / Carlos Lee / Jose Valentin / Paul Konerko   
  1999 AL Texas Rangers                          5 Rafael Palmeiro / Todd Zeile / Rusty Greer / Juan Gonzalez / Ivan Rodriguez   
  1996 AL Baltimore Orioles                      5 Cal Ripken / Rafael Palmeiro / Bobby Bonilla / Roberto Alomar / Brady Anderson   
  1996 AL Seattle Mariners                       5 Jay Buhner / Alex Rodriguez / Paul Sorrento / Ken Griffey / Edgar Martinez   
  1982 AL Milwaukee Brewers                      5 Ben Oglivie / Gorman Thomas / Robin Yount / Cecil Cooper / Ted Simmons   
  1977 AL Boston Red Sox                         5 Jim Rice / Butch Hobson / George Scott / Carlton Fisk / Carl Yastrzemski   
  1953 NL Brooklyn Dodgers                       5 Duke Snider / Roy Campanella / Gil Hodges / Jackie Robinson / Carl Furillo   
  1941 AL Boston Red Sox                         5 Ted Williams / Joe Cronin / Jimmie Foxx / Bobby Doerr / Jim Tabor   
  1938 AL New York Yankees                       5 Lou Gehrig / Joe DiMaggio / Bill Dickey / Tommy Henrich / Joe Gordon   
  1936 AL Detroit Tigers                         5 Marv Owen / Charlie Gehringer / Goose Goslin / Al Simmons / Gee Walker   
  1936 AL New York Yankees                       5 Lou Gehrig / Tony Lazzeri / Joe DiMaggio / George Selkirk / Bill Dickey   
  1934 AL Detroit Tigers                         5 Marv Owen / Billy Rogell / Charlie Gehringer / Hank Greenberg / Goose Goslin   
  1933 AL New York Yankees                       5 Lou Gehrig / Ben Chapman / Tony Lazzeri / Babe Ruth / Bill Dickey   
  1932 AL Philadelphia Athletics                 5 Al Simmons / Jimmie Foxx / Jimmie Dykes / Mickey Cochrane / Eric McNair   
  1929 NL Chicago Cubs                           5 Rogers Hornsby / Hack Wilson / Kiki Cuyler / Riggs Stephenson / Charlie Grimm

A couple of quick notes on BOS and LAA as the playoffs kick off tonight:

• Boston might be a little bit different of a team offensively from what you're expecting. Check out the list of teams in 2007 with the most player with at least 25 stolen bases. Boston is among 9 teams with 2 such players (Julio Lugo and Count Chocula...errrr Coco Crisp.) You have to go back a long, long way to find the last time the Red Sox did that.
• John Lackey's numbers against the Red Sox leave something to be desired:

    Split          G   GS  GF  W   L   S   CG SHO   IP     ERA    H    R   ER   HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP
+-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+
   BOS            11  11   0   1   6   0   0   0   60.1   6.27   90   49   42  10   26   3   48   3

And his career numbers at Fenway Park:

    Split          G   GS  GF  W   L   S   CG SHO   IP     ERA    H    R   ER   HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP
+-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+
BOS-Fenway Pk       7   7   0   1   4   0   0   0   35     7.46   59   36   29   7   12   1   27   2

We'll see what it all means in about 7 hours.

Frank Baker Batting Against Christy Mathewson - Baseball-Reference PI

Did you know that Frank Baker owned Big 6 in the World Series?

I've just added all of the postseason pitcher vs. batter matchups to the Play Index, so you can search for old matchups or look at newer ones again, now with their postseason appearances included. The career totals will be updated later today to include these appearances.

Well folks, the votes are in.

First, I want to thank all 25 people who voted. This was a very interesting process for me, and the results are really amazing.

The player with the most first-place votes was Jimmy Rollins; however, Matt Holliday is your NL MVP.

Here are the full voting results:

                   1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th  9th  10th  Total

1.  Matt Holliday   7    7    6    2         1    1                    232
2.  Jimmy Rollins   9    5    1    1    2    2              1    1     211
3.  David Wright    5    5    3    5    2    3         1               204
4.  Prince Fielder  1    4    3    2    5    2    2    3         1     146
5.  Chase Utley     1    2    2    4    3    1    1    1         2     108
6.  Chipper Jones   1         3    3         2    2    5    4    1     101
7.  Hanley Ramirez       1         3    5    3    5              1      96
8.  Jake Peavy           1    4         2    2    2         1    1      74
9.  Albert Pujols   1         2    2         1    3    1    3    3      73
10. Ryan Howard               1    1    1    1    3    4    1    4      56
11. Miguel Cabrera                      1    3    4    3    2           50
12. Jose Reyes                     1    2    2         3    1    2      42
13. Ryan Braun                                    1    2         1      11
14. Eric Byrnes                         1                   1            8
15t Troy Tulowitzki                                    1    1    1       6
15t Aaron Rowand                                            3            6
17. Todd Helton                              1                           5
18. Barry Bonds                                             1    2       4
19t Takashi Saito                                           1            2
19t Russell Martin                                          1            2
19t Adam Dunn                                               1            2
19t Jose Valverde                                           1            2
19t Carlos Lee                                                   2       2

Tidbits about the voting:

• Of the 24 ballots cast with at least the top 8 named, Holliday was on all 24 while Rollins appeared on only 22. Rollins would've needed a 1st and a 2nd on those 2 extra ballots to overtake Holliday for first place.
• Jave Peavy was named on only 13 ballots but finished 8th in the voting. However, many of those votes were cast before he got bombed by the Rockies in the tie-breaker game.
• One other player was named on all 24 of the ballots with the top 8 named: David Wright.
• The Phillies lead the way with 4 players getting votes, and with 3 players in the top 10. Interestingly, the only other top-10 player who is on a playoff team is Holliday.

This was a lot of fun - thanks. Now we all get to sit back and compare these results to the real voting when it comes out.

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.

Single-season outs leaders

Certainly he was helped by setting the all-time Plate Appearance record, but Jimmy Rollins also cracked the top twenty all-time for outs made in a season, coming in at #20, with a whopping 527 outs used. Rollins has finished in the league's top ten in outs made every year of his career and returned to the top spot after a couple year hiatus.

Sure, he was helped by all those PA, but Dykstra only produced 468 outs in his historic season. The Phillies could have scored a lot of runs with 59 more outs to play with. Might have won another game or two.

Yesterday, a reader pointed out that Brett Myers threw the first and last pitches of the Phillies season. This might seem rare, but it has happened 67 times in the last 51 years, mostly with ace starters throwing a complete game on the final day of the season, but it has happened a few times with the opening day starter pitching the final day in relief. Here are the seventeen times it has happened.

| CIN              |      1958 | Brooks Lawrence |   2 |
| CIN              |      1959 | Bob Purkey      |   2 |
| LAD              |      1960 | Don Drysdale    |   2 |
| BAL              |      1961 | Milt Pappas     |   2 |
| LAA              |      1962 | Eli Grba        |   2 |
| STL              |      1963 | Ernie Broglio   |   2 |
| MLN              |      1964 | Warren Spahn    |   2 |
| MLN              |      1965 | Tony Cloninger  |   2 |
| CAL              |      1967 | George Brunet   |   2 |
| OAK              |      1968 | Catfish Hunter  |   2 |
| SDP              |      1974 | Bill Greif      |   2 |
| SEA              |      1980 | Mike Parrott    |   2 |
| SDP              |      1997 | Joey Hamilton   |   2 |
| BOS              |      1997 | Tom Gordon      |   2 |
| CIN              |      2002 | Joey Hamilton   |   2 |
| DET              |      2006 | Kenny Rogers    |   2 |
| PHI              |      2007 | Brett Myers     |   2 |

Isn't baseball awesome?

Not everybody can win, and there are plenty of disappointed fans out there today, but it's certainly been exciting. Frankly, it's nice to see some good ol' fashioned pennant fever, and today's one-game playoff will be great to watch.

A few news and notes:

• Fare thee well to Craig Biggio, a heck of a player who I hope next tips his cap at Cooperstown in 2013. I have sung Biggio's praises before so I'll just mention it's amazing how much he reminds me of Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount. Both played well for full seasons in both the infield and outfield (with Biggio also playing at catcher for his first few years), both were incredibly consistent hitters throughout their career, and both played their entire career with just one franchise. I have just two things to say to Biggio: congratulations, and thank you.
• ESPN.com was kind enough to list out all the one-game playoff games in history right here, and I thought I'd link up to the box scores for you. 1999 Mets/Reds, 1998 Cubs/Giants, 1995 Mariners/Angels, 1980 Astros/Dodgers, 1978 Yankees/BoSox. The box score for the 1948 game is not available. I think that 1980 Astros/Dodgers game was amazing. The 'Stros had a 3 game lead going into the final series with the Dodgers, and they got swept in 3 games in LA, then had to play the tie-breaking game in LA as well. I would have given the Dodgers a huge advantage in that one, but the late Joe Niekro came up huge. I see that for the Dodgers, Rick Sutcliffe and Fernando both pitched in relief.
• Ryan Howard finished with "just" 199 K's, avoiding a dreaded figure of 200. It's tough to look at a guy who had 47 HR and 136 RBI and question whether he had a really good season, but it is true that his BA/OBP/SLG are all down significantly from last year, that his K rate was significantly higher, and for such huge power numbers he still finished just 3rd on the team in Runs Created. Also, his defense over the weekend was very shaky, perhaps due to nerves. Of course, his bat wasn't too shabby, finishing with homers in 4 straight games. I'll be very interested to see what he does in the post-season.

• Finally, I am leaving voting open for the NL MVP through Tuesday night. Go ahead and vote if you haven't already. Matt Holliday wins the batting title unless he goes 0-for-5 today.