Carl Crawford became the 2nd hitter this year with consecutive games of at least 8 total bases, joining (no surprise) Jose Bautista.   The table below shows the 33 such streaks in the last 5+ seasons.  (The longest streaks in the last 20 years were 3 games, in 2003 and 2000; you could guess all day and probably not name these two guys.  Answer below.)

Crawford had 4 hits each night, with a HR and two 2Bs Wednesday, and two 3Bs Thursday (just the 2nd & 3rd of the year for the active leader in three-baggers).

Bautista's streak on April 22-23 was 3-3 in each game, with HR-3B-2B the first game and 2 HRs the next.   Slight difference in total WPA between these two streaks:  .719 for Bautista, .164 for Crawford.

The last Red Sox hitter with 8+ TB back-to-back was David Ortiz, away back in 2003 (thus not on this list), his first year in Boston.  Some of you will remember that event:  Ortiz had 2 HRs in 2 straight blowout wins in Yankee Stadium.

8+ Total Bases in 2 Consecutive Games, 2006-11

8+ Total Bases in 3 Consecutive Games, 1991-2011

Yesterday Cliff Lee had both a two-RBI double and an RBI single in the Phillies' win over the Reds.

I found a couple other games this year where the pitcher was involved in two different run-scoring plays:

• On April 2, Clayton Richard put down a squeeze bunt that scored Cameron Maybin from 3rd and also drew a bases-loaded walk.
• On April 11, Kyle McClellan had both an RBI double and an RBI single

Weird, I just went to look up the same for 2010 games and saw that I had already visited the link for all of the games where pitchers did this, so I must have blogged about the same thing last year. However I cannot find the entry!

Anyway, it happened 13 times last year:

Richard's done it in both 2010 and 2011 now!

2011 New York Yankees Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com.

Last year in August, there was a bit of a debacle when I started incorporating 2010 season stats into the park factors. Yankee Stadium III had been a much better hitters park and SafeCo a better hitter's park and adding in the 2010 season stats swung the AL pitcher WAR race (temporarily) in Sabathia's favor.

To avoid a similar problem this year and in future years I am going to begin updating the park factors around Memorial Day.

UPDATE: The Win Probability Added calculations for 2011 will also be updated daily to reflect the 2011 park factors and run scoring environment.

The Park Factors on B-R are 3-year factors when appropriate, so 2000's park factor relies equally on 1999, 2000 and 2001.

So now for 2011 since it is underway, we start with the PERCentage of the season played and

PF_2011_3yr = (PERC*PF_2011 + PF_2010 + (1-PERC)*PF_2009)/2

PF_2010_3yr = (PERC*PF_2011 + PF_2010 + PF_2009)/(2+PERC)

This should prevent violent swings in the park factors and at the end of the season we will end up with PF we were going to have throughout the offseason.

2011 pages will of course be updated daily. 2010 pages will be updated less often. To see what goes into each team's park factor you can look at the various one-year park factors listed on their team/year pages.

Just a quickie to see if this contraption really flies:

-- To review: Ryan Vogelsong began this season in AAA at the age of 33, owner of a career 5.86 ERA in the majors, a place he hadn't pitched since 2006; as his B-R sponsor notes, Vogelsong went 2,412 days between wins as a starter. Tonight, Vogelsong ran his no-earned-run streak to 24 innings before Logan Morrison (get used to that name) nicked him for an RBI single in the 6th. It would be the only run of the game, as Anibal Sanchez tossed a 5-hit shutout -- the 24th CG shutout in the majors this year, 50% more than at this stage of last season. (The other 23 individual shutouts are listed below, in order of Game Score.)  The Marlins moved 10 games over .500, 2nd best record in the NL, and stayed 1 GB the Phillies. Vogelsong trimmed his ERA to 1.77 but suffered his first loss of the year.

-- Missed my chance last week to welcome Micah Owings back to the bigs. Tonight, in his 2nd start, Owings earned a win with 5 tidy innings in Colorado, holding the Rox to 1 run on 4 hits and a walk. Sadly, Owings is 0 for 4 so far at the plate. But have faith, fans of two-way baseball. While earning his promotion down in AAA, Owings went 3 for 12 with a triple and a double, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 2 walks, and an .857 OPS. If he plays, he'll hit.

-- Andy noted earlier that the BoSox had their 2nd straight 14-run barrage. Another repeater was Carl Crawford, who backed up yesterday's 4-3-4-2, 3XBH line with 5-2-4-3 and a pair of triples. In 2 games, Crawford has racked up as many hits as he had in the first 14 games of the season (and far more runs and RBI); he has pumped up his OPS by more than 100 points. Nothing can get back the games Boston lost early on in part due to Crawford's horrific start -- and in fact, Crawford's WPA contributions to the last 2 games have been minimal. But the Red Sox have won 11 of 13 and are 6 games over .500 at the 50-game mark, and they will sleep tonight with a share of 1st place in the AL East. Looks like a brand new day in Beantown.

-- In a battle of '70s dynasties fallen on hard times for, oh, a good little while, Baltimore nipped the Royals in 12 innings tonight. The O's have won 5 straight and pecked their way back to .500; KC has dropped 5 in a row, 10 of 12, and is 10-20 since their 12-7 start. Vlad Guerrero sent home the winning run, seizing his last chance to extend his hitting streak to 11 games; he's hitting .341 in May, though with just 1 HR. The real hitting star was Nolan Reimold, who went 4-2-4-4 with 2 HRs, a double and a walk. Since coming up from AAA, Reimold is 6 for 11 with 3 HRs; his career line includes 21 HRs in 485 AB (most of that in 2009). Are the Orioles really a .500-caliber team? Too soon to be sure; they're 3 games over their pythagorean record, and they're 0-9 combined against the Yankees and Indians, getting outscored almost 3-1 in those games. On the upside, they're 7-6 combined against Boston and Tampa.

That's all for tonight. Sorry if I didn't get to your team, or the big news story, whatever it was. I'm just happy to be here, tryin' to stay within myself; next time out, I'll look for a pitch I can, you know, drive.

Individual shutouts, 2010, by Game Score:
(not including Anibal)

Nine More Outs is a group of three guys -- two Mets fans and a Yankee fan -- who go to various ballparks and act as though they are the home team's biggest fans for 1 game. (You may remember them from this post last year.) This time around, they visited Fenway Park in the guise of die-hard Nation members.

I see the Red Sox have already put up 14 runs on the Tigers, making it two straight games they have scored at least 14.

The last time a team scored at least 14 for 2 straight games:

And the last time any team did it 3 times in a row:

A fascinating list from David Schoenfield of ESPN's SweetSpot blog. I posted the link at Stathead, but I knew I needed to post it here as well, because it's a great discussion starter and all-around trip down memory lane.

Wilson Valdez of the Phillies started last night's game at his customary position of second base, but in the 19th inning took to the pitcher's mound. Three fly balls and a hit batsman later, the half-inning was over. The Phillies then scored in the bottom of the inning, making Valdez the winning pitcher in the game.

On Baseball-Reference.com we have a page devoted solely to pitchers who primarily played other positions. While it includes some players like Babe Ruth and Rick Ankiel who were full-time pitchers before switching, it also includes the likes of Valdez who made only the rare (or sometimes singular) appearance on the mound.

Here are the players most recently active who registered at least 1 win on the mound but primarily played other positions:

Unsurprisingly, HBP and balks seem pretty common among this group.

As long as we're at it, here are the most recently-active guys to record a loss:

Paul Splittorff of the Royals has died at the age of 64.

He is the Royals' all-time leader in Wins:

It would appear he's likely to hold that record for a long time.

Interestingly, Splittorff is best-remembered by most for facing the Yankees a lot in the playoffs. In fact he is among the leaders in most post-season games pitched against the Yankees before the wild card era (which also happens to cut out a ton of Yankee playoff appearances):

Here are a few of Splittorff's regular season gems:

• A complete-game one-hit shutout of the Brewers in the back end of a double-header
• A complete-game 12-inning win over the White Sox
• A complete-game shutout of the Angels with 10 strikeouts, one of just 2 double-digit K games in his career
• A complete-game drubbing of the A's where Splittorff allowed only 1 run and had 3 hits himself

A note on this card: it's one of the very few cards I could find of Splittorff with an action shot. He seems to have an awful lot of posed shots for some reason.

In enjoy the 1977 Topps design like a lot of their late 70s designs but my favorite thing about this set is the fact that they made each player's name as large as possible on the back, expanding it to fill the width of the card. I guess it's not ultimately the most efficient use of space but it certainly lends some gravitas to each card.

(Here is John Autin's wrap for the earlier Wednesday games.)

I’m filing this early, since I have a “Night at the Smithsonian” -- OK, it’s really the Morgan Library. The point is, I may not get to the night games, so here’s a quick look at the afternoon action.

-- Seattle 3, Minnesota 0: 17 straight scoreless IP for Erik Bedard. 38th straight game missed by Joe Mauer. 6th straight game of negative WPA for Justin Morneau. Among AL clubs, the Twins are dead last in every measure of production from the catcher position, and in the bottom 1/3 at 1B. Three times has Minnesota won 3 in a row this year; those wee streaks were followed by losing skids of 6, 9 and 4 games. Today’s shutout was only their 5th this year, but it was the 37th time in 48 games that they were held to 4 runs or less, most in the majors. (Seattle is 2nd with 36.) The Twins are 3-12 in “blowout” games. For the M’s, it was the 6th shutout win and the 21st time they allowed 2 runs or less; they’re 18-3 in those games. Ichiro went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts today; he’s hitting .281 and slugging .320 (8 doubles, 0 triples, 0 HRs). His OPS+ is about 96 so far, 10 points below his worst full-season mark. (He also has a negative dWAR at this point, though that sample is too small to be meaningful given his career marks. Still, we all get old someday.)

-- Texas 2, White Sox 1: Despite a DL stint, Neftali Feliz now has 10 saves and a 1.13 ERA, allowing 2 runs total in 16 IP. So he’s pitching great, right? Um ... let’s come back to that one in a month or so. Feliz has issued 14 walks (1 or more in 9 of his last 11 games, with back-to-back 1-out walks of Quentin and Konerko today), and has just 8 strikeouts. His previous career rates were 2.3 BB/9 and 9.9 SO/9; so far this year, his walk rate is tripled and his K rate cut in half. Small sample, yes, but combined with the DL stint, it’s something to watch for the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year.

-- Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 2 (11): Brooks Conrad, who always seeks to wind up either the hero or the goat, pinch-hit a 2-run HR in the top of the 11th. Johnny Venters pitched 2 more hitless innings, extending his streak to 12 IP in 10 games since he last allowed a hit. (Question: If he carries the streak to 18 IP, can we call him “Double No-Hit”? He’s got the right initials for it.) Venters has allowed 9 hits in 30.2 IP this year. His career rate of 5.64 H/9 is 3rd among all pitchers with at least 100 IP; Neftali Feliz (5.15) is the leader. Venters has an 0.59 ERA this year. Daniel McCutchen, who pitched a scoreless inning for the Pirates, has an 0.42 mark (1 ER in 21.2 IP). Atlanta used 5 relievers; each came out of the game with an ERA no worse than 2.63. Erstwhile SP Jeff Karstens took the loss; he’s allowed 9 HRs in 45.1 IP.

-- Brewers 6, Nationals 4: The last time Zack Greinke hit a HR (back in 2005), he was strafed for 3 HRs, 11 runs and 15 hits in 4.1 innings. Today, he balanced his chores somewhat better. Greinke fanned 10 in 7 IP, allowing only a 3-run shot by the suddenly red-hot Mike Morse, and hit his 2nd career HR, breaking a 3-all tie in the 5th. He now has 6 hits in 32 AB, with 2 HRs and 2 doubles. Ryan Braun was on base in all 4 trips, and Prince Fielder drove in 4 with a pair of hits, increasing his MLB-best RBI total to 41 (and breaking a tie with Braun).

-- Cleveland staged their customary late rally at home, but they waited just a little too long to get started and fell to Boston, 14-2. It was a get-well day for the BoSox bats; Carl Crawford picked up 4 hits, including a HR and 2 doubles, jacking his BA up to .229. Drew Sutton (“D. Sutton” and batting 9th in your box score) collected 3 hits with a brace of doubles for Boston, his 3rd club in as many years. (His full name is Stephen Drew Sutton; are they trying to confuse me?)   [note from the editor, Andy, who posted this for John--the automatic player linking tool got confused too, by putting in that link to Steven Drew!]

-- Houston 2, Dodgers 1: Worst thing about the injury to Andre Ethier? It’s moved James Loney up to #3 in the batting order. Yikes. Loney went hitless and remains stuck on 1 HR, with a .287 slugging average and .286 OBP. I understand loyalty ... is it really worth it to try to nurse Loney back to what he was, given that he was a poor hitter for his position to begin with?