trivial occurrences 2014

california league pitcher strikes out five in one inning

Rick Porcello first to throw a shutout with 0 K, 0 BB since Jeff Ballard in '89.

Padres’ Rene Rivera delivers the first three-run single in six years

jason grilli and ernesto frieri ran into each other in an o'hare bathroom while traveling to their new teams after being traded for one another

13 years ago today, the aforementioned brett tomko no-hit oklahoma city as a member of the tacoma rainiers, allowing one walk and retiring the last 25 batters in order

tonight he faces oklahoma city again, this time for colorado springs

circle of life

Tanaka is the first rookie to win 12 before the break since a '70s pitcher no one remembers--the other guy was 13-1, 2.69, then proceeded to win all of 23 games the rest of his career.

Posnanski on Porcello's 0/0 shutout:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/02/porcellos-0-walk-0-strikeout-shutout-was-miraculous/related/

The thing that jumped out at me: while the nine 0/0 games since '69 were thrown by exactly the kind of pitcher you'd expect (Mike Caldwell/Ray Barr/Ross Grimsley-types, low-K guys--Porcello himself fits), Clemens is on the list for this game in '87:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198707210.shtml

That was a huge year for runs too.

Via a reader e-mail to James: Jose Abreu currently has the second-highest SLG/OBP ratio (1.89) ever, just barely behind Matt Williams' coulda-been 1994 season (1.90). Dave Kingman, Tony Armas, and Juan Gonzalez each show up in the Top 10 twice.

Mets got one hit per inning last night, seventh time a team has done that since 1950.

http://bit.ly/onehitperinning

@pedromoura
Dee Gordon has reached base three times in five innings without recording a hit or drawing a walk. Weird stuff

E4, HBP, WP on strike three

That third time, he advance to second on a walk, then to third on another wild pitch, and then scored on a throw from home to first on a third strike.

advanced

wau

Didn't see tonight's Jays game, but to lose to somebody 14-1, and then exactly one week later beat the same team by the exact same score, well, it probably belongs on this thread.

what was the last major trade between the previous season's World Series teams? particularly in-season?

yasiel had three triples last night

that happened like a week ago bro

lol

@KSeaboldt
CG, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 BB, Loss. David Price is the first pitcher in at least 100 years to do that...

David Price, Dallas Keuchel, and Tyson Ross all lost complete games yesterday. First time at least three lost complete games since June 25, 2004.

via AceballStats

Tomas Telis became the first player to catch a shutout in his first career game since Jason Kendall did it for Pittsburgh on April 1, 1996, according to baseball-reference.com.

Ryan Rua will become Texas' 59th player this season, tying a major league record.

Rua, a rookie first baseman/outfielder, was promoted when outfielder Jim Adduci was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list. Rua is scheduled to play in Friday night's game against the Houston Astros.

The San Diego Padres twice used 59 players in a season (2002 and 2008), while the Cleveland Indians did it in 2002.

The Rangers will likely break the record, as left-handed starter Derek Holland, who has been out the entire season while recovering from knee surgery, is close to coming off the disabled list.

VVIP: very very isolated power.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/09/05/93181018/four-hitters-mlb-history-200-average-25-home-runs-chris-davis

Torii Hunter is the first player with three multi-hit innings in one season since Dustin Pedroia and Curtis Granderson (both 2008).

*Kurkjian titter*

via Sam Miller of BP:

"Ryan Howard is about to be the first player with 100 RBIs and a sub-.700 OPS since Joe Carter, and just the fifth ever."

i didn't even know ryan howard was alive

Jerome Williams made baseball history, becoming the first pitcher to earn three wins against the same opponent in a season as a member of three different teams.

Entering Saturday, Williams had already defeated the A's on April 26 with the Astros and on July 25 with the Rangers. He threw seven scoreless innings Saturday and held Oakland to four hits.

In 247 PA, Jose Molina had a .187 slugging pct and an ISO of .009 (one of the 3 worst in the last 50 years, 200+ PA).

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/8/22/6053517/jose-molinas-legendary-power-outage

4 runs scored!

lol he had more stolen bases (3) than extra-base hits (2) this season

Not exactly trivial, but

@JonHeymanCBS
national league had no one w/ 300 total bases for 1st time since 1942. stanton led w/ 299. enos slaughter led in '42 w/292

are walks rising along w/ strikeouts? that plus injuries to sluggers/stars (Cutch, Goldschmidt, Stanton) would explain that partly.

Kind of surprising that the NL got through the '60s without that happening...although with Mays and Aaron and a few others, maybe not. (Closest either league got in the '60s was Zolio Versalles' 308 in '65; Billy Williams led the NL with 321 in '68.)

It seems like a freak occurrence to me, with Cutch, Stanton, Rizzo, and Goldschmidt all injured for part of the year, leaving a catcher with doubles power as the best healthy offensive player.

Plus Tulowitzki--although, pro-rated, he only works out to around 340 total bases. I thought he was clipping along at a faster pace than that.

@Retrosheet
Players born on Tuesdays have 46,624 home runs, all-time MLB.
Fri - 41,975
Mon - 39,909
Sun - 38,989
Thu - 37,272
Wed - 37,007
Sat - 36,778

they are full of grace iirc

this explains why i never made the mlb, born on a weds, damn