We interrupt all this Manny and A-Rod talk for something way more important -- the return of our weekly Generic Sandwich Awards. But first, just to whet your appetite, we need to start off with …
The Munchies
• Let's try to put the Red Sox's 12-run sixth inning Thursday in perspective. The Red Sox scored 12 runs in that inning
before they made an out. Now consider that the Mets have scored 12 runs for
Johan Santana all season (in six starts). The Giants haven't scored 12 runs in a
game in any of their past 250 games. And the past 12 runs scored by the Diamondbacks have come in a span in which they've made 144 outs. Amazing.
• But as loyal reader Scott Preston reports, that might not have been even the most interesting inning of the day. In the bottom of the eighth Thursday in Kansas City, the Royals had an inning in which their hitters went 1-for-1 -- and still managed to score two runs and record three outs. Here's how: HBP, sac (one out), intentional walk, HBP, RBI single with Mark Teahen thrown out at home (two outs), Billy Butler picked off first (three outs). Hard to do, folks.
• Speaking of hard stuff to do, Oakland's Gio Gonzalez gave up three runs in the 13th inning on Sunday, didn't get hung with a loss and was back out there the next inning (since his team scored three in the bottom of the 13th to retie the game). Loyal reader Eric Orns reports that Gonzalez was the first reliever to give up that many runs in extra innings and survive to keep pitching since Milwaukee's Don August gave up three in the 15th to the White Sox on May 1, 1991, and stuck around until he got a win out of it in the 19th!
• More Gonzalez trivia: Jason LaRue should have changed his name to Gonzalez this week, because he screwed up one of the great stats of the year. Until LaRue went deep off Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf on Thursday, Ohlendorf had allowed three home runs this year -- all of them to guys named Gonzalez (Adrian, Edgar and Alex).
• In case you were wondering, Carl Pavano never beat the Red Sox as a Yankee, but he did go 0-1, with a 6.30 ERA, a 2.10 WHIP and 19 hits allowed in 10 innings. So how'd Pavano do in his first start against the Red Sox as an Indian on Wednesday? He beat them, of course (6 IP, 2 ER).
• Finally, when the Nationals had their game with the Astros suspended Tuesday, it opened up the possibility for all sorts of insane notes. Since that game won't be resumed until July 9 -- but all stats would count as having happened on May 5 -- it means that if the Nationals draft and sign Stephen Strasburg by then, he could win his first major league game while he's still in college. Tremendous.
And now the Sandwich Award envelopes, please:
STRIKE ONE -- THE ON A ROLL AWARD
Is it even possible to hand out this much-coveted non-trophy to anyone other than Zack Greinke? Of course not. He reeled off nine more shutout innings Monday, meaning he's pitched 45 innings this season -- and put up a zero in 42 of them.
Over the past 29 seasons, we can find only two other starting pitchers who were scored on in just three (or fewer) of their first 45 innings of a season -- Fernando Valenzuela (one of his first 45) in 1981 and Roger Clemens (two of his first 45) in 1991.
Now digest this: If you go back to last season, Greinke has allowed no earned runs in seven of his past eight starts -- which is something even Bob Gibson never did on the way to that insane 1.12 ERA in 1968.
And Greinke now leads the league in wins (six), ERA (0.40), strikeouts (54), WHIP (0.84), opponent slugging pct. (.252), opponent OPS (.484), fewest home runs allowed (nada), most swings and misses (84) and most Sports Illustrated covers (one).
Our Scouts Talk About Zack Greinke quote of the week: "He's actually overmatching the hitters. I don't think he's trying to embarrass the hitters, but he is. He's embarrassing the hitters because his stuff's so great, he can't help himself."
STRIKE TWO -- THE COLD CUTS AWARD
It was just a few weeks ago when knucklehead baseball experts such as, well, ourselves were announcing that the Florida Marlins had the best starting rotation in the whole darned National League. But since then, something has happened that made those words look slightly less brilliant than they felt at the time:
Those fabulous starters on that team somehow forgot to win another game.
Yes, through Thursday, Marlins starters had gone 20 consecutive starts without winning even once. And they can't blame the bullpen. There were only two blown saves in the whole streak. So how rare is this development, you ask?
Well, it was just last year that the Mariners went 21 straight starts without a win -- but that was on the way to 101 losses. So it happens -- to teams like that.
But it never happens to teams that are in first place at the time. Literally never. In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Marlins are the first team in history ever to find itself cruising along in first place and then go 20 consecutive starts without a win. Yeah, that's ever.
If it makes them feel any better, the Padres have gone 19 starts in a row without a win -- and they were tied for first when their streak began. What are the odds?
STRIKE THREE -- THE SUPER SUB AWARD
It's turning into The Year of the Mystery Pitcher. And here at the Generic Sandwich Awards Center, that's a development we're always in favor of. Any time the local shortstop starts heading for the mound, that's baseball entertainment at its finest.
So it definitely caught our eye when the Reds told shortstop Paul Janish it was his solemn duty to finish off what was then a 10-3 wipeout against the Brewers on Wednesday. And Janish -- the fourth position player to pitch this year -- then unfurled one of the most crazed box-score lines of the year. Ready? Here goes:
1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (J.J. Hardy and Chris Duffy), 1 HR (Prince Fielder doing those honors)
So how unique was that funky line, which turned a 10-3 game into a 15-3 game?
• Janish was the first position player to strike out two hitters in an inning since Mark Loretta did it on June 20, 2001.
• And he was the first position player to cram two strikeouts and a home run ball into the same outing since Paul O'Neill did it for Pete Rose's Reds on June 19, 1987 (Ken Griffey Sr. with one of the whiffs, Ozzie Virgil Jr. with the homer).
• And Janish was the first position player in the past 55 seasons to twirl his way through an inning that included five runs, plus a gopher ball, plus two strikeouts. Whew.
The good news: His fastball was clocked at 92 miles per hour. The bad news: The Brewers hit it anyway.
"I tried to run it across the plate," Janish said afterward. "Unfortunately, that's what they were looking for."
Shameless Book Plug Dept.
This weekend's book signings for "Worth The Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies": Saturday (May 9) from noon to 2 p.m. at the Borders Airport Plaza in North Wales, Pa., and later Saturday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Borders in Warrington, Pa. Then on Sunday (May 10), I'll be signing books at Citizens Bank Park before the Phillies-Braves game, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (and probably beyond). You can find a complete list of "Worth The Wait" signings
here.
Jayson Stark
