Strike One -- Phillie Phloppage Dept.
In response to the gazillions of Philadelphia e-mailers looking for an explanation of the Phillies' recent cliff dive, I'll have more to say about that in Rumblings later this week. But in the meantime, I submit the following random Phillie facts:
• Here's how hard it is to lose 22 home games by Father's Day: There have been six teams in the expansion era that didn't lose 22 home games all season (not counting strike seasons): the '61 Yankees (16), '75 Reds (17), '98 Yankees (19), '62 Giants (21), '69 Orioles (21) and (whaddayaknow) the '77 Phillies (21).
• To repeat a note from Friday's blog, no team in history has had a season in which it had a losing record at home but won 70 percent of its road games. But the Phillies are working on it. They're 13-22 at home but 23-9, .719, on the road.
• No offense should be asked to come from behind as often as the Phillies' lineup has been forced to do that this year. This team has trailed at some point in 52 of its 67 games this season. That means, even though the Phillies are in first place, they've trailed in more games this season than the Pirates or Royals (51 apiece). And even the Nationals, who are already 27 games under .500, have only trailed in 58 games.
Madson
Lidge
• If it weren't for the Phillies' closer issues, they might be leading the NL East by eight games. In their last 27 games, their closer (Brad Lidge or Ryan Madson) has either contributed a blown save, a loss or both in seven of them. Of their 11 losses in June, seven have been hung on the bullpen. And our friends at Inside Edge report that Madson hasn't gotten a single swing-and-miss on his fastball since Lidge was placed on the disabled list.
• Oh, and one more thing. To repeat a recent Elias Says note, the Phillies have lost more games this year that they led in the ninth inning or later (six) than any team in baseball. Last year, of course, they lost the fewest games like that of any team in baseball (zero).
• Finally, the Phillies just got swept at home in back-to-back series by the Blue Jays and Orioles. Here's why that shouldn't happen to a team with win-the-World-Series aspirations: The Orioles hadn't swept a road series of three games or more since May 30, 2007 (at Kansas City), which was 53 road series ago. And the Blue Jays hadn't swept a road series of three games or more since May 15, 2008, which was 29 road series ago.
Strike Two -- Name Of The Game Dept.
Lots of fun developments in the Name Game sector over the last few days. Such as:
Andy LaRoche
Adam LaRoche
• The LaRoche brothers (Adam and Andy) homered in the same game last week. They're the 11th set of brothers to do that for the same team, according to the Sultan of Swat Stats, Society for American Baseball Research's David Vincent. The others: Vladimir and Wilton Guerrero (four times), Jason and Jeremy Giambi (four), Lloyd and Paul Waner (three), Hank and Tommie Aaron (three), Billy and Tony Conigliaro (two), Cal and Billy Ripken (two), Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez (two), Felipe and Matty Alou (one), Matty and Jesus Alou (one) and Bengie and Jose Molina (one).
• Lots of fun Weaver-brother notes. But here's my favorite: Jeff and Jered Weaver have now become the fifth set of brothers since the '70s to pitch on the same team at one point in their careers and pitch against each other in the same game at another point. The other four, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: Andy and Alan Benes, Pedro and Ramon Martinez, Phil and Joe Niekro and Gaylord and Jim Perry.
• In the grand history of baseball, we had seen one catcher named Dusty (Wathan) before last year. Then, as loyal reader Dave Patterson reports, two catchers named Dusty were called up in the same weekend: Dusty Ryan by the Tigers and Dusty Brown by the Red Sox. Get out the Dust-busters!
• Finally, Padres public-relations whiz Ben Coughlan checked in to report that if you caught Friday's Padres-A's game, you were treated to the magical sight of Edgar Gonzalez of the Padres facing Edgar Gonzalez of the A's in the third and fifth innings. You saw Edgar Gonzalez the pitcher sling one to Edgar Gonzalez in right fielder in the top of the fifth, whereupon Edgar Gonzalez the right fielder tried to throw out Edgar Gonzalez the pitcher at first, which he didn't do. That enough Gonzalez-mania for you?
Strike Three -- Still More Uselessness Dept.
Apropos to nothing in particular …
• Josh Beckett just pitched his third career shutout, and here's what's notable about that: Beckett threw three postseason shutouts in the first six October starts of his career. But it took him 207 career starts to throw his third regular-season shutout. Amazing.
Wood
• Kerry Wood made 51 relief appearances at Wrigley Field as a Cub and only blew one save. So what were the odds he'd come back to Wrigley as an Indian over the weekend and blow two saves in his first two appearances ever as a visitor?
• I can't tell you whether the Nationals are going to lose more games than the '62 Mets, but they've already done one thing the '62 Mets never did: Win four games in a row. Those Mets won three in a row twice, but never got that streak to four.
• Loyal reader Evan Jones reports that Dan Haren has a 0.82 WHIP but only six wins in 14 starts. So how hard is that to pull off? Jones tells us that in the live-ball era, there has never been a pitcher with a WHIP that good who didn't win at least half his starts in a season.
• As loyal reader David Merrill reports, the first hitter in this weekend's Braves-Red Sox series (Nate McLouth) hit a home run and so did the last hitter of the series (Nick Green). Last series where that happened, according to the Sultan: Angels at A's, June 6-8, 2008 with Maicer Izturis homering to kick off the series and Mark Ellis walking off to finish it.
• Finally, this is my own follow-up to that note. McLouth's homer Friday made him the only active player who has hit leadoff home runs for two different teams in the same year. (He also did it for the Pirates.) Just eight other players in history have done that, according to the Sultan. Last to do it: Shannon Stewart for the 2003 Blue Jays and Twins. Rickey Henderson did it three times (1989, '93 and '97). Here's the rest of the list:
Denny Sothern (1930 Phillies and Pirates)
Red Schoendienst (1957 Giants and Braves)
Mickey Rivers (1979 Yankees and Rangers)
Darren Bragg (1996 Mariners and Red Sox)
Tony Phillips (1997 White Sox and Angels)
Kenny Lofton (2002 White Sox and Giants)
Jayson Stark
