ESPN Jayson Stark Blog

It's that time again: It's time to line up at the deli counter, check out the rye bread and order up another mouth-watering tray full of the eagerly awaited Generic Sandwich Awards. But first, it's time for the …

Munchies Of The Week

• One more reason we love baseball: It's been seven decades since Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig played a game, but they're still making news. Derek Jeter passed Ruth on the Yankees' all-time doubles list this week (with 425). And Ken Griffey Jr. tied Gehrig on the all-time hits list (at 2,721). How cool is that?

• The Rockies have now done something incomprehensible: Counting the '07 postseason, they've had two streaks in three years in which they won 17 out of 18 games. Want to know how tough that is? All these franchises haven't had any 17-1 streaks since 1900: Indians, Tigers, Reds, Braves (in either Atlanta or Milwaukee, though they did it in Boston), Diamondbacks, Marlins, Astros, Angels, Padres, Rays, Senators/Rangers or Blue Jays. The Yankees, on the other hand, have had eight streaks of 17-1 or better, but even they never did it twice in three years.

• As loyal reader Joe Light observed, the Phillies will play their entire interleague schedule against teams they've faced in a World Series -- the Red Sox (1915), Yankees (1950), Orioles (1983), Blue Jays (1993) and Rays (2008). His question: Has any other team ever done that in the same year? Well, here's what I know: I can't vouch for all 29 other teams, but amazingly, I did discover that the Yankees have never even done that. So, if you can find another team that has, send your findings to uselessinfodept@yahoo.com, or via Twitter to @jaysonst.

• Speaking of World Series reunions, that Phillies-Rays series this week marked the fifth time since 2002 that the two World Series teams met the very next season in interleague play, and four of those five times, the team that lost the World Series won the regular-season rematch. Not that they got a ring out of it, but those four score-eveners were the 2009 Rays, 2007 Tigers, 2005 Cardinals and 2002 Yankees. The only defending champ to recapture that October magic: The 2006 White Sox, who won two out of three against Houston.

• Another note on that Rays-Phillies déjà-vu extravaganza, courtesy of loyal reader Dan Demetriou: During the 2008 World Series, it took the Phillies 30 at-bats with runners in scoring position (over four games) to get three hits with RISP. Then, in the regular-season rematch, they got three hits with RISP in the first inning. Heck, of course, they did. Nothing sums up the insane unpredictability of baseball better than that.

• I promise this is the last Munchie about the Rays, but I can't help it. Jason Bartlett goes into Friday night just one game away from the first 20-game hitting streak in the history of the Rays franchise. My favorite streak guru, loyal reader Trent McCotter, reports that not only are the Rays the only team that has never had a 20-game streak, no other team has had fewer than three 20-gamers. And since the Rays came into the world, the Red Sox have had nine streaks of at least 20 games in the same time the Rays have had zero. But the good news is, the Padres have gone even longer than the Rays without a 20-game hitting streak: all the way back to 1997 (in the pre-Trop era) when Tony Gwynn hit in 20 in a row while with the Padres. So what do you think? Can we blame this on the catwalks or something?

• Mariano Rivera wandered into the batter's box Wednesday, for the first time since 2006, and actually made contact for the first time in his career. After being told by manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland not to swing, Rivera let it fly anyway, and lined out to center field with the bases loaded.

"I've got to take a swing," Rivera told MLB.com's Brian Hoch. "I apologized to my pitching coach and manager, but I had to do it."

Rivera is now 0 for 2 in his career, not counting three hitless at-bats in World Series games. Had he gotten a hit, it would have been only the 11th hit in history by a member of the 400-Save Club. The other three members are a combined 10-for-133. (Those 10 hits belong to Trevor Hoffman, who went 4-for-33, 3-for-64 by Lee Smith and 3-for-34 by John Franco. Hard-hitting group!)

• Finally, loyal reader Tom Mariam noticed something really bizarre about the Yankees and Mets, who will play "Subway Series" No. 2 this weekend: In between their two Subway Series, the Yankees and Mets matched wins and losses every day in which they both played. Take a look:

Tuesday June 16: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) win
Wednesday June 17: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) lose
Thursday June 19: Yankees (vs. Washington) and Mets (vs. Baltimore) lose
Friday June 20: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) win
Saturday June 21: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) lose
Sunday June 22: Yankees (vs. Florida) and Mets (vs. Tampa Bay) lose
Tuesday June 24: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) lose
Wednesday June 25: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) win
Thursday June 26: Yankees (vs. Atlanta) and Mets (vs. St. Louis) win

Not sure what that means, exactly. But here's one thing I can safely predict: That streak will not last another day, unless they play to three straight ties this weekend.

OK, all munched out? Great. Then let's move on. The Sandwich Award envelopes, please …

Strike One: The On A Roll Award

It isn't often that a situational left-hander receives the coveted On A Roll non-trophy. Then again, there has never been a situational left-hander -- or any other left-hander -- who has done what Brewers whiffmaster Mitch Stetter has done this month.

As loyal reader Brian DesPlaines pointed out to the Sandwich Awards committee, from June 6 to June 25, every out Stetter got came via a strikeout. That's 15 of them in a row. The Twins' Jason Kubel had to go and screw this up by hitting a fly ball in the seventh inning Thursday.

Stetter did allow three hits in that time -- one of them an infield hit Wednesday by Joe Mauer that actually passed through Stetter's glove. And, as MLB.com's Cash Kruth reported this week, Stetter also kept his little feat alive on June 17 by making a pivotal, streak-preserving error on a fumbled comebacker by the Indians' Victor Martinez. Hmmm.

"I think he's missing those balls on purpose," Brewers manager Ken Macha quipped, "so he keeps his strikeout streak going."

OK, no he didn't. But either way, his fun streak is over now. And there has never been anything like it. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no other pitcher has ever recorded 15 straight outs on strikeouts since the dawn of the modern save rule in 1969.

Now here's one other way to put this in some kind of perspective: Cardinals starter Brad Thompson has faced 178 hitters this year, and only struck out 13 of them. And Stetter just got 15 outs on strikeouts in a row. Is that the stuff Sandwich Awards are made of, or what?

Strike Two: The Cold Cuts Award

Has any player in history had a first half of a season quite as bizarre as the first half (so far) of Mariners utility whiz Josh Wilson? Think about this:

Since May 11, Wilson has been on almost as many teams (three) as he has hits (four).

Even though he's an infielder by trade, he's been dragged into extra-inning games to pitch for two of those teams (the Diamondbacks and Padres) -- then was waived by each of them within two weeks.

Now here in June, he's 1 for 22, with six strikeouts, for the Padres and Mariners, meaning he's running out of time to avoid joining the More Teams Than Hits Club for an entire calendar month.

Thanks to all that emergency pitching duty, he has also allowed more hits (three) this month than he's gotten at the plate (one). Hard to do, folks.

We're happy to report that at least Wilson hasn't lost his ever-present sense of humor. When asked by the Seattle Times' Jeff Baker about his impressive barrage of waiver claims, Wilson said he'd decided this was actually a good thing.

"It's when you don't get claimed," he said, "that you have a problem."

Hey, how right he is. And he should also remember this: When you even get a Sandwich Award out of it, how bad can life be?

Strike Three: The Can-We-Box-That-Up-For-You Award

Nobody here at International Sandwich Award Headquarters doubts that David Price is going to be great. Some day. But the Rays' favorite phenom definitely wasn't so great when he went out to pitch against the Phillies on Tuesday. And he wound up with this Sandwich Award-winning box-score line:

4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HR.

That turned into a 10-1 loss that was summed up eloquently by the always-erudite Joe Maddon as "the kind of game you put in the trash compactor very quickly and move on to the next one."

Ah, but before we all move on to compactor duty, you should also know this:

Price, the No. 1 pick in the entire 2007 draft, was only the fourth pitcher taken with the first overall pick to give up at least 10 runs in a game. The others did it a combined seven times. And here's every darned one of them:

Andy Benes, on April 15, 2002, versus Arizona (3-6-10-3-4-0)
Benes again, on April 4, 2001, at Coors Field ((2 2/3-9-10-10-2-2)
Tim Belcher, on May 20, 1998, versus Cleveland (5 2/3-11-10-9-2-4)
Belcher again, on Aug. 19, 1997, versus Baltimore (5 1/3-9-10-6-2-3)
Belcher again, on April 28, 1994, versus Kansas Cioty (4-10-10-5-3-0)
Mike Moore, on May 17, 1991, versus Cleveland (3 2/3-10-10-6-4-2)
And Moore again, on June 23, 1984, versus Cleveland (3-8-10-9-3-1)

You know what separates Price from all those other guys, though? His brand new Sandwich Award. What else?

Shameless Book-Plug Dept.

Finally, the book tour for "Worth The Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies" hits the minor-league circuit this weekend. I'll be signing Friday at Coca Cola Park in Allentown, Pa., home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. On Saturday, you can find me autographing away at First Energy Park in Lakewood, N.J., home of the Lakewood Blue Claws, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. For a complete list of signings of "Worth The Wait," click here.