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A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports:

• When Chivas USA hired Thomas Rongen as its first head coach, Rongen joined a select group of coaches and managers hired by first-year expansion teams after winning a league title. Rongen had won the MLS Cup in 1999 as coach of D.C. United.

Others who did so in major North American pro sports: MLB -- Casey Stengel (1962 Mets); NFL -- George Wilson (1966 Dolphins) and Paul Brown (1968 Bengals); NBA -- Dick Motta (1980 Mavericks); NHL -- Punch Imlach (1970 Sabres), Terry Crisp (1992 Lightning), and Jacques Lemaire (2000 Wild).

On Monday, Rongen made expansion-team history of a different sort: He was replaced after only 10 games. The shortest reign in games among first-year expansion coaches in the other major pro sports: NBA -- 15, Scotty Robertson (Jazz); NHL -- 16, Lynn Patrick (Blues); NFL -- 31, Norb Hecker (Falcons); MLB -- 163, Joe Gordon (Royals) and Joe Schultz (Pilots/Brewers).

• The Suns on Monday night became the first team in NBA history to win a playoff game on the road after trailing at halftime and facing a three-games-to-none deficit. Six home teams have won under that scenario, but only one of them overcame a halftime deficit as great as the seven-point margin the Suns faced in Game 4. The Golden State Warriors trailed 65-57 at halftime but defeated the Lakers in Game 4 of a 1987 Western Conference semifinal series (the Lakers won the series in five games).

• The White Sox's walkoff win over the Angels evened the all-time series between those teams at 314 wins apiece. It must be a Chicago-SoCal thing: As recently as August 2003, the all-time series between the Cubs and Dodgers -- which dates back to 1890 -- was tied at 995 wins each. With Monday night's victory at Dodger Stadium, the Cubs narrowed the Dodgers' lead to 1,001-998 (with 14 ties).

• Greg Maddux raised his career record in California to 26-25 with his victory over the Dodgers. His record on the road in other states is 123-68 (.644).

• The Pirates rallied for a game-tying unearned run in the bottom of the eighth and a game-winner in the 10th in their 3-2 win over the Marlins. That snapped Pittsburgh's streak of nine consecutive losses in one-run games at home, which equaled the longest such streaks since the Indians lost 10 straight one-run games at League Park in Cleveland in 1927. (Six other teams had nine-game losing streaks since then.)

• The Nationals defeated the Braves 3-2 at RFK Stadium, renewing a random trend from the 1960s. The expansion Washington Senators -- as opposed to the original American League franchise of the same name -- won nine of 12 home games on Memorial Day.

• The Astros suffered their ninth shutout of the season in their 9-0 loss to the Reds. That's one short of the highest total by Memorial Day during the live-ball era. Four teams since 1920 were shut out 10 times through Memorial Day: the 1969 Padres (a first-year expansion team), the 1971 Senators, the 1976 Giants, and the 1984 Yankees.

• Roger Clemens has made 11 starts this season and the Astros have yet to score more than four runs in any of them. Only three other active pitchers have ever made more than 10 starts in a season without getting at least five runs of support even once: Woody Williams (1997), Zack Greinke (2004), and Zach Day (2004).

Can it get worse? Ask Mark Lemongello, who made his first 21 starts for the Astros in 1977 before they scored as many as five runs for him.

• The Orioles snapped a streak of six consecutive fourth-place finishes when they advanced to third in the AL East last season. But the O's have been consistent winners at Fenway Park throughout that period. An 8-1 victory over Boston on Monday raised Baltimore's record at Fenway to 32-21 since 1999 (.604). Not only is that the best mark at Fenway among American League opponents since 1999, but only one other AL team has a winning record there during that time -- the Indians (14-13).