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Saturday, 19 September 2015

This Day In Baseball History: September 19, 1993

September 19, 1993

It was on this day in 1993 that Atlanta Braves’ lefthander Tom Glavine picked up the victory in the Braves 11-2 win over the New York Mets, his 20^th of the season. Glavine became the first National League pitcher since Ferguson Jenkins in 1973 to win twenty or more games for three consecutive seasons. In picking up the W, Glavine pitched six innings, allowing two runs on nine hits while striking out four Mets’ batters.

He would finish the 1993 season with a record of 22-6 and an ERA of 3.20—the 22 wins leading the National League—but finish third in the Cy Young Award voting behind winner and teammate Greg Maddux (20-10, 2.36) and San Francisco’s Bill Swift (21-8, 2.82).

For his career, Glavine would win 305 games, leading the NL five times, was a ten-time All Star, won two Cy Young Awards (1991 and 1998) and be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2014. He was also the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the 1995 World Series, the game that clinched the city of Atlanta’s only professional championship in any of the four major sports.

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Friday, 18 September 2015

The AL West: Rangers Sweep Astros; Take Division Lead

Well, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that—then again, I don’t think too many others were either. At the beginning of the week, I was looking forward to the AL West showdown between the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. What I saw was a team that’s been playing over their head for the most of the year start to fade, while another took a big step towards a division title.

Houston came into the series with a 1 ½ game lead. They had been in first place for most of the season, except for a couple of weeks in mid-July. The Rangers, meanwhile, got off to a slow start and were as many as nine games behind in the middle of July. However, playing some good ball while the two teams ahead of them started to struggle (the other being the Los Angeles Angels) have moved the Rangers into first place with a chance to win the AL West for the first time since 2011.

Game one of the series, on Monday night, was a close one. The score was tied at three going into the bottom of the eight, when Rangers’ designated hitter Prince Fielder, hit a two-run home run to give Texas the lead. Closer Shawn Tolleson retired the Houston batters one-two-three in the ninth for his 32^nd save of the season.

In the second game, the Rangers struck for four in the bottom of the first, but found themselves tied at five going to the bottom of the ninth. Fielder led off the inning with a single and was lifted for pinch runner, Drew Stubbs. After Adrian Beltre singled, moving Stubbs to third, first baseman Mitch Moreland lifted a fly ball to centre field. The out was recorded but Stubbs scored on the sacrifice fly to give Texas a 6-5 win and move into first place for the first time all season.

Game three was a laugher: a 14-3 Texas rout, high-lighted by a six-run first. Fielder led the charge with three hits, including two home runs and five RBIs. Left fielder Mike Napoli and catcher Bobby Wilson also hit home runs for the Rangers.

The fourth and final game of the series was close until the bottom of the seventh. Leading 3-2, Texas added two runs in the seventh and another three in the eight to make the final score 8-2. Rangers’ starting pitcher Colby Lewis pitched seven innings, allowing two runs and striking out three Astro batters to pick up his sixteenth win of the season.

The sweep takes the Rangers from a game and a half down to 2 ½ games in the lead in the Central. The two teams will meet again for a three-game series in Houston’s Minute Maid Park, starting a week from tonight. While Texas seems to be charging towards the post season, Houston is in a free-fall. While they still hold on to the second wild card, they are only a game and a half ahead of the Minnesota Twins. The Angles are closing in, too, now trailing Houston by 2 ½.

The Twins and the Angels meet for four games this weekend, with LA taking the first the first game of the series on Thursday night by a score of 11-8. Houston takes on the last place Oakland Athletics for three, while Texas will host Seattle for three.

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Thursday, 17 September 2015

The Race For the NL Central; Division Leaders' Magic Numbers

While I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months writing about the amazing second half of the Toronto Blue Jays (and why not as they are on the cusp of their first postseason berth in 22 years) there may be an even more interesting story to be found in the Central Division of the National League.

Since the All-Star break two months ago, you could tell that there was a good possibility the division would send three teams to the playoffs. But now there’s an even more impressive fact looking us in the eye: the top three teams in the NL Central could very well finish the regular season with the top three records in all of baseball.

It’s true. Let’s look at the St. Louis Cardinals first. They’re the only team in baseball right now with 90 wins (overall record is 91-54) and they’ve been in first place in the division since April 17^th. They’ve led by as many as nine games and never been ahead by less than 2 ½ since April 29^th. They’re currently leading by four. The Cards have been a perennial contender for pretty much the entire 21^st century and have been to at least the National League Championship Series for the past four years. They won the World Series in 2011, lost to Boston in the World Series in 2013 and dropped the NLCS to San Francisco in both 2012 and 2014. They always seem to be competitive and they have to be one of the favourites to end the season as champions.

In second place at the moment are the Pittsburgh Pirates. At 87-58, they would be in first place in any of the other five divisions. As it is, they are four games behind the Cardinals. They’ve done the yo-yo thing this season. They were nine games back on June 28^th, went on a run that brought them within 2 ½ by the All-Star break. Then they dropped to seven back by the middle of August and now they’re closing in on first again. The Pirates have been the top Wild Card team in the past two season (winning the game in 2013 and losing in 2014). They seem destined to play in the game once again this season, but what they’d like is a division title with which comes an automatic trip to the Division Series.

And then we have the Chicago Cubs. Without a World Series title in 1908, and only seven post season trips in the 106 years since, all but one of those coming in 1984 or later. They’re currently sit at 84-61, which would be enough to be leading four of the other divisions (only Kansas City has a better record) but in the NL Central, it’s only good enough for seven games behind the Cards for the lead and three games behind the Pirates for the first Wild Card spot. The Cubs loaded up on free agents prior to the 2015 season and it has, thus far, paid off for them. While they currently hold the second Wild Card spot, they have a comfortable hold on it, 7 ½ games ahead of the defending World Series Champion Giants, and the magic number to clinch it is ten.

The unfortunate thing is that there is no possibility that two teams from the Central will be playing each other for the NLCS. If things stay the way they are, the Pirates and Cubs will play in the sudden-death Wild Card game for the right to get the number four seed for the National League Playoffs, and will be rewarded by playing the number one seed, the Cardinals in the NLDS with the East and West Division winners (most likely the Mets and the Dodgers) playing in the other NLDS series.

However, it would still be fun to see the top three records in all of baseball come out of the same division. We shall see.

Current Magic Numbers (Division Leaders)

American League East: The Toronto Blue Jays lead the Yankees by three games. Their magic number to clinch the division is 15.

AL Central: Kansas City leads the Minnesota Twins by ten games. Their magic number is eight.

AL West: The Texas Rangers lead the Houston Astros by a game and a half. Magic number is 16.

National League East: The Mets lead the Washington Nationals by 7 ½ with the magic number at ten.

NL Central: The Cards lead the Pirates by four. Magic number is 14.

NL West: Dodgers lead the Giants by 7 ½ with the magic number at 10.

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