Classic Matchups

After watching Kevin Millar battle in vain against Keith Foulke for 12 pitches to end last night's horrific Red Sox game, I started wondering how common that was. 12 pitches?! I checked the game logs of playoff contenders for others, but couldn't find any with more than ten pitches. Still, separated from the rest of the game, they take on almost a mythic, movie-like quality. So sit back in your seat, grab a box of popcorn, put some dramatic music on, and enjoy:

Carlos Beltran vs. Roger Clemens
Leading off the top of the 2nd, Beltran goes down two strikes but hangs in there. On the ninth pitch, he triples to deep left-center. Aside from the great battle, how many triples to left do you see?

Derek Jeter vs. Jimmy Gobble
Bottom of the same inning with the bases loaded. Jeter goes 0-2 as well before singling on the ninth pitch to give the Yankees the lead.

Casey Blake vs. Brad Radke
Leading off the 4th inning, Blake goes nine pitches before grounding out.

Brad Ausmus vs. Mark Prior
Leading off the 3rd, Ausmus walks on nine pitches.

Caesar Izturis vs. Livan Hernandez
Izturis starts off 0-2 but lasts nine pitches before grounding out.

Brian Schneider vs. Wilson Alvarez
Schneider goes ten pitches, and doesn't even get to a full count! He fouls off five in a row before fouling out.

Willy Mo Pena vs. Randy Johnson
My favorite. The Big Unit probably graduated high school the same year as me. That is the same year that Willy Mo was born. Here's the whole log, from ESPN:

Randy Johnson pitches to Wily Mo Pena
Pitch 1: strike 1 (looking)
Pitch 2: strike 2 (swinging)
Pitch 3: ball 1
Pitch 4: foul
Pitch 5: ball 2
Pitch 6: foul
Pitch 7: ball 3
Pitch 8: in play
W Pena grounded out to third.

Nice try, kid.

BAP Scores -

8/19 SF 5 Atlanta 4
BAP - SF .714, Atl .487
OPS - SF .837, Atl .637

8/20 SF 2 Atl 1
BAP - SF .313, Atl .525
OPS - SF .636, Atl .636

Two very different games. In the first game SF has a 4 EB advantage, but in the second Atlanta has a 6 EB advantage. Atlanta's score of only one run for a .525 BAP is very low. .500 is pretty much a guarantee of at least two.

8/19 Oakland 3 Boston 2 From tim at Musings from RSN


BAP OBP SLG
BOS 0.400 0.343 0.233
OAK 0.382 0.206 0.200

8/20 Oakland 8 Boston 6
Oak 8, Bos 6
BAP/OBP/SLG
Bos .761/.511/.526
Oak .850/.293/.474
This series is my BAP nightmare. Without having studied any team significantly. I get the impression that the Sox and A's are on opposite ends of the BAP world. Sure enough, it took only two games for BAP to get a game right that OPS got wrong, and OPS hasn't got either game right.

Today's results: BAP 2-2, OPS 1-2-1

The Standings:

BAP 33-6
OPS 30-8-1

Dave's Email