A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports:
MLB
• With apologies to Jack Buck, we don't believe what we just saw at Dodger Stadium. Trailing by four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday, the Dodgers tied a major-league record by hitting four consecutive home runs, by Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew,
Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson.
Three other teams had hit four straight home runs in one inning, all of them in a four-year span. The Milwaukee Braves did it in the seventh inning at Cincinnati on June 8, 1961 (Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, Frank Thomas), the Indians did it in the sixth inning against the Angels on July 31, 1963 (Woodie Held, Pedro Ramos, Tito Francona and Larry Brown) and the Twins did it in the 11th inning at Kansas City on May 2, 1964 (Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall and Harmon Killebrew).
Then, after the Padres had taken a lead in the top of the 10th, the Dodgers scored two runs on Nomar Garciaparra's homer in the bottom of the inning to win the game. It was the first time in Dodgers history that they won a game in front of the home fans in which they trailed by at least four runs in the last of the ninth inning and again in extra innings. Over the last 75 years, only four other teams have won in that fashion, most recently the Yankees against the Phillies on July 16, 2000.
• The White Sox turned a triple play Monday for the second time this season, and Mark Buehrle was on the mound for both. On May 14, the Twins' Luis Castillo popped up a bunt which Chicago turned into a triple play. Monday, the Tigers' Carlos Guillen lined into a triple play. The last pitcher who was on the mound for two triple plays in one season was Bruce Howard for the 1968 Washington Senators, one of which was shortstop Ron Hansen's unassisted triple play.
• With a win Monday, Roy Oswalt has now won 16 of his 20 career starts against the Reds. The only other active pitcher who won at least 16 of his first 20 starts against any team is Mike Mussina, who won 17 of his first 20 against the Twins.
• The Yankees got a win and a save from rookie pitchers Monday -- starter Darrell Rasner went six innings for the win; Jose Veras got the last out of the game to record the save. It was only the Yankees' third game since saves were first recorded in 1969 that one rookie got a win and another got a save. Ron Davis and Mike Griffin did it in 1979; Jose Rijo and Clay Christiansen did it in 1984. Davis and Rijo won those games in relief, so this was the first Yankees game in which a rookie starting pitcher got a win and another rookie got the save.
No rookie had even recorded a save for the Yankees since Dave Pavlas recorded the only save of his career on Aug. 24, 1996.
• Steve Trachsel improved his record to 15-7 and lowered his ERA to 4.96 in the Mets' division-clinching win Monday. Only one pitcher in major league history has won more than two-thirds of his decisions while posting an ERA as high as Trachsel's (minimum: 20 decisions). Roxie Lawson went 18-7 for the 1937 Tigers despite a 5.27 ERA.
• The Rockies beat the Giants on Monday, 20-8. It was the first time in 7,507 games, since 1959, that the Giants allowed 20 runs in a game. On Aug. 13, 1959 the Giants, in their second season in San Francisco, lost to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, 20-9.
Two teams have longer current streaks of not allowing 20 runs -- the Pirates (since May 1954) and Reds (August 1954). The longest such streak in major league history was by the Yankees, who did not allow an opponent to score 20 from 1928 until 1987.
• The Rangers won their 10th game of the season against the Mariners on Monday. It's the fourth straight season that Texas has taken at least 10 games from Seattle. Three other teams have won at least 10 games against one opponent in each of the last four seasons -- the White Sox against the Royals, Yankees against the Orioles and Giants against the Diamondbacks.
NFL
• The Jaguars shut out the Steelers Monday, 9-0. The last defending Super Bowl champion to be held scoreless was the Raiders in 1981 -- and they were blanked in three straight games! Oakland was shut out in Detroit on Sept. 27, 16-0; at home by Denver on Oct. 4, 17-0; and in Kansas City on Oct. 11, 27-0.
The only other defending Super Bowl winner to be shut out was the Steelers at Houston on Dec. 4, 1980, 6-0.
• Pittsburgh did not make it past Jacksonville's 46-yard line Monday. The last time that a team did not advance past that point was on Dec. 17, 2000, when the Bears did not get past midfield at San Francisco in a 17-0 loss.
• The Steelers ran for only 26 yards Monday, their lowest total in a game in almost exactly 24 years, since also gaining 26 yards in a 26-20 win over the Bengals on Sept. 19, 1982.
Monday's game was only the third in the last 60 years that the Steelers did not run for a first down. It also happened in 1966 against the Cowboys and 2003 against the Ravens.
• The Steelers-Jaguars game was the third this season in which neither team scored a touchdown. It also happened in the Lions-Seahawks game on opening Sunday and the Chiefs-Broncos game in Week 2. There was not a single game last season in which neither team scored a touchdown and there was only one such game in the 2004 season. In the last 15 years the only other time that there were two TD-less games in the same week was in Week 8 in 1998 (Dolphins 12, Patriots 9 and Saints 9, Buccaneers 3).
• Through two weeks of NFL games, 28 percent of points have been scored on field goals, the highest such percentage at this point in NFL history.