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Wild Pitches By Jayson Stark ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Box score line of the week Montreal's Britt Reames has had a rough time rolling the clock back to last year. And his season hit bottom Tuesday, with this start vs. Arizona: 1 1/3 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 HR, 53 pitches to get 4 outs. Quote of the day From Reames, on not doing his job: "The bullpen," he said, "did my job." Box score line of the week (farm dept.) In the big leagues, there has been just one inning since 1953 in which a team scored 14 runs or more. (And that was a 16-run inning by Texas in 1996, in which nine of the runs were scored off infielder Manny Alexander.) But there was a 14-run inning in the Florida State League on Wednesday, by the Sarasota Red Sox, against the Daytona Cubs. And 13 of them were unearned, producing this epic box-score line by Daytona left-hander Jim Eppeneder, who gave up nine runs in relief: 1/3 IP, 5 H, 9 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 WP. Quote of the day From Daytona manager Dave Trembley: "I've never seen anything like that in my life, and I've been doing this a long time." Stats of the day The two teams combined for nine errors. And Sarasota scored 18 runs (to win, 18-13) -- despite scoring in only two innings (the fifth and sixth). Injury of the week Mike Hampton missed a start this week -- with a stiff neck that he got from sleeping funny on a hotel pillow. "If he stays at our hotel (in Philadelphia), he's got a good chance to do it again," Rockies coach-witticist Rich Donnelly told Wild Pitches. "The mints are bigger than the pillows." Father-son act of the week Last Sunday in Cincinnati, Reds manager Bob Boone and his son, Aaron, did something it's believed no father and son have ever done in baseball -- outside of Little League, maybe. They both got ejected -- from the same game, by the same umpire (plate ump Scott Higgins). At least, Reds first baseman Sean Casey told Wild Pitches, they got to spend the late innings in the clubhouse together. "They got to come up here," Casey said, "and spend some good quality time." Human speed-up rule of the week Trivia question: Who is the only player the Tigers have left from the Juan Gonzalez deal? Trivia answer: Middle reliever Danny Patterson. "I said when we got traded that Juan was the throw-in," Patterson told Booth Newspapers' Tigers beat man, Danny Knobler. "I was joking at the time." Good joke. But the joke has been on the Rangers, too. They started the road toward the worst pitching season of modern times by allowing 169 runs in April -- which was 169 more than Patterson. He allowed zero -- and he was so efficient about it, he averaged just over three pitches per out -- including a five-pitch inning, a six-pitch inning and a seven-pitch inning. "These games are long enough," Patterson said, in an obvious attempt to become Frank Robinson's favorite player. "Hopefully, I can shorten them." Big EEE of the week Pirates rookie shortstop Jack Wilson made three throwing errors in a span of five hitters Wednesday. Which isn't easy. But that's what this rookie stuff is all about. "I knew coming into the season I'd make mistakes," Wilson told the Beaver County Times' John Perrotto. "I just didn't think I'd make them all in the same game." Big EEE of the week (outfield dept.) Then there was Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani. He committed three errors in left field all last season. He committed three in four innings last Sunday in St. Louis. That made him the first outfielder to hit that defensive trifecta since Dave Cochrane of the Mariners did it on June 22, 1992, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. "I'm not the best defensive player in the world," Agbayani said. "But that was bad." Shutout of the week The old expression, "making it look easy," must have been coined after a game similar to Mike Mussina's shutout of the Twins on Tuesday. No walks. Ten strikeouts. Three hits. And 100 pitches on the nose. It looked so effortless that when manager Joe Torre came out to shake Mussina's hand afterward, he asked: "Want to work out of the bullpen tomorrow?" Hitting secret of the week Tigers third baseman Dean Palmer already has been on the disabled list twice this season. He came off for the second time Sunday and hit a home run. Which means he has now homered in his first game off the DL twice in the same season. "We're going to put him on the DL once a month," manager Phil Garner announced afterward. Practical joke of the week After Brewers first baseman Richie Sexson hit a home run last weekend that broke a window in the Fridays restaurant beyond the left-field fence, teammate Geoff Jenkins started kidding Sexson that he would have to pay to fix the window. So after Jenkins exploded for a three-homer game last Saturday, Sexson and GM Dean Taylor plotted a little retaliation. Taylor wrote a letter on Brewers stationery, telling Sexson he owed the club $3,200 to replace the broken window. He left the letter on a chair in front of Sexson's locker. Sexson then showed the letter to Jenkins and confronted Taylor in the clubhouse. Sexson began complaining loudly about the bill. Taylor started yelling back. "Finally," Taylor told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Drew Olson, "I just screamed at him, 'Pay for the window!' and walked away. When I got to the corner, I looked over at Jenkins. His mouth was open, and his eyes were the size of saucers." Jenkins then began trying to calm Sexson down when he got the news: Just kidding. Ah, those madcap Brewers. Dope of the week One week, we've got naked guys on the field in Cincinnati. The next, we've got a turkey running into the batter's box at Fenway Park, with a giant plastic inflatable Red Sox bat, signaling for reliever Rod Beck to pitch to him. "If they had let him stand in there," Beck said, "I might have drilled him." So let's file this story under: Careful What You Wish For. Thumb-EE of the week There's a first time for everything. And last weekend, the quest for new firsts claimed Mets catcher Mike Piazza. He got ejected by umpire Wally Bell for arguing about a play at the plate. Asked afterward by the Newark Star Ledger's Lawrence Rocca how he felt about finally achieving that first career thumb, Piazza replied: "It's not like a milestone -- or a Ripken streak or anything." Home run machine of the week Only Larry Walker and Luis Gonzalez had a higher slugging percentage in April than Charles Johnson (.800). That's a switch for the Marlins. Johnson's nine homers in April were one more than all the Marlins catchers combined had hit in the previous two full seasons. So what's the secret to all this power? Third baseman Mike Lowell chalked it up to Johnson's decision to grow an afro this year. "When your hair's like that, you hit the ball hard," Lowell told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel's Dave O'Brien. Asked if he was planning a new "do" of his own, Lowell answered: "I'm letting my neck hair grow." Special KKKK of the week If you're looking for a blueprint for how to become a home-run hero, striking out four straight times to start your day isn't a tip you'll find on those Tom Emansky videos. But Blue Jays shortstop Alex Gonzalez went that route Tuesday in Oakland. Over the first nine innings, he was 0 for 4, with four whiffs. Then he marched up in the 10th inning and hit a game-winning homer off A's closer Jason Isringhausen. Amazingly, this trick was duplicated just nine days earlier by the Yankees' David Justice. But before that, it had been done exactly once in the previous 13 seasons, according to Elias' Rob Tracy (by Devon White, on Aug. 20, 1998). Asked what he was thinking as he came to bat in the 10th, Gonzalez said: "I wasn't thinking home run. I'll tell you that much." Triple threat of the week Mark Grace cleared the bases with a triple last week against the Marlins. And when Florida outfielder Eric Owens missed a diving catch and the ball rolled to the fence, Grace thought momentarily about going for one of those rarified inside-the-park grand slams. "Then," he said, "I realized who was running." Celebration of the week It isn't often you see Greg Maddux show any emotion whatsoever on the mound. But Wednesday, he punctuated a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout of the Brewers with a strikeout of Tyler Houston to break his career high for K's. Then an incredible thing happened: Maddux pumped his fist -- and, on the way off the field, fired the baseball into the stands, toward where his wife, Kathy, was sitting. Asked about that postgame heave afterward, Maddux quipped: "I was throwing it at my in-laws." Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Wild Pitches appears each Friday. |
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