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It's over now. Really. The Devil Rays have won a game. In fact, they've won two games. But before they did, you couldn't blame them if they were starting to worry that they might never win again.
They became just the second American League team in the last 25 years -- and the fifth in the last 50 years -- to lose 15 games in a row. So we begin with odds and ends (mostly odds) from their 15-game plunge to the bottom of the AL East:
In the time in which the Devil Rays won no games (April 24 to May 11): The Red Sox won 12 games. Nine different pitchers (including Baltimore's mysterious Rodrigo Lopez) won three games apiece. Curt Schilling struck out 36 hitters. Hideki Irabu saved seven games. Sammy Sosa hit eight home runs. Barry Bonds walked 22 times (and was intentionally walked six times). And two teams fired their managers.
The Devil Rays became only the second team since 1900 to get no-hit (by Derek Lowe) in the middle of a losing streak of 15 games or more. The other was the 1926 Red Sox, who were no-hit by Ted Lyons of the White Sox on Aug. 21, in Game 2 of a 17-game streak.
During the streak, the Rays got no-hit, got no-assisted (recording no assists in Game 7, against the Twins), lost on a game-winning pinch grand slam off a catwalk, became the first AL team since the 1929 White Sox to lose three straight games they led after eight innings and lost 15 in a row despite leading at some point in more than half the games in the streak (eight of 15).
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| Vaughn |
They also hit below the Mendoza Line as a team (.196) during the streak. They had six players who batted.125 or lower (paced by Greg Vaughn, at 3 for 40, .075). They scored three runs or fewer in 12 of the 15 games. And allowed more extra-base hits (44) than they scored runs (38).
The Rays lost eight of those 15 games at home, too (including the last seven). That made them the first team to have a streak that long in which more than half the losses were at home since Coco Laboy and the 1969 expansion Expos (12 home losses in a 20-game streak).
But if it makes them feel any better, at least they can look around and find lots of teams in the other sports that have lost 15 in a row lately. Since the '88 Orioles lost 21 in a row, the Devil Rays were only the second baseball team to lose at least 15 straight (joining the '96-97 Cubs, who did it over two seasons). But in the NFL, the Carolina Panthers are currently at 15 in a row and counting. In the NHL, the San Jose Sharks lost 17 straight in 1993. Losses in other sports? And in the salary-capped world of the NBA, which those baseball owners seem to love so much, so much parity has been achieved that (ready?) 28 teams have had losing streaks of 15 or longer since the '88 Orioles won a game.
Devil Rays media-relations genius Rick Vaughn reports that at least one of his players' families had previous experience in, eh, grieving 15-game losing streaks. Ben Grieve's father, Tom, was a member of the previous AL team to lose exactly 15 in a row -- the '72 Rangers.
Ah, but the Rays finally ended their streak on a ninth-inning walkoff home run Saturday by Randy Winn -- a man who obviously did not want to set a record for most consecutive losses by a Winn Or a Wynn (as in Jimmy), a Wynne (as in Marvel) or a Win (as in Win Remerswaal), either. That record is held by Early Wynne, whose '48 Washington Senators belied his name by losing 18 in a row.
Of the 19 teams since 1900 that lost 15 or more in a row, Winn did enable the Rays to become the first team to end their streak on a walkoff home run, according to the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent.
And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, their four-run rally in the ninth inning of that game made them the first AL team ever to end a losing streak of 10 games or more by winning a game it trailed by at least two runs entering the ninth.
So how ironic was that, huh? Before that outburst, the Devil Rays had been outscored, 24-0, in the ninth inning for the season -- and had given up 28 consecutive unanswered runs over their previous 42 games, since the last time they'd scored in the ninth, on Sept. 30, 2001. Then they broke a 15-game losing streak by scoring four runs in the ninth. That, friends, is baseball.
Triviality
Now that Jose Canseco has retired, only two active players have won both an MVP Award and a Rookie-of-the-Year Award. Can you name them (answer at bottom)?
More Useless Information
Speaking of slumping Devil Rays, through Tuesday Greg Vaughn was up to 213 at-bats since his last home run (hit last Aug. 5). Since Vaughn's last homer, Barry Bonds has hit 39 homers. Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Adam Dunn have combined for 106 homers since then. And 13 pitchers have hit a home run since then, including Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle twice apiece.
No pitcher in history ever won a higher percentage of his team's victories than Steve Carlton, whose 27 wins for the 1972 Phillies represented 45.8 percent of their 59 wins for the season. But we might have a new contender for that honor. In Kansas City, Paul Byrd was 6-2 through Tuesday -- while the rest of the Royals pitchers were 6-21.
Elias' Rob Tracy reports that since division play began, only four pitchers have had half their team's wins at a later juncture in the season than Byrd -- and one of them was not Carlton (who actually started slowly in '72):
Wilbur Wood, 1973 White Sox, 41 team games (13 of their 26 wins)
Rick Mahler, 1985 Braves, 40 team games (8 of their 16 wins)
Ed Whitson, 1987 Padres, 38 team games (4 of their 8 wins)
Sam McDowell, 1972 Giants, 38 games (6 of 12 wins)
Last weekend in the Metrodome, five different Yankees homered in one turn through the order -- Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Robin Ventura, Nick Johnson and Jason Giambi. We went searching for the last Yankees team to do that, figuring we'd get a list that went something like: Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and Clete Boyer.
Nope. According to Elias' Rob Tracy and Ken Hirdt, this was the first time in Yankees franchise history they'd ever done that. Wow.
We find something very bizarre about the fact that this is the latest date in team history that the Marlins have found themselves in first place -- five years after they won the World Series.
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The Royals' Carlos Beltran has stolen 26 bases in a row and an incredible 59 of his last 60, raising his career stolen-base success rate to an incredible 90.5 percent (86 for 95). When he gets to 100 stolen-base attempts, he'll own the highest career success rate of any player in the last 50 years -- by a full five percent.
At the moment, Arizona's Tony Womack holds that distinction (273 for 321, 85.0 percent).
The Astros beat the Phillies on Monday, 17-3. It sounds like a football score -- except the Eagles allowed their opponents to put a 17 on the board only twice after Week 6 last season. And back when there was such a thing as the old Houston Oilers, they hadn't won a 17-3 game since Oct. 10, 1976, when Dan Pastorini and his pals engineered a 17-3 win over Denver.
Braves p.r. whiz Glen Serra reports that the Braves did something this month they hadn't done in four years: They lost the first two games of their last homestand. Last time they did that: June 24-26, 1998, when Kevin Millwood, Denny Neagle and John Smoltz lost to David Cone, David Wells and Pat Hentgen. That was 35 homestands ago.
What does the death of Seattle Slew have to do with the Red Sox's chances of winning the World Series? Our friend, Jerry Beach, of e-sportsnation.com, has the answer. One of his readers -- John Guerriero -- couldn't help but note that the passing of the Slewmeister means there is no living triple-crown winner for the first time since 1919. And what was the last year the Red Sox were defending World Series champs? It was 1919, of course. Of course, back in 1919, there was no chance of the horses striking before the Belmont.
While we're on the subject of the Red Sox's glorious past, those 1950 Red Sox popped back to life last weekend, when the Angels were mashing the White Sox, 19-0, on Friday. That made the Angels the first team since those very 1950 Red Sox to win two games in one season by 19 runs or more. (The Angels had beaten Cleveland, 21-2, 10 days earlier.
That also made the Angels just the fourth team since 1900 to win twice by 19 or more in the same season -- but the first to do it twice in 10 days. The other three teams, courtesy of Elias' Rob Tracy:
1950 Red Sox (19-0 over the A's on April 30, 29-4 over the Browns on June 8)
1939 Yankees (three times: 22-2 over Detroit on May 2, 23-2 over the A's on June 28, 21-0 over the A's on Aug. 13)
1923 Indians (27-3 over the Red Sox on July 7, 22-7 over the Senators on Aug. 7)
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The officially ageless Jesse Orosco did it again last week. At age 45, he saved the Dodgers' 14-inning game in Atlanta last Tuesday. Since the modern save rule came along, only one pitcher -- Hoyt Wilhelm -- ever saved a game at 45 or older. (Wilhelm knuckleballed his way into the save column right up to age 49.)
Most saves after turning 40, courtesy of Elias:
Dennis Eckersley 96
Doug Jones 44
Woodie Fryman 36
Don McMahon 34
Hoyt Wilhelm 31
Ron Reed 20
Jim Kaat 12
Orosco 9
That save also gave Orosco a save in his 16th different season. According to Elias' Rob Tracy, only three pitchers ever racked up saves in more seasons than that:
20: Goose Gossage
18: John Franco
17: Lee Smith
16: Orosco, Rollie Fingers, Greg Garber, Jeff Reardon
The Pirates have never impeached a president. But as their public-relations mastermind, Jim Trdinich observes, they just sent an Abraham (Nunez) and a Lincoln (Mike) to the minor leagues in the same weekend.
Byung-Hyun Kim blew his first save since Scott Brosius' homer in Game 5 of last year's World Series on Saturday, on a Tomas Perez home run in the ninth inning in Philadelphia. But for those who regard these ninth-inning home runs as some kind of indication that Kim isn't closer material, consider this: The East Valley Tribune's Ed Price reports that before Perez swung the bat, the previous 25 hitters to get an official at-bat against Kim were 0 for 25 -- with 15 strikeouts.
Kim also had struck out at least one hitter in 17 consecutive appearances this year, through Tuesday. But believe it or not, according to Elias' Rob Tracy, two current pitchers actually own longer streaks in relief appearances -- Toronto's Kelvim Escobar (24 games, dating back to last year) and Joel Pineiro (19 games, dating back to 2000).
Everybody had so much fun last week figuring out the pitcher tandems with the longest names to win and save the same game, we had two more suggestions for reader merriment this week:
Loyal reader David Hallstrom wonders what the shortest names to win and save the same game were. And you can start by looking up all of Robb Nen's saves.
Meanwhile, reader Mitch Manetou proposes a baseball scrabble game -- most and fewest Scrabble points you can work up for one name. Common nicknames count, so you could use, say, Babe Ruth -- but it's Jeffrey (not Penitentiary Face) Leonard.
Manetou's scores:
Current players
(lowest) Ron Gant, Al Leiter, 8
(highest) Javier Vazquez, 53
All-time
(Lowest) Ed Ott, 6
(Highest) Vazquez (still), 53
Good luck.
Who says you can't keep the ball in the park anymore?
Most innings without allowing a home run (through Tuesday):
Starters
Jeff Weaver 54
Derek Lowe 50 1/3
Miguel Batista 36 1/3*
(* has started and relieved.)
Relievers
T.J. Tucker 24 1/3
Gabe White 24 1/3
J.C. Romero 22 2/3
Carlos Silva 22
Grant Roberts 21 2/3
Jason Isringhausen 21 1/3
More at-bats than Greg Vaughn without hitting a home run:
Fernando Vina 162
Juan Pierre 158
Cesar Izturis 150
Ichiro Suzuki 148
Luis Castillo 144
Neifi Perez 140
Jason Tyner 137
Edgardo Alfonzo 133
Peter Bergeron 123
Greg Vaughn 122
Get out your scorebooks for the goofiest caught-stealing of the season, from the May 5 A's-White Sox game -- a caught-stealing at second base in which the catcher (Greg Myers) got the putout. The runner, Aaron Rowand, was out, after a pickoff and rundown, 1-3-4-3-6-2.
Nobody can run those relief pitchers in there like Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon. In a game last week against the Diamondbacks, he made three pitching changes in a span of five pitches:
With a 2-and-0 count on Tony Womack, he brought in reliever Joe Beimel. Beimel threw two balls to complete a walk charged to Kip Wells. Then in came Mike Lincoln to throw two more balls, then give up a single. Which brought on Scott Sauerbeck. At that point, the three of them had officially faced one batter.
From our Rickey Henderson Nostalgia Dept.: When Henderson played left field for the Red Sox last Wednesday, it inspired reader Doug Greenwald to reminisce about Rickey's first Red Sox-A's game -- on July 13, 1979.
Steve Renko took a no-hitter into the ninth inning that night -- before Henderson singled to break it up. Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk also played in that game, which was saved by Bill Campbell. But the most amazing name in that box score belonged to Oakland's starting pitcher -- because he's still playing, too (Mike Morgan). What were the odds of that?
You thought Mike Cameron had a big night. He's no George Arias. Wayne Graczyk, of the Japan Times, reports that over in Hanshin Tigers land, Arias made five trips to the plate April 25 and 26 -- and almost homered for the cycle. He hit a slam, two three-run homers, one solo homer and an RBI double. That's five at-bats, four homers, 18 total bases and 12 RBI. In Arias' last season in the big leagues, for the '99 Padres, he had seven homers and 20 RBI in 164 at-bats.
From our Farm Bureau, we begin with Mark Prior. In his two Triple-A starts at Iowa, the Cubs phenom has given up just one extra-base hit -- but has thumped three of them himself (two homers and a triple).
Then there's this wild play from the Eastern League, contributed by Mike Beveridge, official scorer for the Portland Sea Dogs -- a 2-unassisted double play on a pop-up not caught by the catcher.
This is tough to do. But it happened in a game last Wednesday against New Britain.
With runners on first and second and one out, a high pop foul between third base and the plate was suddenly blown back fair by a gust of wind. Catcher Gabby Torres couldn't scramble back to catch it -- but he got credit for one out when the umpires called an infield fly rule.
The runners, unsure what had just happened, kept going. So Torres picked up the ball and threw it to third -- and appeared to throw out Portland runner Adrian Gonzalez. But the third-base umpire, Bill Vanraaphorst, made no call (apparently because of a missed tag).
Players on both sides then began to jog off the field, assuming the inning was over. So Gonzalez -- halfway down the third-base line toward home by then -- saw that and veered off toward first base. The umpires then ruled he had abandoned his attempt to touch home -- so they called him out and credited Torres with a second putout on the same play.
So that's a 2-unassisted double play for a man who never caught the pop-up and never applied a tag. What a sport.
And it's been some month in Charlotte. The Hornets announce they're leaving. Jose Canseco retires. And the Charlotte Knights, the White Sox's Triple-A team, are 12-26 (through Tuesday). Charlotte has been outscored, 53-25, in the first two innings. And its starting pitchers are a combined 5-22. Yikes.
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Finally, it's time for your regularly scheduled Bobblehead Update, from our vice president in charge of Bobblehead Computations, David Hallstrom. Counting A-Rod's 2-for-4 game on his Bobblehead Day last weekend, we've had seven current players honored with a bobblehead this season.
Two were rained out (Sammy Sosa, Carlos Beltran). Two didn't play (Mike Piazza, Tim Hudson). But the three who played in front of their bobbleheads (A-Rod, Magglio Ordonez and John Smoltz) have racked up a .500 batting average (4 for 8) and a 0.00 ERA (one shutout inning by Smoltz). So no doubting the power of the bobblehead from now on, please.
The Sultan's Corner
We now present our favorite tidbit of the whole week. Barry Bonds hit his 579th home run Sunday, against a team whose manager (Frank Robinson) hit 588 home runs. So we asked the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's tireless David Vincent, if that was the most homers ever by a hitter and the opposing manager. And the answer is ...
Yes!
Here are all the homers by 500-homer men against managers with 500 homers, courtesy of the Sultan:
1,167 HR: Bonds versus Robinson (May 12, 2002)
1,073: Harmon Killebrew (HR (No. 552) vs. Ted Williams' Rangers (May 28, 1972)
1,032: Frank Robinson (No. 520) vs. Eddie Mathews' Braves (Sept. 7, 1972)
The only 500-homer man to manage, besides Robinson, Williams and Mathews: Mel Ott (managed the Giants in the '40s, when no other 500-homer men were even playing in the National League).
On back-to-back days last weekend, two different men hit inside-the-park homers -- Doug Glanville and Raul Mondesi. The last time there were inside-the-parkers on back-to-back days, according to the Sultan:
Last Oct. 6 and 7 (Sammy Sosa and Wes Helms).
The last time there were inside-the-parkers on three straight days was May 25-26-27. 1997 (Pat Meares and Sosa in the same game on the 25th, then Doug Strange on the 26th, then Tony Womack and Craig Paquette on the 27th).
Finally, the Brewers just became the 10th team since 1998 to hit two grand slams in the same game (courtesy of Richie Sexson and Raul Casanova). And that always creates the potential for a list of great names. So the Sultan presents the other nine teams to do it:
Orioles, Aug. 14,1998: both by Chris Hoiles
Giants, Sept. 19, 1998: Bill Mueller, Jeff Kent
Cardinals, April 23, 1999: both by Fernando Tatis in the same inning
Red Sox, May 10, 1999: both by Nomar Garciaparra
Reds, Aug. 21, 1999: Aaron Boone, Eddie Taubensee
Yankees, Sept. 14, 1999: Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill
Indians, Sept. 24, 1999: Manny Ramirez, Dave Roberts
Dodgers, May 21, 2000: Adrian Beltre, Shawn Green
Mariners, Aug. 8, 2000: Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez
Trivia Answer
Ichiro Suzuki (both last year) and Jeff Bagwell (1991 rookie, 1994 MVP).
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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