|
Wednesday, October 31
Updated: November 1, 3:25 AM ET
Schilling, Johnson trying to join elite company
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
Clear some space in your personal recycling bin. It's time for a Game 4 edition of the Useless Information Dept.:
If it wasn't clear before that the Arizona Diamondbacks' strategy in this World Series was to ride that Curt Schilling-Randy Johnson Win-o-liner to four wins, the sight of Schilling on the mound in Game 4 sure makes it clear now. If this works, Arizona would join the the 1989 Oakland A's as the only teams since 1968 to win a World Series with two starting pitchers getting all the wins.
Let's look at the three teams in the last 60 years to win a Series with two starters collecting two wins apiece:
1989 A's: Dave Stewart (2), Mike Moore (2).
1960 Pirates: Vern Law (2), Harvey Haddix (2).
1952 Yankees: Vic Raschi (2), Allie Reynolds (2).
Schilling has pitched 41 innings in this postseason. He has been scored on in four of them. He has given up more than two runs in one of them. He and Johnson have pitched 74 innings combined in this postseason. They've been scored on in eight of them.
| |  | |
| Hernandez |
| |  | |
| Schilling |
Game 4's matchup of Schilling and El Duque Hernandez marked only the sixth time in World Series history that a 20-game winner met another pitcher who won four games or fewer during the regular season -- and the first since, well, the day before (when Roger Clemens beat Brian Anderson).
In three of the previous five meetings, the 20-game winner's team lost. But two of those duels were created by military obligations. When military service didn't affect either pitcher's record, the 20-game winner's team won two of three.
The complete list, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau:
2001, Game 3: Clemens (20-3) vs. Anderson (4-9). Result: Clemens WP, Anderson LP. Yankees 2, Diamondbacks 1.
1979, Game 5: Mike Flanagan (23-9) vs. Jim Rooker (4-7). Result: Rooker gets ND but Pirates beat Flanagan, 7-1.
1946, Game 4: Tex Hughson (20-11) vs. George Munger (2-2 *). Result: Munger WP, Hughson LP. Cardinals 12, Hughson 3.
1945, Game 2: Hank Wyse (22-10) vs. Virgil Trucks (0-0 *). Result: Trucks WP, Wyse LP. Tigers 4, Cubs 1.
1940, Game 4: Paul Derringer (20-12) vs. Dizzy Trout (3-7). Result: Derringer WP, Trout LP. Tigers 5, Reds 2.
(* Munger and Trucks pitched abbreviated seasons due to military service.)
With only 13 hits and just three runs scored in the first three games of the World Series, the Yankees became only the second team in history to record totals that low in both categories through three games. The other, according to Elias, was the 1966 Dodgers, who were held to three runs and only 10 hits by Baltimore in Games 1, 2 and 3, in games started by Dave McNally, Jim Palmer and Wally Bunker.
If we take hits out of the equation, then since divisional play began, only three teams have scored fewer runs through three games of a World Series than the Yankees:
1985 Cardinals (vs. K.C.): one run, one run, no runs in Games 5-6-7.
1979 Orioles (vs.Pitt.): one run, no runs, one run in Games 5-6-7.
1969 Orioles (vs. Mets): one run, no runs, one run in Games 2-3-4.
It is now four years since Mariano Rivera last blew a postseason save, in a Division Series game against Cleveland. Since then, the Yankees have played 11 one-run games in the postseason -- and won all 11 of them. Rivera has pitched in all 11, allowing runs in exactly one of them, saving six and winning three.
It wasn't quite father versus son. But Mike Morgan, age 42, did pitch to Alfonso Soriano, age 23, on Tuesday. And the Elias Sports Bureau's Rob Tracy reports it was only the fourth time in the last 50 World Series that a hitter faced a pitcher who was at least 18 years older than he was. The others:
1987: Joe Niekro (age 42) vs. Jose Oquendo (age 24).
1971: Dick Hall (41) vs. Milt May (21).
1959: Early Wynn (39) vs. Ron Fairly (21).
Arizona's Game 5 starter, Miguel Batista, will be pitching for the first time in 12 days. But the only other time this year he went more than eight days without pitching, he shut out the Dodgers for seven innings in Los Angeles on Sept. 21, also after 12 days off.
Not to say it had been a while since Mark Grace hit a postseason home run before Game 4. But the East Valley Tribune's Ed Price reports that in between Grace's postseason homers, David Justice hit 16. Grace's previous postseason homer was in Game 1 of the 1989 NLCS, off Scott Garrelts, who retired 10 years ago.
Before Shane Spencer's home run, he owned no postseason RBI -- and hadn't homered since Sept. 26. Of his 37 previous lifetime home runs, two had gone down the right-field line before the one he hit off Schilling.
Here's a World Series stat line you may never see again: David Justice, 0 for 8, 8 strikeouts. If you have trouble remembering the last man to do that, it's because no player has ever whiffed eight straight at-bats in a World Series. Including pitchers. Even the legendary Bob Buhl -- who once went 0 for 70, with 36 strikeouts, in 1962. Alas, Buhl never had a shot at this record, since he got just one World Series at-bat, for the '57 Braves.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com
| |
| |
