Here’s your
morning baseball briefing:
Game of the Weekend for Friday
August 2 - Sunday August 4:
Friday – Miami Marlins 10, Cleveland Indians 0
Two
days after turning 21 years old, Miami rookie starting pitcher Jose Fernandez (8-5)
pitched the best game of his young career, allowing just two hits in eight
innings while striking out 14 as the Marlins won easily. His 14 strikeouts are the most by a National
League pitcher this season, one more than his 13 strikeouts he recorded last
Sunday. His 27 strikeouts in consecutive
starts is a Marlins record.
Rest
of the weekend scores:
Friday:
Saturday
Sunday
Consecutive
days with a walk-off win (where the home team scores the winning run in the
ninth inning or later that immediately ends the game): 8. The
Minnesota Twins and New York Mets each walked-off winners on Friday; the Tampa
Bay Rays walked-off winners on Saturday; and the Detroit Tigers walked-off winners
on Sunday when Torii Hunter singled home the winning run in the 12th inning to
beat the White Sox.
A.L. MVP
Watch: Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels
Last Week: Batted .438 with 6 runs scored and 11 walks
Season: .329, 18 HRs, 67 RBI,
77 runs scored and 23 stolen bases
On pace
for: .329, 26 HRs, 99 RBI, 114 runs
scored and 34 stolen bases
N.L. MVP
Watch: Andrew McCutchen, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates
Last Week: Batted .346, 1 HR, 6 RBI and 7 runs scored
Season: .307, 16 HRs, 52 RBI
and 101 runs scored
On pace
for: .306, 22 HRs, 91 RBI, 101 runs
scored and 33 stolen bases
A.L. Cy
Young Watch: Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers
Last Week: 1-0, 14 K’s, 5 hits and a 0.00 ERA
Season: 10-5, 186 K’s and a
2.67 ERA
On pace
for: 14-7, 271 K’s and a 2.62 ERA
N.L. Cy
Young Watch: Francisco Liriano, Pittsburgh Pirates
Last Week: 2-0, 14 K’s, 6 hits and a 0.63 ERA
Season: 12-4, 106 K’s and a
2.02 ERA
On pace
for: 17-5, 196 K’s and a 1.97 ERA
News &
Notes: Approximately 12 players will be suspended today for their
involvement in the Biogenesis steroids investigation, among them Alex Rodriguez
who is expected to make his season debut tonight for the Yankees.
Baltimore outfielder Chris Davis became the first batter
this season to hit 40 HRs when he belted a solo shot Friday against Seattle.
Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer (16-1) became the first pitcher
this season to reach 16 wins when he beat the White Sox on Saturday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have won a franchise record 14
consecutive road games, 3 shy of tying the National League record of 17 set by
the 1916 New York Giants.
History –
1958 World Series
Winner: The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee
Braves 4 games to 3.
1958 was as odd year in New York as fans only
had one team to root for. Both the
Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco
respectively before the start of the season, and the Yankees and Braves coasted
to their pennants rather easily. It was
a rematch of the 1957 World Series where the Braves defeated the Yankees in
seven games, but this time the Braves had the home field advantage.
Milwaukee
stormed out to a 2-0 series lead with two wins at home, the first game extended
to extra innings as both starters (Whitey Ford for New York and Warren Spahn
for Milwaukee) weren’t around to finish the game as the Braves would walk-off
winners in the tenth in Bill Bruton’s RBI single. Lew Burdette, the 1957 World Series MVP won
game two easily 13-5 despite allowing two home runs to Mickey Mantle, but Burdette
hit a homer of his own to beat New York for the fourth straight time.
Back in New
York for Game 3, Yankee starter Don Larsen shut down the Braves 4-0 as Hank Bauer
provided all the runs with a homer and four RBI. The Braves bounced back in Game 4 as Warren
Spahn beat Whitey Ford by hurling a two-hit complete game shutout for a 3-0
win, lifting Milwaukee within one win of consecutive World Series titles. The Braves went with good old Lew Burdette
again, hoping for one more magical game by the crafty right-hander, but he
couldn’t pull a rabbit out of his hat in this game as New York fought off
elimination to win 7-0.
With a 3-2
series lead and heading back to Milwaukee for games 6 and 7 if necessary, the
teams threw Hall of Famers at each other for the third time in the series as
Warren Spahn dueled with Whitey Ford with the series on the line. Ford was pulled in the second after allowing
two runs, and Yankee manager Casey Stengel knew runs would be at a premium
against Spahn and he’d seen enough from Ford who was pitching on just two days
rest. The game was tied 2-2 after nine
innings, and Spahn was still on the mound for Milwaukee as the Yankees came to
bat in the top of the tenth. New York
pushed two runs across on Gil McDougal’s home run and Moose Skowron’s RBI
single, and Milwaukee scored once in the bottom of the tenth to pull within
4-3, and had two men on and two out when Frank Torre (brother of Joe Torre)
flied out to left to end the game. There
would be another Game 7.
This series
clincher would feature Don Larsen against Lew Burdette, and the game remained
tied 2-2 when the flood gates finally opened for New York as they scored four
times off Burdette, including a three-run homer by Moose Skowron that broke the
Braves hearts. They didn’t recover and
New York won the game 6-2 for their 18th World Series title and seventh
in the last ten years. They became just
the second team to comeback from a 3-1 series deficit (the other was the 1925
Pittsburgh Pirates). Hank Bauer led the
Yankees
with most runs scored (six), most hits (ten), most home runs (four) and most
runs batted in (eight). He also topped the Yankees sluggers with a .323 average. Pitcher Bob Turley became the first relief pitcher
to win the MVP with a 2-1 record with one save.
For the series the Yankees outscored the
Braves 29-25 but were outhit 60-49. Hall-of-Famers
in the series included for New York: manager Casey Stengel, catcher Yogi Berra,
outfielders Mickey Mantle and Enos Slaughter, and pitcher Whitey Ford; and for
the Milwaukee: outfielder Hank Aaron, pitcher Warren Spahn, second baseman Red
Schoendienst, and third baseman Eddie Matthews.
Tomorrow: 1959 World Series – Chicago White Sox vs. Los Angeles
Dodgers
Trivia -
Today’s Question: What
team holds the MLB record for most consecutive wins?
Yesterday’s
Question: Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves was known
to throw a spitball even though it was outlawed by MLB. What year was it deemed illegal?
Answer: 1920. A rule was put into effect by Major League
Baseball that outlawed the spitball and other substance-abuse type pitches. A
group of pitchers who depended upon the spitball pitch were officially listed by
their managers and allowed to continue throwing it for the remainder of their
career.
Vegas Bet: Lastly, here’s an
actual bet you can make at a Las Vegas Sports Book: Over/Under 8 strikeouts by Stephen Strasburg today vs. Atlanta.
Yesterday’s
Bet: Over/Under
4 runs allowed by new San Diego
Padres’ pitcher Ian Kennedy in his team debut Sunday vs. the Yankees.
Result: Under. Kennedy allowed 2 earned runs as he beat his former team.
Standings
| American League | National League | |||||||||
| EAST | W | L | GB | STRK | EAST | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Boston | 68 | 45 | - | Won 2 | Atlanta | 67 | 45 | - | Won 10 | |
| Tampa Bay | 66 | 45 | 1 | Won 2 | Washington | 54 | 57 | 13 | Lost 1 | |
| Baltimore | 61 | 51 | 6.5 | Lost 2 | Philadelphia | 50 | 61 | 17 | Lost 5 | |
| NY Yankees | 57 | 53 | 9.5 | Lost 1 | NY Mets | 49 | 60 | 17 | Lost 2 | |
| Toronto | 51 | 60 | 16 | Won 1 | Miami | 43 | 67 | 23 | Lost 2 | |
| CENTRAL | W | L | GB | STRK | CENTRAL | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Detroit | 64 | 45 | - | Won 8 | Pittsburgh | 67 | 44 | - | Won 2 | |
| Cleveland | 62 | 49 | 3 | Won 2 | St. Louis | 65 | 45 | 1.5 | Won 1 | |
| Kansas City | 56 | 52 | 7.5 | Won 2 | Cincinnati | 61 | 51 | 6.5 | Lost 1 | |
| Minnesota | 48 | 60 | 16 | Won 3 | Chicago Cubs | 49 | 62 | 18 | Lost 4 | |
| Chicago Sox | 40 | 69 | 24 | Lost 10 | Milwaukee | 47 | 64 | 20 | Won 1 | |
| WEST | W | L | GB | STRK | WEST | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Oakland | 64 | 47 | - | Lost 1 | LA Dodgers | 61 | 49 | - | Won 4 | |
| Texas | 62 | 50 | 2.5 | Won 1 | Arizona | 56 | 55 | 5.5 | Lost 2 | |
| Seattle | 52 | 59 | 12 | Won 2 | San Diego | 52 | 60 | 10 | Won 1 | |
| LA Angels | 51 | 59 | 13 | Lost 1 | Colorado | 52 | 61 | 11 | Lost 2 | |
| Houston | 36 | 74 | 28 | Lost 4 | San Francisco | 49 | 61 | 12 | Lost 2 | |
Schedule for Monday August 5 with probable pitchers in parentheses. My picks to win
are highlighted. Weekend picks: 25-20
Overall: 625-468
Times EST
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