Here’s your morning baseball
briefing:
Game of the Day Thursday August 22:
Washington Nationals 5, Chicago Cubs 4 (13 innings)
Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg has had an up-and-down
season to date, but on Thursday he was on top of his game, right up until the
ninth inning. After a two hour rain
delay, Strasburg dominated Chicago and was within one out of throwing a
complete game with his team winning 4-1, when the wheels fell off. He allowed an RBI single to rookie Junior
Lake, and with two outs, gave up a game-tying two-run home run to Donnie
Murphy, sending the game to extra innings.
The Nationals rallied to win in the 13th when Denard Span scored on a
Chad Tracy groundout, and Washington secured the victory they were so close to
in the ninth.
Rest
of the day’s scores:
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): 12. The Philadelphia Phillies walked-off winners for the second
consecutive day, this time on Domonic Brown’s ninth inning RBI single.
Longest
Winning Streak: 6, by the Chicago White Sox
Longest
Losing Streak: 5, by the Toronto Blue Jays
A.L. MVP
Watch: Prince Fielder, 1B, Detroit Tigers
Yesterday:
3-5 with 1 RBI
Season: .262, 20 HRs, 88 RBI
On pace
for: .261, 25 HRs, 113 RBI
N.L. MVP
Watch: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates
Yesterday:
2-5 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored
Season: .235, 31 HRs, 85 RBI
On pace
for: .234, 39 HRs, 109 RBI
A.L. Cy
Young Watch: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
Yesterday:
7 IP, 10 hits, 6 runs, 3 walks and 6
K’s in a no-decision vs. Minnesota
Season: 12-9, 166 K’s and a 3.68 ERA
On pace
for: 15-11, 213 K’s and a 3.67 ERA
N.L. Cy
Young Watch:
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
Yesterday:
8 IP, 6 hits, 0 runs and 6 K’s in a
win vs. Miami
Season: 13-7, 188 K’s, and a 1.72 ERA
On pace
for: 16-9, 243 K’s and a 1.72 ERA
News &
Notes: Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun issued a statement
apologizing for using performance enhancing drugs, admitting he made several
mistakes along the way. Braun is serving
a 65-game suspension.
The New York Mets signed Daisuke Matsuzaka to a contract for
the remaining of the season and will start today against Detroit.
History –
1972 World Series
Winner: The Oakland Athletics beat the
Cincinnati Reds 4 games to 3.
The Oakland A’s won their division by 5.5
games and beat Detroit in five games to reach the 1972 World Series, their first
since 1931 when they played in Philadelphia.
The Cincinnati Reds meanwhile cruised to a 10.5 game division win, and
then defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in five games to reach the Fall
Classic. Pittsburgh actually had a
better record than Cincinnati, and this was the first year the team with the
best record failed to reach the World Series.
Cincinnati
had home field advantage, and this would be a very closely contested series
with every run crucial. The A’s won the
two road games 3-2 and 2-1, and in Game 1, A’s outfielder Gene Tenace, filling
in for the injured Reggie Jackson who broke his thumb stealing home in the
season finale, smacked two home runs in his first two World Series at-bats (a
record he shares with Andruw Jones who did it with Atlanta in 1996). In Game 2, Catfish Hunter pitched eight
strong innings in the narrow win.
Out west on
Oakland for the middle games of the series, the Reds took two of three, winning
1-0 in Game 3; losing Game 4 by a 3-2 score when Oakland had three ninth inning
pinch-hit singles to score two runs; and winning Game 5 when Pete Rose singled
home the winning run in the top of the ninth to give Cincinnati the 5-4 victory
and fending off elimination. With the A’s
holding a 3-2 series lead, the teams flew back east to finish the season.
The Reds
routed the A’s 8-1 in Game 6 including a home run by Johnny Bench who had no homers or RBI up until that point,
forcing a Game 7 to decide the World Series.
In Game 7 with the score tied 1-1 in the sixth, Oakland scored twice to
take a 3-1 lead, and reliever Rollie Fingers would secure the game until the
end, as the A’s won 3-2 for their sixth World Series title in franchise history. Gene Tenace was named MVP as he tied a record
set by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig with four home runs.
For the
series, Cincinnati outscored Oakland 21-16, and the two teams tied with 46 hits
apiece. Hall of Famers in the series
included for Oakland: manager Dick Williams, and pitchers Catfish Hunter and
Rollie Fingers; and for Cincinnati: manager Sparky Anderson, catcher Johnny
Bench, and first baseman Tony Perez.
Tomorrow: 1973 World Series – Oakland Athletics vs. New York Mets
Trivia -
Today’s Question: How many World Series rings did Reggie Jackson win while
actually playing? He did not play in the
1973 World Series.
Yesterday’s
Question: What franchise became the
last team to install lights around their stadium to play night games? What year was it?
Answer: The Chicago Cubs were the last team to
play night games at home when they hosted the Philadelphia Phillies on August
8, 1988. The game was rained out after 4
innings and they played a day game the next day.
Vegas Bet: Lastly, here’s an
actual bet you can make at a Las Vegas Sports Book: Over/Under 3 combined runs allowed by Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer and New
York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey in their matchup Saturday at Citi Field.
Yesterday’s
Bet: Over/Under
18 combined strikeouts by Clayton
Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg today.
Result: Under. They combined to strike out 14 (Kershaw 6,
Strasburg 8).
Standings:
| American League | National League | |||||||||
| EAST | W | L | GB | STRK | EAST | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Boston | 75 | 54 | - | Won 1 | Atlanta | 77 | 50 | - | Lost 1 | |
| Tampa Bay | 72 | 53 | 1 | Lost 1 | Washington | 63 | 64 | 14 | Won 3 | |
| Baltimore | 68 | 58 | 5.5 | Won 1 | NY Mets | 58 | 67 | 18 | Lost 1 | |
| NY Yankees | 68 | 59 | 6 | Won 5 | Philadelphia | 57 | 70 | 20 | Won 2 | |
| Toronto | 57 | 71 | 17.5 | Lost 5 | Miami | 48 | 78 | 28.5 | Lost 3 | |
| CENTRAL | W | L | GB | STRK | CENTRAL | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Detroit | 74 | 53 | - | Lost 1 | Pittsburgh | 75 | 52 | - | Won 1 | |
| Cleveland | 69 | 58 | 5 | Won 3 | St. Louis | 74 | 53 | 1 | Won 2 | |
| Kansas City | 64 | 62 | 9.5 | Lost 5 | Cincinnati | 73 | 55 | 2.5 | Won 2 | |
| Minnesota | 56 | 70 | 17.5 | Won 1 | Milwaukee | 55 | 72 | 20 | Lost 1 | |
| Chicago Sox | 52 | 74 | 21.5 | Won 6 | Chicago Cubs | 54 | 73 | 21 | Lost 3 | |
| WEST | W | L | GB | STRK | WEST | W | L | GB | STRK | |
| Texas | 74 | 53 | - | Won 3 | LA Dodgers | 75 | 52 | - | Won 3 | |
| Oakland | 71 | 55 | 2.5 | Lost 2 | Arizona | 65 | 61 | 9.5 | Lost 2 | |
| Seattle | 59 | 67 | 14.5 | Won 2 | Colorado | 59 | 70 | 17 | Lost 2 | |
| LA Angels | 55 | 71 | 18.5 | Lost 4 | San Diego | 57 | 70 | 18 | Won 1 | |
| Houston | 41 | 85 | 32.5 | Lost 3 | San Francisco | 56 | 71 | 19 | Lost 2 | |
Schedule for Friday August 23 – Sunday August 25 with probable pitchers in parentheses. My picks to win
are highlighted. Yesterday’s Picks: 6-3
Overall: 753-567
Times EST
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