June 10, 2017

G61: Red Sox 11, Tigers 3

Tigers  - 000 021 000 -  3  9  0
Red Sox - 002 010 35x - 11 13  1
For the second straight game, the Boston bats did their damage in the later innings. Mitch Moreland's two-run double in the seventh snapped a 3-3 tie, and the Red Sox poured on the insurance runs from there.

Chris Sale: 7-9-3-0-7, 110. The Red Sox banged out 13 hits and drew nine walks (three of them were intentional).

Moreland finished the night with two hits, two runs scored, two walks, and three RBI. Xander Bogaerts had three hits (including two doubles), two runs scored, and one RBI. Dustin Pedroia had two hits and scored three runs. Andrew Benintendi drove in three runs. And Josh Rutledge was on base five times, with two singles and three walks; he drove in two runs and also stole a base.

Everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit except for Mookie Betts, but he did his part, walking three times and scoring a run.

The Yankees routed the Orioles 16-3, so Boston is still 3 GB. Baltimore is 5.5 GB.
Justin Verlander / Chris Sale
Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Rutledge, 3B
Leon, C
Odd: Verlander and Sale each threw 39 pitches in the first inning of their last start.

From MLB.com's preview: "Verlander will continue to chase history as he's struck out at least one batter in 327 consecutive games. The streak, which started in 2007, is the longest among active pitchers and the eighth-longest since 1913."

Naturally, I wondered about the seven streaks that were longer than Verlander's 327. So it was off to Baseball Reference's super-awesome Play Index.
                   GMS    START                 END                  (STARTS-RELIEF)
Nolan Ryan         382    September 15, 1979    May 27, 1992              382-0
Randy Johnson      351    April 20, 1989        August 20, 2000           342-9
Javier Vazquez     349    May 16, 2000          September 10, 2010        345-4
Dwight Gooden      349    April 7, 1984         September 3, 1997         347-2
Josh Beckett       335    September 4, 2001     August 3, 2014            332-3
Curt Schilling     331    July 6, 1993          July 21, 2005             325-6
Pedro Martinez     329    August 24, 1996       September 30, 2009        327-2
Justin Verlander   327    May 4, 2007           June 4, 2017              327-0
David Cone         319    September 24, 1989    September 20, 2000        317-2
Tom Seaver         312    August 22, 1967       July 8, 1976              308-4
After the Top 10, the number of games drops. Ubaldo Jimenez is #11 with 285 games. (Link to BRef chart.)

Some other pitchers:
David Price and Clayton Kershaw are tied at #14 with 256 games.

Roger Clemens's streak was 201 games, tied for #34 with Steve Carlton.

Bob Gibson is #57 with 169 games.

Chris Sale is #65 with 161 games.

In addition to his streak of 351 games (#2), Randy Johnson also has a streak of 137 games (2000-2005) that ranks #97.

1 comment:

allan said...

Elias, on the MFY's big win:

The Yankees launched five home runs in Saturday night's 16–3 rout of the Orioles, one apiece by their starters in the third through seventh slots in the order: Aaron Judge, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro, Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius. Each of those players also had at least two hits.

It is only the second time in Yankees history that five consecutive starters in any part of their order each homered and collected at least two hits in one game. The Yankees also did that on June 28, 1939 in a 23–2 rout of the Philadelphia Athletics. Six straight starters in the team’s lineup (slots three through eight) did so in that game at Shibe Park: Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, George Selkirk, Joe Gordon and Babe Dahlgren.