The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

That’s normally on the pitcher as much as the catcher.

 

From The Athletic Pulse this morning ...



27 up, 27 down

No-hitters have almost become passé. It feels like we see more and more each year. Perfect games, however, are a true rarity.

Last night, Yankees starter Domingo Germán retired 27 straight hitters to record the 24th perfect game in MLB history in an 11-0 win over the Athletics. He needed just 99 pitches to do it — 72 of them strikes — and struck out nine along the way.

It’s the first perfect game in 11 years, since Felix Hernandez did it in 2012. And it comes just one start after Germán allowed 10 runs against the Mariners in 3.1 innings.

Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty have more on the historic implications. Additionally, as they note, before last night Germán “may have been most known across baseball for getting suspended a total of 81 games for violating the league’s domestic violence policy.”

 

Saw Nolan Ryan pitch a no-no at the A's - bucket list event in my sports watching career knowing how special it was - and yeah, I was rooting for it even being an A's fan. It probably doesn't even crack the top 10 (bottom 10?) of miserable things happening to the A's this year. The losing, not just losing but getting blown out likely to set a record for losing and run differential, the move, the fans getting shat on by the Commissioner, oh, and an announcer canned for using the N-word while extolling his trip to the Negro League Museum (and it sounds like there was some other stuff going on besides a "mispronounciation." (Haven't heard, but I think either drinking or other bad behavior behind the scenes). Not sure what else can go wrong.

 

25th*

(Still not over Jim Joyce's terrible call in 2010.)

 

It's hard not to root for something like that when you are there. I was in Three Rivers Stadium when Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon threw a combined 10-inning no-hitter in 1997. I remember rooting for the Astros most of the game because I was more focused on fantasy baseball. I had Chris Holt, who started for them. The guy I was battling in the standings had Cordova, who was amazing that might. He went nine innings, walking two and striking out 10. Billy Wagner came on for the Astros and finished the eight and the bottom of the ninth, striking out all four batters he faced. He just blew them away. Mark Smith pinch hit for Rincon in the bottom of the 10th and hit a walk-off home run. I remember there was a big crowd for fireworks night, and Pittsburgh fans love their fireworks. My buddy and I hustled out of the stadium while those were going off to try to beat the traffic.

 

Wasn't there a great clip of the owner leaping to his feet as Smith hit the ball? Now it'd be Nutting like that Mets fan in Philly over the weekend, disgusted over the idea of having to eventually pay for commemorative bobbleheads.

 

I hear that a lot. #SJClassic

(Also, no lie, I got the warning that I'd posted back-to-back too quickly. The warning said I had to wait eight seconds before posting. I swear! )

 

Sounds like a wasted opportunity.

 

I don't remember. I'm not even sure if I watched the highlights, though I just found the ESPN clip on YouTube.

 

True. But Statcast has very detailed metrics that filter out pitcher difficulties. The most brilliant is the runner's distance from second base at the moment the ball crosses the plate. This essentially says, "OK, catcher. It's on you now." Runners opposing the Orioles are slightly farther from second than other runners.
I have looked into this and I think Adley Rutschman is great. Love his attitude. But by any reasonable defensive metric, he is average at best. The one caveat is that we still have a small sample size.

 

Don Larsen's perfect game still has to be the gold standard for the best all-time, not only because of the circumstances but because of the hitters he faced.

Hall of Famers were 0-15 (Reese, Robins, Hodges, Campy, Snider).

Hall of Very, Very Gooders were 0-7 (Furillo, Gilliam, Mitchell).

Average Joes were 0-3 (Amoros).

Pitcher was 0-2 (Maglie, a poor-hitting pitcher, with only one full year above .167, and a .135 lifetime hitter).

It would be interesting to see a similar breakdown of other perfect games. No John Stephensons, Joe Christophers, Jesse Gonders, Armado Samuels or Hawk Taylors in the Dodgers' lineup that day.