Posted on 09/01/2014 1:19:40 PM PDT by gusopol3
1 out vs. Braves 2 outs
“I remember going to Connie Mack as a kid,”
I saw my first ML game there in 1968. Phils hosting Cards. Richie Allen hit two or three HRs that night and got booed whenever his name was mentioned lol
I can still picture him on the mound, belly hanging over his belt, making major league hitters look foolish.
As a lifelong Phils fan, my best Braves memory was the ‘93 NLCS
That’s one of the things that makes baseball great, as long as you can do you are skilled at your job, pure physical athletic ability isn’t absolutely necessary like it generally is in some other sports. The knuckleball pitchers might be the best example of that, allowing them to pitch deep into their 40s.
FReegards
So. If a visiting pitcher lost due to runs scoring on walks or errors, therefore not having to pitch the bottom of the ninth, is it a no- hitter?
Allen hit 33 home runs that year, and was clearly their best hitter. The fans perceived him as a lazy troublemaker, and he was never popular in Philly. I remember him smoking in the on deck circle. He missed games once because of stitches in his hand. He said that he cut it pushing his car, but the media inferred that he did it in a bar fight. He could sure hit though.
Wilhelm, Niekro, Wakefield, and Wood all pitched forever.
True. I’ve always believed that hitting a baseball requires the most skill in any sport.
Wood would’ve went longer but he had a knee cap shattered by a comebacker and wasn’t the same.
Freegards
It does skew all kinds of statistics when starters routinely don’t go deep in games. But tomorrow, I think, the Phillies will start Kyle Kendricks - who in a previous life was a long reliever/spot starter, and in his present incarnation is an adequate starting pitcher if you don't count all the runs he gives up in the first inning. He just can’t settle down until the second inning. Were I the Phillies manager I would use Kendrick as a long reliever again - but on a scheduled basis. The Phillies have some good relief pitching going on right now; the manager should simply pencil in a reliever as the “starting pitcher,” just to get past the top of the order in the first inning with no likely damage. Then replace him in the second inning with Kendrick, who in his first inning could expect to face the middle of the order rather than the opposing manager’s idea of the part of the order most likely to break through for runs.So you hope Kendrick settles down in the second inning without any damage and (in the best case) puts in seven innings, leaving only the ninth for the closer.
The opposing manager could try to defeat that strategy by putting up the normal 6, 7, and 8 hitters in the 1,2, and 3 slots - but that is unlikely because it would be giving up on trying to score in the first, and because it could easily end up reducing the number of plate appearances of his normal #3 and #4 hitters.I think it’s a viable strategy to think of having an “opener” as well as a “closer” on your pitching staff in general. But, it would be the official demise of the complete game, the shutout, the no-hitter, and the perfect game. And another nail in the coffin of the “winning pitcher.” I’m enough of a traditionalist that I would prefer things the way they normally are - except when it’s Kyle Kendricks’ turn to pitch.
This Phillies “no hitter” is itself a step in that direction, since the starter was taken out of a no-hitter based solely on pitch count - but I agreed with the decision since, realistically, Hammels was not going to pitch a complete game, let alone a no-hitter. He was in runners-in-scoring-position trouble practically every inning, with walks and hit batsmen. He was in a close (2-0) game at that point, and it looked like just a matter of time before he lost the lead.
“I can still picture him on the mound, belly hanging over his belt”
me too. And one thing I loved was that there were quite a few fat boys and beer bellies in the 70s. Along with long hair, thick mustaches and stubble before Don Johnson made stubble mainstream cool.
wasn’t it Ron Leflore? Wasn’t there a made for TV movie about Ron and prison?
back when made for TV movies and mini series were all we had for non sports TV entertainment.
Remember this......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6AuprqKwyI
Your strategy would work VERY well if you could have both a lefty and a righty available to take over in the second inning. Reverse whoever started and mess up the opposing manager’s lineup.
Do you remember the Dodgers/Phillies NL playoff game in the 70s when the Dodgers’ #5 starter, Doug Rau walked the first three batters in the first inning? And got out of it?
As a Dodger fan, I loved it (and later, when the Dodgers won the game on a pinch bunt by a 40 year old man (Davalillo), and a pinch double by another 40 year old
(Mota)before Lopes’ hit to win the game?
Of course, a few years later, the Phils would get solid revenge against a heavily favored Dodger team in the series, so I guess we are even.
You had some great guys (Schmidt, Boone, Bowa, Schmidt, Maddox), and like the Brewers around the same time, one of the best lineups not to get in the series.
It's "rare" because a manager doesn't usually take out a starting pitcher who has pitched 6 no hit innings, they will leave him in even if his pitch count hits 140 pitches in the 9th.
That said, maybe manager had a good reason to send in a reliever after 6, I can't say as I didn't see the game.
Anyway, my Cardinals are now in first place central division, so all's well.
Has Holliday been owning the baseball the last week. Every time a clutch hit.
It would have to be ,right? Here are two games where a pitcher lost while pitching a no hitter; one of them is a combined no hitter, although I guess they’re both games lost in bottom of the ninth, not quite your point:http://www.answers.com/Q/What_players_pitch_a_no_hitter_and_lost_the_game
Anyway, my Cardinals are now in first place central division, so all's well.
I've looked at the standings three times tonight, just to make sure it's true. :)
And tomorrow they’ll give up twenty runs and get no hits themselves - just one more inconsistent Philadelphia team.....
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