Game Notes: 4/14/2010

Lots of interesting things going on in today's games. Here are a few observations:

1. In today's Pittsburgh Pirates @ San Francisco Giants game the Giants won by a score of 3-0 behind a great performance by Jonathan Sanchez. If Sanchez can be more consistant and solidify his spot in the rotation, San Francisco will be pretty scary. However, that's not what's interesting about this game. What interested me is the fact that all 3 of the runs the Giants scored were on solo homers (one of which was an inside-the-parker). While this isn't all that rare of an occurrence, what makes it interesting is the fact that the Giants had 10 hits in the game, but never hit a home run with runners on in the game.

2. In today's Washington Nationals @ Philadelphia Phillies game, which the Philadelphia Phillies won 14-7, neither starting pitcher made it out of the second inning, giving up a combined 15 baserunners and 13 runs in 3 innings. Ouch.

3. In today's Houston Astros @ St. Louis Cardinals Game, in which the Cardinals won 2-1, there was sloppy defense on both sides, with each team committing two errors. Of the three total runs scored in the game, only one of them was earned. The Houston Astros did not score any earned runs in the game. This may not sound all that rare, but it's pretty weird for 66 percent of the runs in a game to be unearned. By comparison, in today's Atlanta Braves @ San Diego Padres game (which hasn't yet gone final as of this blog post, but is in the 9th inning), there have been 5 errors between the two teams, and all 7 runs that have been scored between the two teams have still been earned.

4. You have probably already heard this one, but it deserves to be noted just because it's so interesting. In today's Cincinatti Reds @ Florida Marlins game Jorge Cantu set the record for most consecutive games with a hit and an RBI to start the season. It was a record that had stood since 1921. Crazy.

Game Notes: 4/10/2010

Here are a couple interesting things that happened in today's games:

1. In today's Toronto Blue Jays @ Baltimore Orioles game Dave Trembley called for THREE intentional walks, two against Travis Snider, and one against Vernon Wells. It's weird enough that he'd intentionally walk Travis Snider twice, in that he has yet to prove himself in the big leagues and has a wopping 11 career home runs. More interestingly, two of the three intentional walks that Trembley called for resulted in a run scoring on the very next play. I've never been a big fan of the intentional walk barring special situations, and this game indicates why.

2. In today's Chicago Cubs @ Cincinatti Reds game the Cubs left ZERO runners on base. This is a very rare occurrence in baseball, and can mean either that a team just got a perfect game thrown against them, or the team was extremely efficient. In this case, the Cubs were extremely efficient scoring 4 runs on 5 hits to win the game. It also helps that they only drew 1 walk.