|
Tuesday, October 30
Updated: October 31, 5:14 AM ET
Anderson a rarity, but not a record-setter
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
It's time once again for another World Series edition of the Useless Information Department:
Before Tuesday night, Brian Anderson had gone 100 days (since July 22) without a win as a starting pitcher. But even if he'd won, the Elias Sports Bureau's John Labombarda reports that he still would have been 633 days short of the record for most days between wins as a starter for a pitcher winning a World Series game. Virgil Trucks, of the 1945 Tigers, hadn't won a game as a starter since Oct. 2, 1943 when he was nominated to start Game 2 of the '45 World Series shortly after his discharge from the Navy. Of course, he then threw a complete game to beat (who else?) the Cubs.
Meanwhile, Anderson hadn't even started a game (let alone won) in 52 days before starting Tuesday. That's the most days between starts for a World Series starter since the immortal Gary Waslewski got a no-decision for the Red Sox in Game 6 of the '67 Series. And only four pitchers in history have ever gone more days since their last start and then gotten the ball in a World Series. Those four, according to Elias:
Jim Konstanty, Phillies: 1,605 days before started Game 1 of 1950 WS (lost, 1-0).
Bob Grim, Yankees: 112 days before started Game 5 of 1955 WS (lost, 5-3).
Rex Barney, Dodgers: 92 days before started Game 5 of 1947 WS (lost, 2-1, walked 9).
Gary Waslewski, Red Sox: 74 days before started Game 6 of 1967 WS (ND in 8-4 win).
Curt Schilling has a chance to become the first pitcher in history to win five games in a single postseason. (Of course, that was a little tougher when the postseason lasted one week instead of four.) But Schilling already has become just the third pitcher ever to win four games in a postseason. The others: Dave Stewart in 1989 (two in the ALCS, two in the Earthquake Series) and Jack Morris in 1991 (two in the ALCS, two in the World Series, when he started Games 1, 4 and 7).
Tuesday was the 13th World Series game in history to be attended by a president. So we know what you're thinking: When the president shows up, who usually wins? Well, we've broken it down. The American League is 8-5 when any president shows up, 5-4 when a Republican president shows up, 3-1 when a Democratic president stops by and 4-2 when a president stops by and throws out the first pitch.
The Yankees went 18 consecutive innings without a run -- between the first inning of Game 1 and the second inning of Game 3. That's the longest streak of zeroes ever put up by a Yankees team in a World Series -- and the most by any team since the '88 A's went 18 straight shutout innings against the Los Angeles Hershisers.
The Yankees became the first team since the '87 Twins to score two runs or fewer in three straight World Series games. The Twins scored one, one and two in Games 3, 4 and 5 against the Cardinals, then won the sixth and seventh games to win the Series.
But the Yankees became just the third team in the last 38 years to score two runs or fewer in three straight games and still win one of them. The others were the 1983 Phillies (won the opener, 2-1, then lost 4-2 and 3-2 games to Baltimore) and the '73 Mets (won a 2-0 game in Game 5, then lost the sixth and seventh games to Oakland).
Brian Anderson threw 107 pitches Tuesday night (an extra 18 of them because his catcher had a little trouble catching three pop-ups). Last time Anderson even threw 100 pitches: would you believe July 12? That was 110 days ago. Anderson had thrown 96 pitches in relief in the entire postseason before Tuesday.
Randy Johnson's shutout of the Yankees on Sunday was the seventh shutout thrown in this postseason -- the second-most ever in a single postseason. The record is eight, in the expanded 1981 postseason, which included a special round of division playoffs because of a two-month midseason players' strike. There were six shutouts in 1998, five in 1995 and five in 1991, back in the olden days when there were only two rounds to the postseason.
The Yankees went 28 consecutive at-bats without a hit Saturday and Sunday -- their final 16 at-bats of Game 1 and their first 12 at-bats of Game 2. They became the ninth team in World Series history to go more than the equivalent of a full game without a hit, according to Elias. The others:
1969 Orioles: 30 AB, Game 1 (4th inning) to Game 2 (6th inning).
1967 Cardinals: 32 AB, Game 1 (7th inning) to Game 2 (8th inning).
1956 Dodgers: 31 AB, Game 4 (9th inning) to Game 6 (1st inning), sandwiched around Don Larsen's perfect game.
1945 Tigers: 31 AB, Game 3 (2nd inning) to Game 4 (4th inning).
1944 Browns: 28 AB, Game 1 (4th inning) to Game 2 (4th inning).
1939 Reds: 35 AB, Game 1 (5th inning) to Game 2 (8th inning).
1931 Athletics: 30 AB, Game 2 (7th inning) to Game 3 (7th inning).
1906 Cubs: 29 AB, Game 3 (1st inning) to Game 4 (1st inning).
In Games 1 and 2, the Yankees became only the fourth team in history to get three hits or fewer in back-to-back World Series games. The other three (all of whom lost the Series), according to Elias:
1931: A's against Cardinals.
1919: Black Sox against Reds.
1915: Phillies against Red Sox.
Matt Williams joined a pretty fair group Sunday by hitting a World Series home run in his third different decade. (He previously homered for the '89 Giants and '97 Indians.) The other three players in that club, according to SABR's David Vincent:
Yogi Berra
Joe DiMaggio
Eddie Murray
Ah, but great as those three guys may have been, none of them did it for three different teams.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com
| |
| |
