S4 Odds & Ends

Notes from S4:

Anaheim went 36 straight innings without scoring a run. Oakland was responsible for most of it, shutting out the Angels in a three-game series with Butch Brede, Mitch Moreno, and Paul Christenson each picking up wins for the A's.


The Chicago White Sox had 29 scoreless innings in a row earlier this year at the hands of Tampa Bay.


108,202 runs have been scored in 4 seasons, or 5.22 per team per game. Oakland has been the top scoring team with 7.10 per game, with Washington at the bottom at 4.12. In runs against, the Mets are best at 3.82, while Vancouver is giving up 7.59.

None of the 12 playoff teams in S4 are in the postseason for the first time. In fact, only 21 of the GAPs 32 teams have been to the postseason. Of the teams who haven't made it, San Diego (89-73) appears to be the closest to breaking through, along with the Chicago Cubs (86-76) and Baltimore (81-81). Meanwhile Washington (105 losses), Philadelphia (105), Arizona (104), Vancouver (100), and Cincinnati (100) all appear to be on the outside for the near future.

The White Sox not only became the first team in GAP history to qualify for the playoffs with more runs allowed than scored, they did so with a 54 run difference (789 RS, 843 RA).


Tied for the AL North title: Chicago, with a 32-19 record in one-run games; and Boston, with a 17-27 record in them. Boston had the tiebreak, however.


Some crazy games:


Cincinnati 18, Washington DC 15 (13 innings) http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4483313
Reds rally from 7 runs down in the 9th, scoring 8 in the top half, but the Sens force extras. Reds take a 2-run lead in the 12th but battle back again. Finally a 4-spot in the 13th holds up, despite Washington getting the winning run to the plate in the bottom half. 44 men played in the game--Cincinnati used 10 pitchers and 14 position players.


Anaheim 12, Baltimore 10 (15 innings)
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=5146342
Baltimore trailed 9-4 after 7 but scored 2 in the 8th and a three-run HR in the 9th from light-hitting 9-hole hitter SS Geraldo Cedeno (7 HR this year in 529 AB). RP Hal Dougherty kept shutting down the Angels, entering in the 5th inning and not allowing a run until he was pulled after the 13th. The Orioles finally pushed one across in the top half of the 15th, but closer Luis Lopez gave up a walk-off three-run jack to Eli Fernandez to lose the heartbreaker.


Baltimore 12, Anaheim 10
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=5194552
Just 9 games later, these teams met again and reversed the score this time. Anaheim fell behind 10-3 after 7 but put up 5 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th. That would've been enough to tie but they allowed two Oriole runs in the bottom half of the 8th including the 6th Baltimore HR of the game.


Chicago (AL) 12, Boston 11
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4276563
Here's one that looms large now, with these two tied for the AL North title. On opening day, Boston blew an 11-7 lead after 7 innings to the White Sox. A ground-rule double in the 8th made the score 11-9. RP Gabe Duncan came in with one out in the bottom of the 9th, despite his 0% fatigue (on opening day!) and promptly gave up a single, followed by an Edwin Casey game-tying HR. Rex Andrews relieved Duncan but Andres Piedra crushed the second pitch from Andrews over the 375-foot mark in LCF for the walk-off win.


Oakland 10, Kansas City 9 (11 innings)
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4934693

Kansas City 14, Houston 10
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4677603


St. Louis 12, Florida 11
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4903603

Chicago (NL) 13, Milwaukee 12
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4888049

Cincinnati 12, San Diego 10 (10 innings)
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4793744

Cincinnati 12, San Francisco 10
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4980790

Cleveland 10, New York (AL) 9 (10 innings)
http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=4862818

Playoff Picture

One game left, and the playoff picture is still blurry.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

What we know:
-1- Oakland (116-45)
-2- Kansas City (100-61)
-5- Tampa Bay (94-67)

In the mix:
New York (83-78)
Cleveland (82-79)
Texas (82-79)
Chicago (81-80)
Boston (81-80)

Applicable tiebreakers held:
Cle over NYY (6-4)
Tex over NYY (6-4)
Cle over Tex (6-4)
Bos over CWS (7-3)
CWS over Cle (6-4)
Tex over CWS (5-5 but Tex wins on div record)

Last game vs:
NYY vs Min
Cle vs Bal
CWS vs Det
Bos vs Tor
Tex vs KC

Winner of AL East gets the -3- seed.
Winner of AL North gets the -4- seed.
Last WC gets the -6- seed.

NYY wins the AL East with a win OR a Cle loss.
Cle wins the AL East with a win AND a NYY loss, due to tiebreak advantage.
Cle clinches a playoff spot with a win which will be the -6- if NYY also wins.
NYY wins the -6- if they lose AND Cle wins AND Tex loses.
NYY is only eliminated if the lose AND Cle wins AND Tex wins.

Bos wins the AL North with a win OR a CWS loss, due to tiebreak advantage.
CWS wins the AL North with a win AND a Bos loss.
CWS can't get the WC due to tiebreak disadvantage vs Tex, so...
CWS is eliminated with a loss OR a Bos win.
Bos is eliminated with a loss AND a Cle win.

Tex wins the -6- with a win AND a Cle loss.
Tex also wins the -6- with a win AND a Cle win AND a NYY loss (Cle would win the AL East, Tex holds tiebreak advantage over NYY).
Tex is eliminated with a loss, due to tiebreak disadvantage vs Cle and overall record disadvantage vs NYY.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

What we know:
-3- San Francisco (99-62)
-4- Milwaukee (88-73)
-5- Houston (97-64)

In the mix:
New York (103-58)
St. Louis (102-59)
--------------------
Atlanta (91-70)
Florida (91-70)

Applicable tiebreakers held:
StL over NYM (6-4)
-----------
Fla over Atl (7-3)

Last game vs:
StL vs Cha
NYM vs Phi
-----------
Atl vs Was
Fla vs Hou

To determine who gets the -1- and -2- seeds:

NYM gets the -1- with a win OR a StL loss.
StL gets the -1- with a win AND a NYM loss, due to tiebreak advantage.
-----------
To determine who gets the -6- seed and who is on the outside looking in:

Fla gets the -6- with a win OR an Atl loss, due to tiebreak advantage.
Atl gets the -6- with a win AND an Fla loss.

HR Leaders

As always, if you have or know of a player with 100+ career HR not on the list, let me know. Stats below are through 138 games of S4:

GAP Postseason Stats