10:15 Is Way Better Than 1:15

Cruising through the Bay of Biscay on my way to St. Malo tomorrow. As long as this game goes less than 20 innings, I should be pretty good to go.

Minor Updates

Alert reader JamesD points out that my econometrics last night was weak. He is correct. I have no excuse beyond the fact that only JamesD would notice, and I thought maybe he’s let it go. In fact, batting average with men in scoring position is better than I had talked about: very high batting averages with men on base are actually a sign of few opportunities, so that a parabolic specification does better — but not a ton better. It moves the percentage of variance explained from 35% to 38%, improving the superiority of average over opportunities. Mea culpa.

Second, because it was after 3:30 am when the game ended last night, my patience for looking for a clip of the 9th inning play at the plate was limited. I fixed it now, and I’ll repeat it here. td is right: it was one of the absolutely most outstanding throws, catches and tags at home ever. Bookmark it. (Honestly, the angle on the play in the clip isn’t nearly as good as the one from behind home.)

Trivia!

The most common last names in MLB history are Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones and Brown. There is a at least one member of the Hall of Fame with each of these names. The sixth most common last name has no Hall of Fame members. What is that name? (It has 112 major leaguers, but none in the Hall.) If you need a hint (and it’s not a great hint) there is a Hall of Fame member who has this last name as his first name.

For a much harder question, try the same game with All Star teams. The top 61 last names have all been represented in the All-Star Game. Last Name #62, with 28 players, has not. Anyone who can get this one without some database queries has my admiration. Answers next week.

The Game

Anybody remember Chris Sale? He used to pitch for the Braves. Walt Weiss is, very sensibly, trying to keep from overworking him and I approve, but he hadn’t pitched since 10 days ago. I’m not objecting… I just want to be sure everyone has thought carefully about this.

And Chris Sale was pitching to the newest Brave, Joey Bart. While we wait for Sean Murphy to become a major league player again, we have tried numerous ideas, including Chadwick Tromp, Sandy Leon and Austin Wynns. I have not been agitating for change at backup catcher for the simple reason that the offense has been good enough to tolerate a black hole at catcher. But I’m not AA, and when Joey Bart became available, he was snapped up. There is absolutely no question that he is a better hitter than any of the other quondam receivers — he has an OPS+ of 92 in his 6 year career. And giving up Hunter Stratton is about as problematic as giving up vaping. So fine. But Joey has to understand that when Sean is ready to return in a month or two, he will need Bench-like numbers to stay in the lineup.

Sale was opposed by Kyle Harrison, who is flying below the media cover provided by Misiorowski, but has cut his career ERA almost in half and would be a sensational story if not for Jacob M.

In other news, Michael Harris II has returned after a few days of lower back tightness. As someone who has lower back tightness just sitting in a chair, I’m glad to see him back… with his back.

Sale showed no rust. But Harrison was perfect through four. The perfection fell away in the fifth when Ozzie Albies hit a two-strike Harrison attempt Chophouseward.

What Ozzie giveth in the fifth, he taketh away in the sixth. After a single from Chourio, Ozzie made the extremely poor decision to try get Chourio, who was going on the pitch, on a bouncer to second. No outs were made, and a single and sac fly tied up the game. A bloop single on Sale’s 101st pitch gave the Brewers the lead and was Sale’s last pitch today. He was replaced by Didier Fuentes in his first game since he was old enough to drink.

Milwaukee picked up another run in the 7th when Austin Riley apparently thought he’d caught a low line drive that he didn’t catch. He could have turned a double play had he known he didn’t catch the ball, but a run scored when his throw to first eliminated the batter rather than completing a double play. Weird play.

After an Olson groundout to lead off the 7th, an Albies single and a Harris double gave the home team their chance. Harrison departed for Abner Uribe, who gave up the homer to Yastrzemski last night and who has a first name that no one has been given in 75 years. He faced Riley, whose slow grounder brought Ozzie home to lower the deficit to one. So now Riley, who giveth in the top half, taketh back.

The bottom of the 9th brought the Brewers closer, Rollie Fingers, (sorry… I grew a little nostalgic for a moment) guy with no saves this year, Aaron Ashby, facing Baldwin, Olson and Albies. Drake struck out. Olson hit a bloop single. The right-handed Albies hit another pitch Chophouseward and we were done. Ashby still has no saves, and now has a loss. Easy-peasy.

By choosing a left handed pitcher to face Drake and Matt, you guaranteed a right-handed at-bat by Ozzie. That seems like a bad tradeoff to me.

Day game tomorrow for a potential sweep against a pretty good team. Slump? What slump?