We are the VORG. Replacement is futile.
CC Sabathia served up five solo homers tonight in what turned out to be a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Plenty of pitchers have given up five homers in a start. A few of those starts featured five solo homers as part of a larger run tally. But Sabathia became just the seventh … Read moreNibbled to Death by Solo Homers
Quite often, you’ll be listening to a baseball broadcast and hear the announcer say something like “they’ve gone 7 games without giving up more than 4 runs” or “that’s five straight games scoring at least 6 runs in each game”. Well, you never seem to hear any mention of those streaks in which a team … Read moreWhen a Team’s Batters (or Pitchers) experience Deja Vu
Not all no-hitters are the same. According to Retrosheet records, there have been 193 instances of a team being no-hit in major league history (they have linescore records for 1918 through 2010). Not surprisingly, in 180 of those games, the team being no-hit also scored no runs (see table below), leading to the linescore 0-0-x, … Read moreNow Here is a Linescore You Don’t See Every Day!
Remember a few weeks ago, when the Mets beat the Tigers by the “perfect square” score of 16-9? I promised at that point that I’d discuss “prime number” score games. Well, we had one last Friday night. The Yanks pummeled the A’s 17-7. If you need a refresher on the concept of a prime number, … Read moreYankees and A’s considered Prime Number Suspects
Almost immediately after I posted about the Tigers-Mets game that ended with “perfect square” scores, reader Ember Nickel correctly pointed out that I failed to include “zero” as a valid “perfect square” score. So, let’s recalculate our “perfect square” table: VISITOR HOME 0 1 4 9 16 TOT 0 129 1826 1408 324 19 3706 … Read moreNew and Improved “Pitching a Perfect (Square) Game” (now with extra squareness!)
This past Wednesday, the Mets defeated the Tigers by the score of 16-9. Not only was it a slugfest (part of a stretch which saw the New Yorkers plate 52 runs over four games), the final score included “perfect squares” for both teams. If its been a while since your last math class, a “square … Read morePitching a Perfect (Square) Game
On the heels of the Craig Calcaterra-inspired “7-3 score day” post, there was a request for the most frequent final scores in baseball history. Fortunately, the VORG is prepared with the Retrosheet game logs of most every contest from 1871-2010, so one crosstab of home and visitor scores later, and I’ve determined there have been … Read moreThe Most Popular Scores in Baseball History
The tweet came across my feed late last night: @craigcalcaterra Four games end with 7-3 final scores. This is important. This means something. [sculpts Devils tower in mashed potatoes] Of course, this set the VORG into action. Was May 30, 2011 a record-setting day? Was this the date with the most games ending with 7-3 … Read moreA day for remembering 7-3 scores