The Ticket Chest

Crazy Day in Baseball – Jimenez No-Hits Braves; Mets Top Cards 2-1 in 20 Innings!

Sunday, April 18th, 2010 | MLB, New York Mets, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

WOW — what an unbelievable day in baseball on Saturday.  Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the 1st no-hitter in Colorado Rockies franchise history by dominating the Braves in Atlanta.  Jimenez needed 129 pitches to do it, but he persevered despite racking up 6 walks.  He also had 7 K’s.  He was still throwing 98-MPH fastballs into the 9th inning, but he credited advice from his pitching coach Bob Apodaca in the 5th inning for the reason he was able to accomplish the feat “In the 5th inning, Bob Apocada, he just came to me and was like ‘You’ve been throwing good from the stretch, why don’t you just give it a try?’”  He pitched from the stretch the rest of the game, retiring the next 15 batters her faced to complete the no-hitter.  The best chance for a Braves hit came in the 7th inning when center fielder Dexter Fowler made a diving catch of Troy Glaus’ sinking line drive in left center field – it was an unbelievable play.

While Jimenez was tossing his no-hitter, the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals were engaging in the longest game of the season thus far.  The Mets outlasted the Cards in 20 innings by winning 2-1 on Jose Reyes sacrifice fly in the top of the 20th inning.  The 2 teams played scoreless ball for the 1st 18 innings of the game – the 1st time that has happened in baseball since 1989.  Starters Johan Santana for the Mets and Jaime Garcia for the Cards each worked 7 scoreless innings.  Garcia only gave up 1 hit.  The Mets used 9 pitchers while the Cards used 8 pitchers and 2 position players.  Infielder Felipe Lopez worked a scoreless 18th inning for the Cards, while outfielder Joe Mather pitched the final 2 innings for the Cards giving up both runs that the Mets scored.  He walked 3 batters and gave up 2 hits, but both runs scored on sacrifice flies.  Mets’ closer Francisco Rodriguez blew the save in the bottom of the 19th inning by allowing Yadier Molina’s RBI single, but he picked up the win when the Mets scored in the 20th inning.  Starter Mike Pelfrey picked up his 1st save by working a scoreless 20th innning despite allowing 2 batters reach base.

Each team had played in 4 20-inning games in their franchise histories.  Ironically, it was the 1st time that the Mets had won, while it was the only time that the Cards had lost.

From a baseball perspective, it was only the 2nd time in MLB history that a 20-inning game was played on the same day that a pitcher threw a no-hitter.

Talk about a crazy day in baseball!

Tags: Francisco Rodriguez, Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Ubaldo Jimenez

MLB Most Valuable Players: Albert Pujols & Joe Mauer

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | General, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

Albert Pujols is your National League Most Valuable Player MVP and Joe Mauer is your American League Most Valuable Player MVP for the 2009 MLB schedule.

Albert Pujols was the unanimous MVP for the National League.  Pujols received all 32 1st place votes and totaled an amazing 448 points.  Pujols was a back-to-back MVP Award winner and it was his 3rd overall (he also won the award back in 2005).  Pujols became the 1st player to win back-to-back seasons since Barry Bonds did so in 2002-3.

His numbers made it pretty easy – 47 HR’s; 124 runs; .658 slugging percentage and 44 intentional walks – all tops in the major leagues.  Pujols led the National League with a .443 on-base percentage; he was 2nd with 45 doubles and he was 3rd with a .327 batting average and 135 RBI’s.  WOW!  He also set a major league record for 1st baseman with 185 assists.

Career-wise, Pujols became the 4th player to win 3 NL MVP’s – Bonds, Stan Musial and Mike Schmidt are the other 3 players to do so.  He is also the 2nd player to rack up at least 100 RBI’s in each of his 1st nine MLB seasons – Hall of Famer Al Simmons was the 1st to do it and he made it 11 in a row.  No reason to think Pujols won’t break that record barring an injury.

Pujols received a $200,000 bonus for winning the award.  He is under contract with the Cardinals for $16 million in 2010 and the Cardinals hold a club option over Pujols for $16 million for the 2011 MLB season.

Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins received 27 of 28 1st place votes and racked up 387 total points.  Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers picked up the other 1st place vote.

Mauer’s .365 batting average was a major league record for catchers.  It also helped him win his 3rd batting title and 2nd in a row – the 1st repeat batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra did so back in 1999-2000.  He also led the American League with a .444 on-base percentage and a .587 slugging percentage.  His 28 HR’s and 96 RBI’s were career highs and he racked up 76 walks with only 75 K’s.  The numbers are even more impressive given the fact that he missed the entire month of April with a back injury and that the Twins were without Mauer’s next-best hitter in the lineup – Justin Mourneau – from September 12th on.  Mauer had this to say about winning: “I love catching. I love the demands that are put on me and the responsibilities that I have, although it might beat you up a little bit physically and mentally.  I like being back there making those decisions, you know, for my team.”

Mauer received a $100,000 bonus for winning the AL MVP Award.

Damn – wish my team had one of these guys on it…

Tags: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Joe Mauer, Mike Schmitt, Stan Musial

Sweep Central – 3 ALDS Teams Advance with Weekend Sweeps

Monday, October 12th, 2009 | Boston Red Sox, General, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, MLB, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

It was an anti-climatic 1st round of the playoffs – with 3 teams advancing with sweeps over the weekend.  Although there were some good games in each series, each team advanced with a Game 3 win on the losing team’s home turf over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Dodgers took out the St. Louis Cardinals with a 5-1 win in St. Louis.  It was the 2nd year in a row that the Dodgers swept the NL Central division winner out of the playoffs in the NLDS (Chicago Cubs in 2008).  The Dodgers will either play the Phillies in a rematch of the 2008 NLCS or the Colorado Rockies.  Key game – the Dodgers rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 2 to defeat closer Ryan Franklin after Matt Holliday’s botched flyball error kept the game alive.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim stunned the Red Sox faithful with a 3-run rally off Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon in the top of the 9th inning.  The Angels trailed 5-1 heading into the 8th inning, but scored 2 runs in the 8th and 3 runs in the 9th inning to complete the sweep.  The Angels will face the New York Yankees in the ALCS in the Bronx on Friday night.  Key stat – Papelbon had never allowed a single run in 27 career post-season innings.

And on Sunday evening, the Yankees completed the 3-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome with a 4-1 win.  Some long-time Yankees were instrumental in the Game 3 win – Andy Pettite picked up the win, Mariano Rivera recorded the save, and Jorge Posada clubbed a solo home run in the 7th inning to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.  Key Game – in Game 2, Alex Rodriguez crushed a 2-run HR to deep right center field off of Twins’ closer Joe Nathan in the 9th inning to tie the game at 3.  Mark Teixeira went on to win the game for the game for the Yankees with his line drive walk-off HR to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning.

Stay tuned for some more great MLB playoff action…

Dodgers Take 2-0 Lead Over Cards; Lackey, Angels Shut Out Red Sox

Friday, October 9th, 2009 | Adam Wainwright, Boston Red Sox, Casey Blake, General, John Lackey, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mark Loretta, Matt Holiday, MLB, Ryan Franklin, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

There was some great MLB Playoff action on Thursday in both the National League and American League.

In the late afternoon, the Dodgers took a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Cardinals with a dramatic 3-2 9th inning win.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, Matt Holliday misplayed a flyball that would have given the Cards a 2-1 win.  Instead, the error kept the Dodgers alive and the Dodgers took advantage.  Casey Blake worked a walk off of Cards reliever Ryan Franklin, and Rafael Belliard tied the game with an RBI single to center field.  After a passed ball and a walk loaded the bases, Mark Loretta’s pinch-hit single drove in Blake with the game-winning run.  The Cards looked to be in the driver’s seat in the series with their 2 aces pitching in Games 1 and 2 – Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.  But neither emerged with a win, and the Cards now find themselves in the position of having to win 3 straight games against the Dodgers in order to advance to the NLCS.

Meanwhile in the AL game also on the west coast, John Lackey of the Angels shut down the Boston Red Sox with 7 1/3 scoreless innings.  Lackey outdueled Jon Lester who gave up a 3-run HR to Torii Hunter in the 5th inning, and the Angels went on to win 5-0.  It was a great start for the Angels who have been eliminated from the ALDS by the Red Sox each of the last 2 seasons and 3 times over the last 5 years.

So far so good for exciting MLB playoff action.

CC Sabathia & Adam Wainwright Denied 20th Wins

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 | Adam Wainwright, CC Sabathia, MLB, New York Yankees, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

It was not a night meant for 20-game winners in the 2009 MLB schedule.  CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees and Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals were both denied shots at winning their 20th games of the 2009 campaign.

The Rays hammered Sabathia scoring 9 runs (5 earned) of off him in just 2 2/3 innings of work.  Sabathia struggled with his control walking 5 and giving up 8 hits.  Not a good sign for Yankees fans – Sabathia tends to struggle in October, so could this be a sign of bad things to come for the Yankees in post-season play?

Adam Wainwright actually pitched OK in his start – giving up 3 ER on 5 hits and 2 walks over 6 innings.  Wainwright left with the Cardinals leading the Brewers 6-3, but the bullpen gave up 9 runs over the game’s final 3 innings, and Wainwright was denied the chance to win 20 games for the 1st time in his career.

Both Sabathia and Wainwright will be pitching in the post-season, so it will be interesting to see how each pitcher fares…