September 11, 2022

Games of the Day

The Yankees magic number stands at 19 over Tampa Bay (NY holds the tie breaker) and 19 over the Blue Jays (tie breaker could go either way) as the Tampa Bay and New York play their last game of the regular season. The Rays send Luis Patino against Domingo German. Patino is a spot starter who is almost used as an opener, although his high walk and home run rates may be why is outings are so short. German starts on short rest due to a rainout and a doubleheader earlier in the week. He tended to go about five innings in games, although lately that increased as he made four good starts in a row.

The Guardians go for a sweep of the Twins, which would put Minnesota 4 1/2 games back in the division. It is still possible that the AL Central produces a three-way for first, with two teams eliminated on a tie-breaker. I suspect fans will be less than happy with that. Right now, Cleveland holds a winning record against both Minnesota and Chicago.

Shane Bieber takes the hill for the Guardians against rookie Josh Winder. Bieber owns a 2.96 ERA, 4-2 with a 1.86 ERA since the start of August. Winder is a low K pitcher. He struck out 29 in 45 1/3 innings, but allowed just 29 hits.

The Diamondbacks face the Rockies in Colorado, with Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks the big story of the day. Gallen comes into the game with 41 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.* Gallen kept batters at bay, allowing just sixteen hits and eight walks. He struck out 46.

*Back in the 1990s when I was working at ESPN, a pitcher had a scoreless streak going with 1/3 of an inning in it. There was an argument at the time if fractional innings should be part of a scoreless inning streak. It’s not scoreless outs, it’s scoreless innings. Orel Hershiser had pitched nothing but complete innings in his streak, and going 64 innings in the seven games that encompassed his record. The bottom line is that if you give up a run in an inning, none of the outs count. If you are removed in the middle of an inning and don’t allow a run, the outs do count.

Gallen pitched extremely well at Coors Field in his career. He owns a 2.03 ERA in five starts, including two of seven shutout innings. One of those happened during this streak.

Enjoy!

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