RSNStats

Baseball News and Stats
Red Sox Nation Focused

Sox make shutout history

Leave a Comment

It has been a long time since the Red Sox shutout a single club in three straight games.

The surprising Red Sox, still in the cellar of the division, blanked the Orioles in three consecutive games this past weekend for the first time in the history of the clubs’ match-ups.

It was just the 10th time in more than 100 seasons that the Red Sox have managed a club-record three consecutive games where the opponent failed to score. The last time was April 25-29, 2004 against the Yankees and the Rays.

Before the Orioles this weekend, the Sox have shutout a single club in three straight games just twice before and only once before at Fenway Park. On August 24-26, 1990, Boston won the back three of a four game set against the Blue Jays in Toronto with final scores of 2-0, 1-0, and 1-0.

You have to go all the way back to 1958 (and a team that doesn’t exist anymore) to find the Sox’ only other set of three game shutout wins at Fenway: September 19-21, a sweep over the Washington Senators with the final scores of 2-0, 2-0, 2-0.

MLB shutout history

Since 1914 the Cardinals and Orioles have had the longest streak of shutout wins, both clubs with streaks of five games each.

The Red Sox actually figured into the Orioles’ historic streak, which happened late in the 1974 season. Baltimore swept Boston at Fenway in a doubleheader September 2nd (1-0, 1-0) and then a shutout Boston again on September 4 (6-0). From there, the Orioles went on to shut out the Indians in the first of four games at Cleveland (2-0, 1-0).

MLB Shutout Win Streaks

As shown in the table above, the Indians, Rangers, Orioles, and Yankees are the only American League clubs in the past 100 years with shutout wins in 4 or more consecutive games.


Game 5: Kelly’s masterpiece

Leave a Comment

Joe Kelly

Joe Kelly

After the longest game in Red Sox franchise history, the club needed relief and Joe Kelly provided it in spades.

Kelly, the Red Sox newcomer who was acquired from the Cardinals at the non-waiver trade deadline last season, executed what the Boston Herald justifiably called “a masterpiece.”

The 25-year old, who boldly declared himself a 2015 Cy Young candidate during Spring Training, threw like a legitimate contender in the Red Sox win over the Yankees Saturday, 8-4, striking out a career-high 8 batters.

Kelly allowed just one hit and two walks over 7.0 innings pitched. So far this season, only the Athletics Scott Kazmir and Sonny Gray have had similar games. In fact, in the 2014 season there were just 27 such games in all of baseball.

Kelly became the first Boston pitcher to strikeout 8 or more Yankees in New York since Ryan Dempster (also 8 SO) on April 4, 2013. By the end of the day, Red Sox pitchers had struck out 11 Yankees for the 44th time in the history of rivalry. It marked the first time the Red Sox have struckout 11 or more Yankees in New York since 13 strikeouts on May 14, 2011.

Daniel Nava improved to 6-for-11 (.546) with 7 RBI lifetime vs Saturday’s New York starter, Adam Warren. Both Nava’s RBIs came with two outs.

Brock Holt, in his first action of 2015, built on his penchant for day game success. Last season he went 43-for-121 (.355) in day games, good for the 2nd-best such mark in the American League among players with a minimum of 100 plate appearances.

On Saturday Holt put together 4 hits in 5 at-bats collecting his 10th career multi-RBI game overall. It was Holt’s first game with 3 RBI,  all coming with a bases loaded, base clearing double with two outs in the 8th inning. Prior to today’s game Holt had been 0-for-11 over his career in bases loaded situations.

The big Boston bats were quiet today with Hanley Ramirez given the day off, Pablo Sandoval going 1-for-5, and both David Ortiz and Mike Napoli held hitless. Despite a torrid Spring Training, Napoli is now 0-for-32 dating back to September 8.

The Red Sox, who improve to 4-1 for the first time since 2006, have now won back-to-back series with the final game of this one coming Sunday night. They then head to Boston for the season’s home opener against the Nationals.


Setting the right tone

2 Comments

It’s a long season ahead. Every fan has a friend or significant other that reminds us of that whenever we suffer a loss. But Red Sox fans know that every game counts and that postseason plans can be dashed by a couple of games, or even just one.

Getting out of the gate strong is valuable not just for the wins, but for the psyche of a team. Last year marked the 44th time since 1914 that the Red Sox started the first 30 games of a season with a sub .500 record.

How the Red Sox have opened the season since 1914.

How the Red Sox have opened the season since 1914.

1946 was a special year for the Red Sox. Six Boston players earned spots on the American’s League’s Top 20 batting averages of the season, led by Ted Williams (.342), Johnny Pesky (.335), and Dom DiMaggio (.316), for 2nd, 4th, and 7th-best in the AL that year, respectively. 1946 set the franchise record for best win percentage over Boston’s first 30 games: 24 wins, a remarkable 80% win percentage. That record is tied for the 3rd best win percentage over the first 30 games in all of baseball since 1914. Only the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers (25) and the 1984 Tigers (26) have had more.

The Red Sox came tantalizingly close to their franchise record with 23 wins over their first 30 games of 2002. The World Series Champions of 2007 and 2013 each notched 20 wins, tied with 8 other Red Sox teams for the 6th-most wins over the first 30 games.

Recovering from a tough start

In 1914 the then-Boston Braves won the World Series despite amassing the fewest wins by any team over their first 30 games since that time. The Braves won just 9 of 30 games that season but overcame that deficit to finish first in the National League with a 94-59 record. They met up the AL Champion Philadelphia Athletics (99-53), sweeping them in four straight games led by Hank Gowdy and Johnny Evers, who combined to go 13-for-27 (.482) in the Fall Classic.

Since the 1914 Braves just 8 other teams have won the World Series when opening the season with a sub .500 win percentage over the first 30 games:

  • 1942 Cardinals, .483
  • 1915 Red Sox, .483
  • 1925 Pirates, .467
  • 2009 Yankees, .467
  • 1969 Mets, .467
  • 1924 Washington Senators, .448
  • 1926 Cardinals, .433
  • 1979 Pirates, .400
  • 1914 Boston Braves, .310

Power restored

With the exciting moves in the 2015 offseason fans will be keenly focused on a restoration of Red Sox power. Here are some Red Sox offensive records for the first 30 games:

  • Most hits: 327 (2002)
  • Most home runs: 43 (1969)
  • Most RBI: 183 (1950)
  • Highest batting average: .305 (2002)
  • Highest on-base percentage: .394 (1950)
  • Highest slugging percentage: .482 (2002)
  • Most walks: 179 (1946)
  • Most doubles: 84 (2012)
  • Most triples: 20 (1934)
  • Most stolen bases: 40 (1918)

Championship failures

Leave a Comment

While we may not have reasonably expected back-to-back World Series championships, I think few fans would have anticipated a 47-53 record (.470) after 100 games for the defending champs.

That got me thinking about how clubs have done the season after winning the World Series.

Since 2000, only one club, the 2013 Giants, has posted a worse record than the Red Sox over their first 100 games following a World Series win. San Francisco went 46-54 (.460). Like the 2014 Red Sox, the 2007 Cardinals also were 47-53 (.470) following their Series win in 2006. All other clubs have posted better marks. In fact, since 2000, 11 of 14 clubs have posted .500 records or better in the 100 games of the next season.

Here’s the full data set sorted by winning percentage.

2014-07-25_10-49-07

For the Red Sox, this year’s .470 win percentage represents the club’s 2nd-worse mark through 100 games following a World Series win, just barely better than the 46-53 (.465) record of the 1919 club. The 1917 club put up the best mark, going 59-38 (.608) in a season that included 3 ties over the first 100 games.

2014-07-25_10-49-53


This year’s challenges

Leave a Comment

Update: No sooner was this posted, than Manager Farrell had his first challenge of 2014 upheld. It came on Saturday, April 26 vs the Blue Jays.

The changes to the rules in Major League Baseball this season have been controversial to say the least. As you likely know by now, today MLB took action on the most egregious of the problematic rules by revising their position on the so-called transfer rule, effective immediately.

Like it or not (and I don’t), MLB’s position on manager’s challenges, however, remains as is—at least for now.

After play completed yesterday there had been 100 total manager challenges so far this season. A good time, I decided, to have an RSNStats look at how the challenges have gone.

Knowing when to challenge

It’s easy to say managers should know when to challenge. And, in fact, some of the most comical parts of the season have been watching managers kill time with the umpires while they look for the high-sign from the dugout where, behind the scenes, club staff are reviewing TV video replays. Unfortunately, having conclusive evidence that it’s time to challenge hasn’t always worked out the way you’d expect. A good reason, in my view, that the challenge, at least as it’s done today, will never be considered a legitimate part of the game. Anyhow, on to the stats…

Of the 100 manager challenges to date, 48 of them have been successful for the managers that raised them.

The Cubs’ skipper, Rick Renteria, and the Rays’ Joe Maddon have raised the most challenges so far this season (7). Renteria has been successful 4 times, Maddon 3 times. Matt Matheny of the Cardinals is only manager yet to raise a challenge so far this season.

Six managers, including Red Sox skipper John Farrell, have never been successful in a challenge. Farrell is 0-for-3 so far this season. Others unsuccessful with challenges so far this season are : Blue Jays’ John Gibbons, Dodgers Don Mattingly, Athletics Bob Melvin, White Sox Robin Ventura, and Nationals Matt Williams. Gibbons and Melvin have the most challenges without a successful outcome (4).Manager Challenges