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Sox home as Postseason begins

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WS15_PostseasonMarks_RGBThe Red Sox, baseball’s winningest Wild Card club ever, are spectators tonight. Those past wins, small consolation as the 2015 postseason begins again without them.

The season rolls on, however, for the Yankees and Astros tonight in the American League Wild Card game. One team will go on, one will go home.

For the Yankees, it’s their 52nd postseason appearance, the most of any MLB club ever. They’ve appeared in 18 of the last 21 postseasons.

The Astros will make their 10th postseason appearance on Tuesday, their first since joining the American League in 2013.  Houston was last in the postseason in 2005, advancing all the way to the World Series by way of the Wild Card.

Yankees are, no doubt, happy to be playing at home in this winner take all game. They were 45-36 in The Bronx this season, clinching a 24th straight winning record there. The 24 consecutive winning home seasons is the second longest such streak in MLB history. The only longer one was set by the Yankees from 1918 to 1964—a remarkable 47 years.

The Astros may have preferred to play at home, but they’re not intimidated by Yankee Stadium. The club beat New York 4-games-to-3 in the 2015 season set, including winning 2-of-3 in New York. In that three game set, Houston outscored the Yanks 21-4 including a 15-1 win in the start made by Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who also starts tonight.

The winner of tonight’s game will face the Royals in the Division Series that starts Thursday.

Red Sox in the Wild Card

Though sitting home tonight, the Red Sox are baseball’s all-time leader with seven total Wild Card wins. The Yankees are next with four, followed by the Cardinals and Rockies (3 each).

Boston won the American League Wild Card games of 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009.

AL East teams generally have fared well in Wild Card games with 15 winners coming from that one division, the most in all of baseball.

Former Red Sox ace Jon Lester started for the Athletics in last year’s AL Wild Card game allowing 6 runs (all earned) on 8 hits over 7.1 innings pitched. Despite Oakland’s 7-3 lead in the 6th inning, however, the Royals roared back to tie the game and, ultimately, win 9-8 in 12 exciting innings. Kansas City, of course, went on to win the Division & Championship series before losing the 2015 World Series to the Giants.


Sox make shutout history

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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.


Tribute: Yogi Berra

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You won’t find a salute to very many Yankees on these pages, but then, this was someone very special.

One of baseball’s great ambassadors, Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, has died.

Known to generations of fans for both his on-field work and off-field personality, Berra leaves behind a warm, much-beloved legacy.

In 19 big league years, all but one for the Yankees, Berra slashed .285/.348/.483. He was a 15-time All-Star and three-time American League MVP (1951, 1954-55). From 1950-52, no AL catcher caught more attempted base stealers than him. Berra holds the career home-run record for AL catchers and collected 100+ RBIs four years in a row.

In all, Berra played on 14 pennant-winning and 10 World Championship teams, more than any other player in history. His World Series records, 63 games and 71 hits, are still the most by any MLB catcher. Among MLB catchers for all-time, Berra is fourth in home runs (358) and runs scored (1,175), first in RBI (1,430), and eighth in slugging percentage.

After his playing days, Berra remained in the game as both a coach and manager of the Yankees, Mets, and Astros. He managed the 1964 Yankees and 1973 Mets to the World Series, losing both bids.

I didn’t really say everything I said

At home behind the plate, Berra talked to everyone—pitchers, umpires, and batters (except the rookies, who Berra acknowledged needed their concentration unbroken). He once said only Red Sox great Ted Williams ever told him to shut up.

Off the field, Berra was known for his “Yogisms,” sayings that found their way into American’s every day speech. President George W. Bush, himself known for more than the occasional malaprop, once quipped that some might wonder if Berra was his speechwriter.

Berra grew up in St. Louis, playing baseball with neighbor and future big league catcher Joe Garagiola. He was nicknamed “Yogi” for his crosslegged posture between innings. A World War II Navy veteran, a 19-year old Berra landed on D-Day at the Battle of Normandy.

The cartoon character Yogi Bear may have been named for Yogi Berra, though executives with the cartoon company, Hanna-Barbera, denied that. Berra reportedly sued for defamation, though he suit was later dropped.

In 1972, Berra was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 85.6% of the vote.

Dale Berra, Yogi’s son, played in 11 MLB seasons with the Pirates, Yankees, and Astros.

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra was 90.


Red Sox at 12-13, again

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The Red Sox took a pounding this weekend at the hands of the Yankees, outscored 15-9.

It was the Red Sox first time being swept in 2015 and the first Yankees sweep of the Red Sox in three or more games at Fenway Park since August 21, 2006.

Boston has yet to win a game on a Sunday. When the smoke cleared last night, the Red Sox stood at 12-13, under .500 for the first time this season.

Here’s a sobering thought: after the first 25 games of the forgettable 2014 season the Red Sox stood at 12-13, too.

On Monday, the Red Sox dropped seven spots to No. 13 in ESPN.com’s MLB Power Rankings, the largest drop of any team.

What passes for good news

A devastating sweep, at home, by the Yankees doesn’t leave us with much to cheer about.

What passes for some good news at this point could be the 3-run home run by the scuffling Mike Napoli in the 6th inning Sunday. It was just his 2nd HR of 2015 and his first 3-run shot since August 26, 2014. Since joining the Sox in 2013 Napoli has 12 home runs against the Yankees, tying him with the Rays’ Evan Longoria for the most against the Yankees in that time.

Boston has a home run now in 9 straight games, the longest active such streak in baseball.

David Ortiz‘s 6th inning double tied him with Andre Dawson at #27 on the MLB All-Time List for Extra-Base Hits. They both have 1,039 over their careers.


Red Sox offense quiet as Yankees win series

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It’s only a couple games, but when it’s losses to the Yankees it still feels like something more.

The Red Sox dropped a second straight game to New York Saturday, 4-2. In so doing, Boston fell to .500 on the season (12-12) while New York staved off double digits in the loss column once again. They’re 15-9, one of eight teams in baseball yet to lose 10 or more games.

The Yankees are hot right now having won 9 of their last 11 games. They’ve also enjoyed Fenway, improving to 8-3 (.727) over their last 4 series in Boston.

The resounding boos around the park for Alex Rodriguez have seemingly had little impact. After swatting career home run #660 to tie Willie Mays on Friday, A-Rod went 1-for-4 on Saturday, extending himself to a 6-game hit streak against the Red Sox dating back to September 15, 2013. He’s 7-for-18 (.389) in that time.

Wade Miley, in a season-high 7.0 innings of work, allowed 7 hits and 3 earned runs with no walks and 3 strikeouts. He retired the last 7 batters he faced, but it wasn’t enough against the Yankees Nathan Eovaldi, who threw a season-high 111 pitches in his 2nd-longest start of the year. The Red Sox managed 7 hits against Eovaldi but just 2 earned runs, including the 5th home run of the season for Dustin Pedroia, who entered the game batting .343 over the past 10 days.

With Saturday’s home run by Pedroia, the Red Sox have now homered in each of their last 8 games, the longest active streak in baseball.

Once Eovaldi left in the 6th it was more of the Yankee’s untouchable bullpen, which allowed just 1 hit over the remainder of the game. The New York bullpen has now gone 5.1 scoreless innings over the first 2 games of this series.

Swihart’s debut

Saturday’s game marked the Major League debut of top prospect Blake Swihart at catcher after the injury of Ryan Hanigan in Friday’s game.

Swihart, 23, collected his first big league hit, first walk, and first run on a near home run off the bat of Mookie Betts in the bottom of the 7th inning. Betts has recorded at least 1 RBI now in 5 straight games, the most by a Boston lead off hitter since Darren Lewis in 1998. No Red Sox lead off batter has had a longer RBI streak than the 6 straight games achieved by Nomar Garciaparra in 1997.

Swihart will likely see a good deal of playing time with Manager John Farrell confirming after the game that Hanigan underwent surgery Saturday. Farrell said pins were inserted into the catcher’s hand and that he doesn’t anticipate him back before All-Star break.

The Red Sox and Yankees match up for a 2nd Sunday Night game on ESPN tomorrow. Joe Kelly will start for Boston vs New York’s Adam Warren.