A.J. Burnett took a no-hitter into the eighth against the Cubs.
- It was broken up by Adrian Cardines, who had just been called up.
– The Cubs, despite all of their losses, have not been no hit since Sandy Koufax in September 1965 (thanks, @jordanbernfield)
Cliff Lee won a game tonight.
- It’s just his second win all season (it’s July 31st!!)
– He now has more wins than Chris Davis…
— (Chris Davis is not a pitcher).
—- Lee also stole a base in the game…
—– And Jimmy Rollins hit an inside-the-park home run.
—— AND Ryan Howard had an infield hit.
——- Also in this game, Kevin Fransden hit his first Major League home run since 2007.
——— Off of Stephen Strasburg.
———- Lee’s hit and SB were also off Strasburg.
———– The Phillies did this without Shane Victorino or Hunter Pence, who they traded today.
Justin Verlander walked in a run.
– He won’t have pitched six innings, since the game’s delayed by rain in the middle of the sixth and Detroit is away.
— This is a shame, because Verlander’s streak of six innings pitched was the longest in MLB.
The Phillies traded Hunter Pence a year after acquiring him.
– Joe Blanton is still a Philly.
— As is Juan Pierre (though we’d be questioning anyone that actually wanted Pierre, even though he’s not having a bad year).
—- The Yankees actually managed to trade Chad Qualls for a living, breathing human being.
Make that “called in the sixth”. Game’s officially over after five innings, and I guess technically since it says “F/6″ those baserunners in the top of the sixth must sort of count as well even though the top of the inning never ended.
Oh, hey, here’s something fun. With the Red Sox up by 3 runs, Franklin Morales came in with one on and one out in the top of the sixth (so tying run in the on-deck circle). He faced three batters and only retired one of them, but since the game went into a rain delay with the bases now loaded and two outs and was subsequently called, Morales gets credited with a save. (Didn’t they used to just go back to the end of the last completed inning when a game was called by rain? Or even the last completed half-inning?)
I can’t wrap my head around that save at all. That’s a major flaw in the save rule. You shouldn’t be able to get a save in the sixth inning, even if it is the final inning. And you shouldn’t get a save if the half-inning was never completed. You’re right, going back to the last completed half-inning makes so much more sense, and I’m almost positive that they used to do that. Officially, the last play of the game didn’t result in either an out or a run, and that makes no sense at all to me.
But wait, there’s more! NESN just gave this stat in tonight’s broadcast:
- This is Justin Verlander’s third start at Fenway Park in the last two years.
–Last May, he pitched through a steady drizzle.
—This May, he started a game in which there was a 38-minute rain delay.
—-And of course, last night’s game was delayed for an hour and 45 minutes before being called completely.
(They gave this fact rather inaccurately, though, making it sound as though these were his only three starts at Fenway, when in fact 7 of his 9 career starts against Boston have come at Fenway.)