Nuggetpalooza: Stat nuggets from the Red Sox week
Source: Full Count by Gary Marbry
A few things I noticed over the last few days:
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* – Jon Lester didn’t walk anybody during his complete game win on Monday night, snapping a streak of 73 consecutive games in which the Red Sox had issued at least one walk. It was the longest active streak in the majors (now it’s Tampa Bay, currently at 56 games) and Boston’s longest such streak since they went 90 games back in 1996. The club record streak is 105 straight games during the 1931-1932 seasons.
Note this: The longest streak all-time is 231 consecutive games issuing at least one walk, set by the Indians from 1955-1957.
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* – Entering Monday night, the Red Sox had lost the last two times that their starter pitched a complete game: Tim Wakefield went the distance on August 14 in a 5-3 loss at Seattle and Jon Lester lost 3-1 at Toronto on April 11. How have other teams fared recently when their pitchers have gone the distance?
-The Marlins have won their last 21 complete games. They haven’t lost one since 2006;
-Arizona has won their last 16 and 34 of their last 35 since 2006. The only loss was a Randy Johnson CG in 2008;
-Since the start of last season, Oakland has six complete games (five by Brandon McCarthy) and they’ve won just one of them;
What about teams on the other side? When an opposing pitcher throws a complete game, the Nationals have lost 27-of-28 since 2006. The Red Sox have *WON* three of the last five opponent CG’s since last July, including their 1-0 win over Jake Peavy and the White Sox, the only time an opposing starter has gone all the way against Boston this season. In the three seasons prior to this recent stretch, they lost 10 such games in a row.
Note this: Going into Monday night, the Mariners had won 10-of-20 (.500) since the start of 2010 when the opposing starter went the distance, the second best such winning percentage in the majors in that span (Angels, 8-7; .533).
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* – Boston enters Thursday night having not allowed any home runs in six consecutive games for the first time since September, 2010. They haven’t had a seven game streak since 1993. The club record (since 1950) is 11 consecutive games, set from August 11-22, 1975.
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* – The Red Sox got only seven hits on Wednesday, snapping their streak of 13 straight games with eight hits or more. It was their longest such streak since 2008 and the longest such streak in the majors so far in 2012 (no other team has reached 10 consecutive games). But fell well shy of the club record (23 in 1999), the “since 1950″ major league record (25 by the Indians in 2001), or the all-time record (33 by Washington in 1933 and St. Louis in 1922).
Note this: Boston has collected 8+ hits only three times in their last 11 games in Tampa, averaging just 6.7 hits in that span.
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* – Boston headed to Tampa coming off a shut out of the Mariners. Following their 2-1 loss on Wednesday, the Red Sox had allowed 10+ runs in three of the last seven games following a shut out, allowing an average of 7.0 runs per game in that span. The Sox are now 3-4 in those games.
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* – Ryan Sweeney has not put a first pitch in play since April 26, 64 plate appearances ago. For the season, he’s put the first pitch in play only three times, tied for the second fewest in the majors (min. 100 plate appearances):
2 – Jason Kubel, Diamondbacks
3 – Ryan Sweeney, Red Sox
3 – Juan Pierre, Phillies
3 – AJ Ellis, Dodgers
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* – Below are the league leaders in home runs hit with two strikes this season. See if you recognize anyone:
6 – Josh Reddick, A’s
5 – Five players tied (including Josh Hamilton)
4 – Nine players tied (including David Ortiz and Jed Lowrie)
Note this: Reddick hit five home runs with two-strikes last season while a member of the Red Sox and now has a career total of 12 in 293 two-strike counts. They’ve tracked two-strike hitting since 1988, and Reddick’s 12 homers is the most since then by any player with fewer than 300 such plate appearances:
12 – Josh Reddick
11 – Victor Diaz
10 – Tony Armas
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* – Red Sox starters have now allowed one run or less in the last five straight games. It’s the first such five game streak since April 16-20, 2011 (Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, Lackey, Buchholz). That was part of a stretch where they allowed no more than one run eight times in nine games, allowing a total of four runs in 61.1 innings, an ERA of 0.59).
Note this: The last time that Red Sox starters had such a streak longer than five games was an eight-game stretch from May 12-20, 2000 (Pedro, Fassero, Rose, Schourek, Wakefield, Pedro, Fassero, Schourek). During that streak, they tossed 52 innings and allowed four earned runs, an ERA of 0.69.
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Standings tracker: The Red Sox trail by 6.5 games in the AL East and are also 6.5 games out of the second wild card.
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