Add Another Killer B to the Mix!

You all saw it. Here's my take on it, beyond the obvious and into the estoeric. I've included the full linescore, which I didn't see on any official site. Oddly, it happens to fit in with my recent Efficiency series. Atlanta was extremely inefficient in this one.

October 9, 2005
Houston 7, Atlanta 6, 18 innings

ATL  0 0 4  0 1 0  0 1 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0 - 6 13 0
HOU  0 0 0  0 1 0  0 4 1  0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 1 - 7 10 1

Today's Boxscore

The most interesting thing about this game is how seemingly different the teams' stats were, but how the results were remarkably similar.

In regulation play:

	ATL	HOU
1-2-3 Innings	1	4
Baserunners	17	10
Singles-Doubles	5-4	7-0
Walks	6	2
HBP	2	0
RISP	1-for-9	2-for-4

And yet they both scored six runs on a sac fly, a solo homer, and a grand slam!

And this trend continued in the "second" game:

	ATL	HOU
1-2-3 Innings	2	5
Baserunners	10	6
Singles	2	0
Doubles	2	1
Walks	5	4
Errors	0	1
RISP	0-for-9	0-for-2

Atlanta dominated again (except when it counted!), and yet Houston somehow pulled it out.

Offensive Observations

• The Braves' one-through-four went only 3-for-25 (.120). In fact, Tim Hudson had more hits (2) than Rafael Furcal, Andruw Jones, and Chipper Jones combined...and in 20 fewer plate appearances!

• Despite his homer, Brian McCann actually had the worst game, going 1-for-8 (including 0-for-4 with RISP) with four K’s and no walks. The home run was the only time he got the ball out of the infield! His eight at-bats:
  1. 2^nd: Grounded out with man on first and second, two outs.
  2. 4^th: Struck out with none on, one out.
  3. 5^th: Grounded out with bases loaded, two out.
  4. 8^th: Homered with none on and none out.
  5. 10^th: Struck out with man on second, one out.
  6. 12^th: Struck out with man on first, one out.
  7. 14^th: Struck out with bases loaded, one out.
  8. 17^th: Grounded out with none on, none out.
  
  Three strikeouts with runners on in extras is pretty bad. But he didn't have it as bad as Alex Gonzalez in that St Louis-Florida 20-inning marathon two years ago. That night, before making the last out of the game, he made the third out with the bases loaded in the 11th, 15th, and 17th!!

• No player had more than two hits. This was also done earlier this year in the Blue Jays-Angels 18-inning game described in this post.

• In Andruw Jones' nine plate appearances, he managed to run the gamut. Check out what he did:
  
  1. double
  2. hit-by-pitch
  3. sacrifice fly
  4. fly out to center
  5. ground into double play
  6. strikeout
  7. walk
  8. fly out to right
  9. reach on error

• Orlando Palmeiro finished with the coolest line: 0 0 0 1 (sac fly).
  

• Six Astros played two positions.

Pitching Observations

• Burke's home run was the first Astro hit since the tenth. The Braves bullpen pitched 7 2/3 no-hit innings between the 10th and 18th!

• Of the 14 pitchers used:
• Only one pitched less than one inning.
• Nine threw at least 30 pitches.
• Ten allowed zero or one hit.
• Eleven pitched at least two innings.

Truly a game made for all the Esoteric-heads out there!