Esoteric Boxscore of the Day

October 07, 2005

Efficiency V - What Else Can Go Wrong?

Here's the last in my series on Efficient and Inefficient games. This is, in my opinion, the most frustrating game for both teams. There were games with more wasted baserunners, but in this one, each team not only got a lot of hits and walks, but also very few runs.

May 14, 1989
Mets 2, San Diego 1
SD    0  0  0    1  0  0    0  0  0  -   1 10  1
NY 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 12 0
Today's Boxscore

Not a lot went well here. Each team had five baserunners erased one way or another. They went 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position. They botched four sacrifice bunts. Here are the gory details.

New York
What Went Right
  1. Six leadoff singles. No 1-2-3 innings.
  2. 21 baserunners: 12 hits, eight walks, and one reaching on an error.
  3. 10-for-24 (.417) with four walks (.500 OBP) when no runner in scoring position.
What Went Wrong
  1. Three double plays. And just for variety's sake, they grounded into one, lined into another, and also pulled of a strike-him-out/throw-him-out.
  2. 15 left on base.
  3. 2-for-12 (.167) with four walks (two intentional) with runners in scoring position; 0-for-2 and no RBI's with runner on third and less than two outs.
  4. Two unsuccessful sac bunts.
  5. The winning run was thrown out at home in the ninth.
San Diego
What Went Right
  1. Only one 1-2-3 inning.
  2. 14 baserunners: ten hits and four walks.
  3. 10-for-25 (.400) with three walks (.464 OBP) with no runners in scoring position.
  4. Had a runner on with less than two outs in seven of nine innings.
  5. Threw out the winning run at the plate in ninth.
What Went Wrong
  1. Two double plays: one on an attempted hit-and-run (a strike-him-out/throw-him-out) and one on an attempted sac bunt!
  2. Nine runners left on base.
  3. 0-for-8 with one walk with runners in scoring position; 0-for-1 with no RBI's with a runner on third and less than two outs.
  4. Three runners caught stealing.
  5. The three attempted bunts had the following outcomes: force at second, double play, out after running into batted ball (Gwynn).
  6. Ninth inning. Tie game. Go-ahead run on third. Runner (Gwynn again!) thrown out trying to steal second.
  7. Allowed winning run to score on an error.
Yikes! So, to summarize, these teams combined for:
  • 35 baserunners and only one 1-2-3 inning in a 2-1 game.
  • a .408 average (20-for-49) and seven walks (.482 OBP) with no RISP.
  • a .100 average (2-for-20) and three unintentional walks (.217 OBP) with RISP, including 0-for-8 and two walks with two outs.
  • five double plays.
  • four caught stealing.
  • four failed sac bunts (and one other bunt run into!)
Not pretty. It was only fitting that the winning run scored on an error. Especially after the potential winning run was thrown out at the plate on the prevous play!

Notes:
  • Three of the first four half-innings ended on a caught stealing.
  • The linescore going into the bottom of the ninth looked like this:
    R  H  E
    1 10 0
    1 10 0
  • And of course this kind of game yields great pitcher's lines. Dennis Rasmussen had the best:
               IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR
    Rasmussen 7 9 1 1 6 1 0
    It's not easy to allow 15 baserunners while whiffing only one over seven innings and lower your ERA!
Current Inefficient Frustration: In the last two days, San Diego has outhit St. Louis 23-16 while being outscored 12-7. That is, they've had at least three more hits than the Cards each game, but have lost both by at least three runs. And St. Louis has only walked two more times than San Diego. Weird, and wonderfully esoteric!

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