With June upon us, it’s time for BBRT’s monthly reflection on the MLB season. First, who stands where? If the season were to end today the play- off teams would be:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Division Leaders: Blue Jays, Tigers and A’s.
Wild Cards: Angels and Yankees.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Division Leaders: Braves, Brewers and Giants.
Wild Cards: Cardinals and Dodgers.
*Note: You can find the complete standings through May 31 at end of this post.
The Best and Worst of Times
Through May, only two teams are playing .600 or better baseball – The San Francisco Giants (36-20/.643) and the Oakland A’s (34-22/.607). At the other end of the spectrum, only two teams are under .400 (what BBRT thinks of as “The Hapless Zone”) – the Chicago Cubs (20-33/.377) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (23-35/.397).
The tightest races are in the NL East, with the Braves two games ahead of the second-place, and surprising, Marlins; and in the AL East, where the surging Blue Jays hold a 2 ½-game lead over the Yankees.
May’s Winners
Lots of reasons for high fives in Toronto.
No team won more games in May than the Toronto Blue Jays who played .700 ball (21-9, behind Mark Buehrle’s 5-0 record on the mound and Edwin Encarnacion’s home run splurge (16 for the month, more on that later). The strong May vaulted the Jays from fourth place in the AL East to the top spot in the division.
Over in the NL, The San Francisco Giants led the way, playing .679 ball (19-9) in May, behind a balanced attack and the pitching of Madison Bumgarner and Roy Vogelsong (who went a combined 8-1 for the month). The Giants also played .600 ball in April (.607/17-11) and opened June with a 6 ½-game lead in the NL West.
The biggest surprise in the NL may very well be the Miami Marlins – the only NL East team with a winning record for the month (15-13), which moved them from last place in the division at the end of April to second place, just two games behind Atlanta, at the end of May. The April surprise – Milwaukee Brewers – faded a bit in May, going 13-15, but still hold a three-game lead over the Cardinals.
Only one team played under .400 ball for the month – the NY Mets (11-18/.379).
Streaking Back in Vogue
The Boston Red Sox closed out the month of May on a (still alive on June 1) six-game winning streak. Of course, the six wins immediately followed the Red Sox’ ten-game losing streak, leaving Boston still six games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East. (Note: Boston extended the win streak to seven games with a 4-0 win over the Rays on June 1.)
The Houston Astros, while still firmly in last place in the AL West, did post a winning record for the month (15-14) and actually ran off a seven-game winning streak near the month’s end. Key factors in the Astros’ “surge” were rookie phenom OF George Springer (.294-10-25 for the month) and 2B Jose Altuve (.357, with 21 runs scored and 11 steals in May.)
Baseball’s Winningest Pitcher
Toronto’s Mark Buehrle – at 9-1, 2.30 – is MLB’s winningest pitcher through May 31. Buehrle also was one of five pitchers to tie for the MLB lead for wins in May (5). May’s five-game winners were: Buehrle, the Giants’ Rick Bumgarner, the Tigers’ Rich Porcello and the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka. (On June 1, Buehrle became the first 10-game winner of the season, topping the Royals 4-0 and throwing eight innings of six-hit ball.)
When a Single is Really a Double
Dee Gordon steals another one.
Dodgers’ 2B Dee Gordon continued to run wild on the base paths, stealing an MLB-leading 21 bases in May (being caught just twice.) On the season, as of May 31, Gordon has an MLB-best 34 steals in 37 attempts.
Nelson Cruz-ing
On May 31, in an Orioles’ 4-1 win over the Astros, Nelson Cruz homered and drove in three runs. This made Cruz the first MLBer in 2014 to reach twenty home runs (it was his 20th) and gave him the MLB RBI lead (52). Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton reached the 50-RBI mark the day before, and leads the NL with 51. Cruz, who wasn’t signed for the 2014 season until February 22, now stands at .315-20-52.
Gotcha!
Blue Jays’ RF Jose Bautista may have to move to shortstop – he threw out two runners and first base in a span of two games. On May 30, in the ninth inning, he fielded a one-hopper to right field by the Royals’ Billy Butler (admittedly not MLB’s fastest down the first base line) and Bautista’s throw from right field beat Butler to first by a step. Just a day late, in the seventh inning, Royals’ second baseman Omar Infante popped a ball down the right field line. Assuming the ball was going foul, Infante initially began walking away from the plate, contemplating the next pitch. By the time Infante was alerted to the fact that the ball was going drop fair (and started his move toward first base), Bautista has recovered the ball and fired to first – nabbing Infante by 15-feet. Two 9-3 putouts at first, in two days, in the same ballpark, by the same right fielder – what are the odds?
Springer Makes His Mark
The Houston Astros brought up minor league phenom George Springer in mid-April. At the time, he was hitting .353 with three homers and nine RBIs at Triple A Oklahoma City. This followed a 2013 season in which Springer hit .303, with 37 HRs, 108 RBI and 45 steals at AA and AAA– earning Minor League Baseball’s Offensive Player of the Year honors. You can find more on Springer in BBRT’s pre-season prospect to watch post here. Springer got off to a slow start (.182, with no HRs and just four RBI in 55 April at bats). But he turned it on in May, putting up a .294, 10 HR, 25 RBI line. He’s still striking out too much, but he’s clearly in the majors to stay. His ten homers in May are the third most for that month by a rookie, following Mark McGwire (15 in 1987) and Wally Berger (11 in 1930). While Springer is showing power at the MLB-level, he has yet to deliver in the speed department (one stolen base in three tries though May 31.)
Based Loaded – No Outs? No Problem!
On May 8, Tampa Bay reliever Brad Boxberger came into a tough situation – top of the sixth, Tampa down 3-1 to the Orioles, and Tampa starter David Price had just given up a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases with no outs. Boxberger, however, did his job in sterling fashion – striking out Baltimore 1B Steve Pearce, 2B Jonathan Schoop and C Caleb Joseph – all swinging and on just nine pitches. An Elias Sports Bureau’s archive search (although pitch count records are not complete) shows no other instance of a Major League pitcher entering a game with the bases loaded with no outs and striking out the side on nine pitches.
Tanaka’s First Loss Since, Well, Forever
In 2013, Masahiro Tanaka went 24-0 for the Japanese League Rakuten Golden Eagles. He ended the season on a 28-game winning streak that stretched back to August 19, 2012. In 2014, Tanaka found himself a New York Yankee (seven-year/$155-million deal). The Bronx Bombers’ investment paid off, as Tanaka won his first six decisions (8 starts) in pinstripes.
Then on May 20, at Wrigley Field, the NL Central’s last-place Cubs put an end to the winning streak (at 34 decisions), topping Tanaka and the Yankees 6-1. Tanaka allowed four runs (three earned) in six innings – ending the night with a 6-1 record and a 2.39 ERA. By the way, the longest MLB winning streak by a pitcher belongs to the Giants’ Carl Hubbell – at 24 wins. Hubbell won his last sixteen decisions in 1936 and his first eight in 1937.
Tanaka bounced right back in his next start (May 25), earning his seventh win of the season with 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball as the Yankees topped the White Sox 7-1 in Chicago; he then closed out the month with a win against the Twins (8 innings pitched, four hits, no earned runs, two walks, nine strikeouts). Sounds like another streak on the way.
Phil Hughes’ Next Walk His First Since, Well, Forever
In five May starts, the Twins’ Phil Hughes pitched 33 1/3 innings (3-0, 1.62 ERA), striking out 24 and issuing zero – yes, zero – walks. Hughes’ last walk, in fact, came in the second inning of an 8-3 win over Kansas City on April 20. Since that time, he’s thrown 44 2/3 walk-less inning, while fanning 32. (After a no-walk May, June 1 saw Hughes walk two – Brian McCann both times – in picking up a win over the Yankees (8 innings pitched, three hits, two walks, two earned runs, six strikeouts).
2014’s First No Hitter
On May 25, Dodger right-hander Josh Beckett tossed the first no-hitter of the 2014 season. It was the (record) 24th no-no in Dodger history. Beckett shut down the Phillies 6-0 on 128 pitches (three walks, six strikeouts), his highest pitch count ever. It was Beckett’s first complete game of the season and his 12th complete game in 321 career starts (14 seasons).
Home Cookin’
Colorado’s hitters truly like home cookin’. Here are their home/away splits through May 31. Troy Tulowitzki (.521/.233); Charlie Blackmon (.389/.257); Justin Morneau (.345/.275); Michael Cuddyer (.389/.269). Then there’s the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado, hitting .340 on the road and .271 at home. What’s with that?
Most Home Runs in May
Edwin Encarnacion rips one,
Toronto 1B Edwin Encarnacion (who put up a .272-36-104 line in 2013) got off to a slow start this season – hitting .250 with just two round trippers and 15 RBI in April. (He didn’t hit his first homer of the season until April 22.) He turned up the heat in May, tying the AL record for home runs in the month of May with 16 (Mickey Mantle – 1956), just one shy of Barry Bonds MLB record for May (2001). For the month, Encarnacion put up a line of .281-16-33.
Encarnacion also became just the third player to have five multi-homer games in a month – tying Harmon Killebrew (May 1959) and Albert Belle (September 1995).
Who Says Pitchers Can’t Hit?
The Brewers topped the Orioles 7-6 on May 27 – with a tenth-inning, walk-off, pinch-hit double, following a two-out/none-on intentional walk to Mark Reynolds. What was unique about this pinch-hit, walk-off hit was that the pinch-hitter was a pitcher. After the Reynolds walk, reliever Francisco Rodriguez was due up and the Brewers were out of position players. Manager Ron Reonicke made the call to RHP Yovani Gallardo, who delivered (on a 2-0 pitch) a run-scoring double off the center-field wall. Gallardo was not a totally “off-the-wall” choice. He came into the game with a .202 lifetime average that included 19 doubles and 12 home runs.
Strikeout Leaders
The Phillies’ Ryan Howard finished May as MLB’s strikeout leader (among hitters), with 67 whiffs in 200 at bats (.230-10-37). Numbers two and three on the K-List were the Upton brothers of Atlanta. Justin notched 65 K’s in 193 at bats (.301-13-33), while brother B.J. had struck out 64 times in 190 at bats (.216-4-13). Over in the AL, the strikeout leader was the Angels’ Mike Trout, who finished May with 63 K’s in 204 at bats and a .294-11-38 line.
On the other side of the coin, no pitcher ended May with more strikeouts on the season than the Indians’ Corey Kluber – 95 K’s in 80 innings, to go with a 6-3, 3.04 record. In the NL, the Reds’ Johnny Cueto led the strikeout race with 92 K’s in 91 innings (and a 5-4, 1.68 record).
Davis On the Rebound?
Chris Davis, who led MLB with 53 home runs and 138 RBI in 2013, started slow this season. With more than a quarter of the season gone, Davis had just 3 home runs and 15 RBI. Then on May 20th, he tied an Orioles’ record with a three-homer game (no Oriole has ever hit four in a game). Like his season, Davis’ game started slowly, with a strikeout in the first inning. He went on to add a single (and run scored) in the fourth, a two-run homer in the fifth, a solo shot in the sixth and another two-run homer in the ninth. (The Orioles topped the Pirates 9-2.)
The last Oriole with a 3-HR game? The very same Chris Davis, on August 24, 2013. The only Orioles with three 3-HR games are Boog Powell and Eddie Murray. Davis ended the month with seven HRs and 25 RBI on the season. Hmm, pre-season, who would have guessed that Milwaukee’s Khris Davis would have more runs (9) than Baltimore’s Chris Davis (7) at the end of May?
A Little Help From My Friends
At the end of May, your MLB ERA leaders were (tied) the Cubs’ Jeff Samardzija and the Reds’ Johnny Cueto at 1.68. Their combined record, however, is 6-8 (Cueto 5-4/Samardzija 1-4). Perhaps a little run support would be helpful. In Samardzija’s 11 starts, the Cubs have put up just 28 total runs (two or fewer runs seven times), while the Reds have scored 39 runs in the 12 games Cueto has started. In Cueto’s last three starts – two losses and a no-decision – The Reds have plated a total of four runs.
Not Exactly Perfect, But Interesting
On May 29, right-hander Josh Collmenter of the Diamondbacks won his fourth game of the season, beating the Reds 4-0 in Arizona. It was the first shutout and first complete game of his career – and he did it in unique fashion, facing the minimum 27 hitters over nine innings. The game, however, was neither a perfect game nor no-hitter, as Collmenter (who used only 94 pitches to complete his nine-innings of work) gave up three hits.
Collmenter gave up a double to Reds’ 1B Brayan Pena in the third, but Pena was thrown out trying to advance to third base on a fly out by SS Zack Cozart. Speedy CF Billy Hamilton led off the Reds’ fourth inning with a single, but was erased when 3B Todd Frazier grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Pena led off the eighth with his second hit of the day, a single to right-center, but Cozart followed up by hitting into a 5-4-3 double killing. Facing the minimum 27-batters while giving up three or more hits is not as rare as you might think. Post-game news reports indicated it’s happened 13 times since 1914.
May 27, a Couple of Firsts
On May 27, in his fifth MLB season, 385th game played and 1,565th plate appearance, Phillies’ center fielder Ben Revere hit his first MLB home run – as the Phillies lost at home to the Rockies 6-2. Revere was well short of the record for plate appearances at the start of a career without a HR (non-pitchers) – that belongs to Emil Verban (NL infielder from 1944-50), who went 2,592 plate appearances before his first round tripper in 1948 and finished his career with just one homer in 3,109 plate appearances. Phillies’ bench coach Larry Bowa probably best understood Revere’s elation after the round tripper. Bowa went 1,745 plate appearances before his first home run – and it was of the inside-the-park variety. Bowa did end up with 15 HRs in a sixteen-year MLB playing career.
On the same day as Revere’s round tripper, Cardinals’ RHP Lance Lynn set down the Yankees 6-0 at Saint Louis. The complete game shutout was Lynn’s sixth win of the season (6-2, 3.12). It was also Lynn’s first complete game in 147 professional starts – 75 major league and 72 minor league. He threw a career high 126 pitches (77 strikes), giving up five hits and three walks, while striking out two.
Nice Month
May’s top hitters were the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig (.398-8-25) in the NL and the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera (.380-8-34). That’s rakin’.
Standings as of May 31
AL EAST
W L PCT GB
Toronto 33 24 .579
NY Yankees 29 25 .537 2.5
Baltimore 27 27 .500 4.5
Boston 26 29 .473 6.0
Tampa Bay 23 33 .411 9.5
AL CENTRAL
Detroit 31 21 .596
Chicago WS 28 29 .491 5.5
Kansas City 26 29 .473 6.5
Minnesota 25 28 .472 6.5
Cleveland 26 30 .464 7.0
AL WEST
Oakland 34 22 .607
LA Angels 30 25 .545 3.5
Texas 28 28 .500 6.0
Seattle 27 28 .491 6.5
Houston 24 33 .421 10.5
NL EAST
Atlanta 29 25 .537 –
Miami 28 26 .519 1
Washington 26 27 .491 2.5
NY Mets 25 29 .463 4
Philadelphia 24 28 .462 4
NL CENTRAL
Milwaukee 33 22 .600 –
St. Louis 29 26 .527 4
Pittsburgh 25 29 .463 7.5
Cincinnati 24 29 .453 8
Chicago Cubs 19 33 .365 12.5
NL WEST
San Francisco 36 19 .655
Colorado 28 26 .519 7.5
LA Dodgers 29 27 .518 7.5
San Diego 25 30 .455 11
Arizona 23 34 .404 14
