Their alarm clocks apparently didn’t go off as set last March 31. The jingle-jangle of the clocks, the tintinnabulation of the season-opening bells, went unheard by players on the Houston Astros and the Toronto Blue Jays. They didn’t wake up until just before the All-Star break.
Both teams only wish this were mid-season and not end-of-season. Then they might have a chance to win a division title or at least a wild card. That’s how well the Astros and the Blue Jays have been playing. In their view, half a season may be better than none, but it’s only a consolation, and they wanted more.
But the Astros’ most recent surge – 14 victories in 15 games – at least made their general manager, Ed Wade, look like a genius. In the last 10 days of July, with the Astros in last place and seemingly going nowhere, Wade made two trades that had people in baseball shaking their heads and wondering if Wade had gone mad.
He acquired two pitchers, starter Randy Wolf from the Padres and reliever LaTroy Hawkins from the Yankees, and no one could figure out why. What was a last place team going to do with two pitchers whose history did not indicate they would pitch the Astros into the playoffs?
Wade rationally explained the moves, but first a look at the Astros’ season. They actually didn’t start the season badly. On May 27 they had a 30-23 record and were only a game and a half from first. Then they lost 23 of 35 games and plunged 14 games from the top of the National League Central. That skid took them to July 11, two days before the All-Star break.
Splitting those 35 games more evenly, Wade said, would have had a “huge impact” on the team’s season, but he also mentioned the Astros’ “wild inconsistency,” and they have punctuated that trait in their record since July 11: 38 wins, 16 losses
Playing at that pace for an entire season would give a team a 113-49 record. For the two months the Astros have played at that pace, it has catapulted them into the wild-card race with Milwaukee and Philadelphia. A few weeks ago they were not within sight of that race.
“I think good clubs are capable of going through extended bad stretches and still play the way they’re capable,” Wade said. “I give the players credit for not paying attention to people saying it was over in July. A lot of teams would have said it was time to mail it in. It says a lot about the makeup of the club that they didn’t.”
When they had finally emerged from their poor playing period, the Astros lost left fielder Carlos Lee and second baseman Kazuo Matsui to injuries within a few days of each other. But they didn’t let those mishaps to serve as setbacks. They kept winning, and when the weekend began they were only three games behind the Brewers.
And Wade’s two strange acquisitions, Wolf and Hawkins, have contributed significantly to the resurgence. Wolf, who had a 6-10 in San Diego, has a 4-1 record for the Astros, but even better, the Astros have an 8-1 record in his starts.
Hawkins had a 5.71 earned run average in 33 games with the Yankees but has not allowed a run in 16 games with Houston. With the Yankees he averaged nearly two baserunners per appearance, with the Astros half a baserunner. He also has one win and two saves for the Astros.
Explaining the Wolf deal, Wade said, “At the time, Runelvys Hernandez was in that spot in our rotation (he had a 0-3 record and 8.38 e.r.a. in 4 starts). Randy is an upgrade for us. He is also in the last year of his contract, which means he’s pitching with his best foot forward going into the off-season. It gives us a foot in the door to sign him.”
Wade worked the trade for Hawkins eight days after he got Wolf. “No one could predict he’d be here in September and not have given up a run for the Astros,” the general manager said.
In going after Hawkins, Wade was seeking bullpen help to relieve the workload Doug Brocail and Chris Sampson had shouldered. “We got an experienced arm for the prorated minimum,” Wade said. “Aside from Jose Valverde, we have no better arm in the bullpen than Hawkins.”
“We thought there was logic to the decisions that were made,” Wade said of the trades. “A third of the season was left to try to improve our club. If we could do some things around the fringes to help, we should do it. We figured we’d play the thing out and see what happens.”
The resulting picture has been vivid.
The Blue Jays have been brighter, too.
On July 6 they had a 42-47 record and were in last place, 14 games from first. When they began play Sunday, they had compiled a 38-21 record since, had recently had a 10-game winning streak and had climbed to third in the American League East, bumping the Yankees to fourth.
“The offense just started swinging the bats,” J.P. Ricciardi, the Toronto general manager, said. “We thought we were capable of, but it took us longer to get going. We waited a long time to get hitting.”
The Blue Jays hitters,” Ricciardi added, “have played really, really well. They justify what you thought you had.”
Ricciardi, in his seventh season as general manager, has not produced the winner he promised when he took over the operation. By now, the Blue Jays should have been contending for the division title, but the Tampa Bay Rays beat them to it. Now the Jays belatedly are contending.
“We knew we had a good team,” Ricciardi said. “We thought we’d be up there.”
Is there any hope of pulling out a post-season spot in the next two weeks? “We’re a long shot,” he said. “We have a very small crack. But we do have a shot and we’ll take the best shot at it we can. If we don’t get there, we’ll finish strong and come back next year.”
Closers Don’t Always Close
When he was a television analyst for the Mets, Fran Healy, reacting to a late development in the game he was broadcasting, said, “More no-hitters are broken up in the ninth inning.”
I called Healy after the game and told him his comment had been wrong. “More no-hitters are lost in the first inning,” I said.
But more games are lost in the ninth inning, and that is why a good closer is important. There are critics who don’t like saves, but saves are not automatic. Those three little outs are often elusive.
Just look at the past week’s developments:
- A few days before he tied the major league record with his 57th save, Francisco Rodriguez gave up a one-run Angels lead in the ninth inning, and the White Sox won in the 15th.
- Kerry Wood gave up three runs in the ninth inning, and the Reds edged the Cubs, 4-3.
- Troy Percival couldn’t protect a one-run Rays lead in the 13th inning, giving up four runs for a 7-4 Blue Jays win.
- The Brewers lost to the Reds, 5-4, when Salomon Torres gave up three runs in the ninth.
- The Red Sox led the Rays, 4-3, in the ninth, but the Rays rallied for two runs against the Red Sox ace close, Jonathan Papelbon, and won, 5-4.
- Brian Wilson turned a 4-2 Giants lead over the Diamondbacks into a 4-4 tie in the ninth, but the Giants scored a run in their half of the inning.
- When the same teams played the next day, the Giants had a 2-1 lead in the ninth, and Chris Young cracked a two-out, two-run triple against Wilson for a 3-2 Arizona lead. Now it was Brandon Lyon’s turn to hold the lead in the Giants’ half of the ninth, but with two out Eugenio Velez lashed a two-out, two-run triple, and the Giants won, 4-3.
- Needing three outs to secure a 4-2 victory for the Mets over the Braves, Luis Ayala faced three batters, but the first two singled and the third, pinch-hitter Greg Norton, slugged a home run. The Braves scored two more runs against two other relievers and won, 7-4.
No Elusive .400 for Chipper
There is probably no player who would sneer at a .339 batting average for nearly half a season. But for Chipper Jones, hitting .339 the past 12 weeks hasn’t been good enough for him to maintain a .400 average.
Jones, who is hitting .365, was hitting .400 on June 18, the 81st day of the season. For 74 of those 81 days, Jones had a batting average whose first number was 4. But like Rod Carew, George Brett, John Olerud and others before him, the Atlanta third baseman has been unable to retain the 4.
In 1977 Carew last hit .400 on July 10 and finished at .388. Three years later Brett last batted .400 on Sept. 19 and ended the season at .390. Olerud’s average in 1993 was .400 for the last time on Aug. 2 and finished at .363.
A Plethora of 20-game Winners
The majors are awash with 20-game winners. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But relatively speaking, it’s an accurate statement.
Brandon Webb of Arizona last week joined Cliff Lee as 20-game winners, marking the first time since 2005 that each league has had at least one 20-game winner.
Twenty-game winners have become scarce in recent years. Webb, who lost three consecutive starts after reaching 19 wins, is the first National League 20-game winner since 2005, when Dontrelle Willis (22), Chris Carpenter (21) and Roy Oswalt (20) each attained the 20-victory goal. Josh Beckett (20) reached the plateau last season after neither league had a 20-game winner in 2006.
Only three other pitchers are in position to have a chance for 20: A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays and Mike Mussina of the Yankees. Burnett and Halladay have won 18 each, Mussina 17.
Halladay won 22 games in 2003. Burnett has never won more than 12 games. Mussina has won 19 twice but never 20. He would have to win all three of his remaining starts to win 20 for the first time.