Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Matt Cain starts tonight against the Angels in Anaheim with a chance to top Johnny Vander Meer's back to back no hitters in 1938. Cain could have back to back perfect games, but even if it is just a no hitter, a consecutive perfectgame/no hitter would seem more impressive than consecutive no hitter/no hitter. Of course the odds are rather long against our having to concern ourselves with such rankings.
Vander Meer's second no hitter was sloppy affair, marred by eight walks, including walking the bases loaded in the ninth before getting the final out. The game reports say that there were a number of spectacular defensive plays made to keep the no hitter intact. It was also the first night game played in the history of Ebbet's Field
Last year Justin Verlander followed his no hitter with five no hit innings in his next outing before the balloon burst. The pitcher who has come the closest to matching Vander Meer's feat was Ewell Blackwell of the 1947 Reds, who had a no-hitter broken up with one out in the ninth against Brooklyn on June 22 of that year, four days after no-hitting the Boston Braves 6-0.
Ewell Blackwell took his second straight no-hitter into the ninth before it was broken up. Vander Meer was a teammate, sitting on the bench watching. Blackwell's two no hitters wold have been against the same two teams as Vander Meer's -- the Braves and Dodgers. Eddie Stanky broke it up with one out in the ninth.
Most of the change in FIP is due to a change in HR/FB, which is more the providence of the batter and luck than the pitcher.
Isn't holding the pitcher responsible for home runs yielded one of the foundational theories upon which FIP was created? Homer runs are fielding independent? The whole three true outcomes etc?
How do we reconcile that with primary home run responsibility being shifted to batters and luck?
Cain's got the win tonight, but his Game Score was a lame 43. He lasted five innings and gave up six hits, four walks and three runs. He struck out four. He was better last time out.
Today showed that mlb is slowly emerging into the high tech era and correctly using technology to correct errors.
The umpires changed a long foul hit by Amaris Ramirez of the Brewers in the Toronto game at Miller Park-----they correctly reversed it to a home run and the deciding run in the Brewers 7-6 victory.
I also do not want to slow down mlb games to a crawl by massive use of replay-----but its time to use replay to correct horrendous mistakes-----allow the umpires a little more discretion on when to use replay. Or perhaps allow the managers two challenges a game.
There is nothing wrong admitting that there are some bad call in mlb games-----bad calls happen in the nfl and nba and they make better use of replay than mlb does in reversing calls.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
