One of the only baseball blogs (to my knowledge) in the blogosphere that focuses on the Montreal Expos. Okay, mostly baseball in general, however with Montreal Expos references to be found within!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Head to Head Interleague records for upcoming interleague 2009 series

Only one non interleague game today, Cubs at Padres. (Nice blog title eh! Alright, maybe not, coulda gone more Colbert on it.)

As for the others, I'll start with AL @ NL, as it is always interesting to see AL pitchers bat.

Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals. Not counting the Expos, Baltimore is 8-10 vs Washinton. Counting the Expos, they are 14-19. Therefore the Orioles are 6-10 against Montreal.

Cleveland Indians @ Cincinnati Reds. Cleveland leads 30-27 against Cincinnati (14-13 in Cincinati).

Tampa Bay Rays @ Florida Marlins. Tampa trails 26-35 against Florida (12-20 in Florida).

Toronto Blue Jays @ Atlanta Braves. Toronto leads 14-7 against Atlanta (6-3 in Atlanta).

Texas Rangers @ Houston Astros. Texas trails 23-25 against Houston (11-13 in Houston).

Kansas City Royals @ St. Louis Cardinals. Kansas City trails 23-28 (11-10 in St. Louis).

Los Angeles Angels @ Los Angeles Dodgers. Los Angeles Angels lead 38-30 against the Los Angeles Dodgers (15-19 at Los Angeles Dodgers).

NL @ AL

Colorado Rockies @ Detroit Tigers. Colorado leads 9-6 against Detroit (2-4 in Detroit)

Philadelphia Philles @ New York Yankees. Philadelphia trails 8-10 against New York (1-5 in New York).

New York Mets @ Boston Red Sox. New York trails 8-10 against Boston (3-6 in Boston).

Milwaukee Brewers @ Minnesota Twins. All time, Milwaukee trails 203-214 (94-114 in Minnesota). Interleague, Milwaukee trails 23-29 (10-16 in Minnestoa).

Pittsburgh Pirates @ Chicago White Sox. Pittsburgh trails 8-12 against Chicago (2-7 in Chicago).

Arizona Diamondbacks @ Oakland Athletics. Arizona trails 8-10 against Oakland (5-4 in Oakland).

San Francisco Giants @ Seattle Mariners. San Francisco trails 9-10 against Seattle (4-7 in Seattle).

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Around the Bigs

I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but one great thing about baseball is there countless different things that can happen. I am sure it is true for other sports, but it resonates most with baseball in my opinion.

Saturday I was watching the Rays at Red Sox. David Ortiz was at bat, the shift was on. He ended up getting a check swing single to left field! Carl Crawford committed a throwing error which allowed Ortiz to advance to second. Dustin Pedroia who walked the AB prior to David Ortiz got to third, but not before partially running into SS Jason Bartlett who was in the right side of the infield, but getting into position for possibly tagging Pedroia out. Pedroia then fell trying to possibly get back to second. Longoria was signalling to Crawford to throw to second all this time once he got to third to cover. Crawford threw said error, which then got Pedroia to third, and Ortiz to second. See the play here, click "Ortiz singles through the hole in the defense."

In the end the circus type play did not cost the Rays, as Jason Bay struck out on a foul tip, and Mike Lowell grounded out to 5-3.

Stealing home is always an interesting play, and Jayson Worth of the Phillies did so last night (May 12) against the Dodgers. Once Russell Martin tossed the ball back to Ronald Belisario, Werth was coming home, Belisario threw the ball back to Martin, but it was too late once the tag was applied. It went down in the bottom of the seventh. Pedro Feliz was at bat when it happened. Feliz bats right, so he was probably blocking Martin's peripheral vision well, until he had to move out of the way. Belisario throws right, but was probably facing forward when getting the ball back from Martin. All in all, it worked perfectly for Werth, scoring the Phillies fifth run.

Prior to stealing home, Werth singled to left. He then stole second (with Jimmy Rollins batting), and third (with Raul Ibanez batting). With Jimmy Rollins batting earlier in the game, Werth stole third. The latter was a double steal, as Ryan Howard stole second. According to this, Werth tied a franchise record, becoming the first Phillie to do so since Garry Maddox against the Pirates May 29, 1978. He was also the first Phillie to steal three bases in an inning since Pete Rose May 11, 1980. I don't remember too much old baseball, but it is reminiscent of Rickey Henderson.

Also last night, Chipper Jones was fairly irate about a call that went in the Mets favour. Carlos Beltran appeared to possibly be barely out on a tag by Chipper Jones, however the umpire looks like he did not have a perfect angle. Beltran then scored on a Luis Castillo sacrifice fly to LF Garret Anderson. That was the tying run, and the Mets went on to win with a walk-off walk, hence Chipped being irate about the call.

Finally, former Expo (also former Ranger, Cardinal, and Oriole) Fernando Tatis hit a grand slam today in the game the Mets went on to lose. Tatis is one of only a few players to have hit two grand slam in one game, he did it as a Cardinal April 23, 1999 as a Cardinal. Since then, Nomar Garciaparra and Bill Mueller have done so for the Red Sox, May 10, 1999, and July 29, 2003 respectively. The others.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Throwback jerseys in Seattle

I have to say I am a fan of throwback, or vintage jerseys.

I was watching the Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners tonight, and it was turn back the clocks night. To be more specific, 1939.

The Mariners were wearing Seattle Rainiers (throwback) jerseys from 1939 (from Jim Street Vet Scribe). The Rainiers went on to win three consecutive Pacific Coast League championships from 1940-1942.

The Athletics were wearing Oakland Oaks jerseys from 1939 as well.

The Oakland Athletic Oakland Oaks jerseys had the letter O on an oak leaf on their hats, similar to this, but it was a white O on a green leaf. The Mariners had an S on blue fitted caps with no MLB logo on the back. Both uniforms had nice striped socks.

There are some nice pics here.

And if you can't tell by now, I am a fan of the Uni Watch blog, mostly for MLB, and baseball, but also for other stuff too.

More:

Mariners to pay tribute to '39 Rainiers: Club will turn back the clock to honor PCL champions
Back, back, back to '39
Pacific Coast League Champions 1903 - 2006

Around the league, I watched the end of the Oakland at Seattle game last night, along with the Padres visiting the Dodgers. Both had dramatic bottom of the ninth wins, I'll take that over the Kentucky Derby any day!

In Seattle, tied 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Jose Lopez had a 14 (!) pitch at bat, before singling to right, to win the game. That at bat had 9 consectutive foul balls before the game winning hit! The first two pitches were balls, then two called strikes, said nine foul balls, and the hit.

In Los Angeles, tied 0-0 in the bottom of the ninth, with the bases loaded, Russell Martin had quite an at bat too, ending in a walk off walk on a pitch low.

Tonight was a bottom of the tenth win for the Dodgers, their first extra innings game according to Mr. Scully. In Seattle, it almost had the chance for a dramatic ending, but Oakland scored the go ahead run in the top of the ninth, and the Mariners went down 123 in the bottom of the ninth. Bobby Crosby scored the go ahead run on a base hit by Gregorio Petit. He ignored the third base coach's stop sign, and plowed through Rob Johnson, even though he did not have the ball following Ichiro's one hopper to the plate. Had he held on, it was a sure out.

In Los Angeles, as Vin Scully said, it almost looked like it could be another walk off walk. However with the bases loaded, score tied at 1, Andre Ethier singled (fly ball to right, which I don't think Brian Giles had a chance to catch, unless playing very deep, so really a double, or perhaps a triple, but since it is a walk off...) to bring in Rafael Furcal for the win.