The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 9-7 on Friday night, and regardless of which team you might have been rooting for, the game was an absolute gem. The lead changed hands fives times, the 28 combined hits included four home runs — one of them a titanic 470-foot blast by Aaron Judge — and the tying runs were on base when Kenley Jansen recorded the final out for his 440th career save. Moreover, the atmosphere at a packed Fenway Park was electric throughout. It was as close to a postseason atmosphere as you will find in July.
The loss was New York’s fifth in sixth games, so I was admittedly a bit apprehensive about asking Aaron Boone a particular question prior to yesterday evening’s affair. I did so anyway. Prefacing it by relating a press box opinion that it had been as entertaining as any played at Fenway all season, I wanted to know if, as a manager, he allows himself to think about the aesthetics of a baseball game in that manner.
His answer didn’t disappoint.
“I always try to have a little appreciation for that,” Boone replied. “Especially with what we’ve been going through as a club. We’ve struggled. There are a handful of games where I’ve felt that way, like, ‘Man, this is a really good baseball game going on.’ When you come out on the bad end it kind of sucks, but you try to have that appreciation for ‘That was a really good one.’ Hopefully we can start to be on the right side of those.”
(Boone got what he desired. The longtime rivals played another back-and-forth thriller on Saturday, with the Bombers rallying for one in the ninth and three in the 10th to prevail 11-8. Judge went 4-for-4 with a home run and a pair of walks.)
Reminded by yours truly of a Pete Rose quote from the epic 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds, Boone responded in kind.
“Pete told Sparky [Anderson] after Game 6, ‘This is one of the best games you’ll ever be a part of,’” said Boone. “Sparky was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Pete said, ‘We’re going to win tomorrow anyway, don’t worry about it.’ A lot of times you’ll hear great players, great competitors, talk like that. You’ve got to appreciate the competition, and have the perspective of appreciation for what you get to do every day on this kind of stage, the highest league in the land.”
Boone fielded a number of trade deadline questions during Saturday’s media session, one from a Yankees beat writer who wanted to know about his own experience changing teams mid season. On July 31, 2003, the then-infielder was dealt from the Reds to the team he now manages.
“It was an adjustment,” recalled Boone. “When I came from Cincinnati, it was the only organization I’d been in. I came up through the minor leagues and played six, seven years in the big leagues there. It was my first year of marriage. I owned a place there. It’s like, ‘Man.’ You’re moving. [You’re] introducing yourself to people as you’re getting ready to face Tim Hudson.”
Two-and-a-half months after donning pinstripes, Boone faced Tim Wakefield at Yankee Stadium in one of the most climactic games ever played in the Boston-New York rivalry. The aesthetics of that particular contest remain largely unappreciated by the losing side, and for obvious reasons. In baseball terms, it was life or death. Friday at Fenway was just one of 162.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Al Oliver went 13 for 27 against Milt Wilcox.
Vada Pinson went 10 for 14 against Milt Pappas.
Milt May went 8 for 13 against Pedro Borbon.
Milt Cuyler went 6 for 13 against Bob Milacki.
Milt Thompson went 6 for 8 against Doyle Alexander.
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Like many modern-day hitters, Seattle Mariners first baseman Tyler Locklear trains with a Trajekt. And why wouldn’t he? Increasingly popular, the high-speed hitting machine simulates the arsenals of major-league pitchers, including the velocity and movement of their offerings. Commonly used to prepare for a given day’s starter, it also allows hitters to challenge themselves against elite stuff in a non-competitive environment.
I recently asked the 23-year-old rookie which pitchers he’s faced on a Trajekt.
“I’ll throw some of the big guys up there,” Locklear told me. “Yu Darvish is one that I use a lot. Gerrit Cole. Jacob deGrom. Guys with the high velo or crazy spin rate stuff that will get you cranked up and going.”
Asking for scouting reports on Trajekt Gerrit Cole and Trajekt Yu Darvish seemed in order.
“Fastball velo with extreme ride,” Locklear said of Cole. “It’s hard to get on top of that. And then his breaking stuff is second to none. You need to try to get that in a good spot and stay on top of his fastball.
“[Darvish] has got his five-pitch thing. That’s a challenge. But most of the time I just try to get the movements of guys’ pitches down. I find their arm slots and how they go through their windups, trying to time that up.”
Bryan Woo — featured here at FanGraphs earlier this week — has one of the game’s lowest release points. Locklear has never hit off of his teammate on a Trajekt, but he has stood in the batter’s box against him.
“I’ve got to face him a couple times in spring training,” explained Locklear. “With that low slot and all of his pitches, he’s definitely tough. The slot makes his four-seam play up a little bit, and then he’ll throw his splitter off of it. You think it’s going to rise, and instead it falls off the table. He’s also pretty deceptive with his windup. It’s slow, but then the ball kind of explodes out of his hand; it goes from slow to quick. I’m glad I don’t have to face the game version of him.”
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A quiz:
Who was the last left-handed pitcher to be credited with 25 or more wins in a single season?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Mike Ferraro, a third baseman whose MLB career comprised 162 games and 500 at-bats playing for three teams from 1966-1972, died last weekend at age 79. Later a big-league coach and manager, Ferraro saw action with the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Mel Held, a right-handed pitcher who appeared in four games and allowed four runs over seven innings for the Baltimore Orioles in 1956, died last weekend at age 95. The Edon, Ohio’s best professional season came a year earlier when he went 24-7 with the Double-A Texas League’s San Antonio Missions.
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The answer to the quiz is Ron Guidry, who went 25-3 for the New York Yankees in 1978. If you guessed Randy Johnson, his highest single season win total was 24. Steve Carlton’s 27-win season was in 1972.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
A number of big-name players saw action with the 1989 World Series champion Oakland Athletics. Larry Arndt wasn’t one of them. Then a 26-year-old corner infielder, Arndt appeared in just two games, both against the Minnesota Twins in early June, and logged one hit — a single off of Frank Viola — in seven at-bats. The cup of coffee was the totality of the Fremont, Ohio native’s big-league career.
Arndt died in 2014 at the too-young age of 50.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Shin-Soo Choo, who turned 42 on July 13, became the oldest position player in KBO history — he also became the oldest to record a hit —this past Wednesday.
The previous record was held by Felix Jose.
Yeong Hyun Park is 7-2 with 17 saves and a 3.91 ERA over 50-and-two-thirds innings for the KT Wiz. The 20-year-old right-hander’s 29.8% strikeout rate is third-highest in the KBO, behind veteran imports Drew Anderson (35.2%) and Charlie Barnes (31.5%).
A pair of NPB All-Star games were played earlier this week, and both were heavy on offense. The Central League outscored the Pacific League 11-8 on Tuesday, with Yokohama BayStars second baseman Shugo Maki hitting two of the winning side’s four home runs. The PL proceeded to turn the tables on Wednesday, out-slugging the CL by a 16-10 count. Kensuke Kondoh and Toshiya Sato — three doubles, a triple, and a single — combined for 10 of the victorious team’s 28 hits.
Liván Moinelo is 6-3 with a 1.57 ERA and 109 strikeouts over the same number of innings for NPB’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. A reliever prior to this season, the 28-year-old Cuban southpaw has allowed just 74 hits.
Keone Kela is 3-3 with a 2.70 ERA over 42 appearances and 40 innings for the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos. The 31-year-old former Texas Rangers closer pitched for NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2023.
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I mentioned in last week’s column that I have been asking players about the best games of their lives — anything from youth baseball on up — and that their answers would periodically be included here in Sunday Notes. Today we’ll hear from Danny Jansen, whom the Boston Red Sox acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday in exchange for prospects Cutter Coffey (No. 25 in our Red Sox rankings), Eddinson Paulino (No. 24), and Gilberto Batista (unranked).
“The walk-off hit I had on Mother’s Day,” said Jansen, referring to the two-out, two-run single that gave the Jays a 6-5 win over the Atlanta Braves on May 14, 2023. “It was awesome. It was my wife’s first Mother’s Day, so it was a special day already, and being able to hit a walk-off on top of that was pretty special.”
Big games as an amateur? The veteran catcher told me that he couldn’t come up with any off the top of his head, but he did add two more from pro ball.
“We had a game here [at Fenway Park] two years ago where we scored 28 runs, and I had three hits and two homers. That one would be up there. I also almost hit for the cycle one time in Triple-A. We were playing in Pawtucket — this was in 2017 — and I had two homers, a single, and a triple. I missed the double. Last at-bat, I needed a double and hit a homer.”
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FARM NOTES
The Low-A Carolina League and the High-A South Atlantic League will be realigning next season. The specifics can be found here.
Drue Hackenberg fanned 16 batters and didn’t issue a free pass while allowing one run over seven innings last Sunday as the Double-A Mississippi Braves beat the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5-1. A second-round pick last year out of Virginia Tech, the 22-year-old right-hander is No. 7 on our Atlanta Braves Top Prospects list.
Brad Lord is 10-1 with a 2.08 ERA, a 3.36 FIP, and 103 strikeouts in 101-and-a-third innings across High-A Wilmington, Double-A Harrisburg, and Triple-A Rochester. The 24-year-old right-hander was selected in the 18th round of the 2022 draft by the Washington Nationals out of the University of South Florida.
Troy Taylor has 17 saves to go with a 1.47 ERA, a 2.55 FIP, and 38 strikeouts in 36-and-two-thirds innings between High-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas. The 22-year-old right-hander — featured here at FanGraphs this past January — is No. 20 on our Seattle Mariners Top Prospects list.
Ryan Ward is slashing .272/.334/.616 with 25 home runs and a 121 wRC+ in 332 plate appearances for the Triple-A Oklahoma Baseball Club. The 26-year-old outfielder/first baseman in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization was featured here at FanGraphs in 2021 when he was in High-A with the Great Lakes Loons.
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Ben Clemens did his usual fantastic job with our annual Trade Value series. Putting it together is a herculean task, and while the inherent subjectivity of such rankings will inevitably invite debate, that’s part of the fun. Quibbles aside, the quality of my colleague’s work speaks for itself.
My own quibbles — yes, there are a few — include Logan O’Hoppe not making the cut. In my opinion, the 24-year-old Los Angeles Angels catcher is one of the best young players at his position in either league. Playing in what is essentially his first full big-league season — he was limited to 51 games last year due to a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder — O’Hoppe went into last night with 14 home runs, a 125 wRC+, and 2.1 WAR.
Twenty-nine-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers backstop Will Smith was No. 10 on Ben’s list. Is the gap between him and O’Hoppe really that large? Even with the difference in track records, I’m not so sure that it is.
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Johnny Bench and Josh Gibson are widely considered the two best catchers in baseball history. Who would rank third?
I asked that question in a Twitter poll a a few days ago, with Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, and “other” the four options, Were in not for that numerical limit, I could easily have listed at least half a dozen more names. There have been a lot of great catchers, as well as a variety of reasons to rank some over others.
Berra, who would have been my own choice, topped the poll with 50.8% of the votes cast. Carter got 17.5%, Piazza 13.6%, and “other” 18.1%.
One of the catchers I didn’t include, but probably should have, is Roy Campanella. Not only did Campy excel for the Negro National League’s Baltimore Elite Giants before coming to MLB at age 26, he won three NL MVP awards and made eight All-Star teams in his 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Campanella’s decade in MLB (1948-1957) coincided with Berra’s age 23-32 seasons with the New York Yankees. During that span, Berra won three AL MVP awards and was a 10-time All-Star. Berra hit 249 home runs and had a 128 wRC+. Campanella hit 242 home runs and had a 123 wRC+.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
St. Louis Cardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn has a best-at-his-position 14 Defensive Runs Saved this season. Mark Simon wrote about him at Sports Info Solutions.
Pitcher List’s Tanner McGrath wrote about Kyle Harrison and the art of the flat fastball.
MLB.com’s Michael Clair told us about Prague Baseball Week, one of Europe’s oldest and greatest baseball festivals.
At Cleveland.com, Mark Bona looked back at the July 23, 1901 game in which the Cleveland Blues tried to cheat their way to a victory.
Former Pawtucket Red Sox broadcaster Steve Hyder died recently at age 62. Dan Hoard, who shared the PawSox radio booth with Hyder from 2006-2010, and is now the voice of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, paid tribute to his late friend at Heard It From Hoard.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Josh Bell is 5-for-6 with two home runs in his career against Craig Kimbrel. He has one plate appearance against the right-hander in six different seasons, including this year.
San Francisco Giants infielder/outfielder Tyler Fitzgerald is 15-for-35 (.429) with two doubles, a triple, and eight home runs over his last 10 games.
Oakland Athletics outfielder Lawrence Butler was 24-for-134 (.179) with two home runs through June. He is 30-for-76 (.395) with nine home runs since the start of July.
Paul Goldschmidt has 2,000 hits, including 1,194 singles and 806 extra-base hits.
Shawn Green had 2,003 hits, including 1,195 singles and 808 extra-base hits.
Larry Andersen allowed three runs over 22 innings in his 15 appearances as a member of the Boston Red Sox, which came in 1990.
Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran has 13 home runs this year, all but one of them with the bases empty (per @BillyBall).
Mel Ott drew exactly 100 walks in each of the 1939, 1940, and 1941 seasons. His strikeout totals those years were 50, 50, 68. His runs-scored totals were 85, 89, 89.
On today’s date in 1993, New York Mets right-hander Anthony Young was credited with a win after having been tagged with a loss in each of his last 27 decisions. Eddie Murray’s walk-off double beat the Florida Marlins 5-4.
On today’s date in 1968, Juan Marichal drove in the deciding run in the top of the 11th inning to give the San Francisco Giants a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros. The Hall of Fame right-hander went the distance to raise his record to 19-4 on the season. He went on to finish 26-9 with a 2.43 ERA.
Players born on today’s date include Freddie Fitzsimmons, a right-hander who won 217 games while pitching for the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1925-1943. Nicknamed “Fat Freddie,” the Mishawaka, Indiana native had a 20-win season for the Giants in 1928 and a 16-2 season with the Dodgers in 1940.
Also born on today’s date was Ron Theobald, who played in 251 games with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971-1972. The 5-foot-8 second baseman logged 193 hits, including home runs off of Mickey Lolich and Denny Riddleberger. Per his SABR BioProject biography, Theobald played Little League and Babe Ruth League baseball with Hall of Famer, and fellow Oakland native, Joe Morgan.
