Game 155: Braves 3, Marlins 0
September 27, 2012 at 1:54 am by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Source: FanGraphs
Game MVP: Paul Maholm, 70 game score
Least Valuable Brave: Freddie Freeman, -.046
Most Valuable Marlin: Gil Velazquez, .033
Least Valuable Marlin: Bryan Petersen, -.121
Big plays:
1st – (ATL) Martin Prado solo homer for a 1-0 Braves lead, .117
Paul Maholm didn’t need Miami’s ballpark to have a strong outing against the Marlins. In fact, he did even better at home, throwing 6.2 shutout innings with no walks and six strikeouts. Maholm had 11 ground balls to just five fly balls and three line drives in this game. He was very efficient, throwing 72 strikes out of 104 pitches.
According to the AP, Craig Kimbrel became the first Brave to strike out four batters in one inning since Mark Wohlers in 1995.
The Braves reached 90 wins for the second time since the division title streak ended in 2006.
The Nationals beat the Phillies 8-4, meaning Washington remains on top in the NL East by four games with seven to play.
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Why exactly is the batter allowed to advance to first base if the catcher doesn’t catch the strike 3 pitch anyway? I get it if there’s already runners on base as it’s a wild pitch/passed ball (and therefore the runners already on base are allowed to advance), but why is it a wild pitch with nobody on base? Who cares if the catcher didn’t catch the ball; it’s still a strikeout.
Because without it you couldn’t have cool things like 4 K’s in an inning and an estimated 36 K/9.
Ha…was curious and checked out Wikipedia on this. Looks like somebody has already updated Kimbrel’s feat into the entry. Also, according to Wikipedia, it just appears to be an anomaly from the early years of the game. I’m sure there’s some logic there..
“Early rules stated that “three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand-out; if not caught is considered fair, and the striker bound to run.” The modern rule has changed very little. The addition of the called strike came in 1858″
Think of it like any other “out” in baseball. If a hitter makes contact with the ball, the ball must either be caught on the fly, beat the runner to the first unoccupied base, or tag the runner in between bases.
The same rule applies for a strikeout. To complete the out, the ball must be caught on the fly. If not, it has to reach the base first or tag the runner. Which, is why you’ll see the catcher jump up and tag the batter at times.
I like the explanation, but there are a couple of outs that don’t have to have these things happen. The infield fly, mentioned below, but also the failed bunt attempt with two strikes.
Correct, but I believe those to be more like exceptions than part of the actual rules of an out. But, you are correct, nonetheless.
the infield fly is a necessity. For instance, if a team has runners on first and second with one out – then the batter hits a pop up on the infield – the SS could purposely drop the ball and turn a double play with both runners staying on their respective base.
I should have said *fouled bunt attempt. Thanks for the info, bswan, but I would be pretty surprised if anyone is reading this site who doesn’t understand the purpose of the infield fly rule.
*bwans
Thank you for the explanation. I never really thought about a strikeout not technically being completed until the catcher catches the ball.
Has anyone ever struck out five in an inning in the majors?
I don’t think in MLB, but definitely in the minors. Also, Chuck Finley struck out 4 in an inning THREE times.
I think Ricky Vaughn once struck out nine in a frame and still gave up six runs.
Nope, 4 is a record held by many. Joe Niekro struck out 5 in an inning in a spring training game in the 70′s when his catcher had 5 passed balls in the inning, but never happened in an official game. The year alone Kimbrel’s 4K’s in 1 inning was the 7th of the year. The most recent before his was just 1 day earlier for Grienke when he struck out 4 in the 5th I think it was, in his 13K outing.
Of all the perfect games ever pitched in MLB, have any included a 4 K inning? If not, then if one is ever pitched, would it be a perfect game? If it would despite a man reaching first, because the K occurs before the passed ball, can the odds against a “28 up, 28 down, one man reached 1st base” perfect game be calculated?
You can get I think six hits in an inning without scoring a run.
While on the unusual topic, anyone remember how a team can get a triple play untouched by human hands?
Just a copy and paste job, I didn’t say this…
I was listening/watching to BBTN on ESPN the other night when they were covering the unassited triple play from the other day. Buck Showalter was talking about a game he was managing in the minors where his team hit into a triple play…without the ball ever hitting a glove.
It broke down something like this:•Runners at 1st & 2nd, full count, no outs (obviously), Buck sends the runners on the pitch
•Batter hits a pop up in the infield; infield fly is called – 1st out
•The runner from 1st base is running with his head down and passes the runner from 2nd base who stopped, or at least headed back towards 2nd base – 2nd out
•The fly ball comes down and plunks the runner who was on 2nd base – 3rd out
Seems sketchy…
Even if you’re running with your head down, how are you going to get to 2nd base and not see your teammate standing there? And, how did the ball hit the guy on 2nd when the defense would have been standing right there trying to catch it?
It’s definitely feasible that it could happen, but HIGHLY unlikely.
Yeah, this sounds like a tall tale.
Somewhere around 12,000 professional baseball games per year and on the order of a million plate appearances. Year after year of a million experiments in randomness. Very improbable things end up happening. “A million to one shot” can end up being probable.
Okay… but does that mean it has happened or is going to happen?
It was an infield fly, there was no reason to catch it
So, do we give it the old best shot for one more game? Play all the starters tonight and if we pick up a game, we keep trying for the division and if we either stay at 4 or fall back to 5, we start resting?
I’d agree with that, Michael. If we win and the Nats win, 4 games back with 6 to play is a lead that only one team I can recall in recent memory can seem to blow.
I’d agree with that, Michael. If we win and the Nats win, 4 games back with 6 to play is a lead that only one team I can recall in recent memory can seem to blow.
I believe it was Chipper who said we’re going to keep putting pressure on the Nats to win the division. Fredi also said he doesn’t believe in resting his regulars once playoff spots are decided.
Given the two statements, I doubt any stater takes a day off (excepting injuries) until we’re mathematically eliminated from the division. With an E# of 4,even if we lose tonight and the Nats win, we’re still not out.
Right, and not saying that I agree with resting starters, but IF we lose tonight and they win, the magic number is trimmed to 2. They could lose the rest of the way out and as long as we lost 2 games out of 7, they’d lock up the division.
Trust me, I’m gungho for the division as well, but if we’re not going to get there, Chipper and others could definitely use the rest. We’ll need him for every game that we get to play.
Agreed, espcially with Chipper. I think it’s really cool that he’s playing this entire week, and I know fans that bought tickets must be extremely grateful, but I really wish he’d take a day or two off.
Why would Maholm need the Marlins’s big park to succeed? He’s a groundball pitcher with a career .84 HR/9.
This year he’s given up a ton of HR’s(19…~1 HR/9) pitching between Atlanta and Chicago.
the ~1 HR/9 is on each team. Combined it’s around .95 for the year.
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