I’ve got a couple post ideas in the hopper, but I just switched jobs, so I have to pretend to do work for at least a week or two. But, I can throw out a couple ridiculous stats that I heard recently.
1). The Lakers, in the Kobe Era, are 54-6 when Mr. Bryant takes fewer than 24 shots in a game. FIFTY-FOUR AND SIX! Stop shooting so much, Kobe. I have no number to back it up, but I’d be willing to bet that Michael Jordan’s teams were better when he shot more.
2). Sterling Hitchcock faced four consecutive Cy Young winners for the Padres in the 1998 playoffs. What actually makes this impressive is that he went 3-0 in those starts and the only no-decision is in which he pitched innings and only allowed 1 run, but Trevor Hoffman gave up a 3-run home run to Scott Brosius in the 8th to blow Hitchcock’s fourth straight win over a Cy Young winner. I was 19-years old in 1998, watching these playoffs and it was only 11 years ago, so you’d think that I would remember anything about Sterling Hitchcock, but I don’t. Does anyone remember that he won the MVP of the NLCS that year? I sure didn’t. Yes, Sterling Hitchcock.
So who were the opposing pitchers? I imagine it will be a long, long, long time until someone goes 4 straight against Cy Young winners…and goes 3-0…and left with the lead in the 4th. Sterling Hitchcock, this will be on your gravestone. Speaking of random baseball stuff we may never see again, the other week I saw a 9-2 force-out in a Diamondbacks game. I’d never seen that. And the especially weird thing was the runner on third was the Diamondbacks’ leadoff man, the athletic-to-sort-speedy Felipe Lopez, not some lumbering Pat Burrell type.
That’s a good question, Boot, I was wondering the same thing, so I did a little research:
NLDS, Game 4: Hitchcock, the Pads 4th starter, outduels Houston’s Randy Johnson in a series-clinching 6-1 win.. Hitchcock went 6 innings, gave up 3 hits, 0 walks, and 1 run. He struck out 11 of the 21 batters he faced. Of his 79 pitches, 53 were strikes.
NLCS, Game 3: Hitchcock’s Padres beat Greg Maddux’s Braves 4-1 to take a 3-0 series lead. Hitchcock actually labored through 5+ innings (throwing 97 pitches), walking 5. But, he only gave up 3 hits and 1 run and the bullpen held the lead.
NLCS, Game 6: Again, Hitchcock labored through 5 innings (92 pitches), but only gave up 2 hits and no runs. He struck out 8 of the 20 batters he faced, beating Tom Glavine and the Braves 5-0, clinching the National League pennant.
World Series, Game 3: Hitchcock pitched well enough to win again (this time against David Cone), this time allowing only 1 earned run on 7 hits in 6+ innings. He walked 1 and struck out 7. He was masterful through 6 shutout innings, but gave up two quick hits (one that scored) before being lifted in the 7th. The Yankees won the game 5-4 on a 3-run 8th inning home run by Scott Brosius.
Hitchcock’s final playoff numbers (again, against 4 straight Cy Young winners: Johnson, Maddux, Glavine, and Cone):
3-0 with a 1.23 ERA
In 22 IP, he gave up 15 hits and 9 walks, while striking out 32
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