Giants and Mets go at it tonight, with two of the game's best strikeout artists facing off.
Madison Bumgarner goes for the Giants, with a postseason K/9 rate of 7.8 strikeouts, and a career rate of 8.9 Ks per 9 innings.
Noah Syndergaard takes the hill for the Metropolitans, sporting a career K/9 of 10.4, with last year's postseason run featuring an impressive 12.3 strikeouts per 9.
Which team will strike out more opposing hitters?
Tie break, how many combined strikeouts will the teams rack up?
Bonus: which *hitter* will strike out the most times?
Entries accepted until first pitch, prize will be me sending you baseball cards, I will contact the winner(s) to figure out your preferred team.
So there's the iconic event from October 3rd, here are some more....
1974: Cleveland announces that Ken Aspromonte has been relieved of his duties as manager, and replace him with Frank Robinson, the first African-American to ever hold the position. He would start his managerial career the following spring, calling his own number from time to time as DH.
1982: Robin Yount slams a pair of homers against Baltimore in the final game of the season, propelling Harvey's Wallbangers past the Orioles and into the playoffs. The 10-2 victory gave the Brew Crew first place in the AL East, and they carried that momentum all the way into late fall, winning the ALCS and pushing the Cardinals to the limit, dropping game 7 of the World Series to the Redbirds. (corrected)
1987: Rookie Catcher Benito "Benny" Santiago goes hitless for the Padres, snapping his 34 game hitting streak. This streak is still the longest by a Rookie in Major League History. Despite the O-fer, Santiago can't be too bummed, as the Padres snapped a different streak, a 9 game losing streak. Santiago caught the 1-0 shutout on the final day of the 1987 season.
2012: Another hitless game makes the list. Miguel Cabrera's final game of the year came and went without Miggy reaching base, but his season totals were enough to garner him the first Triple Crown in the American League since Yaz took home the honor in 1967.
Birthdays!
Fellow Hall of Famers Dave Winfield and Dennis Eckersley tangled many times over the years, and Eck's greatest gift to Big Dave came in September of 1993, when he surrendered a single in the hole for Winfield's 3,000th hit. He is still, so far, the only member of the 3,000 hit club to get the hit against a Hall of Fame pitcher. And probably the only guy to get hit # 3000 against a guy with the same birthday!
Also born on this day, former All-Star Wil Cordero, and current guy I confuse with Felix Jose, Junior Felix.
Welp, the Twins just had the worst season since moving to Minnesota.
Brian Dozier had an incredible 2nd half, became just the second Minnesota Twin to hit 40+ homers in a season.
The starting pitching was bad. Bad, bad, bad, BAD.
The bullpen was not much better.
Kennys Vargas, my favorite Twin, was stuck behind Joe Mauer and Byung-ho Park on the depth chart. An unfortunate injury to Park, and lingering issues for Joe gave Kennys a little bit of playing time, he finished with 10 homers in 2016.
Miguel Sano had a tough time this year, but managed to hit 25 homers in an up and down season.
Byron Buxton's season was even more up and down - he literally was sent down to AAA twice before being called back up.
59-103.
I feel the same way, pal.
Now, if you don't mind, I've got to stare out the window until Spring.
It's time for another Trans-Atlantic Triple Break!! NL Central and AL West goes to Bob Walk The Plank, AL East and NL West goes to The Card Papoy, and HSCA (uh, that's me!) takes home the AL Central and the NL East.
I picked up a box of 2014 Topps Pro Debut from a closing card shop, still bummed about that, but I did get a nice deal on the box, which comes with 2 autographs and 1 relic.
You'll find lots of familiar names of guys that are making strides in the big leagues now.
I found a nice mix of Twins prospects.
There's also the great minor league team names, like the Sand Gnats, Grashoppers, Rubber Ducks, and Intimidators.
Here's the hit I get to hang onto - an A.J. Cole Relic. Matt, you might recognize this as the pitcher that buzzed your guy's tower, clearing the benches the other day. The two autos were both NL Central guys, so I'll let those be a surprise for Matt to share.
