He's out. I spoke with a scout this morning who suggested he might be shutting it down 'til the ASG break is done. Oh, my.
Baseball trivia time. When was the last time a no hitter included 4K's in one inning?? I don't know the answer so I'm hoping so baseball history buff will fill us in.
I posted this in the sticky thread, but I thought it deserved play here, too. . . Expect The Boss to boil over after no-no June 12, 2003 By Scott Miller SportsLine.com Senior Writer Tell Scott your opinion! Because of their own shortcomings and the already oversized inflated lungs of George Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees have appeared smaller than ever during these past few weeks. Juan Rivera and the Yankees make history, but not the kind that New York wants.(AP) On a stunning Wednesday night in Yankee Stadium, six Houston Astros pitchers combined to make them look tinier still. So now that the New Yorkers have suffered the indignity of being no-hit for the first time since Hoyt Wilhelm stuck it to them on Sept. 20, 1958, the world anxiously awaits to see what the fallout from this will be. Will the Yankees angrily run pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell (strikeout in the ninth) out of town the way they dispatched reliever Juan Acevedo three days after his one-pitch doozy to Eric Karros wiped away Roger Clemens' third chance at a 300th victory? Will Steinbrenner order the acquisition of another sullen blast from the past like Ruben Sierra? Will the Boss hold his breath until he turns Yankee blue and order Derek Jeter stripped of his captaincy? Tough to tell these days, what with a manic Steinbrenner alternately issuing rash orders again and shooting credit card commercials with Jeter. What we do know is this: Houston's Roy Oswalt, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combined to hurl perhaps the oddest, coolest, most fascinating/perplexing/intriguing no-hitter the game has ever seen. The most interesting decision of the night was manager Jimy Williams' move to use his closer, Wagner, in the ninth inning with an 8-0 lead. Wagner had worked three consecutive days (collecting saves in each of the games) before an off-day Monday. Though he did sit out Tuesday's series-opening loss to the Yankees for a second consecutive day of rest, this is a guy the Astros can't afford to mess around with. They've now won 10 of their past 12 games to climb right back into the thick of it in the NL Central, he's as important as anyone to the rest of their season and this wasn't exactly a save situation. But it was a situation, a highly unusual and intense situation. And with a chance to force the ghosts of Ruth, Gehrig and Munson to genuflect before the other guys for a change, the Astros went for it. And for one night, on the biggest stage in baseball, you couldn't blame them. Hey, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Right? This is worse -- or better, depending on your viewpoint -- than anything Williams ever did to the Yankees when he was managing Boston, by the way. Where the Yankees go from here is a whole other question. Steinbrenner had warned he will shake things up even before Wednesday's no-no. General manager Brian Cashman had hinted that things other than Acevedo to the waivers and Jose Contreras to the disabled list are on the horizon. One thing is certain: The extended loss of Bernie Williams hurts the Yankees worse than the absence of Jeter did this year. Williams not only is a middle-of-the-lineup force, but his ability to switch-hit gives manager Joe Torre some versatility in crafting lineups. Of course, the way things are going lately, with or without Williams, Torre's approval ratings in the Boss' office appear to be diminishing rapidly: Steinbrenner pulled the rug from underneath Torre in April by bringing Contreras to Florida for extended spring training rather than acquiescing to Torre's wishes to send the pitcher to Triple-A for straightening out. He named Jeter captain last week in Cincinnati without even consulting Torre, giving the appearance of chipping away at the manager's authority a little more. The team acquired Sierra, who called Torre a "liar" on his way out of town in '96, last week. Published reports have the Boss ordering his YES television network announcers to ask tougher questions of Torre following games. Once, the Yankees specialized in acquiring winners. Now, they've got Sierra, a baseball hobo who should travel with his own therapist; Jason Giambi, a stellar offensive player who is abysmal defensively; and Raul Mondesi, a right-fielder who can be counted on only when he is playing for a new contract (fortunately for the Yanks, Mondesi is in his walk year now and has played better than he has in years.) And the least surprising thing in Wednesday night's game? Would-be power-hitter Hideki Matsui rolling a weak grounder toward first base to end the game. Quick, somebody check Steinbrenner's blood pressure. And keep him away from Rick Down, the poor hitting coach who now has all the job security of one of Martha Stewart's minions.
Here's an intereting note: It was the 3rd no-hitter between NL and AL teams, but all of them have been at yankee stadium! the other ones were against the brooklyn dodgers in the world series in 1956, and then in '99 Cone threw a perfect game against montreal..
Redding as our #2 starter and Robertson as our #3 starter says it all. The Astros really need to bring in a veteran pitcher who will eat innings without embarrassing himself. Jared Fernandez will be brought up from AAA sometime this year. That time may have to be now. If Fernandez can't cut it, the Astros will have to make a trade if they want to stay in the penant race. I am on the fence wrt starting Lidge. Both his health and confidence will be at risk. That said, I prefer Lidge over Munro to spot start while Oswalt is away. Next year if all goes well, Lidge should be competing for a spot in the starting rotation.
I know the most strike-outs in 1 inning by a pitcher in a MLB game is 5. That pitcher had to be a little miffed at the catcher.
4 is the record in a regular season game; done over 40 times. Joe Niekro struck out 5 in a preseason game when Cliff Johnson was catching.
Haven't double checked, but I believe the answer is "never." Four strikeouts in an inning is much more infrequent than a no-hitter. According to the Chronicle, last night was only the 44th time that feat has only been accomplished MLB history. According to the Astros broadcast, there have now been 211 regular season MLB no-hitters recorded. It is statistically unlikely that those two would intersect *once* (last night), so the odds against there being another is pretty astronomical
You are right...I had my son look up the card and it was a 1995 Upper Deck Minors card with Kelly Wunsch on the minor league Brewers....So nevermind... 4 is the record.
Wagner was on the radio today. He said the Astros traveling secretary arranged for the bubbly, not the Yankees or Steinbrenner.
So...if they started this "INTERLEAGUE" play stuff in 1997....how come 2 days ago was the first time ever that we played in Yankee Stadium?
Where do I start? First, interleague play started as opposite divisions played each other every year. AL West/NL West AL Central/NL Central NL East/AL East But then last year, the league decided that was getting boring, and the fans agreed. So MLB changed it up. They said, each division will rotate divisions every year, with one team designated each year as a natural rival in case those teams aren't in the same geographic division. Like houston-texas. Thus with the Astros playing the AL West for the first time ever last year, this year it was their turn with the East, home of the Yankees and Redsox.
The Boss has reposnded on the No-No..............and has thrown a jab at Jimy instead! This is from the NY Times adn yes, the facts are TRUE and CORRECT THIS TIME. Steinbrenner Saves Barbs for Opposing Manager By TYLER KEPNER eorge Steinbrenner had presided over 4,788 games in his 30 years with the Yankees, and he had never seen anything like it. The Yankees were no-hit on Wednesday for the first time in 45 years, and Steinbrenner, the team's principal owner, was as embarrassed as the players. "I just think it was one of the worst games I've ever seen on our part," Steinbrenner said yesterday morning in a telephone interview. "I agree with Joe Torre. He said it best. He said we stunk, we were lousy, and I totally agree with him." Advertisement But that was about the extent of Steinbrenner's rage. He had planned to leave town before yesterday's game, but he stuck around to watch the Yankees play the Houston Astros and stopped by the clubhouse for his first face-to-face meeting since spring training with Torre, the manager. He watched the early innings from the front row of a loge-level box behind home plate. "I'm not going to start shouting and yelling at the team," Steinbrenner said. "I would just tell them that the true measure of a man is how he holds up under misfortune." Steinbrenner said that what galled him most about the no-hitter was the way Jimy Williams managed the Astros. Steinbrenner believed Williams intentionally tried to humiliate the Yankees by using so many pitchers - six, a record for a no-hitter - to protect a big lead. "I will not be critical of the other team; they're a great team," Steinbrenner said. "But I thought their manager kind of rubbed it in on our guys, one reliever after another. He was on a mission. "I've always liked Williams. He's a good manager. He was good in Boston. I don't think he should have been let go. Whatever. I don't like what he did to our troops." When told of Steinbrenner's comments before yesterday's game, Williams said he was concerned only with the Astros. But he defended his use of the bullpen, saying that starter Roy Oswalt's groin muscle injury in the second inning forced him to use that many relievers. After Oswalt was forced to leave the game, Williams used Peter Munro for two and two-thirds innings, Kirk Saarloos for one and one-third innings, Brad Lidge for two innings and Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner for one inning each. "I was just trying to win the game," Williams said. "Those relievers are basically programmed to pitch, in most cases, an inning or two, and that's it. The only one that wasn't programmed was Munro, and he threw 55 pitches, and maybe Saarloos, because they started earlier. The rest are all our short guys." Derek Jeter, the Yankees' shortstop and team captain, said he was not offended by Williams's use of Dotel and Wagner in nonsave situations. "Not at all," Jeter said. "They're trying to win a game. A no-hitter's not something that happens all the time." Jeter said he did not feel the need to address the team after the no-hitter, as Torre did in a stern post-game lecture. Steinbrenner named Jeter the Yankees captain on June 3, and the Yankees are 4-5 since then. Jeter is 6 for 36 (.167) with 15 strikeouts in that time, but Steinbrenner supports him. "Derek's going through a very tough time," Steinbrenner said. "God, he's just futile up there. But I've seen him go through this before, and he's always come back. I have no qualms about that at all. That's what I wanted for the long run, and I'm happy with that for the long run. "I'll stick by him until the last breath - and the same goes for Torre. I support him completely." Asked if he could say the same thing about Torre's coaching staff, and specifically his hitting coach, Rick Down, Steinbrenner did not comment. "I'm going to cut you off right now," he said. Torre said it would be wrong for a coach to lose his job over the players' performance. "I don't think the players would feel good if, because of what went on on the field, the coaches would take the hit for that," Torre said. "I don't think that's fair. These players know how to play. They're not looking for excuses." But Steinbrenner has grown increasingly anxious as the Yankees have tailed off since their 20-4 start. Last week, after watching Torre use a right-handed pinch-hitter against a right-handed pitcher, Steinbrenner vowed to get a left-handed hitter for the bench; the switch-hitting Ruben Sierra arrived two days later. But Steinbrenner would not say if the no-hitter would cause more personnel changes. "I leave that up to Brian Cashman and Joe Torre," he said, referring to the general manager and manager. "We've tried to get them everything they've wanted. I really wouldn't want to say. I think it would be wrong of me to say anything. Just be silent. I don't know what they're planning to do. I'll just give them my ideas."
Aw, does the poor little boss(ie) baby want his bottle? George is an a** and a whiny selfish sob, so I take his words with a grain of salt. And the way the media took that no hitter and spun it as the yankees problems rather than how good of a feat that was by Houston and how good of pitching that was, is ridiculous.
