The New York Yankees edged the Miami Marlins, 3-2, on April 9. The Los Angeles Dodgers wrapped up their 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins about an hour later.
The 2 victors thereby turned the primary groups of their respective leagues to achieve double digits within the win column: the American League Yanks at 10-2, the Nationwide League Dodgers at 10-4. Latest historical past means that they need to begin preparing for the playoffs.
These had been the primary groups to get to 10 wins within the three earlier post-pandemic seasons:
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2021: AL Boston Crimson Sox on April 17 (with a 10-4 document), NL Dodgers on April 14 (10-2).
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2022: AL Toronto Blue Jays on April 23 (10-5), NL New York Mets on April 21 (10-4).
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2023: AL Tampa Bay Rays on April 10 (10-0), NL Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers (10-4) on April 14.
The excellent news first. All seven of those golf equipment made the playoffs, thereby demonstrating the lasting worth of a powerful begin.
And the dangerous information? None of them received the World Sequence. None, the truth is, even made it to the World Sequence.
The Crimson Sox and Dodgers each misplaced their league championship sequence in ’21. The quick starters within the two subsequent seasons didn’t even get that far.
The race, because the previous fable tells us, usually goes to the gradual and regular. That’s one thing for the Yankees and Dodgers to bear in mind this yr.
Patrick Corbin loved a dream season in 2019, his first yr in Washington.
The left-hander joined the Nationals as a free agent, signing a six-year, $140 million contract. The deal instantly gave the impression to be useful for each side, with Corbin producing a 14-7 document and three.25 ERA in 2019’s common season, capping it with a gritty victory in Sport Seven of the World Sequence.
All the things has gone bitter since then. Corbin’s mixed document for 2020-2023 was 27-57 with a 5.62 ERA. And 2024 has began on the identical sad foot, with Corbin dropping two of his first three begins, surrendering 15 earned runs in simply 16 innings.
All people concerned — Corbin, the Nats, their followers — appears to be confused by this historic decline, and I do imply historic.
Corbin misplaced a minimum of 15 video games and posted an ERA increased than 5.00 in every of the previous three seasons. No person else has suffered such threefold distress in your complete historical past of big-league ball.
Twenty-six pitchers have endured two seasons with 15-plus losses and a 5.00-plus ERA, relationship again to the famend Egyptian Healy in 1887 and 1889. (You bear in mind Healy, proper?) The only lively pitcher within the membership — effectively, type of lively — is Zack Greinke, who has not but introduced his retirement. He crossed the 2 sad milestones in 2005 and once more final yr.
The one excellent news for Corbin is that Early Wynn can be on the record. He suffered 16 losses with a 5.12 ERA in 1942, then went 19 and 5.82 in 1948.
And what occurred to Wynn after that? You’ll find out by studying his plaque within the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame.
Dwelling-field benefit is an actual factor, although its affect varies by membership and by yr.
Dwelling groups have posted a mixed profitable proportion of .535 within the 14 major-league seasons since 2010. Meaning a mean group will probably be victorious in 43.3 of its 81 house video games over the course of a given yr, yielding a rounded document of 43-38, 5 video games above .500.
The issue (in fact) is that the identical common membership, by definition, will go 38-43 on the highway, placing its ultimate document at a dead-even 81-81.
Each group enjoys a home-field benefit, the Colorado Rockies most of all. The Rockies have performed respectable ball in Coors Discipline since 2010, with a 14-year profitable price of .524. However they’ve stumbled to a .380 document on the highway, 144 proportion factors worse than their house document.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates come subsequent on the record with home-field benefits of 103 and 99 proportion factors. The group that derives the smallest profit from its personal ballpark is the Boston Crimson Sox, who carry a bonus of simply 27 proportion factors in Fenway Park.
The profitable price for house groups does are likely to fluctuate, as proven by the graph under. The strongest disparity was evident within the first season of the examine interval, 2010, when the house proportion was .559. The weakest was the latest yr, with golf equipment going .521 at house.
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We’re not fairly three weeks into the 2024 season, a lot too early to attract any inferences from the brand new statistics being gathered across the main leagues.
It makes higher sense to look at the total physique of labor from 2023 to kind out the groups with offensive strengths and people with obvious deficiencies, which simply occurs to be the main target of this week’s quiz.
You may, as all the time, scroll all the way down to the underside of this text for the solutions.
1. Which group pounded essentially the most house runs final season?
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A. Atlanta Braves
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B. Los Angeles Dodgers
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C. New York Yankees
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D. Texas Rangers
2. And which ballclub hit the fewest homers?
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A. Cleveland Guardians
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B. Kansas Metropolis Royals
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C. Pittsburgh Pirates
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D. Washington Nationals
3. Which group coaxed essentially the most walks from opposing pitchers?
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A. Los Angeles Dodgers
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B. Milwaukee Brewers
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C. Minnesota Twins
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D. San Diego Padres
4. Which membership suffered essentially the most strikeouts?
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A. Chicago White Sox
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B. Colorado Rockies
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C. Minnesota Twins
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D. Seattle Mariners
5. Which group left essentially the most males on base?
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A. Chicago Cubs
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B. Houston Astros
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C. St. Louis Cardinals
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D. San Francisco Giants
Twenty-two major-league pitchers have amassed greater than 2,000 strikeouts since we flipped centuries within the yr 2000. (A number of of you, I do know, are purists who contend that the twenty first century started in 2001. Effectively, neglect that. I’m siding with the 2000-leaning majority on this controversy.)
On the prime of the record — the strikeout king of our present century — is Max Scherzer, who has notched 3,367 strikeouts since tossing his first pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008. Simply 25 Ok’s behind him is Justin Verlander, who reached the majors in 2005. Each are nonetheless lively.
Beneath are the ten pitchers who’ve recorded essentially the most strikeouts within the twenty first century, as decided by Baseball Reference:
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1. Max Scherzer (2008-2023), SO 3,367
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2. Justin Verlander (2005-2023), SO 3,342
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3. CC Sabathia (2001-2019), SO 3,093
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4. Zack Greinke (2004-2023), SO 2,979
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5. Clayton Kershaw (2008-2023), SO 2,944
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6. Cole Hamels (2006-2020), SO 2,560
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7. Felix Hernandez (2005-2019), SO 2,524
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8. Jon Lester (2006-2021), SO 2,488
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9. A.J. Burnett (2000-2015), SO 2,480
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10. John Lackey (2002-2017), SO 2,294
Precipitation was a significant component for the Tigers on this week 40 years in the past. A pair of Detroit’s video games in Boston (April 15 and 16, 1984) had been rained out and rescheduled for August.
That left solely three video games to be performed between April 10 and 16, and the ‘84 Tigers (who rank as the most effective big-league group since 1961) emerged because the winners of all three. They packed 51,238 into Tiger Stadium for his or her house opener on the tenth, which they received simply (5-1) over the Texas Rangers. Their different two victories had been high-scoring affairs: 9-4 in opposition to Texas (with pitcher Jack Morris nabbing his third win of the yr) and 13-9 in opposition to the Crimson Sox.
Detroit’s 8-0 document on the morning of April 16, 1984, gave the Tigers a three-game lead over the second-place Toronto Blue Jays within the American League East.
The New York Mets started their journey to ignominy on April 11, 1962, the primary sport within the franchise’s historical past.
The ultimate rating in St. Louis: Cardinals 11, Mets 4. It was destined to be the primary of New York’s 120 defeats, the biggest variety of losses suffered by any membership within the Trendy Period (1961-present).
Beginning pitcher Roger Craig lasted solely three innings for New York, permitting 5 runs on eight hits. He would lose a second sport to the Pirates earlier than the week was out.
The Mets returned to New York’s decrepit Polo Grounds after their one-game Midwestern go to. Solely 12,447 followers attended the house opener, which Pittsburgh received 4-3. The Pirates took the following two video games too, leaving the Mets with an 0-4 document. However that (technically) didn’t put them in final place within the Nationwide League as of April 16, an sad distinction that belonged to the 0-5 Chicago Cubs.
1-A. (The Braves simply outdistanced the sphere. They launched 307 homers final season. No different membership had greater than 249.)
2-A. (The Guardians hit solely 124 house runs in 162 video games in 2023.)
3-D. (The Padres drew 653 walks, translating to a mean of barely greater than 4 per sport. The Dodgers had been shut behind with 644.)
4-C. (The free-swinging Twins topped the majors with 1,654 strikeouts, equaling a mean of 10.2 per sport.)
5-C. (The Cardinals allowed extra baserunners to go to waste than another group. They left 1,183 males on base final season.)
