# MLB: August **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 1, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078 "2013-08-01T13:51:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/181 "2013-08-11T05:17:09Z")
The turnaround for the Dodgers is nothing short of incredible. Take THAT, McCourt! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/182 "2013-08-11T05:28:40Z")
That’s one of the sweetest parts of the turnaround. Too bad Fuckface doesn’t care - I’d love for this to be gnawing at his never-to-be-sufficiently-damned innards. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/183 "2013-08-11T06:00:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That’s one of the sweetest parts of the turnaround. Too bad Fuckface doesn’t care - I’d love for this to be gnawing at his never-to-be-sufficiently-damned innards. SILENCE, you Giants fan you… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tazmanian\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@Tazmanian\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tazmanian_Devil)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/184 "2013-08-11T18:24:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I would think this not terribly uncommon among good teams. Look up teams with a lot of wins and you find many with 5 10-game winners. > > Just last year Washington and San Francisco had five 10-game winners. The year before, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Texas all had five. > > The 1998 Yankees had six. The Big Red Machine of 1976 had seven: > **[1976 Cincinnati Reds Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com](https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/1976.shtml)** > > Cincinnati Reds latest stats and more including batting stats, pitching stats, team fielding totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com Gary Nolan: 15-9 Pat Zachary: 14-7 Fred Norman: 12-7 Jack Billingham: 12-10 Santo Alcala: 11-4 Don Gullett: 11-3 Rawly Eastwick: 11-5 as the closer ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/185 "2013-08-12T03:17:09Z")
Roll on, Big Blue! You gotta love a pitcher who does so much to help his own cause. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/186 "2013-08-12T05:05:30Z")
I saw this eye-popping statistic this evening: When the Dodgers score four or more runs while he is still in the game, Kershaw’s career record is 49-0. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/187 "2013-08-12T05:58:39Z")
Me and my big mouth. Pirates swept in Colorado over the weekend. I will not speak again until the Pirates record win number 82. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/188 "2013-08-12T17:06:41Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Me and my big mouth. > > Pirates swept in Colorado over the weekend. > > I will not speak again until the Pirates record win number 82. Reds nation greatly appreciates the three game skid that puts us at five games back now. Hopefully we can make hay against the Cubs starting tonight. Ryan Ludwick is finally back in the lineup tonight off the DL after injuring his shoulder on opening day. God that seems so long ago! ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/189 "2013-08-12T22:44:14Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I saw this eye-popping statistic this evening: > > When the Dodgers score four or more runs while he is still in the game, Kershaw’s career record is 49-0. Impressive, but I bet that’s not that unusual for a teams number 1 or number 2. I know Tim Hudson has a career mark of 125-2 when his team gives him 3 runs. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/190 "2013-08-13T14:33:39Z")
So the Dodgers now have a six-game winning streak for the third time this season, and while they still have the lowest win total of any first-place team, the discrepancy is not nearly as significant as it once was. They would only be 3.5 games behind the Braves, who currently own the best record in the majors. In today’s meaningless baseball statistic, here are the combined division winning percentages: NL West - .489 NL Central - .520 NL East - .476 AL West - .476 AL Central - .499 AL East - .536 And here is a breakdown of a fictional race between first-place teams: Atlanta Braves: **72-47** Pittsburgh Pirates: **70-47 (-1.0)** Boston Red Sox: **71-49 (-1.5)** Detroit Tigers: **69-48 (-2.0)** Texas Rangers: **69-50 (-3.0)** LA Dodgers: **68-50 (-3.5)** I have absolutely no point to make. Just thought it was interesting. ETA: I said “fictional,” but I realize, of course, that those races are actually meaningful within each league. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/191 "2013-08-14T04:22:54Z")
Anybody catch the Mariners/Rays game tonight? For only the second time in history, both teams’ leadoff hitters (Seattle’s Brad Miller and Tampa’s Ben Zobrist) hit home runs in their first at-bat, and then hit a second HR in the same game. > **[Mariners' Miller, Rays' Zobrist go deep to make history](https://www.mlb.com/mariners/news/mariners-brad-miller-rays-ben-zobrist-make-history-with-leadoff-homers-then-second-shots/c-56876182)** > > The Official Site of Major League Baseball I like this bit: “Miller, who grew up in Orlando, said he was in attendance at Tropicana Field to witness Zobrist’s first Major League home run. Miller was in high school at the time.” On another note, Miller was in the Mariners’ dugout on Saturday when Ken Griffey, Jr. was inducted into the the Mariners Hall of Fame. Griffey was always his favorite player, and he was born the year Junior made his ML debut. "Born: 10/18/1989 " God that makes me feel old. I saw my first Mariners game when our current starting shortstop/leadoff hitter was 3 years old. And I’m four years older than our oldest player (Raul Ibanez). I miss Jamie Moyer (three years older than me). ETA: Yeah, we Mariners fans have been reduced to taking pleasure in the team’s “human interest” stories for the last 10 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/192 "2013-08-14T06:35:32Z")
I went to the Cards-Pirates game a Busch tonight. Crazy game. There was just no energy in the stadium until the 6th, when the Cardinals managed to score a couple of runs. They tied in the bottom of the ninth and finally won in the 14th. I’m hoping that squeezing out this win plus the immanent return of Molina will put a little more life into the Redbirds. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/193 "2013-08-14T15:26:01Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > I went to the Cards-Pirates game a Busch tonight. Crazy game. There was just no energy in the stadium until the 6th, when the Cardinals managed to score a couple of runs. They tied in the bottom of the ninth and finally won in the 14th. I’m hoping that squeezing out this win plus the immanent return of Molina will put a little more life into the Redbirds. Did you stick it out until the end? I was following it online but went to bed after 12 or 13 innings. It looked like there were several times each team came close to ending it. Quite a battle still for the NL Central. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/194 "2013-08-14T21:45:11Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Reds nation greatly appreciates the three game skid that puts us at five games back now. Hopefully we can make hay against the Cubs starting tonight. Ryan Ludwick is finally back in the lineup tonight off the DL after injuring his shoulder on opening day. God that seems so long ago! And now we’re just one game back from the Cards… ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/195 "2013-08-15T06:29:20Z")
As a lifelong Dodgers fan who had given up on them back in June, I am in a state of shock and awe over what has been going on the past two months. Tonight, for the second time this week, they have come back from down multi-runs in the bottom of the ninth to win. They were behind in all three games to the Mets, but came back in each of those games. Unbelievable. What an incredible year! ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/196 "2013-08-15T08:46:41Z")
A rough week for the Bucs, but they’ve snapped their 4-game slide, and did against none other than St Louis. Memories of collapses past have been floating up at me in my dreams, but my dreams will be sweet tonight after that win. Now, to get the rubber game, take the series, and to continue to go about the business of shaking this 20-year-old monkey off our back and beating it about the face and neck with a Louisville Slugger. Go Bucs! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/197 "2013-08-15T12:17:03Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > What an incredible year! Never give up! Never surrender! I no longer worry about the Dodgers when I hit the sack early because I have to get up at o-dark-thirty the next morning. They’ll find a way to win, even without me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/198 "2013-08-15T12:40:54Z")
Jarred Cosart is apparently the first Astros pitcher to give up 2 or fewer runs in each of his first six starts and now has a cool 1.15 ERA after six shutout innings against the A’s. I’m officially starting to feel good about him. Otherwise, another lost season for the Astros, pretty much as expected. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/199 "2013-08-15T15:54:43Z")
Looking at the standings and magic numbers this morning, both Houston and Miami are in a strong position to be mathematically eliminated in August. While I’m sad about Houston, as I’d held out some vague hope that they’d surprise people this year (or at least finish ahead of the Angels), I am pleased with regard to Miami. And yes, I stayed up to watch the Dodger game last night. I am amused that Vin Scully has taken to referring to Dodger Stadium as The Magic Castle. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078/200 "2013-08-15T22:47:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Did you stick it out until the end? I was following it online but went to bed after 12 or 13 innings. It looked like there were several times each team came close to ending it. No - I was at the game with a 7 year old who isn’t particularly interested in baseball. I think a five hour game that ends at midnight is asking a bit much. 🙂 We left after the 10th and I fully expected to miss the end of the game as we walked back to the car. There was another extra-inning game between the Cards and Pirates today, with Matt Carpenter going 4 for 5. Molina is back - hooray! - although he had a quiet day offensively. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-august/665078.md?page=11)