TUESDAY BASEBALL GEOGRAPHY

FREE FROM THE BILL CHUCK FILES

PENNSYLVANIA

The Pirates beat the Phillies yesterday, 11-7, in a game the Phils led 5-0. That’s the largest lead the Phils have blown this season. Speaking about blowing, Aaron Nola was on the mound for the Phils. Last season, Nola had a 6.01 ERA; this season, it’s 6.04. He started by throwing three scoreless innings and ended up allowing eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. If the Phillies are going to win the NL East, which I think they are, either Nola improves or he is out of the rotation. The Phils were 9.5 back at the start of this month; they are 3.5 today.

The Pirates had their largest comeback of the season in this game. They are now 43-42 after 85 games. The last time they were over .500 at this point in the season was in 2016 when they were 44-41. In 2015, they were 50-35.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Each year, after the World Series ends, I come down with a cold. You can count on it. You know what else you can count on? A June Swoon from the Yankees. It came a little late this month, but it hit like a tidal wave. Speaking about hitting, as my buddy Andrew said the other day, the Yankees couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.

• Over the last 10 games, the Yankees are hitting .175 and have scored 26 runs.

• Over the last five games, the Yankees are hitting .127 and have scored 12 runs.

• Over the last four games, the Yankees are hitting .098 and have scored 9 runs. They have an OPS of .332. They have struck out 38 times. They are the first team in American League history to hit under .100 and strike out at least 35 times over a four-game span.

• This season, the Yankees have had no more than three hits in nine games, INCLUDING the last four games in a row.

• This season, they have allowed 42 unearned runs, including 14 unearned runs in their last 5 games.

The Tigers beat the Yankees last night, 7-3. Congratulations to A.J. Hinch, who picked up the 1000th managerial win of his career. That includes the games his cheating Astros won while he was the “naive” manager. Hinch is 1000-917 (.522) in his career. Hinch is now tied with Charlie Manuel (1000-826 .548) for 67th place on the all-time managerial win list.

The 35-50 Mets lost to the Blue Jays last night, 2-1. They are now 15.5 games out of first place in the NL East. This is how they began the game, and George Springer could have run around the bases twice.

I was thinking about how lucky Carlos Mendoza is to have been let go by the Mets. Look at this picture posted by my buddy Tom Caron, who does pre- and post-game commentary for the Red Sox so well. Here he is at a World Cup game with Alex Cora.

Look how relaxed Cora is. Soon, Carlos Mendoza will be smiling again. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Cora managing the Mets and Mendoza managing the Red Sox next season.

SHERROD BROWN’S OHIO

I’m a big fan of Sherrod Brown, and Sherrod is a big fan of the Cleveland Guardians, who are a game behind the White Sox in the AL Central.

The Reds’ Dane Myers made an incredible catch and suffered a pretty ugly injury last night. Take a look. The Reds lost to the Brewers, 5-3.

SWEET HOME CHICAGO

The Cubs, in spite of having all their starters injured, are 47-38. The White Sox, in one of the most amazing turnarounds, are 44-39.

The last time both Chicago teams were over .500 after 83 games was in 2021, when the Cubs were 42-41, and the ChiSox were 50-35.

I LOVE L.A.

I got two fascinating Dodgers games for you to take a look at.

A NO EXTRA-BASE HIT WIN

Sunday, the Dodgers beat the Padres, 4-2, to win the three-game series. All five of the Dodgers’ hits in that game were singles. It was their seventh game this season without an XBH, and the first they won. Last season, they also went seven games without an XBH and didn’t win any. This was their first win in a game in which they had no extra-base hits since April 13, 2024, and that also was against the Padres.

Wait, wait, there’s more.

In 2024, they played six games with no extra-base hits and won two of them, and both were against the Padres. On April 13, and earlier, on March 20, in the opening game of the season. Since the start of the 2023 season, the Dodgers have played 25 games in which they did not get an extra-base hit. They are 3-22 in those games, with all three wins coming against the Padres.

Let’s move on to last night’s 9-4 victory over the Athletics. The Dodgers had 17 hits, with every Dodger starter having at least one hit. Actually, with every Dodger starter except Mookie Betts having two hits. Max Muncy, Andy Pages, and Shohei Ohtani were each 2-5 with a homer. Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker, Miguel Rojas, and Dalton Rushing all had two hits apiece.

THE TWO-HIT HITTERS

• The Yankees had one game this season in which nine players had 2+ hits, and this past Friday, like the Dodgers, the White Sox had eight players with 2+ hits. The Dodgers are the first NL team to do it this season.

• On May 26, 2022, the Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks, 14-1. In that game, they had 24 hits, and every Dodger starter had at least two hits.

• On September 13, 2014, the Dodgers beat the Giants, 17-0. In that game, they had 24 hits, and like last night, 8 Dodger starters had at least two hits.

• Those are the only two other occasions since the start of the 2012 season in which eight Dodgers had at least 2 hits.

BILL CHUCK’S RABBIT HOLE

Of course, I went down a rabbit hole on this, and I found that the only other time the franchise had eight players with exactly two hits in a game was in the first game of a doubleheader on August 16, 1905, when the Brooklyn Superbas beat the Pirates 10-5. They collected 16 hits as the ninth batter in the lineup, left fielder Jimmy Sheckard went 0-6.

Speaking of the Pirates, on August 7, 1922, they beat the Phillies 22-10. They had 22 hits. Every one of the 12 Pirates who came to the plate had a hit, and there were 10 of them who had two hits, including two of their pitchers.

Don’t you think that readers of The Athletic would have loved that? Send a message in any way you can to anyone you know at that great media site and tell them that the only thing that is missing from their coverage is some baseball history.

HERE’S A MEANINGLESS STAT

The Dodgers are 25 games over .500, and the Athletics are five games under. So, when I tell you that the A’s and Dodgers have identical 14-11 records in one-run games, it shows how meaningless that stat is.

HERE’S A GREAT STAT

Dave Roberts is just a win away from 1000 as a big-league manager. He is 69th on the all-time managerial win list. Doc is now 999-606 in his MLB career. His .622 winning pct. is the best of any manager who has skippered at least 1000 games.

HOMES OF THE BRAVES

Boston has won five games in a row, and their pitchers have thrown 12 consecutive Quality Starts. The Red Sox are 12.0 games out in the AL East, but Red Sox Interim Manager Chad Tracy has them just 4.5 games back of the last AL wild card spot. It will be a few weeks before we know whether they are buyers, sellers, or both at the trade deadline.

Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby leads the majors with 11 victories; he’s a reliever. The record for most wins in a season by a reliever is held by Roy Face, who went 18–1 in 1959, all in relief appearances, with 57 games pitched and a 2.60 ERA. The American League mark is 17, shared by Bill Campbell (1976 Twins) and John Hiller (1974 Tigers).

When I think of wins by relievers, I think of Phil Regan, who pitched in the majors from 1960–1972 for the Tigers, Dodgers, Cubs, and White Sox, appearing in 551 games and finishing with a 96–81 record, 3.84 ERA, and 92 saves. In 1966, he went 14–1 with a 1.62 ERA and 21 saves in 116 innings, earning NL Reliever of the Year and NL Comeback Player of the Year while helping the Dodgers win the pennant. That’s the season that Regan got the nickname “The Vulture.”

The nickname came from his habit of swooping in late in games, often after a dominant start by Sandy Koufax or another Dodgers pitcher, and securing the win. Regan would explain that in that season, Koufax twice left tight, low‑scoring games (including an 11‑inning, 16‑strikeout outing) with the score still tied; Regan came in, the Dodgers took the lead, and he got the win.

After one of those games, Koufax said, “Regan, you’re a real vulture getting my wins like that,” a line a reporter overheard; from there, the nickname stuck and became part of his identity. I’ve turned it into a verb as in “a reliever blew the lead that he inherited and vultured the win.”

Atlanta has a .601 OPS in June, the worst in the majors. They are hitting .214 this month, the lowest in the majors. They have scored 74 runs this month, the fewest in the majors. They are 9-13 this month and lucky to be that good.

INTERLEAGUE PLAY THIS SEASON

This year’s interleague record reflects the state of play among the teams within each league. There are six AL teams that are .500 or better, and 11 of the 15 teams in the NL are .500 or better.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING