Cooperstown or Bust – Bruce Sutter became just the 4^th reliever in baseball history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, joining Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley in Cooperstown. Sutter, using his trademark split finger fastball, helped to redefine the closer role, saving 300 games in his 12-year, injury-shortened career. Unlike today’s closers, most of Sutter’s saves were of the 2 or even 3 inning variety. Pitching for St. Louis in the 1982 World Series, Sutter recorded a win and two saves while throwing two innings in two games and three in the other. On Saturday, the Cardinals told Sutter they would be retiring his number 42. Joining Sutter in finally getting their just due on Sunday were 17 others with Negro League affiliations, including the first woman to be inducted into the Hall, Effa Manley. One very notable exception to that group was the great Buck O’Neil. The 94-year-old O’Neil was the first speaker of the day and received loud ovations both before and after his speech. Hall of Famer and former Negro Leaguer Monte Irvin told reporters “I have no clue why he was not elected.”

 

Weekend Milestone Update –The Mad Dog

 

Greg Maddux made what would turn out to be his last start as a member of the Chicago Cubs on Saturday and passed Eddie Plank for 12^th on the career list, collecting the 327^th win of his HOF career in the Cubs’ 4-2 victory over St. Louis. Maddux allowed just 1 run on 5 hits while walking none and striking out 6 over 6+ vintage innings. Maddux pitched to one batter in the 7^th and left to a standing ovation from the appreciative faithful. Then on Monday, Maddux was traded as expected to the Los Angeles Dodgers in return for Cesar Izturis. The NL’s AGotM Award winner last year was also expected to be traded after LA picked up Wilson Betemit from Atlanta on Friday. Izturis is expected to take over at short for the Cubs with Ronny Cedeno moving to second base. Maddux’ regular day to pitch would be Wednesday, which is rookie Chad Billingsley’s regular day as well. Either he or Aaron Sele is likely destined for the bullpen with Maddux joining Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Mark Hendrickson in the Dodger rotation.

 

The Rocket, The Unit, and Thomas Michael Glavine

 

The Astros’ bullpen and not their offense this time failed Roger Clemens on Sunday as he pitched his best game of the year, allowing just 1 un-earned run on 2 hits with no walks and 9 strikeouts in 7 innings. Chad Qualls, Trever Miller and Brad Lidge combined to give up 6 runs in the 8^th and 9^th innings, blowing what was a 5-1 Astros lead when Clemens left the game, costing him the 344^th win of his career as the Diamondbacks won the game 7-6.

 

Meanwhile on Saturday, Randy Johnson failed to get career win number 275 when he was pounded by the Devil Rays for 9 runs (6 earned) on 9 hits in just 3 1/3 innings. Johnson walked three and failed to strikeout a batter in a 19-6 embarrassment to Tampa Bay at home. Johnson remains 9 wins behind Jim Kaat for 30^th all-time. After the game, the Yankees acquired Bobby Abreu along with Cory Lidle from the Phillies for four prospects including the Yankees first round pick from a year ago, shortstop C.J. Henry, and reliever Matt Smith.

 

Back to Sunday, Tom Glavine failed to record the 287^th win of his career despite watching his teammates score 8 runs in the first three innings of their 10-6 sweep completing win over Atlanta. The lefty remained linked with Robin Roberts after giving up 6 runs, all earned, on 10 hits in just 4 innings. His next win will tie him with Bert Blyleven for 25^th all-time.

 

Chasing Mr. October – Ken Griffey hit career home run number 557 on Sunday in the Reds futile 9^th inning comeback attempt against the Brewers, moving Junior to within 6 of Reggie Jackson for 10^th on the all-time list. It was his 21^st home run of the season.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – The Pittsburgh Pirates, after completing a 3-game sweep of the reeling San Francisco Giants on Sunday, have the longest current win streak in the majors at 5 straight games. Pirate pitching held Barry Bonds and the Giants to just 4 runs in the series and allowed Bonds just 1 hit in 7 AB. On Sunday, Bonds, pinch hitting in the 10^th, was walked intentionally in what might have been his last plate appearance in the city where he made his big league debut and won the first two of his record 7 MVP awards. After a two-hour rain delay, Todd Linden gave the Giants a 1-0 lead with a first home run of the year but Armando Benitez blew his third straight save when Jose Castillo homered to lead off the bottom of the 9^th. Jose Hernandez won it for Pittsburgh in the 10^th when his third hit of the game brought Jack Wilson home with the winning run. The Pirates were off on Monday and will face John Smoltz (8-5) and the Braves on Tuesday with Ian Snell (9-6) going for the Buccos.

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – Meanwhile the Giants on Monday lost their 8^th straight game since beating the Padres to take over first place back on July 22. They are now 4.5 back of San Diego in 4^th place in the NL West, just a half a game ahead of the last place Dodgers. Noah Lowry gave up 6 runs in 5 innings to take the loss and Barry Bonds went 0-for-4, stranding five men, including the tying runs in the 8^th. He is now 1 for his last 21. Pedro Feliz was 1-for-5 and has just 8 hits in his last 57 AB (.140). Shea Hillenbrand, however, went 1-for-3 in the loss and has hit safely in 8 of 9 games for the Giants while going 5-for-his-last-15 since going 4-for-23 to start his tenure in San Francisco.

 

The Longest Streak Pt III – Chase Utley now has the second longest hitting streak in Phillies history at 32 games after going 1-for-3 in a 15-2 pummeling on Monday. After singling off the glove of 2B Dan Uggla in the sixth inning against Josh Johnson, Utley’s streak surpassed the mark set by Ed Delahanty back in 1899 and broken last season by Utley’s double play partner, Jimmy Rollins. He is batting .404 (55-for-136) during the streak with 9 HR and 28 RBI and stands just 6 games shy of tying Rollins for the club mark. Five of his home runs have extended his streak. Philadelphia now moves onto St. Louis to take on the Cardinals and Jeff Suppan, against whom Utley in his career is 3-for-7

 

Big Papi Strikes Again – The Red Sox were down by two runs with two on and one out in the ninth inning on Monday but David Ortiz stood at the plate. The result was Ortiz’ 5 walk-off hit of the year and 15^th (including postseason) since joining the Red Sox in 2003. It was his third game ending HR this year and ninth since ’03.

 

Quick Hits Pt I - Closer Troubles

 

Armando Benitez has blown 3 straight save opportunities, including two game tying home runs, while posting a 13.48 ERA in 2.2 IP. Insinuating that a Ray Durham miscue – ruled a basehit – cost the team the game and not his performance, Benitez told reporters, “I did my job.” Benitez, making $6.2 million in the second year of a 3-year deal, is 13-for-20 for the season in save opportunities.

 

Trevor Hoffman has blown 3 of his last seven save appearances, not including his forgettable AS appearance, and has an 11.11 ERA in those 5.2 IP.

 

Derrick Turnbow has been simply awful in his last 11 games, going 0-4 and blowing 4 of 5 save opportunities. His ERA in that span is 21.32 (15 ER, 6.1 IP).

 

Bobby Jenks is four-for-his-last-five in save opportunities but has a 7.94 ERA in his last 11.1 innings pitched, allowing 10 earned runs on 15 hits and 9 walks.

 

B.J. Ryan in his last 9 games – 3/6 in SV, 5.56 ERA, 7 ER, 11.1 IP, 13 H, 7 BB

 

Brad Lidge in July is 0-1, with 7.36 ERA (9 ER, 12 H, 11 IP), and though he is 4 of 5 in save opportunities, the one blown save cost Roger Clemens a win.

 

Quick Hits – Misc.

Carlos Beltran since July 8 is 21-for-70 (.300) with 8 HR and 29 RBI and he has 3 grand slams in July.

 

Ryan Howard in Sunday’s double header sweep of the Marlins had 5 BB in 5 PA in the opener, including one intentional walk, and then in the night cap he went 3-for-4 with his 35^th HR.

 

Ben Sheets in 35.1 IP this year: 43 K – 2 BB, 10.95 K/9, 0.50 BB/9

 

Carlos Zambrano in 2006 - .199 BAA, 6.39 H/9

 

Colorado’s 4-2 win over Milwaukee on Tuesday took just 2 hours and six minutes and was the quickest game in Coors Field history.

 

Down on the farm – DN&N had an opportunity to take in the contest between the Giants class-A club in San Jose and the Visalia Oaks (Devil Rays) on Friday night and witnessed excellent pitching performances from both San Jose starter Gregorio Martinez and Oaks pitcher Jonathan Barrat. Barrat allowed a run on one hit in the opening frame and nothing more until San Jose broke through for three in the sixth. Chad Santos, who just 8 days earlier hit his first major league home run with DN&N in the house and four days before that had his first major league hit, again with yours truly at the yard, had two hits in the game, driving home the initial run with a double and setting up Tim Hutting’s two-run hit the sixth with a single that loaded the bases. SJ outfielder John Bowker extended his hitting streak to 18 straight games in the inning. Martinez, meanwhile, allowed just 3 hits over 8 scoreless innings to raise his record to 7-6 and lower his ERA to 3.53. He held Evan Longoria, the Devil Rays top pick in this years draft, to just two soft ground balls and a lazy fly ball in the win. Longoria entered the game with 12 HR in 31 professional games and was batting .380 as a pro. Brian Anderson finished things off for San Jose by retiring all three batters he faced to record his 30^th save of the year in 30 chances. He leads all minor leaguers in saves and sports a 1.24 ERA with a 0.89 WHIP.

 

More from the farm… Cubs prospect Ryan Harvey’s fourth home run of the game on Friday night was a two-out, three-run game winner to push Dayton past Dunedin 10-9 and making Harvey the first player in the history of the Florida State League to hit four home runs in a game. Harvey now has 16 HR on the year though he is batting just .234. Both the four home runs and the game winner were firsts for Harvey who said after the game, “I was surprised they pitched to me. First base was open, and then he threw me a fastball. I wasn’t going to let that go by.”

 

On Deck – Tuesday’s marquee match up pits a couple of young guns in the NL East as the Mets and Marlins face off in Florida. Michael Pelfrey (2-1, 5.28), the Mets highly touted right hander, will be making his fourth major league start for New York while the red hot Scott Olsen (9-4, 3.79) will go for Florida. Olsen did not allow an earned run in either of his last two starts. Since May 29 – a span of 11 starts – the young left handers’ ERA is just 2.19, and he has gone 7-1 during that period. Pelfrey won his first two starts, including his major league debut against the Marlins in which he allowed just 2 ER in 5 IP. Houston, however, roughed him up in his last start, plating 5 ER in just 4 1/3 innings to hand the rookie his first major league loss.

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.