brewhavingaball

Why do the Padres hate their fans?  And their poor announcers…how do they have any voice at all.  June hasn’t even started!

If you haven’t put all the pieces together, the Friars have been in the news all season for two major reasons:  1.)  They are bad (positively anemic at the plate, ranked 29 out of 30 in runs and OBP, and 28th in BA);  2.)  They have been playing marathons. 

I am not going to rehash any of the “Kevin Towers has to blow it up” stuff, that has been done and is getting boring.  Frankly, I am not sure why anybody is all that shocked - it seems we all were equally shocked that managers Bruce Bochy and then Bud Black had kept them in contention all those years.  I guess just when we started to believe, the roof fell in.  Oh well…on to the good stuff.  Maybe historic stuff.

In the past 6 weeks (since April 17), San Diego has played three 13 inning games, an 18 inning game, and a 22 inning game.  WOW!  If you hadn’t heard - or seen the end of those games - don’t feel too badly, they all took place on the Left Coast.  Even the SunDAY game last week against the Reds (18 innings) ended after 10 in New York.  I left to walk my dog in the 14th and still saw the end of the game.

 You are now asking, “Who cares?”  We all should.

The Pads are averaging 9 1/3 innings pitched per game.  If they continue that over the last 106 games, their staff will pitch more innings than any team in the history of the sport - going back to 1871.  The Friars will pitch 5 more innings in the 162 game season than the ‘64 Yankees who played 164 games that year (1511 to 1506). 

Got your attention yet?

How about these numbers:  San Diego would pitch 14 more innings than the next closest team playing 162 games (’69 Twins) and be the only team other than those Yankees over 1500 innings.

You probably are still very skeptical, and I don’t blame you because you have reasons to be.  First of all, bad teams don’t pitch 9th innings on the road very frequently.  Secondly, the odds are astronomically against the league seeing another 22 inning game and an 18 inning game, let alone for the Padres to be playing in them.  But their is some historical hope for history to be made. 

First of all, the Pads pitched the most innings in the league last year.  They were 2nd in the league 2 years ago.  The Padres are also the only team this century to have pitched enough innings in a season to make the top 50 list in that category (last year ranks as the 17th most innings pitched by one team in a season).  They also have recorded the only other season since 1990 in the top 30 (1996 ranks 9th).  Lastly, if they only pitch the league average (8.95 innings per game) over the course of the last 106 games, they will be only 5 innings short of that top 50 list for a 2nd straight year (don’t get too excited over that, the ‘85-’86 Mets are 12th and 18th respectively). Hmmm…

And the fans out at Petco should be rooting for extra innings - the Padres are 3-2 in those 5 marathons and 19-32 in all games shorter.  (That is clearly a statistical abuse, but it is even more enjoyable when you consider the Cubs are 2-3 in games longer than 11 innings, but 32-18 in all games shorter.  But now I am getting silly.)

Maybe MLB has a master plan…  I can see it now…  September 28th, last day of the season, all the playoff spots are locked up and ESPN needs a “Game of the Week”.  They haven’t shown the Pirates or the Padres in primetime all year (or decade for that matter - neither has a jersey that says “New York”, “Chicago”, or “Boston” on its front.  That is a different blog though.) so ESPN decides to show the race for history - EXTRA INNINGS!  We all will be watching to see if the 80-81 Pirates can break their string of 15 consecutive losing seasons and if the Padres can tie the score in the 9th and go 12 innings to sew up the most innings pitched in one season record.

 Or maybe you are still asking, “Who cares?”

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