Free For All #9

A perfect game. Ohtani magic. Padres meltdown. And the rest of the week's baseball news.

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

If you’re not a paid subscriber, you missed two newsletters this week. On Monday, I looked at how close the Los Angeles Angels are to making the postseason for the first time since 2014 and the gaps they need to fill to shore up their roster.

On Wednesday I debuted my American League No Star List™️—my take on the most disappointing player on each AL squad. I’ll write up my National League No Star List™️ for Monday’s newsletter.

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Perfect game, imperfect human

Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán pitched a perfect game Wednesday night against the Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. Yes, it still counts even though the perfect game was against the A’s. When the Giants’ Matt Cain threw a perfect game against the Houston Astros in June 2012, it certainly counted. The Astros ended the 2012 season at 55-107. Sure, the A’s would love to get to 55 wins this season but you get the point. Pitching a perfect game in the major leagues is damn hard, regardless of who the opposing team is. That’s why there have been only 24 in MLB history.

Before Wednesday evening, Germán was perhaps better known outside New York as the pitcher who was suspended for 81 games before the 2020 season for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. According to press reports at the time, Germán slapped his girlfriend at his home in Yonkers after CC Sabathia’s celebrity gala in September 2019. MLB placed Germán on administrative leave shortly after the incident, which extended through the remainder of the 2019 season. The 81-game suspension, then, covered the first 63 games of 2020. When COVID hit, the 2020 season was shortened to 60 games, so Germán didn’t pitch again until April 2021.

MLB also suspended Germán 10 games this season after umpires ejected him during a game in Toronto for using “sticky stuff” on his hand and glove.

Germán isn’t the first athlete to achieve greatness or set a new record on the field and engage in reprehensible behavior off the field. He won’t be the last. You know this. I know this. It’s a part of being a sports fan. Or a music fan. Or a book or movie lover. We root for people who do things that bring us joy. And that’s fine, as long as we don’t allow ourselves to get so caught up in the joy that it blinds us to holding them accountable for their reprehensible conduct.

Blink and you’ll miss another Ohtani record

After I wrote my desperate plea on Monday for the Angels to beef up their bullpen and otherwise do whatever it takes to get Shohei Ohtani to the postseason, the great pitcher-slugger did more remarkable things on the field.

Ohtani was the starting pitcher Tuesday night for the Angels against the Chicago White Sox. In 6+ innings on the mound, Ohtani struck out 10. In 4 plate appearances, Ohtani walked once and got 3 hits, including 2 home runs. He is just the fifth pitcher since 1900 to accomplish that feat.

Sarah Langs, the incredible (and incredibly inspiring) baseball researcher and writer at MLB.com tweeted out some other astounding Ohtani stats that night:

Ohtani is the first pitcher since Warren Spahn in 1955 to have 5 games in which he pitched and recorded 3+ hits
Tuesday was Ohtani’s second game of the season in which he struck out 10+ batters and got 3+ hits. He’s the only player in MLB history to have more than one such game in a single season.
After Tuesday’s game, Ohtani led the majors in batting average, home runs, slugging, RBI as a hitter and batting average against as a pitcher.
Ohtani recorded the most strikeouts as a pitcher (37) in the same month he hit 10+ home runs. The only other MLB players on that list are Rocky Colavito in 1958 and Babe Ruth in 1921. Ruth and Colavito only recorded 1 strikeout in the month they hit 10+ home runs.

How about this crazy stat?

My favorite tweet in the barrage of Ohtani love came from Cubs starter Marcus Stroman. Sometimes it takes a major leaguer to make you realize that what Ohtani is doing this season is crazy, magical, and very, very special.

Ohtani hit another home run on Thursday, bringing his total for June to 14. One more game in the month to push that number even higher. He’s an absolute marvel and you should make time to watch him play baseball. Every day, if possible.

June gloom in San Diego

Most Americans think that summer days in southern California are all cloudless skies with bright sunshine. In reality, San Diego is typically covered in clouds and fog in May and June from changes in the jet stream that brings the marine layer off the Pacific Ocean and on shore to the city. Locally, it’s known as May Gray and June Gloom. This year, clouds and fog have been even worse than normal.

June Gloom describes more than San Diego’s weather. The Padres were just swept by the Pirates in a three-games series at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and have lost 8 of their last 10 games. The Padres record in June is 12-14, which is a slight improvement over their 10-16 May. But with the Giants surging, the Dodgers righting their bullpen ship, and the Diamondbacks holding steady at the top of the National League West, time is running out on San Diego and their $250 million roster of stars. Next up for the Padres is a three-game series against the surging Reds in Cincinnati.

According to FanGraphs, the Padres have the sixth most valuable offense and the third most valuable pitching, as measured by Wins Above Replacement. Hmm. That doesn’t seem right. Through Thursday’s action, the Padres had scored 344 runs and allowed 325. That’s the second-fewest runs allowed in the National League. The 344 runs scored is on the low end, but with their stingy pitching, the Padres should have a better record than 37-44. They should be closer to 42 wins.

The Padres are stuck close to the bottom of the NL West because they’ve been unlucky. San Diego is 5-14 in one-run games. That’s nearly the inverse of the Miami Marlins, who are 19-5 in one-run games. Baseball analysts much smarter than me do not think there is a skill to winning one-run games. Most of it is luck, good or bad.

Not surprisingly, FanGraphs statistics show that the Padres have also been un-clutch, at the plate and on the mound. San Diego’s -3.72 clutch score for offense is second worst. Only the Chicago Cubs have hit worse in high leverage situations with the game on the line. The same is true for team pitching. The Padres’ -2.35 clutch score for all team pitchers, combined, is second worst to the Cubs.

All of these numbers suggest the Padres can turn it around in the second half. Whether they will remains to be seen.

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