Chasing the Treble week 13 - The No-Hit Wonder

A no-hitter doesn't happen that frequently and yet, it's not justified
to say it's rare to the point it almost always never occurs. There
tends to be one complete game no-hitter each season and it happens to
the least likely candidate for one; Jon Lester this season and Anibal
Sanchez two years ago come to mind. What transpired at Chavez Ravine
last Saturday was one of those once-every-100 years occurrences which
seems absolutely unfathomable, but yet there's a term for it, one that
somehow Vin Scully so easily recalls: the no-hit wonder.



In last Saturday's Freeway Series game, you could say that Jered
Weaver outdueled Chad Billingsley despite the fact neither ace
surrendered a run, but the difference was Weaver had 6 no-hit innings
under his belt. In fact, Weaver and Angels reliever Jose Arredondo
combined for 8 no-hit innings, and yet, came away on the losing end.
There have only been 5 no-hit wonders since 1900, including last
Saturday's result, but the punchline of this anomaly had to be that the
Dodgers, those scrappy, rag-tag Apple Dumpling Gang Dodgers who haven't
been able to hit a lick all season (especially without Rafael Furcal)
emerged with victory in hand. In what should've been a comebacker off
the bat of Matt Kemp, Jered
Weaver had some trouble in fielding the ball, which led to no play
being made in getting Kemp out. The Dodgers have had to be aggressive
on the basepaths, with the bats being lukewarm at best, leading Kemp to
swipe second base. Someone forgot to tell Jeff Mathis they weren't
tossing the pigskin in the backyard and hurled an errant throw, aimed
at the breadbasket of Torii Hunter, which led to Kemp getting across
with relative ease to third. Blake DeWitt hits the hardest hit ball of
the night for the Dodgers, but it resulted in a mere sacrifice fly. The
Angels had a few opportunities to make a breakthrough, but were robbed
by some heads-up defensive plays from the likes of James Loney and Luis
Maza, which turned the Angels away.



Although it was nice to be a part of history, this Dodger fan as well
as fellow Dodger supporters should wonder if winning a game despite
being on the receiving end of a no-hitter has to be met with joy and
relief for being on the right end of a rare historical event or with
disgust and frustration in earning such a dubious distinction. I'd say
it's the latter, but it's to be expected. Outside a miraculous Adrian
Beltre contract year campaign, the calling card of the Dodgers' offense
has always been relative futility, and a 1-0 shutout defeat at the
hands of the Angels in the getaway game just stressed this dubious
fact. The Angels really weren't much better, scoring only one run the
entire series and even though both sides had spectacular pitching
efforts for the weekend series, they displayed just as much poor
judgment at the plate as the Dodgers had for the series and all season
long.



Speaking of offensive futility, superstition could help overcome (maybe
even prolong) a hitting slump or even a slump when it comes to your
fantasy baseball team. Personally, I'm not that superstitious person,
but I do have some habits which could lead someone into thinking that
I'm either superstitious or suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder
(I can believe the latter). That said, I'm not the least bit
triskaidekaphobic, which bodes well for the H2HWS action in Week 13.
The H2H World Series leading L.A. Thrashers had been cruising and their
opponents, the Manzen Marlins might have used more than a superstitious
practice or two to sneak away with a victory to bolster their playoff
chances. Meanwhile, the California South champions had come off a
horrid stretch of four suspect weeks in a row, let alone 3 losing weeks
heading into Week 13, but were looking to right the ship against the
San Marcos Sox. Out West, the USA West champions have been spinning
their wheels recently, but escaped series losses the last few weeks.
The Thrashers would have to be at their best against arguably the
league's top offense in the Missouri River Jacks. 13 might prove to be
lucky, let's find out:



H2H World Series



L.A. Thrashers 7, Manzen Marlins 3



Leaders go big game fishing



The World Series-leading L.A. Thrashers closed out the first leg in
style, reversing a 6-3 deficit over the weekend, and emerging out of it
with a 7-3 triumph over the Manzen Marlins in a close, entertaining
series. In doing so, the Thrashers stretch their 9 game lead over the
2nd place New Hampshire Goats back to double digits again, at a 10 and
1/2 game lead.



Manzen had the advantage of strength in numbers when it came to their
pitching as Dan Haren, Zack Greinke, Jon Garland, and Joba Chamberlain
pushed the Marlins to advantages in wins, K's, ERA, and WHIP from the
outset, which put pressure on the Thrashers' offense to do their bit in
bidding for the victory. Sure enough, the Angelenos jumped out to
sizeable advantages in SB and OPS, but the categories in R/HR/RBI/AVG
were relatively close, with the Thrashers either having an edge or a
tie in all 4 categories. Both offenses heated up Friday, but Manzen
worked their way into edging out the Thrashers in runs and average
while tying the HR category at 5 thanks to homeruns from Russell Martin
and Jayson Werth. 



The Germans had a 6-3 advantage  that broke a 5-5 tie heading into the
weekend, but they were far from impregnable. Despite suspect outings
from Scott Kazmir and Dustin McGowan, the Thrashers would trot out 3
SP's: Brandon Webb, Johnny Cueto, and Chad Billingsley while Manzen
with a relatively comfortable advantage in ERA/WHIP, decided to protect
their advantages in ERA, WHIP, and K in using their numbers, albeit the
quality was questionable in starting Andy Pettitte, Livan Hernandez,
Vicente Padilla, and Kyle Davies. The latter three bombed out of their
outings, which had given the Thrashers a golden chance at overtaking
the ERA/WHIP battles. They wouldn't muff it as Brandon Webb was back to
a semblance of his usual self whereas Johnny Cueto and Chad Billingsley
pitched shutouts, which led the Thrashers to open an almost
insurmountable 1.40 ERA lead and a WHIP lead of 0.09. Despite neither
team bringing the lumber that day, the Thrashers overtook Manzen in
runs again and tied the Marlins in SB at 4 apiece.



The Thrashers sought to maintain their 6-3 advantage while looking to
untie a few categories in their favor after Sunday's games (HR: 5-5,
SB: 4-4, SV: 1-1). Grady Sizemore ratcheted up a stolen base to hand
the Thrashers a 5-4 lead, but the pesky Dustin Pedroia, a thorn at the
Thrashers' side all week, swiped a bag to tie up the SB category at 5.
Sizemore followed up with a HR to put the Thrashers on top, 7-3 yet
again by virtue of breaking a 5-5 HR tie, but yet again, the Thrashers
were foiled by Pedroia who homered to tie HR's yet again. Pedroia was
Manzen's best hitter with 7 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB, .556 BA, 1.386 OPS in
what was an off week for the more notable Marlins (Aramis Ramirez,
Torii Hunter, Johnny Damon). Brandon Lyon sought to untie the saves
category (ironically the Marlins' only save from Takashi Saito led to
the only hold in the series for the Thrashers' Broxton) but he blew the
save, and in the process spiking the Thrashers' WHIP. It wasn't all bad
as the Thrashers' Hanley Ramirez slugged a HR-deciding homerun off of
Lyon and given Trevor Hoffman's inning pitched that day, the Thrashers'
leads in ERA and WHIP remained intact and so did their 7-3 lead.



Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Brisbane becomes Blues capital of the World Series, Psydney goes Psycho for Blood Red



Week 13 wasn't for the squeamish if you were a Brisbane Bikkie or
Barcelona Red as both teams were at the wrong end of gruesome results,
but by the same token their conquerors, the North York Blues and
Psydney Psychos may have revitalized their playoff hopes. The circle of
life, I suppose. The North York Blues were the biggest gainer with a
10-2 rout over the Brisbane Bikkies, sending them 4 places up to fourth
place whereas the Psydney Psychos posted the similar score line over
the league doormat, the Barcelona Reds in what was so chillingly close
to the "dirty dozen". Psydney looked to have faded quickly, but just as
quickly, they're only 8 games out of the 6th spot.



Elsewhere, in a tough test for the New Hampshire Goats, the USA East
representatives one-upped the Brazilian champion Peitudas, who despite
losing 6-5 actually wound up gaining ground in the standings. Manzen
tumbled out of 9th into 7th where Peitudas reside, but they also
received help from the London Knights who bumped the Edinburgh Dukes
out of the top 6 and into 8th place with a 6-3 win over Edinburgh. In
another close result between two playoff contenders, the Lower Saxony
Tigers squeezed by the Northampton Squirels, 7-5, sending Northampton
down to 6th from 4th. Germany was also triumphant in another
Germany/England affair as Hamburger Blaufinken won 8-3 over the
second-to-last Felixstowe Fury.



The standings lay out something like this: the L.A. Thrashers are
back up by double digits on the 2nd place Goats, who in turn hold a 2.5
game advantage intact over the 3rd place London Knights. The gap
between New Hampshire and London is guaranteed to shift as both sides
are set up for a titanic clash this week. As it stands now, the
defending World Series champions have a 1.5 game lead over 4th place
North York, but given that only 6 games separate them from 9th place
Manzen, their newfound lead is still rather tentative. With Psydney and
Hamburger needing the big wins to stay alive in the playoff march, the
playoff picture is still very much an interesting race that seems bound
for final-week heartbreak and jubilation.



H2HWS California South



San Marcos Sox 6, L.A. Thrashers 5



Champions can't pitch a tent



The Thrashers have continued their second sleepwalk through the
Inglewood Challenge this season, as they fall to the San Marcos Sox,
6-5 for their fourth consecutive loss, mimicking last year's midseason
slump which eventually led to a red-hot stretch into the postseason.



This time around, the champions' offense cannot be at fault as they
posted a healthy power line of 11 HR, 36 RBI, .323 BA, .984 OPS that
was surely good enough to wrap up all four of those categories. L.A.
received another fantastic series from Mark Teixeira (5 R, 3 HR, 7 RBI,
.353 BA, 1.542 OPS) and David Wright brought the right stuff with a 4
R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, .429 BA, 1.337 OPS line in helping to dispatch a Sox
team that had displayed plenty of sock in Hanley Ramirez, Matt
Holliday, and Miguel Cabrera among others. For whatever reason, the
Thrashers didn't have the speed aspect going as Weeks and Ichiro only
combined for 2 stolen bases whereas a B.J. Upton stolen base last
Sunday was good enough for the Sox to take away the SB category, 3-2.
The Thrashers fell a bit short in the runs category, 30-28 despite
making advances on the Sox's run advantage.



The champions' pitching was dreadful and despite the Sox's pitching
being relatively suspect, it couldn't match the Thrashers' futility:
5.77 ERA, 1.56 WHIP as all five Thrasher starters in Roy Halladay,
Aaron Harang, Matt Cain, Dustin McGowan, and Scott Kazmir were roughed
around. As a result, the Thrashers could only muster a narrow win in
strikeouts and a 2-2 tie in saves to concede the week to San Marcos.



Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Monterey Park do donuts on the Lake, Giants too heavy for riding on saddles



The league-leading Lake Arrowheads resumed their slogging ways as
their stranglehold on the top spot slips a bit again, with a 7-5 loss
to the Monterey Park Donuts who are just 5.5 games out of first place.
However, the Donuts despite triumph over the frontrunners slip to 3rd
because of the SF Giants 9-1 beating of Saddlebackers who plunge back
to 6th place while the Giants move a half-game ahead of Monterey Park
in 2nd place. A split for the SF Pacificans against the California
Blaze ensured that the Pacificans didn't make up too much ground in the
standings as they sat in 4th after Week 13 (6.5 games out).



The ironic thing is the Thrashers move up to 5th despite losing given
the Saddlebackers suffered a worse defeat and hold a full game lead
over Saddlebackers whereas they're still only 5.5 games away from a
first-round bye. At the bottom of the standings, there was little
shaking to be had as Missin the Mets were the only winners in the
bottom half but by a mere 6-5 margin over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The
Davis Destroyers' playoff momentum continues to be deterred as they
split a 6-6 result with league doormat Boondock Saints.



H2HWS USA West



Missouri River Jacks 9, L.A. Thrashers 3



Thrashers can't cruise up river without paddle



The Thrashers' Harry Houdini act which helped in getting by the
past four weeks relatively unscathed didn't quite work as they fell 9-3
to the Missouri champions. The defending USA West champions struggled
on both hitting and pitching fronts as their grip on second place
loosens some. Despite a valiant weekend surge that could've seen the
Thrashers overtake the Jacks in runs and RBI, the Thrashers fell short
in all six offensive categories as they posted a mere line of 28 R, 3
HR, 27 RBI, 2 SB, .266 BA, .787 OPS. Only Berkman, A-Rod, and Beltran
went yard for the Thrashers with the latter two failing to burst out in
earnest as the offense was at a power standstill. Teixeira and Holliday
were on for the River Jacks while Josh Hamilton didn't need to play a
factor as Bobby Abreu was the highlight player with a stellar line of 6
R, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 3 SB, .474 BA, 1.478 OPS and he proved to be the
difference.



The defending champions split the pitching categories, with victories
in W, SV, and K while the Thrashers pitching hit yet another rough
patch in ERA and WHIP, with 5.16 and 1.59 respectively for both
categories. Despite Tim Lincecum and Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching
shutouts, outings from Harang, McGowan, and Pedro Martinez as well as
the bullpen flare-ups from Salomon Torres and Todd Jones were more than
enough to drop the ERA and WHIP categories.



Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Rauks rock the Coyotes



In other results, the Bellingham Rauks upset the streaking and
frontrunning Panolas Coyotes, 8-4, which puts a rise into Bellingham's
playoff chances as they lie 4.5 games out of 6th place despite residing
in 9th. The remainder of the results were relatively tight as the
Sparks Red Sox Slayers move to 2.5 games behind the 2nd place L.A.
Thrashers with a 7-4 victory over Cafe Michigan. Bonds 762 were 6-5
winners over the Michigan Panthers to comfortably sustain 4th spot
while Bilbos Bunch bump the Texas Two-Step out of the top 6 with a 6-4
win. The Seattle Scorpions emerged 7-5 winners over the Houston
Headhunters in a battle pitting the two worst sides in the West.



Because the Thrashers lost more ground despite the Coyotes' loss, the
Thrashers are 7.5 games behind the first place Panolas Coyotes. Bonds
762 is in 4th, 3 games behind 3rd place Sparks, but given that they're
only 7.5 games ahead of 11th place Cafe Michigan, the NorCal champions
will need to string some good results for some separation from the
playoff chasers and the rest of the top 6. Only Houston Headhunters
seems to be out of it for now, at 25.5 games behind top spot, but 4.5
games behind 11th place Cafe Michigan.



Who's on deck?



The repeat leg starts in earnest in the H2H World Series as the L.A. Thrashers encounter their Opening Week opponents, the Brisbane Bikkies,
who were vanquished 7-4 at the hands of the Californians. Much has
changed with the Brisbane squad since Opening Week as David Ortiz has
found his way on the DL, Carlos Zambrano resides on the DL (even though
a July 4 return is pending), and Rick Ankiel is long gone. Brisbane can
at least take pride in Vladimir Guerrero breaking out of a power
drought while Evan Longoria and J.D. Drew have led the cheers for
Brisbane. Outside of that trio and Brian McCann, Brisbane are a bit
thin offensively, relying on the likes of Ryan Garko, Chone Figgins,
Edgar Renteria, Alexei Ramirez, and Carlos Gomez to trod on through. It
doesn't help matters when Hideki Matsui is off to the DL with a bum
knee. The pitching has been disappointing for Brisbane, particularly
Roy Oswalt, who will start alongside Eric Stults twice this week as the
Thrashers will counter with just one two-start pitcher: Ervin Santana.



Two underachieving squads square off (or slog into) as the Thrashers face the California Blaze,
who have been riddled with injuries to three of their more important
offensive players (Hideki Matsui, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez).
After trading away Vlad Guerrero and Vernon Wells, the Blaze hope
they've picked up lightning in a bottle off waivers in Curtis
Granderson while they also hope for Milton Bradley to cool his head,
lay off the nagging injuries, and pick up the hot bat yet again.
Rollins, Sizemore, and Atkins should be the Blaze's trump cards while
they'll be anchored by a 5-man bullpen of K-Rod, Buchholz, Gregg, Bell,
and Linebrink to complement a staff of Haren, Billingsley, Weaver,
Wolf, Maine, and Slowey. The Thrashers will need a stronger showing in
the pitching foray as they'll sport three two-start pitchers (Halladay,
Harang, Cain) to the Blaze's John Maine.



It's a crucial top two showdown as the defending USA West champions lock up against the Panolas Coyotes
in this week's marquee matchup. Both teams will look to shake off last
week's setbacks whereas Panolas will seek to avenge an early-season 9-2
loss to the Thrashers whereas the champions seek to gain some ground on
the top spot they've slipped up on. Hanley Ramirez and Brandon Phillips
have been quality for Panolas while Vladimir Guerrero is coming around
for the Coyotes. Evan Longoria has been the best of the Coyotes' young
talents recently, but will need the likes of Alex Gordon, Matt Kemp,
and Jay Bruce to get it going altogether. The USA West frontrunners
have been bit hard by the bust that has been J.J. Putz but the bullpen
remains relatively good in Papelbon and Heath Bell anchoring it. The
pitching has received a boost in Scott Kazmir returning the DL to
complement Billingsley, Vazquez, and Maine while they've also picked
Clayton Kershaw up off of waivers. Maine, Justin Masterson, and Kershaw
are slated to start twice for the Coyotes while the Thrashers have
Harang and Greinke taking the bump twice.



There's no triskaidekaphobia to explain two down weeks in the
California South and USA West, but with two important showdowns in
retaining the titles in both leagues, the start of a push now could
mean putting aside the proposition of urgently gaining ground later in
the season. It will be important to start off and end off like
fireworks on the Fourth of July. Such disappointment has been offset
with the roaring success in the World Series as the race for the "T"
word heats up. Find out next week about how Week 14 transpired. Until
then, keep your clothes on...



-Ray