OAKLAND 6, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, September 8.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-4. David Ortiz was 1-for-3.
Pitching stars: Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one. Bob Wells pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Barry Zito struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up three hits and two walks. Miguel Tejada was 2-for-3 with a home run (his thirty-first) and two walks. Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a walk.
The game: Oakland loaded the bases with one out in the first, but could only score one on a fielder's choice. Tejada homered in the third to make it 2-0. Adam Piatt hit a home run in the fourth to make it 3-0. The Twins had men on first and third with one out in the bottom of the fourth, but Torii Hunter and Bobby Kielty each struck out to end the inning. Chavez' RBI single in the fifth made it 4-0 and Mark Ellis had a two-run double in the seventh to increase the lead to 6-0. The fourth inning was the only real threat the Twins had, as they got only three hits.
WP: Zito (20-5). LP: Eric Milton (13-8). S: None.
Notes: It was the second consecutive game in which the Twins were shut out.
David Ortiz was at first base, replacing Doug Mientkiewicz. It was the second consecutive game Mientkiewicz missed. He would be back in the lineup the next day. Ortiz was 1-for-3.
Kielty was the DH. He went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.
Denny Hocking was at shortstop, replacing Cristian Guzman. He was 0-for-3.
Tom Prince was the catcher, replacing A. J. PIerzynski. He was 0-for-3.
Milton pitched just four innings, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks and striking out two. He threw 84 pitches.
Jones was 11-for-21 in his last five games. He raised his average from .290 to .300.
Jackson dropped his ERA to 2.94.
This was Barry Zito's Cy Young year. He went 23-5, 2.75. He had an excellent season, but the award really should've gone to Pedro Martinez. Martinez had a better ERA by almost half a run (2.26 to 2.75), a much better WHIP (0.92 to 1.13), and many more strikeouts (239 to 182). The only categories Zito was better in were innings (229.1 to 199.1) and wins (23 to 20). Zito had a tremendous year, but Martinez was better.
Record: The Twins were 82-61, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.
You're talk about Pedro led me down a b-r rabbit hole and stumbled upon the name Frank Castillo. Castillo started 268 games during a time I was deeply interested in baseball, had a record of 82-104, pitched for the Cubs for many years and that is when most Cubs games were on WGN, and I still have no recollection of this player. Weird how that happens.
I do remember Frank Castillo, although I didn't realize he'd pitched as long as he did. He actually had a couple of years when he was quite good.
Using rWAR, Zito was a legitimate choice over Pedro.
However, using rWAR, the voters also missed a few other players.
I checked fWAR and it's Pedro an obvious first, Halladay a clear second, and then that's it.
I don't really understand how WAR is calculated (either f or r), but I still believe Martinez was clearly the better pitcher that year.
The short version is: rWAR is based off ERA and fWAR is based off FIP. Pedro's ERA and FIP were very close but Zito's FIP (3.87) was over a run higher. After that it comes down to innings. An elite reliever is better than any starter per inning, but they don't come close to a starter's innings so fall short in WAR. fWAR concluded Pedro was so much better that the 30 inning gap didn't matter.
How come LaTroy (LaTroy?) is the only one not smiling on that cover?