What’s Happening in Baseball Today

The First Pitch: October 9, 2024

Luis Tiant, the flamboyant Cuban-born pitcher who never seemed to be without a cigar off the field and experienced a life in baseball full of ups and downs, has passed away at the age of 83. 

The son of a former Negro League namesake, Tiant enjoyed an early career evolution which peaked in 1968 when he posted a 1.60 ERA—third lowest in Cleveland history, behind two seasons by Addie Joss during the 1900s—a team-record streak of 41 consecutive scoreless innings which still stands, and an opposing .168 batting average that’s only been bested by Shane Bieber in 2020 (albeit in a 60-game season). But he lost 20 games the next season, then fell apart by 1971, finding himself pitching part of that year in the minors. He rediscovered himself in 1972 with the Red Sox, winning his second ERA title (1.91) and winning at least 20 games three times through 1976. 

Using an unorthodox pitching motion in which he turned his back on the hitter before uncoiling to make his delivery, Tiant went 3-0 in four postseason starts for Boston in their memorable 1975 season which ended with a seven-game World Series defeat to the Cincinnati Reds. During that series, Tiant was able to see his parents—allowed into America by Cuba strongman Fidel Castro—for the first time in 14 years. Tiant himself didn’t step foot back in his native land until 2007. 

Over 19 major league seasons, Tiant put together a 229-173 record with 187 complete games, 49 shutouts and a 3.30 ERA. 

The NL’s two top seeds find themselves on the brink of a first-round exit after dropping road games to intra-division wild card foes. 

At New York, the Mets build up a 6-0 lead over the NL East-winning Phillies and breeze to a 7-2 win to put them ahead in the NLDS, two games to one. Mets starter Sean Manaea, enjoying a bounce-back first campaign at Flushing Meadows, allows a run on three hits through seven innings; Pete Alonso smacks his third homer of the 2024 playoffs to initiate the scoring in the second inning. 

Veteran Jose Quintana, who helped close out the Brewers in the wild card round six days earlier, will get a chance to help knock the Phillies out as he’s paired against Ranger Suarez at Citi Field this afternoon. 

Out in San Diego before a packed and highly audible Petco Park crowd, the Padres and Dodgers exchange early big rallies before much improved pitching takes over, leading to a 6-5 win for San Diego to take a 2-1 game lead in its NLDS. 

In an eerie moment of déjà vu from Game Two, Mookie Betts’ first at-bat ends with a long drive sent over the left-field fence—except this time, it counts as a solo home run as the ball just eludes the reach of the Padres’ Jurickson Profar. Betts thought he had homered in that earlier sequence; this time, he thought Profar had caught it again, turning to go back to the dugout between first and second before being redirected to finish his trot. 

The real action begins in the second when the Padres rough up Dodgers starter Walker Buehler for six runs—the last three coming on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s fourth playoff homer. The Dodgers counter an inning later on a Teoscar Hernandez grand slam off the Padres’ Michael King. 

Both Buehler and King will settle down and survive through the fifth; from there, each team’s bullpen nullifies the other’s bats with only one baserunner (a single by the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, who limps off with a still-nagging ankle) and keeping the game in favor of the Padres to the finish.

It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today

1919: The Fix is complete as Black Sox Scandal pitcher Lefty Williams—whose life is said to be threatened if he doesn’t do his part—lasts just a third of an inning, giving up four runs as Chicago ‘suffers’ a 10-5 defeat to hand the Reds the World Series in eight games. 

1934: The Gashouse Gang Cardinals rout the Tigers 11-0 in Game Seven of the World Series, but the moment everyone remembers occurs when St. Louis’ Joe Medwick slides hard and high into Tigers third baseman Marv Owen with the Cardinals ahead late, 7-0. The two players grapple, and a packed Navin Field crowd grows so incensed that when Medwick goes back out to left field for the next inning, he’s pelted upon by every conceivable loose object available from bleacher fans. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, present at the game, intervenes and orders Medwick removed from the game for his own safety. 

1996: The Yankees take ALCS Game One over the Orioles in 10 innings, 5-4, with the help of 12-year-old Jeffrey Meier—a first-row bleacher fan who in the seventh snatches Derek Jeter’s deep fly ball above the outstretched glove of Baltimore outfielder Tony Tarasco. Though replays show Meier reaching over the fence and interfering, umpire Richie Garcia rules otherwise and allows Jeter’s game-tying homer. 

2005: The Astros battle back from a 6-1, eighth-inning deficit against the Braves, tie the game on a Lance Berkman grand slam and Brad Ausmus solo shot, then duel for another nine scoreless innings before walking off on a Chris Burke homer in the bottom of the 18th to triumph, 7-6, and win the NLDS on their way to their first-ever pennant. It’s the longest postseason game by innings to date.

You Say It’s Your Birthday

Mets outfielder Starling Marte is 36; three-time collector of 50+ doubles Brian Roberts is 47; DH/outfielder/catcher of 2,099 hits Brian Downing is 74; 5’5” shortstop who hit three of his 41 career homers in one game Freddie Patek is 80. Born on this date is three-time All-Star first baseman who revolutionized hair dryer use in the clubhouse Joe Pepitone (1940), Hall-of-Fame infielder who almost never struck out Joe Sewell (1898), Negro League outfielder of the 1920s Branch Russell (1895), Cooperstown-bound pitcher Rube Marquard (1886) and one-time good-luck charm for the Giants Charlie Faust (1880).

Shameless Link of the Day

With four wild card teams still alive in the postseason, the question is again asked: Is it too many? Our latest Opinion piece digs into the details.

This Great Game in Print

Baseball Cards at the Edge of War is the new book from author Todd Marcum that focuses on baseball’s legendary 1941 season and the “three bubble gum titans” that took on one another in an attempt to rule the burgeoning baseball card market. Marcum provides an introductory orientation with content from our 1941 Yearly Reader page, which is why you’ll find the names of TGG creators Eric Gouldsberry and Ed Attanasio on the book’s cover as co-authors. The core of the book that follows is devoted to the players and their baseball cards who graced the 1941 season. Baseball Cards at the Edge of War is now available on Amazon.

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