Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Game of the Day (4/22/84)

Angels 9, Blue Jays 6. California's Tommy John faced Toronto's Doyle Alexander in a matchup of starters who pitched well, for a long time, and for several teams, but are probably best known for things that happened off the field - the John Smoltz trade and the eponymous surgery, respectively. Also, they both have first names as last names.

Both starters were characteristically effective in the early going. Alexander allowed a first-inning single to Rob Wilfong, but induced a double play from Fred Lynn, while John kept the bases clear in the bottom of the inning. The top of the second brought a Reggie Jackson single and a Bobby Grich walk, but Jerry Narron ended the inning by fouling out with both runners still on. Cliff Johnson led off the bottom of the second with a single, but his fellow Jays failed to advance him from that point.

California drew first blood in the top of the third when Gary Pettis tripled and Wilfong brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Buck Martinez led off the home half of the inning with a double, but was thrown out trying to advance on Alfredo Griffin's grounder to second, which stalled the potential rally immediately. The Angels fell victim to a similar play in the top of the fourth, as Jackson doubled and was tagged out by shortstop Griffin after he fielded a grounder.

The bottom of the fourth brought Toronto's first runs of the day, starting with a George Bell double and a Johnson RBI single. Jesse Barfield popped up for the first out, but Willie Upshaw doubled Johnson to third, Garth Iorg grounded out to score the go-ahead run, and Martinez followed with a double to plate Upshaw and extend the lead to 3-1.

Pettis walked and stole second in the fifth, but stayed there. The bottom of the inning started with a Damaso Garcia single and steal; Garcia moved to third on a groundout, but never made it the last 90 feet home. The scoring resumed in the sixth, starting with singles by Lynn and Jackson and a walk to Brian Downing that loaded the bases with one out. Roy Lee Jackson relieved Alexander at that point and struck out Grich, but Narron drew a walk to force in a run, and Dick Schofield did the same to tie the score at 3.

Jimmy Key coaxed a Pettis groundout to end the inning, and the Jays struck back in the bottom of the sixth. Upshaw led off with a single, and Iorg reached on an error by Schofield. Martinez grounded out, advancing both runners, and Griffin popped back to the mound for the second out. John was then relieved by Jim Slaton, who promptly yielded a go-ahead RBI single to Garcia for a 4-3 Toronto lead.

It didn't last especially long. With one out in the seventh, Lynn singled and Doug DeCinces homered to reclaim the lead for the Angels. Jackson followed the homer with a single, and after the second out, Grich went deep as well to make it 7-4.

Toronto rallied in the bottom of the inning, starting with a Bell single. One out later, Jesse Barfield reached on a Grich error, and Upshaw singled to score Bell. John Curtis replaced Slaton and allowed a Mitch Webster pinch hit double, which plated Barfield and put the tying run at third with one out. Frank LaCorte supplanted Curtis on the mound and intentionally walked pinch hitter Ernie Whitt to load the bases, but Griffin lined into a double play to squander a golden opportunity.

Key and LaCorte exchanged perfect eighth innings, and the Angels augmented their advantage in the top of the ninth when Lynn reached on a Griffin error; two outs later, Dennis Lamp relieved Key and Downing greeted him with a two-run homer to create a 9-6 margin. LaCorte yielded a two-out Upshaw double followed by a pair of walks in the bottom of the ninth, so Curt Kaufman replaced him and ended the game by getting Griffin to ground out with the bases loaded.

This game included five ties or lead changes in the first seven innings, which is a very healthy total indeed. It also saw a four-hit game from each side - Reggie Jackson for the Angels, and Willie Upshaw for the Jays. Upshaw's four hits tied his career high; Reggie's did not (although it was a near thing; he had a lone five-hit effort back in 1969), but they did represent the last of his 14 games with exactly four hits, and the only time he reached that total in the last five years of his career.

On the other side of things, Alfredo Griffin had a rather astonishing (for a hitter) WPA of -.614. Just how bad is that?

It is the worst single-game WPA of Griffin's career, and by a very wide margin. Griffin played in the majors for 18 years, and was extremely ineffective with the bat - he never had a season with at least 10 plate appearances and a league-average OPS, and his career batting line was a depressing .249/.285/.319. In over 7000 plate appearances of hitting that only occasionally rose as high as tepid, Griffin never had another game with a WPA of -.500 or worse. He only had one other effort of -.400 or worse, and that one lasted 22 innings, during which Griffin went 0 for 9. This game was 20% more harmful than that.

How does one go about assembling such a horrible outing at the plate? There are two steps:

1. Bat as often as possible with runners in scoring position and the game close. Griffin's five at bats in this game were:

Third inning, down a run, runner on second, nobody out
Fourth inning, up by two, runner on second, two outs
Sixth inning, tie game, runners on second and third, one out
Seventh inning, down a run, bases loaded, one out
Ninth inning, down three, bases loaded, two outs

That certainly covers the first part of the equation. Now for the second.

2. Make as many outs as possible, preferably in such a way as to maximize the amount of damage they do.

Griffin didn't just go 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position; he was inventive about it. His third-inning ground ball with a runner on second got the runner thrown out at third, costing his team a base and an out simultaneously. He popped up in the sixth when a grounder or fly ball would have had a chance of bringing in the go-ahead run. And in the seventh, he lined into an inning-ending double play with his team down a run and the bases loaded. By the time he stepped up as the winning run in the ninth, the outcome of his last chance was practically a foregone conclusion.

And in case that wasn't enough, Griffin also committed an error in the ninth, setting up the two-run homer that put the game out of reach. It's possible he could have sabotaged the game more thoroughly if he'd been trying, but I'm not sure how.

No comments:

Post a Comment