Game of the Day (9/13/91)

Royals 3, Mariners 2 (12). The pitchers for this game look like at least a bit of a mismatch, as Kansas City's hurler had an ERA over a run lower than Seattle's. That was artificially induced by his having spent much of the year in the bullpen, but even if you just take him as a starter, the Royal pitcher was more effective.

Sadly for Luis Aquino, he did not remain superior to Randy Johnson for the entirety of their respective careers.

Melog Rankings: Post-US Open 2016

So... that happened.

For now, I will leave aside any ruminations on what the recent US Open says about the participants' places in history; that discussion will be better served by a post about Slam Scores, which will be forthcoming within the next couple of weeks.

Instead, let's just see what Stan Wawrinka's third Slam championship means for the Melog ratings.

Game of the Day (9/12/91)

Angels 7, White Sox 4. The Angels started Chuck Finley, who would go on to pitch in over 500 games in his career, with 467 of them being starts. Chicago countered with Roberto Hernandez, who would pitch in nearly twice as many games as Finley, exceeding 1000 for his career - but only start three of them. In fact, this was the third appearance of Hernandez's career - and his last start. His next game began a streak of 1007 consecutive relief appearances.

Game of the Day (9/11/91)

Quick question before we get down to this: If you were told that the Atlanta Braves threw a no-hitter in 1991, who would you guess was the pitcher responsible?

If your guess was "no single pitcher, but Kent Mercker was the starter," congratulations on probably already having known the answer!

That contest isn't the Game of the Day for two reasons. First, combined no-hitters aren't as cool as the individual efforts (scientifically speaking, of course). And second, even with the benefit of my arbitrary no-hitter adjustment, it loses out anyway, falling victim to Rangers 11, Angels 9 (12).

Texas's Brian Bohanon was in his second MLB season, and would go on to be a solidly below-average pitcher for the next decade, ending with a career ERA of 5.19 that was not helped by his last three years, which were spent in Coors Field at its most extreme. And yet, he still fared better overall than California's Scott Lewis, a fellow second-year hurler who would depart the majors for good after five seasons and under 200 total innings.

Game of the Day (9/10/91)

White Sox 3, A's 1. Chicago's Charlie Hough faced Oakland's Mike Moore. I've done the "he makes a veteran pitcher seem like a whippersnapper" bit with Hough already this year, so let's move on to something these two have in common - they combined to lead the AL in batters faced three times in a four-year span from 1984-87. Notably, both Hough in '84 and Moore in '86 led the league in batters faced without leading the league in innings. Uncoincidentally, both of those seasons also led the AL in hits allowed.

By 1991, Hough was solidly on the downside of his career; Moore was having a fine season, but would join Hough in decline a year later.

Game of the Day (9/9/91)

Pirates 12, Cubs 10. Pittsburgh's John Smiley and Chicago's Danny Jackson ended up with very similar careers - both were lefties, both ended up with over 100 wins and losses, with ERAs very close to league average and career innings totals in the neighborhood of 2000.

But in 1991, Smiley was having one of his best seasons, and Jackson was having one of his worst.

Game of the Day (9/8/91)

Red Sox 17, Mariners 6.

Just kidding. That is the actual score of the last game of the four-game series between the two teams, but it occupied the opposite extreme to the other three; it was actually the least-dramatic game of the day.

The actual winner is Rangers 7, White Sox 6, yet another matchup of the two most dramatic teams of the season so far. The starters were an interesting pair - Jack McDowell for Chicago, Kevin Brown for Texas. McDowell was a year younger, and his career was off to a better start (39-29, 3.61 through 1991, compared to 35-32, 3.82 for Brown), a difference that would increase over the next two years (in which McDowell finished second and first in AL Cy Young voting). But Brown moved to the NL after the '95 season and went on to win a pair of ERA titles, and McDowell's effectiveness totally collapsed at exactly that moment. Brown would eventually exceed McDowell's career by nearly 1400 innings, and over 80 wins.