Game of the Day (6/23/84)

June 23, 1984, is the date of one of the most famous regular season games in baseball history. Willie McGee hit for the cycle, and was not even close to making the headlines. That's because future Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg went 5 for 7 and hit game-tying homers against fellow future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter in back-to-back innings. The final score was 12-11 in 11 innings; Sandberg posted a ridiculous WPA of +1.063, and rode this game and the Cub division title to a well-deserved MVP.

So why the heck is the game of the day Yankees 5, Orioles 4 (11)?

Game of the Day (6/22/14)

Brewers 6, Rockies 5. Milwaukee's resurgent veteran Kyle Lohse took on Colorado's Tyler Matzek, who was making his third career start.

Game of the Day (6/22/84)

Pirates 7, Phillies 6 (13). Philly's Kevin Gross, who was young and mediocre, took on Pittsburgh's Lee Tunnell, who was also young and pretty close to being outright bad. Both of them spent 1984 splitting time between the rotation and the bullpen, despite serving as near full-time starters in the surrounding years.

Game of the Day (6/21/14)

Tigers 5, Indians 4 (10). Detroit's Justin Verlander, normally an outstanding pitcher but struggling this year, faced Cleveland's Trevor Bauer, who was expected to be an outstanding pitcher but has struggled for his whole career so far.

Game of the Day (6/21/84)

Mets 10, Phillies 7. Philly's Charles Hudson had a career of just over 1000 innings; New York's Walt Terrell lasted for nearly twice as many. And yet, neither man would ever have a season in which he both qualified for the ERA title and had an ERA+ better than 110. Which hopefully explains why neither of them had made much of an impression on my baseball memory coming into this game.

Game of the Day (6/20/14)

Braves 6, Nationals 4 (13). Atlanta's Mike Minor (and bullpen) faced off with Washington's Stephen Strasburg (and bullpen).

Game of the Day (6/20/84)

Tigers 9, Yankees 6 (13). Detroit's Dan Petry was a capable starter in the middle of a very good four-year stretch. New York's Bob Shirley was also solid, but primarily served as a reliever; his starts were strictly of the spot variety, and after making 17 of them in 1983, he would not begin as many as 10 games in any of his last four major league seasons.