Blackburn, Not To Be Outdone, Throws All-Hitter

MINNESOTA (Bottom of the Fourth) - On Tuesday night, Francisco Liriano made history by throwing a no-hitter. Just one game later, fellow Twin Nick Blackburn one-upped his teammate by throwing the first All-Hitter in major league history.

For the uninitiated, an all-hitter is a complete game thrown by a pitcher in which every plate appearance results in a hit. No walks, no ground-outs, fly-outs, etc. Outs may only be recorded on plays on which a hit is also recorded; i.e. when players are thrown out at the plate, are called out for interference, run outside the base-paths, etc.

Blackburn's line for the evening easily broke the record for most hits allowed in a single game: 9 IP, 45 H, 0 BB, 9 ER, 0 K. While the right-hander may not wish to be remembered for this record, however, right-fielder Delmon Young will surely wear his 10 assists in a single game as a badge of honour.

Fans started picking up on what was happening around the 7th inning, and their hopes for history were almost dashed right then. A slow roller that shortstop Alexi Casilla bobbled was initially ruled an error, but was changed to a hit when the official scorer decided the runner would have made it regardless.

Blackburn was relieved by the decision. "I mean, that could have been the end of the dream right there," he said after the game. "Guys always say they're not thinking about it when they're pitching a game like this, but that's such a lie. I knew exactly what was happening, and my heart sank when Alexi bobbled that ball."

In the end, Blackburn accomplished this rarest of rare feats. His teammates mobbed him after he recorded the final out when opposition base-runners accidentally ran to the same base for the third time in the game. Then they went back to the dug-out to bat one more time, because they were losing 9-2. That would be the final score.

Braves Sign Jermaine Dye to DH, Hoping to Stimulate Offense

ATLANTA (Bottom of the Fourth) - The Atlanta Braves, widely expected to contend for the 2011 NL East crown, have made a bold move in the early season by becoming the first National League team in baseball history to employ a designated hitter, namely the just-signed Jermaine Dye.

The National League, of course, doesn't let its teams use DHs, instead requiring pitchers to hit in the regular batting order. The Braves plan to circumvent this rule by removing players from its every day line-up. Nate McClouth, for example, has not hit well this year, and the Braves could opt to leave him on the bench and a hole in center field while DHing Dye.

Dye could fill in for players on rest days, as well. Catchers in particular need regular rest, and the team could choose to have its pitchers simply pitch to the backstop and retrieve their own balls while hitting Dye in place of a resting Brian McCann.

Finally, while the team hasn't spoken publicly about this, it has been rumoured that in an effort to gain employment with an MLB team, Dye has been working on his hit-pitching, a rarely-used technique in which the pitcher delivers his pitch by batting it towards the strike zone. If Dye has indeed become proficient at this skill (and rumour has it he's got a three-pitch arsenal featuring a two-seam fastball, splitter, and shuuto), the Braves could keep their line-up intact while using their newest player as a DH/pitcher.

Could Philadelphia Win Game 1 With 0 Runs?

In their respective National League Division Series, Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum each pitched the first playoff game of their career. Halladay, as you probably know, threw a no-hitter, the second in playoff history. The next day, Lincecum hurled a two-hit shutout while striking out 14 Atlanta Braves. His game score, a statistic designed as a fun way to compare individual games thrown by starting pitchers, was 96, and was actually slightly higher than Halladay's (95). Most years, a game score that high would rank somewhere in the top three games pitched all season, and it happened twice within two days in these 2010 playoffs.

Halladay and Lincecum are scheduled to face each other in game one of the National League Championship Series on Saturday, and ever since that match-up became a reality, fans have been salivating in anticipation. What might happen? Simultaneous no-hitters? 54 strikeouts combined? Will any hitter even make contact? The hyperbole has gotten out of hand.

(Note: the aforementioned out-of-hand hyperbole refers exclusively to that put forth on this blog.)

But here at Bottom of the Fourth, we think the hyperbole is completely justified - that's how good Halladay and Lincecum are. In fact, we believe it isn't yet out-of-hand enough.

So the question must be asked: could the Phillies get shut out and still win this game?

It seems like an impossible task, one that's never been done before. But just because something has never been done doesn't mean it will never happen. Neil Armstrong never said "well, nobody's ever walked on the moon, it must be impossible." No. He went out and walked on the fucking moon. Did the Wright brothers ever think "hey, maybe we shouldn't spend all this time building something that nobody's ever built before"? Of course not. They kept building and flew a fucking plane. And just because no-one had ever filmed a recorder version of My Heart Will Go On by candlelight, that didn't fucking stop Matt Mulholland.

So yeah, I believe the answer to the question is yes, the Phillies could get shut out and still win this game. Now, you may be wondering: why the Phillies and not the Giants? And it's a fair question - it certainly could happen both ways. I just think the Phillies superior offense will enable them to score fewer negative runs.

Which leads us to another question: negative runs? How does that work?

It's actually a little-known rule that has been in the book for many years. It hasn't been applied in recent memory because, well, who actually reads all the rules? That tome is thicker than Ken Griffey Jr.'s head in the Simpsons. Major league umpires simply aren't aware of the rule, so it never gets applied.

That doesn't explain how it works, though, so here is a short primer. Whenever a pitcher induces a batter to strike out in a manner so foolish that an umpire judges it to have been at least "ridiculous", and up to and including "absurd", the batter receives a Reverse Walk. He is sent to third base and is to advance backwards on the base-paths. He doesn't run on balls in play (at least he isn't required to, but he may if he wants, at great disadvantage to his team); he only advances whenever another Reverse Walk is issued, in which case the batter does not go to third base; only the current runner moves up. (i.e. there is only one Reverse Runner on the bases at any one time.)

An example of a strikeout that is at least "ridiculous"

When a Reverse Runner reaches home plate, his team scores a negative run. This run is taken away from the team's current score, and if that score is already zero, it dips below. Now, the best case scenario for a pitcher in one inning is to induce three strikeouts* greater than or equal to "ridiculous". In this case, the Reverse Runner first goes to third, then second, then first, and cannot reach home plate. However, unlike regular base-runners, Reverse Runners are carried over to the next inning, so a team would be gradually accumulating negative runs throughout the game, if the rule were applied properly.

*Note: like regular strikeouts, it is in fact possible to accumulate four Reverse Walks, and therefore a negative run, in the same inning; it simply requires one of the "ridiculous" strikeout victims to reach first base on a dropped ball by the catcher. This results in the unlikely scenario of runners going to first and third on the same strikeout. A pinch runner is used as the Reverse Runner.

Teams would of course need to be aware of which runners are which. Regular rules don't allow two runners to be at the same base, but that scenario is sometimes unavoidable when Reverse Runners come into play. A team may have two runners at the same base, as long as they're traveling in different directions, but need to be extra cognizant of the situation to ensure that no runner travels in the wrong direction, resulting in the runner being called automatically out. Runners may also not make contact, including anything from incidental base-running-related contact to high-fiving and other celebratory gestures. This temptation can be difficult to avoid in a case such as a walk-off home run because of the finality of the play; however, in this case, a flagrant high-five or pat on the butt by the Reverse Runner results in a reversal of the home run and a penalty out, possibly enough to turn a win immediately into a loss through a simple union of palms.

Both teams in the NLCS have their fair share of Ridiculous Strikers Out (RSOs). Pat Burrell (145), Aaron Rowand (129) and Andres Torres (128) of the Giants were each in the top 10 in the NL in RSO+, a statistic designed to compare the rate of Ridiculous Strikeouts (average is 100). But Philadelphia has a secret weapon. Ryan Howard, while merely very bad as measured by RSO+ (135), is the most prolific Preposterous Striker Out in the history of the game.

Preposterous Strikeouts (PSOs) are a notch above Ridiculous on the Ridiculous-Absurd scale, and statisticians have found that PSOs are much more predictive of future ridiculosity than RSOs. Ryan Howard has led the majors in PSOs each of the last five years, and even holds the major league record for PSOs in a season (63 in 2008) So despite San Francisco's incredibly Ridiculous 2010 outfield, if there's one player who will make a (negative) difference with his bat in this series, it's Howard.

Giants Win to Avoid Bizarre Three-Way Game

The 2010 season of Major League Baseball wrapped up yesterday in dramatic fashion. The NL West and Wildcard crowns came down to the last day, with the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres fighting for the two spots.

Early in the day, Atlanta put themselves in a good position by holding off the Phillies 8-7. That set up the battle of the Sans in the afternoon. A San Francisco win meant San Francisco would advance, leaving the Padres, one of the biggest surprises of 2010, a game short of the playoffs.

A Padres win, on the other hand, would lead to one of the most fascinating scenarios in baseball history: a three-way tie for two playoff spots. This result would invoke a rarely-used, little-known rule from the depths of baseball's tome of laws: the three-way game, known officially as the "Ti3br3ak3r".

Though San Francisco did in fact win Sunday's contest, allowing the Giants and Braves to advance to the playoffs while forcing the Padres to an earlier-than-expected golf season, the Ti3br3ak3r has been on people's lips every since it became clear that it might happen. However, being so rarely used, the average fan knows very little about this phenomenon. Bottom of the Fourth has dug into baseball's intricate maze of rules and regulations and today presents what can only be described as an educational feature, a profile of the mysterious Ti3br3ak3r.

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The Ti3br3ak3r's roots go back to 1948 and the American League pennant race. It was a very close race that is famous for featuring the first ever one-game playoff in the American League, between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. What is often forgotten is that the New York Yankees were very much in that race, ending the season only two games back. Sensing the possibility of a three-way tie, baseball scrambled to implement a fail-safe in case this situation occurred.

The original Threesome, as it was called then, was to be a simple rotation on a regular field. Team A would pitch to team B, who would pitch to team C, who would pitch to team A. The standard nine innings would be played, with a top, middle and bottom. The team with the most runs won, and if two or all three teams were tied after nine innings, extra innings would proceed normally. In the case of a two-way tie, the non-tied team would drop out after nine innings.

However, the game was never played in this incarnation, and has been modified many times as the game changed. The Ti3br3ak3r is now much more complicated, and features a modified field, among other strange alterations.

The basic premise of the current Ti3br3ak3r stems from its modified field, as shown in the diagram below.

A diagram of the modified field used for the Ti3br3ak3r

In this setup, team A patrols the field while teams B and C bat simultaneously from opposite diamonds. The pitching team uses two pitchers, catchers, and sets of infielders, because of the two infields. The average major league team generally doesn't carry two complete infields, but recall that the Ti3br3ak3r would only take place as a September tiebreaker, when rosters have been expanded.

The defending team may only use three outfielders - a right/left fielder, a left/right fielder, and a center fielder - who must pay attention to both batters simultaneously. It's entirely possible that an outfielder would have two balls hit in their direction at the same time, and in the extremely rare circumstance, might even be able to make a Doublecatch. If an umpire judges the two balls to have been caught in the same instant by the same fielder, the defending team is awarded two extra outs (one per offensive side) that they may apply at any point later in the game.

It should be noted that home runs would become rarer in the Ti3br3ak3r, because the home run fence only exists along the flat sides connecting the two fields, requiring hitters to pull the ball at exactly the right angle, or give the ball a large amount of spin, just to hit one over the fence. However, triples and inside-the-park home runs would be much more common given the possibility of a ball rolling all the way to the opposite infield.

In such a case, if a batter hits a fly ball over the outfielders' heads, it may be tempting for the opposite infielders to catch the ball. However, this is strictly prohibited - the outfielders are the only defenders allowed to participate in both sides of the game. Any contact by an infielder with the wrong ball results in a two-base error. This can be particularly confusing in the case when both balls end up in play in the same infield, forcing fielders to pay close attention to which ball is which.

The potential for complicated strategical decisions exists in the Ti3br3ak3r, especially if it took place in the National League. The "Double Double Switch" could occur if a manager simultaneously replaced both his pitchers, and at the same time modified his extended 15-man batting order by replacing two fielders, not necessarily from opposite infields, with players off the bench. Because of the possible complexity of this type of situation, the Ti3br3ak3r calls for a special lineup-only umpire, to be seated at a desk in the exact middle of center field between the two diamonds. The center fielder must be acutely aware of this hazard in order to avoid injury when going back on a fly ball.

However, this isn't the only obstacle the outfielders must face. Because of the lack of a home run fence, the rulebook calls for bullpen pitchers to "just hang out" somewhere in the outfield. When it comes time to warm up, this must also be done at a spot of their choosing in the outfield.

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Of course, the question naturally arises: where would such a game be played, given that no major league ballparks are equipped for an expanded layout such as this? As it turns out, one Double Stadium already exists: in Las Vegas. Sin City has been trying to get a professional sports team for years, and as a show of faith to MLB in hopes of returned goodwill, built this insurance-policy stadium more than 15 years ago. When not in use for the Ti3br3ak3r (as it never has been), the "Las Vegas Bipark" doubles as the city's primary poker chip storage facility, and recent estimates put the stadium at 80% full with stacks of the small disks, meaning any Ti3br3ak3r would require a tremendous amount of work on the part of the stadium crew. Luckily, they've survived another year without having to deal with this problem.

The Ti3br3ak3r may have found inspiration in 4-way chess

The Ti3br3ak3r follows in the footsteps of other modified versions of games, such as four-player chess, 3-D hockey (in which a gravitationally modified cube allows players to skate on the inside of each face), and Duelling Darts. Here's hoping that one day we'll actually see the game played.