:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72165165/1087353008.0.jpg)
34 Years Ago Today
In his second start of the 1989 season, Dave Stieb threw a one-hitter against the Yankees. Stieb ended the 1988 season with 1-hitters in each of his last two starts, so, with this game, he had three one-hitters in four starts. That’s a nice stretch.
Of course, the two 1-hitters at the end of the 1988 season both went to two outs in the ninth before the hit to end the no-hitter attempt. The no-hitter ended in the fifth inning. Stieb finally got his no-hitter on September 2, 1990.
Anyway, this game:
Blue Jays 8 Yankees 0
The lineups:
Lineup
Stieb made it until one out in the fifth inning before giving up the hit. With a Yankees lineup with Rickey Henderson and Don Mattingly, the one hit was from Jamie Quirk.
Quirk had a long MLB career. He played 18 seasons. Lefty-hitting catchers can play forever. Everyone wants a left-handed hitting catcher. But he wasn’t much of a hitter, career he hit .240/.298/.347 with 43 home runs in 984 games. I remember that he wasn’t considered an excellent defensive catcher, but he must have been ok to play that long.
In 1989, he played only 13 games with the Yankees and had just two hits. The Yankees would release him on May 16. He was grabbed up by the A’s near the end of the month, and then the A’s released him on July 24. This time the Orioles picked him up, and they held on to him through the rest of the season. For the 1989 season, he hit .176/.278/.235 in 47 games.
Quirk played for 8 MLB teams in his career. His highest bWAR was 0.9 in 1988.
If I were going to guess which player would get the only hit off Stieb in this game, Quirk would not have been in the top 8.
Stieb’s pitching line was 9 innings, 1 hit, 4 walks, and 5 strikeouts. He threw 109 pitches.
On offense, we had 12 hits and 6 walks against three Yankees pitchers. Andy Hawkins went 4.1 innings, allowed 9 hits, 6 earned, 4 walks with 3 strikeouts. Lee Guetterman pitched 2.2 scoreless. Dale Mohocic pitched the last 2 innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs.
We scored:
- 3 in the second: Fred McGriff led off with a home run. Jessie Barfield doubled, and an out later, Nelson Liriano singled him home. Liriano stole season, and Kelly Gruber singled him home. I forgot this, but Liriano stole a few bases for us. He had 41 steals in his first three seasons with the Jays. He didn’t steal as much over the rest of his career, finishing with 59 steals.
- 3 in the fifth: George Bell singled, McGriff walked, and Barfield hit a 3-run homer.
- 2 in the eighth: Manuel Lee reached on an error, and Lloyd Moseby homered.
Jays of the Day: Stieb (.230), Barfield (.164, 4 for 5, homer, double, 3 RBI) and McGriff (.116, 1 for 3, homer, 2 walks).
After the game, the Blue Jays were 3-4, and the Yankees dropped to 1-6.
The Jays finished the season 89-73, finishing first in the AL East. Jimy Williams started the season as manager, but the team started 12-24 record, and management fired him. The team turned it around with Cito Gaston, going 77-49 with him leading the team.
The Yankees finished 74-87, 5th in the AL East (I consider those the good old days). Dallas Green (not the City and Color guy) started the season as manager and was fired with the team 56-65. After that, Bucky Dent got the job, and the team went 18-22 under his rule. He held the position at the start of the 1990 season but was fired after starting the season 18-31. Stump Merrill was the next lucky contestant. He’d manage 275 Yankees games before getting the boot.
Dave Stieb finished the season 17-8 with a 3.35 ERA in 33 starts, 206.2 innings. Stieb was almost criminally underrated. Like Roy Halladay in the first decade of this century, Stieb was the best AL pitcher of the 1980s. They were both very competitive.
Eight Years Ago
Mark Buehrle wins his 200th game.
It was his first start of the season, facing the Orioles. Mark went 6 innings allowing 8 hits, 2 earned, 2 walks and 1 strikeout.
But he didn’t need to be great. His teammates scored 12 runs. Amazingly enough, the Jays scored those 12 runs without a home run. Here is the Jays half of the box score:
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | WPA | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jose Reyes SS | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0.005 | 2B,SF |
| Dalton Pompey CF | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.145 | 2·2B |
| Jose Bautista RF | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0.134 | 2B |
| Steven Tolleson RF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.000 | |
| Edwin Encarnacion DH | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | -0.032 | SF |
| Josh Donaldson 3B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0.051 | 2B,SF |
| Dioner Navarro C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.119 | 2B,SF |
| Justin Smoak 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | -0.003 | |
| Kevin Pillar LF | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.022 | 2B |
| Devon Travis 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | -0.007 | 2B,HBP |
| Team Totals | 39 | 12 | 16 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 47 | 0.434 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | BF | Pit | WPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Buehrle, W (1-0) | 6 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3.00 | 26 | 84 | 0.066 |
| Liam Hendriks | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 14 | 0.002 |
| Colt Hynes | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18.00 | 5 | 13 | 0.000 |
| Marco Estrada | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9.00 | 4 | 19 | 0.001 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5.00 | 38 | 130 | 0.069 |
Buehrle went 15-8 that year, with a 3.81 ERA in 198.2 innings, just coming up short of his 15th straight 200-inning season. I doubt we’ll see anyone get to 14 straight 200-inning seasons unless there is a surprising change in baseball strategies. He retired after that season.
Marco Estrada pitched the ninth for the Jays, he joined the rotation at the end of the month.
On the Orioles side, Bud Norris started and gave up 8 earned in 3 innings. He went 2-9 with a 7.06 ERA before the Orioles released him in early August. The Padres picked him up for the last month of the season.
The Orioles had Travis Snider playing in RF, and he went 2 for 4. Adam Jones was the Orioles star of the game, going 4 for 4 with a double and a home run.
Loading comments...