Monday, April 26, 2010

Unboxing the Box Score

Mets won last night in a rain shortened game. Mike Pelfrey threw 106 pitches through 5 innings to get his 4th win. Counting the save he has, he has factored in 5 of the Mets 10 wins as they break the .500 mark.

But I'm looking at the box score and I'm a bit confused. All of my confusion takes place after Pelfrey is removed from the game. He did not start the top half of the 6th inning. Raul Valdes did. Valdes threw 1 pitch. And then the game was stopped. That part is straight forward.

The game is listed as being a final in 6 innings. 1 pitch was thrown in the 6th (the top half even). Last I remember, when you can't complete a half inning, it doesn't count (erased from existence). But the line score has Atlanta scoring 0 in the top of the 6th, and X's after that, indicating half innings never played (ala a home team winning without needing the bottom of the 9th). The pitching lines say Pelfrey 5.0 innings, Valdes 0.0 innings. Valdes, 1 pitch, 1 strike, 0 batters faced. Look for yourself.

Shouldn't that 1 pitch of the incomplete top of the 6th not have counted? Especially since the at-bat was never completed. That would have made the game a final in 5 complete innings, Pelfrey pitching all 5 innings gets a Complete game win. That one pitch cost Pelfrey the "complete" game.

But at least the Mets are giving fans with tickets a rain check anyway. That's gotta be good for those who couldn't sell their ticket (Sunday 8pm games are not ideal, and impending rain makes it even less ideal, unless it's October) but never went and never shed their ticket. I wonder if ESPN has a concession for those that had to sit through the ESPN broadcast with the sound up (or for that matter, without adjusting their TV set to crop that stupid "bottom line" that ESPN insists on showing). I at least go with the WFAN broadcast and deal with the delays.



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