But the Dodgers have done it (well, tied it): they won their twelfth straight home game to start the season to equal the ML record set by the 1911 Tigers. Andre Ethier broke out of a 0-game slump with two hits, and the rest of the offense...well, they didn't do that much, but thanks to Jeff Weaver's five solid innings they didn't need to. Yep, Jeff Weaver's five solid innings.
Frankly, it was still a little jarring to see Weaver actually making a start for the Dodgers four years after his last one. Sure, the guy pitched pretty okay in blue for two years (with an ERA+ just around 100 in 444 innings), but he was always generally known more for his shitty attitude on the mound and his likeness to an escaped mental patient than his actual pitching. And of course, Weaver's career went straight to hell after he left Chavez Ravine following the 2005 season, as he combined to go 15-27 with a 5.96 ERA from 2006-2007 and then not pitch at all in the majors in 2008. It's a damn shame that a guy who was once thought of as one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball is now barely hanging onto the fifth starter spot in one of baseball's shakiest rotations, but he's definitely got staying power if he keeps pitching like this. He must have used thirty different arm angles on his delivery throughout the game, and somehow that worked as the Dbacks managed just five hits off him.
Ramon Troncoso, Will Ohman, Ronald Belisario, and Jonathon Broxton combined to pitch four scoreless innings in relief of Weaver to preserve the 3-1 win, while Olmedo Saenz hit a pinch-hit home run and Hee Seop Choi struck out six times. Tomorrow, with the Dodgers going for the all-time home winning streak record, Wilson Alvarez will get the start with Cesar Izturis leading off and J.D. Drew batting cleanup. I just hope Jim Tracy doesn't leave Alvarez in 3 innings after it's clear that he's done.
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The Tigers’ record for the season was 21-2 when they suffered their first home loss. It came on May 10 to the New York Highlanders, 6-2.
• Helped by the big start, the Tigers led the American League for 113 days in 1911. Yet they finished 13 1/2 games behind the first-place Philadelphia Athletics.
• The Tigers finished 51-25 at home. That means they were 39-25 at home after the undefeated start.
• For the season, the Tigers went 12-10 against the A’s. They had a winning record against every AL club except one. They faltered against the Highlanders, the forerunner of the Yankees. The Tigers were 7-15 against them.
So even before New York became the Yankees or won its first AL pennant, it helped deprive the Tigers of a pennant.
• Ty Cobb had perhaps his greatest season in 1911. He hit .420 to win the batting title, but that was just the start.
Cobb also led the league in runs (147), hits (248), doubles (47), triples (24), RBIs (127) and stolen bases (83). He missed his second Triple Crown because he finished second in the homer race to the A’s Frank Baker. Cobb hit eight homers, three fewer than Baker in that particular season in the dead-ball era.
Baker then hit two crucial late-inning homers as the A’s won that year’s World Series over the Giants. He became “Home Run Baker.”
But our topic today is home, not homers. If the Dodgers win tonight, they will to break the 1911 Tigers’ record with their 13th straight home win to launch the season.
The Dodgers’ opponent tonight will be Washington.
Unlike the times that Ty Cobb and the 1911 Tigers had to face Washington, the 2009 Dodgers know one thing: Walter Johnson won’t be pitching against them.
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