Why does cliff lee pinch run

Thome struck out and the Phillies failed to score; Antonio Bastardo relieved Lee and in the span of four batters, lost the game , though to be fair, an error by Ty Wigginton helped lead to the loss. It was the seventh game played in a season that's just two weeks old.

That would put baseball on pace for about 90 such games in There were just 52 of them in Something tells me this isn't the last time in that a pitcher will throw more than nine innings in a game; we could be having another blooming.

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Why would I be nervous? The Phillies acquired Lee that July in a trade-deadline deal with Cleveland. He joined the team two days later in San Francisco and made his Phillies debut on a Friday night against the Giants. He threw a complete game -- just like he would do against the Yankees. But he dominated the Giants -- six strikeouts and one run -- in an unusual way.

Lee threw his cutter for a career-high He pitched an unbelievable game. Lee went with a 3. He pitched three complete games. The left hander, Bruntlett said, was a difference maker. That was the end of his military service.

Roy went back to baseball, although his grip was weak due to his wrist injury. Once again, he hit for power but struck out inordinately often. In January he was involved in a truck crash and suffered a broken collarbone.

Trying to come back too soon, he reinjured it, bringing his playing career to an end. Charlie Finley had many innovative ideas as owner of the Athletics.

One of these was to include on the roster a player just to pinch-run. Lewis did well enough to earn a promotion to the Florida State League in , which would be his home for most of the next five seasons. Although he maintained a good batting average there. During the winters, he would return home to Panama and play in the winter league there. In he made the Florida State League all-star team, stealing 76 bases.

Earlier pinch-runners rarely stole bases but that was what Lewis was there for. In 28 pinch-running appearances in , he stole 14 bases in 19 attempts. In his minor-league career his success rate was greater than 80 percent. In Panama that winter, he led the league with a. Allan never really won the acceptance of his Oakland teammates; many thought his roster spot should have gone to a more complete player. Although he was caught stealing both times that he tried running on Johnny Bench, he did score the tying run in Game 4 and the final run in their win in Game 7.

He also scored a big run in the League Championship Series. His teammates voted him only a one-tenth share of their World Series money; meanwhile, he was voted the most popular player on Birmingham by their fans.

Born August 25, , in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, where his father owned a service station. As a junior and again as a senior, he was third-team All-American. Following his graduation in , he signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles organization and played for Aberdeen in the Northern League. Wallace led the league with a. Following the season, he was claimed by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first-year player draft. Failing to make the Cardinals, he was sold back to the Orioles, who sent him to Elmira in the Eastern League.

Playing mostly second base, he was named to the league all-star team and that fall was drafted again, this time by the New York Yankees. He also finished as runner-up for the Silver Glove award at shortstop for the second straight year. Then in he was optioned to Seattle, where as team MVP he helped the Angels to their first pennant in 11 years.

That offseason saw him drafted for the third time, with Wallace becoming a member of the California Angels. Staying with the Angels for the first two months of the season, he saw action in 23 games, in 14 of them as a pinch-runner. However, he failed a couple of times. The previous day he was caught stealing home for the last out of the game, and on May 30 he failed to tag up in time to score the tying run in the eighth inning. On June 5, the Angels returned him to the minor leagues.

Late that season, the Angels sent him to the Mets to complete an earlier deal for Hawk Taylor. Having advanced to the position of assistant principal by , in he was unable to return to playing until June, after the school year ended. Barely a month later, he retired from baseball, turning full-time to his career in education.

Herman Hill spent parts of two seasons with the Minnesota Twins, mainly as a pinch-runner. Just as he seemed on the verge of breaking out of that role, tragedy struck.

Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on October 12, , one of 13 children, Herman Alexander Hill signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in After struggling his first year in the Gulf Coast League, Hill made the necessary adjustments and in became a Florida State League all-star. Stealing 58 bases in 68 attempts, Herman led the league in on-base average.

He started the next season in the Carolina League and quickly earned a promotion to the Southern League. He got into 16 games for them, 13 as a pinch-runner, scoring four runs.

Hill, a left-handed-hitting outfielder, was once timed at 9. In the winter, he played for Caguas in Puerto Rico. He spent three weeks with Minnesota, getting into 14 games, playing center field and pinch-hitting as well as pinch-running, but a. In September he was back with the Twins and this time was used mainly as a pinch-runner. After the season, the Twins, looking to bolster their bullpen, traded Hill and a minor-leaguer to the st.

Once again, Hill played winter ball, this time for Magallanes in Venezuela. On a day off there, Herman went swimming with his wife and some of his teammates. A powerful wave pulled him out to sea and, although the others tried to rescue him, one nearly dying in the attempt, Hill drowned.

He was the third career pinch-runner to meet that fate. John Robert Gamble Jr. Gamble played that summer and the next in the Pioneer League. He stole only 8 bases in those two seasons, but for Daytona Beach in the Florida State League in he swiped 38 in 46 tries. After a brief stint in the California League in , he spent the balance of that season and all of the next back with Daytona Beach, where he started playing third base. Although he had only a. In September he was called up by the Tigers and got into six games with them, four as a pinch-runner.

In he was back in Toledo but was recalled by the Tigers in mid-May. Gamble scored the winning run in his first game back as a pinch-runner with Detroit. The Tigers used him six more times, always as a pinch-runner, before returning him to the minor leagues. Perhaps the greatest pinch-runner in history, Matt Alexander pinch-ran times, stealing 91 bases and scoring 89 runs, all records. He was born Matthew Alexander Jr.

At Bethune High School, he was an all-city basketball player and also pitched on the baseball team. His senior year, , he helped them to the Louisiana State AAA Championship, getting two pitching wins in the playoffs, including one against Vida Blue. Matt played baseball at Grambling State University, making the all-conference team twice, and was later named to the Southwest Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.

Chosen by the Chicago Cubs in the second round of the June amateur draft after his junior year, Matt started his professional career in the Pioneer League.

Alexander made the all-star team as a second baseman there, although he stole only two bases. At this point, he served two years in the navy. On returning to civilian life, he went back to the Texas League, where he stole 38 bases in 41 attempts.

Alexander was promoted to AAA in and got his first taste of the major leagues in August, seeing action in 12 games for the Cubs, mostly as a pinch-runner. The following season he was with the Cubs most of the year, getting a chance to play third base when Bill Madlock was hurt, but eventually a pulled leg muscle slowed him down.

Since he was out of options, the Cubs sent him outright to Wichita after the season. Matt, who replaced Washington on the Oakland roster, was a switch-hitter who could play both infield and outfield and was a smart runner as well. Out of baseball, he started attending barber college back home in Shreveport. When rosters expanded in September , though, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed him, and he would be with them on and off through the season.

Although once again used mainly as a pinch-runner, Matt came through when asked to hit, going 12 for 27 with the Bucs. When the Pirates released him, he continued his playing career in the Mexican League. In , at the age of 36, Matt proved he could still run, stealing a league-record 73 bases.

He played a few more years in Mexico and then retired. Hopkins was born January 9, , in West Point, Mississippi. He starred in four sports at Benton Harbor High School. Hopkins helped the baseball team to the Michigan state championship; he also ran a 9. After high school, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Montreal Expos. Here he first showed his ability as a base stealer. Despite garnering only 39 hits in at-bats, he stole a league-leading 39 bases.

The following year, he set a New York-Pennsylvania League record with 63 stolen bases. Hopkins was thrown out only 9 times in 70 games. He split between the Florida State and Eastern Leagues, stealing an additional 58 bases, including 5 in one game for Quebec City. In he finally showed some promise with the bat, managing a. The idea was to have another runner who, like Allan Lewis, could be used in the field and could hit when needed.

However, the reality was that Hopkins rarely did either, playing only 10 innings in the outfield and getting only 8 plate appearances in his 82 games in After one more year in AAA, his playing career came to an end. A shortstop, he spent his first two years in professional ball in the short-season Northwest League.

However, he had only seven extra base hits in at-bats. He spent the next two seasons in the California League, reaching base at a good rate but showing almost no power. Woodard shifted to second base during the season. In , teamed with Rickey Henderson on Modesto, Woodard stole a remarkable 90 bases in 97 attempts, while Henderson added a league-leading 95 steals.

In his first game, on August 6, he scored the winning run as a pinch-runner. Darrell got into 33 games with Oakland, 22 as a pinch-runner. He also saw action at second base and even once at third but failed to get a hit in nine at-bats. As a pinch-runner, his success was mixed, being thrown out stealing four times in seven attempts but also scoring nine times. Miami won both halves of the abbreviated season; when the league ceased play on June 30, Woodard joined Midland in the Texas League before finishing the year with Wichita in the American Association.

Unlike Clemente, however, he never became a star. He was signed for the Pittsburgh Pirates by legendary scout Howie Haak in That year he played games in the Western Carolinas League, stealing 37 bases in 49 attempts.

However, he would never playas many as games in any subsequent season. Repeated injuries, some of which the Pirates suspected were not serious enough to keep him out of the lineup, limited his playing time.

The one guy who might not be impressed by his effort is teammate Roy Halladay, who did it twice while with the Toronto Blue Jays. In , Halladay pitched a inning shutout against the Detroit Tigers. He allowed only three hits, struck out five and walked no one. In , Halladay got the Tigers again for 10 innings.

At least this time, Detroit scored a run on him with a solo homer by Magglio Ordonez. As if it weren't amazing enough that Halladay twice went 10 innings against the Tigers, the same pitcher took the loss for Detroit in both games. Fernando Rodney was tagged with the loss in each game, pitching a poor inning of relief. Also in , Aaron Harang pitched 10 innings for the Cincinnati Reds.