Clark Scores Only Run As Giants Clip Expos 1-0

Roger Metzger’s two-out single to center in the top of the seventh sent Jack Clark home from second with the tie-breaking run, and John Montefusco shut down the Expos the rest of the way to collect his third shutout of the season, as the visiting Giants captured a close 1-0 game from the Expos at Montreal.

To read more about the game, and to check out some cool photos and make some cool comments, click here.

Dodgers End July With Best Record In Majors

The Los Angeles Dodgers wrapped up July with a 17-11 won-lost mark and a four-game winning streak, which not only put them two games ahead of the second-place Padres in the NL West, but gave them a 66-37 record for the season, which in turn was the best record of all 26 teams in the major leagues as the SP78 campaign headed into August. Surprisingly, this was accomplished without the full-time services of Triple Crown contender Reggie Smith, who was limited to just 18 games played after a shoulder injury knocked him out of action for two weeks during the second half of the month.

Helping the Dodgers cause were starting right-hander Burt Hooton, who went 4-0 in July with a 2.22 earned run average and twenty strikeouts, and bullpen ace Terry Forster, who collected five saves while limiting opposing batters to just five hits and one run over nine games, good for a 0.85 ERA. Also making an impact on the mound was rookie Bob Welch, who successfully converted from reliever to starter in July and went 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA in five starts.

At the plate, Smith led LA with a .408 average, eight home runs, and 23 RBI. Lopes’ 34 hits led the team, while Ron Cey was tops in the NL with eleven doubles. However, the most jaw-dropping stat again belongs to Smith, who has an SP78-leading seven 2-HR games this season, to go along with his 37 home runs and 90 runs batted in. The month also saw an old-timer’s game played between the ’62 Dodgers and ’62 Giants, a 7-inning contest won by LA 10-5 in front of a nostalgic crowd at Dodger Stadium.

To see the Dodgers stat page for July, click here. And remember, the boxes for league leaders, team rankings, and award totals have been purposely left blank; these figures will be added after all NL team statistics have been finalized, and July award winners have been picked.

 

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July Stats Up for Resurgent Reds

The Cincinnati Reds enjoyed their best month of the SP78 campaign in July, going 17-11 and finishing the month in fourth place in the NL West, 3½ games ahead of the fifth-place Astros, but no closer to the division-leading Dodgers than they were on June 30th, when they were 16½ games back. In head-to-head match-ups, the Reds went 10-2 against the Mets and Expos of the NL East, but sadly will face neither team in August; instead, they’ll meet up with the red-hot Padres and Pirates—who are a combined 10-2 against Cincinnati in SP78—a total of 13 times that month.

Individually, third baseman Pete Rose was tied for the National League lead in hits for July with 45, and his .378 average for the season ranks him among the NL batting leaders. Bullpen ace Doug Bair led relief pitchers with nine saves and 16 mound appearances, good for a 0.68 ERA for the month and a 1.35 mark for the year, while reliever Pedro Borbon went 3-0 in ten games (and this despite a 4.63 ERA over those ten games). On the negative side, catcher Johnny Bench had four passed balls in July—including three in one game—to bring his season total to nine, the most he’s had in one year since he fumbled that same amount back in 1970.

Also, the new stolen base/caught stealing stat box, which shows separate SB and CS totals for each player, is now available on all Reds stat pages (including July), as well as those for the Braves and Cubs. Click here to see all Cincinnati statistics for July, and when doing so keep in mind that some stats—such as league leaders, award winners, and team batting and pitching rankings—will not be available until all team stats for the month have been finalized.

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AL Award Winners for June Announced

With work underway on compiling and updating American League stats through the month of June, it’s now time to reveal the AL award winners for the month. Like those in the National League, these players are the same who were announced as winning their respective awards back in 2001, after the June games had wrapped up. New to the list are winners for the three newly-created award categories: the Crystal Slugger Award (individual slugging percentage leader), the Barnes Memorial Trophy (highest batting average for the month), and the Bradley Memorial Trophy (lowest ERA for the month).

NL Award Winners for June Announced

If you’ve ever received issues of TWISP Notes, or own one of two existing copies of the SP78 June Stat Guide, then you already know that I first announced the June award winners back in 2001. But I didn’t want to post the names of these players on the SP78 site until I’d completed re-analyzing the June stats, and now that I’ve done that, and am ready to start posting those stats, I figured I’d finally present those award winners now. As for the AL awards, I’ll announce those recipients after all the June stats for the NL have been posted.