By Jason Beck
SportsLine Staff Writer

The grand old game

If it seems like more broadcasters are referring to grand salamis these days, it's not because delicatessens are starting to see baseball games as an advertising cash cow. Pitchers are filling the bases, then watching them empty at a record pace thanks to the grand slam. Once a rarity to see in a game, players are hitting them a couple times a game -- or an inning, in the case of the Cardinals' Fernando Tatis last month.

The slamming Martinezes -- New York's Tino and Seattle's Edgar -- bumped the season total to 51 entering Wednesday evening with their afternoon homers. With little more than a quarter of the season complete, baseball is on a pace to obliterate the regular-season record of 141 grand slams set in 1996. It's a pace that'll make cries of diluted pitching even stronger.

The American League would be hard pressed to match its 14-team mark of 8,592 bases on balls set in 1996. Appropriately, 81 of that year's record-setting grand slams came from the American League. That's an average of about 3.8 walks per team per game.

The argument against the walks-to-grannies relationship came the year after the record. Only 98 grand slams were hit in 1997, including a plummeting total of 51 in the American League. Bases on balls also took a dive in the AL that year. However, while walks rose in the National League, the grand slams didn't.

The solution: Pitchers need to give up more solo home runs. They're far less embarrassing.

Perfect loss

Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix picked up baseball's ultimate raw deal 40 years ago Wednesday when he pitched a perfect game for 12 innings and lost in the 13th. But while he's the only player to throw a perfect game in defeat, he has company on the list of great pitching performances which went for naught.

Haddix's effort was originally considered a nine-inning perfect game before Major League Baseball changed its requirements for perfect games and no-hitters. Pitchers needed to maintain the no-hitter or perfect outing for the duration of the game and at least nine innings. Thus, Haddix's effort was no longer considered a perfect game.

After the rules change, former Yankee pitcher Andy Hawkins and ex-Red Sox hurler Matt Young pitched themselves into anti-history when they threw eight innings of no-hit baseball and lost. Since they were the visiting pitchers, the home team didn't have to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Young performed the feat on opening weekend of 1992 in chilly Cleveland. Hawkins did it in 1990.

Five other pitchers in major-league history have taken no-hitters into extra innings and lost. The most recent incident happened on July 26, 1991, when Montreal's Mark Gardner blanked the Dodgers for nine innings before allowing two hits in the 10th. Reliever Jeff Fassero then entered and allowed the game-winning hit.

Cincinnati's Jim Maloney lost his no-hitter, shutout and decision all in one swing on June 14, 1965. He tossed 10 hitless innings before the Mets' Johnny Lewis homered. Maloney lost the game, 1-0.

Even more numbers

3 -- Double plays started by Arizona catcher Damian Miller in Tuesday's 4-0 win over San Diego, tying a major-league record set by J. Shanty Hogan of the New York Giants on Aug. 19, 1931.

3 -- Players to homer out of Dodger Stadium, including Mark McGwire's mammoth blast over the weekend. Former Pirate Willie Stargell did it twice, in 1969 and 1973. Mike Piazza is the only Dodger to send one out of the park.

3 -- Batters hit by Marlins pitcher Ryan Dempster Saturday against the Pirates, one short of the single-game record held by 17 players. Tom Candiotti last tied the mark with the Dodgers on Sept. 13, 1997. But should it really count if he plunks players with a knuckleball?

6 -- Single-season record for grand slams set by Don Mattingly in 1987. No one has more than two this season.