Five days remain in the 2021 MLB regular season and a handful of postseason races are coming down to the wire. Several postseason spots remain up for grabs, most notably the two AL wild card spots, but seeding is on the line as well. Lots of teams still have lots to play for these last few days.
Our weekly series examining various trends across baseball continues with a look at one contender's great under-the-radar pickup, one team's dominance of an individual pitcher, and one team's inability to sweep. Last week we examined Adam Duvall's potentially unique 40-homer season, Kyle Tucker's breakout, and A's pitchers breaking records.
Wade coming up clutch for Giants
During his time as Dodgers GM, Farhan Zaidi had a knack for finding hidden gems in other organizations. Chris Taylor was his most notable under-the-radar pickup, though there were countless others over the years. That ability to turn lower-profile pickups into key contributors continues to be a major factor in Los Angeles sitting at or near the top of the standings each year.
The ability to find hidden gems has followed Zaidi north to the Giants. He took over as the club's president of baseball operations three years ago and has gotten San Francisco back into contention without rebuilding. Players like Darin Ruf, Donovan Solano, and Mike Yastrzemski have contributed greatly to the team's return to prominence the last three seasons.
Zaidi's biggest find with the Giants -- his version of Taylor with San Francisco -- is LaMonte Wade Jr. The Giants acquired Wade from the Twins in an offseason trade and only had to give up righty reliever Shaun Anderson to get him. Anderson allowed 12 runs in 8 2/3 innings with Minnesota and has since bounced to the Rangers, Orioles, and Padres on waivers.
The 27-year-old Wade was good but not great prospect with the Twins, standing out mostly for his batting eye in the minors. He made some swing changes over the winter that helped him tap into his power, and he took a .259/.334/.498 batting line and 18 home runs in 362 plate appearances into Tuesday's game. Wade never hit more than 11 homers in a minor-league season.
Lamonte Wade said he was "used to just being back and stuck on my backside" and revamped his swing with "a new move of going forward."
— parker hageman (@HagemanParker) July 28, 2021
New swing resulted in some changes:
exit velocity (85.0 in 2020➡️90.4 in 2021)
launch angle (15 in 2020➡️18 in 2021)
pull rate (37%➡️50%) pic.twitter.com/aS4D4PlgQA
Beyond the raw stats, Wade has been outrageously clutch this season. He went into Tuesday's game hitting .373/.403/.642 with runners in scoring position, and he is 15 for 27 (.556) in the ninth inning and later. Five times since the All-Star break Wade has either tied the game or given the Giants the lead with a ninth-inning hit. Five times!
Win probability added is yet another attempt to measure a player's contributions to his team. If a team has a 50 percent chance to win, and a hit improves their chances to 60 percent, the player is credited with 10 percent, or 0.10 win probability added. Add up all those events throughout the season and you can build a leaderboard. Piece of cake, right?
Wade currently ranks 10th in the majors in win probability added (3.41) despite ranking 203rd in plate appearances. He's ahead of MVP candidates and bona fide superstars like Nick Castellanos (3.33) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (3.17) in far less playing time. Wade's hits have been insanely impactful. He's been a legitimate difference-maker.
The Giants lost Brandon Belt, the team leader with 29 home runs, to a broken thumb earlier this week. Wade is a corner outfielder and first baseman, and he'll likely step in at first base permanently to replace Belt. He's shown he can produce in a postseason race and an increase in playing time will equal more opportunities to have an impact.
Mariners' mastery of Irvin
All things considered, 2021 is a successful season for Athletics lefty Cole Irvin. Oakland claimed the 27-year-old off waivers from the Phillies in January and he's rewarded them with 31 almost exactly league average starts (98 ERA+). When you're in Irvin's position, and you're not yet established in the big leagues, all you want is an opportunity, and the A's gave him one.
The season overall has gone well for Irvin. His five starts against the Mariners? Not so much. Irvin went a not-so-perfect 0-5 in five starts against Seattle, and gave up 19 runs in 19 2/3 innings. The Mariners hit .385/.451/.516 against him, so Irvin essentially turned every Mariners batter he faced into a MVP-caliber hitter. Seattle tagged him for five runs in three innings Monday.
"Baseball has a way of humbling itself, and to be honest, it goes back to the comments I made earlier in the season. They're hungry every time they face me. They want to beat me into the ground and they did that every time I faced them," Irvin told reporters, including NBC Sports Bay Area's Ali Thanawalla, after Monday's game. "... I deserve the beating I've been getting by them all season long and I just haven't been able to figure it out."
The "comments I made earlier in the season" Irvin mentioned were made on May 25, after the Mariners tagged him for four runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. "I think at the end of the day just pitch execution needs to be a lot better, and a team like that should not be putting up 10 hits against me or anyone," Irvin said, which the Mariners have apparently used for bulletin board material.
Anyway, Irvin is 0-5 in five starts against the Mariners this season. He is only the fifth pitcher in the last 33 years to make at least five starts against an opponent, and lose every one of them. The other four:
- Félix Hernández, Mariners vs. Athletics in 2018: 0-5 with a 5.60 ERA in five starts
- Chris Archer, Rays vs. Red Sox in 2016: 0-5 with a 5.86 ERA in five starts
- Joel Pineiro, Mariners vs. Athletics in 2006: 0-5 ERA with a 10.80 ERA in five starts
- Tony Armas Jr., Expos vs. Marlins in 2001: 0-5 and 6.65 ERA in five starts
Hernández and Pineiro each made a relief appearance against the A's in those seasons (Félix actually won his), though we're only looking at starts here. Five starts against a single opponent, five losses. The last player to do it prior to Armas was Tom Glavine. He went 0-5 with a 7.33 ERA in five starts against the Dodgers in 1988, his second year in the big leagues with the Braves.
Mercifully, Irvin will not get a chance to go 0-6 against the Mariners this year seeing how the season ends this weekend. The last pitcher to go 0-6 against any opponent, regardless of role or number of appearances, was Hall of Famer Phil Niekro in 1977. He went 0-6 with a 4.86 ERA in six starts against the Reds in 1975. Niekro of course pitched for Atlanta at the time.
To Irvin's credit, he's been really good against every team that isn't the Mariners this season. He has a 8.69 ERA in five starts against the Mariners and a 3.60 ERA in 26 starts against every other team. Games against the Mariners count though, and Irvin's lack of success against Seattle is one reason Oakland is likely to miss the postseason (and the Mariners are still in the race).
Pirates close to sweep-less season
As expected, the Pirates are one of the worst teams in baseball this season. They're relatively early in their rebuild and are likely to lose 100 games for the first time since 2010, and only the eighth time in franchise history.
The Pirates are also likely to finish the season with zero sweeps. Not one. They've played 50 series this season and have not swept a single one. Not even a little two-gamer. On 15 occasions the Pirates were in position to sweep a series, but lost the finale. They've been close on a number of occasions.
Pittsburgh's closest call came last weekend against the Marlins. The Pirates were one strike -- one strike! -- away from the sweep-clinching win when Bryan De La Cruz stroked a game-tying single. Then, after taking the lead in the 10th, the Pirates lost on a Lewin Díaz two-run walk-off homer. So close to a sweep!
Sweep-less seasons aren't that uncommon, especially in the tanking/rebuild era. We see a sweep-less season every few years. The last team to go sweep-less in a full 162-game season was the 2019 Orioles. They went 54-108 overall and on six occasions they were in position to sweep a series, only to lose the finale. The 2021 Pirates at least had 15 chances to sweep, not six. Geez.
The regular season ends this week and the Pirates have just two more chances to secure a sweep. They won their series opener against the Cubs on Tuesday, so two more wins will do against Chicago. If that doesn't pan out, then it comes down to this weekend's series against the Reds. It's now or never for the Pirates. A sweep-less season is on the line.
