Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
As Fox returned to the postseason broadcasting schedule tonight, I finally appreciated the hacks at TBS. McCarver and Buck stopped watching the actually game even before it got out of hand in the fifth. The Fox crew was more interested in who would be starting game four for the rest of the game than they were in the rest of the game. Buck makes Chip Caray's nepotism seem much more palatable.
No one on Fox questioned leaving Sabathia in to soak up eight runs in under five innings except insofar as it would affect game four. While they were recounting the connections that Indians manager Eric Wedge has with the Red Sox, they missed the fact that Wedge was prepared to hand the game over to the Red Sox without so much as a "By your leave" with none out in the fifth. Why question sticking with an ineffective ace considering it's not the playoffs or anything?
Meanwhile, some random stats as the Rockies and D-Backs get underway:
The Rockies are just the 11th team in baseball history to finish the season at 13-1 or better in their last 14. Just three others have done it since 1891, and of those just one won the World Series, the '65 Dodgers. The 1960 Yankees are the only team to finish the season with fourteen straight wins, but they had a very interesting swan song in the Series. Here are all of them:
| Yr | Tm | W | L | Last 14 W | Last 14 L | POS | Won Div? | Won Lg? | Won WS? | PO W | PO L |
| 1960 | New York Yankees | 97 | 57 | 14 | 0 | 1 | Y | N | 3 | 4 | |
| 1974 | Baltimore Orioles | 91 | 71 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | N | N | 1 | 3 |
| 1965 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 97 | 65 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | Y | 4 | 3 | |
| 1891 | Boston Beaneaters | 87 | 51 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | ||||
| 1887 | Philadelphia Quakers | 75 | 48 | 13 | 0 | 2 | N | N | |||
| 1883 | Boston Beaneaters | 63 | 35 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | ||||
| 1882 | Chicago White Stockings | 55 | 29 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | ||||
| 1877 | Boston Red Caps | 42 | 18 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y | ||||
| 1875 | Boston Red Stockings | 71 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 1 | Y |
Colorado is also just the 53rd team to go 18-1 at any point in the season. None of the teams above can claim that. Here are all the teams to do it in the last 100 seasons:
| Yr | Tm | W | L | Pos | Won Div? | Won Lg? | Won WS? |
| 2006 | Minnesota Twins | 96 | 66 | 1 | Y | N | N |
| 2002 | Oakland Athletics | 103 | 59 | 1 | Y | N | N |
| 1991 | Minnesota Twins | 95 | 67 | 1 | Y | Y | Y |
| 1988 | Boston Red Sox | 89 | 73 | 1 | Y | N | N |
| 1988 | Oakland Athletics | 104 | 58 | 1 | Y | Y | N |
| 1986 | New York Mets | 108 | 54 | 1 | Y | Y | Y |
| 1977 | Kansas City Royals | 102 | 60 | 1 | Y | N | N |
| 1977 | Philadelphia Phillies | 101 | 61 | 1 | Y | N | N |
| 1963 | St. Louis Cardinals | 93 | 69 | 2 | N | N | |
| 1961 | Chicago White Sox | 86 | 76 | 4 | N | N | |
| 1953 | New York Yankees | 99 | 52 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1947 | New York Yankees | 97 | 57 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1941 | New York Yankees | 101 | 53 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1939 | New York Yankees | 106 | 45 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1936 | New York Giants | 92 | 62 | 1 | Y | N | |
| 1935 | Chicago Cubs | 100 | 54 | 1 | Y | N | |
| 1935 | St. Louis Cardinals | 96 | 58 | 2 | N | N | |
| 1931 | Philadelphia Athletics | 107 | 45 | 1 | Y | N | |
| 1930 | Washington Senators | 94 | 60 | 2 | N | N | |
| 1917 | Chicago White Sox | 100 | 54 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1916 | New York Giants | 86 | 66 | 4 | N | N | |
| 1913 | New York Giants | 101 | 51 | 1 | Y | N | |
| 1913 | Philadelphia Athletics | 96 | 57 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1911 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 85 | 69 | 3 | N | N | |
| 1909 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 110 | 42 | 1 | Y | Y | |
| 1908 | New York Giants | 98 | 56 | 3 | N | N |
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