Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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California Angels at Chicago White Sox, Comiskey Park, Chicago, IL
September 17, 1989

Introduction

My series of random game stories returns to 1989 for the second time, this time to the South Side of Chicago where the last-place Chicago White Sox hosted the second-place California Angels. The White Sox were going nowhere, mostly just playing out the string. But the Angels had come into Chicago on a five-game winning streak. That had ended with a double-header split the day before, but the Angels had pulled within 2-1/2 games of the first-place Oakland A's with two weeks left in the season.

The starting pitching matchup for the game was Mike Witt (8-13, 4.57 ERA) versus Eric King (8-9, 3.38 ERA).

First Inning

The game almost started out extremely well for the Angels as leadoff hitter Brian Downing hit a fly ball to deep right field. But White Sox right fielder Daryl Boston tracked it down for the first out.

The next six batters hit ground balls, five ground outs and an infield single by Devon White and the first inning was over.

Second Inning

The top of the second inning was no more eventful than the first inning had been. Claudell Washington walked but got no further.

The bottom of the second inning started out slow as Greg Walker struck out but then things started to happen. Daryl Boston singled to right field. Dave Gallagher did the same with Boston moving to third base. The next batter, Robin Ventura, playing in his fifth major-league game, hit a sacrifice fly, and the White Sox had a 1-0 lead.

Third Inning

The Angels threatened to undo the White Sox lead in the third inning. Downing hit a one-out double, followed by a Mark McLemore walk. But Devon White lined out and Wally Joyner grounded out and the inning was over.

The bottom of the third inning was uneventful outside of a two-out single by Scott Fletcher.

Fourth Inning

King continued his strong performance in the top of the fourth inning with two quick outs. Lance Parrish singled to center field. Jack Howell singled to left field and King looked like he might be in a bit of trouble. Still, he only needed one out to get out of the inning.

Eric King would never get that third out.

• Kent Anderson singled to right field, scoring Parrish.


• Brian Downing singled to center field, scoring Howell.


• Mark McLemore singled to center field, scoring Anderson.


• And the White Sox went to their bullpen.

Wayne Edwards got Devon White to hit into an inning-ending force play. But it was three runs too late, the Angels led 3-1.

The White Sox didn't just roll over, though. Greg Walker led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. And Daryl Boston followed with another single. Unfortunately, two fly outs (a wild pitch) and a strikeout later, the inning was over and the score was still 3-1.

Fifth Inning

In the top of the fifth inning, Edwards may or may not have struck out the side, depending on your definition of the term. Personally, I would say that he got all three outs in the inning via strikeout but did not strike out the side, as he also allowed singles to Joyner and Parrish.

The White Sox were again able to get the leadoff man on in the bottom of the fifth inning: Ozzie Guillen singling in this case. Guillen advanced to second on a groundout. The next batter, Fletcher, singled to left field, scoring Guillen. Fletcher, however, was thrown out trying to take second base on the throw home, squashing the potential for a bigger rally. But the White Sox had at least closed to within one run, 3-2.

Sixth Inning

Kent Anderson led off the sixth inning against new White Sox pitcher Bill Long by hitting a ground ball to third base. It was a tough play for Ventura, who threw it away, Anderson taking second base on the play, which was scored as a single and a throwing error. Anderson took third base as Brian Downing was grounding out and scored (an unearned run) on a sacrifice fly by Mark McLemore and the Angels pushed their lead to 4-2.

The White Sox came up in the bottom of the sixth inning trailing 4-2. They also came up facing a new pitcher, Bob McClure. Witt had pitched a solid, albeit somewhat unspectacular game, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits in 5 innings without having walked anybody.

McClure started well, getting Ivan Calderon on a pop-up to the catcher. But Carlos Martinez singled to right field and Dave Gallagher followed with a triple to the gap in left-center field and the White Sox had the tying run on third base with only one out. Robin Ventura was pinch hit for at this point by another rookie, Sammy Sosa. Sosa struck out for the second out of the inning. The next batter, pinch hitter Carlton Fisk, was intentionally walked and the strategy worked, as Ozzie Guillen flied to left field to end the inning.

And so, the game moved on to the seventh inning with the Angels clinging to a 4-3 lead.

Seventh Inning

The seventh inning saw the fourth White Sox pitcher of the game, Steve Rosenberg (and four other defensive changes because of the pinch hitting in the previous inning). Rosenberg pitched a 1-2-3 top of the inning with one strikeout. McClure matched him in the bottom of the inning.

Eighth Inning

New inning, new White Sox pitcher: this time Tom McCarthy. The White Sox probably should have let Rosenberg throw another inning. The first batter to face McCarthy was Lance Parrish, who hit the ball over the left field wall for a 5-3 Angels lead. The next two batters hit the ball hard, but for outs. Brian Downing doubled with two outs, but McCarthy finally seemed to settle down at that point and struck out Mark McLemore to end the inning.

The Angels also brought in a new pitcher to pitch the eighth inning, Greg Minton. Minton got the first batter, Calderon, to ground out. But he walked Carlos Martinez and allowed a single to Dave Gallagher. This brought the tying run to the plate and a new pitcher to the mound, Angels closer Bryan Harvey.

Harvey got Sammy Sosa on an infield pop-up. A wild pitch and a walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Harvey struck out Ozzie Guillen and the Angels lead remained 5-3 going into the final inning of the game.

Ninth Inning

The sixth White Sox pitcher, Donn Pall (nicknamed "the Pope" - John Paul II being the Pope at the time), retired the first two batters he faced on groundouts. But he followed up a walk to Chili Davis by allowing a double to Claudell Washington, which scored Davis with the Angels' sixth run of the game. Pall struck out Lance Parrish but the White Sox had only three outs left and a three-run deficit to try to make up.

Bryan Harvey made sure that the White Sox never had a chance: strikeout, groundout, fly out, ballgame. Angels win 6-3.

Game Summary

As measured by Player won-lost records, the most valuable player of this game (as measured by net pWins) was Angels' reliever Bryan Harvey. It is at least somewhat unusual for late-inning relief pitchers to be game-level MVPs, measured in this way, mostly because they tend not to pitch many innings but also because, at least in the modern era, they tend to enter games which their teams are already winning and the players responsible for producing that lead tend to (rightly) get the value for doing so. But calling Harvey the MVP of this game seems reasonable. The White Sox had the tying run on base when Harvey entered the game and Harvey got five outs - including two strikeouts and an infield pop-up - without allowing a run to score. Harvey finished the 1989 season with 25 saves (this was his 23rd), a figure he would match in 1990, before leading the league in saves in 1991 with 46. Two years after that, he would pick up 45 saves as the first closer in the history of the Florida Marlins.

The Angels' win on the 17th was the first of what would become a four-game winning streak. At the end of play on September 20th, the Angels had a record of 89-63, although they still trailed the A's by 2-1/2 games. On September 21st, the Angels lost a 17-inning game to the Cleveland Indians that was the first of six straight losses as the Angels finished the season in third place with a record of 91-71, 8 games behind the eventual World Champion A's.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play