On October 3, 2012.00 Fernando Rodney extends his franchise record to 48 saves when he is brought in to face Jim Thome and gets the DH to hit a fly ball for the final out in the Rays’ 4-1 victory over Baltimore at Tropicana Field. The right-handed closer, who has allowed only five earned runs…
On October 3, 2012.00 Dan Johnson goes deep three times for the White Sox. Before Longoria and Johnson had their three-homer days, only two players had ended their team’s season with three-homer contests: Gus Zernial and Richie Allen.
Adam Dunn, having struck out 222 times, doesn’t play in the team’s finale to avoid the dubious distinction of breaking the major league mark for strikeouts in a season. The White Sox All-Star finishes with one less whiff than Mark Reynolds’ record, established by the first baseman in 2009 when he played for the Diamondbacks.
In his last appearance of the season, Mets’ 20-game winner R.A. Dickey whiffs eight Miami batters to end the campaign with 230 strikeouts, the most in the National League. The 37 year-old knuckleballer did not foresee the possibility of this occurrence when he wrote the opening lines of Wherever I Wind Up, his autobiography released in March, sharing with his readers, “I will never be a Hall of Famer and will never lead the league in strikeouts,” unaware that he would accomplish the feat in the near future.
In a matchup of 100-loss teams, only the second occurrence in major league history, the Astros (55-105) beat the Cubs (60-100) at Wrigley Field, 3-0. In 1962, the woeful 58-101 Chicago club played host to the expansion Mets, sporting a 39-118 record en route to setting the all-time modern era record for futility.
On the penultimate day of the regular season, the Yankees maintain their one-game lead over the Orioles in the AL East when Raul Ibanez homers off Boston’s Andrew Miller in the bottom of the 12th inning to give New York a 4 – 3 win. Earlier, the Orioles had defeated the Rays, 1 – 0, when Chris Davis homered for the sixth straight game, tying a club record, with a solo shot off James Shields in the 4th inning. Shields sets a Tampa Bay franchise record by striking out 15 opponents in the loss.
The Cardinals back into a wild card slot in the National League after losing 3 – 1 to the Reds, but seeing the Dodgers also lose, 3 – 2, to the Giants.
The Athletics tie the Rangers for the AL West lead with a 3 – 1 win over Texas for their fifth straight victory. Oakland trailed the Rangers by 13 games on June 30th, but now have a chance to win the division outright as the two teams face each other one final time tomorrow.
Seven years after being beaned on the first pitch he saw in his only career plate appearance, derailing a promising career, Adam Greenberg gets a chance to bat again in the major leagues. The Miami Marlins send him up to pinch-hit in the 6th inning against the Mets’ R.A. Dickey. He strikes out on three pitches from the knuckleballer, but the crowd cheers wildly as his story of perseverance has made him a hero to many.
The Astros top the Cubs in the first match-up of 100-loss teams since 1962. Bud Norris and four relievers hold Chicago to four hits (two by Starlin Castro) in the contest of sad-sack clubs.
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