We’ve been lax in reporting the TMR Zoo Double Play contest results lately, but don’t worry, no one has hit the right combo yet. We have had a few “almost, but not quite”s though.

There was no chance we would miss out on posting last week’s score results though, since one of the teams in question put out a truly amazing week. The Seattle Mariners, led by first year phenom Michael Pineda, held opposing batters to only six runs for the entire week. Six games played, six total runs allowed. Pineda deserved credit for a good portion of the effort pitching 14 shutout innings in two winning outings. In fact, Pineda only allowed a total of 6 base runners combined in those two starts. I can’t think of a better way to prevent opposing batters from scoring. Read the rest of this entry »

The first week of our 2011 MLB Double Play and Grand Slam contests are complete and we now know the correct answers to who scored the most runs and who allowed the least to score. As previously mentioned, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who were the most popular answers to BOTH questions. Well… there were involved, but not in a good way.

It was the Milwaukee Brewers who scored the most runs during the week of 4/17 through 4/23, with 43. 18 of those runs came at the hands of the Phillies, with the Brewers scoring 9 runs in a game started by Roy Halladay. Another 20 runs were scored on the Astros over a two game span. Much of the credit for the week goes to Ryan Braun who scored 9 runs himself with 3 home runs an 10 runs batted in. Read the rest of this entry »

The first full week of voting in the TMR-exclusive Double Play and Grand Slam contests is complete and now all you can do is wait for this week to play out so we can see the results… or you could enter your week 4 predictions.

The most popular guesses in the first week of voting, for both offense and pitching, was the Philadelphia Phillies. It is understandable why they are so popular for least runs allowed with that insane starting rotation, but their offense has been dreadful. So far, in the first three games of this week, they’ve scored 3, 3 and 0 runs. To add insult to injury they’ve already given up 17 runs in those three days. The team with the lowest number of runs scored on them will most likely be lower than 17. Better luck next week, guys. Read the rest of this entry »

Make it two for the San Francisco Giants, who held opposing offenses to 10 total runs in a single week’s span for the second week in a row. That makes them this week’s winner in the “least runs allowed” category in out MLB Double Play Contest. You would think the Giants would be on top pretty often in that category with their starting pitching staff, but it is only the third time they have done so in 2010. In that two-week span, the Giants player all NL West rivals with the exception of 2 games against the Brewers to end last weeks.

The top offense for week 23 of the 2010 Major League Baseball season was that of the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies scored 42 runs in six games, also against all NL West teams. They dropped 19 on the Dodgers alone over two games. This was the second time this season that the Rockies scored the most runs in the league in any given week. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the lowest-scoring non-All Star Break week that is. During every week of this contest so far in 2010, the top-scoring team in Major League Baseball has always been above 40, and sometimes as high as 55. In week 18 of the TMR Zoo Double Play Contest, the Boston Red Sox led the league by scoring 38 runs… and it took them 7 games to do it. Since it was a relatively low total, no single player stood out as the MVP run-scorer on the Sox last week.

On the flipside, it was the San Diego Padres finally showing back up in the least runs allowed category. The Padres were the top pitching squad back in week 2, but haven’t made the list since. The Padres only allowed 12 runs to score over 6 games in week 18. Four of those games were against the Diamondbacks and Pirates, two teams who are a combined 51 games out of first. Those two were held to 7 runs in those four games, and then the Pads faced the Giants twice and held them to 5. Read the rest of this entry »

With all the firepower they have on their pitching staff you’d think the San Francisco Giants would top the least runs allowed category for more weeks than they have in 2010. This is only the second time the Giants have topped the list, and they are sharing this honor this week. New to this category and co-winner in week 17 are the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves.

What the Braves did last week, we haven’t seen yet this season… they allowed the least amount of runs to opponents while playing EVERY DAY throughout the statistical week. Usually, a team has one day off in that 7-day span, but the Braves did not have one scheduled. Ironically, the Braves played the co-winning Giants in three games during week 17. The scores were 3-2, 2-3 and 3-0. Atlanta did not allow more than 3 runs in any game played last week. Read the rest of this entry »

Week 15 of the TMR Zoo Double Play Contest saw a few firsts… the Toronto Blue Jays pitchers leading the league in least runs allowed for the week and the Chicago Cubs made their very first leader board in this contest this season.

The Cubs posted two double-digit scores last week to pad their stats… a 11-6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies and a 14-7 drubbing of the Houston Astros. They scored 44 total runs on the week to lead the majors in that category. The Cubbies were assisted by Marlon Byrd’s 4 runs and rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin’s 8… three via the long ball.

Colvin has a quiet 15 homers as the Cubs’ leadoff hitter this season. Keep and eye on him. Read the rest of this entry »

The biggest story in our Double Play Contest over the previous four weeks had been the pitching staff of the Chicago White Sox. In that time span, White Sox pitchers held the opposition to the least runs scored in three of those four weeks. In a week shortened by the All-star break, the Sox turned the tables and scored the most runs in all of baseball with 29 in just 4 games, mostly due to a 15-5 blowout of the perennially-dreadful Royals.

Ironically, in those 4 games, the Chicago pitchers allowed 22 runs to score… when in those three winning weeks mentioned, they allowed at most 13 to cross the plate. And those were 6-game weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

What do I mean the White Sox are the top team? There are four teams in the American League alone that have better records, and two more in the National League. Is this Cletus writing again? Well, if you read the first three words in the title of this article, you’d know I am talking about the TMR Zoo Double Play Contest… of which the White Sox have the most wins by any team in MLB at the All-Star Break.

Since they haven’t scored the most runs in the league during any given week this season, the White Sox have done it all on the backs of their pitchers… much like how their season is going. They finished as the team which allowed the least amount of runs in baseball four times in the first 13 complete weeks of the 2010 Major League Baseball season. Three of those wins came in the last four weeks, so those pitchers are on fire right now. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year it was the San Francisco Giants… the weekly popular pick for the pitching staff most likely to allow the least amount of runs to score. This year, although most of you have not caught on yet, it looks to be the Chicago White Sox. For the second straight week, and third time in the past six weeks, the White Sox were stingy with opposing baserunners. Last week they posted two shutouts and only let in 2 runs per game on two other occasions.

Starters Jake Peavy and Gavin Floyd didn’t allow a run to score in their starts and in his two starts, Freddie Garcia only allowed a combined 5. The White Sox currently stand 4 games over the .500 mark… so those bats better pick up. Read the rest of this entry »

The Tampa Bay Rays have been once again showing the run-scoring ability that propelled them into the 2008 World Series two years ago. During week 9 of our Double Play contest, the Rays scored 9 runs or better in four of the six games they played last week for a grand total of 45. This was in no small part to First Baseman Carlos Peña, who personally scored 10 of those runs with 7 home runs while knocking in 10 of his fellow Rays.

Tampa Bay currently sits in a tie with the New York Yankees atop of the NL East standings.

The New York Mets have also been hot, but on the other side of the ball. Read the rest of this entry »

How do you lead the league in runs scored in any given week? Averaging a little more than 8 runs a game is a good start. This was how the Boston Red Sox won the “most runs cored” category in week 8 of the TMR Zoo Double Play Contest. Marco Scutaro’s 12 runs over six games helped a little too.

The Red Sox scored a total of 50 runs during week 8, wresting the title from the Cincinnati Reds who was tops in that category in both weeks 6 and 7.

You wouldn’t think that the Pittsburgh Pirates could lead anything, considering they are at the bottom of almost every statistical category imaginable, but in week 8, they were the team that allowed the least runs. Of course, having a game rained out helped a little, but I’m sure the Pirates will take what they can get. Read the rest of this entry »

Posting a shutout in any given week gives a pitching staff a pretty good chance to win the “least runs allowed” category in the TMR Zoo Double Play contest. Two shutouts almost guarantees it. Three is pretty rare. Now consider those three came all in one series against one of the more explosive offenses in Major League Baseball and the New York Mets are guaranteed the top pitching spot in our contest. Both the Mets and Minnesota Twins held opposing offenses to 14 total runs last week.

The Mets posted three shutouts in a three-game series against the division rival Philadelphia Phillies in week 7. Is that a testament to the New York pitching staff? Maybe not. Read the rest of this entry »

Dallas Braden may have started the week off strong for the pitchers with a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays and Evan Longoria, but it was the Cincinnati Reds staff who allowed an average of less than 2 runs per game to score throughout the course of week 5. Facing the dreadful Pittsburgh Pirates mid-week certainly helped their cause as they blanked them twice and only allowed one run to score in the entire series. The Reds finished up the week by only allowing 11 runs to score in 6 games.

It was the Toronto Blue Jays who ruled the roost in the runs scored department with 41. The Jays dropped 16 runs on the Texas Rangers in one game, so that certainly helped their cause. Even though the Jays are the fifth-most run scoring team in the league, not a single member picked them in week 5. Read the rest of this entry »

Week 5 of the TMR Zoo MLB Double Play Contest kicked off with a bang as Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics allowed no hits, walks or runs to score in the first game of the week against the Tampa Bay Rays. That’s nothing to shrug off either as the Rays are a pretty powerful run-scoring team and one of the most popular picked as the top offense in our Double Play Contest. Hopefully most of you picked the A’s as the team to allow the least amount of runs to score in week 4 because they are off to a great start… even though I’m sure Tampa Bay will be looking for a little revenge when they face each other again later in the week. Read the rest of this entry »

Week 2 of the 2010 Major League Baseball Double Play Contest is closed and the stats are in. Unfortunately, again, no entrant could correctly guess which MLB teams were going to score the most amount of runs while allowing the least to score. The Yankees are quite the popular team to pick, but they have not come up the statistical winner as of yet.

The Tampa Bay Rays led the majors in offense during the week 2 time period, scoring 52 runs in 7 games. Yes, that’s right, the Rays played a game on every day within the time frame… something you should pay attention to when making your selections. The San Diego Padres, only played 6 games, and held opposing offenses to only 11 runs, earning the “least allowed” title this week. Read the rest of this entry »