Kampū [完封]
| Game 57: June 5, 2007 | |||
| Red Sox | 0 | L: Daisuke Matsuzaka (7-4) | 37-20, 3 game losing streak 14-4-2 series record |
 Athletics |
2 | W: Lenny DiNardo (2-2) H: Kiko Calero (8) H: Jay Marshall (8) H: Colby Lewis (2) S: Alan Embree (5) |
30-27, 4 game winning streak 9-8-2 series record |
| Highlights: I guess Alan Embree isn’t a mole for the Red Sox; he pitched a perfect ninth with one strikeout for the save. Kampū is the Japanese word for shutout; if only it were Matsuzaka’s first rather than DiNardo’s. | |||
Lenny DiNardo and a slew of Oakland pitchers proved that in baseball sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. His lack of stuff and Boston’s seeming fatigue from cross-country travel coalesced into a two-hitter over six innings.
Only Julio Lugo, David Ortiz, and Mike Lowell managed to muscle hits past the black hole of the Oakland infield defense. Red Sox sluggers had huge incentive to ring in runs with the Athletics staff handing out seven free passes, but their lumber never made solid contact with ball.
The Red Sox had five double plays turned against them. That’s just one shy of the American League team record shared by the Baltimore Orioles (May 6, 1972) and the Red Sox (July 18, 1990).
Boston won that record-setting game against the Twins. Minnesota helped by grounding into four double plays themselves, making this the match-up with the highest number of GIDPs by both teams in a single game.
Not only was the quality of offense poor but so was the NESN cable feed. The screen flickered between Red Sox batters flailing, Daisuke Matsuzaka tallying strikeouts, and blackness. Did the reintroduction of Sox Trax cause the spotty transmission? For a broadcasting outfit that has everything from men getting caught stealing to musical montages sponsored, it’s surprising that Bob’s Discount Furniture hasn’t grabbed the opportunity to pin their logo on a pitch chart. Could it be the move to unionize at NESN causing some strife?
To cheer you up, just imagine that Joe Torre alone had one less GIDPs in a single game on July 21, 1975 when he was on the Mets.
Comments
Don't forget the missing score graphic for much of the game as well.
I'd just as soon they lay off the "Sox Trax" a little bit. It provides interesting insight once in a while, but do we really need to see it five times in every inning?
jpo ∙ 6 June 2007 ∙ 6:16 PM
Joanna,
I'm tickled (bloody sock) pink by your Dice-K posts as my 3 year old recently started in a montessori Japanese-immersion program. So these posts are doubly insightful. I'm curious about Kampu as used in the examples in the hyperlink, specifically the last two where it seems to refer to a general dominance (won with consummate ease) by the winning team rather than a specific tally of zero. I find it strange that a specific meaning can mean something more generalized in the same context how does one decide which? After all if I use the english word 'shutout' in sports I can really only mean one thing yet the last two examples don't preclude the losing opponent from scoring (after all it could be said that I won with consummate ease if I won a soccer match 8 to 1 but I really can't say my team had a shut out).
Take this game in question it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say the A's won with consumate ease but they also got the shutout.
Also, what's up with all the double plays this series? Since you are the stat goddess: is there a team record for most double plays in a series?
John H ∙ 7 June 2007 ∙ 10:54 AM
Hi John,
Thanks for your kind words. I think raising a child to be bilingual is a wonderful thing.
I did a little more research and kampū corresponds exactly to the English phrase and statistic "complete game shutout." So, I was incorrect on the precise meaning. In Japan, they use the phrase "shutout relay" [完封リレー, kampū rirē] to describe this game.
The "win with consummate ease" [完封勝ちする, kampū kachi suru] is a more elegant way to translate what would literally be "doing the action of shutting out the other team and winning." The symbols for kachi [勝ち] mean "victory" or "to win," depending on if it is a verb form or not.
Hope that explanation is helpful. As for the records for DPs in a series, there's no easy way for me to determine that. I'll snoop around and see if that stat has ever been generated.
Joanna ∙ 7 June 2007 ∙ 12:44 PM
Joanna -
I appreciate your Japanese tidbits also. Are you a native speaker?
jpo ∙ 7 June 2007 ∙ 2:27 PM
I'm not a native speaker, but have studied the language since high school and throughout college.
Thanks again for the compliments.
Joanna ∙ 8 June 2007 ∙ 9:27 AM