MLB notebook: Who's on the mound? O's not quite sure for Game 4
BY Associated Press
Thursday, October 11, 2012
10/11/12 at 2:50 AM
Most teams send their next day's starting pitcher to the interview room before a postseason game. The Baltimore Orioles sent two.
With Baltimore manager Buck Showalter publicly uncertain about his Game 4 starter against the New York Yankees, Joe Saunders sat on the podium Wednesday with Chris Tillman sitting to his left.
"We were kind of hoping you would tell us because we don't know yet," Saunders told reporters. "Whoever it is, me or Chris, we're going to go out there and do our job."
Saunders, a 31-year-old left-hander, was 3-3 with a 3.63 ERA in seven starts after coming from Arizona on Aug. 26. Tillman, a 23-year-old righty, was 9-3 with a 2.93 ERA in 15 starts.
Frank talk: Don't try to talk sabermetrics with Frank Robinson. When he won the Triple Crown in 1966, he was the MVP. And he thinks Miguel Cabrera deserves the same honor.
The Hall of Fame slugger weighed in on the AL MVP debate Wednesday after throwing the ceremonial first pitch at Game 3 of the St. Louis Cardinals-Washington Nationals series. While new-age stat-heads might favor Angels rookie Mike Trout, Robinson is definitely old school about Cabrera's .330 batting average, 44 homers and 139 RBIs with the Detroit Tigers.
"Guys have had a good year, Trout especially," Robinson said. "But I don't see how an individual can play on a winning ballclub and get his team into a series trying to get into the World Series and win a Triple Crown - and not be the MVP."
The cut-off man: Reds pitching coach Bryan Price was clean-shaven when he showed up at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday, deciding he'd paid off his no-hitter debt.
Price started growing a mustache after Homer Bailey threw the franchise's 15th no-hitter in Pittsburgh on Sept. 28, making good on a vague promise from spring training.
"I don't remember it," Price said. "I'm sure I said something in spring training that if any of you incompetents can potentially, somehow throw a no-hitter, I would grow a mustache or something like that.
"I honored it, going on national television with a mustache in a game that Homer pitched, and once he got done with it, I couldn't get it off fast enough," Price said.
