Elephant Rumblings: Is There Anything To Learn From The Rays’ Pitching Experiment?

A’s Coverage:

• Game #47: A’s Dominate Jays, Win 9-2...
• Hall: Oakland A’s claim pitcher Carlos Ramirez off waivers...
• Slusser: Jed Lowrie’s hit total helps kids in Nicaragua, Colombia...
• A’s Farm Report: Gossett, Murphy & Bolt Top Teams’ Stat Leaders...
• Slusser: More effective Emilio Pagán returns to A’s firing fastballs...

MLB News:

• ESPN: Jordan Hicks throws two pitches clocked at 105 mph on Sunday...
• AP: Indians call up veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera...
• Anderson: Braves release José Bautista after 12 games, potentially marking the end of his career...
• ESPN: Nationals send Ryan Madson to DL with pectoral muscle strain...
• Anderson: With most of a starting lineup on the disabled list, the Nationals are promoting 19-year-old prospect Juan Soto...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Brown: The MLB team that’s blowing up starting pitching as we know it...
• Snyder: Miami-Dade looks to ‘Marlins Man’ for help in lawsuit against Marlins’ previous owners...
• Cut4: Bryce Harper’s glasses make him the newest member of baseball’s fashionable history of specs...
• Lacques: How a video game became baseball’s most addictive pastime, from MLB to Little League...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1930 - Babe Ruth hits three consecutive home runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the A’s, then batting against Jack Quinn in the 9th, Ruth decides to hit right-handed. After two strikes, he switches to lefty but strikes out. This is the first of two career three-homer games for the Babe. Max Bishop draws five walks for the second time in his career (he is the only player to do this twice), and Jimmie Foxx homers to help the A’s to a 15 - 7 victory. Ruth is homerless in the second game, a 4 - 1 Yankee loss, but Bishop has three more walks. Bishop will also walk eight times in a doubleheader in 1934, the only player to collect more than six walks in an afternoon.
• 2014 - More evidence that good pitching is sometimes not enough: five Rays pitchers give up only a single hit to the A’s, but Oakland still wins, 3 - 2. The A’s score two runs on two walks and two errors in the 2nd, and Brandon Moss goes deep in the 4th for their lone safety. Erik Bedard is the unlucky loser, against Tommy Milone.

Best of Twitter:

• More trip of death stats...

• This reads more alarming than it apparently is...

• What a grab...

• Read this whole thread; pretty fascinating...