8/21/2011
DANVILLE, Ill. -- Dans starter Frank Osborne plucked a diamond out of his rough career, pitching a complete-game shutout of Covington in which he gave up one walk and four hits, but struck out a league-record(?) 18 batters. Danville won 2-0.
Osborne walked the second batter he faced, Covington's Nicholas Cornwall, and the future Cleveland Steamers didn't see another baserunner until right fielder Juan Whelchel doubled in the sixth.
The closest Covington came to threatening was in the seventh. Leadoff hitter Russell Powell singled. After two strikeouts, center fielder Erubiel Hurtado singled, giving Covington its only runner in scoring position in the game. Osborne extinguished the threat by inducing an inning-ending popup by short stop Carroll Degroat.
Danville backed up its pitcher with two runs. The Dans first scored on a solo homerun by catcher Shawn Beeks in the second. In the fourth, a Franklin Jackson RBI single brought in Alberto Usera who lead off the inning with a double.
Osborne struck out the first two batters in the ninth before Covington collected its final hit -- a double by right fielder Nelson Broman. Osborne closed out the game with his final strikeout.
Osborne has spent his entire career with the California/Danville franchise. A consistent workhorse for the team, among the top in innings pitched and game starts for much of his career. He leads the league in game starts with 33, strikeouts with 238 and walks with 112. Osborne has pitched 206.2 innings, one and two thirds behind the league leader, Seattle's Chad Nelligan. Osborne is also sixth on the list of career strikeouts with 1758.
Some argue his career peaked last year -- the 32-year-old Osborne strung together two winning seasons in 2009 and 2010 and tossed the lowest ERA of his career last year at 3.12. In order to match his 2010 totals, with just 30 games left to play, Osborne would need to win 10 games, lower his ERA nearly a full point and throw 52 strikeouts.
Fabulous game by Frankie and it is the SDMB OOTP record for strikeouts in a single game. He's been an absolute workhorse for the franchise and I've always thought he could have put up some great numbers with a little more run support.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is that in the loss it is one of the best games my team has played this year...
ReplyDeleteNo, the funny thing is that it didn't happen against my team.
ReplyDeleteGotta admit, that's one hell of a game. Best of the year by the game score.
ReplyDeleteProves it can happen anytime and anywhere, I suppose.
It is #1 Surpassing my 1 Star stud Daniel Haffey who last month pitched a 1 hit shutout against the Dans. He only had 11 Ks and only 3 BBs. My game was pitched by a guy that was signed to a MLC at the beginning of the year. Greatness can truly come from anywhere.
ReplyDeleteGreatness may come from anywhere, but it seems to come disproportionately against Covington, Danville, and Denver, who were the opponents for 16 of the top 25 pitching performances this year.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, this sim also featured the top hitting performance of the year, as Christopher Moss went 5-5 with a double, two home runs, four runs scored and 5 RBI against New York on August 24.
Even though there's no direct link to it, the Top Performances web page can be found here.
Frank Osborne is without a doubt, one of my favorite non-Saskatoon players. He's like the Nolan Ryan of OOTP.
ReplyDelete