One Hundredth Ejection of the Year! – Below the Box Score, Week of 7/11

The All-Star break is upon us, and with it the informal halfway point of the MLB season. When play resumes, we’ll quickly come upon the trade deadline, the 40-man roster expansion, and in no time at all, playoff baseball. But before that, let’s take a look at the bottom of the box score from last week.

The 100th ejection of the season has happened, and who better to receive it than Cubs manager, Joe Maddon. Ejected for arguing balls and strikes, the most common reason for an ejection, it was the Cubs’ third ejection of the year, Maddon’s second. On the rest of the ejections front, the NL still trails the AL by eight ejections going into the break (which, if you ask us, would be an interesting twist on who gets to host the World Series…) having narrowed the gap by one over the past week, 4-3.

On the weather front, July came roaring in this week with exactly half of Major League Baseball playing in 90 degree weather at least once last week, while more than 20 didn’t play in a game cooler than 70 degrees, 13 averaging 80 or above. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Giants are the exception: With a range between 58 and 68 degrees all week, coupled with the heaviest average wind of the week, San Francisco continues to hold the crown of bitterly cold summer baseball weather. Though fans in Denver sitting in 95 degrees as the Phillies took on the Rockies on Sunday may have wished they could trade, if only for a little bit.

Pace of play diverged more than normal last night, with the shortest game between the Braves and Phillies lasting only 2:08, to a 14 inning, 5:26 affair between the Dodgers and Orioles that kept yours truly up until 2 AM here in Germany, thinking that a day game would end at a reasonable hour.  Silly me. In fact, the gap was so wide this week that the average game spread from 2:36 (the Royals) to 3:38 (the Orioles, helped by the previously mentioned 14 inning game).

On the attendance front, the Rays continue to struggle drawing fans, drawing between 11,200-14,900 in each of their four home games this week. Next on the list is surprisingly the Phillies, who drew an average of 18,900 over their three home games this week. On the top end, the Dodgers once again took the top spot of the week, narrowly edging out first-timer Colorado Rockies, who drew 48,105 on Saturday. In regards to average attendance this week, the Rays and Phillies averaged below 20,000 while the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Giants, Cubs and Orioles all averaged over 40,000.

As always, we have included the miscellany and below that the raw data to look at yourself. Note there are three tables, the top being all games, the second home games, and the last being away games. Enjoy!

Attendance:

Lowest attendance last week: Rays (vs Angels), Wednesday, July 6th. 11,267

Highest-(Lowest attendance) last week: Giants (vs Diamondbacks), Saturday, July 9th. 41,571

Highest attendance last week: Dodgers (vs Padres), Saturday, July 9th. 48,411

Lowest-(Highest attendance) last week: Rays (vs Angels), Tuesday, July 5th. 14,896

Game time:

Longest game last week: Dodgers (vs Orioles), Wednesday, July 6th. 5:26 (6-4 Orioles)

Shortest game last week: Phillies (vs Braves), Tuesday, July 5th. 2:08 (5-1 Phillies)

Longest average game for the week: Orioles, 3:38 average over 6 games.

Quickest average game for the week: Royals, 2:36 average over 7 games.

Weather:

Warmest game last week: Rockies (vs Phillies), 95 degrees, Sunday, July 10th.

Coldest game last week: Giants (vs Rockies), 58 degrees, Tuesday, July 5th.

Warmest average for the week: Phillies, 88.4 degrees over 7 games.

Coldest average for the week: Giants, 62.5 degrees over 6 games.

Windiest game last week: Brewers vs Cardinals, 22 mph, Friday, July 8th.

Windiest week: Giants, 14.5 MPH over 6 games.

Ejections:

Total ejections last week: 7 (106 total this season)

Ejections by league: AL 3, NL 4.  (Season: AL 57, NL 49)

Raw data:

All games

Home games

Away games