4+ Players With 4+ Hits In Same Game
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 27, 2011
Since 1920, how many teams had 4+ players have 4+ hits in the same game?
Here's the answer -
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SFG | LAD | 1958-05-13 | 5 | |
| 2 | STL | PHI | 1929-07-06 (2) | 4 | |
| 3 | STL | PHI | 1932-08-09 | 4 | |
| 4 | STL | CIN | 1933-06-17 | 4 | |
| 5 | SLB | BOS | 1921-07-20 | 4 | |
| 6 | OAK | TEX | 1979-07-01 | 4 | |
| 7 | NYG | PHI | 1933-08-02 (2) | 4 | |
| 8 | NYG | PIT | 1929-06-15 | 4 | |
| 9 | NYG | PHI | 1925-09-02 (2) | 4 | |
| 10 | MIN | CLE | 2002-06-04 | 4 | |
| 11 | MIL | TOR | 1992-08-28 | 4 | |
| 12 | CLE | PHA | 1932-07-10 | 4 | |
| 13 | CIN | BRO | 1940-06-08 | 4 | |
| 14 | CHW | PHA | 1936-09-11 | 4 | |
| 15 | BSN | PHI | 1946-08-31 (2) | 4 | |
| 16 | BOS | TBD | 2005-09-20 | 4 | |
| 17 | BOS | SLB | 1950-06-08 | 4 |
.
That May 13, 1958 game for Willie Mays was a pretty good one, eh?
February 27th, 2011 at 11:58 am
A guy named Ed Rommel won that Cleveland-Philly game by giving up a mere 29 hits and walking 9 (in 17 innings, but still)!
February 27th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Two home runs and two triples...sure. But he WAS caught stealing...
/I kid.
February 27th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I always thought those 1992 Brewers were an interesting team. On the surface you wouldn't think they would have finished .500 but they won 92 games somehow. It was the last year that Molitor, Yount and Gantner played together.
It's not like anyone on that team had a great MVP type season, it's more like a lot of guys had 3 & 4 WAR seasons. They won 92 games, no one finished with a WAR above 6 and they only had One player (Molitor) finish with a WAR above 5. That must be rare winning 90 plus games and only having One player with a 5+ WAR and that player is the teams's DH no less.
It would have been interesting to see how they would have done in the playoffs if they had the wild card back in '92.
February 27th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
I was at that Milwaukee-Toronto game in 1992. It was surreal. It's hard to believe less than two months later the Jays were World Series champs! Has any WS winner ever been pasted so badly in its championship season?
February 27th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I'm surprised this hasn't happened more frequently in recent years, considering the offensive explosion of the 1990s and early 2000s.
February 27th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
@4, I don't know if they were pasted, but the 1958 Yankees were no-hit - by Hoyt Wilhelm - in 1958, a year in which they won the World Series.
February 27th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Cal Eldred won that game for the Brewers that day. He had a pretty amazing 14 games for the Brewers that year going 11-2 with a 217 era+ and a 3.8 WAR. I can't remember if he was injured of if the Brewers just held him back because he was a rookie but imagine if he could have made 25-30 starts for the Brewers that year?
February 27th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
That Cleveland-Philly game is sort of funny. Krausse gets the quick hook after giving up three runs in the first inning but then Rommel is left in for the final seventeen innings.
February 27th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
#1
There's a story behind that Ed Rommel game. The Athletics were in the middle of a home stand and, due to the Sunday blue laws then in effect in Philadelphia, that Sunday game was transferred to Cleveland. The A's owner and manager, Connie Mack, who was never known as Mr. Spendthrift, decided to save some money on that one game road trip by not sending the whole team. He sent only two pitchers on that trip. The starter Lew Krausse lasted only one inning and Rommel relieved him. The game ended up going 18 innings and Rommel had to go all the way. Rommel later became an AL umpire.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
I was expecting to see this 1979 game at Wrigley when the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22 in 10 innings (imagine going into extras with the game tied 22-22, there's something surreal about that).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197905170.shtml
Actually, this game had only 3 players on both teams with 4+ hits. But there were 11 players on the two teams with 3+ hits. 50 hits in total and 127 batters. They actually did quite well to finish the game in just over 4 hours.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
@4 They didn't win it all, but the '04 Yanks got reamed pretty bad in August that year against Cleveland, 22-0 at home. Worst home defeat in the history of the franchise.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
The Mets were no-hit in '69 by Bob Moose...of course, they weren't exactly known as an offensive powerhouse even in their championship year.
February 27th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
@1 At least Rommel helped himself out with 3 hits and a walk.
Game also featured the record for most hits by a batter in a game - Johnny Burnett had 9!
February 27th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
As soon as I saw that last one on the list, I remembered that the Red Sox had a game against the Browns in June 1950 in which they scored 29 runs (at home, so it was done in only 8 innings). Sure enough, this turned out to be that game. The last Browns pitcher of the day, Tom Ferrick, had the chore of keeping Boston from being the first "modern era" team to score 30 runs in a game. And he was successful. His reward was being traded to the Yankees later in the month, where he won a World Series ring against the Phillies that year. He was also the winning pitcher in Game 3.
None of the Red Sox who got at least four hits was named Ted Williams. However, someone with that name did get two hits. All nine players in Boston's starting line-up played the whole game, and all got at least one hit. In fact, all but two got at least two hits. The ones who got at least four were Johnny Pesky, Walt Dropo, Al Zarilla, and Bobby Doerr. Zarilla had five. Even the pitcher, future expansion-version Washington Senator Chuck Stobbs, had two hits. The player who had only one hit was lead-off batter Clyde Vollmer.
Each of the 29 runs scored by the Red Sox had an RBI associated with it. Seven of the players had at least one RBI--and all of the ones that had at least one RBI actually had at least two. Doerr led the way with 8. Despite his five hits, Zarilla was one of the two players who didn't have an RBI. The other one was pitcher Stobbs.
When Ferrick came into the game with one out in the bottom of the eighth, the bases were empty following a home run. The score was then 29-3. He did give up one single, but it was not anyone's fourth hit of the game; it was Stobbs' second hit. This was sandwiched between two groundouts in Boston's last plate appearances of the game.
St. Louis scored one run in the top of the 9th to close the gap to 29-4.
February 28th, 2011 at 1:18 am
I love #7. Giants get 24 hits to beat the Phils 18-1. Took only 1:55 to play.
On #9, again Giants and Phils, again the Giants win, this time, 24-9. Despite allowing 9 runs (6 of them in the last two innings), Freddie Fitzsimmons goes the distance for the win (and a 23 game score). Wonder what's the lowest game score for a complete game victory?
February 28th, 2011 at 1:33 am
@15
A few minutes with Play Index, and it looks like Ernie Wingard gets your prize for lowest game score in a complete game victory. His score? 6.
19 hits, 11 runs, one walk, no strikeouts. The Browns beat the White Sox 15-11.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA192505310.shtml
February 28th, 2011 at 1:40 am
@14. I guess before the Red Sox tagged the hapless Browns for 29 runs, the record was game #2, the Cards 28-6 shellacking of the hapless Phils.
This game featured not one by two 10-spots, in the first and fifth innings. Any other games like that, with double-digit runs in more than one inning?
Unlike the Browns, the Phils did not bring in a new pitcher to hold the Cards at bay in the final inning. The immortal June Greene, in the final appearance of his career, pitched the last four and two-thirds for the Phils, allowing 11 runs (all earned) on 12 hits. He gave up a five-spot in the 8th, but then shut out the Cards in the 9th to hold them at 28 runs for the game.
Like the Browns 21 years later, the Phils also rallied for a singleton in their half of the ninth (the game's not over till it's over).
February 28th, 2011 at 1:45 am
@16. Thanks, Brian.
On that game, the Browns never trailed after the 3rd inning. I guess as long as you're winning, why change anything!
February 28th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Which hit barrage was the most unlikely?
At first glance, I'd guess #6 on the list, in which the 1979 A's outlasted the Rangers, 13-12, in 15 innings, picking up 29 hits en route.
The win improved the A's to 23-57, 22 games out of 1st and 11 games behind 6th-place Seattle.
The 4-hit men were:
-- Rickey Henderson (CF), a rookie playing just the 8th game of his career, went 4 for 8 with a sacrifice but no walks;
-- Jim Essian, batting 3rd as the DH (which says a lot about the '79 A's), went 5 for 8 with a sacrifice;
-- Mike Heath (C) went 4 for 9 (but also grounded into a DP and made an error on a sac bunt that led to 3 unearned runs); and
-- Mike Edwards (2B) went 4 for 7 with a sac and a walk.
February 28th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Four of these games were part of doubleheaders; all were against the Phillies, in Philadelphia; all were the 2nd game of the doubleheader; and in each case, the Phils had won the 1st game.
Anyway ... Which of the 4-hit batters in those doubleheaders had the biggest day?
-- Jim Bottomley, 7/6/29: 7 for 10, 3 HRs, 11 RBI, 6 runs. In the opener, Bottomley (the reigning NL MVP) went 3-5 with 2 HRs, 4 RBI, 2 runs. In the nightcap, he was 4-5 with a HR, 7 RBI and 4 runs.
February 28th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
#20
I'm sure that Baker Bowl had a lot to do with some of those hit parades against the Phillies.
February 28th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Sure, Eddie Rommel allowed 29 hits in game #12 on this list; and yes, that is the record for most hits allowed by a pitcher in a game in the live-ball era. However:
(a) Rommel actually picked up the Win -- his only win of the year, and the 171st and last of his 13-year career.
(b) Rommel "scattered" those 29 hits over 17 innings and 87 batters (!!!). Compare that to the 9/11/36 performance by Hod Lisenbee: 8 IP (CG), 26 hits, 17 runs (14 ER), 51 batters faced, 1 strikeout.
The 26 hits allowed by Lisenbee are 4 more than any other pitcher in a regulation game during the live-ball era.
February 28th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
#21 -- Yes, but the 4th doubleheader (1946) was played in Shibe Park, which in that period was a bit of a pitcher's park.
I think the biggest factor was that the Phils generally had lousy pitching from the '20s through the '40s.
February 28th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
#23
I know the 1946 game was in Shibe Park, that's why I used the word "some".
February 28th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
The brewers scored in 8 of 9 innings in the game listed above. Can we get a list of teams that scored in all 9 innings? How often has this ever happened? I would think something like once per decade across MLB maybe??
February 28th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
#21 and #23
To see the difference between Baker Bowl and Shibe Park look at Mel Ott's lifetime stats in each park.
Baker Bowl: 119 GP, .415 BA, 40 HR, 160 RBI
Shibe Park: 71 GP, .220 BA, 0 HR, 32 RBI
His games at Shibe Park were when he was older but that alone would not account for the huge difference.
February 28th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
@4
Red Sox scored 10 runs against the 2003 Marlins. BEFORE THE FIRST OUT. It was at Fenway, so there was a DH, but still... Final was something like 25-4, which beats the MIL-TOR game.
March 1st, 2011 at 11:27 pm
@27, Brendan -- Wow, were there ever fireworks in that 2003 BoSox-Marlins series! Three games, 70 total runs; at least 18 runs in each game.
Carl Pavano was the starting pitcher in the game you noted; he left after the first 6 men hit safely, but at least he kept the Red Sox from completing a no-out cycle. Alas, Boston did complete the no-out cycle against reliever Michael Tejera on Johnny Damon's triple (his 2nd extra-base hit of the inning), and Tejera left after failing to retire any of the 5 batters he faced.
Damon came up a 3rd time that inning with 2 out and the bases loaded, and singled home the 14th run of the inning; but the merry-go-round ended on that same play when Bill Mueller was thrown out at the plate by LF Miguel Cabrera.
Damon is probably not the only player ever to get 3 hits in an inning, but he probably is the only one who ever got 3/4 of the cycle in one inning.
P.S. The next day, Boston seemed to be en route to another laugher, leading 9-2 after 7 innings, but the Marlins scored 4 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th to win, as Mike Lowell hit a go-ahead 3-run shot with 2 out in the 9th.
March 2nd, 2011 at 12:46 am
@28
On June 18, 1953 Gene Stephens of the Red Sox got three hits in the 7th inning.
March 2nd, 2011 at 4:39 pm
@29 -- Wow -- So, I guess it will happen again in Fenway in June of 2053....
P.S. According to Baseball Almanac, 3 other players collected 3 hits in one inning, all on Sept. 6, 1883: Tom Burns, Fred Pfeffer and Ned Williamson, 3/4 of the infield of the Chicago White Stockings, in a 26-6 win over the Detroit Wolverines. Their career batting averages: .266, .256 and .255, respectively. Odd that it should be those 3 players, and not either of the 2 future HOFers on that team, Cap Anson (.334) and King Kelly (.308), nor the former batting champion George Gore (.301)....