Edinson Volquez allows back-to-back homers to start the game for the second time this season
Posted by Andy on April 19, 2011
Here's a bizarre one folks...
Sunday, the Pirates' Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata homered in the top of the first inning, back-to-back, off Reds' starter Edinson Volquez.
Weirdly, that's the second time Volquez has allowed b2b homers to start a game this year:
| Gm# | Date | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011-03-31 | Rickie Weeks | MIL | @CIN | Edinson Volquez | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 7 (2-2) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF-CF) |
| 2 | 2011-03-31 | Carlos Gomez | MIL | @CIN | Edinson Volquez | ahead 0-1 | t1 | --- | 0 | 2 (0-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .79 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF) |
| 1 | 2011-04-17 | Andrew McCutchen | PIT | @CIN | Edinson Volquez | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 3 (1-1) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF) |
| 2 | 2011-04-17 | Jose Tabata | PIT | @CIN | Edinson Volquez | ahead 0-1 | t1 | --- | 0 | 1 (0-0) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .79 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF Line) |
(Incidentally, I found these games using the Team Batting Event finder, set to 1st inning, no outs, HR, no runners on, and looked for games with at least 2 such homers.)
I happened to be in Cincinnati over the weekend and heard their local radio guys note Volquez's extreme ERA-by-inning split. He has a 29.25 ERA in the first inningand 1.93 ERA thereafter. The announcer compared this split to the career performance of Tom Glavine, which was not quite as stilted.
Back-to-back homers leading off a game has already happened more in 2011 than it did in all of 2010. Here's the only occurrence last year:
| Gm# | Date | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010-08-27 | Cameron Maybin | FLA | @ATL | Tommy Hanson | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 1 (0-0) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF) |
| 2 | 2010-08-27 | Logan Morrison | FLA | @ATL | Tommy Hanson | ahead 0-1 | t1 | --- | 0 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .79 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) |
And here's 2009:
| Gm# | Date | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009-05-13 | Alfonso Soriano | CHC | SDP | Chris Young | down 2-0 | b1 | --- | 0 | 2 (0-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .91 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF) |
| 2 | 2009-05-13 | Ryan Theriot | CHC | SDP | Chris Young | down 2-1 | b1 | --- | 0 | 1 (0-0) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .92 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) |
Note that these last HRs were in the bottom of the 1st, as opposed to truly leading off the game.
It didn't happen at all in 2008 but check out the cool Finder results for 2007:
| Gm# | Date | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007-04-23 | Craig Biggio | HOU | @PHI | Adam Eaton | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 1 (0-0) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Line Drive to Deep LF-CF) |
| 2 | 2007-04-23 | Jimmy Rollins | PHI | HOU | Chris Sampson | down 1-0 | b1 | --- | 0 | 4 (1-2) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .92 | Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF) |
| 1 | 2007-05-23 | Grady Sizemore | CLE | @KCR | Scott Elarton | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 2 (1-0) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF) |
| 2 | 2007-05-23 | Casey Blake | CLE | @KCR | Scott Elarton | ahead 0-1 | t1 | --- | 0 | 4 (2-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .80 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF-CF) |
| 1 | 2007-07-12 | Jose Reyes | NYM | CIN | Bronson Arroyo | tied 0-0 | b1 | --- | 0 | 3 (1-1) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .87 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF) |
| 2 | 2007-07-12 | Ruben Gotay | NYM | CIN | Bronson Arroyo | ahead 0-1 | b1 | --- | 0 | 4 (2-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .75 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF) |
| 1 | 2007-07-16 | Chris Young | ARI | @MIL | David Bush | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 2 (0-1) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) |
| 2 | 2007-07-16 | Corey Hart | MIL | ARI | Micah Owings | down 1-0 | b1 | --- | 0 | 2 (0-1) | 1 | 0.10 | 1.00 | .92 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF-CF) |
| 1 | 2007-09-09 | Rickie Weeks | MIL | @CIN | Phil Dumatrait | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 4 (2-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) |
| 2 | 2007-09-09 | J.J. Hardy | MIL | @CIN | Phil Dumatrait | ahead 0-1 | t1 | --- | 0 | 2 (1-0) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .80 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF) |
| 3 | 2007-09-09 | Ryan Braun | MIL | @CIN | Phil Dumatrait | ahead 0-2 | t1 | --- | 0 | 3 (1-1) | 1 | 0.08 | 1.00 | .69 | Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) |
There were b2b homers off Bronson Arroyo and Scott Elarton. There were two games that featured not b2b homers but leadoff homers by each team in their own half of the first inning. And, there were back-to-back-to-back homers by 3 Brewers off Phil Dumatrait in another game.
April 19th, 2011 at 8:56 am
Scary as a Reds fan seeing so many times when this has happened to Reds pitchers, current and former! I'm sure it's merely coincidence, stuff like this has to be, but you still wonder ...
Also, in various articles I've read online, I guess Elias found that Chad Durbin (now of the reliever variety) was the last to have this happen twice in a single season like Volquez has (in 2000). What they didn't answer though (and I wonder if Play Index could) ... is if he is the only other person.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:01 am
Play Index could find out, I just didn't have time to research it any further, as I am on travel right now.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
looking at Phil Dumatrait receiving a Gamescore of 24 despite giving up a total of 5 Hits (3 Homers and 2 Singels) before he was removed with no out recorded, i searched for
From 1919 to 2011, as Starter, (requiring IPouts=0), sorted by smallest game_score
and i found a Gamescore-minimum of 7 three times. And 2 of them came from the same pitcher.
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/ZQtWa
April 19th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
That's not the weirdest stat amongst the Cinci Starting Pitchers.
Mike Leake got charged with Caught Stealing yesterday, and he wasn't even at the ballpark.
April 19th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Not a big deal, but the PI query could be tweaked a bit.
It picked up the Apr 23 and Jul 16 games in 2007, which I don't think were what we're talking about it here. In those games, it appears each of the starting pitchers allowed a homerun to the first batter he faced, rather than one SP allowing two homeruns.
Poor Phil Dumatrait. Back-to-back-to-back jacks. Won't find many of those games.
April 19th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
I could've done that. Give me a contract.
April 19th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
@3 @5
How do you get a reliever ready after 5 BF by Dumatrait at the start of a game?
Mackinin must have learned from the original Captain Hook.
April 19th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Here's an even more unlikely event: Mariano Rivera actually gave up 2 runs tonight, and blew the save.
It was a bad night all-around for Mo. He snapped a 22-game no-BB streak (including the 2010 postseason); threw his first wild pitch since September 2009; and allowed 4 hits in a game for the first time since April 2009 (snapping a streak of 146 games, including the postseason).
April 19th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Unlikelier still ... Bruce Chen has won 7 straight decisions, dating to last season. In his last 10 starts, Chen -- owner of the highest HR/9 of any pitcher with at least 1,000 IP -- has logged 70.1 IP with a 2.56 ERA. (True to form, though, he has allowed 9 HRs in those 10 games.)
April 19th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
@8
Gotta admit he looked like a lock coming in in the ninth against the reeling Jays.
Ah, the unpredictability of baseball.
April 20th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
@8 & 10
Bruins beat the Habs
Hawks spanked the Canucks
Canada was due
April 21st, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I have a James Taylor 1970s song playing in the background right now.
What on earth are the Cincinnati Reds, the top team in the NL, doing playing the Milwaukee Brewers, one of the bottom feeders in the AL? And why are they playing a team from the 6-team NL East, Pittsburgh, instead of one of their NL West rivals, so early in the season? Pittsburgh comes later - playing the teams in the other division doesn't start until at least a few weeks into the season. Well, at least the two teams will be meeting in the NLCS in October, right?
And then the winner will be playing Oakland or Baltimore (or maybe Billy Martin's Yankees) after that. But not the Brewers!
James Taylor's song has ended, and now John Denver is singing "Rocky Mountain High". Oh, yes, Denver is somebody's AAA team, right?
And now Jimmy Buffet. Maybe one day he will have his own beer and get one of those spring training parks in Florida to buy the naming rights to it. Not a major league stadium, of course, because we know that Florida doesn't have a team in the big leagues during the regular season.