3 homer games coming in bunches
Posted by Andy on May 24, 2011
After going a while without a 3-homer game in the majors, we now have 4 in the last 11 days:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | BOP | Pos. Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corey Hart | 2011-05-23 | MIL | WSN | W 11-3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0.281 | 6.037 | .603 | 2 | RF |
| 2 | Jason Giambi | 2011-05-19 | COL | PHI | W 7-1 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0.407 | 5.440 | .608 | 5 | 1B |
| 3 | Jose Bautista | 2011-05-15 | TOR | MIN | W 11-3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.045 | 2.890 | .518 | 3 | RF |
| 4 | Carlos Beltran | 2011-05-12 | NYM | COL | W 9-5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.284 | 4.997 | .688 | 3 | RF |
Going back, the last time we saw at least four 3-homer games in such close proximity within a single season was in 2004:
| Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | BOP | Pos. Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aramis Ramirez | 2004-07-30 | CHC | PHI | W 10-7 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.217 | 2.750 | .668 | 6 | 3B |
| Kevin Millar | 2004-07-23 | BOS | NYY | L 7-8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.407 | 2.523 | 1.247 | 7 | 1B |
| Travis Hafner | 2004-07-20 | CLE | ANA | W 14-5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.160 | 4.999 | .512 | 6 | DH |
| Albert Pujols | 2004-07-20 | STL | CHC | W 11-8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.596 | 5.000 | 1.286 | 3 | 1B |
| Victor Martinez | 2004-07-16 | CLE | SEA | W 18-6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0.130 | 6.116 | .403 | 4 | C |
That's 10 days between the Ramirez and Pujols games and just 7 days between the Millar and Martinez games.
Here's the tightest cluster of 4 I could find:
| Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | WPA | RE24 | BOP | Pos. Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Rodriguez | 2002-08-17 | TEX | TOR | W 9-5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.314 | 3.301 | 1.098 | 3 | SS |
| Mike Lieberthal | 2002-08-10 | PHI | LAD | L 8-10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.397 | 3.867 | .948 | 6 | C |
| Sammy Sosa | 2002-08-10 | CHC | COL | W 15-1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0.252 | 7.490 | .695 | 3 | RF |
| Aaron Boone | 2002-08-09 | CIN | SDP | W 12-10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0.229 | 4.648 | .444 | 2 | 3B |
| Chris Woodward | 2002-08-07 | TOR | SEA | L 4-5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.766 | 2.675 | 1.635 | 7 | SS |
| Russell Branyan | 2002-08-04 | CIN | SDP | W 15-10 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0.687 | 4.395 | 1.516 | 6 | LF |
The Lieberthal and Woodward (?!?!?!?!) games came just 3 days apart. For a set of 5, tack on the Branyan game in a total span of just 6 days or the A-rod game for a span of just 10 days.
May 24th, 2011 at 11:32 am
(Andy, I hope the following is not so far off-topic as to violate the terms of my parole....)
I searched the past 20 years for games with at least 2 players hitting 3 HRs in the same game. To my surprise, there was just 1 such game; not surprisingly, it came in 2001, the all-time peak for 3-HR games. The date was 2001-09-25, Milwaukee at Arizona, and the hitters were Richie Sexson and Jeromy Burnitz, batting #3-4 for the Brewers. They went back-to-back in both the 4th and 6th innings. Sexson hit his 3rd in the top of the 9th; Burnitz had a shot at #4, but took a walk instead.
For Burnitz, it was the second 3-HR game of the season, those being his only 2. For Sexson, it was the first of 2 in his career.
The starter and loser for Arizona was Albie Lopez, who surrendered 4 HRs and fell to 8-19 -- not a record you generally see on a 1st-place team, but 12 of the losses came with Tampa before a deadline deal. To the credit of both Lopez and manager Bob Brenly, he continued to take his regular turn after reaching 19 losses, and pitched very well over his last 2 starts; in fact, his final start was a 3-hit shutout of Milwaukee.
BTW, there were 22 3-HR games in 2001; the next most in any season was 16 in 1999.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ARI/ARI200109250.shtml
May 24th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
When/who was the last 4 HR game?
May 24th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
In fact, since 1997 there have been 160 3+ HR games, or an average of 5.3 per team. But the Brewers have had 9 themselves in that span, including Corey Hart yesterday and the Sexson/Burnitz game JA mentioned above. The Cubs have had 12!! That includes 5 by Sammy Sosa, 3 by Aramis Ramirez, and a pair by Alfonso Soriano. Other overachieving teams include the Red Sox (8), the Reds (10), the Indians (8), the Rockies (11), the Rangers (8), and the Blue Jays (13). The Blue Jays are the leaders, in fact, with 5 such games from Carlos Delgado and one each from Darrin Fletcher, Chris Woodward, Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas, Adam Lind, John Buck, Edwin Encarnacion, and Jose Batista.
May 24th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
4 homer games since 1919:
Generated 5/24/2011.
May 24th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Wait a second ... Corey Hart had 7 RBI yesterday, after having ONE in 21 games all year? In his past 10 games, Hart had batted .289 (11 for 38) with 4 doubles and a triple, but nary a rib-eye.
May 24th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
@5 Hart does a lot of hitting behind Rickey Weeks, and Weeks likes to either hit a homer or strike out, and strike out often! Hurts Hart and the rotund man.
May 24th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Timmy P -- Which of the following statements do you disagree with?
1. RBI opportunities come from having runners on base when you bat.
2. Milwaukee ranks 3rd in the NL in OBP from the leadoff spot.
3. Only 7 of their hits from the leadoff spot have been HRs, which is not a terribly high rate. Even if you subtracted all HRs for all teams, Milwaukee would rank 5th in times on base by leadoff hitters.
4. Rickie Weeks is Milwaukee's primary leadoff hitter.
5. Therefore, Weeks is doing a good job as a leadoff hitter.
The reasoning looks iron-clad to me. Please tell me where you find a flaw. Thanks!
May 24th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
JA, if you feed the bear, he's just gonna keep coming back.
May 24th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
speaking of homers, Thome comes back and knocks two out last night, wow
May 24th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
@9: It's a little known fact that Mr Thome spent the last three weeks at Jose Bautista's Jedi School of Light Saber Bat Speed
May 24th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
At least we know these players are all clean now.
May 24th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
[...] 3 homer games coming in bunches: At the B-R blog, Andy tries to find other stretches where a lot of 3-HR games came in short succession. [...]
May 24th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
@8 Andy - If you would like me to stop posting at this site, just ask and I will stop.
May 24th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
@4 (4-HR games), A couple of interesting notes:
a) any time Bob Horner can make the blogs it is a good day.
b) theChiSox were really just trying to pitch to contact with Mike Cameron - 4 HR and 4 RBI - .090 WPA (Joe Adcock is the only other 4-HR game with WPA under .250).
c) Gehrig had 1 longstanding record broken (consecutive games by Ripkin) with another one in jeopardy (Grand Slams - Arod is 1 behind). But it'll be hard for the 4-HR in a game record to be broken.
May 24th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
@ Dan - We do?
May 24th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
It's stunning to see Chris Woodward come up as a 3 HR guy (33 career HR in 1890 career PA, and counting). I also remember the Braves' Jeff Treadway turning the trick (May 26 1990; 28 career HR in 2318 career PA).
For the rapid list compilers out there, I'd love to see the Baseball Reference career HR% stat for every 3+-HR-in-a-game player sorted from low to high (or vice versa) to see who were the least likely 3+ HR men (obviously there were no flukish 4HR men).
May 24th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
@9 @10
Statsgeek and Pageup, yeah Thome's hip rotation on that monster shot to left reminded me of Bautista except the opposite side of the plate.
@7
John Autin, thank you for treating Timmy P with respect.
@13
Andy, I think this site should remain accessible to all.
The beauty of BRef, IMO, compared to fan sites is the respect that posters show for each other. People try to check their home town biases at the door. Trash talk of the other team's fans is minimized.
The collective baseball IQ in here is higher than anywhere else in baseball, again IMO.
The egalitarity of BRef is its strength!
May 24th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
OMG there seems to be a bit of self-righteousness going on. I never suggested banning anybody nor did I ask anybody to stop commenting (well, except for JA for obvious reasons.)
My comment about feeding the bear was simply meant to suggest that I don't think Timmy P and JA look at that issue in any way the same and that there was no point in having the discussion because their perspectives are so different.
May 24th, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Interesting tidbits from Carlos Delgado's 4-HR game, the only one in which the player went to the plate only 4 times. Although the Jays scored 10 runs, no Blue Jay got more than 4 PAs since they left only 2 runners on base and were the home team (only 8 innings at bat). The final 3 Delgado HRs were each hit leading off an inning.
May 24th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
@17 Neil / @18 Andy -- I think you're both right.
Actually, I laid out my reasoning that way not so much to engage in a debate, but more to govern my own tendency to get frustrated by statements I consider outlandish. I find that expressing my position in 1-2-3 form has a calming effect.
Perhaps Timmy's negativity towards Weeks was forged during Rickie's first 4 full seasons, when his numbers were fine for a SS but a bit of a disappointment for the #2 overall pick in the draft. Then, when he was hitting his stride in 2009, he got hurt in May and missed the rest of the year. While his numbers for 2009-11 have been consistent, he's really only had one full season at that level.
But Timmy, I think you should try to find a way to see beyond the strikeouts to the fact that Weeks has become one of the best offensive second basemen in the game. At the end of the day, shouldn't you judge a player not on what he might be if he fixed every weakness, but on the relative value of what he actually does?
May 24th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
(Correction @20 -- I mistakenly called Weeks a SS at one point. Duh.)
May 24th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
@16, MaTt -- It would be interesting to see the list you requested (HR% of all hitters with a 3-HR game). However, the Play Index at this point does not support the saving of Game Finder searches, which is the only efficient way I can think of to go about it.
In the live-ball era alone, there have been 497 hitters with at least one 3-HR game. That's just too much clicking to compile the HR% table by brute force.
May 24th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
JA I think it's actually not too difficult.
I did something similar in this post:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/11092
You can take the saved result of players with a 3-HR game and run a season finder on that set of names, looking for highest and lowest HR/PA rates, for example.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Speaking of 4-HR games, did you hear about the Nats' AAA hitter Michael Aubrey slugging 4 in a game the other day? He only has 1 other HR in 29 games (though he hit 22 in 102 games last year). Aubrey was a 1st-round pick back in 2003, but his career stalled; he's 29 now and has less than 50 games in the majors.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Still speaking of 4-HR games ... I've been trying to find out if current KC pitcher Nate Adcock is related to the famous 4-HR man Joe Adcock. I can't find anything that addresses the question one way or the other. No relation is listed on their B-R pages, and Nate is from Kentucky while Joe was from Louisiana. They're the only 2 Adcocks ever to play in the majors.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
@23, Andy -- Wait, so you can save a Game Finder? Sean's original post said it was live only on Season Finders. Did I miss an update? Or do you have enhanced powers as an insider? 🙂
May 24th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Just to clarify mine @26 -- I have tried to save a Game Finder, but when I click Share and then Link URL, I get a dead window. And when I do a Game Finder, I do not have a list of saved reports to choose from.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Based on my cursory search and Andy's prior list of fewest career HRs, Fred Patek's 0.66 HR% must be the lowest for a 3-HR man in the live ball era. Thanks.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
3 of the last 4 players to have 4 homer games are former Blue Jays.
That 2002 cluster has some odd players you wouldn't expect to hit 3 in a game.
May 25th, 2011 at 12:53 am
@11,
Not necessarily.
Three words: Human Growth Hormone.
May 25th, 2011 at 3:13 am
JA @26,27:
I routinely use the same PI tools available to you and all the other subscribers. Only on rare occasions does Sean send us bloggers links to new features not yet generally released, and usually he asks us not to post about them until they are made available to the public. This isn't explicitly stated but one main mission of this blog is to highlight what any PI users can do on their own with the PI.
Now, more specifically...
Only Season Finders (batting or pitching) can use a previously-saved report as the basis of a new search, i.e. as a pool of names from which to select. But that saved report can be any report--another Season Finder. a Game Finder, etc.
Game Finders can certainly be saved. If you are getting a blank window, it probably means that you are trying to save too large a result. You can test this by paring down a result to something small and then trying to save that. If this works, then a suggested long-term fix is to change your web browser to Google Chrome, which manages this sort of operation much faster and will allow you to save larger results tables. (There is a time limit on how long the applet will run, trying to compile the data into a table or link for saving, and if your browser can't complete the compilation within the allowed time, it craps out.) If none of these things works, then submit a formal bug report including your browser type, an example of an exact search/save that fails, and I'm sure the powers-that-be.
To all readers but to JA specifically as a soon-to-be-blogger-hopefully, using Google Chrome makes a big difference. When I switched over about a year ago, it made writing posts here a much quicker process for me. It cuts down on PI processing time by an order of magnitude.
May 25th, 2011 at 3:20 am
I only just noticed my egregious typo in the original post, citing four 4-homer games instead of four 3-homer games. I have fixed it, and sorry for the confusion.
May 25th, 2011 at 8:46 am
Add Carlos Quentin to the list.
May 25th, 2011 at 11:05 am
@31, Andy -- Thanks for the details. I misinterpreted Sean's note that it was "live only on Season Finders," and was confirmed in my belief by my attempt to save Game Finders with results > 300. Also, I have had a lot of instances wherein saved reports were not listed in my Saved Reports drop-down; I wonder if anyone else has that problem? I've reported it via feedback but no clear resolution yet.
P.S. I do use Google Chrome at home, where I have a choice. I'm stuck with I.E. at the office.
May 25th, 2011 at 11:28 am
There have been periodic issues with saved reports showing up in the PI list and in the drop-down box. I think it's permanently fixed now.
May 25th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
A theory to why there is an increase in three homer games, (outside the obvious) is in the past when a guy came to the plate with two homers he usually got knocked on his ass.