Cliff Lee & two run-scoring plays in the same game
Posted by Andy on May 27, 2011
Yesterday Cliff Lee had both a two-RBI double and an RBI single in the Phillies' win over the Reds.
I found a couple other games this year where the pitcher was involved in two different run-scoring plays:
- On April 2, Clayton Richard put down a squeeze bunt that scored Cameron Maybin from 3rd and also drew a bases-loaded walk.
- On April 11, Kyle McClellan had both an RBI double and an RBI single
Weird, I just went to look up the same for 2010 games and saw that I had already visited the link for all of the games where pitchers did this, so I must have blogged about the same thing last year. However I cannot find the entry!
Anyway, it happened 13 times last year:
Richard's done it in both 2010 and 2011 now!
May 27th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Interesting there is no Zambrano and no Owings in the 2010 list.
Then again, they only had 71 PA combined (only 14 for Owings), so can't be that surprising. Zambrano batted 0.333 with RISP and Owings was 0.286.
In an RBI situation, I'd still take either of them over any of the guys on this list.
May 27th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Maybe there is something ELSE that links all the guys together!
May 27th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
When was the last time an AL pitcher had two RBI events in a game?
May 27th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
This reminds me of a story my dad told me about the not-quite-so-impressive accomplishments of his cousin Wilcy Moore, a relief pitcher for the Yankees before relievers were quite as popular -- probably around 1927 or 1928.
According to Dad, Moore was a notorious hitter -- so bad, in fact, that Babe Ruth bet him fifty dollars that he wouldn't get five hits for the entire season. Wilcy managed to get his fifth safety toward the end of the year, and with the money he collected from the Babe, he purchased a fine pair of mules -- which he appropriately named Babe and Ruth.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
I only met "Uncle" Wil {he was really a distant cousin, I think} a couple of years before he died; but he laughingly confirmed the story.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
@3 2009 Rick Porcello
Here are all the AL pitchers since 1973 with games of at least 2 RBI and 2 PA. Clicking on the PA numbers will hint to you if there was more than once RBI play for the pitcher.
Generated 5/27/2011.
(BTW - I assume Andy used the event finder for the post, but the event finder can't filter by league and I figured that once you limit it to AL pitchers, there are very few games anyway.)
May 27th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
@4. Cool story, Frank.
Wonder whether Babe's challenge inspired Moore to "bear down" more at the plate.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
@6.
Not surprisingly, only one AL game on the list (#25), and the pitcher wasn't really a pitcher.
Dempsey pitched only one inning (the 9th) and did not bat in the bottom of that inning, so none of his RBIs came while pitching.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I am surprised to see Moore had such a brief career. I was certainly familiar with his name, as a key part of the '27 Yankees staff. That was actually his rookie season, at age 30. Frank, do you have any idea why he got to the majors so late? I thought perhaps he had been in PCL, almost a third major league at the time, but no, it looks like he was just toiling in the low minors. And B-R doesn't even have a record of him in the minors before age 25 (though that may be incomplete).
Anyway, the season which might fit Frank's story is most likely '27. Moore didn't get any hits that season until July. He got his 4th and 5th hits on September 16, and added a 6th on October 1. He batted .080 that season and .102 for his career.
May 27th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
I, too, enjoy the Wilcy Moore thread. BTW, as a rookie in '27, Wilcy Moore:
-- won the ERA title, at least by the modern qualifying rules; and
-- saved game 1 of the WS and had a CG win in game 4 of the WS (completing the sweep), and even chipped in a base hit.
He also got the win game 4 of the '32 WS sweep with 5.1 of very tidy relief. Frank, did you happen to ask him about Ruth's "called shot" in game 3 of that Series?
May 27th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Johnny T.,
Wil was always a farmer, and his "minor league" career was spent with pretty much local teams in the North Texas/Southern Oklahoma area until the Yankees offerred him some "serious money" -- I think he said he got up to about $900.00 a month before he was done -- and he considered baseball "moonlighting". And yes, I did ask him about the called shot. He described the story as a great gimmick, but no way Ruth would have gotten anything to hit from Charlie Root if he had really called the shot. In fact, as mean as Root was, Babe would have probably been given the next pitch to wear as an earring if he'd really meant to call it.
May 27th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
@8.
I missed another AL game, #16. But same story as #25. Pitcher wasn't really a pitcher - Halter pitched to only one batter, a mid-inning walk. So, none of his PAs came while pitching.
This game (#16) was one of those last-game-of-the-year deals where some goofy stuff went on. Halter played every position that day, and several other Tigers also played multiplie positions. Fittingly, it appears it was a fun, entertaining game - Tigers won at home 12-11, scoring 2 in the ninth.
May 27th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
@4
The story of Wilcy Moore is retold by Robert Creamer on page 307 of his biography Babe:
“Laconic, shrewd, witty, he became a favorite of Ruth, who loved to mock Moore’s hitting… Moore looked so awful at bat during spring training that Ruth bet him $300 to $100 that he would not make more than three hits all season. Moore took the bet, got six hits in seventy-five at bats and won the bet. He told Ruth later that he bought two mules of his farm with the money and named one Babe and the other Ruth.”
Some of the details of the story are different. Creamer had Moore going 19-9 that season, and not 19-7. But it is a great story. Thanks to Frank we can see that this “wittiness” runs through the family.
The Babe was the first “grown-up” sports book I ever read. Over the years it ranks with Moneyball, Dynasty (Golenbock), The Historical Baseball Abstract and Jim Bouton’s Foul Ball as the baseball books I have read the most.
May 27th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
@1 Doug - Great point, I would take Zambrano and then OWings because Z is a switch-hitter. Z is also a fine bunter, and runs well.
May 27th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Zambrano also exhibits a certain quickness commonly found in a popular household pet. He is a special player. Also Juan Pierre has 17 hits in his last 9 games.
May 27th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Pretty sure the only HRs hit by White Sox pitchers since Interleague play started are Garland (who I see on the list) & Buehrle a few years ago. Buehrle's must have been a solo shot
May 28th, 2011 at 12:34 am
@15, Timmy -- Pierre also snapped his 16-start no-RBI streak; has swiped 3 straight bases without being thrown out; and is no longer the AL leader in outs made! (He's #2.) I hear Cooperstown calling....
May 28th, 2011 at 12:42 am
@17
JA, play nice!!
May 28th, 2011 at 1:10 am
No doubt Juan was off to a bad start, esp. for a player of his quality. I think he has the ship righted and we'll see him glide effortlessly past the 2000 hit threshold shortly. Also no errors in 4 weeks after having 5 in the seasons first 4 weeks.
May 28th, 2011 at 1:43 am
@19
Timmy, gotta give Juan Pierre a little bit of his due. He made a great defensive play in LF tonight against Toronto and has made his presence felt as a baserunner in the first two games of the series.
Don't want to fuel your Juan Pierre for the HOF tendancies but, in the interests of fairness .......
May 28th, 2011 at 2:00 am
Was curious so I checked.
There are no AL games (NOT interleague) in the DH era where a player who appeared in a game only as a pitcher has had 2 or more RBI. And only 4 games where such a player has had a single RBI.
May 28th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Thomas {13};
As far as the discrepencies, you might keep in mind that this was me, a 75-year-old man, remembering something that a sixty-odd year old man told him fifty years ago about something that had happened forty years before that. I would do the math on that, but then I would get too depressed.
May 28th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Wilcy Moore made the majors on the strength of going 30-4 in 1926. Low minors or not a record like that will raise some eyebrows.