This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

All of a team’s hits are singles

Posted by Andy on June 18, 2009

Last, and probably least, here are games in which all of a team's hits were singles.

I'm starting at 10 and going up from there since there are tons and tons of gmes where this has happened.

Since 1954:

A team has had 10 hits, all for singles, 780 times.

A team has had 11 hits, all for singles, 415 times.

A team has had 12 hits, all for singles, 250 times.

A team has had 13 hits, all for singles, 145 times.

A team has had 14 hits, all for singles, 69 times.

A team has had 15 hits, all for singles, 44 times.

A team has had 16 hits, all for singles, 9 times, going 3-6 in those 9 games despite 16 hits

A team has had 17 hits, all for singles, 12 times, winning 11 out of 12 times.

A team has had 18 hits, all for singles, 5 times:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB Batrs
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+-----+
    1 1992-09-11    DET @BOS L  6-7   47  39  6 18  0  0  0   6  5   0  5   0  0  3   0   3  0  0  14    12

    2 1984-07-08    LAD  STL L  6-8   55  50  6 18  0  0  0   6  2   1  6   0  2  1   1   0  0  0  13    20
    3 1984-05-10    CLE @NYY L  6-7   68  61  6 18  0  0  0   5  5   0  7   0  0  2   1   1  1  2  14    13

    4 1978-09-10    NYY @BOS W  7-4   47  38  7 18  0  0  0   7  8   0  3   0  0  1   0   3  3  1  13    10

    5 1973-06-18    LAD  ATL W 13-3   43  41 13 18  0  0  0  12  2   1  4   0  0  0   2   2  1  0   6    10

A team has had 19 hits, all for singles, once:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB Batrs
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+-----+
    1 1973-05-24    LAD  NYM L  3-7   82  71  3 19  0  0  0   2  9   3  7   0  1  1   2   5  1  0  22    18

It's never happened (again, since 1954) with 20 or 21 hits.

A team has had 22 hits, all for singles, once:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB Batrs
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+-----+
    1 1988-06-03    LAD  CIN W 13-5   50  45 13 22  0  0  0  11  3   1  8   1  0  1   1   1  2  0  13    17

I went up to 25 hits, finding only zeros after the 22-hit effort above.

For you stat geeks, here is all the data plotted out:

So I've added all the data below 10 hits, even adding in no-hitters. You can see that this phenomenon, where all of a team's hits are singles, is most likely to occur when a team has 5 hits. That happened as recently as a week ago.

5 Responses to “All of a team’s hits are singles”

  1. kingturtle Says:

    the 1979-08-06 KC Royals got 16 runs on their 17 singles. the 1960-08-07 KC Athletics got 13 runs on their 14 singles (an awful team). the 1997-05-18 White Sox got 10 runs on their 12 hits.

    The 1971-08-05 Mets scored only 1 run on their 15 singles (lost 2-1). The 1974-08-28 Giants and 1966-05-17 Giants scored only 1 run on their 14 singles. The 1991-06-07 Padres, 1968-07-25 Cubs and 1964-07-15 Senators scored zero runs on their 13 singles (lost 0-1, 0-2 and 0-6 respectively)

    those play-by-plays are great reading. print them out and sit outside with some coffee and read 'em.

    very interesting posts Andy.

    p.s. i noticed that in all the box scores, the RBI totals for each team are all zero.

  2. mrbaseballcard Says:

    Andy,

    Love your posts and your blogs of baseball card sets are always fun and interesting. However, enough already please - this horse is dead.

  3. gerry Says:

    That 1992 18-single game - 23 baserunners in a 9-inning game, and the Tigers could only score 6 runs.

  4. kicking222 Says:

    The p-b-p for the 22-hit game is astounding. 12 of the 13 runs were earned; only five Dodgers reached based without getting a hit (one error, one HBP, one IBB, two BBs), which is far lower than you'd expect when a team gets 13 runs on zero XBH; and I think it's amazing that no pitcher- for either team- managed to pitch even three innings. And then, of course, there's Dave Concepcion in his only career pitching appearance (and perhaps being the best pitcher on his team that day).

  5. David1 Says:

    More on the 1988 22-hit game: things were so bad for the Reds that they traded the game's starter Dennis Rasmussen before he could make another start. They moved Jose Rijo from the bullpen to the rotation to replace him, and Rijo went on to become one of the best starters in the NL. Meanwhile, this Dodgers team of course went on to win the World Series.