Slamming Pitchers – The Late Edition
Posted by Raphy on October 2, 2009
I was surprised to see in Andy's post this morning how many pitchers have hit grand slams in recent years. I also noticed that, not surprisingly, none have done it past the sixth inning of a game. In fact, no pitcher has hit a grand slam after the sixth inning since Don Robinson in 1985. In all, 7 pitchers have hit a late inning grand slams since 1954. With one exception, all of those pitchers were up by at least 3 runs at the time. The only pitcher since 1954 to hit a late inning grand slam in a close game was Rick Wise in 1971. Wise had already homered in the game and by the end of the day would have 6 home runs on the season. Here are the 7 late inning grand slam pitchers:
1 1 1985-09-12 Don Robinson PIT CHC Warren Brusstar ahead 6-2 b 8 123 2 - 4 Home Run; Brown Scores; Gonzalez Scores; Khalifa Scores 2 1 1984-05-15 Joaquin Andujar STL ATL Jeff Dedmon ahead 5-1 b 8 123 2 - 4 Home Run; Van Slyke Scores; Smith Scores; Nieto Scores 3 1 1980-10-01 Enrique Romo PIT @NYM Roy Lee Jackson ahead 6-3 t 8 123 0 - 4 Home Run; Nicosia Scores; Moreno Scores; Foli Scores 4 1 1977-09-27 Larry Christenson PHI @CHC Dennis Lamp ahead 7-2 t 7 123 2 - 4 Home Run; Maddox Scores; Boone Scores; Sizemore Scores 5 1 1971-08-28(2) Rick Wise PHI SFG Don McMahon tied 3-3 b 7 123 1 - 4 Home Run; Gamble Scores; Freed Scores; McCarver Scores 6 1 1966-08-13 Earl Wilson DET @BOS Dan Osinski ahead 6-1 t 7 123 1 - 4 Home Run; Horton Scores; Wert Scores; McFarlane Scores 7 1 1965-09-29 Bob Gibson STL @SFG Gaylord Perry ahead 4-0 t 8 123 1 - 4 Home Run (LF-CF); McCarver Scores; Shannon Scores; Maxvill Scores
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
For the most part, weak-hitting pitchers need not apply. Four of the greatest hitting pitchers (Wise, Wilson, Gibson and Robinson), a guy with 11 HR (Christenson), a guy with a .270 AVG (Romo) and...well, Andujar did hit 5 HR.
Romo's only homer was a memorable one, I see.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Hi. Am I able to initiate blog posts or only comment?
Saw this on JD Drew and was shocked to see his numbers in context. Any thoughts orfeedback? Once you guys help contextualize Drew careerwise as nit unlike Ordonez. He's conssitently producing inthe darndedest way.
Per Chad Finn (good writer) from the Boston Globe online "Touching all the bases"
"Peter Gammons tweeted this bit of info this morning, and it caught me by such surprise that I had to turn to MLB.com for confirmation, but it is true: J.D. Drew is second among qualifying American League outfielders in OPS this season, behind only teammate Jason Bay. (Adam Lind, who would be first, doesn't count since he's primarily been a DH.) Further, Drew is 11th overall, trailing these 10 boppers: Joe Mauer, Youk, You're On The Mark Teixeira!, Miguel Cabrera, Lind, A-Rod, Ben Zobrist, Bay, Michael Young, and Kendry Morales. Damn good company. I don't know if this is an indictment of OPS as a measuring stick regarding a player's contributions and value, or a sign that we've been sleeping on a very useful season from the player who is in the top five on the Red Sox' all-time list of enigmas. But the conclusion is inescapable: Drew has had a sneaky-excellent season."
Any thoughts? And how would better post this query than randomly?
Quiz: Who's record for most HRs in a season by a shortstop(AL)did Rico Petrocelli break in 1969?
Who broke Rico's record later? Who holds the NL record?
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Well, a few things: Drew has faced LHP in only 25% of his PA, vs a league average of 30%, so he gets a slight advantage there. He's playing in a good hitting park. And he only has 536 total PA (61st in the league). But yeah, he's a good hitter, I'm not sure why that seems to be such shocking news.