Two hit batters in a post-season game
Posted by Andy on October 12, 2009
On Friday, A. J. Burnett hit two consecutive batters in a playoff game.
Here are the most recent starts in which a batter has hit two or more batters:
Cnt Player Date Series G Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+------+-+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 A.J. Burnett 2009-10-09 ALDS 2 NYY MIN W 4-3 GS-6 6 3 1 1 5 6 0 95 57 63 27 20 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1.50 2 C.C. Sabathia 2007-10-18 ALCS 5 CLE BOS L 1-7 GS-6 ,L 6 10 4 4 2 6 1 112 70 40 29 25 2 1 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 6.00 3 Jeff Francis 2007-10-11 NLCS 1 COL @ARI W 5-1 GS-7 ,W 6.2 7 1 1 1 4 0 89 54 59 27 24 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.35 4 Nate Robertson 2006-10-03 ALDS 1 DET @NYY L 4-8 GS-6 ,L 5.2 12 7 7 0 1 1 96 62 18 30 28 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 11.12 5 Jose Contreras 2005-10-22 WS 1 CHW HOU W 5-3 GS-7 ,W 7 6 3 3 0 2 1 82 56 55 29 25 3 0 0 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3.86 6 Roy Oswalt 2005-10-19 NLCS 6 HOU @STL W 5-1 GS-7 ,W 7 3 1 1 1 6 0 118 77 72 27 23 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.29 7 Tim Wakefield 2005-10-07 ALDS 3 BOS CHW L 3-5 GS-6 ,L 5.1 6 4 4 1 4 1 71 49 43 23 20 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 6.75 8 Mark Mulder 2005-10-06 NLDS 2 STL SDP W 6-2 GS-7 ,W 6.2 8 1 1 1 2 0 87 56 55 27 24 1 0 0 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 1.35 9 Matt Clement 2005-10-04 ALDS 1 BOS @CHW L 2-14 GS-4 ,L 3.1 7 8 8 0 0 3 64 41 14 18 15 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 21.60 10 Pedro Martinez 2004-10-18 ALCS 5 BOS NYY W 5-4 GS-6 6 7 4 4 5 6 1 111 62 43 31 24 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6.00 11 Javier Vazquez 2004-10-09 ALDS 4 NYY @MIN W 6-5 GS-5 5 7 5 5 2 6 1 98 59 37 25 19 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 9.00 12 Felix Heredia 2004-10-08 ALDS 3 NYY @MIN W 8-4 8-9 0.1 0 2 2 0 0 0 6 3 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 54.00 13 Jeff Weaver 2004-10-07 NLDS 2 LAD @STL L 3-8 GS-5 ,L 4.2 8 6 6 2 4 0 90 57 26 26 21 2 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11.57 14 Tim Wakefield 2003-10-02 ALDS 2 BOS @OAK L 1-5 GS-6 ,L 6 4 5 3 3 7 0 111 68 52 28 23 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.50 15 Matt Morris 2002-10-14 NLCS 5 STL @SFG L 1-2 GS-9 ,L 8.2 6 2 2 2 4 0 100 62 66 36 29 1 0 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.08
Turns out that the last time a single pitcher hit two batters in a row was in the 2004 game by Felix Heredia. He led off the 9th inning by hitting two Twins in a row. Sound familiar? A.J. Burnett, also pitching for the Yankees, hit two Twins in a row last night.
This search might not catch all consecutive hit-by-pitch instances. Since it looks at the pitching performance just for any one pitcher, it would miss cases where a pitcher comes out of a game after hitting a batter and the reliever hits the first guy he faces.
It's amazing how many of these games involve the Yankees, although of course they have had a lot of post-season appearances. Of the last 22 games in which 1 pitcher has hit at least 2 batters, the Yankees have been involved 10 times. This includes 5 times on each side.
I also noticed this game in which Jimmy Key hit 3 batters in the first inning (not consecutively.)