Will A-rod break the post-season RBI record?
Posted by Andy on October 22, 2009
Here's a great reason to watch Game 5 of the ALCS tonight:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Alex Rodriguez 2007-10-08 2009-10-20 8 32 10 13 1 0 6 12 6 4 1 0 .406 .459 1.000 1.459 NYY Ryan Howard 2009-10-07 2009-10-19 8 29 7 11 4 1 2 14 7 5 0 1 .379 .457 .793 1.250 PHI Lou Gehrig 1928-10-04 1932-10-02 8 28 14 15 2 0 7 17 1 8 0 0 .536 .649 1.357 2.006 NYY
Ryan Howard's streak of consecutive post-season games with an RBI ended last night despite the Phillies' big win. Tonight, A-rod has a chance to move into sole possession of first place for this record. In my opinion, this is a pretty big deal, particularly since most of his RBI so far have been very meaningful in terms of game situations.
Incidentally, the record for consecutive regular-season games with an RBI is pretty far out of reach:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mike Piazza 2000-06-14 2000-07-02 15 63 14 22 3 0 8 28 9 4 0 0 .349 .388 .778 1.166 NYM Mike Sweeney 1999-06-23 1999-07-04 13 52 14 23 4 0 4 19 5 5 1 0 .442 .508 .750 1.258 KCR Garret Anderson 2007-08-26 2007-09-07 12 42 12 20 3 0 7 22 3 10 1 0 .476 .556 1.048 1.604 LAA
Rodriguez is reminding me more and more of Barry Bonds, who was another guy who failed a lot in the post-season before having a breakout playoff output late in his career. Now Bonds' earlier failures are rarely remembered--I wonder how A-rod's reputation will change after this season? If he can drive in a few more runs and the Yankees win the World Series, my guess is most fans will forget his earlier poor performances.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Part of the reason any A-Rod reputation for poor post-seaosn performance should quickly disappear is that it had little validity in the first place. Over his 9 games in the 2000 post-season with the Mariners, A-Rod had a BA of .371, an OBP of .421, and an SLG of .600 for an OPS of 1.021. In his next post-season,11 games in 2004 with the Yankees, he had a BA of .320, an OBP of .414, and an SLG of .600 for an OPS of 1.014. So that was a sequence of 20 post-season games in which Rodriguez had a .341 BA, .417 OBP, .600 SLG and 1.017 OPS. That sequence had constituted the majority of his post-season career before this year. The notion that A-Rod was a poor post-season performer (as opposed to a great player who had a few poor post-season performances as well as some terrific ones) was always silly, and it can't disappear fast enough, no matter what one thinks of A-Rod as a person.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Of course, if the Yankees don't win it all and A-Rod doesn't have a good WS, then he could be the goat again. 🙂 In 2004, no one remembers that A-Rod hit .320/.414/.600 that post-season but everyone remembers how poorly he played in the last four games.
Postseason sample sizes are so small. Often it only takes one great postseason to turn around your career postseason stats. Yogi Berra hit .188/.248/.327 in his first five World Series and turned those numbers upside down for most of the WS's he played in after that. I suppose the Yankees won all of those first five series (47,49-52) so there was no need for Yankees fans to be looking for goats.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
The record for consecutive regular-season games with an RBI is even farther out of reach than you think, as it's 17, by Ray Grimes, of the 1922 Cubs. Just because it's not in your database doesn't mean it didn't happen.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Yeah, I forgot to mention the "1954 to present" part. You're getting increasingly bitter, Gerry. It's sad.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Howard was in the on-deck circle when the final out was made in the 8th inning. Phillies fans are certainly glad he didn't have to come up in the 9th! (Of course, if this had been a road game, win or lose, he would have had that one last chance.) While it would have been nice to have seen him break the record, at least the Phillies got 9 RBIs from the rest of their line-up (plus a run that scored on a wild pitch) and won, so he's forgiven.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I'm sorry, but I just can't see A-Rod "choking" in the World Series. He's so locked in right now. And good analysis of A-Rod's postseason splits David-He was an animal with the Mariners and through the fifth inning of that ill-fated Game Four in 2004 his postseason BA was like .386 or something. And no one remembers how he single handedly beat the Twins in the 04 ALDS either.
Funny to think that if Mariano closes out Game Four, A-Rod almost wins ALCS MVP (Matrsui wins it), the Yankees probably kill the Cardinals as they would've had a week to line up their rotation and A-Rod is the hero for "restoring the Yankee dynasty" in his first year.
But alas.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Actually retrosheet has done the 1922 NL so boxes of Grimes' streak are available there:
http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1922/Igrimr1030031922.htm
So Grimes' streak may make it into the PI fairly soon. I recall Sean was undecided on how to deal with the early updates of retrosheet. He posted something a few months ago asking if he should add everything into the PI or only only add years that are contiguous with the current block. I don't remember if he made a decision on what he was going to do.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Below is a list of every A-rod plate appearance with the Yankees, post-season, RISP. This is where he got his reputation from. Starting with his 3rd such plate appearance, he went 23 straight PAs without getting a hit with RISP. Small sample, yes, but not THAT small. Of course that doesn't mean he hasn't been productive, but this is why there is the perception that he doesn't hit in the clutch. See the bottom part of the list for what he's done this year.
Year Series Game
2004 ALDS 2 MIN Brad Radke ahead Single to LF (Line Drive); Cairo Scores
ALDS 2 MIN Joe Nathan down Ground-rule Double (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Cairo Scores; Jeter to 3B
ALDS 3 @MIN Carlos Silva ahead Popfly: 2B
ALDS 3 @MIN Jesse Crain ahead Groundout: P-1B
ALDS 3 @MIN Terry Mulholland ahead Groundout: 3B-1B
ALCS 1 BOS Curt Leskanic ahead Ground Ball Double Play: SS-2B-1B; Lofton to 3B
ALCS 2 BOS Pedro Martinez tied Hit By Pitch
ALCS 2 BOS Pedro Martinez ahead Strikeout Looking
ALCS 2 BOS Keith Foulke ahead Flyball: RF
ALCS 4 @BOS Derek Lowe ahead Groundout: 3B-1B
ALCS 4 @BOS Alan Embree tied Lineout: SS
ALCS 5 @BOS Pedro Martinez ahead Hit By Pitch
ALCS 5 @BOS Mike Timlin ahead Strikeout Swinging
ALCS 5 @BOS Tim Wakefield tied Flyball: CF
2005 ALDS 1 @LAA Bartolo Colon ahead Strikeout Swinging
ALDS 4 LAA John Lackey tied Strikeout Looking
ALDS 4 LAA Kelvim Escobar ahead Walk; Womack to 3B; Jeter to 2B
ALDS 5 @LAA Ervin Santana ahead Strikeout Swinging
ALDS 2 DET Justin Verlander tied Strikeout Looking
ALDS 3 @DET Kenny Rogers tied Groundout: SS-1B
ALDS 1 @CLE C.C. Sabathia down Intentional Walk
2007 ALDS 2 @CLE Fausto Carmona ahead Strikeout Swinging
ALDS 2 @CLE Fausto Carmona tied Strikeout Swinging
ALDS 4 CLE Paul Byrd down Strikeout Swinging
2009 ALDS 1 MIN Brian Duensing tied Flyball: RF
ALDS 1 MIN Brian Duensing ahead Single to LF (Line Drive to LF-CF); Jeter Scores
ALDS 1 MIN Jon Rauch ahead Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep RF); Jeter Scores/unER
ALDS 2 MIN Nick Blackburn down Single to LF (Ground Ball thru Weak 3B); Jeter Scores; Damon to 2B
ALCS 1 LAA John Lackey tied Flyball: CF/Sacrifice Fly (Deep CF); Jeter Scores
ALCS 1 LAA John Lackey ahead Walk
ALCS 2 LAA Ervin Santana tied Flyball: CF
ALCS 4 @LAA Ervin Santana ahead Strikeout Looking
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Ray Grimes reminds of Don Mattingly.
Both first baseman born 200 miles out of Cincinnati.
Both had sons who played pro ball.
Grimes was an early Chicago Cubs hero of the 1920s teams that never really won anything.
His promising career declined after suffering a slipped disk.
Great phot of him with Jr. on wikipedia
In 1922, the year Grimes set a major-league mark of 17 consecutive games, he finished with 99 RBI, 99 runs, 45 doubles, 12 triples, 14 home runs, and hit .354, ending second in the National League batting title behind Rogers Hornsby (.401).
Gr
In a six-season career, Grimes was a .329 hitter with 27 home runs and 263 RBI in 433 games.
Grimes died of a heart ailment in Minerva, Ohio, at age 59
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 pm
uh hmm...are you suggesting that Mattingly is going to die at age 59? Ugh.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Streak is over. No RBI's. A-Rod with a 2B but also two IBB's.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Well it's a hitter's era and one with many more postseason opportunities than in the pre-Wild Card years. Rodriguez already has played more PS games than Ruth or Gehrig, even though he's never played in a World Series. So none of his hits or RBI's can be considered *that* important until they happen in a WS. Still, it's a fairly impressive streak and there is no doubt that Rodriguez is one of the better hitters of his era.
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:19 am
Well "important" may not be the right word. I think what many fans focus on is how A-rod has done in a game where the team victory was really important. In that sense, the ALDS and ALCS games are pretty "important" just to get to the World Series--they are far more important than any single regular-season game.