Pinch Run… Grand Slam!!!
Posted by Raphy on March 15, 2010
Twice last season a player hit a grand slam in a game that he entered as a pinch runner. The first occurred on June 7th. Sensing that Miguel Cabrera was not at full strength, manager Jimmy Leyland pinch ran Clete Thomas for him in the 4th inning. Four innings later with 2 outs in the eighth and the game tied at 5 Thomas became a hero with the decisive blow that would eventually beat the Angels.
Three and a half months later, on September 30th, the Nationals were down a run to the Mets with a runner on first and 2 outs in the eighth. Justin Maxwell was sent in to pinch run for Josh Willingham, but was stranded when Ian Desmond grounded out to end the inning. The Nats were still down a run with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the ninth when Maxwell's turn in the lineup came up again. Maxwell came through in dramatic fashion , depositing a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to end the Nationals home schedule in style.
Here are all the players since 1954 who have hit a grand slam in a game in which they pinch ran:
| Rk | Player | Date ▾ | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | ROE | GDP | SB | CS | BOP | Pos. Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Justin Maxwell | 2009-09-30 | WSN | NYM | W 7-4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | PR CF |
| 3 | Clete Thomas | 2009-06-07 | DET | LAA | W 9-6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | PR RF LF |
| 4 | Jolbert Cabrera | 2008-09-06 | CIN | CHC | L 9-14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | PR 3B |
| 5 | Rajai Davis | 2008-09-05 | OAK | BAL | W 11-2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | PR DH |
| 6 | Reggie Taylor | 2003-08-09 | CIN | SDP | W 9-5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | PR LF |
| 7 | David Segui | 2003-07-20 | BAL | ANA | W 7-6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | PR 1B |
| 8 | Rico Brogna | 2000-08-14 | BOS | TBD | W 7-3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | PR 1B |
| 9 | Darrin Jackson | 1998-07-28 | MIL | STL | W 13-10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | PR LF |
| 10 | Moises Alou | 1992-09-23 | MON | PIT | W 5-1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | PR LF |
| 11 | Chris Hoiles | 1991-06-23 (1) | BAL | KCR | W 11-8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | PR DH |
| 12 | Rey Palacios | 1990-05-14 | KCR | BOS | W 9-5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | PR C |
| 13 | John Shelby | 1983-08-29 | BAL | KCR | W 9-2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | PR CF |
| 14 | Leroy Stanton | 1976-07-25 | CAL | TEX | W 7-3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | PR DH |
| 15 | Jose Martinez | 1969-09-08 | PIT | MON | W 6-2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | PR SS |
| 16 | Tommie Aaron | 1962-08-04 (2) | MLN | PHI | W 7-3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | PR 1B |
| 17 | Gene Stephens | 1959-07-13 | BOS | NYY | W 13-3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | PR LF |
| 18 | Mickey Owen | 1954-07-19 (1) | BOS | BAL | W 9-7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | PR C |
March 15th, 2010 at 10:25 am
With most pinch-runners coming late in the game, and perhaps more often than not in close games, means that quite a high percentage of these grand slams were walk-offs (7 of 17): Maxwell, Brogna, Alou, Palacios, Stanton, Aaron, and Owen.
Any idea why Rank 1 is missing?
March 15th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Its a PI glitch. In order to create the list, I searched for games where the player was a PR with at least 1 HR and 4 RBI. Some of those game didn't qualify for this list so I had to remove them. I then resorted the list by date. For some reason, when you do this the header row is considered 1. Usually I fix this manually, but I didn't notice it this time.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Wow, I am not shocked that Matt Alexander, Larry Lintz, Don Hopkins and Allan Lewis did not make the list!
March 15th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Chris Hoiles, pinch running specialist. Must have been an injury.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Funnily enough, no. He replaced the legendary Sam Horn in the first game of a double-header at DH, and Horn would play the second game. It's probable that given Horn's injury history, they just wanted to rest him.
March 15th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Mickey Owen, goat of the 1941 World Series, was still playing (and pinch-running) in 1954? I had to look that up. Sure enough, after playing 1937 to 1945 (missing no time to the war), he disappeared from the major league records, reappeared for the 1949-51 seasons, vanished again, and came back for a few games in 1954, including the one on the list above.
The Gene Stephens one is really cool; he hit the homer in the same inning in which he did the pinch-running (for Ted Williams). He stayed in the game, in left field, but when he hit the home run he had no position.
March 17th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
It's kind of cool how these events happened precisely once every seven years from 1962 to 1990. For José Martínez, who hit the 1969 homer, it was his only major-league home run.
March 20th, 2010 at 12:52 am
[...] run, grand slam 19Mar10 From Baseball-Reference Stat of the Day, the 17 times in baseball history a player has entered the game as a pinch runner and hit a grand sla.... Three of these were Orioles: David Segui, John Shelby, and Chris Hoiles. That’s right, [...]