Four Fives
Posted by Steve Lombardi on April 17, 2010
B-R Blog & Stat of the Day reader Jim recently asked -
I remember in 1978-1979 timeframe seeing TWO 5-5-5-5 lines - one I am sure was Larry Parrish (found confirmation online) and I am 90% sure the other was Steve Garvey, but I cannot find evidence of that one.
Can you tell me if it was Garvey and if there have ever been any other exactly 5-5-5-5 lines. Seems like the odds against ending up exactly on those numbers are in the millions, and two happened in very very short order. Just wondering how rare it was, and for me to catch each of them in the papers the next day with very little mention of the rarity of the event.
Well, thanks to Baseball-Refererence.com's Play Index Batting Game Finder, we can see many of these games*. Here they are:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | ROE | GDP | SB | CS | WPA | RE24 | BOP | Pos. Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Al Simmons | 1930-06-23 (2) | PHA | CHW | W 17-9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 4 | LF | ||||
| 2 | Earl Sheely | 1921-09-09 | CHW | DET | W 20-15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 4 | 1B | ||||
| 3 | Larry Parrish | 1977-05-29 | MON | STL | W 14-4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.093 | 4.871 | .324 | 8 | 3B |
| 4 | Steve Garvey | 1977-08-28 | LAD | STL | W 11-0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.255 | 5.326 | .575 | 5 | 1B |
| 5 | Bibb Falk | 1930-05-11 | CLE | PHA | W 25-7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 6 | RF |
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* Games shown are from 1920 through 1939 and 1952 through 2010 to date.
April 17th, 2010 at 7:39 am
didn't someone have a 6-6-6-6 line? maybe green or alfonzo?
April 17th, 2010 at 10:31 am
In his 4 HR game, Shawn Green was 6-6-6-7.
April 17th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
i checked it out and in 1999 the Fonz had a game of 6-6-6-5 with 3 hrs, not too shabby, there must be others like that?
April 17th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
to answer my own question, probably not, according to the b-ball alamanc in mlb history 6 runs were scored in a game only 15 times, also, only 2 players ever had 7 hits in a game and only one scored 7 runs so that line's out
April 17th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Maybe it's late at night, but I can't figure out what player who was active in 1999 was nicknamed the Fonz. Any clue? (I'll probably slap my forehead and say, "I should have guessed," once I find out.)
April 17th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Edgardo Alfonzo
April 18th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Thanks, Jbuck, for the answer. If I had read message #1 again, I probably would have gotten it.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I guess Cards manager Vern Rapp didn't care because his team was down by at least 7 runs for the whole game, but you would think there would be at least 1 intentional walk of Larry Parrish (batting 8th). Pitcher Dan Warthen went 0-4 batting behind him.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Sorry Vern, I stand corrected in my previous statement...There were no opportunites for an IBB to Parrish. he came up with the Bases loaded in the first inning - then came up with noone on base for his last 4 ABs (including 3 solo HR in his last 3 times up).
April 19th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I found a 5 4 5 6 for Harry Craft in 1940.
April 19th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
besides green, those 4 home run/game guys had some interesting lines
schmidt = 6-4-5-8
adcock = 5-5-5-7
whitten = 5-4-4-12
delahanty = 5-4-5-7
lowe = 6-4-5-6
hodges 6-5-5-9
cameron had a pedestrian (!) 5-4-4-4 but those 4 homers where in the 1st 5 innings, whoa Mike