8 HR In 9 Innings Or Less
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 7, 2010
The Toronto Blue Jays hit eight home runs in their game against the Tampa Bay Rays today. How many teams, since 1920, have hit 8+ HRs in a game of nine innings or less?
Here's the answer: From 1920 to 8/6/2010, Only 9-inning games, requiring HR>=8, sorted by most recent date
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | ROE | GDP | SB | CS | WPA | RE24 | LOB | # | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007-07-31 | NYY | CHW | W 16-3 | 44 | 39 | 16 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.536 | 11.552 | .328 | 4 | 12 |
| 2 | 2006-06-18 | DET | CHC | W 12-3 | 43 | 39 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.435 | 6.985 | .238 | 4 | 12 |
| 3 | 2005-06-30 | TEX | LAA | W 18-5 | 47 | 39 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.477 | 13.516 | .328 | 5 | 11 |
| 4 | 2005-05-21 | TEX | HOU | W 18-3 | 45 | 40 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.390 | 13.517 | .203 | 3 | 12 |
| 5 | 2004-07-16 | CLE | SEA | W 18-6 | 55 | 46 | 18 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.390 | 13.098 | .407 | 10 | 12 |
| 6 | 2002-05-23 | LAD | MIL | W 16-3 | 50 | 44 | 16 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.494 | 11.631 | .305 | 7 | 15 |
| 7 | 2000-06-20 | DET | TOR | W 18-6 | 50 | 41 | 18 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.458 | 12.461 | .200 | 5 | 14 |
| 8 | 1999-09-04 | CIN | PHI | W 22-3 | 56 | 47 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 22 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.455 | 16.759 | .372 | 7 | 16 |
| 9 | 1997-04-25 | CLE | MIL | W 11-4 | 45 | 37 | 11 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0.440 | 5.955 | .781 | 7 | 10 |
| 10 | 1996-06-27 | OAK | CAL | W 18-2 | 57 | 45 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.348 | 12.689 | .280 | 12 | 12 |
| 11 | 1987-09-14 | TOR | BAL | W 18-3 | 48 | 44 | 18 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.369 | 13.509 | .230 | 6 | 14 |
| 12 | 1978-07-30 | MON | ATL | W 19-0 | 57 | 51 | 19 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.386 | 14.500 | .349 | 11 | 14 |
| 13 | 1977-07-04 | BOS | TOR | W 9-6 | 36 | 34 | 9 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.754 | 4.420 | .920 | 3 | 12 |
| 14 | 1963-08-29 (1) | MIN | WSA | W 14-2 | 49 | 45 | 14 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.322 | 9.922 | .241 | 8 | 11 |
| 15 | 1961-04-30 | SFG | MLN | W 14-4 | 47 | 39 | 14 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.594 | 9.703 | .336 | 6 | 11 |
| 16 | 1956-08-18 | CIN | MLN | W 13-4 | 42 | 37 | 13 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.426 | 8.955 | .578 | 5 | 10 |
| 17 | 1953-08-30 (1) | MLN | PIT | W 19-4 | 54 | 45 | 19 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 19 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 8 | 15 | |
| 18 | 1939-06-28 (1) | NYY | PHA | W 23-2 | 61 | 56 | 23 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 11 | 10 |
.
Check out that July 4, 1977 game in Boston. What was that, Han Solo Day at Fenway?
August 7th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Woo Blue Jays!!!!!
Woo!
August 7th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
That 1977 game features back-to-back solo shots once, and three straight in the eighth, with the final one coming after one more out. It also features two inning-ending double plays in the seventh and eighth with the sacks full for the Jays. Just think, there nearly was a loss in an 8 HR game.
..and BOTH those DPs involved the catcher. What a game.
August 7th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
The only other time a team hit 8+ big flies in a game was on May 28, 2006, when the Braves crushed 8 out of the park in a 13-12 extra-inning win against the Cubs. But today's Blue Jays outburst really takes you back to the days of 1987, when they went yard a record 10 times. Will that record ever be broken?
August 7th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
14 of the 19 teams (including the most recent one) that did it were in the American League, including one in an interleague game. The most recent time this was done by a National League team, it came against the Brewers, who had also been victimized five years earlier while still in the AL. That 2002 game was the one in which the Dodgers' Shawn Green hit four homers.
All but five of these were done in the DH era. Three of the five times it was done in the NL occurred during those pre-DH years. The one time it happened in an interleague game, it was in the AL ballpark. I wonder if the presence of a DH has made it more likely for a team to hit 8 or more homers in a nine-inning game. (The one extra inning game with 8 or more homers that someone noted was, however, in a National League game in recent years.)
In the 1999 Cincinnati game, a position player double-switched into the #9 spot hit one of the home runs. The position player removed from the game whose position in the batting order the new pitcher took hit two of them. In the interleague game at Texas in 2005, the position player batting 9th for the Rangers hit one of the homers. In the 1978 Montreal game, Woodie Fryman pitched a complete game shutout and went 2-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI, as well as a sacrifice. Neither of his hits was a home run, but he did hit a double. (Incidentally, the run he scored came on a single, not one of the homers.)
August 7th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I just realized that some of my totals didn't add up. Here are the corrections:
13 of the 19 times, it was done by an AL team, including once in an interleague game in that AL team's ballpark.
5 of the 19 times, it was done in the pre-DH era, including 3 of the 6 times that a National League team did this. So it has only been done by a National League team 3 out of 14 times in the DH era.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:04 am
But will the record of crushing 10 balls into the night sky, established by the Blue Jays on September 14, 1987, ever be broken?
August 8th, 2010 at 12:48 am
CBS SportsLine.com report on the game mentions the following:
Rays right-hander James Shields (10-10) became just the eighth pitcher in the modern era to surrender six homers in a single game, and the first since Texas' R.A. Dickey gave up six against Detroit on April 6, 2006.
All nine hits off Shields went for extra bases, including three doubles. He allowed eight runs in four innings to lose for the first time in five starts. The right-hander yielded just five homers in his previous six starts.
Another interesting aspect of the game, the rookie J.P. Arencibia became another player to hit the first MLB pitch he ever saw for a homer.
He went 4-5 with 2 homers.
He went: Homer, Double, Single, Homer then finally fouled out to right.
Pretty impressive.
August 8th, 2010 at 1:46 am
More on Arencibia from MLB.com
During his first taste of the Majors, Arencibia was a catalyst within a 17-11 win over the Rays. He belted two home runs -- the first coming on the first big league pitch of his career -- in a four-hit performance that served as one of the greatest debuts for a hitter in Major League history.
Arencibia became the first player since 1900 to have a pair of home runs and a quartet of hits in his big league debut. He is only the fifth player in baseball history to launch two home runs in his first Major League game and the 107th player to homer in his first career at-bat in the bigs.
August 8th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Regarding that 1987 game. Sadly that was Ken Dixon's (losing starting pitcher) last game in the majors. What a way to end it 🙁
August 8th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Arencibia made me think of Ted Cox - who went 6 for his first 6:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Ted_Cox
August 8th, 2010 at 6:34 am
I'm certain the presence of the DH has made it more likely. The average DH is much more likely to hit a HR than the average pitcher, and much less likely to make an out (fewer outs == more plate appearances, more chances to hit homers). There are only a handful of pitchers in the league who bat at or close to the replacement standard for any other position.
August 8th, 2010 at 7:24 am
in that 1977 jays-sox game, starting with hobson in the 7th, the sox had a stretch of 9 batters in which 6 of them hit home runs.
August 8th, 2010 at 7:41 am
Isn't that weird, two personal reminiscences in a row -- first the Young Expos and now this....
I was at the 10-HR Blue Jays game with my family, which is pretty cool in and of itself. I'd just got back into baseball after a few years of disinterest, directly because Andre Dawson (who I remembered from my Expos days) was making a run for Babe Ruth's 60 HR record. But much more fun was that we brought my 75-year-old grandmother to the game. She was visiting Canada from Scotland and it was her first ever baseball game; she knew nothing about the rules. While the crowd was going absolutely mental (which Blue Jays crowds do approximately never) after homer # 8 or #9, she gazed dazedly around at me and my dad and asked "Is this good?"
Yes gran, hitting the ball over the fence ten times is good.
August 8th, 2010 at 8:29 am
...and on a further note, is John Buck feeling like Wally Pipp this morning?
August 8th, 2010 at 8:36 am
I was at the Yankee game in 2007, I believe I went to 3 games that week just to see A-Rod hit homer number 500. Luckily, I saw number 500 Saturday that week.
August 8th, 2010 at 8:37 am
According to PI, Arencibia's 11 total bases is a record for a MLB debut as well: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/VkbA8
August 8th, 2010 at 8:43 am
I thought it was odd that Detroit had 8 HRs and 4 GDP in the same game, so I searched for most home runs in a game where the team grounded into at least 4 double plays: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/hnN6s
August 8th, 2010 at 10:25 am
The Blue Jays scored in each of the first seven innings of the game, and had two on and no out in the eighth before failing to score in that inning. That had me wondering: how many times has a team scored in every single inning of a game? The Rockies did it many years ago (if I recall correctly), but I can't think of any other instances of it happening. For that matter, how often has a team scored in each of the first seven innings, as the Blue Jays did? I'm sure it's a little more common, but I imagine it would still be pretty rare.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:40 am
That Blue Jays 18-3 drubbing of the O's marked the end of Cal Ripken's consecutive innings streak. Ron Washington replaced him the 8th. I remember tuning in late to that game and for a few minutes being scared his games streak had ended for some reason.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I posted on Fangraphs forum about this, but I will reproduce part of that here:
Arencibia was the first to:
- have 11 total bases in a MLB debut
- have four hits that included a HR in his MLB debut
His SLG of 2.200 was the third highest (min 3AB) after Quinn's 2.500 and Campaneris's 2.250 with min 4 AB. Kazou Matsui had a SLG of 2.666 in 3 AB.
One bit of trivia: Both HRs were on 0-0 counts.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I can't edit a post, but I should have deleted the (min 3 AB).
August 8th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I read that when Arencibia came up for his 4th AB, a triple short of the cycle, the fans were roaring.
But he got a little too much of the ball and homered to right.
It brings up the thought (I think I saw it on this Blog or BBTF), why couldn't a player run out of the baseline and go into the dugout after he rounded 3rd., just to get the Cycle in a game (at that time), was pretty much in the Bag.
Of course the Rays came back with 6 runs late in the game, and a Rookie in his first game certainly wouldn't do that, but if a vet did it in the 9th or something like a Multiple run walk off homer, would it count as a cycle???
Then...
I think I remember when Robin Ventura hit a Walk Off grand slam homer in the WS (or playoff) game and was mobbed by his team mates and never made it around the bases, he was only credited with a single.
I tried to look it up in 2000 or was it 1999.
August 8th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Ya: it was in 1999, NLCS Championship Game bottom of the 15th.
Here's the BB-Ref.com Box and Play by Play
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN199910170.shtml
Wikipedia refers to it as a Grand Slam Single.
He got 1 RBI. Only 1 run scored
A run was already in on a bases loaded walk to tie the game.
Ventura hit it into the seats...
After the 1st run scored to win it, the players and base Runners ran toward Ventura mobbing him, so only a single was credited. in the Retrosheet (BB-Ref.) Box score, no mention the ball was hit into the stands.
So, probably I've answered my own question in the previous post.
Arencibia could have gone into the dugout after rounding 3rd. and been declared out of the baseline.
Or, am I wrong???
August 8th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
its been nearly 2 hours since the game ended and there has been no post on Marrows 17ks and no-no thru 8 2/3
August 8th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
he threw almost 100 pitches for strikes!!
August 8th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Gab Machine: I referred to running out of the baseline to set the triples record on another Stat Of The Day Post. If you are going to reference something that I already said, please cite my name in your post and mention how cool I am.
August 8th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, hopefully we'll get a post on Morrow's remarkable start. But for now:
* It got a game score of 100, the highest in the majors this year. Halladay's 98 in his perfect game had been the previous high.
* FanGraphs has Morrow's WPA for the game at .762. I'm not sure how to check the season highs, but if that's not the highest WPA game by a pitcher this year, it's got to be up there.
August 8th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Ok, it's not the highest WPA game of the year--Halladay's perfect game and Jackson's no-hitter were both in the .800s.
August 8th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Another interesting stat oddity on Saturday was in the Padres vs Diamondbacks game in Phoenix.
Chris Young Led off the game for the D-Backs with a homer and ended it with a Walk-Off homer!.
Wonder how many times that's been done before?
August 8th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
#18, a National League team has scored in all 9 innings of a 9-inning game 7 times. There's a list toward the bottom of http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_runs2.shtml - 4 of the times were in the 19th century, one was in the 1920s, one in the 1960s, and the other was the 1999 Rockies game you remember. It was also done 3 times in the 1880s in the American Association, a major league at the time.
It has never been done in the American League, although several times an AL team has scored in each of the first 8 innings at home, not batting in the 9th.
August 8th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Thanks, Gerry!
August 9th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Some interesting records from scanning the box scores:
The most different players to hit a HR in a game is 8 (Sept 1999).
The most starters to get a HR in one game is 7 (May 2005, June 1996, maybe some 7 HR games).
The record for most positions with a HR is also 7 (May 2005, June 2000, maybe some 7 HR games).
In each case a middle infielder was the only position player to fail to get a homer. Though in 2005 it was Alfonso Soriano who was completely capable of hitting it out, and a month later he did take part in the Rangers' second 8 HR game of the season. Also, in the June 2006 game, the DH had a HR and both middle infielders came up short.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
@22 - Turning a HR into a triple in order to get a cycle would be beyond lame. I'd like to think that there would be a lot more boos than cheers if someone actually did that.
August 9th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
@33 I agree completely that Turning a HR into a triple in order to get a cycle would be beyond lame...
But it can happen by "accident"...
It turns out for example in checking Wikipedia, there have been 3 recorded "Grand Slam Singles"
Besides the Robin Ventura case in the 1999 NLCS, they cite BaseballReference.com as the source for 2 other cases where the HomeRun hitter passed the Base runner going to 2nd. base just ahead of him.
July 9, 1970 Dalton Jones of the Detroit Tigers passed teammate Don Wert in a game vs Boston Red Sox leaving him with a 3 run single.
Same situation on July 4, 1976, Tim McCarver of the Phillies passed teammate Gary Maddox and was credited with a 3 run single.
In both cases the 3 runners were able to score because only the player who passes his teammates is out. The 3 runs score because at the time there was less than 2 out.
In Ventura's case there was 2 out thus only the lead runner Roger Cedeno who crossed the plate before Ventura basically passed Todd Pratt was credited with a run.
Another interesting aspect was the betting line in Las Vegas on the game was 7.5 for the Over-Under.
So instead of the score being 7-3 and the Over getting paid, the official score was 4-3 meaning the Under got paid.
Glad I don't bet on Baseball.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
The Phillies set a team record of most home runs in a game with 7 on September 8, 1998, in a game against the Mets. Only four different players got these homers, though, as three of them hit two each. The guy who only got one was Marlon Anderson, and it came in his first major league at-bat. Kevin Sefcik hit only 6 home runs in his career, but two of them came that night. Rico Brogna and Bobby Estalella also went deep twice in that night's win over New York.
That same night, the St. Louis Cardinals only got three home runs (by three different guys, two of whom were Ron Gant and Ray Lankford) in their win over the Cubs, but for some reason, their game got a lot of the ESPN Baseball Tonight coverage while the Phillies' big achievement was totally overlooked.