Diamondbacks strike out at least 12 times in 6 straight games
Posted by Andy on September 19, 2010
Thanks to reader Gary F for the tip on this post subject.
The Diamondbacks recently struck out at least 12 times in 6 straight games:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SO | BB | SB | CS | Opp | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ARI | 2010-09-10 | 2010-09-15 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 204 | 17 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 76 | 17 | 2 | 2 | .245 | .300 | .353 | .653 | COL,CIN |
| 2 | COL | 2006-09-29 | 2007-04-02 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 157 | 27 | 35 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 26 | 52 | 24 | 2 | 0 | .223 | .328 | .420 | .748 | CHC,ARI |
| 3 | CIN | 2004-09-28 | 2004-10-01 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 152 | 19 | 31 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 19 | 56 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .204 | .280 | .434 | .714 | CHC,PIT |
| 4 | NYY | 1964-09-06 | 1964-09-09 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 142 | 10 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 51 | 10 | 2 | 1 | .211 | .261 | .296 | .557 | KCA,MIN,DET |
Our Streak Finder goes back to 1920 but other reports say that the Diamondbacks' streak is the longest in major-league history. Unsurprisingly, they lost 5 out of 6 of those games.
Even looking at consecutive games with just 10+ strikeouts, no team beats the recent Arizona streak:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SO | BB | SB | CS | Opp | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ARI | 2010-09-10 | 2010-09-15 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 204 | 17 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 76 | 17 | 2 | 2 | .245 | .300 | .353 | .653 | COL,CIN |
| 2 | CLE | 2010-05-01 | 2010-05-08 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 205 | 22 | 49 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 71 | 23 | 1 | 2 | .239 | .320 | .332 | .652 | MIN,TOR,DET |
| 3 | FLA | 2009-04-12 | 2009-04-18 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 222 | 35 | 55 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 32 | 71 | 19 | 3 | 2 | .248 | .317 | .387 | .704 | NYM,ATL,WSN |
| 4 | CIN | 2004-09-18 | 2004-09-24 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 211 | 39 | 61 | 15 | 0 | 6 | 36 | 65 | 21 | 1 | 2 | .289 | .353 | .445 | .799 | CHC,ATL,PIT |
| 5 | SFG | 1997-05-09 | 1997-05-15 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 221 | 33 | 57 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 31 | 71 | 30 | 5 | 4 | .258 | .353 | .394 | .746 | CHC,CIN,MON |
| 6 | CIN | 1972-05-29 | 1972-06-03 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 243 | 51 | 70 | 10 | 2 | 13 | 49 | 66 | 36 | 8 | 5 | .288 | .380 | .506 | .886 | HOU,PHI |
September 19th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Those 2004 Reds had 1 hell of a September. 2 separate streaks going on there.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Gee, I with performances like that, I can't understand why we're having trouble recruiting one more person for our season ticket group.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:20 am
@1
Interesting about the Reds-- they went 8-2 in those games. Maybe they should have TRIED to strike out 10 times. They would've won the pennant! Of course, the 09 Marlins and the 72 Reds could've tried the same thing, I suppose...
In fact, the overall record of the ten teams above is 32-22 (.593=96-66). That's a division-winning pace in most years. I have no idea what this means.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:25 am
In a post ("Amazing Baseball Stuff") on Sept. 17, 2010, Joe Posnanski pointed out that the team record for batting strikeouts is 1399, set by the 2001 Milwaukee Brewers. Through Saturday, Sept. 18, the Diamondbacks have run their total (with 12 more on Saturday) to 1391.
That is, Arizona will probably set the new team record for whiffs today, with 12 games to play after that.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Yankees won a game this year when they struck out 17 times! And of course the mets beat Carlton in 69 when he strukc out 19.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Mark Reynolds has twice as many strikeouts as he has hits. Has that ever happened to a player over the course of a full season?
September 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Rob Deer
1985 30 hits 71 strikeouts
1991 80 hits 175 strikeouts
September 19th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@6, Rob Deer is the only other qualified hitter to do it, with 175 SO and 80 H in 1991.
September 19th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Ha, Hartvig beat me to it.
September 19th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
You ain't seen nothing yet. As of this morning the D-Backs have 1391 strikeouts -- the record, as of this morning but perhaps not this evening, is 1399. If the D-Backs keep this s&*t up, they just might hit (or not hit wa, wa, wa, wa) 1500 strikeouts. Not only that, they are almost certain to be the first team to average one strikeout per inning. Just to give some perspective, the fourth highest total in MLB history is less than 1300 (I think)
Thank you, Baseball-Reference for giving me this forum to express the fullness of my stat weiniehood
September 19th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Now as for Reynolds. He's about to become the first player to have 200 strikeouts three years running. Of course, he's also the first player to have 200 stikeouts period.
And how about this? Reynolds has 25% more strikeouts than the D-backs leading strikeout pitcher, Ian Kennedy 161. By way of mean spirited comparison, in the years 1999 2002, Randy Johnson had over three times as many strikeouts as the leading strikeout hitter
September 19th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Rob Deer is not the only other player to have twice as many strikeouts as hits. In 1964 while with the White Sox, Dave Nicholson had 60 hits along with 126 Ks.
September 20th, 2010 at 6:46 am
Move the fences back to where they were in the 60's and get these guys out of baseball. That's pathetic. 1500 K's? A strikeout an inning for an entire season?
Nice list Gary. It's interesting to note that prior to 2010's pair of 1-5 teams, the 4 teams were 20-4! Now that's a weird statistical quirk.
September 20th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Reynolds currently has 201 K with a .204 batting average. Barring injury in the very near term or a late season hot streak he should finish the season with a higher K total than his Batting Average (technically 1000 times his batting average, but as spoken in the common parlance). I'm not sure if this has ever been done before (other than guys with only a handful of at bats and no hits). I looked up Rob Deer and his closest was 175 K with a .179 Average in 1991. I didn't see anyone else come particularly close to achieving this feat among the members of the top 30 K seasons of all-time.
September 20th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Reynolds . . . should finish the season with a higher K total than his Batting Average . . . I'm not sure if this has ever been done before.
No, it would be a first. Deer came the closest with his .179 and 175 in 1991.
For single seasons, from 1901 to 2010, requiring SO>800*batting_avg and at least 200 plate appearances, sorted by greatest number of seasons matching criteria
1. Mark Reynolds: 3 (2008-2010), ages 24-26 — SO 854, 858, and 985 times BA, respectively
2. Rob Deer: 2 (1991 and 1993), ages 30 and 32 — 978 and 805
3 (tie). Jack Cust: 1 (2008), age 29 — 857, and Adam Dunn: 1 (2006), age 26 — 829
September 20th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Just to put Arizona's breezy tendencies into another perspective:
I searched 1920-2010 for the most team games with "N" strikeouts in a season.
The 2010 D-backs already hold the record for every value of N from 7 to 13.
And with 12 games left on their schedule, they'll almost certainly set the mark for most games with 6+ Ks and 5+ Ks (needing 5 and 3 games, respectively), plus they have a shot at the record for 14 Ks (need 2 to tie).
But say what you will -- they draw the line at striking out 15 times in a game!
They've done that just 3 times this year; the record is 7.
P.S. I doubt that the following has any real meaning, but if you want to try interpreting it, please do:
W% when striking out 9 times or less:
-- Arizona, .518 (44 wins, 41 losses)
-- Rest of MLB, .531
-- Difference = .013
W% when striking out 10 times or more:
-- Arizona, .231 (15 wins, 50 losses)
-- Rest of MLB, .381
-- Difference = 0.150
September 21st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
@16
If you look at the pitchers who has struck out most Arizona hitters this year, you'll find nothing but above-average pitchers. There's last year's NL Cy Young #1 and #2 (Tim Lincecum and Chris Carpenter), front-runners for this year's award (David Price, Mat Latos), etc. None of them have an ERA+ this year below 105. I think that's why Arizona's record is so low in high-K contests: because they were facing good opponents, who tend to strike out more batters, rather than "because" of the strikeouts.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Except for the previous game when they only had 7, it would have been 9 in a row - more than twice the previous record. As it is, it was 8 of 9 with 12+.