Troy Tulowitzki’s great 3-game stretch
Posted by Andy on September 19, 2010
In his last 3 games, Troy Tulowitzki has 5 homers and 13 RBI. Among the 58 times that a guy has homered in at least 3 straight games this season, nobody has picked up as many RBI as Tulo over the entire length of the streak:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI ▾ | SO | BB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Troy Tulowitzki | 2010-09-15 | 2010-09-18 | 3 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1.643 | 2.176 |
| 2 | Alfonso Soriano | 2010-04-30 | 2010-05-04 | 4 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1.667 | 2.229 |
| 3 | Matt Holliday | 2010-06-18 | 2010-06-22 | 4 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1.647 | 2.294 |
| 4 | Carlos Pena | 2010-06-06 | 2010-06-12 | 6 | 25 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 1.240 | 1.684 |
| 5 | Hanley Ramirez | 2010-05-01 | 2010-05-04 | 3 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1.467 | 2.067 |
| 6 | Jose Bautista | 2010-07-25 | 2010-07-27 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1.750 | 2.442 |
| 7 | Andre Ethier | 2010-04-30 | 2010-05-02 | 3 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1.615 | 2.154 |
| 8 | Lance Berkman | 2010-07-04 | 2010-07-08 | 4 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1.846 | 2.471 |
| 9 | Chase Utley | 2010-04-12 | 2010-04-16 | 4 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1.400 | 1.926 |
| 10 | Jose Guillen | 2010-04-11 | 2010-04-14 | 4 | 17 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1.471 | 2.050 |
| 11 | Matt Diaz | 2010-07-17 | 2010-07-20 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1.500 | 2.083 |
| 12 | Matt Kemp | 2010-04-13 | 2010-04-16 | 4 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1.118 | 1.572 |
| 13 | Jim Thome | 2010-09-04 | 2010-09-11 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 2.200 | 2.965 |
| 14 | Jose Bautista | 2010-05-15 | 2010-05-17 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1.700 | 2.245 |
| 15 | Edwin Encarnacion | 2010-05-21 | 2010-05-23 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1.909 | 2.492 |
| 16 | Ryan Howard | 2010-09-07 | 2010-09-10 | 3 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1.286 | 1.819 |
| 17 | Troy Glaus | 2010-05-30 | 2010-06-01 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 1.625 | 2.240 |
| 18 | Troy Tulowitzki | 2010-09-08 | 2010-09-10 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2.300 | 3.050 |
| 19 | Vernon Wells | 2010-09-05 | 2010-09-07 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1.636 | 2.252 |
| 20 | Mike Stanton | 2010-08-11 | 2010-08-13 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2.000 | 2.786 |
| 21 | Adrian Gonzalez | 2010-04-21 | 2010-04-25 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1.125 | 1.500 |
There's no easy way to search for this, but I don't think anybody else this season has had 13 RBI over 3 games.
September 19th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Another impressive fact about Tulowitzki's hot streak: According to MLB.com Elias reports that he became only the 3rd "modern day" (whatever that means) player to14 home runs in a 15 game span (with Belle '95 and Bonds 2001 the others).
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100918&content_id=14808528&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
September 19th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Andy,
To say that he has the best 3-game stretch in 2010 is almost doing him a disservice. He is putting up historic numbers this month and is tying/breaking ALL-TIME records.
September 19th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
ALL the MVP talk (at least what I've heard)has been about Cargo, Albert and Votto. Is Tulowitzki now in the running for an MVP? Assuming he cools off some some but he and the Rockies still finish strong, I think he has a strong case.
September 19th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Statboy, I agree. It's just a matter of which stats I can actually research for a lazy Sunday post.
September 19th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Is there any way to use the Play Index to find records similar to Tulowitzki's? In other words, I want to replicate what Elias did: determine who hit the most home runs over an N-game stretch. The two-game record is five (by many players), the three-game record is Ralph Kiner with 7 (I think), the six-game record is Frank Howard's incredible 10, etc. The streak tool is of limited utility here for large N, because the batter (like Tulowitzki) might have games during his stretch where he went homerless. Thanks!
September 19th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
maybe you were only speaking of most RBI during a streak of three games that all included a home run, otherwise there have certainly been three game stretches in which a player had more than 13 RBI. Mark Whiten had 15 in a three game stretch that inclded his 12 RBI game, for example. in any case, tulo is RAKING this month!
September 19th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Troy is tied for 9th (with Votto) in WAR. The top 10 is fairly tightly packed, with .9 of each other, partly due to there being no stand-out performer this year. Tulo wouldn't be a horrible pick for MVP, but I doubt he gets a lot of support. His numbers are good but not jarringly so, and a decent amount of his value (1.0 WAR) is tied up in his defensive abilities, something the writers don't often factor in. If his surge continues, it's possible that the narrative around his "clutchness" might get him somewhere, especially with Triple Crown talking dying down. It will be interesting to see how he finishes.
Regardless, he's having an absurd month. Kudos to him.
September 19th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
What hurts Tulowitski are the amount of games he missed when he was injured. He only has 470 plate appearances so that time off with the injury hurts his overall numbers.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
[...] Baseball Reference blog tackled Troy Tulowitzki’s last three games and put it in perspective. With 13 RBIs, no other player has topped that total in a set of three straight home run games [...]
September 20th, 2010 at 1:26 am
Belle, Bonds and Tulo? Let's hope hitting HRs over a 15-day period is the only thing he has in common with Belle and Bonds!
September 20th, 2010 at 7:27 am
tulowitzki was a big preseason mvp pick by many baseball analysts...i thought there were a lil crazy...guess i was wrong : 0 )
September 20th, 2010 at 10:18 am
#7/#8: Tulowitzki's MVP chances - yes, he's missed a bunch of games; if he plays every remaining one, he'll have 123 games played. Mantle won the MVP in 1962 with 123 games played, and Brett won in 1980 with only 118 games played. So I'd say that his "games played" total doesn't completely eliminate him, but he'd need an extraordinary season to make up for playing time missed.
I don't think his season will quite equal the two I just mentioned (esp. Brett's 1980), unless he extends his amazing hitting streak till the very end of the year. Even if the Rockies do make the playoffs, he'll probably split votes with Carlos Gonzalez. He'll probably finish (at best) fourth or fifth in the MVP voting.
September 20th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
how much does selig want him to hit 21 hr this month to break sosa's month record?
September 20th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
FWIW... the 5 HR and 13 RBI are exactly what Nate Colbert did in a Double header on 8-1-72. Nate also had 7 hits and 7 runs and a walk in the DH - like Tulo had in his 3 games.