Archive for the 'Event Finders' Category

In his summary of last night's Dodger's-Brewers game Craig Calcaterra, mentioned that Andre's Ethier's walk-off grand slam was his 11th walk-off hit since 2008. This sounds like an awful lot and it made me wonder where that ranks among all baseball players. A quick run of the PI event finder for each of the last 3 years gives us the following leaders for walk-off hits from 2008-2010.

Andre Ethier 11
Kurt Suzuki 5
Miguel Tejada 5
Alfonso Soriano 4
Jorge Cantu 4
Jose Lopez 4
Kevin Youkilis 4
Mark Ellis 4
Prince Fielder 4
Robinson Cano 4

Not only does Ethier lead, he leads by a wide margin, doing it more times than any other 2 players combined. Here are Ethiers walk-off hits since 2008.

Last night, Andre Ethier became the first player in the majors to hit a walk-off grand slam this year. The guy is blowing people away so far, tied for the league lead in homers and total bases and leading in RBI, SLG, and OPS+.

When kids fantasize about baseball in their backyards, most of them think about hitting a walk-off grand slam with his team down by 3 runs. In Ethier's case the game was tied, but check out all the walk-off grand slams in recent history:

Read the rest of this entry »

Picking up on Andy's earlier post, Curtis Granderson now has 104 career big league homers to date - and 54 of those 104 have come while batting with no outs and no one on base. Via Baseball-Reference.com's HR Log, here are those 53 lead-off inning long balls prior to the one he hit this evening  -

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Hmm. The Nationals just intentionally walked Jimmy Rollins to load the bases, and then #2 hitter Placido Polanco hit a grand slam. Even before Polanco came to the plate, I thought it was a strange call. The #2 hitter is usually pretty darn good, and that's a strange strategy to put a fast runner on, fill the bases, get to a good hitter, and bring the #3 and #4 hitters one batter closer to coming up.

I did a quick search and here are the 35 times in 2009 when a #1 hitter was intentionally walked with runners on second and third.

I looked through most of these games, and sometimes the move paid off and sometimes it didn't. It still strikes me as odd.

Some fun via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Batting Event Finder - all extra inning homers hit in a sudden-death post-season game. There's just been one:

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And, for the record, here are all the extra-inning homers hit in a post-season, regardless of the game:

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Bernie Williams, David Ortiz and Javy Lopez are the only guys to do it twice.

I did a quick batting event finder to find a list of all the bases loaded walks in 2009. I was surprised to see that there were 392 such walks, meaning that on average each team received 2 such free passes per season. Just as a check, in 2008 there were 372 bases loaded walks and in 2007 there were 351. Going back further there were 319 in 2006, 271 in 2005, and 329 in 2004. So at least as far as recent history goes, the bases loaded walk has become a lot more common.

A few of the interesting things we can learn from the 2009 results are that 8 of the bases loaded walks were game ending:

Wow, the Dodgers were all over this, winning 3 games and losing another by walks with the bags full. Also Juan Pierre must be one of the most unlikely guys to make a list like this, having drawn only 27 walks all of last season.

Among individual players, the 2009 leaders in bases loaded walks were:

Adam Dunn

and Geovany Soto

each with 5. Interestingly, though, Dunn had 116 total walks as compared to just 50 for Soto.

I won't show all the games, but the pitchers to give up the most bases-loaded walks were Carlos Marmol with 6, and Daniel Cabrera, Manny Parra, and Jeff Suppan each with 5.

I was stunned to learn that 2009 featured not only a game with 4 different bases-loaded walks, but another game with 5!

The 4-walk job is this one, where 4 out of 5 consecutive batters walked with the bases loaded. Three of Suppan's such walks came in that game.

The 5-walk job is this one, a memorable game for Phillies fans. After the Braves drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 7th inning to go ahead 10-3 in the game, the Phillies roared back in the bottom of that inning with 8 runs, including 4 bases-loaded walks coming from 2 different pitchers. The Phils held on to win that game.

I didn't have to go back too far to find the last example of a game with 5 bases-loaded walks. In fact in happened in 2008, memorably, when Jack Hannahan himself walked twice with the bases loaded in the same game.

Back when I was in Little League - and this is way back there...circa 1974-75...you never wanted to be the guy to make the last out in a game. Worse...you never, ever, wanted to be the guy making the last out of a game via a strikeout. (Keep in mind, this was way before the days where Run Expectancy Tables were widely known...suggesting that a strikeout "out" was no worse, for the most part, than another other "out.") It was just a terrible feeling to have to walk back to the dugout...with your bat in hand...as the other team began to whoop it up. (Yeah, I speak from experience here...as it happened to me...at least once or twice.)

I wonder how big leaguers feel about this? I'm sure, over the grind of a full season, it's not a happy-time for them (if this happens). But, I would also bet it rolls off their back, somewhat, too. But, what about the post-season, where the stakes are higher? How about in the final game of a post-season series? To that end, I used Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Event Finder to list all post-season batter strikeouts where that out was the last out of a series. Here's the list:

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There's some "brand names" on this list. And, note that Jesse Orosco, Orel Hershiser and Adam Wainwright ended two post-season series in the same year by getting a batter to strikeout. Granted, sure, this could only happen from 1969 forward. But, that's still pretty cool that only three pitchers have done this twice in the same post-season.

According to the PI Pitching Event Finder (using multiple searches) there have been only 2 games since 1954 which featured at least 6 bases loaded walks. One of them involved 6 bases loaded walks in the first 2 innings. The other included an inning that is hard to imagine.

April 22, 1959

Heading into 7th inning in their game against the A's, the White Sox only held a small 8-6 lead. However, they had no reason to worry. In the 7th the White Sox  would score  11 runs on 1 hit. That inning would feature a single, two players reaching on errors (plus an additional error), a base-loaded hit batsman, and 10 walks;  8 of them with the bases loaded. Although their lone single made it into RF, Chicago's three outs never even made it past the pitcher. Here is the play by play:

Chase Utley's World Series Career has been relatively brief. Utley's 9 career World Series games tie him for 37th among  second baseman. Yet, no second baseman has hit more World Series home runs. Utley's Game 4, 7th inning blast was his 5th, tying him with Billy Martin for most ever by a second baseman. It should be noted that it took Martin 27 games at second to reach that total. Here are the leaders:

If 5 home runs doesn't sound like enough to be the all-time leader in a category, check out the leaders at third base and shortstop. Here are the  World Series Home Run leaders at the other positions:

Pitcher: Dave McNally , Bob Gibson 2

Catcher: Yogi Berra 9

1st Base: Lou Gehrig 10

Shortstop: Derek Jeter 3

3rd Base: Gil McDougald , Scott Brosius 4

Left Field: Babe Ruth 9

Center Field: Mickey Mantle 15

Right Field: Frank Robinson 8

DH: Ryan Klesko 3

Pinch hitter: Chuck Essegian ,  Bernie Carbo 2

The Yankees and Phillies combined to hit 6 home runs tonight. According to the PI Postseason Event Finder it was the 7th time that 2 teams have combined to hit at least 6 home runs in a World Series game.  Here are the previous occasions: (The search was done from the pitcher's perspective)

7 Home Runs

Oct. 27,  1989 A's 13  Giants 7 (The game after the earthquake)

   
  Car#  G# Date          Series G Pitcher           Tm   Opp Batter            Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit  R Play Desc.
+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-------------------------+
 623   1 1989-10-27    WS 3 Dave Stewart            OAK @SFG Matt Williams     ahead  2-0  b 2 --- 2 1-1   3 1 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep LF)
 624   2               WS 3 Scott Garrelts          SFG OAK Dave Henderson     down   1-2  t 4 --- 0 2-0   3 1 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep CF-RF)
 625   3               WS 3 Scott Garrelts          SFG OAK Tony Phillips      down   1-3  t 4 --- 1 0-0   1 1 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF)
 626   4               WS 3 Kelly Downs             SFG OAK Jose Canseco       down   3-4  t 5 12- 0 2-2   5 3 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep LF-CF); Henderson Scores; Lansford Scores
 627   5               WS 3 Kelly Downs             SFG OAK Dave Henderson     down   3-7  t 5 --- 1 0-1   2 1 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF-CF)
 628   6               WS 3 Jeff Brantley           SFG OAK Carney Lansford    down   3-8  t 6 --- 2 0-0   1 1 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep LF)
 629   7               WS 3 Gene Nelson             OAK @SFG Bill Bathe        ahead 13-3  b 9 -23 1 1-0   2 3 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF); Oberkfell Scores; Manwaring Scores
 

6 Home Runs

Oct. 01 1932 - Yankees 7  Cubs 5

   111   1 1932-10-01    WS     3 Charley Root      CHC  NYY Babe Ruth         tied   0-0  t 1 12-   0  -       3 Home Run (Deep CF-RF); Combs Scores/unER; Sewell Scores
   112   2               WS     3 Charley Root      CHC  NYY Lou Gehrig        down   1-3  t 3 ---   0  -       1 Home Run (Deep RF)
   113   3               WS     3 George Pipgras    NYY @CHC Kiki Cuyler       ahead  4-1  b 3 ---   1  -       1 Home Run (Deep RF)
   114   4               WS     3 Charley Root      CHC  NYY Babe Ruth         tied   4-4  t 5 ---   1  -       1 Home Run (Deep CF)
   115   5               WS     3 Charley Root      CHC  NYY Lou Gehrig        down   4-5  t 5 ---   1  -       1 Home Run (Deep RF)
   116   6               WS     3 George Pipgras    NYY @CHC Gabby Hartnett    ahead  7-4  b 9 ---   0  -       1 Home Run (Deep LF)
 

Oct. 04, 1953 Yankees 11  Dodgers 7

   250   1 1953-10-04    WS     5 Johnny Podres     BRO  NYY Gene Woodling     tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -       1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep LF)
   251   2               WS     5 Russ Meyer        BRO  NYY Mickey Mantle     down   1-2  t 3 123   2  -       4 Home Run (Deep LF); Collins Scores/unER; Bauer Scores/unER; Berra Scores/unER; Mantle Scores/unER
   252   3               WS     5 Russ Meyer        BRO  NYY Billy Martin      down   2-6  t 7 -2-   1  -       2 Home Run (Deep LF); Berra Scores
   253   4               WS     5 Jim McDonald      NYY @BRO Billy Cox         ahead 10-3  b 8 12-   2  -       3 Home Run (Deep LF); Campanella Scores; Furillo Scores
   254   5               WS     5 Joe Black         BRO  NYY Gil McDougald     down   6-10 t 9 ---   1  -       1 Home Run (Deep LF)
   255   6               WS     5 Bob Kuzava        NYY @BRO Jim Gilliam       ahead 11-6  b 9 ---   0  -       1 Home Run (Deep LF)

Oct. 14, 1975 - Reds 6 Red Sox 5

   485   1 1975-10-14    WS     3 Gary Nolan        CIN  BOS Carlton Fisk      tied   0-0  t 2 ---   0 0-1   2  1 Home Run (Deep LF)
   486   2               WS     3 Rick Wise         BOS @CIN Johnny Bench      ahead  1-0  b 4 -2-   2 1-1   3  2 Home Run (Deep LF); Perez Scores
   487   3               WS     3 Rick Wise         BOS @CIN Dave Concepcion   down   1-2  b 5 ---   0 0-1   2  1 Home Run (Deep LF-CF)
   488   4               WS     3 Rick Wise         BOS @CIN Cesar Geronimo    down   1-3  b 5 ---   0 3-1   5  1 Home Run (Deep RF)
   489   5               WS     3 Clay Carroll      CIN  BOS Bernie Carbo      ahead  5-2  t 7 ---   2 0-0   1  1 Home Run (Deep LF)
   490   6               WS     3 Rawly Eastwick    CIN  BOS Dwight Evans      ahead  5-3  t 9 1--   1 1-0   2  2 Home Run (Deep LF); Petrocelli Scores

Oct. 20, 2002 Angels 11 Giants 10

   751   1 2002-10-20    WS     2 Kevin Appier      ANA  SFG Reggie Sanders    ahead  5-0  t 2 1-3   1 0-2   3  3 Home Run; Bonds Scores; Snow Scores
   752   2               WS     2 Kevin Appier      ANA  SFG David Bell        ahead  5-3  t 2 ---   1 3-2   6  1 Home Run
   753   3               WS     2 Russ Ortiz        SFG @ANA Tim Salmon        down   4-5  b 2 1--   1 2-2   5  2 Home Run; Eckstein Scores
   754   4               WS     2 Kevin Appier      ANA  SFG Jeff Kent         ahead  7-4  t 3 ---   0 1-0   2  1 Home Run
   755   5               WS     2 Felix Rodriguez   SFG @ANA Tim Salmon        tied   9-9  b 8 1--   2 0-0   1  2 Home Run (LF-CF); Eckstein Scores
   756   6               WS     2 Troy Percival     ANA  SFG Barry Bonds       ahead 11-9  t 9 ---   2 1-0   2  1 Home Run

Oct. 26, 2008 Phillies 10 Rays 2

   808   1 2008-10-26    WS     4 Joe Blanton       PHI  TBR Carl Crawford     ahead  2-0  t 4 ---   2 1-2   4  1 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF)
   809   2               WS     4 Andy Sonnanstine  TBR @PHI Ryan Howard       down   1-2  b 4 12-   1 2-1   4  3 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF Line); Rollins Scores/unER; Werth Scores
   810   3               WS     4 Joe Blanton       PHI  TBR Eric Hinske       ahead  5-1  t 5 ---   2 2-1   4  1 Home Run (Fly Ball)
   811   4               WS     4 Edwin Jackson     TBR @PHI Joe Blanton       down   2-5  b 5 ---   2 2-1   4  1 Home Run (Fly Ball)
   812   5               WS     4 Dan Wheeler       TBR @PHI Jayson Werth      down   2-6  b 8 -2-   1 3-2   7  2 Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF); Rollins Scores
   813   6               WS     4 Trever Miller     TBR @PHI Ryan Howard       down   2-8  b 8 1--   1 1-0   2  2 Home Run (Fly Ball to CF-RF); Utley Scores