Just uncovered this unlikely list of pitchers for you to ponder. More after the jump.
Here’s the list. Your job to is to identify the single game feat that has been accomplished in the modern era by only these ten pitchers.
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wes Ferrell |
| 2 | Noah Syndergaard |
| 3 | Mark Thurmond |
| 4 | Tim Lollar |
| 5 | Walt Terrell |
| 6 | Tommy Byrne |
| 7 | Ox Miller |
| 8 | Ted Blankenship |
| 9 | Burleigh Grimes |
| 10 | Kid Nichols |
It is somthing to do with having 4 RBI as a batter. I dont see the other piece, however……
This boxscore by Blankenship is pretty great:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE192507041.shtml
That’s not it.
I count 282 different pitchers with such a game, led by Ferrell and Byrne, each with 5 such games.
Thanks for figuring out the main component, Voomo. There is no way I would have come up with that.
Blankenship had another 4 RBI game a couple years later. Although he took the loss that time, his 04/18/27 game should lead to the answer:
https://www.baseballreference.com/boxes/SLA/SLA192704180.shtml
Well, I certainly didn’t intend to kill the conversation, but it seems my comment effectively ended discussion on the quiz question nearly two weeks ago. Not sure how often Voomo is checking in, so we should probably get back to solving it. The title of Doug’s post suggests the missing part of the answer.
I’ve been wondering whether anyone was going to re-start this, Scary. Your hint seems to be that Voomo just looked at one of two 4-RBI Blankenship games and the other was the decisive one. In that one he had 4 RBI with a HR. There have certainly been other pitchers with more than 4 RBI and more than 1 HR (Cloninger did that twice within three weeks in 1966), so perhaps the criteria are to have both one HR and precisely 4 RBI. (I haven’t checked all the pitchers, but I did look at two others and found that combination.… Read more »
So my answer would be a pitcher hitting a pinch-hit GS against his former team.
Byrne has that mantle all to himself. Only these six pitchers have a pinch grand slam against any team (click on image to see it clearly).
More news about Tommy Byrne. He led the league in walks 3 times and in hit-batsmen five times. He holds the record for most walks in a game with 16. On the credit side in 1955 he was the only LH pitcher with a complete game against the Dodgers (WS game 2).
Paul Skenes took the loss against the Blue Jays on Saturday in a game that was notable on a couple of levels: -he allowed a career high 9 hits, ending his streak of 65 starts allowing 8 hits or less, the 9th longest from the start of a career. Only one of the top 10 had more than one CG in that stretch, and only one of the top 25 had 10 or more CG. The list is below. -he allowed 4 ER, making it two such starts in succession for the first time in his career. Skenes allowed four… Read more »
For clarity, that’s 39 times for all teams. For the Yankees, it was, surprisingly, the first time.
The Dodgers have had 5 such games, followed by the Braves, Red Sox, Orioles, Tigers and Twins, all with 3 games.
Along with Bo Bichette, Matt Chapman, Bobby Grich, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Harry Heilmann, Alejandro Kirk, and Carney Lansford too (and others I’m sure I missed–surely the second half of the alphabet has representation somewhere). But Rod Carew seems to be the champ with 3 games in all-two-hit line-ups.
Now I need to find my eyedrops . . .
Only three years between the two Tiger teams at #30 and #33, yet only two players (Harry Heilmann, Jackie Tavener) in both games.
PHI (8 Yrs)27.3 918 3956 3339 580 934 228 7 193 566 555 866 .280 .384 .526 145
WS (7 Yrs)27.7 927 3957 3306 610 922 183 18 184 521 585 834 .279 .388 .512 139
Teams……WAR…G….PA….AB….R…..H…2B..3b.HR.RBI..BB..SO..BA.OBA.SLG..OPS+
Here’s Harper after last night…tried to format this stuff, better luck next time
Pretty amazing for a player whose career has been full of ups and downs, Paul.
Thanks, Doug. Amazing that it all, just about, evens out. Obviously, the numbers, while playing for the two franchises, are even closer in 162 game formats
Paul, How did you happen to discover this unusual balance? Were you just looking at Harper on B-R and saw the breakdown or did something specifically lead you to check him out for this?
He was approaching dead-even on PA’s with each franchise. Coincidentally, the counting stats (and rate stats) are VERY similar for each franchise. Por ejemplo, Roberto, how about 277 oRAR for each franchise as I type. Dead even…..
Some random comments: Aaron Ashby, Brewer middle reliever with 36 IP on the season, currently leads the majors with nine Wins. In the one game he started—and pitched 3 innings—he wasn’t credited with a decision, although he gave up 2 earned runs. Freddie Freeman. Currently at age 36 he is the leader among active players in career totals for Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Doubles, and RBIs. While not exactly flying under the radar, with one MVP and 7 other top ten MVP finishes, his understated consistency makes me wonder what his chances will be, come HOF and COG time. At my… Read more »
I like Hall chances for both Freeman and Machado. Both are already borderline HOFers, and not expecting either to retire anytime soon. Freeman is in the last year of his contract and, barring serious injury, he should command serious attention from contending teams in the off-season. Probably good for at least a 3 year deal from someone, which will be plenty of time to move well up those all-time lists. Machado will be fine too if he can continue posting seasons like his last two (very close to his career average) for a few more years. But, other than his… Read more »
The Rockies took it on the chin on Sunday against the Giants. It was the 9th game in which a team has had 25 or more hits, with at least half of them for extra bases. Surprise, perhaps, is that only two of those games were in Denver, same number as at Fenway Park. Here’s the list.
Perhaps the unlikeliest 3 HR game came on one of those games. On 06/20/1980, 5’5, 148 lb Freddie Patek hit 3 HRs, a double and drove in 7. In career 6247 plate appearances games, he hit 41 HRs.
I didn’t check all of them, so maybe missed a few, but here are lowest career HR totals of the 488 players who have recorded a 3 homer game. 8 – Merv Connors 10 – Bill Glynn, Jordan Diaz 13 – Karl Rhodes 15 – Don Leppert, Jarrett Parker, Seby Zavala, Michael Perez 17 – Jim Tobin 19 – Del Wilber, Jim Pendleton 22 – Refael Ortega 26 – Steve Boros, Manny Jimenez 27 – Ernie Young 28 – Jeff Treadway 31 – Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ronald Guzman, Tommy Brown 33 – Hal Lee 36 – Josh Rojas 40 – Butch… Read more »
Let’s not forget the 19th Century players: Jack Manning 19; Guy Hecker 19; Frank Shugart 22; Tom McCreery 26. Others with 3 HR games: Hee-Seop Choi 40 Alex Dickerson 40 Active Players: Liover Peguero 11 Ivan Herrera 31 Kyle Stowers 35 Edmundo Sosa 39 Michael Toglia 42 Trayce Thompson 45 Pavin Smith 45 On 08/15/1886, Hecker went 6 for 7, with 15 total bases, 7 runs and 7 RBI. And, he was the winning pitcher, pitching a complete game while only allowing 4 hits. Louisville beat Baltimore 22-5. That day, Hecker set the single game TB record; he still holds… Read more »
Good add on, Tom. Guy Hecker’s .341 BA in 1886 does show as the AA league-leading mark. Don’t know what the qualifying criteria was, as Hecker played in 84 of Louisville’s 138 games, with 378 PA. Hecker’s season that really jumps off the page was two year’s earlier, a triple crown season with a 52-20 record (not a typo), 1.80 ERA and 385 strikeouts, good for 15.5 WAR (including oWAR bumps that total to 17.8) as he posted those totals over 670.2 IP, starting 73 of Louisville’s 110 games and completing 72. And, yes, that is the only triple crown… Read more »
Another interesting thing about that 1886 BA Title is that Hecker beat out teammate Pete Browning by .001 to win it.
Browning led the AA three times in BA, finished his career with a .341 average, and batted .402 in 1887. Again he finished second, however, to Tip O’Niell’s .435 in the first recorded triple crown season.
NSB,
There is an fascinating history of the AA written about 30 years ago by David Nemec titled, “The Beer and Whiskey League”. Apparently, Pete Browning would have greatly benefited from counseling from the other AA.
It seems they were more like a cross between major league and AAA with many of their best players not getting Cooperstown recognition
More random comments: Discounting Verlander (age 43) and Scherzer (41), whose careers are in free fall, Gerrit Cole (35) leads active pitchers with 154 Wins, ranked 250th in career totals. The resurrected Chris Sale (37) is one W behind Cole, Next comes Sonny Gray (36) ranked 369 with 131 Wins, then Zack Wheeler (36) ranked 465 with 117 Wins. Jacob deGrom (38) with his 46.9 pWAR and pair of CYAs? He ranks 635 with 100 Wins to his credit. Logan Webb (29) is the only active pitcher under the age of thirty who makes the top 1000 in career Wins.… Read more »
You’ve got it, 87, and welcome to the blog (it’s actually “all four or more runs”). I posted those games in the comment above, but here they are again.
It’s not only pitchers who are having careers diminished in actual appearances and time on the field in the TTO era, or so it seems. Currently Andrew McCutchen leads active position players with 9790 PAs, ranking 101 on the career list, but whether he’ll make 10,000 before retirement seems iffy. Freddie Freeman comes next at 9626 and he probably will cross the threshold. Carlos Santana at 9280 will not. Paul Goldschmidt at 8965 might make it, but Jose Altuve at 8881 is a better bet. Manny Machado ought to pass the goal, since he’s just 33 and has 8440 PAs at… Read more »
Teams generally are far more sensitive about wear and tear on everyday players, often having scheduled off days for regulars, with increased frequency of these breaks as players get older. And, when a player does get “banged up” he’s encouraged or forced to sit for a day or two (or more) rather than play through it and risk exacerbating the ailment. While most of that has been true for most of this century, there just seems to be more and more of it every year as, with salaries continually escalating, the desire to “protect assets” becomes ever more heightened. The… Read more »
If this is the explanation, Doug, then it would appear that teams may be making a mistake, given nsb’s data, which refers to lifetime PAs, not single season. Were the “limited wear and tear” idea valid one would expect rest days to extend the career lengths of everyday players (should we call them mostdays players?), and the PAs lost to rest each season should be repaid by additional ones during the players’ age-40+ years. It’s nothing but aimless speculation, but I’d guess there are two main reasons for declines in career longevity: (1) increasing physical demands of training and play,… Read more »
While career extension may or may not be a result of more in-season rest, I suspect the primary attraction of this strategy is to keep players fresher and (hopefully) more productive in the dog days of summer. But, don’t know if that’s what really happens.