Lots of Innings? Yep. Hits? Not So Much

June 14, 2013 Reply

The Yankees and A’s had a double-header the hard way yesterday, playing an 18-inning game. There’s usually two ways to have a game that long; both teams can’t prevent scoring, or neither team can score. After the third inning, the latter was true in this case.

Not only could neither team score, they could barely get hits. They combined for 22 hits total which is fairly paltry considering they were spread over 18 innings. In fact, there were 792 games in 2012 alone where teams scored 22 runs or more in just a nine-inning game.

The hit total from yesterday’s game ranks as the 6th lowest all-time in games that went 18 innings or more.

Date Away Home Innings Hits
10/02/65 PHI NYN 18 15
08/08/72 LAN CIN 19 17
04/22/70 NYA WS2 18 18
07/09/71 CAL OAK 20 18
72/8/50 ANA TOR 18 18
06/07/72 PIT SDN 18 18
52/9/10 ARI SFN 18 19
07/26/67 MIN NYA 18 19
08/06/59 CHA BAL 18 19
07/19/66 CIN CHN 18 19
08/10/77 CHN PIT 18 20
06/09/82 CLE DET 18 20
04/27/84 CLE DET 19 21
09/16/75 MON NYN 18 21
09/18/12 BAL SEA 18 22
05/21/67 CIN PHI 18 22
04/15/68 NYN HOU 24 22
07/01/52 SLA CLE 19 22
08/25/68 BOS BAL 18 22
08/01/72 PHI NYN 18 22

Wasted Offense

June 12, 2013 Reply

Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays managed to log 17 hits, four of which were home runs. Pretty impressive, even considering the game went 14 innings. One problem, though: they lost.

Since 1916, only 31 teams have accomplished this feat.

ISO > OBP

June 11, 2013 Reply

Writer Ben Duronio pointed out an interesting fact on Twitter today:


If Gattis keeps it up (he won’t), he’d join a small list of hitters that were able to perform that feat. Given a minimum 400 PA, a player has ended the season with an ISO higher than his OBP only four times, and Mark McGwire did it twice.

Name Year ISO OBP
Barry Bonds 2001 .536 .489
Mark McGwire 1998 .454 .451
Mark McGwire 1999 .418 .411
Matt Williams 1994 .339 .314

All of these are impressive, but holy moly Barry Bonds. If that weren’t enough, he was also walked 212 times that season.

What Yasiel Puig and Mike Vento Have in Common

June 4, 2013 Reply

On September 13th, 2005, the Yankees were visiting the then-Devil Rays. The Devil Rays were well on their way to another disappointing season, while the Yankees were working on clinching another AL East title.

In the top of the sixth inning, with the Yankees up 15-2, Bernie Williams hit a single. Mike Vento, a 27-year old career minor leaguer and recent call-up, came in to pinch run. He would not come in to score in the inning, but would remain in right field.

By the bottom of the 9th, the Yankees were up 17-3, and Vento was still patrolling right. With one out, Alex Gonzalez (no, the other one) walked. Pete LaForest was next to bat, and he hit a long fly ball to deep right-center. Gonzalez must have thought it a hit, since he ran off first far enough to get doubled up when Vento made the catch and relayed the ball back to first. Double play. End of game.

Vento would end up playing on only 11 games in the majors. But he made his little mark in the game, for what it’s worth. Vento was the only player (at least since 1948, when Retrosheet’s play-by-play starts) to record a game-ending outfield assist in his first major-league game. That is, until this happened yesterday:

puig

(GIF courtesy of Carson Cistulli @ NotGraphs)