Three homers to start a game
Posted by Andy on August 3, 2007
Some fans may not remember the only time in history that a team has led off a game with three consecutive homers:
It was done by the Padres in 1987 when Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn, and John Kruk hit consecutive dingers in the bottom of the first. Let's take a look at the box score. Incidentally, I found it by first going to Wynne's PI event log for homers, then limiting it to 1st-inning homers, of which he had only 3. From there it was easy to find. (Knowing that Wynne was one of the guys who hit a homer helped too.)
The three homers didn't help the Padres win, who dropped to 1-6 after this game. The Giants went on to win the division and lost the NLCS to the Cardinals.
By the way, Topps commemorated the three consecutive homers leading off the game with a series of cards on the bottom of boxes for 1988 packs of cards:
Anyway, when you look at the pitching line for this game, the first thing I noticed is that Dave Dravecky pitched in the 5th inning and somehow managed to get a blown save. I was trying to figure out how exactly Dravecky was in the game at all. Looking at the play-by-play, we see that Andy Hawkins (the starter) finished the top of the 4th inning, giving up a game-tying homer in the process. Then in the bottom of the 4th, Gary Templeton struck out, Tim Flannery was hit by a pitch, and with Hawkins up manager Larry Bowa pinch hit Jim Steels, who proceeded to get the only triple of his career. Wynne followed with a run-scoring single and the inning ended with the Padres up 6-4.
Now, I don't know why Bowa pinch-hit for Hawkins. True he had given up 4 runs in 4 innings, but the game was tied at that point. I'd have to guess that Hawkins was injured. Anyway, Dravecky came in the start the top of the 5th inning. Jim Gott, who had relieved opposing starter Roger Mason, led off and reached on an error. Dravecky proceeded to give up three unearned runs and one earned run, and Craig Lefferts had to come in to finish out the inning. By the way, if you can understand why those runs were earned or unearned, please explain it. Clark's run was earned, but the rest were unearned...hmmm.
Anyway, Dravecky got a very rare blown save pitching in the 5th inning, and got the loss, despite giving up only 1 earned run sandwiched by unearned runs. I bet it's the only time that's ever happened.
August 4th, 2007 at 9:29 am
..."Anyway, Dravecky came in the start the top of the 5th inning. Jim Gott, who had relieved opposing starter Roger Mason, led off and reached on an error. Dravecky proceeded to give up three unearned runs and one earned run, and Craig Lefferts had to come in to finish out the inning. By the way, if you can understand why those runs were earned or unearned, please explain it. Clark’s run was earned, but the rest were unearned…hmmm."
The first run was unearned because Gott reached on an error. The second run was earned because it would have scored even if the leadoff hitter had been retired (i.e., no error). The last two runs were unearned because they scored after there should have been 3 outs in the inning. This happens all the time.
See rule 10.16 for more on determining Earned Runs. Here is a portion of it:
10.16 Earned Runs And Runs Allowed
An earned run is a run for which a pitcher is held accountable. In determining earned runs, the official scorer shall reconstruct the inning without the errors (which exclude catcher's interference) and passed balls, giving the benefit of the doubt always to the pitcher in determining which bases would have been reached by runners had there been errorless play. For the purpose of determining earned runs, an intentional base on balls, regardless of the circumstances, shall be construed in exactly the same manner as any other base on balls.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:07 am
kayde--thanks for the explanation.
Strangely, I find the baseball rules kind of arbitrary. For example, they always say "you can't assume the double play"...this applies both to a poor relay throw where one out is recorded but the second is errant (an error cannot be applied) and to scoring decisions--if that presumed double play would have ended the inning, runs scored after that are still earned.
What's odd is that in the above case, all kinds of stuff was assumed, in terms of what happened after Gott reached on an error. Frankly, when there were two outs, assuming that the inning would have been over if Gott had been "gott"en out (no put intended...ok, pun intended), long after his run had scored, is very odd.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:06 am
[...] homers. It’s just the third time it’s been done, with the first occurrence back in 1987 by the Padres. It took me a while to find the second time it was done. I went to the Team Batting Event Finder, [...]