Archive for the 'Event Finders' Category

According to my rough scan, last night was only the third time in basebal history where we had a post-season Game 6 or later where the home team drove in runs in both the bottom of the 8th and 9th innings:

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Of course, the Cardinals, last night, scored in the bottom of the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th innings. What a game!

File this under:  Taking the crowd out of it.  How many players have homered in the top of the 1st inning of sudden death post season games?  It's a small list:

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Tigers are now the first team to have two guys do it in the same game.

It's happened more often than I thought it would have...

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How many times has a player hit a grand slam in the first game of a post-season series?

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Today's Tigers-Indians game thrillingly ended when Austin Jackson threw out  Kosuke Fukudome at home plate for a game-ending double play.  The play was both exciting and rare.  Tyler Kepner of the New York Times put it best when he wrote:

I let out a “Wow!” Couldn’t help it. Not often do you see a game end on a double play from center field to the plate.

Since my mind is warped by thousands of PI searches, I immediately ran the batting event finder, and searched for game ending double plays to the center fielder,  eliminated the ones that did not end with the catcher and was left with this list. (This comes from the play-by play index which is complete since 1974 and  almost complete 1950-1973.)  Since there were no RBI's on any of these plays I included the responsible CF instead. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, with a runner on first and no outs in the top of the first inning, Derek Jeter came to the plate and promptly lay down a sacrifice bunt.  Now,  I can imagine that in certain environments such a play might be warranted. If Jeter was on a horrible offensive team, facing Sandy Koufax in his prime, with an equally impressive hurler going for Jeter's team and this could have been the one opportunity of the game for a run,  then  maybe, this play would have made sense .  However, with one of baseball's most prolific line-ups  facing a kid pitcher,  and a starter who hadn't won in over a month going for his own team, you have to wonder what he was thinking. What's even more amazing is that Jeter is not nearly alone. Read the rest of this entry »

When Jerry Meals called Julio Lugo safe at home in the 19th inning on July 27th, not only did it provide the Braves with a controversial win, it gave pitcher Scott Proctor a walk-off RBI. Proctor's was the first walk-off RBI by a player in the game as a pitcher since Randy Keisler in 2005 and only the second since 1994.  Since 1974,  8  pitchers have done better than Proctor  and ended a game with a walk-off hit. The PI database also shows 32 game ending hits for pitchers between 1950-1973 (1043 games from that time span are not included in the search; see here.)  As you would expect, a single is the most common of these. However, due to managerial strategies, the home run easily surpasses the double for second place. Here are the plays: Read the rest of this entry »

I ran across this puzzling play description today:

So Lawton hit a walk-off triple and ended up on second base? Did he go back to second after touching third? Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier today, there was a discussion in the comments of another thread about  using the PI to find back to back triples to lead off a game. And while it is not possible to create a definitive list of such triples using PI, we can come really close. The key here is simply looking for triples by the #2 hitter in the first inning with a runner of third and no outs.  This search gives us a list of 40 events since 1950. From those events, we can eliminate those which started with a  non-triple and the runner advanced to third before the next batter tripled. This give us this list:

1. Yr#	Gm#	Date	Batter	Tm	Opp	Pitcher	Score	Inn	RoB	Out	Pit(cnt)Sequence	RBI	WPA	RE24	LI	Play Description
   1	1	1954-06-15	Nellie Fox	CHW	PHA	Marion Fricano	down 2-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.21	Triple to RF; Carrasquel Scores
   2	1	1955-08-10	Enos Slaughter	KCA	CHW	Harry Byrd	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.05	Triple to RF; Power Scores
   3	1	1957-08-03	Bob Boyd	BAL	KCA	Ralph Terry	down 1-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.11	1.00	1.25	Triple (CF-RF); Gardner Scores
   4	1	1960-09-04	Carroll Hardy	BOS	WSH	Jack Kralick	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.05	Triple to RF; Green Scores
   5	1	1963-05-18	Jim Gilliam	LAD	PIT	Vern Law	down 1-0	b1	--3	0	1 (0-0)	1	0.12	1.00	1.30	Triple to RF (Line Drive); Oliver Scores
   6	1	1966-08-21	Russ Snyder	BAL	@DET	Earl Wilson	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.15	Triple to RF; Aparicio Scores
   7	1	1969-05-21	Richie Hebner	PIT	@SDP	Tommie Sisk	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.16	Triple; Alou Scores
   8	1	1969-09-08	Jesus Alou	HOU	SDP	Mike Corkins	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.11	Triple; Morgan Scores
   9	1	1970-04-21	Glenn Beckert	CHC	STL	Bob Gibson	down 1-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.08	Triple to RF (Line Drive); Kessinger Scores
   10	1	1973-04-15 (2)	Tito Fuentes	SFG	CIN	Jim McGlothlin	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.07	Triple; Bonds Scores
   11	1	1973-05-19	Roger Metzger	HOU	SFG	Jim Barr	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.10	Triple; Wynn Scores
   12	1	1973-08-20	Bert Campaneris	OAK	DET	Jim Perry	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.10	Triple to RF; North Scores
   14	1	1974-09-06	Roger Metzger	HOU	SDP	Dan Spillner	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.11	1.09	1.11	Triple to RF (Ground Ball); Gross Scores; Metzger Scores/Adv on E9/unER
   15	1	1976-05-14	Manny Sanguillen	PIT	LAD	Tommy John	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.11	Triple to RF; Stennett Scores
   16	1	1976-07-21	Don Kessinger	STL	@LAD	Don Sutton	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.16	Triple to LF; McBride Scores
   17	1	1977-05-14	Bill Almon	SDP	@PHI	Jim Kaat	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.06	Triple to LF; Richards Scores
   18	1	1978-05-20	Bob Bailor	TOR	NYY	Jim Beattie	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.08	Triple to RF; Bosetti Scores
   19	1	1978-07-27	Dave Bergman	HOU	NYM	Tom Hausman	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.15	Triple to LF; Puhl Scores
   20	1	1979-05-21	George Brett	KCR	SEA	Glenn Abbott	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.01	Triple to RF; Wilson Scores
   21	1	1979-07-06	Frank Taveras	NYM	SDP	Randy Jones	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.10	Triple to LF; Youngblood Scores
   24	1	1980-06-16	Dwayne Murphy	OAK	@BOS	Chuck Rainey	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.04	Triple to RF; Henderson Scores
   25	1	1980-08-03 (1)	Ozzie Smith	SDP	@PIT	Rick Rhoden	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.13	Triple to RF; Richards Scores
   28	1	1983-07-04 (2)	Bryan Little	MON	@CHC	Fergie Jenkins	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.11	Triple; Raines Scores
   29	1	1983-09-24	Butch Davis	KCR	MIN	Frank Viola	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.09	1.00	1.05	Triple to RF; Wilson Scores
   31	1	1987-08-07	Tony Gwynn	SDP	HOU	Mike Scott	down 1-0	b1	--3	0		1	0.10	1.00	1.18	Triple to CF; Jefferson Scores
   32	1	1988-09-29	Mitch Webster	CHC	@MON	Bryn Smith	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0	1 (0-0)	1	0.10	1.00	1.15	Triple to RF (Ground Ball); Dunston Scores
   35	1	1999-04-11	Mark McLemore	TEX	ANA	Tim Belcher	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0	3 (1-1)	1	0.08	1.00	.91	Triple to RF (Ground Ball); Goodwin Scores
   36	1	2000-05-10	Craig Biggio	HOU	COL	Masato Yoshii	tied 0-0	b1	--3	0	3 (1-1)	1	0.08	1.00	.93	Triple (Line Drive to Deep CF-RF); Cedeno Scores
   38	1	2004-05-14	Chone Figgins	ANA	@BAL	Kurt Ainsworth	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0	4 (1-2)	1	0.09	1.00	1.02	Triple to CF (Fly Ball to Deep CF); Eckstein Scores
   39	1	2005-07-07	Julio Lugo	TBD	DET	Sean Douglass	down 3-0	b1	--3	0	3 (0-2)	1	0.09	1.00	1.12	Triple to CF (Fly Ball to Deep CF); Crawford Scores
   40	1	2011-08-05	Brennan Boesch	DET	@KCR	Felipe Paulino	tied 0-0	t1	--3	0	4 (2-1)	1	0.09	1.00	1.11	Triple to 1B (Line Drive to Deep RF Line); Jackson Scores

   Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
   Generated 8/6/2011.

We also need to figure out if there are any games in which the lead-off hitter tripled and then scored before the #2 hitter tripled. This is as easy as the first step.  We can search for triples by the #2 hitter with no outs and no one on in the first inning and then manually check the results for games with lead-off triples. You can find the list here, but every game listed involves triples preceded by home runs.
The last thing we would  need to figure out is if there are any games in which the lead-off hitter tripled and then was out on the bases before the #2 hitter  tripled. I can't think of any way of doing this with the PI, but if such a game exists it is probably unique.
Please note that this post utilizes the PI event finder which is complete since 1973, but only mostly complete from 1950-1972.

In honor of last night's Pirates/Braves game, here's a list to play with today.

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