Mark Melancon joins the club: 3 homers allowed without recording an out

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Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	H	R	ER	BB	HR
1	Mark Melancon	2012-04-17	BOS	TEX	L 3-18	8-7	4	6	6	2	3
2	Pedro Viola	2011-07-07	BAL	BOS	L 4-10	7-7	3	3	3	1	3
3	Phil Dumatrait	2007-09-09	CIN	MIL	L 5-10	GS-0 ,L	5	4	4	0	3
4	Todd Jones	2002-09-19	COL	STL	L 6-12	8-7	4	4	4	0	3
5	Mike Trombley	2000-05-13	BAL	BOS	L 1-5	8-8 ,BL	3	4	4	0	3
6	Dave Stevens	1995-06-11	MIN	DET	L 2-8	9-8	4	4	4	0	3
7	Wade Blasingame	1972-06-27	NYY	DET	L 2-5	GS-1 ,L	3	4	4	1	3
8	Warren Hacker	1953-07-18	CHC	NYG	L 7-12	GS-1 ,L	3	5	5	1	3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/18/2012.

There are a lot of awful things to say about Mark Melancon’s performance yesterday, but this might be the worst.

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WillieMLB

12 years ago

This list gave me bad flashbacks. I’ve been an A’s fan for years and the one non-playoff game that sticks with me the most is the 8/8/2000 game at New York.
Ninth inning, A’s up by a run, Isringhausen on the mound. Two pitches. Just two pitches! First pitch, home run by Bernie Williams. Second pitch, home run by David Justice. Ugh. Two pitches, two home runs. Game over. That’s bad.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to WillieMLB

Wow! That Izzy game is the only searchable instance of allowing at least 2 HRs and HR=pitches.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200008080.shtml

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Nice catch, JA.

Interesting that Mariano Rivera was summoned from the bullpen to pitch the ninth in that August 2000 game in a non-save situation.

When Isringhausen entered the Twilight Zone, in the bottom of the ninth, Rivera scavenged a win for his appearance.

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

J A,
I’m a little late to the thread, but an excellent Phillies team got smoked by the Big Red Machine in the 1976 NLCS. Game 3 featured Ron Reed or Garber blowing a 6-4, 9th inning lead with a pair of HR’s surrendered to Foster and Bench.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Indeed, Paul. It was Reed who surrendered the HRs to Foster and Bench (Johnny batting #6 after an off year). Those were the last of 12 batters Reed faced, which tied the game. Then Garber came in and allowed a single to Concepcion, his only batter. Tom Underwood came in and eventually gave up the series-ending hit by Griffey, Sr.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197610120.shtml

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to WillieMLB

Dishonorable mention in this category goes to the chronically culpable Kyle Farnsworth:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200408040.shtml

Came in with a 1-run lead and a man aboard, 2 out in the 7th. Served up a turnaround HR on his 2nd pitch (to PH Mark Sweeney), then gets Matt Holliday to pop out on the next pitch. Top of the 7th, Cubs score 4 runs to go back in front. Bottom half, Farnsworth allows a first-pitch HR to Charles Johnson and is pulled.

Farnsworth threw 4 pitches, resulting in 1 out and 2 HRs — and got a WIN out of it.

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I like these two. Pitcher gets the win without throwing a pitch.

Alan Embree, 2009-07-07

B.J. Ryan, 2003-05-01

Evan

12 years ago

Reply to WillieMLB

I was in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium for that game and remember it well. Barry Zito pitched well in his 4th career start, Izzy came in later and gave up the two home runs on two pitches. It was a little scary how much the upper deck was bouncing from people cheering and jumping up and down after the second home run cleared the fence and for several minutes afterward.

James Smyth

12 years ago

Reply to WillieMLB

I remember that one. Justice had been traded to NY from Cleveland a month before and was absolutely killing it for the Yanks. He hit .305/.391/.585 down the stretch with 20 homers in less than a half-season’s worth of games. I was at Game Six of the ALCS when his homer off perennial Yankee punching bag Arthur Rhodes set up the Subway Series. Interesting to look back at the box score and see that Eric Chavez hit an inside-the-park home run. This NY Times recap http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/09/sports/baseball-boom-boom.html says it “hit the top of the center-field wall, bounced high into the air… Read more »

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John Autin

12 years ago

At least Melancon can say he lasted more batters (6) than the rest of those guys! 🙂 Viola, Jones, Trombley, Stevens & Blasingame allowed their 3 HRs in just 4 batters, while Dumatrait & Hacker did it in 5 batters. On the other hand, that just means that Melancon gave up more runs than the rest of them. I was surprised not to find Melancon on the DL this morning. It seems almost impossible to pitch as badly as he has without being injured. Melancon’s 6 batters last night: – Double on an 0-1 count. – 4-pitch walk. – HR… Read more »

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Doug

12 years ago

At least Melancon provided some variety – the three shots off him were to right, center and left.

Also, it happens to the best of them, even HOFers. These are the shortest appearances allowing 4 HRs.

Player	Tm	Opp	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	HR	BF
1	Pat Mahomes	2001-08-17	TEX	TOR	L 3-11	6-6	0.1	4	4	4	0	4	5
2	Catfish Hunter	1977-06-17	NYY	BOS	L 4-9	GS-1	0.2	4	4	4	0	4	6
3	Jeff Austin	2003-05-28	CIN	ATL	L 3-15	GS-1 ,L	0.2	4	5	5	1	4	7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/18/2012.

Hartvig

12 years ago

I could swear at one point last night I heard one of the announcers say that he had given up 5 home runs in the last 9 batters that he had faced- but if I’m reading the game logs correctly he given up 2 home runs in his previous 2 outings totaling 9 batters- 9 batters/4 hits/2 home runs/4 runs allowed,

His ERA now stands at 49.5 after 4 games.

It’s hard to imagine that he won’t be sent down in the next day or 2.

Insert Name Here

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Just heard that Melancon is in AAA now; the weird thing is, they’re bringing up Junichi Tazawa, who is not a set-up man, leaving the Sox without a setup man!

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

Well, Insert, Melancon wasn’t really going to be trusted as a setup man any more anyway after his first two outings.

The Sox rotation and pen are in huge disarray, in my opinion. Even Daniel Bard is fighting for his control as a starter.

I know they started slowly last year, but this year feels different. Baltimore is stronger than 2011, Toronto is slightly stronger and the Bosox do not have Terry Francona at the helm.

Tmckelv

12 years ago

I believe I recall a Yankee @ Red Sox game where the Yanks gave up 4 HR in a row. I am a little fuzzy on the details. I will see if I can find the game.

Here it is:

Chase Wright was pitching for the Yanks. It was his 2nd (and last career start) and his penultimate appearance. He got a No Decision the day of the 4-HR inning and finished his career @ 2-0 (7.00+ ERA) in 3G. He won every game in which he DIDN’T give up 4 HR in an inning.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200704220.shtml

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

Another Yankee-Red Sox game like that is this one.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197706170.shtml

Not four homers in succession, but also four solo shots in the same inning off the same pitcher.

James Smyth

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

I was at Fenway for that Chase Wright game. Even though I’m a New Yorker who hates the Red Sox, it was pretty incredible to be in the crowd. Ramirez. Drew. Lowell. Varitek. Four homers on ten pitches. That turned it from 3-0 NYY to 4-3 BOS, but the Yanks actually came back to take the lead again before Lowell homered again in the seventh to win it.

James Smyth

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

Goin’ a little crazy here with three comments in a few minutes, but J.D. Drew was also involved in an even more amazing back-to-back-back-to-back homer string.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200609180.shtml

Dodgers down 9-5 in the ninth. Jeff Kent and Drew start the inning with homers off Jon Adkins and in comes Trevor Hoffman. Like with Izzy, everything fell apart on two pitches. Russell Martin hit the first one out to cut it 9-8 before Marlon Anderson belted the next pitch out to tie it. Nomar hit a walk-off for LA in the tenth.

Video: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20006559&c_id=mlb

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to James Smyth

That LAD 4-HR 9th still seems so fresh — hard to believe that was 2006!

One more detail — after the barrage tied the game, the Padres went ahead with a run in the top of the 10th, setting the stage for Nomar’s come-from-behind walk-off 2-run shot.

Neil L.

12 years ago

So let me see if I have this straight ….. with 11 ER allowed over 2 IP, Mark Melancon has to pitch 9 scoreless innings just to lower his ERA to 9.00, not exactly a benchmark for a reliever. Wow!!

Neil L.

12 years ago

It’s not all bad for Melancon from his appearance last night against Texas. His outing only resulted in a -0.009 WPA thanks to Lester’s start. 🙂

Lester’s WHIP of 6.000 allowed him to absorb a WPA of -0.422 for his team. Somebody help my understanding here…. does that mean that Jon Lester was 84% responsible for his team losing the game?

If you have to flame out in relief you might as well do it when the game is out of hand and you aren’t really hurting your team.

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Neil, I don’t think WPA figures can be used to make such a succinct statement as “Lester was 84% responsible for his team losing.” Two points: (1) There’s not a fixed amount of WPA to be divvied up for each game. A game with a lot of lead changes, especially in later innings, will have a much higher total of WPA absolute values than a game where a run is scored in the top of the 1st and the game ends 1-0. (2) To the extent that a player’s WPA does express something like a percentage of responsibility, you would… Read more »

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Thank you, JA, for the reply. I may be the one confused. I thought that all WPA’s, pitcher and batter totals had to add up to 0.500. You start the game with a 50 % chance of winning, whether you are the road or home team. So don’t all subsequent events in the game for your team, both batting and pitching, have to add up to that total? So if Lester contributed a -0.422 WPA for Boston he was responsible for 0.422/0.500 of his team’s loss when all is said and done. Now that I’ve revealed my ignorance of WPA… Read more »

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Neil, I think the catch in your logic is the non-fixed absolute value of individual WPA totals. A player’s WPA for a game can be much, much more than 0.5 — it can even be well over 1. This is because every positive thing a player does can be offset by his teammates’ negative events. The known record for one-game WPA is 1.503, the famous (in these halls) Art Shamsky game. (Anyone not familiar with this game should DEFINITELY read the play-by-play, at least starting with Shamsky’s entry in a double-switch in the top of the 8th. You’ll be amazed.)… Read more »

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John, got it, I think.

I am confusing team WPA, which must be 0.500, with individual WPA’s which can be any value within certain ranges as long as the sum of all events works out properly.

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Not sure if you have that right, Neil. The WPA does start at 0.5 (although, that in itself may be debatable owing to team strength, home/away, starting pitchers, etc.). But, that’s what it starts from. Using Tom Tango’s RE24 analysis (I think), the WPA for every PA (or every event within an PA that changes the base-out situation), is re-cailbrated, based on the change in the score-inning-base-out situation. As a an example, with home team ahead by 1 and visiting team batting in the 7th with a runner on 2nd and 1 out, the visiting team’s WPA might be (to… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

“Despite what you hear in locker-room interviews, no one can give 150%, or be 150% responsible for a game outcome.” –

John A., You can be 110% sure of that!

{Rim shot, please…}

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Doug @24, thank you for your patience with me. I don’t want to sling WPA around on comments if I can’t wrap my head arounf what it means.

Doesn’t the team WPA for a game have to be the sum of all the individual WPA’s, both pitcher and batter for the game?

If not, I have to go back to WPA 101 and start over.

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

No reason why you can’t add it all up for a team. But not sure what that would mean. To me, WPA’s value is as an individual stat.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Neil L.: Here is my lame attempt to try to help you understand WPA. The net sum of the offensive +WPA and -WPA for one team should equal the WPA for the pitching staff of the opposing team. I checked several box scores and for some reason (rounding off?) they always mismatch by just a small amount. As John stated in post 22 the more often the lead changes hands the higher the +WPA. If a game goes into extra innings and each team keeps scoring one run in each extra inning the WPAs will reallly soar. Be aware that… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

According to Fangraphs/Tom Tango’s version of WPA, the winning team always end up with exactly 0.5 WPA while the losing team has -0.5 WPA.

Neil L.

12 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Doug @27,

John Autin wrote to me @19 “…I think the catch in your logic is the non-fixed absolute value of individual WPA totals.

You mean WPA is a statistic that doesn’t normalize to a fixed value, base-out situations notwithstanding? Shouldn’t all events for the offense and pitching and the opponents offense and pitching add up to a fixed value?

Help me here! 🙂