Most Homers In a Season Vs. One Opposing Team |

It’s not a particularly well-known record, but Lou Gehrig’s 14 home runs against the Cleveland Indians in 1936 is the most by a major leaguer against one opposing team during a regular season. Baseball-reference’s Play Index (PI) shows only four times that a player has managed 13 homers in a regular season against one team: Jimmie Foxx against the Tigers in 1932, Hank Sauer against the Pirates in 1954, Joe Adcock against the Dodgers in 1956 and Roger Maris against the White Sox in his historic 1961 season.

Using the PI, I also found 13 seasons in which a player hit 12 homers against one opposing team, so that’s a total of 18 seasons in which a hitter slugged 12 or more home runs off of one team. A table listing all 18 of those seasons is after the jump. For each season, the table shows the year, the hitter, the opponent, and the number of homers, games played and plate appearances the player had against that opponent during that season.

One thing you’ll notice in the table below is that Babe Ruth never had 12 or more homers in a season against a single opponent. Neither did Barry Bonds. Or Hank Aaron. However, Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays accomplished the feat three times each. Although there are eighteen seasons in total in which a player hit a dozen or more homers off of one opponent, seventeen of those eighteen seasons fall within the period 1931 through 1961. Sammy Sosa’s 1998, with twelve homers off of the Brewers, represents the only season in the past 52 years in which a player hit 12 or more homers off of one opponent.

[table id=170 /]

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Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Sammy’s 12 in 54 PA vs the Brau Crau stands out a bit.
“zoinks”

And his B/R page has him listed at 6’0″, 165 pounds.

David Horwich

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Zoinks, indeed. Milwaukee was in a 3-way tie for most home runs allowed in the NL that season, but still. In those 54 PA, Sosa went 17-45 (5 singles, 12 HR) with 9 BB and 11 K, a slash line of .378/.471/1.178. I was curious, so I went and looked up the Cubs-Brewers games of that year. Here’s how Sosa’s barrage played out: @ Wrigley June 15 – Sosa hit 3 solo HR, in the 1st, 3rd, and 7th, all off Cal Eldred. Cubs win, 6-5. One of 6 times in his career Sosa hit 3 HR in a game.… Read more »

oneblankspace

Reply to David Horwich

Milwaukee was in a 3-way tie for most home runs allowed in the NL that season,

And that’s not counting McGwire’s HR #65a which Don Denkinger ruled was a double.

Editor

John Autin

Re: Gehrig’s 13 HRs vs. Cleveland in 1936: — Lou hit 8 of the 33 visiting HRs. — The Yankees hit 16 HRs in 11 games there, including 2 in one game by pitcher Red Ruffing. They averaged 9 runs a game, and went 9-2. — The ’36 Indians played all but one of their home games in cozy League Park. From 1932-46, they divvied their games between League Park and the mammoth Cleveland Stadium, with very different numbers of games each year. So there’s no typical park factor for Cleveland in that era. — In ’36, the Tribe hit… Read more »

Richard Chester

Reply to John Autin

If you think Gehrig did not do well (comparatively) at Cleveland Stadium consider Mel Ott at Shibe Park. At Baker Bowl in 557 PA he hit 40 HR with a .774 SLG. After the Phils started playing at Shibe in mid-1938 Master Mel had 317 PA with 0 HR and a .272 SLG.

Noticing Maris’s 13 HRs vs. 1961 ChiSox, I checked Chicago’s splits and found some interesting stuff: — The 1961 White Sox hit 138 HRs and allowed 158. But their home/road splits are stunning: At home, they were +25 (hit 80, allowed 55). Away, they were -45 (hit 58, allowed 103). On a tangent … Roy Sievers from 1954-58 hit 34 HRs in 108 games against the White Sox, the most of any opponent. (Mantle was next with 31 in 109 games, then Berra with 17 in 104 games.) Sievers hit 18 HRs in 55 visiting games in Comiskey, more than… Read more »

bstar

In 2001 Barry Bonds hit 7 HR against the Braves in only 25 PA (6 games). His OPS vs. Atlanta that year was 2.324. Yeah.

TheGoof

If you had a pennant winner in the National League in the mid 50s, you were apparently required to have a home-run happy nemesis.

The 1954 and 1955 World Series champs got bashed in by Musial and Mays. And a nod to Adcock for 13 homers in 17 games against the NL pennant winners in ’56.

Joe

5 years ago

Gleyber Torres just hit his 9th against Baltimore. It’s only May. He’ll get plenty more chances with the unbalanced schedule.

Reply to Joe

Sorry, that’s 10 now. Game’s not over either. And there’s 7 more games versus Baltimore this season. Just 4 more to tie the record, 5 to beat it. Far from guaranteed, but certainly above the pace to do it.