Let’s Play Two (Games Worth of Innings)

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The previous record for most post-season innings pitched by a staff in one game, while allowing no more than one run, was 14 innings, in the famous Game 2 of the 1916 World Series. As many HHS readers will know, the “pitching staff” that held that record was 21-year-old Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox, who restrained Brooklyn to one run (an inside-the-park-homer in the first inning) over fourteen innings. Ruth also drove in the only run the Red Sox scored until they finally recorded the game-winner in the bottom of the 14th off Brooklyn starter Sherry Smith (Bio).

There have now been a total of 98 post-season games by hitters with 7 or more plate appearances. 14 of those 98 hitter-games came in yesterday’s 18-inning affair. Of those 98 hitter-games, only Bryce Harper, Adam LaRoche and Gregor Blanco, all in yesterday’s game, ended their game without reaching base safely at least once. Blanco had a sac bunt, so he is recorded as going only 0 for 6 at bats, not 0 for 7 like Harper and LaRoche. The highest on-base percentage in one of these 98 post-season games of 7 PAs or more was by Stan Hack in the most recent World Series game won by the Cubs, Game 6 of the 1945 Series. Hack was on base in six of his seven plate appearances, with two walks, three singles and his walk-off double in the bottom of the 12th inning coming against Dizzy Trout of the Tigers.

Of the 10 post-season games played thus far in 2014, seven have been decided by one run and an eighth went to extra innings before being decided by three runs. What is a normal occurrence of such close games? During the 2014 regular season, of 2,430 games played, 741 were decided by one run and another 69 were extra inning games decided by more than one run. That comes out 810 games, or exactly one-third of the total games played, that after nine innings were either tied or decided by one run.

Longest Post-Season Game Winning Streaks:
Yankees 12 games (10/10/1998 through 10/14/1999)
Yankees 12 games (10/12/1927 through 10/2/1932)
Giants 10 games (10/19/2012 through current)
Athletics 10 games (10/07/1989 through 10/10/1990)
Yankees 10 games (10/10/1937 through 10/1/1941)

Longest Post-Season Game Winning Streaks By Franchises Born 1961 or After:
Rockies 7 games (10/3/2007 through 10/15/2007)
Royals 6 games (10/24/1985 through current)

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John Autin

10 years ago

First postseason game with two pitchers going 6+ innings for one team. Three prior games had teammates with 5+ IP, including the ’86 NLCS finale, which is also the only time four teammates worked 3+ IP.

0 for 7 by Span, LaRoche and Harper all tied Biggio’s hitless ABs record. Six went 0-6 or worse, doubling the previous game high.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

On the TBS telecast of the Royals’ game, the play-by-play man quipped that the Giants had two quality starts in their game.

oneblankspace

10 years ago

The Cubs would not make it to the postseason again until Dizzy Trout’s son Steve pitched for them. Except for a two-game cup of coffee, Dizzy’s career ended the season five years before Steve was born.

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Doug

10 years ago

In the other game, Matt Carpenter became the second 3rd baseman with a HR and another extra-base hit in consecutive post-season games. The first was John Valentin in the 1999 ALDS. Those 2 games are also the longest such streak by a player at any position, with Carpenter becoming the 12th to do so in the same post-season. Rk Name Strk Start End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI Tm 1 Matt Carpenter 2014-10-03 2014-10-04 2 8 3 4 2 0 2 6 STL 2 Josh Hamilton 2010-10-18 2010-10-19 2 10 4 4 1 0 3 4 TEX… Read more »

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Another note on Carpenter.

He’s the first player, in his first four seasons, to have 700 PA seasons at both 2nd base and 3rd base.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Carpenter is now alone atop this list. First with a streak of 3 post-season games of 2 XBH’s including a home run.

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Doug

10 years ago

Brandon Belt’s 0.351 WPA on his home run pushed his WPA total for the game into positive territory (barely, at +0.133), the only such player for the Giants, the fewest on a winning team in an extra-inning post-season game.

The only winning teams in a 9-inning post-season game having just one player with positive WPA were:
– Marlins, Game 5 1997 NLCS (Bobby Bonilla, +0.260)
– Athletics, Game 1 1929 WS (Jimmie Foxx, +0.245)

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birtelcom

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Of course, that’s on the hitter side. On the pitcher side, there was much positive WPA, including: Highest Pitcher WPA in A Post-Season Game, Relief Pitchers: 1. Yusmeiro Petit (Saturday) .775 2. Blix Donnelly (1944 World Series Game 2) .644 3. Dolf Luque (1933 World Series Game 5) .642 4. Roger McDowell (1986 NLCS Game 6) .635 5. Orlando (El Duque) Hernanadez (2005 ALDS Game 2) .616 That Blix Donnelly performance, which held this record previously, ended successfully when Donnelly’s teammate and the Cardinals’ #2 catcher, Ken O’Dea, delivered a pinch-hit walk-off single in the bottom of in the 11th… Read more »

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

O’Dea appeared in 5 World Series, mostly as a pinch-hitter (as befits a career backup). He did alright in that role, going 3 for 8 with 4 RBI. Adding in his two games behind the plate, O’Dea had a nifty .462/.500/.692 post-season slash in 14 PAs.

brp

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Yeah, but what was Eric Gregg’s WPA for that 1997 NLCS game?

Doug

10 years ago

I learned from the Giant/National broadcast that Petit retired 46 consecutive batters this season, apparently the longest such streak ever. He did that over 6 games (plus portions of the book-end appearances), all of them at least one inning long.

Only other relief pitcher to retire 40+ straight hitters is Bobby Jenks with 42 set down over 14 appearances in 2007.

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Actually Petit beat Mark Buehrle’s previous record of 45, centred on his 2009 perfect game and 5+ perfect innings in the follow-up. Jim Barr also picked up 41 consecutive outs over two starts in August 1972.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

Thanks RJ,

I was just starting to consider how to find such streaks among starters (short answer is you can’t, so would have to employ some educated guesses).

Probably wouldn’t have found Barr’s sequence that came in consecutive shutouts, but each with 3 baserunners (I vaguely recall Barr but never would have guessed he pitched 2000 innings).

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

I only knew those because of the minor hoopla around Petit’s streak at the time. The streak itself was very low-key; most of the outs were made whilst relieving in losses. I’m not sure anyone noticed it until a few days before he broke Buehrle’s record.

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Veering off a little on the topic of consecutive batters retired, is there a way to find a list of the most consecutive batters retired by one pitcher in one game? Haddix had 36. Is that the most? I recently bumped into Rick Wise retiring 32 cubs in a row in September 1971 http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI197109180.shtml.

He had an interesting year. A no-hitter hitting 2 homeruns, a second game hitting 2 home runs, and this September game.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to mo

That was quite a game, mo. Wise allowed four hits (incl. two HR) to the first 7 batters, then retires the next 32. And, he delivers the walk-off hit, batting for himself in the 12th inning!

10 years ago

Reply to mo

Probably the last time a starting pitcher batted in extra innings in history!

David Horwich

10 years ago

Reply to mo

According to Harvey Haddix’s wikipedia page, he holds the record for consecutive batters retired in one game. I do wonder whether some longer streak may be unknown due to the lack of play-by-play data, e.g. on 7/2/33 Carl Hubbell pitched 18 innings, yielding only 6 hits and no walks: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1193307021.shtml (This was the first game of a doubleheader, which the Giants won 1-0. They also won the 2nd game…by a score of 1-0, Roy Parmelee outdueling Dizzy Dean.) By the way, Tom Browning also retired 40 consecutive hitters: the last 11 of his start of 9/11/88, the 27 batters of… Read more »

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to mo

That Wise game is not quite the last time a starter batted in extra innings.

Tim Wakefield batted in the 11th inning of the Pirates’ 6-2 win over the Braves on Apr 27, 1993. Wakefield also homered in the game, the only one of his career.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199304270.shtml

David Horwich

10 years ago

Reply to mo

Some other instances of a pitcher batting in extra innings since Wise: 9/24/71 Ken Forsch top 10th, top 13th (K, unknown); Clay Kirby bottom 10th, bottom 13th (flyout, unknown) 7/14/72 Gaylord Perry, top 12th (flyout) 6/7/72 Clay Kirby bottom 11th (groundout) 8/27/72 Nolan Ryan, bottom 10th (K) 9/1/72 Bill Stoneman, top 11th (SH) 9/7/72 Don Wilson top 11th, top 13th (K, K) 7/22/73 Ferguson Jenkins, bottom 10th (double!) 8/20/73 Tom Seaver bottom 10th (K) 8/4/74 (2nd game) Dave Freisleben bottom 10th, bottom 13th (flyout, SH) 9/17/74 Jerry Reuss bottom 10th (K) 8/12/78 Steve Rogers bottom 10th (K) 9/21/79 J.R. Richard… Read more »

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to mo

Other starters who batted in extra innings.
Jim Barr, 9-24-75 and 4-20-75
Burt Hooton, 9-20-75
John Montefusco, 5-27-75

David Horwich

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, what’s your source for Jenks’ streak? Looking at his game logs, his streak appears to be “only” 41 batters: The streak began 7/17/2007 against the Indians. Jenks entered the game in the 9th with Chicago up 2; gave up a hit & a HR to blow the save, retired the next 3 batters in order, then was replaced to start the 10th. He subsequently pitched 13 consecutive 1-inning stints without allowing a baserunner, but he faced 38 batters rather than 39 during that stretch, as in one instance he entered the game with a runner on base and induced… Read more »

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to David Horwich

I stand corrected, David.

41 batters it is.