Quiz – Tough Luck Sluggers (solved) |

In last weekend’s showdown series with Toronto, the Yankees’ Brett Gardner became the first player of this century to record an unusual game feat. In so doing, he joined 10 others with the same feat since 1914. What is this unusual batting accomplishment?

Rk	Player
1	Brett Gardner
2	Mark McGwire
3	Mike Stanley
4	Kal Daniels
5	Bob Horner
6	Gary Roenicke
7	Frank Thomas
8	Roy Sievers
9	Bob Cerv
10	Johnny Mize
11	Jimmie Foxx

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/16/2015.

There was no fooling Yankee aficionado Richard Chester. He knew that Gardner is the latest player to lose a 9 inning contest at home despite a monster game with 6 or more RBI on 2 or more home runs, no other hits and no strikeouts. More after the jump.

Here are those games, which include Bob Horner’s famous 4 home run game for Atlanta.

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	WPA	RE24	aLI	BOP	Pos
1	Brett Gardner	2015-09-12 (2)	NYY	TOR	L 7-10	5	5	2	2	2	6	0	0	0.096	4.610	.446	2	LF
2	Mark McGwire	1999-07-16	STL	CHW	L 8-9	5	4	2	2	2	6	1	0	0.286	3.438	1.732	3	1B
3	Mike Stanley	1995-08-10 (1)	NYY	CLE	L 9-10	4	4	3	3	3	7	0	0	0.505	4.997	1.628	7	C
4	Kal Daniels	1990-09-04	LAD	HOU	L 8-10	5	5	2	2	2	6	0	0	0.168	3.473	1.052	3	LF
5	Bob Horner	1986-07-06	ATL	MON	L 8-11	5	5	4	4	4	6	0	0	0.262	5.204	.718	4	1B
6	Gary Roenicke	1985-07-13	BAL	CHW	L 8-10	4	4	2	2	2	6	0	0	0.194	4.618	1.310	5	LF
7	Frank Thomas	1962-08-01	NYM	PHI	L 9-11	5	4	3	2	2	6	1	0	0.402	4.544	1.914	4	LF
8	Roy Sievers	1961-05-07 (1)	CHW	DET	L 6-8	4	4	2	2	2	6	0	0	0.310	3.432	1.683	4	1B
9	Bob Cerv	1959-08-20	KCA	BOS	L 10-11	5	5	3	3	3	6	0	0	0.512	4.332	1.258	4	LF
10	Johnny Mize	1940-09-08 (1)	STL	PIT	L 14-16	5	5	4	3	3	6	0		0.000	0.000		4	1B
11	Jimmie Foxx	1930-05-22 (2)	PHA	NYY	L 13-20	6	5	2	2	2	6	1		0.000	0.000		5	1B

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/17/2015.

Only a curiosity but some unusual clustering of these games with three in four years (1959-62), then none for 22 years (1963-84), then 5 times in 15 years (1985-99) and then not at all over the next 15 seasons (2000-14). Also, 10 of the 11 games were turned in by first basemen or left-fielders.

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Brendan Bingham

9 years ago

Does it have anything to do with driving in six runs in a loss, which Gardner did in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader?

Richard Chester

For starters they all had 2+ HR and 6+ RBI in a home game and their team lost, but so did more than two dozen more.

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Doug

Reply to Richard Chester

All of those criteria are correct.

But need a few more to prune the list.

Reply to Doug

They all had H = HR but so did 8 others.

mosc

Something like after both his home runs his team was STILL down by at least 3 runs?

My final PI run showed this: Team lost at home, HR = 2+, RBI = 6+, H = HR, SO = O and the length of the game was 9 innings.

Absolutely correct!

Kahuna Tuna

Teams that have a player hitting three home runs in a game win the game right around 80% of the time. Johnny Mize, tied for the all-time lead in three-homer games, had his teams go 1-4-1 in those 3-HR games.

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

Babe Ruth, Miguel Cabrera and Glenn Davis were all 0-2 when hitting 3 HR in a game.

Hands up everybody who knew that Ben Oglivie had more 3 HR games than Babe Ruth?

Sure, Ruth was 0-2 in regular-season 3-HR games.

But he was 2-0 in 3-HR World Series games.

My nominee for most obscure player with two major-league three-homer games: Pat Seerey (1943-48 Indians, 1948-49 White Sox, 86 career home runs).

Pat Seerey and Willie Mays are the only players with 15+ TB in a game twice.

Hmm. Two 3-HR games for Ruth in 2503 regular season games, and in 41 post-season games. Just think what numbers Ruth could have compiled if he beared down a bit more in the regular season. 🙂