You Got Questions? I Got Answers

A Mr. tfloyd of Macon, GA asks (Don’t you miss Rosanne Roseannadanna?):

In the bottom of the third, the Braves had six straight hits to begin the inning, but only plated three runs in the inning. [H]ow rare [is it] to manage to score only three runs when the first six batters reach on hits; I’d guess very rare. 

Well it’s not steak tartare, but it’s pretty rare.  In fact, there are only four games where a team started the inning with six straight hits and only scored 2 runs.

I’m guessing most of you won’t remember the first time that happened: it was June 7th, 1915 when the St. Louis Browns came into Shibe Park to face the Philadelphia Athletics.  In the top of the 8th, the Browns got hits from Burt Shotton and Jimmy Austin.  They then executed a double steal, and Del Pratt knocked them in with a single.  Good start!  But then Pratt was caught stealing, Tillie and Ernie Walker got singles, but Tillie was thrown out trying to steal 3rd.  Another single by Dick Kauffman set them up again, but a Doc Lavan lineout to LF ended the inning.

It wouldn’t happen again until August 30, 1976 when the Rangers came to Fenway. In the bottom of the 3rd, Fred Lynn led off with a triple.  Carl Yastrzemski knocked him in with a single, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double.  Carlton Fisk and Cecil Cooper followed with singles to make it 1st and 3rd, and Jim Rice drove Fisk in from 3rd with a single.  Dwight Evans followed with a single to center, but the less-than-speedy Cooper was not sent home.  A line drive double play by Butch Hobson ended the inning.

The next time was just 6 years later at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. On August 25,1982 the Phillies came to Atlanta and were tied 9-9 after regulation.  The Phillies came out Phightin’ in the 10th, though.  Facing Gene Garber, Manny Trillo led off with a double (presaging the Manfred Man) and Gary Matthews (with the Phillies at this point) doubled him in, but was out trying to stretch to a triple.  Mike Schmidt, Bo Diaz and Garry Maddox followed with singles to load the bases, now off Donnie Moore.  At this point, former Braves pitcher Ron Reed (this is the sort of trade the Braves used to make in the ’70s — trading away a guy who had 10 more good years in him for the crepuscular hulk of Ray Sadecki) singled to score Schmidt and leaving the bases loaded to be followed by Ivan de Jesus and Greg Gross strikeouts. (Reed got the win with a perfect bottom of the 10th, getting Bob Horner, Chris Chambliss and Glenn Hubbard.)  The Phillies had 22 hits and five walks in this game but only scored 11 runs.  That’s even rarer!

Finally, there’s the Blue Jays trip to Kansas City on September 4, 1995.  In the second game of the doubleheader,Toronto had a weird top of the 4th off Mark Gubicza,  Shawn Green led off with a homer, Robert Perez followed with a double. Sandy Martinez hit a ball up the middle that was scored a single, but Perez was thrown out trying to go to 3rd.  (I’m kinda wondering what that play looked like.) Tomas Perez followed with a single to make it 1st and 2nd.   Roberto Alomar drove in Martinez with a single.  Paul Molitor loaded the bases on an infield single, but Joe Carter then grounded into a double play.

So the common thread is that you have at least one person thrown out on the bases to make this happen. There are 25 (now 26) times that a team led with 6 hits and scored only three runs, most recently on September 20th, 2020, when the Giants faced the A’s and consecutive hits by Mauricio Dubon, Brandon Crawford, Luis Alexander Basabe, Chadwick Tromp (!), Austin Slater and Brandon Belt plated 3 runs.

So yeah, it’s rare.  In fact, there are only 273 half-innings that start with 6 hits in which those are the only hits in the inning.  In over 200 of them, the team scored 4 or 5 runs. 

The Game

To say that Max Fried (Maximus Prime, pictured above) has had a poor first two starts in 2024 is to say that Tommy Milone was less than an ace. A 3.6 WHIP is pretty bad. Jeff Granger pitched to a 3.6 WHIP in 5 innings pitched in 1997. Thus ended Jeff Granger’s career. So the big story was going to be Max’s night no matter what the score.

While we were waiting to see Max stride to the mound in Miami, we got to see Riley knock in Ozzie to take a quick lead off Trevor Rogers, probably one of the top 5 pitchers all time with the last name Rogers. (He’s clearly behind Kenny and Steve, and probably his contemporary Tyler, but after that he might be the best!)

Max started with a walk to Luis Arraez, but he got the next two only to give up yet another single. He got Jazz Chisholm to end the inning, but it was still a WHIP of 2.0. After that though, he was the old Max Fried. The sound you heard in your living room was not the whir of the 10 billion gnats drawn to a roofless LoanDepot Park, but the collective exhale of 5 million Braves fans. Granted the Marlins aren’t the Phillies or the DBacks, but they have a number of actual major league hitters. He pitched 7 1/3rd, gave up four hits and would have cut his ERA by over 10 runs but-for the Grybo allowed by Pierce Johnson.

The Braves got another run in the 5th, and then sent 11 men to the plate in the 7th, with five of them notching runs. An Ozuna mammo in the 9th ended the scoring.

Final Thought

I got to use the word crepuscular. Even so, my grandchildren wouldn’t let me take the SATs for them.