Plunk Everyone

Four days and nineteen years ago, on October 4, 1989, Greg Maddux pitched his first game in the postseason. He was pitching for the Chicago Cubs at the time, facing the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS, and he hit Matt Williams with a pitch with 2 outs in the third inning. Since then, he's hit 8 other batters in the post season, against 8 different teams in all, in 8 different seasons. If he gets a chance to hit one of the Phillies with a pitch, he'll be the first player to hit batters from 9 different teams in the postseason. He also might be the first pitcher to hit 10 batters in the postseason, unless Tim Wakefield beats him to it.

The Red Sox announced today that Tim Wakefield will be starting game 4 of the ALCS for them. His first playoff game was in the 1992 NLCS, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Atlanta Braves, but that was the year before Greg Maddux joined the team. Wakefield didn't hit a batter until the 1995 ALDS, when he had joined the Red Sox and they were facing the Cleveland Indians. He was the first pitcher to hit current Dodger and Maddux teammate, and former Red Sox and Wakefield teammate, Manny Ramirez with a pitch. And he did it again in the '98 division series. In all, Wakefield has hit 8 different postseason batters a total of 9 times, facing 5 different teams in 6 different postseasons. While Maddux has thrown a postseason plunk for 3 different employers, Wakefield has thrown all 9 of his since joining the Red Sox.

Tom Glavine and David Wells are tied for 3rd place on the postseason plunks thrown list with 7 each, trailing the 9 plunks of Maddux and Wakefield.

Tim Wakefield holds sole possession of the American League Division Series record for hitting batters with pitches with 6, but Greg Maddux only has a tie for the NLDS record, with 3 - tied with Kevin Brown. Maddux is also in a tie for the National League Championship Series plunking record with 5, tied with Greg Maddux. Wakefield has only hit 2 batters in the ALCS, behind a group of leaders who have hit 4 ALCS batters (Mike Boddicker, Pedro Martinez, Jeff Nelson, Frank Tanana, and David Wells). Both pitchers have hit just one batter in the World Series.

So, it will be interesting to see if either of them gets his 10th postseason hit-batter... and if the Red Sox and Dodgers meet in the world series, maybe they could even plunk each other. (No opposing pitchers have ever plunked each other in the postseason).


By the way, David Wells holds the record for hitting batters in the postseason while playing for the most teams, with 4. He hit batters on behalf of the Yankees, Padres, Orioles and Reds. Maddux's eight opposing teams plunked is the record there, but Pedro Martinez holds the record for hitting one team the most times in the postseason, with 4 hit-batsmen against the Yankees. Pedro is the only pitcher to hit the same batter in two different games in the same postseason series (Alex Rodriguez in the 2004 ALCS), and, Tim Wakefield is the only pitcher who has hit the same batter in the postseason in two different years (Manny Ramirez in 1995 and 1998).