Plunk Everyone

As I mentioned this morning, reader Tom pointed out to me that the Red Sox had been plunked by the Yankees in all 6 of their games this year. So as usual, the question is: what's the record?

In terms of streaks, the post-1960 record for most consecutive games in which one team plunked (or was plunked by) another team is 9 games. The 1969 Cleveland Indians hit the Oakland A's in 9 consecutive games from May 17th to August 7th. The Pittsburgh Pirates were plunked by the Reds in 9 consecutive games at one point, but that streak began in 1996 and spilled into the 1997 season. In '97, the Reds plunked the Pirates in their first 8 meetings, which is the record for a plunk streak to start the season. As of July 17th, 1997, the Reds hit at least one Pirate in each of their first 8 games. In 2004, the Orioles plunked the Yankees in their first seven meetings, and the Angels plunked the Mariners in their first seven matchups of 1998.

However, in all of those cases, eventually the streak broke within the season. In 2005, the Colorado Rockies plunked the Astros at least once in all 6 of their games that year (including Craig Biggio's historic 267th and 268th plunks... as well as his slightly less historic 264th, 265th, and 266th). In 1999, the Devil Rays plunked the Marlins in all 6 of their interleague games, and continued the streak through 2 more games in 2000. But, nobody who played each other more than 6 times in a season has plunked an opponent in every single game. A couple of teams have hit an opponent in 8 of 9 games, and a couple more have gone 10 for 12 getting at least one plunk out of a particular team. The way the current schedule works in most of the divisions, divisional opponents play each other 17 to 19 times, but in any of those season series, no team has been hit in more than 13 games.

Cleveland also has a streak going this year, having been hit in all 5 games against the Red Sox, and in their last 6 matchups dating back to last season. That matches the Yankees vs Red Sox streak for the longest active plunking streak. Anaheim has plunked Cleveland in 5 consecutive games, but they haven't played yet this year.

We'll get to find out tonight if the Red Sox can get plunked by the Yankees in a 7th consecutive game, and be the 16th pair of teams since 1960 to put together a streak of at least 7 games. But it will be only the 4th such streak beginning at the start of a season.