Plunk Everyone

HBPs of Note: July 26, 2009

Mariners starter Jason Vargas was in a giving mood yesterday. Along with giving up 7 hits and 6 earned runs, he also contributed Ryan Garko's 10th plunk of the season, and Kelly Shoppach's 15th plunk of the season. That puts Shoppach back in first place in the 2009 HBP race, just ahead of Chase Utley. Prior to Saturday, only 15 batters had been plunked at Safeco Field, but four batters have been hit there in the past two days.

Jeff Weaver had hit 119 batters before yesterday, but none of them were named Hanley Ramirez, so he did that yesterday. Weaver's 120 career hit batters puts him in 35th place on the all time list - and by "the" all time list, of course that means "one" all time list, due to faulty record keeping in the early 20th and late 19th century on the pitching side of the HBP stats. Weaver hit Hanley Ramirez, which was on of 4 plunks in the Dodgers-Marlins game.

Burke Badenhop got tossed from that same Dodgers-Marlins game after plunking Orlando Hudson, but it might not have been an intentional plunk because Dodger Stadium has been the scene of 12 HBPs in the past week alone. Clearly there is some environmental factor causing this localized increase in HBP activity. Also, the umpire seemed to think Badenhop was retaliating for Weaver's plunking of Ramirez, or maybe even Jason Schmidt's plunking of Emilio Bonifacio, but the Dodgers were just trying to help the Marlins toward an important milestone. The Marlins have reached a franchise total of 987 times, and Marlins fans are probably on the edge of their seats waiting for that historic 1000th plunk in team history.

Labels: HBPs of note