Plunk Everyone

HBPs of note: September 29, 2010

10 batters were hit by pitches yesterday, bringing this year’s total number of plunks on Wednesday to 265. Wednesday has a 34 plunk lead on Saturday for the day of the week with the most plunks this year, so unless 35 batters get plunked on Saturday, Wednesday has locked up the 2010 title. That makes this the first year that Wednesday was the day of the week with the most HBPs since 1992.

Miguel Tejada got his 118th career HBP, contributed by Randy Wells, moving him into 45th place on the all time list, just ahead of Aaron Rowand.

Corey Hart got hit by a pitch from Mets pitcher Sean Green, and that gives him the historic honor of taking the 100th plunk in Citi Field history. That’s a controversial total though, becuase the first 47 plunks at Citi Field were part of a government plunk bailout for struggling ballparks named after large banks. At least that’s how I remember it. Hart and Ryan Braun were both plunked in that game, but that did not help Rickie Weeks get any close to Fernando Vina’s single season HBP record for the Brewers. The Brewers are 4 plunks short of there single season team record.

Trent Oeltjen got hit by Jhoulys Chacin, and that makes him the 662nd player to get hit by a pitch for the Dodgers. That was also the 70th major league HBP recorded by an Australian.

BACON race update:
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Carlos Gonzalez – .8148
Ichiro Suzuki – .8097
Adrian Beltre – .8072
Joe Mauer – .8016

HBPs of note: September 28, 2010

Only 4 batters go hit by a pitch yesterday, but Roy Oswalt’s plunking of Mike Morse was significant because it was the 200th time the Phillies have ever hit the Nationals franchise. Esmil Rogers plunk thrown at AJ Ellis was the 1500th plunk of the season – if the league can get together and get hit by 18 pitches per day for the rest of the season, they can finish the season with more HBPs than last year. But, that’s probably a long shot. 1590 batters were hit by pitches last year, but after yesterday, this year’s total is only 1501. Brandon Phillips HBP from Wandy Rodriguez was his 20th at Great American Ballpark. He has the 4th most plunks in park history.

BACON race update:
Carlos Gonzalez – .8218
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Adrian Beltre – .8127
Ichiro Suzuki – .8082
Joe Mauer – .8016

HBPs of note: September 26, 2010

Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista got hit by one of Rick Vandenhurk’s pitches and the he got hit by one of Alfredo Simon’s pitches yesterday, giving Bautista 10 HBPs this year. That makes him just the 6th player in baseball history to have 50 homers and 10 HBPs in the same season. Alex Rodriguez and Prince Fielder were the last players to put up a 50/10 season, in 2007, and Andruw Jones, Luis Gonzalez and Brady Anderson are the other members of this club.

Shane Victorino extended his Hawaiian record career total to 45 on a Pat Misch plunk.

BACON race update:
Carlos Gonzalez – .8190
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Ichiro Suzuki – .8133
Adrian Beltre -.8101
Joe Mauer – .8016

HBPs of note: September 25, 2010

It’s finally looking like a September push for the playoffs is underway, as 18 batters took HBPs for their team yesterday – a season high, and the most since August 4, 2009 when 19 plunks were recorded. 14 different teams got hit by a pitch, and that’s a season high as well.

Paul Konerko got plunked by Scott Kazmir, giving him 81 career plunks and 78th with the White Sox. That puts him back in sole possession of the American League Central division plunk record, 1 ahead of AJ Pierzynski. Also, that was the White Sox 78th HBP of the season, which is just 1 away from their single season team record. They got hit 79 times in 2005 when they won the World Series, so this year must be much better than their World Series year, because they’ll probably be hit by more pitches.

Ryan Kalish of the Red Sox had never been hit before, and Ivan Nova of the Yankees had never hit a batter before, so it was only fitting that those two hooked up for the 750th HBP in a Yankees/Red Sox games since the sale of Babe Ruth.

BACON Race update:
Carlos Gonzalez – .8177
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Adrian Beltre – .8144
Ichiro Suzuki – .8121
Joe Mauer – .8016

September 24, 2010

Dodgers infielder Chin-Lung Hu got hit by a pitch for the first time in his major league, and that makes him the first batter born in Taiwan ever to be plunk in the majors. Sadly, Hu does not play first base. He’s the 659th player ever to get plunked for the Dodgers.

There were only 4 plunks yesterday, but 3 of them were thrown by pitchers who hadn’t hit anyone this year. Mark Rogers and Barry Enright threw their first major league plunks, and Andrew Miller threw his first of the season and 16th overall. Including those 3 pitchers, there have been 439 pitchers to throw a plunk this year – that’s well short of last year’s record total of 502 different pitchers throwing a plunk in one season. Enright also gets the title of the first pitcher ever to plunk a batter from Taiwan.

BACON race update:
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Carlos Gonzalez – .8157
Adrian Beltre – .8127
Ichiro Suzuki – .8109
Vlad Guerrero – .8039

HBPs of note: September 23, 2010

Javier Vasquez had an interesting sequence for the 7th inning yesterday – Walk, HBP, HBP, HBP, Sac Fly, Walk, Strikeout, Fly out. He hit Desmond Jennings, Willy Aybar and Kelly Shoppach back to back to back. According to Gameday’s timestamps, it took him 3 minutes and 11 seconds to crank out those 3 plunks, and he worked 3 plunks into a span of just 6 pitches. The last pitcher to hit 3 consecutive batters was Jeff Weaver, who did it on August 21, 2004, and also got from the 1st to 3rd plunk in 6 pitches. He hit JD Drew, Chipper Jones and Johnny Estrada – and it’s not easy to plunk Chipper Jones. On May 22, 1999 Steve Sparks threw three consecutive plunks in the span of just 4 pitches, hitting Paul Sorrento, Miguel Cairo and Kevin Stocker. CJ Nitkowski also hit 3 consecutive batters, on August 3, 1998, but he needed 10 pitches. Those are the only 4 times that has happened in the last 10 years.

Meanwhile in Chicago, Jose Guillen got hit by 2 pitches in the same inning. That’s only happened 3 other times in the past 25 years, most recently by Mike Hessman on September 8, 2008. But, Guillen got both his plunks against Ryan Dempster, and only Brady Anderson had been hit twice in the same inning by the same pitcher. Anderson did it on May 23, 1999, and both plunks were thrown by Mike Morgan. That was believed to be the only time in baseball history that a batter was hit twice in one inning by the same pitcher, but yesterday’s Guillen/Dempster plunks makes twice.

Guillen is now up to 145 career plunks, and has sole possession of 22nd place on the all time list. Chet Lemon is the next step above Guillen, with 151.
BACON race update:
Carlos Gonzalez – .8201
Adrian Beltre – .8200
Josh Hamilton – .8166
Ichiro Suzuki – .8094
Billy Butler – .8025