Plunk Everyone

16 batters were hit by a pitch yesterday, but nobody got hit by two pitches. That’s the highest number of plunks this season to occur on a day that nobody got hit by two pitches.

John Lackey hit Francisco Cervelli with a pitch in the Red Sox/Yankees game, bringing his career total to 14 Yankees plunked. That ties Lackey with Tim Wakefield for the active lead in hitting Yankees. There was a brief celebration on the field as members of both teams strolled out to congratulate Lackey, but then Wakefield reminded everyone that he had also hit 14 Yankees and Lackey’s achievement wasn’t that big a deal, so everyone went back to the dugouts and went on with the game. There were 4 HBPs in that game, and the Yankees and Red Sox have hit each other 22 times this season, but that’s still 11 short of the plunk total those two teams put up in 2004, when they hit each other 33 times.
Lackey leads the majors with 17 batters plunked this year.

The Twins hit the White Sox 3 times last night, bringing the season total for plunks exchanged between those two teams to 16. Those two teams haven’t exchanged that many plunks since 1961.

Rockies rookie pitcher Alex White hit Justin Upton with a pitch last night, bringing Upton’s season total to 15. He’s just one plunk behind Danny Espinosa for the National League lead, but Espinosa hasn’t been hit since July 24th. Upton is only three HBPs away from tying the Diamondback’s single season HBP record.
Later in that same game, JJ Putz hit Chris Iannetta (with the bases loaded). That was the 800th plunk ever thrown by a Diamondbacks pitcher.

Jose Baustista collected his 40th career plunk on a pitch from Wade Davis.

Jeff Keppinger made history for the Giants yesterday, by standing at the plate and failing to get out of the way of a pitch thrown by Astros pitcher Bud Norris. Keppinger got hit by that pitch, and that historic plunk was the 5000th HBP ever taken by a Giants batter. They’re the first team in major league history to get hit by 5000 pitches! And to celebrate, Aubrey Huff got hit by a pitch to make it 5001.

Less than an hour later, Johnny Cueto of the Reds hit Jayson Werth of the Nationals, and guess how many batters the Reds have now hit in franchise history? 5000! Actually it’s 5001 because Cueto hit Alex Cora later in that game. That was number 90 of Alex Cora’s career.

Reed Johnson moved into double digits in the HBP category yesterday, taking his 10th HBP of the season and his 112th plunk for his career. Christhian Martinez contributed that one, giving Johnson his first season with 10 or more plunks since 2008. He’s now in 52nd place on the all time list, just ahead of Luis Gonzalez, Steve Evans and Andre Dawson. He needs 2 more HBPs to move into the top 50. Johnson has now been hit three different times on August 25th.

Jeff Francoeur got his 50th career plunk yesterday, and became the first major league batter ever plunked by Rommie Lewis.

Bronson Arroyo hit Bryan Peterson with a pitch last night bringing the all time total for plunks thrown by the Cincinnati Reds franchise to 4,999. They need to throw just one more to become the first major league franchise to hit 5000 opposing batters. But, The Phillies aren’t out of the race yet. Kyle Kendrick hit Lucas Duda in the Phillies-Mets game yesterday bringing the Phillies franchise total to 4,997. With a concerted effort, the Phillies could still be the first team to hit 5,000 opposing batters. The odds still favor the Reds, but the race is still on.

Yunel Escobar’s plunk from Royals pitcher Luke Hochevar yesterday was the 100th HBP ever recorded by a Blue Jays batter facing the Royals. Wily Mo Pena got an HBP for the first time since 2007, and his was the 90th HBP ever recorded by a Mariners batter facing the Indians. And, Eric Young of the Rockies got hit by David Carpenter of the Astros marking the 50th time the Astros have hit the Rockies. That means the Astros have now hit the Rockies 17 more times than the Rockies hit Craig Biggio.

In Cleveland last night, Miguel Olivo led off the top of the 9th inning in a tie game and got hit by a pitch. He made it to third on a sacrifice bunt and some errors, and that scored the go-ahead run on Franklin Gutierrez‘s sacrifice fly. That one run lead held up to give the Mariners the win. HBPs = Victory.

In St Louis, Juan Rivera of the Dodgers led off the top of the 9th, trailing by one run, and got plunked by Chris Carpenter. Rivera was replaced by a pinch runner, but that pinch runner scored the tying run on a triple by Aaron Miles. Miles then scored to give the Dodgers a one run lead, which would hold up for the win. Because HBPs = Victory.
Carpenter became the 4th starting pitcher this year to throw an HBP in the 9th inning. That’s something that didn’t happen at all last year. Their haven’t been four 9th inning plunks by starters since 2006. The Cardinals have thrown two of those, making them the first team since 2005 to have its starting pitchers hit batters in the 9th inning twice.

Nyjer Morgan got his 10th HBP of the year yesterday, tying his career high.
Just Turner of the Mets also broke into double digits for the season with his 10th plunk of the year, making him the first Met since 2007 to get hit by 10 pitches. The Mets single season record is 13. Turner also qualifies as a rookie, and since he and Danny Espinosa are both over 10 plunks this year, we’re having the first season since 2007 with two rookies in double digits for HBPs. Oddly, the Mets rookie record for plunks is the same as their single season record, as Ron Hunt was a rookie in 1963 when he set the Mets single season record. Hunt, Fernando Vina, and Jason Phillips are the only players to get hit by 10 pitches as a rookie with the Mets, and two of the three of that last combined for 400 career plunks. The other one is Jason Phillips.

Chris Stewart and Nate Schierholtz both got hit by pitches for the Giants yesterday, and that means that since anyone started counting HBPs as an official stat, the Giants have been hit by 4,999 pitches. They need just one more to reach the historic 5000 plunks milestone. Who will be the lucky player to be the first to take the 5000th plunk in the history of any major league franchise? We’ll just have to wait and see. The Astros have contributed 4 plunks to that total this year, and 174 overall. Stewart’s plunk was his first as a major leaguer, and he’s the 631st different player to take an HBP for the Giants.