Plunk Everyone

Veteran Rays relief pitcher Jamey Wright is now among the 20 most prolific throwers of plunks in major league history after throwing his 148th career plunk last night. He hit Jose Bautista to move into a tie for 19th place on the all time list, with a pair of 19th century hurlers, Adonis Terry and Bert Cunningham. Wright is also holds the record for hitting Jose Bautista with pitches, with yesterday’s plunk being the third time Wright has hit Bautista.

Carlos Quentin got another one Q’d up for him yesterday, giving him 118 career plunks. That moves him ahead of Melvin Mora on the all time list, giving him sole possession of 48th place. Quentin has been hit at a rate of 1 plunk every 24.16 plate appearances for his career, which leads all active players with at least 20 plate appearances.

Zack Greinke hit Carlos Quentin with an 89mph 6th inning pitch last night marking the 3rd time Greinke has hit Quentin. Unfortunately, Greinke picked that moment to tell Carlos Quentin that he was no longer going to hit him with any pitches. That was the last one. But Quentin said “No! you can’t stop hitting me with pitches! I still need 170 more plunks to pass Craig Biggio on the all time plunks list!”, but Greinke held firm on his statement that he would plunk Q! no longer. “But, surely you would reconsider if you knew that Nick Blackburn has hit me with four pitches, and you have only hit me three times!” said Quentin, leading Greinke to say “I can’t hear you – there are thousands of screaming people – come over here if you want to talk to me!”. So, Quentin went to the mound to continue the negotiations, but he was perhaps a little overenthusiastic to continue the discussion… and things went down hill from there. And now Zack Greinke has a broken collar bone, and Carlos Quentin is still in 49th place on the all time list, one HBP behind Melvin Mora. Greinke hadn’t hit Quentin since April 8, 2009. Quentin has been hit 4 times in his career on April 11th.

Paul Konerko also got hit by a pitch yesterday, but managed to continue playing baseball afterward. He now has 97 career plunks. 94 of those have been while he played in the American League Central, where he’s the most plunked player of all time. Dan Haren threw that one, his 51st. That was Konerko’s first plunk at Nationals Park.

Torii Hunter‘s plunk from Steve Delabar was his 78th, but it was also the 1000th plunk ever recorded by a batter born in Arkansas.

It’s not every night that both teams in one game make management moves as though they were managing the game just for me.  But, in the 6th inning of the Padres-Dodgers game last night, the Padres loaded the bases with two out.  They decided it was time for a pinch hitter, and went to Carlos Quentin.  What better choice did they have, in a bases loaded situation that Q! with his 5 career RBI plunks, 113 total HBPs, and a National League leading 16 plunks this year.  Well, the Dodgers had to counter that move, and they did it exactly how I would draw it up if I could have scripted the game before hand.  They looked in their bullpen and saw 145 time plunk thrower Jamey Wright.  A pitcher who has hit 5 batters with the bases loaded in his career.  It took 4 pitches to achieve the inevitable result – Quentin’s 114th career plunk and Wright’s 146th.  And, the 6th RBI plunk for each of them.  Wright is now tied with Charlie Hough for the most RBI plunks by any pitcher in the division era.  Quentin is one of 7 active players with at least 6 rbi plunks.  Wright’s 146 would tie him with Jamie Moyer for the lead among active pitchers, if Moyer were actually still active.  They’re both tied for 21st on the all time hit batters list, with Silver King.  Quentin is tied for 51st place on the all time list with Bill Freehan and Frankie Crosetti.

Joining Quentin in a tie with Prince Fielder for the Major League lead in plunks last night is Kevin Youkilis.  Youk, Q!, and Prince are all tied with 17 plunks this season, after James Shields hit Youkilis in the 5th inning.  That was also Youk’s 99th career plunk, and the 3rd time Shields has hit him.  Fielder and Youkilis will be battling for the AL plunk title in these last few games while their teams fight for the AL Central title.

Alex Rodriguez also got hit by a pitch in the 9th inning of his game, giving him 167 career plunks.  That’s the 16th most all time, and he’s 5 plunks behind Carlos Delgado for 15th.  Batters whose first names start with A and whose last names end in z have been hit 533 times in the major leagues.  Rodriguez has been hit 95 times since joining the Yankees.

Kevin Correia threw a pitch somewhere near Carlos Quentin, and Carlos Quentin turned that pitch into his 15th plunk of the season.  That ties the Padres single season record set by Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2008.  If Quentin can stay healthy, he’ll have 38 more games to get one more plunk to take the record for himself.  Quentin’s 112 career plunks give him sole possession of 53rd place on the all time list for career plunks, and his 15 plunks this year lead the major leagues.

Gavin Floyd extended his major league leading HBP total to 14 by hitting Raul Ibanez with a pitch.   That plunk was the 1900th ever thrown by a pitcher born in Maryland.   Floyd has a 3 plunk lead on every other pitcher in the majors this year.

Joba Chamberlain achieved his life long goal of hitting Kevin Youkilis with a pitch, after several near misses when Youk played for the Red Sox.   Youkilis is up to 11 HBPs this season, and 93 for his career.

Ryan Doumit got his 50th HBP, taking a plunking from Brandon McCarthy.

Carlos Quentin is now the 2nd player in San Diego Padres history to get hit by 14 pitches in a single season, and it’s only taken him 64 games to do so.   Only Kevin Kouzmanoff has been hit more in one season as a Padre, with his 15 plunk season in 2008.  For his career, Quentin is up to 111 HBPs, which puts him in a tie for 53rd place on the all time HBP list, tied with Andre Dawson, Steve Evans and Luis Gonzalez.  Quentin’s 14 plunks this year also put him in a tie with Carlos Ruiz for the Major League lead this year.

Clint Barmes got plunked in the 17th inning of yesterday’s very long Cardinals-Pirates game, a game so long it could have been called a conjoined double header.  That plunk by Joe Kelly loaded the bases for the Pirates in the top of the 17th, leading to Kelly’s removal from the game, and Garrett Jones subsequent RBI single.  But the Pirates didn’t actually win the game until the 19th.

Michael Saunders finally took his first major league HBP yesterday, after 1,073 plate appearances of avoiding plunks.  Samuel Deduno of the Twins proved to be the first pitcher able to plunk Saunders.  Saunders had been the active leader in not ever getting hit, just ahead of Danny Valencia‘s 1,071 career plate appearances with 0 career HBPs.

Zack Greinke threw his 45th career HBP, and that one was his first ever with the bases loaded.  He hit Elliot Johnson, and that was his first RBI plunk as well.

Travis Ishikawa got hit for the Brewers, making that the team’s 69th plunk of the year, and the 1,005th plunk ever recorded by a batter born in the state of Washington.

Carlos Quentin was among the 13 batters who got hit by pitches yesterday, and he now has a career total of 110 HBPs. He has 13 this season, one behind Carlos Ruiz for the major league lead, and two behind Kevin Kouzmanoff for the Padres single season record for getting hit by pitches. Quentin is up to 56th place on the all time list for career plunks, tied with George Burns. That was the first of Quentin’s 110 plunks to be thrown by Paul Maholm.

Kevin Youkilis collected plunk number 91 of his career, and his 9th of the season on a pitch from Ricky Romero. Youk has been hit 14 times by the Blue Jays, and Romero has hit him twice now.

Prince Fielder‘s plunk yesterday was his 90th, but it was the first for Jeff Manship, who failed to hit the first 307 batters he faced in the majors. Fielder has been hit 12 times this year, and is now tied for the AL lead in plunks, with Josh Willingham. Manship is the 378th player to throw a plunk for the Twins franchise.

Danny Espinosa got his 11th of the season, and number 30 of his career, becoming the first Washington National to get hit 30 times in a span of two seasons. The last person to do that in the Nationals franchise was FP Santangelo, when they were the Expos.

Mark Ellis got his 60th career HBP, and Brian McCann got his 30th. Ricky Romero threw his 40th, hitting Alejandro De Aza. (Youkilis was his 41st plunk).

Jason Kendall officially retired yesterday, after a brief attempt at a comeback with the Royal’s double-A team. As a fitting tribute to Kendall’s legacy of getting hit by 254 pitches for 5 teams, those 5 teams did not get hit by any pitches last night. Kendall got hit 177 times for the Pirates, and 6 times for the Cubs, and those two teams took last night off from plunking each other as a tribute to Kendall. He got hit 35 times for Oakland, and Oakland remembered that by not getting hit by the Blue Jays last night. Another 30 times, Kendall got plunked for the Brewers, and despite being the most plunked team in the league this year, the Brewers took last night off from getting hit as a tip of the cap to Kendall. And his final team, the Royals, where he got his final 6 HBPs – they too resisted the urge to lean in to any pitches last night against the Angels.

In Seattle, Alex Rodriguez got his 165th career plunk and a broken hand, and Ichiro broke a streak of 1,463 plunkless plate appearances without a plunk. Felix Hernandez my have been expressing his feelings about Ichiro’s trade to the Yankees, when he he hit Ichiro with a pitch in the 7th inning, then hit Derek Jeter to lead of the 8th, and then broke Alex Rodriguez’s hand with a plunk two batters after hitting Jeter. Ichiro hadn’t been hit by a pitch since July 20, 2010. Arod’s plunk was the 165th of his career, tying him with Kid Elberfeld for 15th place on the all time list. Jeter’s was his 161st, and he’s in 17th place all time. (If Hernandez was throwing those plunks intentionally, Jeter was the only one he hit on the first pitch). Hernandez is now tied for the major league lead in hitting batters this year, with 10.

Carlos Quentin picked up plunk number 106 of his career, and his 9th of the season. He’s now tied with Barry Bonds on the all time plunk list, at 64th place.

Along with ARod, Adrian Beltre also had to leave the game after an HBP last night – he got hit in the head by Vicente Padilla. Padilla has now hit 108 batters in his career.