Plunk Everyone

Starling Marte has now been hit by 10 pitches this season, leaving him just 2 plunks behind Shin-Soo Choo for the 2013 plunk reace lead.  Erik Bedard threw Marte’s most recent plunk, hitting him in the 3rd inning yesterday.  Marte has been hit 5 times in May and 5 times in April this year.  The last batter to get hit 5 times in both of those months as Chase Utley in 2007.

Joe Blanton hadn’t hit a batter since May 29, 2012, and faced 800 batters without hitting one, until the 3rd inning yesterday when he hit Mike Trout.  Then he hit Dayan Viciendo in the 5th.

Cardinals rookie reliever Carlos Martinez threw his first two career plunks in the 8th inning yesterday, hitting Brewers Jean Segura and Jonathon Lucroy.  The Brewers have now been hit 1995 times in their franchise history.  Only 107 of those have been thrown by the Cardinals.  The Astros hold the lead in plunking the Brewers with 118.

No Texas Ranger has been hit by more pitches in his career with the team than Ian Kinsler. Kinsler got hit by Justin Verlander last night, giving him 54 HBPs in his career, tying him with Rafael Palmeiro for the franchise record. Verlander has hit Kinsler twice, the Tigers have hit him 5 times, and Kinsler has been hit a record 33 times at Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. Kinsler took 4,356 plate appearances to tie Palmeiro’s record, while Palmeiro used 6,767 to set the record originally. Juan Gonzalez now ranks 3rd in Rangers history with 53 plunks. Justin Verlander’s 61 career hit batters ranks 10th in Tigers history. Only 4 teams have a lower career plunk record than the Rangers.

David Adams, Derek Dietrich and Jedd Gyorko all took their first major league plunks yesterday. Adams made it to his 6th major league plate appearance before getting hit.

Rafael Palmeiro is the most plunked Texas Ranger of all time, having been hit 54 times while playing for Texas. But Ian Kinsler might soon take that title. Kinsler has been hit 53 times for the Rangers after taking a 82mph plunk from Dan Straly in the 3rd inning yesterday. He’s tied now with Juan Gonzalez for 2nd place in the HBP history of the Rangers. Palmeiro and Gonzalez both scored runs after reaching base on 17 of their HBPs. Kinsler’s plunk yesterday was the 16th of his plunks that resulted in him coming around to score.

Josh Willingham got his 95th career plunk yesterday, being hit by Dylan Axelrod. Axelrod had never plunked the Twins before, and only 2 of Willingham’s 95 plunks have been delivered by White Sox pitchers. That plunk moved Willingham into a tie with Placido Polanco for 15th place in the HBP category among active batters. But that tie only lasted about four and a half hours, because Polanco got hit by Mike Leake to give him 96 career plunks. Polanco has been hit 10 times by the Reds, and that ties him with Rickie Weeks and Aramis Ramirez for the most plunks against the Reds among active batters. So, that leaves Polanco in 15th place, and Willingham in 16th, three plunks ahead of David Dejesus, who also got plunked yesterday, giving him 92 HBPs.

Chad Gaudin became the 500th pitcher in Giants franchise history to throw a plunk. He hit BRett Lawrie.

Shin-Soo Choo – you may remember him from such plunkings as the other 11 times he’s been hit by pitches this year – he got another one yesterday, in the 2nd inning from Ricky Nolasco.  This is the 2nd of Choo’s 12 HBPs that have resulted in him scoring a run after reaching on a plunk.  The Reds single season record for a left handed batter is just 15, last achieved in 1969 by Bobby Tolan and before that in 1938 by Ival Goodman.  Choo has 3 plunks against the Marlins this year.

Prince Fielder moved one plunk closer to 100, getting his 99th career plunk on a pitch from Wesley Wright. Wright also threw Fielder’s 97th plunk, 12 days before.  Fielder is tied for 77th on the all time list with Eddie Yost, Bucky Harris and Elmer Flick.

Martin Prado broke a streak of 719 plate appearances without an HBP yesterday, and Jacoby Ellsbury broke a plunkless streak of 512 plate appearances.  Ellsbury had been the 2013 leader in plate appearances among the unplunked this year, but that title now falls to Manny Machado.

Tanner Scheppers of the Rangers hit Oakland’s Brandon Moss bringing the total number of plunks ever recorded in A’s-Rangers games to 400.

Only four batters were hit by pitches yesterday, including BJ Upton. Wade Miley hit Upton in the 6th inning of the Braves-Diamondbacks game, bringing Upton’s career total to 20 HBPs.

Starlin Castro, Ronny Cedeno and Daric Barton were the other three batters hit by pitches yesterday, and it was the 13th career plunk for all three of them.

Ronny Cedeno became the 279th batter to have at least one career HBP for the Astros, getting hit by Jose Ortega. That was Ortega’s first as a major leaguer. Justin Grimm also threw his first major league plunk, hitting Daric Barton.

Bronson Arroyo hit Brewers first baseman Logan Schafer with a 74.8 mile per hour pitch yesterday, giving Arroyo a career total of 94 plunks thrown, and Schafer a career total of 2 HBPs. That plunk was the 100th ever delivered to a Brewers batter by a Reds pitcher. Bronson Arroyo has now hit the Brewers 7 times as a Red (and once as a Pirate), and that makes Arroyo the Reds all time leader in plunking Brewers. Scott Sullivan hit 6 Brewers for the Reds, but Arroyo has now passed him. Among active pitchers, only Paul Maholm (10) has hit the Brewers more than Bronson Arroyo.
If you wanted to see the list of all 100 times the Reds have hit the Brewers you could see it here.

Jonny Gomes became the 600th Red Sox player to get hit by at least one pitch, taking his first plunk since joining Boston yesterday. Esmil Rogers threw that one.

Ben Zobrist got hit by Dale Thayer, making that the 2nd consecutive day on which Zobrist was hit by a pitch.

Jamey Wright had already hit 54 more batters than any other pitcher born in Oklahoma, and 7 more than any other pitcher born after 1970, but he’d never hit Will Venable before yesterday, and he’d only hit the Padres 13 times. Randy Johnson also hit the Padres 13 times, but nobody had ever hit 14 Padres in their career. Until yesterday, when Wright hit Will Venable, giving him 14 career hit batters against the Padres. Congratulations Jamey Wright, for your outstanding achievement in the field of hitting Padres batters with pitches. The full list of Wright’s plunkings of Padres is here.

Prince Fielder got his 98th career HBP in the 8th inning against Joe Smith yesterday. Fielder has 39 more HBPs than any other player under 30 years old. Fielder is tied for 80th place all time, with Paul Konerko and Rickey Henderson.

Starling Marte picked up his 8th HBP of the season last night, on a 83.5mph 5th inning pitch from Shaun Marcum. That leaves Marte only 3 plunks behind Shin-Soo Choo for the 2013 plunk chase lead.

Josh Willingham got hit by Jason Hammels again, making that twice this season for that particular plunk matchup. Hammels hit Willingham on April 7th as well as yesterday.

Kendry Morals took an otherwise routine HBP from Chris Resop yesterday, but that was the 300th plunk ever thrown in a Mariners-A’s game. It was also the 666th plunk in Safeco Field history.

Jayson Nix plunk for the Yankees last night was the Yankees 14th of the season, and 7 of those have been in Friday games.