Ryan Howard, PHI NL, had another great game today (Sunday 7/22), which gives him the following active streaks going into Monday:

29 consecutive games reaching base safely
5 consecutive games reaching base 3 or more times
2 consecutive games reaching base 4 or more times
9 consecutive plate appearances reaching base safely (not counting a sac. fly he had on Sunday)

Let's see how those compare to the best marks by Phillies in the last 51 seasons:

Howard: 29 consecutive games reaching base safely.  Last 51 years: 56 games in a row, by Mike Schmidt 1981-1982: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/xM38 .  Ed Delahanty (1896) also reached in 56 straight games for the Phils.  I guess Howard still has a ways to go there just to match the franchise record, let alone approach the MLB record of 84 games in a row reaching base (Ted Williams, 1949).  Howard has also set a new career-high already with his 29 game on-base streak: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/ZAyr .

Howard: 5 consecutive games reaching base 3+ times.  Last 51 years: 8 games by Chase Utley over 2005/2006: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/nR8Q .  The franchise record is 10 games in a row, by Billy Hamilton in 1894.  Not only is Hamilton's streak the Phils' record, but it's also tied for the MLB record (Ty Cobb, 1925, also had 10 straight).

Howard: 2 consecutive games reaching base 4+ times.  Last 51 years: 3 games in a row, by Chase Utley (again), this time in Sept 2006: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/d7zZ .  The franchise record is 4 games in a row, by Billy Hamilton (in 1893 and twice again in 1894) and Joe Sullivan in 1894.  The MLB record is 5 games, accomplished most recently by Joe Mauer, MIN AL, in 2006.

Howard: 9 consecutive times reaching base safely.  Club record: 14 straight times on base safely, by Billy Hamilton in 1893.  The MLB record for these fascinating streaks is 17, by Frank Ward in 1893.  Ted Williams holds the modern record of 16 straight times on base safely in 1957.  You can't do this kind of search using PI yet, but it's still a pretty amazing streak!

Despite an amazing stretch of games, Howard still has a way to go to match even his own team's records for on-base streaks, let alone the all-time Major League Records .  If you're interested in streaks like these, check out my new blog at http://www.hitting-streaks.com.

The Yankees scored 21 runs today - after scoring 17 the day before.  When was the last time that a team scored 17+ runs for two games in a row?  Thanks to the Baseball-Reference PI, Team Batting Streak Finder, we know the answer:

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Opponents+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 TEX      2002-07-31  2002-08-01     2    2   0    86   36   41   9   0  10   36    8    8    0   1  .477  .526  .930 1.456 NYY,BOS

 SEA      2000-04-15  2000-04-16     2    2   0    91   36   38   9   1   8   34   13   13    1   1  .418  .500  .802 1.302 TOR

Texas did it against the Yankees and Boston in 2002. Seattle did it at Toronto for two games in 2000.

So, with the Yankees doing it to the Devil Rays on back-to-back days in the Bronx, we have something that's not been done in at least the last 50 years: A team scoring 17+ runs, against the same team, for two days in a row at home.

I was just reading the AP recap of last night's Phillies-Padres game.

The very last line says:

"Bradley is the 302nd Padres player to miss the cycle by one hit and the 15th to miss by a double."

And I thought to myself...how interesting. Turns out that's easy to find with the PI Game Finder. Set the player's team to the Padres, set singles, triples, and HR all greater than or equal to 1, and doubles to zero, and you get the full list of 15:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Milton Bradley    2007-07-21    SDP  PHI L  4-12  5  5  2  3  0  1  1   2  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd LF        

    2 Xavier Nady       2005-04-09    SDP  PIT W 11-3   5  5  2  4  0  1  1   4  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th CF        

    3 Ron Gant          2002-08-08    SDP  PHI W  7-4   5  5  1  3  0  1  1   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th LF        

    4 Carlos Hernandez  1997-08-17    SDP  CHC L  5-6   4  4  2  3  0  1  1   3  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th C
    5 Steve Finley      1997-07-13    SDP @COL W 13-11  5  5  2  3  0  1  1   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   1  0  0 5th CF        

    6 Steve Finley      1995-08-11(2) SDP  STL W  5-2   5  5  2  4  0  1  1   3  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st CF        

    7 Jeff Gardner      1993-07-20    SDP  NYM W  4-1   4  4  1  3  0  1  1   1  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st 2B        

    8 Rob Nelson        1989-06-14    SDP  CIN W  4-2   4  3  1  3  0  1  1   1  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  1 6th 1B        

    9 Kevin McReynolds  1986-09-20    SDP @HOU L  6-10  4  4  1  3  0  1  1   3  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th CF        

   10 Gene Richards     1981-05-23    SDP @ATL L  6-7   6  6  2  3  0  1  1   2  0   0  0   0  0  0   1   0  0  0 3rd LF        

   11 Kurt Bevacqua     1979-07-31    SDP @ATL W 10-3   6  6  2  3  0  1  1   1  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd 2B
   12 Gene Tenace       1979-07-11    SDP @PHI W  7-3   5  4  2  3  0  1  1   2  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th C         

   13 Enzo Hernandez    1972-10-03    SDP @SFG L  4-7   5  5  2  4  0  1  1   2  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd SS        

   14 Nate Colbert      1971-07-09(2) SDP  CHC W  7-2   4  4  2  3  0  1  1   4  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th 1B        

   15 Nate Colbert      1970-08-06    SDP  HOU L  6-8   5  4  4  3  0  1  1   3  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th 1B        

It's amazing that no Padres player has ever hit for the cycle. The team they played last night, the Phils, have had three since 1957, found with a similar PI Game Finder search:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 David Bell        2004-06-28    PHI  MON W 14-6   5  4  2  4  1  1  1   6  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th 3B        

    2 Gregg Jefferies   1995-08-25    PHI  LAD W 17-4   5  5  4  4  1  1  1   4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd 1B        

    3 Johnny Callison   1963-06-27    PHI @PIT W 13-4   6  5  2  4  1  1  1   4  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd RF        

Willie Harris, now of the Braves, got 6 hits in a 9-inning game yesterday. This is an easy search to do on the PI Game Finder.

The last 15 fellow to do it are: Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, the White Sox walked in three straight which led a user to ask if this had happened before. I was surprised to see it was as common as it was. Since 1957, three runners (not necessarily consecutively) had been walked in in a game 191 times. Three consecutively is a surprisingly high percentage of these. The following are all of the instances where it was consecutive. The numbers are the event numbers of the play where it happened. I think the first game is the canonical example of "losing the strike zone." You can't do this in the Play Index at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »

Bear with me for a little fishing expedition here.

I went looking at Mike Schmidt's batter-vs-pitcher PI page. I thought "Let's see who Michael Jack really beat up on over the years" and sorted it by OPS. Since I didn't set a minimum number of PAs, the top of the list were the 7 guys who Schmidt had just one at-bat against, hitting a homer in each one (he had some walks as well against some guys.) That gives you a 5.000 OPS...a 1.000 OBP plus a 4.000 SLG. It's not a terribly meaningful number as it's based on just one at-bat, but I found it interested that Schmitty victimized 7 different pitchers this way:

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
 Dave Beard          1   1   1  0  0  1   3   0   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0
 Mike Dupree         1   1   1  0  0  1   2   0   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0
 Ken Holtzman        2   1   1  0  0  1   2   1   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0
 John Littlefield    3   1   1  0  0  1   2   2   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   2   0   0
 Dave Meads          1   1   1  0  0  1   1   0   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0
 Craig Skok          1   1   1  0  0  1   1   0   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0
 Milt Wilcox         1   1   1  0  0  1   2   0   0 1.000 1.000 4.000   5.000     0   0   0   0   0

It got me to thinking... Read the rest of this entry »

Here's the list of players since 2000 who hit a homer in their first major league game. Read the rest of this entry »

Here's a very simple search with interesting results. I went to the Pitching Streak Finder, and simply entered W = 0, meaning to find the longest streak of games pitched in without any wins. Obviously this includes no-decisions, and is 1951-present.

I would never have guessed the top name on the list: Read the rest of this entry »

This isn't a PI feature, and hence a little outside the main goal of this blog, but cut me some slack here for a minute.  I just noticed something really cool about this website.

You can find out, very easily, total team batting or pitching lines over any period of time in a season that you feel like.  Here's how the Cubs have hit and pitched since getting hot in early June.  So if you want to compare how two teams have hit over any random period of time, you can do it with no problem.

If you really want to get super-sabermetrical with it, you can calculate your own third order wins for all teams within endpoints of your choosing.

Man, I love Tony Gwynn. I've never been a Padres fan but have always been a devoted Gwynn fan. With him entering the Hall of Fame in a little over a week, I thought I'd point out some of his accomplishments.

Although he could be criticized as a fairly one-dimensional player later in his career, it's tough to argue against 4 straight seasons above .400 OBP from age 34 through age 37.

But what's amazing to me about Gwynn is... Read the rest of this entry »