9th-inning-or-after grand slams
Well after my recent post about Arod’s 9th-inning performance, he want ahead and swatted another 9th-inning grand slam yesterday, his second of the season. (His first was even more dramatic, a walk-off come-from-behind job against the Orioles.)
Let’s take a look at the list of all active players with at least 10 grand slams, and use the PI batting event finder for each specific player on the list to find how many were in the 9th inning or extra innings. Here’s the list:
Player Total slams 9th inning or later Game ending -----------------+-------------+---------------------+-------------- Manny Ramirez 20 0 0 Ken Griffey Jr 15 1 0 Alex Rodriguez 15 4 3 Mike Piazza 14 0 0 Richie Sexson 14 4 1 Jeff Kent 13 1 0 Barry Bonds 11 0 0 Carlos Delgado 11 0 0 Jason Giambi 11 2 1 Gary Sheffield 11 1 0 Bernie Williams 11 2 0 Steve Finley 10 3 2 Carlos Lee 10 2 1 Matt Stairs 10 0 0
Would you believe that Barry Bonds has never hit a grand slam after the 6th inning? Sad but true (click on his name above to see for yourself.)
When we talk about grand slam records, it’s always important to remember that they are much more of a team effort than we think. After all, the player hitting the grand slam isn’t responsible for loading the bases; he “just” came through when they were. Of course, not everybody is Pat Tabler, who in 109 career plate appearances with the bases loaded batted .489/.505/.693 with 32 singles, 6 doubles, 3 triples, 2 homers, 11 BB, and 108 RBI.