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Walk-off hit by pitch

Posted by Andy on September 12, 2010

Last night, Mariano Rivera was the losing pitcher in a game that ended when he hit Jeff Francoeur with a pitch.

This is the first time a game ended on a HPB since 2008, when it happened 3 times:

Date Pitcher Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Pit(cnt) R Play Description
2008-06-05 Scott Schoeneweis NYM @SDP Paul McAnulty tied 1-1 b9 123 1 1 (0-0) 1 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch; Hairston Scores; Giles to 3B; Kouzmanoff to 2B
2008-06-12 Jeff Ridgway ATL @CHC Reed Johnson tied 2-2 b11 123 0 1 (0-0) 1 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch; Ramirez Scores; Fukudome to 3B; Soto to 2B
2008-07-19 Lenny DiNardo OAK @NYY Jose Molina tied 3-3 b12 123 1 4 (1-2) 1 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch; Jeter Scores; Rodriguez to 3B; Sexson to 2B
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/12/2010.

There were also 3 such games in 2007:

Date Pitcher Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Pit(cnt) R Play Description
2007-04-05 Roberto Hernandez CLE @CHW A.J. Pierzynski tied 3-3 b9 123 0 2 (1-0) 1 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch; Mackowiak Scores; Crede to 3B; Iguchi to 2B
2007-05-27 Carlos Marmol CHC @LAD Juan Pierre tied 1-1 b11 123 0 5 (2-2) 1 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch; Martinez Scores; Betemit to 3B; Furcal to 2B
2007-09-06 Anthony Reyes STL PIT Josh Phelps ahead 16-4 t9 --- 0 6 (3-2) 0 *ENDED GAME*:Hit By Pitch
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/12/2010.

Before that, it happened most recently once in 2005.

Incidentally, last night's performance killed Rivera's chance of finishing the season with an ERA under 1.00. Here are the guys to finish with an ERA under 1.00, minimum 40 IP, since 1901:

Rk Player Year ERA IP Tm G GS SV
1 Joey Devine 2008 0.59 45.2 OAK 42 0 1
2 Dennys Reyes 2006 0.89 50.2 MIN 66 0 0
3 Jonathan Papelbon 2006 0.92 68.1 BOS 59 0 35
4 Chris Hammond 2002 0.95 76.0 ATL 63 0 0
5 Dennis Eckersley 1990 0.61 73.1 OAK 63 0 48
6 Rob Murphy 1986 0.72 50.1 CIN 34 0 1
7 Rich Gossage 1981 0.77 46.2 NYY 32 0 20
8 Cisco Carlos 1967 0.86 41.2 CHW 8 7 0
9 Bill Henry 1964 0.87 52.0 CIN 37 0 6
10 Barry Latman 1958 0.76 47.2 CHW 13 3 0
11 Earl Hamilton 1918 0.83 54.0 PIT 6 6 0
12 Ferdie Schupp 1916 0.90 140.1 NYG 30 11 1
13 Dutch Leonard 1914 0.96 224.2 BOS 36 25 3
14 Buck O'Brien 1911 0.38 47.2 BOS 6 5 0
15 George McQuillan 1907 0.66 41.0 PHI 6 5 0
16 Nick Maddox 1907 0.83 54.0 PIT 6 6 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/12/2010.

Dutch Leonard in 1914...geez! (Keep in mind that this is not the same Dutch Leonard who was an All-Star in the 1940s.)

39 Responses to “Walk-off hit by pitch”

  1. Mark Says:

    That sucks about Joey Devine. He had an awesome short career! Anyone know what happened? He hasn't even played in the minors it looks like.

  2. Bryan Says:

    He is currently on the A's 60-dl. He had TJ surgery last spring and hasn't made it back yet.

  3. Andy Says:

    He had the surgery in April 2009 so it seems to be taking him an unusually long time to recover.

  4. Fantusta Says:

    That third game in 2007... was it called due to rain after that HBP, or what?

  5. ES Says:

    The 9/6/07 was not really a walk-off HBP. It had been raining progressively heavier during the last few innings of that game, and the umps finally had to call for the tarp after Josh Phelps was hit to lead off the Top of the 9th, with his team down by 12 runs. With the score so lopsided, they didn't wait very long to just call the game....

  6. ES Says:

    Ha! I was answering as you were adding your comment Fantusta...

  7. Neil L Says:

    Not typical Rivera. He sure wasn't on his game. Only 9 strikes compared to 12 balls.

    Not being a Yankees fan, I noted with satisfaction the WPA for the event, -0.778. And after Kerry Wood and the rest of the bullpen had mostly done a decent job in holding the Rangers down.

    Rivera, is easily the biggest name reliever on the 2005-9 list, which goes to show, perhaps, that put any closer in a late-game situation often enough and an improbable event like this will happen.

    But is a bases-loaded hit batter really any worse than a bases-loaded walk in the same circumstances? And that has happened more often, I would think.

  8. Dave V. Says:

    I think the bases loaded-HBP is a lot worse than the bases loaded-BB. If you don't hit the guy, at least you gave the batter a chance to get himself out (by swinging at pitches that would otherwise be called balls). With the HBP, the batter didn't even have to decide whether to swing or not.

  9. Neil L Says:

    @8
    You may be right, Dave V. I missed the fact that Rivera hit Franceur on the first pitch of the at-bat, supporting your point about not giving the batter a chance to fail.

    I haven't watched Sportcenter yet to see the AB, but I assume Franceur was trying to get out of the way, not striding into the pitch.

  10. Fourfriends Says:

    I remember one of these from when I was kid... Game 4 of the 1986 ALCS, the Red Sox bring in Calvin Schiraqldi, who was a real stud - at the time - and he plunks... I think it was Brian Downing... with the Bases loaded to force in the winning run. He pitched well later in that series but it was a portent of things to come for Schiraldi, not only in the '86 World Series (losing pitcher in games 6 AND 7) but really in ANY pressure situation for the rest of his career. In any save opportunity he took on the look a middle schooler who forgot to study for the algebra test.

  11. Malcolm Says:

    Normally, I would say an HBP and a walk are about even, but considering Jeff Francouer was the batter, the HBP is much worse, for the simple reason that Mariano Rivera probably wouldn't be able to walk Jeff Francouer if he tried.

  12. TheGoof Says:

    Ferdie Schupp? With a name like that and a two-year stretch like he had in 1916-17, including with a pennant winner in New York, how the hell have I never heard of him? Those two years are amazing!

  13. Neil L Says:

    @12
    Goof, can you imagine what Bob Shepherd would have done with that name when introducing him?

  14. Jeff James Says:

    @12

    Ferdie Schupp was not near as good as some stats would appear, he was probably the luckiest starting pitcher ever

  15. TheGoof Says:

    Nice one, Neil. I said for years that they should record Sheppard doing every single combination, then use a Robo-Sheppard upon his retirement so that we'd never lose having him at the Stadium.

    From what I can tell, Schupp had the second lowest ERA over a two-season span in NY (minimum 400 IP). Big Six had a 1.31 from 08-09 or 1.55 if you go 09-10. Schupp had 1.59 in 16-17. Mathewson also had 1.67 04-05, and 1.68 07-08. Also under 4, Hubbell 33-34 (1.98), Chandler 42-43 (1.96), Russ Ford 10-11 (1.95) and Chesbro 04-05 (1.97). Nobody from Brooklyn, and Seaver and Gooden fell short.

    Curious about elsewhere, but it doesn't look like an easy search on the PI.

  16. Raphy Says:

    TheGoof - You weren't the only one. And some of the others were people who were capable of doing just that.
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/25706746/Will_New_York_Yankees_Use_Announcer_Bob_Sheppard_Forever

  17. daHOOK Says:

    Don't forget Homer Simpson pinch-hitting for Darryl Strawberry in the company softball league during the 1991-92 TV season.

  18. BSK Says:

    On NY sports radio today, a host (who is obviously familiar with both Frenchy and Mo) about how Mo had a guy up who swings at everything and still managed to hit him. Had the pitch not been aimed directly at Franceouer, he likely would have swung. Rather ironic. And unfortunate.

  19. ajnrules Says:

    If Hong-Chih Kuo didn't have that disastrous 3-run blown save against the Braves on August 16, he may have had a chance to join the 1.00 club.

  20. John Q Says:

    Good One DaHook, I was thinking the same thing when I saw this post.

  21. Neil L Says:

    #18
    BSK.. respect your knowledge a lot. However, bad karma is bound to happen to any player once in a career.

    It is more a fluke than indicative of any large decline in Mariano's control or ability to handle late-inning pressure, I think.

    Who's the next closer to be victimized by a walk-off HB, Trevor Hoffman?

    True that it is highly painful against a free-swinging batter like Franceouer who probably felt the pressure more that Rivera but still an anomaly nevertheless.

  22. Neil L Says:

    Andy, your initial post contains two unrelated ideas, both of which are interesting.

    Pitchers who lost on a walk-off HB and pitchers who had a season ERA under 1.00.

    WRT pitchers with an ERA under 1.00, we should probably leave out the 1907-1918 part of the list because of the run environment, but I was looking at a couple of the other careers.

    Although I recognized most of the modern names on the list, I was trying to make sense of Barry Latham's career from the stats. His 1958 season as a 22-year old was amazing but it looks like managers couldn't decide how to use him.

    His games/games finished/complete games/saves are an enigma. It must an interesting story and he is now 74 years old.

  23. oosches Says:

    @14 - 86 Ks and 79 H in 140.1 IP at a time when nobody struck out...that's certainly more than just luck.

  24. BSK Says:

    Neil @21-

    There is no doubt it was a fluke. I wasn't making any attempt to conclude anything, at all, from one at bat. Just noting the observation of another (which I agree with), that if we were making a list of potential batter/pitcher combos for this to occur with, Mo and Frenchy would be one of the last on our lists. And I don't think the fact that it happened changes that.

  25. Baysage Says:

    OK, I cannot find easily where I can ask this question, but somebody here has to be smarter than I am. What tool was used to obtain this information about HBP ending a game? I thought I was pretty good with the Play Index, but that judgment is out the window now after 15 frustrating minutes trying to figure this out. Thx to anybody who can help.

  26. Baysage Says:

    Forget it . . . I just figured it out. Duh!

  27. Neil L Says:

    @17 @20
    Can the Mets sign Homer as a free agent next year? He might help! {Sorry, did I say that}

  28. DoubleDiamond Says:

    @21 - It wouldn't surprise me if Brad Lidge were to be the next one, assuming the injury that's been keeping him out the past few days is not permanent. The Phillies won by three today in a game I missed entirely (no, not due to anything NFL-related but to a theatre matinee) and haven't read much besides the final score yet, so I don't know if Lidge made a closer appearance.

  29. BSK Says:

    Joey Devine's ERA+ that year was 706. That looks like a bad OPS for a hitter!

  30. Eric Says:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198605190.shtml

    Forgettable Red Sock backup C Marc (son of GM Haywood)Sullivan, certainly a worse hitter than Francoeur, had his biggest contribution to the Sox '86 pennant when he got his large posterior in the way of a once-great-but-heading-toward-the-pitchers'-grave Ron Davis pitch.

  31. TheGoof Says:

    BSK, along the lines of "how did that happen?" -- Don Larsen caught Dale Mitchell looking to end the perfect game. Mitchell is one of 10 guys with 4,000 PA and under 2.75% K/PA. Turned out to be the last pitch Mitchell would see as a major leaguer, too.

  32. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    Turned out to be the last pitch Mitchell would see as a major leaguer, too.

    No, Mitchell grounded out as a pinch-hitter in Game 7.

  33. Neil L Says:

    @30
    Nice one, Eric. I had almost forgotten about poor 'ol Ron Davis. Ah, the cruelty of high-pressure situations. It magnifies both success and failure.

    Your post reminded me of old-time players, before the big-money era made injuries so costly to a career, who would use the HBP as a kind of offensive weapon, sacrificing their bodies. Wasn't Al Oliver such a player?

  34. BSK Says:

    All this "What are the odds?" could lead to an interesting post, wherein we post what reasonably possible situation is least likely to occur given a certain context. Obviously, we could get too whacky and stretch the bounds of rationality. But, spinning off the current example, we could examine a situation where a pitcher with an absurdly low BB rate (ie Cliff Lee) walks in a run facing a batter with an incredibly low BB rate (ie Frenchy, though I'm sure there are worse). It'd be fun just to see what people could come up with, especially if there was a way of actually calculating the odds (presuming the context arose, obviously).

  35. Johnny Twisto Says:

    BSK, I wonder about things like that. Like when a high-K pitcher faces a high-K batter, are the odds of a K increased exponentially? I'm sure people can point out individual examples of matchups where that seems to be the case, but I wonder how it works out overall. It's probably been studied somewhere but I don't remember seeing it.

  36. CatNamedManny Says:

    Give Dutch Leonard credit. If he had that season in another era, there's no way he would have been under 1.00, but he still had one of the all-time great pitching seasons, regardless of era. A 279 ERA+ (with a 0.89 WHIP) in 224 innings doesn't just grow on trees, not even in the dead-ball era.

  37. Diane Says:

    [26]

    OK .... *I'm* trying to figure this out ... how *do* you compile such a list?

  38. Raphy Says:

    @37
    PI Event Finder - Batting by Team
    2010- All Teams- Hit by Pitch, click "Get Report"
    Click on "Go Ahead" and "Game Ending" and click "Get Report" again
    Keep changing the year to find the results for other seasons.

  39. Diane Says:

    thanks!