For me, when a batter reaches base in a game three or more times, and he also scores two or more runs and drives in two or more runs in the contest, he's had a big day at the plate. Alex Rodriguez had such a "big day" in yesterday's Yankees game.
Just for the heck of it, I decided to use Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Game Finder to see how many times "A-Rod" has post a game like last night this season - and break it down by games the Yankees have won and lost.
First, here's when Alex has posted such an effort in Yankees wins this year:
Alex Rodriguez: For 2009, Team Won, (requiring TOB>=3, R>=2 and RBI>=2), sorted by most recent date in a game
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB TOB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
1 2009-09-25 NYY BOS W 9-5 5 3 3 3 1 0 1 4 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 4th 3B
2 2009-09-03 NYY @TOR W 10-5 5 4 2 2 0 0 1 2 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4th 3B
3 2009-06-25 NYY @ATL W 11-7 6 5 2 3 0 0 1 4 1 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4th 3B
4 2009-05-25 NYY @TEX W 11-1 5 5 2 5 2 0 0 4 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4th 3B
Games found: 4.
And, next, here are A-Rod's big days with the bat in games that the Yankees have lost this season:
Alex Rodriguez: For 2009, Team Lost, (requiring TOB>=3, R>=2 and RBI>=2), sorted by most recent date in a game
Cnt Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB TOB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
1 2009-07-11 NYY @LAA L 8-14 4 3 3 2 0 0 2 3 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4th 3B
2 2009-07-10 NYY @LAA L 6-10 5 5 2 3 1 0 1 2 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4th 3B
Games found: 2.
O.K., so, we're talking about 6 games here...not a huge sample size. So, what if we expand this from "just 2009 to date" to "Since 2004 to 2009 to date"?
This tells us that there have been 54 games since 2004 where Alex Rodriguez has had a "big day" with the bat for the Yankees were the team won. And, there have been just 10 games since 2004 where Alex Rodriguez had a "big day" and the Yankees lost.
Therefore, since A-Rod's been a Yankee, when he has a big day at the plate, the Yankees have won 84% of the time.
Of course, there are many other factors that come into play here - like what the rest of the Yankees team does in these games, especially their pitchers. But, at the least, if someone want to say that A-Rod only has big days in games that the Yankees lose, well, we know that's not true...based on these stats.
Now, the next question may be the one around "stat padding" - meaning does Alex Rodriguez only have big days with the bat in games where the Yankees are having a "laugher"? Well, if you look at those 54 games where the Yanks won and A-Rod had a big day, and rank them by the amount of runs the Yankees won by that day, you'd get this list:
Date Tm Opp Gm RS RA Diff
07/22/07 NYY TBD W 21 4 17
04/03/06 NYY @OAK W 15 2 13
06/15/08 NYY @HOU W 13 0 13
07/21/07 NYY TBD W 17 5 12
05/27/06 NYY KCR W 15 4 11
07/02/08 NYY TEX W 18 7 11
04/18/05 NYY TBD W 19 8 11
09/18/04 NYY BOS W 14 4 10
05/25/09 NYY @TEX W 11 1 10
09/19/04 NYY BOS W 11 1 10
09/03/06 NYY MIN W 10 1 9
06/08/05 NYY @MIL W 12 3 9
05/14/05 NYY @OAK W 15 6 9
04/20/05 NYY @TOR W 11 2 9
08/17/08 NYY KCR W 15 6 9
05/24/05 NYY DET W 12 3 9
07/02/06 NYY NYM W 16 7 9
07/21/08 NYY MIN W 12 4 8
04/26/05 NYY LAA W 12 4 8
09/05/07 NYY SEA W 10 2 8
05/21/08 NYY BAL W 8 0 8
08/19/06 NYY @BOS W 13 5 8
08/04/07 NYY KCR W 16 8 8
09/01/06 NYY MIN W 8 1 7
06/10/07 NYY PIT W 13 6 7
08/14/05 NYY TEX W 10 3 7
06/22/04 NYY @BAL W 10 4 6
04/16/06 NYY @MIN W 9 3 6
06/14/07 NYY ARI W 7 1 6
06/17/07 NYY NYM W 8 2 6
09/08/07 NYY @KCR W 11 5 6
07/18/08 NYY OAK W 7 1 6
09/09/08 NYY @LAA W 7 1 6
05/08/07 NYY TEX W 8 2 6
07/06/07 NYY LAA W 14 9 5
09/03/09 NYY @TOR W 10 5 5
09/25/09 NYY BOS W 9 5 4
09/03/08 NYY @TBR W 8 4 4
09/01/08 NYY @DET W 13 9 4
06/25/09 NYY @ATL W 11 7 4
09/09/05 NYY BOS W 8 4 4
09/13/06 NYY TBD W 8 4 4
06/05/07 NYY @CHW W 7 3 4
06/16/07 NYY NYM W 11 8 3
09/11/06 NYY @BAL W 9 6 3
08/19/04 NYY @MIN W 13 10 3
04/07/07 NYY BAL W 10 7 3
06/17/05 NYY CHC W 9 6 3
06/18/08 NYY SDP W 8 5 3
08/31/06 NYY DET W 6 4 2
09/16/05 NYY @TOR W 11 10 1
09/22/07 NYY TOR W 12 11 1
05/26/05 NYY DET W 4 3 1
06/07/08 NYY KCR W 12 11 1
Now, this is interesting. In 63% of these games where the Yankees won and Alex Rodriguez had a big day with the stick, the Yankees won the game by 6 runs or more. And, in 43% of these games where the Yankees won and Alex Rodriguez had a big day with the stick, the Yankees won the game by 8 runs or more.
But, this is a chicken and the egg sort of thing - did the Yankees win by a lot of runs in these games because A-Rod was throwing around the lumber, or, did A-Rod "pad" his stats in a game where the Yankees were running away? I suppose the answer depends on which side of the "Alex Rodriguez fan" fence that you choose to sit on...
