During Spring Training my mind seems to wander toward baseball. Actually, my mind wanders toward our national pastime year-round, but seems to wander more often and farther afoot once Spring Training games start.
Josh Hamilton, last MLB player to draw a bases-loaded INTENTIONAL walk. Photo: Keith Allison
It usually begins innocently enough – predictions on the coming season’s standings and awards (for the AL, click here – for the NL, click here), prospects I intend to keep an eye on (click here), and potential comeback players (click here). But, as the season draws closer, the topics become more esoteric. For example, just recently I began contemplating one of the more anti-climactic occurrences on the baseball diamond – the bases-loaded walk. Always a fan of a play on words, I was particularly interested in “walk-off walks” – those bases-loaded free passes that marked the final plate appearance of a game. Pulled into that rabbit hole, I went on to look at such topics as most bases-loaded walks in a game and inning (by a player and team), World Series bases-loaded free passes, intentional bases-loaded walks and games in which all of a team’s runs came via the sacks-full free pass.
WALK-OFF WALKS
Turns out the walk-off walk is not a rare thing. In fact, you can expect a handful of such occurrences each season. According to statistics from Baseball-Reference.com:
- Each of the past five seasons has seen four walk-off walks – and if you go back ten seasons, the average number of walk-off walks per season is 5.3.
- Walk-off walks (as you would expect) are most likely in extra-inning contests (12 of the last 20 walk-off walks have come in extra innings).
I also noted that walk-off walks can be set up in a variety of ways. Just looking to 2015, I found a game (August 16), when Texas started the bottom of the ninth in a 3-3 tie with the Mariners. Texas’ number-nine hitter LF Ryan Strausborger led off with a bunt single; leadoff hitter CF Delino DeShields beat out a bunt down the third base line for a hit; RF Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch (loading the bases); DH Prince Fielder went down on strikes; and, then, 3B Adrian Beltre walked to force in the winning run. The game-ending tally scored without a ball leaving the infield. By contrast, on July 30, The Cardinals went into the bottom of the ninth trailing the Rockies by three. That inning saw a ground rule double by leadoff hitter and 1B Matt Carpenter; a walk to CF Randal Grichuk; a single (to load the bases) by 2B Kolten Wong; a two-run single by SS Jhonny Peralta; an intentional walk (to load the bases) to RF Jason Heyward; a non-scoring fly out by C Yadier Molina; and, finally, a game-winning walk to 3B Greg Garcia. So, that walk-off walk came at the end of a three-run inning and was preceded by a pair of walks and three hits to the outfield. Finally, there is the more classic extra-inning walk-off walk. On August 5, the White Sox started the bottom of the tenth inning of a 5-5 tie (with the Rays) with a single by CF Adam Eaton – who stole second and went to third on an error by the shortstop. Following a fly out to short LF by 3B Tyler Saldino, the Rays intentionally walked 1B Jose Abreu and LF Melky Cabrera (loading the bases and setting up a force out at the plate or a potential double play). RF Avisail then walked to bring in the winner. In this case, stolen bases and two intentional walks set up the game-ender.
MOST BASES-LOADED WALKS IN A GAME/INNING
- The record for bases-loaded walks in a single game is eight – all by the White Sox (and all in a single inning) in a 20-6 victory over the Kansas City A’s on April 22, 1959. In the seventh inning of that game, the White Sox drew eight bases-loaded walks, while scoring eleven runs on just one hit. (For a full accounting of the inning, click here.)
- In the April 22, 1959 White Sox/A’s game, Nellie Fox had a record two bases-loaded walks in a single inning.
- Ellis Burks holds the record for bases-loaded walks in game. On, September 2, 2000 – as his Giants beat the Cubs 13-2 – Burks drew three bases-loaded walks (in the first and second innings off Reuben Quevedo and in the sixth off Felix Heredia). The Giants drew five bases-loaded free passes in the game.
MOST BASES-LOADED WALKS IN A WORLD SERIES GAME
The only player to draw two bases-loaded walks in a World Series game is Orioles’ pitcher Jim Palmer, who walked with the sacks full in the fourth and fifth innings, as the Orioles topped the Pirates 11-3, on October 11, 1971. Notably Palmer walked only three times (while striking out 41) in 116 regular season plate appearances. For those who wish to commiserate with the victim(s), the walks were issued by Bruce Kison and Bob Veale.
INTENTIONAL BASES-LOADED WALKS
Only six players have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded (Baseball-Almanac.com):
- Abner Dalrymple, Chicago (NL), August 2, 1881
- Napoleon Lajoie, Philadelphia (AL), May 23, 1901
- Del Bissonette, Brooklyn (NL), May 2, 1928
- Bill Nicholson, Chicago (NL) July 23, 1944
- Barry Bonds, San Francisco (NL), May 28, 1998
- Josh Hamilton, Texas (AL), August 17, 2008
SCORING ALL YOU R RUNS ON BASESS LOADED WALKS
BBRT didn’t have any luck finding a game in which a team scored all its runs via the bases-loaded walk – but did find a game in which a team scored all four of its meaningful runs on bases-full free passes – and an insurance run on a sacrifice fly.
Last July 19th, The Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds took part in an all-Ohio face off at the Great American Ballpark. It was, in some ways, a “classic” matchup – an eleven-inning Cleveland victory in which the two teams used a combined 37 players, including 13 pitchers and seven pinch hitters. What caught BBRT’s attention is that none of the Indians’ 13 hits resulted in an RBI. In fact, the Indians came very close to scoring all their runs on bases-loaded walks. The Tribe scored its first four runs on bases-loaded free passes – and tallied its last run on a sacrifice fly. The only Cleveland runner who attempted to score on a base hit was thrown out at the plate.
COMING SOON – Thirty things (one for each team), BBRT hopes to see in 2016.
Fan of baseball trivia? BBRT has two 99 question (Ballpark Tours tested) trivia quizzes. For BBRT’s 99 favorite questions, click here. For a second 99, click here.
Ballpark Tours great 2016 excursion (10 days, 10 games, 7 cities), outlined here.
I tweet baseball @DavidBBRT
Member: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR); The Baseball Reliquary; Baseball Bloggers Alliance.
