It’s time again for Baseball Roundtable’s Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” one-of-a-kind MLB accomplishments or statistics. This week, we’re looking at some of MLB’s wildest innings – whether they are defined by walks, batters hit or wild pitches.
A Record Eight Bases Loaded Walks In One Inning
On April 22, 1959, the Chicago White Sox completed what may be the wildest MLB offensive inning ever – an event Baseball Roundtable feels is worth revisiting. In the seventh inning of a 20-6 road win over the Kansas City Athletics, the Chicago White Sox scored 11 runs on just one base hit. In fact, they got only one ball out of the infield.
How “wild” was the inning?
- Three Athletics’ pitchers walked ten batters and hit one.
- There were also three Athletics’ errors.
- There were an MLB, single-inning record eight bases-loaded walks (and one bases-loaded hit by pitch).
- Nellie Fox drew two bases-loaded walks in the inning.
Nellie Fox drew two bases-loaded walks in the seventh inning of the White Sox 20-6 win. For the game. Fox was four-for-five, with a double, two walks,a run scored and five RBI.
This unique offensive “outburst” would prove to be a portent of things to come. The 1959 AL pennant-winning White Sox became known as the “Go-Go Sox” for their ability to manufacture runs despite a punchless offense. (The Sox finished last in the league in home runs and sixth – out of the eight AL teams – in batting average and runs scored, but first in stolen bases and second in walks).
A few other tidbits from the game:
- The Sox sent 17 batters to the plate, but collected just one hit – and, in fact, got only one ball out of the infield.
- Sox hitters batted with the bases loaded 12 times and never got the ball past the pitcher.
- Eight different White Sox’ players drew walks.
Here’s how it went that inning:
Tom Gorman starts the inning on the mound for the Athletics.
- White Sox’ 1B Ray Boone safe on a throwing error by A’s shortstop Joe DeMaestri.
- RF Al Smith attempts to sacrifice Boone to second (score was 8-6 at the time) and reaches safely on an error by A’s third baseman Hal Smith.
- LF Johnny Callison singles to right, scoring Boone and Smith (with the help of an error by A’s right fielder Roger Maris). Callison ended up on third.
- SS Luis Aparicio walks – then steals second (runners now on second and third).
- P Bob Shaw walks (loading the bases).
- PH Earl Torgeson (batting for 3B Sammy Esposito) walks (scoring Callison). Note: Gorman got an 2-0 count on Torgeson and was replaced on the hill by Mark Freeman, who completed the walk.
- 2B Nellie Fox walks (scoring Aparicio).
- CF Jim Landis reaches on fielder’s choice – grounding back to pitcher Mark Freeman, who takes the force at home (bases still loaded).
- C Sherman Lollar walks (scoring Torgeson, bases still loaded).
- Boone makes his second plate appearance of the inning and walks.
- Smith makes his second plate appearance of the inning and walks (scoring Landis).
- Callison, who had the only hit of the inning in his first plate appearance, is hit by a pitch (scoring Lollar, bases still loaded). Lou Skizas comes in to run for Callison.
- Aparicio draws his second walk of the inning (scoring Boone, bases still loaded).
- Shaw strikes out.
- PH Bubba Phillips (batting for Torgeson, who batted for Esposito earlier in the inning) walks (scoring Smith, bases still full).
- Fox draws his second bases-loaded walk of the inning (scoring Skizas).
- Landis grounds out pitcher-to-first to end the inning.
The 20-runs the White Sox scored that day were the most they plated in any game that season. Side note: It did not start out like it was going to be a good day for the White Sox. The A’s knocked Chicago’s starting pitcher Early Wynn – who would go on to lead the AL in wins with 22 – out of the game with six runs on six hits and two walks in the first 1 2/3 innings. The Sox actually trailed 6-1 after two frames.
Of course, with Baseball Roundtable, one thing to another. So, I began looking for other “Wild Innings.” Read on for those.
Most Walks Drawn in an Inning – 11 … Yankees, third inning, September 11, 1949 (versus Nationals)
Okay, this game was already a mismatch. The Yankees came into the contest 83-50, in first place in the American League. The Nationals were 44-91, in last place 40 games off the pace. Starting for the Bronx bombers was Allie Reynolds (15-4, 4.07 on the season). On the bump for the Nationals was Paul Calvert (6-14, 5.48). Still, when the Yankees came up in the bottom of the third frame, the score was 0-0.
Then this happened.
Calvert starts the inning on the mound.
- Yankee SS Phil Rizzuto walks.
- RF Cliff Mapes walks.
- 3B Bobby Brown hits a two-run double to right.
- CF Joe DiMaggio reaches on a throwing error by Nationals’ 3B Eddie Yost, with Brown scoring and DiMaggio ending up on third.
- C Yogi Berra hits an RBI double.
Dick Welteroth replaces Calvert on the mound.
- LF Charlie Keller walks.
- 1B Joe Collins walks, loading the bases.
- 2B Jerry Coleman walks, forcing in Berra, sacks still full.
- P Allie Reynolds helps his own cause with a two-run single; Coleman goes to second.
- During Rizzuto’s second plate appearance of the inning, Coleman is picked off second.
- Rizzuto singles, Reynolds goes to third.
- Mapes draws his second walk of the inning. Rizzuto goes to second.
Julio Gonzalez comes in to relieve Welteroth.
- Brown walks, loading the bases.
- DiMaggio flies out to left, Rizzuto scores and Mapes goes to third.
- Berra walks, loading the bases.
- Keller walks, forcing in Mapes.
- Collins walks, forcing in Brown.
Buzz Dozier comes in to pitch.
- Coleman walks, forcing in Berra.
- Reynolds ends the inning by popping out to second.
End result: 12 runs on four hits, 11 walks and an error. The Yankees went on to win 20-0, as four Nationals pitchers give up 17 hits and 17 walks.
Wildest Game Ever? A Pretty Good Bet.
On May 9, 1916, the Tigers took on the Athletics in Philadelphia. The contest was “no-contest”,” as the visiting Bengals topped the Athletics 16-2. While the approximately 4,500 Athletics’ fans in attendances did not get to see an As’ win, they did have the “pleasure” of witnessing some dubious (Modern Era – post-1900) record-setting (records that still stand today).
The Tigers not only pounded out 12 hits, they also drew a Modern Era (for a nine-inning game) 18 walks off a trio of Athletics’ hurlers. In fact, eight of the 12 Tigers who crossed the plate got on base via a free pass. Twelve of the free passes were surrendered by Athletics’ southpaw Carl Ray, who came into the game in the top of the third, with the A’s already trailing 9-0. Ray pitched the final seven frames (Taking one for the team?) and gave up seven runs (just four earned … there were four Athletics’ errors during his time on the mound) on six hits and that dozen walks. Ray, by the way, pitched in just two MLB seasons (1915-16) … a total of 16 2/3 innings, putting up a 0-2, 4.82 record, with 20 hits and 20 walks surrendered. He fanned 11.
But, back to our regularly scheduled program. The Tigers tried hard to keep up with the Athletics in terms of traveling on the wild side. Tiger pitchers issued 12 free passe in the game – and the combined 30 walks remains the MLB record for a single game. The damage was limited to just two runs by the fact that Tiger hurlers gave up just three hits and the Tigers’ defense made no miscues.
A little surprise, despite a total of 18 runs, 15 hits, 30 walks and five errors the game took just two hours and 30 minutes.
For those who like to know such things, the all-time record for walks drawn by a team in a nine-inning game is 19. On September 21, 1887, when the America Association’s Louisville Colonels drew 19 walks in a 16-8 win over the Cleveland Blues in Louisville. This record gets a special nod since, in 1887, it took five balls to draw a walk.
From Both Sides Now. A Wild Unicorn.
On May 6, 2019, Giants hurlers tied the MLB record for batters hit in an inning with four – and they did it with a twist – as switch-pitcher Pat Venditte became the first (and still only) moundsman to hit a batter while pitching right-handed and left-handed in the same inning, while also tying the MLB single-pitcher record for batters hit in an inning with three (shared by more than 30 hurlers). It all happened in the bottom of the sixth.
Venditte, who replaced Nick Vincent on the mound in the fifth, was on the hill for the Giants.
- LH-hitting 1B Joey Votto flies out to left. (Venditte throwing LH.)
- RH- hitting 3B Eugenio Suarez is hit by Venditte’s first pitch. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- RH-hitting RF Yasiel Puig walks on a 3-2 pitch. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- RH-hitting 2B Kyle Farmer singles to short, loading the bases. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- RH-hitting SS Jose Iglesias hits a two-run single to left. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- RH-hitting Curt Casali hits an RBI single to center. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- RH-hitting Lf Jose Peraza is hit by a pitch, again Venditte’s first pitch. (Venditte throwing RH.)
- LH-hitting Josh VanMeter pinch hits for pitcher Anthony DeSclafani,
- VanMeter hit by Venditte’s first pitch (Venditte pitching left-handed.)
Sam Dyson relieves Venditte.
- CF Nick Senzel strikes out looking.
- Votto is hit by an 0-2 pitch.
- Suarez grounds out to third.
Five runs, three hits, one walk, four hit by pitch.
The Giants, by the way, lost to the Reds by a 12-4 score.
For those who like to know such things, The only other MLB game in which four players were hit by a pitch in the same half inning took place in the second inning of an August 19, 1893 game between the Boston Beaneaters and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The hurlers were the Pirates’ Philip “Red” Ehret and William “Adonis” Terry (who each hit two batters). The most batters hit in a game by one pitcher is six John Grimes of the National League Saint Louis Browns on July 31, 1897 and Ed Knouff of the American Association Baltimore Orioles on April 25, 1887.
Baseball Roundtable Extra
Photo: Barbara moore, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On October 3, 2000 – in the top of the third inning of Game One of the National League Division Series between St. Louis and Atlanta, Redbird’s starter 21-year-old rookie Rick Ankiel (who had gone 11-7, 3.50 during the season) did something that has never been matched in the Modern Era and occurred only only one other time in MLB history. He threw five wild pitches in a single inning. His inning went like this:
- Atlanta P Greg Maddux walked on four pitches.
- 2B Rafael Furcal, popped out to first on a 1-2 pitch.
- Maddux took second on an 0-1 wild pitch to CF Andruw Jones.
- Maddux took third on a 2-1 wild pitch to Jones.
- Jones walked on a 3-1 pitch.
- Andruw Jones went to second on a 2-2 wild pitch to 3B Chipper Jones.
- Jones struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch.
- 1B Andres Galarraga walked on a 3-2 wild pitch, Maddux scoring and A. Jones going to second.
- RF Brian Jordan singled home A. Jones on the first pitch from Ankiel.
- Galarraga went to third and Jordan to second on 1-1 wild pitch to LF Reggie Sanders.
- Sanders walked on a 3-1 pitch.
- SS Walt Weiss hit a two-run single on an 0-1 pitch.
- Mike James relieved Ankiel and got C Javy Lopez to pop out to end the inning.
The Cardinals, by the way, won the game 7-5.
Post-season records are separate from the regular season, so the record of five wild pitches in an inning of a regular-season game still belong to Bert Cunningham of the Buffalo Bisons (Players League), who threw five wild pitches in the first inning of a loss to the Chicago Pirates on September 15, 1890.
Side note: It is generally agreed that rookie Ankiel got a grand case of the “yips” in the 2000 post-season. A noted earlier, during the 2000 season, he went 11-7, 3.50 in 31 games (30 starts), finishing second to Rafael Furcal in NL Rookie of the Year voting. In 175 innings, he threw just 12 wild pitches. (I ‘ll do the math, that’s one per every 14.6 innings.) He also walked 4.6 batters per nine frames. Ankiel pitched in three games in the 2000 post season – one in the NL Division Series and two in the NL Championship Series. In four innings, he gave up seven runs on five hits and 11 walks and threw nine wild pitches.
There was, by the way, plenty of reason to expect Akiel to shine in the big leagues. He was second-round Cardinals’ Draft pick in 1997 (after being name the USA Today High School Player of the Year). In 1998, Ankiel was a Carolina League All Star and the Cardinals Minor-League Player of the year, after going 12-6, 2.63 and fanning 222 batters, at A and High-A. He was also Minor League Player of the Year for Baseball America and USA Today in 1999, after going 13-3, 2.35 and fanning 194 batters in 137 2/3 innings.
To make a long story short (or at least less long), Ankiel did not bounce right back after that 2000 post-season melt-down. After that 11-win rookie campaign, he saw more minor-league than major-league action, went 2-2, 6.62 in 11 MLB games (34 innings) from 2001-2004, and underwent elbow surgery along the way. By 2005, Ankiel reportedly was ready to retire from baseball. The Cardinals, however, saw potential in Ankiel’s athleticism and baseball skills and convinced him to “reboot” as an outfielder.
By August 9, 2007, Ankiel was back in the major-leagues, starting in right field for the Cardinals and popping a three-run homer in his first MLB outfield start. He went on play seven MLB seasons in the outfield (2007-2017), primarily center field. His final MLB batting stat line was .240-76-251 and, in 2008, he hit .264-25-71 in 120 games for the Cardinals.
Primary Resources: Baseball-Reference.com; Baseball-Almanac.com; Rick Ankiel;s triumph over the yips should make him a Hall of Famer, by Kale Mintz, Cut4 (by MLB.com), December 30, 2018.
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