The Rockies and Pirates combined for five sacrifice flies, tying the major league record, in Colorado's 10-8 win over Pittsburgh at PNC Park. Matt Holliday had two for Colorado as did well as one for the Rockies center fielder (see the boxscore for his name). Adam La Roche and Xavier Nady had Pittsburgh's sacrifice flies.
Five sacrifice flies in a game happens quite a bit. In fact the last game with five sacrifice flies happened on July 3 when Kansas City routed Seattle 17-3.
The Rockies and Pirates "combined" for five sacrifice flies in a game last year on June 7, 2006. Except Colorado had all five. Seattle also had five sacrifice flies in a game on August 7, 1988 against Oakland.
I wonder how many of those games had other runners on third with less than two outs, and if the fans at those games teetered on the edge of their seats, hoping to witness baseball history.
I suppose I could just go look, myself, at the box scores for those five-sac-fly games...
In fact, tonight there were three other opportunities (two for the Rockies in the first, one for the Pirates in the third) where the hitter selfishly got a hit instead of a sac fly. Honestly- RBI singles happen every day, but a six-sac-fly game is history.
Also, the Pirates scored their sixth run on a squeeze. Thats six runs on sacrifices- is that a record?
Actually with sac flies you can have an infinite amount since you can have an error and a sac fly where the outfielder drops a fly ball that lets a runner score.
That's why there have been innings with three sacrifice flies.
There is a record for combined sacrifices and sacrifice flies in a game by one team and it's eight.
OK, so maybe you talked about this months ago... not sure. But Bob, I figured that you are the man to confirm if I'm right on this. (being the resident baseball historian on baseball toaster)...
So, today I come across Tommy Lasorda's blog and notice this post from January where he writes a nice little story about Bobby Kennedy, and how the night he was assassinated, Kennedy had requested to meet Lasorda, but he (Lasorda) couldn't go because he had wanted to see Drysdale continue the scoreless innings record. When Lasorda came home that night, he saw the news that Kennedy was assassinated. You can read it here: http://tommy.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/01/bobby_kennedy.html
But, unless, I'm crazy, Drysdale didn't break that record until two games later, right? As far as I can tell, Don Sutton was pitching that night - not Drysdale, right?
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1968/B06060LAN1968.htm
So, question is, is tommy suffering from a bit of memory loss, or maybe some retroactive inflation of his self importance? After all, why would Kennedy want to meet Lasorda?
I suppose I could just go look, myself, at the box scores for those five-sac-fly games...
Also, the Pirates scored their sixth run on a squeeze. Thats six runs on sacrifices- is that a record?
Such a record is not kept. Nor easily discovered, but it's probably close to it.
I'd say that 6 would be considered an awful lot.
That's why there have been innings with three sacrifice flies.
There is a record for combined sacrifices and sacrifice flies in a game by one team and it's eight.
It was last done in 1977.
http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1977/B08010CHA1977.htm
So, today I come across Tommy Lasorda's blog and notice this post from January where he writes a nice little story about Bobby Kennedy, and how the night he was assassinated, Kennedy had requested to meet Lasorda, but he (Lasorda) couldn't go because he had wanted to see Drysdale continue the scoreless innings record. When Lasorda came home that night, he saw the news that Kennedy was assassinated. You can read it here: http://tommy.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/01/bobby_kennedy.html
But, unless, I'm crazy, Drysdale didn't break that record until two games later, right? As far as I can tell, Don Sutton was pitching that night - not Drysdale, right?
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1968/B06060LAN1968.htm
So, question is, is tommy suffering from a bit of memory loss, or maybe some retroactive inflation of his self importance? After all, why would Kennedy want to meet Lasorda?
Inquiring minds want to know...
http://tinyurl.com/38qzu5
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