GREAT MOMENTS IN STRAT
Have you experienced a game of Strat-O-Matic so thrilling, unique or bizarre that you just HAVE to share it with someone? That would be us. Send your Great Moments in Strat to glenn@strat-o-matic.com. Please include your name and hometown. Readers like to see that and you deserve the credit.
Tens of thousands of replays have demonstrated that Strat-O-Matic’s games are statistically accurate. Great Moments in Strat highlights extraordinary events, which may never happen for you in a single replay, but will occur in the many thousands of games played with each Strat-O-Matic team or season. This month, we thought you’d enjoy a series of home-run exploits reported by gamers from across the country.
11 HRs in One Game – by Both Teams
I replayed the Cubs-Reds Sunday game of 4/24 in daily Strat and enjoyed a HR record tying game. I rolled the dice and let the computer manage the game for both teams.
Hammel and Simon were cruising along pitching shutout baseball until the sixth inning when the ball started flying out of the park. The Cubs put up a 4 spot in the T6 thanks to a solo shot by Rizzo and a 3-run jack by Russell. Votto put Cincy on the board with a solo blast in the B6. In the Cubby’s half of the 7th, Soler and Russell each hit 2-run bombs (Russell’s second HR of the day) for an 8 to 1 lead. The Red’s half of the 7th saw Bruce and Duvall go back-to-back to open the inning. After a groundout, walk and single, Suarez went deep for a 3-run HR followed by Votto’s second solo shot of the game. Phillips walked and Bruce then hit his second HR of the game and the inning. By the final out of the B7, the Reds had scored 8 runs, taking a 9-8 lead. The long-ball continued into the T8 when Fowler led off with a PH big fly to tie the game at 9. In the T9, Baez walked for the Cubs and ended up at 3B after a stolen base and catcher throwing error. Russell decided to go old school and dropped down a squeeze bunt to score Baez for what would be the winning run for the Cubs. It was also Russell’s sixth RBI to go along with his two “round-trippers.”
THE RECORDS: With their 5 HR’s in the B7, the Reds tied the ‘66 Twins, ‘39 Giants, ‘49 Phillies, ‘61 Giants, and the ‘06 Brewers for the most HR’s in an inning. Interestingly, the four NL teams listed all set their records against the Reds!
With Fowler’s PH HR in the T8, the two teams combined for 11 HRs, tying the NL record for the most HRs by two teams in a 9-inning game. The Cubs and Mets did it 6/11/1967.
Now here is where it gets really crazy. The Cubs have accomplished this same feat on two other occasions, but in extra innings. The Reds have also combined with two other teams in extra innings to hit 11 HRs in a single game. And yes, you guessed it, the Cubs and Reds set the record together once before on 7/28/77.
THE IRONY: In a game that saw 11 HRs, 28 hits and 13 different pitchers, the game-winning run was scored on a squeeze bunt by a player who had already hit two HR’s.
You gotta love baseball, and you gotta love STRAT!
M. Walker, Marietta, GA
8 Home Runs – by One Team
In a Baseball 365 matchup, the Brooklyn Bums won 21-1 with the help of eight home runs, including four in a row in the seven-run first inning by Gary Roenicke, Dale Murphy, Andres Galarraga and Gary Carter – all against Fernando Valenzuela. Murphy, Galarraga and George Brett each hit two out.
Allan Kaufman, Manchester, NH
6 Home Runs – In One Inning
Had to share this with the Strat community:
I’m managing the Red Sox on the AL side and the Nationals on the NL side of my 2015 replay. The other day the, Nationals started off a game against the Reds with 6 – count ‘em, 6 — ‘taters in the first inning! Michael Taylor, Yunel Escobar, Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Danny Espinosa and Trea Turner all went yard in the first eight batters. BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!! Poor David Holmberg, the Reds’ starter, must not have known what the heck hit him (he gave up 5 HR while lasting just 2/3 of an inning). Bryce Harper added one later too, just for good measure. When Joey Votto smacked a 3-run shot in the bottom of the first, I thought I was in for an old-fashioned slugfest, but things settled down after that.
It appears that my Nats actually set a new MLB record: The Twins hit 5 HRs in an inning in 1966, and the Brewers did it in 2006, but as far as I can tell, no team has ever hit 6.
Gotta love Strat!
Gary, Oak Hill, VA
5 Home Runs – by One Player
I not only had my first 4-homer game, but 1958 Frank Thomas got another chance to go yard – and he did!
BOXSCORE: 3001 1951 Fifty-Ones At 3001 1952 Fifty-Twos 6/25/3002
Fifty-Ones AB R H RBI AVG Fifty-Twos AB R H RBI AVG
P.Runnels 1B 5 1 0 0 .200 D.Groat SS 3 0 1 0 .429
J.Jensen RF 5 1 1 1 .200 J.Piersall CF 3 1 1 0 .200
M.Mantle LF 6 2 3 1 .556 E.Mathews 3B 4 1 1 1 .250
W.Mays CF 5 3 2 0 .667 G.Crowe 1B 4 1 1 2 .250
F.Thomas 3B 5 5 5 11 .600 B.Nieman LF 3 0 2 0 .600
S.Burgess C 3 0 1 0 .143 B.Martin 2B 4 0 0 0 .250
J.Logan SS 5 0 1 0 .222 J.Rivera RF 4 0 0 0 .000
B.Young 2B 5 1 2 0 .222 C.Courtney C 3 0 0 0 .000
R.Herbert P 4 0 0 0 .000 B.Hoeft P 1 0 0 0 .000
A-B.Del Greco PH 0 0 0 0 —-
E.Johnson P 0 0 0 0 —-
H.Brown P 0 0 0 0 —-
B-S.Bilko PH 1 0 0 0 .000
R.Kline P 0 0 0 0 —-
— — — — — — — —
Totals 43 13 15 13 Totals 30 3 6 3
A-Pinch Hit For Hoeft In 5th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Brown In 7th Inning
Fifty-Ones…… 0 2 2 1 1 4 0 2 1 – 13 15 0
Fifty-Twos…… 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 6 2
Fifty-Ones (1-1) IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
R.Herbert WIN(1-0) 9 6 3 3 2 2 1 3.00
Totals 9 6 3 3 2 2 1
Fifty-Twos (1-1) IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
B.Hoeft LOSS(0-1) 5 10 6 6 2 2 3 10.80
E.Johnson 0 1/3 2 4 4 1 1 1 108.00
H.Brown 1 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
R.Kline 2 3 3 3 1 1 2 13.50
Totals 9 15 13 13 4 5 6
ATTENDANCE- 30,673 DATE- Friday, June 25th 3002 TIME- Day
T- 3:28
LEFT ON BASE- Fifty-Ones: 9 Fifty-Twos: 4
DOUBLE PLAYS- Fifty-Ones: 2 Fifty-Twos: 0
ERRORS- E.Mathews, G.Crowe
DOUBLES- D.Groat(1st), J.Piersall(1st), E.Mathews(1st), B.Nieman(1st)
HOME RUNS- J.Jensen(1st), F.Thomas-5(5th), G.Crowe(1st)
RBIs- J.Jensen(1st), M.Mantle(4th), F.Thomas-11(11th), E.Mathews(1st),
G.Crowe-2(3rd)
SACRIFICE HITS- R.Herbert, J.Piersall
WALKS- P.Runnels, J.Jensen, S.Burgess-2, D.Groat, B.Nieman
HIT BY PITCH- W.Mays, B.Del Greco
STRIKE OUTS- P.Runnels-2, J.Jensen, W.Mays, R.Herbert, J.Rivera-2
GIDP- B.Martin
WILD PITCHES- B.Hoeft
2-out RBI- F.Thomas-2, M.Mantle, J.Jensen
RLISP 2-out- P.Runnels, G.Crowe, W.Mays, R.Herbert, J.Rivera
TEAM RISP- Fifty-Ones: 2 for 7 Fifty-Twos: 2 for 8
(By the way, Thomas’ record-setting performance occurred in my reboot of the Rookie(s) of the Year(s) project. Each team is composed of players who exceeded rookie status in a particular year, but using their best carded season. So 1958 Thomas plays for Team 1951.)
I was strangely not nervous. I think that was for two reasons. First, the blowout made me more focused on watching TV. Second, four HRs just seemed like a matter of time, so I figured it would happen someday. In 51 years of gaming, I never witnessed any record that exceeded a major league mark. Not even in autoplay. Icing on the cake? In 1958 Thomas was a Pirate!
Geoff (Strat Fan Forum screen name) and Pirates fan
More Pirates Pillaging
I’d like to describe a remarkable recent series.
When I was in high school, I spent one summer as a ballboy for the Triple A Phoenix Giants ball club. One of the players on that team was Dick Stuart, an aging vet trying to get back to the big leagues after spending the two previous seasons playing in Japan. Stuart was one of my favorite players on the team because he was always friendly to us kids who worked for the team. So I was happy to see him have an incredible 8 game series in the tournament I’m currently playing with my friend Stan. All games were face-to-face using cards and dice.
The best-of-9 series pitted the 1961/62 Pirates against the 1961/62 Twins. Stuart (aka: Dr Strangeglove because of his fielding adventures), started things off with a bang by slugging a 3-run homer off of Camilo Pascual in his first trip to the plate. He later added a 3-run double, giving him 6 RBI as the Pirates won 10-3.
In Game 2, he hit a solo homer but the Pirates lost 7-3 … In Game 3, the Pirates trailed 8-5 going into the bottom of the 8th inning but Stuart turned the game around with a Grand Slam and the Pirates won an 11-8 slugfest.
Game 4 went to the Twins, 11-3, as all Stuart could manage was an RBI single. Still, that gave him 12 RBI in 4 games even though he had only 5 hits up to that point … In Game 5, the Pirates re-took the series lead as Stuart drove in 3 runs with a triple and his 4th homer of the series in a 5-4 game … In Game 6, the stubborn Twins tied the series for the third time, wining 7-5 and holding Stuart to a sacrifice fly … The Pirates re-took the lead by winning Game 7 by an 8-1 score, but Stuart’s hot streak seemed to be over as he went hitless and had no RBIs.
I should note that Stuart wasn’t the only one having a great series. Harmon Killebrew of the Twins had 5 Home Runs thru 7 games and Roberto Clemente was batting .531 with a remarkable 17 hits, including 5 Home Runs of his own. But this series belonged to Stuart. In Game 8, he hit a sacrifice fly in the first and hit his 2nd grand slam of the series in the 5th as the Pirates shut down the Twins 7-0 to clinch the series.
So, altogether Stuart drove in 21 runs on just 9 hits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of production. Clemente, whose 18 hits would normally make him the star, was overshadowed by the man known as Dr Strangeglove. Sometimes nice guys do finish first!
Bill Bell, North Bend, OR
One – Actually None – for the Pitchers
A sigh of relief for the pitchers: John Alcamo of Roselle, NJ, sent word that Wade Miley of the 2015 Red Sox no-hit the 2015 Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Miley walked two and struck out 10 in the 5-0 win.
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