Six stolen bases in one game
Posted by Andy on May 4, 2009
In one of the most obvious Stats of the Day ever, here are the 3 times a player has stolen 6 bases in a game since 1954:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+ 1 Carl Crawford 2009-05-03 TBR BOS W 5-3 5 4 2 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 2nd LF 2 Eric Young 1996-06-30 COL LAD W 16-15 6 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 1st 2B 3 Otis Nixon 1991-06-16 ATL @MON L 6-7 5 5 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 1st RF
Eddie Collins also did it twice in 1912 but those games are too early to show up in the Batting Game Finder search.
For the 3 games above, it's amazing that none of the 3 guys had more than 3 runs scored.
Eric Young's performance came in a pretty crazy game won by the Rockies 16-15. From the bottom of the 7th on, evey team scored in its half-inning. Heading into the bottom of the 7th, the Dodgers led 11-10. After the 7th, the Rockies were ahead 12-11. After the top of the 8th, the game was tied. After the bottom of the 8th, the Rockies were ahead 14-12. After the top of the 9th, the Dodgers were ahead 15-14, and then the Rockies won it in the bottom of the 9th. The game featured 5 blown saves. Young (one of my favorite all-time players) singled in the 3rd, then stole 2nd, 3rd, and home in that inning. He reached base 3 more times in the game (including once by error and one on a fielder's choice) and stole 1 base each time.
Otis Nixon's performance also had its weird side. He reached base 3 times and stole 2nd and 3rd each time. His last steal, though, was crazy. He was the tying run in the bottom of the 9th, standing on second base as Ron Gant batted. The box score shows that he then stole 3rd base, and later Gant struck out. If that was a straight steal, it was an insane move. Had Nixon gotten thrown out, he would have been the final out of the game, and with two outs, his being on third base is only marginally better for the Braves' chances of scoring a run. (If you check out the box score, you can see that when Nixon stole 3rd, the Expos' chance of winning the game went from 89% to 88%, down just 1 percentage point. An attempted steal is an awfully big risk for 1 percentage point.)
Anyway, Carl Crawford is another guy I like a lot and I was very happy to see him join this exclusive club yesterday.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:28 am
You're right, Young's game was wild. During one inning he stole 2B, 3B and home. His teammates stole 4 bases (McCracken 2, Burks and Bichette 1 each). Then again, Piazza was the Dodgers catcher, so maybe it's not so surprising 🙂
The record for SB in a game by a team is 12 by Oakland on 1976-08-01, but that was a 12 inning game. For a 9 inning game, the Marlins also had 10 SB on 2000-05-18. (These are all Retrosheet era, of course.)
May 4th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I was looking at some of the logs for Rickey Henderson's 1982 season once. You really have to do some crazy stuff to get that many steals. He was stealing third with 2 outs when down by 6 runs, stuff like that. Of course he was caught a lot that year as well. I've been thinking for a while about going through all his steals to figure out just how much they really helped.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:45 am
About a week ago (4/27), the Rockies had a game in which they stole 8 bases off Padres' Chris Young / Nick Hundley in 3+ innings. Dexter Fowler alone stole 5 bases by the 4th inning (second base, then tird base on a double-steal in the first inning; second and third in the third inning, then second base in the fourth inning before Young was removed). Seven of the 8 SB resulted in runs. Padres manager Bud Black had enough sense to lift Young before the record for steals in a game could be broken - by the 6th inning at the pace they were going! Young was never good at holding runners, but this was probably his worst game.
Btw, does anyone know if Nick Hundley is related to catchers Todd and Randy Hundley? The player pages don't list any relationship, but it would be kind of cool if they were grandfather-father-son MLB catchers.
May 5th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Tomepp: Todd Hundley DOB 1969, Nick Hundley DOB 1983. Looks doubtful.
May 5th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Uh oh, sounds like Raphy is questioning Todd Hundley's manhood. You don't think that Hundley, world-class stud at age 14, could be Nick's father?
May 6th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Good point, Raphy; I didn't check DoB's. But they coulld still be related, perhaps a nephew or something. Dwight Gooden is Gary Sheffield's uncle, despite being only 4 years older.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:25 am
On Nick Hundley's wikipedia page, it says that Nick has said they are not related. Who knows if that's accurate, though.
May 10th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Does anyone know the name of the guy who stole 2nd and 3rd on the same pitch? It happened a few years ago. He got this monstrous jump and never even slid into second and when he eyed the catcher lobbing the ball back to the pitcher just took off for third base and stole it as well.