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Johan Santana hits his first big-league homer

Posted by Andy on July 6, 2010

Tonight Johan Santana has hit his first major-league homer. He's a pretty good hitter (for a pitcher) with a .166 BA and 11 doubles and 1 triple in 206 plate appearances.

It also came off Matt Maloney, a second year pitcher who is technically still a rookie.

21 Responses to “Johan Santana hits his first big-league homer”

  1. Thomas Says:

    This whole blog is totally anti-Mets!!!!

  2. Raphy Says:

    I believe that the last pitcher to throw a CG SHO while homering was Mike Hampton in 2005
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200505080.shtml

  3. Frank Clingenpeel Says:

    Thomas, I will accept that -- IF you can explain how extolling the accomplishments of Santana {Who I believe is a Met, is he not?} is somehow anti-Mets.

  4. JWL Says:

    Re: 2
    Jason Jennings accomplished the feat not too long ago.

  5. Jim Says:

    Frank,

    I believe Thomas was being, what the French call, ironic.

  6. Mike Says:

    Happy Gilmore accomplished that feat no more than an hour ago.

  7. Thomas Says:

    A) totally joking
    B) i realize this should go in the other blog post from today but I'm putting it here anyway because it's relevant here too... How would I look up pitchers batting stats from games. ie. pitching a shutout AND homering in the game?

  8. Surly Duff Says:

    I believe Thomas was joking, but he shouldn't be. This blog is anti-Mets. If a pitcher from any other team hit a home run and threw a complete-game shutout in the same game, it would be treated as the feat of the century. (At least, we'd be provided with a list of the last 20 guys to do it along with a detailed analysis.)

    But still, this is a step in the right direction. Good job, Andy!

  9. JWL Says:

    Has it ever been stated why Andy hates the Mets?
    Yankees fan?
    Phillies fan?
    Braves fan?
    Cardinals or Cubs fan from back in the old days when those teams were division rivals of the Mets?

  10. Johnny Twisto Says:

    I know he does have a Harry Kalas tattoo on his nether-regions....

  11. Johnny Twisto Says:

    I haven't actually seen it, mind you.

  12. Thomas Says:

    It's ironic... I put that this is anti-Mets to make fun of the people (presumably you) who brought up how every post was anti-Mets... and here you are thinking I'm on your side.

    In any case, I humbly and deeply apologize for having brought this up and upon this blog again. It was really just a joke....

  13. birtelcom Says:

    Jason Jennings hit a homer and pitched a shutout in a game against the Mets in 2001. Stanton's looks like the most recent before Santana.

    If you use the Hitting Game Finder to list all games by a pitcher with at least one home run, in which his team won the game, the result includes the final scores of each game. Then you can run down the list fairly easily to see those few in which the losing team scored no runs. Then you have to check each of those box scores by hand to see if the pitcher threw a shutout, but there's not really that many such games to check in recent years. You can probably make it easier by limiting the search further to games in which the pitcher had at least 3 PAs, though it's conceivable you might miss a game that way.

  14. birtelcom Says:

    Hampton, not Stanton -- sorry.

  15. dodgerdave Says:

    Bob Welch (1983) and Odalis Perez (2002) are two Dodgers that homered and threw a 1-0 shutout.

  16. Andy Says:

    The reason I didn't write a lengthier post is that I was with my family at the time. I figured a brief post was better than no post. Also it's not easily to look up combined pitching/hitting performances. Birtelcom gave a good example for this case but more complicated scenarios need to be done manually.

  17. Frank Clingenpeel Says:

    Sorry, Thomas; I guess my sense of humour was taking a vacation yesterday. I apologise for any furor I might have instigated.

  18. nightfly Says:

    Rick Wise hit TWO homers and threw a no-hitter in the same game, so there's that.

  19. Joe Says:

    Johan just got tired of getting no run support, and finally just decided to take matters into his own hands. 🙂

  20. DoubleDiamond Says:

    #16 - "more complicated scenarios need to be done manually."

    Mets fans may spell something similar out as, "more complicated scenarios should not be done manuelly." And on this, many Phillies fans agree.

    Phillies fans who are also Eagles fans spell out advice to consult published technical sources as, "reid the freakin' manuel."

  21. Rioraton Says:

    Re: #18. I clicked on the link to the box score and was struck with this: At the end of the game (#68 for the Phillies in '71) Rick Wise had on OPS higher than every other member of the starting lineup except Willie Montanez. For the year, his OPS of .724 was only bested by 3 Phillies - Montanez (.795), Deron Johnson (.836) and Tim McCarver (.730).