posted on Monday, April 28, 2008 2:16 AM
by
Jim
When sacks are packed, Quentin gets plunked
When Carlos Quentin stepped in the box with the bases loaded
in the seventh inning Sunday, the surprise wasn't that he was drilled. The surprise was that it didn't happen on the first pitch.
Quentin entered the at-bat with his two-game HBP streak on the line. He'd been hit in both ends of the
doubleheader Saturday, both times on 0-0 counts. This time, Greg Aquino actually built up some suspense, working Quentin into a deep 2-2 count.
Turns out you can only delay the inevitable. On the fifth pitch, a slider flew out of Aquino's hand and hit Quentin square in the middle of the back.
It marked the third time this season a pitch that left a mark on Quentin drove in a run --
George Sherrill and
Justin Verlander provided the other two -- meaning he already topped last year's leaders. In 2007, A.J. Pierzynski and Rob Mackowiak were among
a six-way tie with two.
He's the first player since J.T. Snow in 2004 to be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded three times in a season. Snow achieved that in 107 games; Quentin has only played 22 so far.
Now, CQ has a chance to make history.
No player in the last 52 years has driven in a run by taking one for the team four times in a season, according to
Baseball- Reference.com's Play Index, which has complete seasons dating back to 1956. Considering the aggregate number of bases-loaded HBPs generally decreased as I searched back through the years, he could possibly be looking at a modern-day record.
Quentin, as we know, is no stranger to the HBP record book, as
he owns the single-game NCAA record with five. A couple other fun Quentin facts:
No. 1: He's more than halfway to Craig Biggio. Of Biggio's 285 career HBPs spanning 12,503 plate appearances, only seven came with the bases loaded. After Sunday, Quentin already has four under his belt (he had
one with the Diamondbacks last year), out of 25 total HBPs and 546 plate appearances.
No. 2: He's on pace for 44 HBPs. The American League record for HBPs in a season is
Don Baylor's total of 35 in 1986, and Quentin's off to a great start after four weeks. Beyond Baylor,
Hughie Jennings owns the all-time record with 51 in 1896, while
Ron Hunt is the modern-day record holder with 50, which he achieved in Montreal in 1970.
We shouldn't get too excited yet, because we saw this storyline last season
when Luis Terrero was drilled eight times over his first 68 plate appearances. He fell back to Earth with only one HBP in his last 71.
Then again, Terrero posted a line of .210/.310/.242 over the second half of his season, which indicates pitchers realized that as long as they didn't hit him, Terrero would pretty much get himself out. Quentin, with his .997 OPS (a left fielder who can hit?), stands a much better chance of pressuring pitchers into making mistakes.
Ozzie Guillen, as always,
kept it simple:
He's always getting hit by a pitch in the right spot. I like it.
By the way, at right is
a sample CQ t-shirt I've drawn up, per
onlysoxfaninboston's request.
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Minor league round-up:- Durham 11, Charlotte 4
- Charlie Haeger allowed baserunners galore -- nine hits and six walks over 4 2/3 innings, amounting to nine runs on his watch. He struck out six.
- Oneli Perez struck out four over 2 1/3 innings, but also allowed two solo homers.
- Jason Bourgeois went 2-for-4 with an RBI; Brad Eldred went 2-for-4 with a double.
- Jerry Owens went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored; Josh Fields had the day off.
- Birmingham 4, Montgomery 0
- Carlos Torres had his first good outing in weeks, pitching six scoreless. He allowed two hits and two walks, striking out six.
- Clevelan Santeliz and Derek Rodriguez finished the shutout.
- Micah Schnurstein hit his first homer of the year, a three-run shot in the first inning.
- Wilmington 6, Winston-Salem 3
- Jacob Rasner was roughed up for the first time in '08, allowing four runs (two earned) on five hits and three walks over three innings.
- Francisco Hernandez doubled his season RBI total with a two-run double.
- Matt Davis pitched two perfect innings in relief, striking out two.
- Kannapolis vs. Lake County PPD