Most Consecutive Walks By Different Pitchers

Last night

, the Marlins pulled off an incredible feat in the 7th inning. In that inning, 4 different Marlins walked 4 straight Mets, which of course resulted in a Mets run–the tying run in a game the Mets wound up winning 2-1. Is that a record?

After doing some research, I haven’t found any other instances of 4 different pitchers walking 4 consecutive batters. I have found, however, several 3-walk/3-pitcher streaks. I also found a couple games that qualify for a 3-batter streak if you count a hit-by-pitch as a walk. But it does seem that the Marlins set an MLB record last night.

My research is only for the play-by-play era (1950-present), so it’s possible that there are some long streaks that I’m missing. However, given bullpen usage patterns before 1950, such streaks would surely have been less common before 1950. I am 99% certain that I have found all of the 4-walk streaks since 1950, but the list of 3-walk streaks is probably not comprehensive*.

* I’m sure that I have captured all instances of 3-walk/3-pitcher streaks in which 2 of the pitchers faced only 1 batter. The ones I may have missed would feature just one 1-batter pitcher, sandwiched in between two pitchers who walked the last and first batters they faced, respectively. This could be a lot of games or just a few; I have no idea.

At any rate, let’s look first at last night’s game, the only instance I’ve found of 4 consecutive batters drawing walks from 4 different pitchers.

Marlins pitching to Mets, 4/24/2012

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Inning: bottom of the 7th

Game state before first walk: 2 outs, no one on base, Marlins up 1-0

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Josh Johnson
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   (Lucas Duda
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   )
2. Randy Choate
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   (Justin Turner
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   )
3. Steve Cishek
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   (Scott Hairston
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   )
4. Mike Dunn
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   (Josh Thole
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   ), run scores

Game result: Mets win 2-1

Dunn would retire the next hitter to end the inning and preserve the tie, but the Mets added a run the next inning and held on for the win. What makes this series of events even more amazing is that the 4 consecutive walks were the only ones the Marlins issued all game. They just came in the worst possible sequence–consecutively.

Next, let’s look at the games I found with 3 straight walks by 3 different pitchers. These are in reverse chronological order.

Twins pitching to Indians, 9/18/2011

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Inning: top of the 7th

Game state before first walk: 2 outs, bases loaded, Twins up 3-1

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Carl Pavano
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   (Kosuke Fukudome
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   )
2. Jose Mijares
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   (Jason Kipnis
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   ), run scores
3. Alex Burnett
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   (Carlos Santana
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   ), run scores

Game result: Indians win 6-5

Entering this inning, Pavano and the Twins led 3-0, but a solo homer, error, and single, combined with the 3 straight walks, tied the game. All the walks were on 3-2 counts, which must have made this extra-aggravating for Twins fans. Burnett left immediately after his walk, giving the Twins a chance for 4 straight walks by 4 different pitchers. The new pitcher, Glen Perkins

, didn’t walk anyone, but he did something worse–give up a single and double that scored 3 runs between them. The Indians scored all 6 of their runs this inning, and they needed all of them; in the 8th, Vinnie Pestano walked in two runs of his own to help the Twins close to within a run. (Yes, that means 4 of this games 11 runs were scored on walks.)

Marlins pitching to Rays, 5/21/2011

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Inning: top of the 8th

Game state before first walk: 2 outs, runner on first, Marlins up 5-0

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Mike Dunn (B.J. Upton
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   )
2. Ryan Webb
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   (Evan Longoria
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   )
3. Randy Choate (Kelly Shoppach
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   ), run scores

Game result: Marlins win 5-3

The Marlins’ lefty tandem of Choate & Dunn makes another appearance here. The Marlins’ managers may have changed–twice–since this game, but the wildness of their lefties remains the same. After this sequence, Choate was removed for Edward Mujica

, who gave up a 2-run single to Johnny Damon . Fortunately for the Marlins, their initial 5-run lead was large enough to withstand this one bad inning.

Marlins pitching to Expos, 9/27/1999

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Inning: bottom of the 8th

Game state before first walk: 2 outs, runner on first, Marlins up 4-2

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Vic Darensbourg
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   (Jose Vidro
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   )
2. Hector Almonte
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   (Vladimir Guerrero
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   )–this one was intentional, but only because Almonte threw a wild pitch in the process
3. Jesus Sanchez
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   (James Mouton
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   ), run scores

Game result: Expos win 8-4

All three of the pitchers above faced just one batter, and walked him. Darensbourg relieved Reid Cornelius

, who gave up a single to his last batter. Sanchez was relieved by Brian Edmondson , who gave up a double to his first batter (and then walked the second). Altogether, that’s 5 straight batters reaching base against 5 different pitchers. By the end of the inning, a 2-run Marlins lead had turned into a 4-run deficit.

Pirates pitching to Astros, 6/12/1978

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Inning: bottom of the 8th

Game state before first walk: 2 outs, runner on first, Pirates up 5-1

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Kent Tekulve
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   (Wilbur Howard
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   )
2. Dave Hamilton
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   (Joe Ferguson
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   )
3. Ed Whitson
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   (Dave Bergman
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   ), run scores

Game result: Astros win 6-5

Tekulve relieved John Candelaria

, who had just given up an RBI single to lose his shutout. After Whitson’s walk, he gave up 2 singles that allowed 4 more runs to score, giving the Astros the lead.

Royals pitching to Orioles, 7/11/1972

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Inning: bottom of the 10th

Game state before first walk: 0 outs, runner on second, tied 1-1

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Dick Drago
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   (Bobby Grich
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   ), intentional
2. Tom Burgmeier
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   (Boog Powell
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   )
3. Ken Wright
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   (Tom Shopay
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   ), run scores–game over

Game result: Orioles win 2-1

Drago started the 10th by allowing a double to Brooks Robinson

, then intentionally walked Grich. The other two pitchers then finished the disaster with two walks, the last one a walkoff walk.

Phillies pitching to Pirates, 9/18/1965

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Inning: bottom of the 9th

Game state before first walk: 1 out, runner on first, Phillies up 3-1

Pitchers, in order (batters in parentheses):

1. Gary Wagner
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   (Manny Mota
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   )
2. Morrie Stevens (Donn Clendenon
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   )
3. Ed Roebuck
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   (Jim Pagliaroni
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   ), run scores

Game result: Orioles win 2-1

The Phillies led 3-0 going into the 9th inning, which was a very safe lead in that pitcher-friendly era (their win probability was 96%). However, Roberto Clemente

hit a pinch-hit, leadoff homer off of Jim Bunning . With 1 out, Bunning allowed a single and then was pulled, triggering the walk sequence above. Roebuck actually also walked the second batter he faced, too, which tied the game at 3. Finally, Roebuck was pulled in favor of Ferguson Jenkins, who gave up a walkoff single to Bill Mazeroski . All told, the Phillies used 5 pitchers that inning and retired one out of the eight batters they faced. Six straight Pirates reached base off of five different Phillie pitchers.

That’s all the games I’ve found with a 3-pitcher/3-walk combo. Here are a couple more with 2 walks and a hit-by-pitch in a sequence by 3 different pitchers: the Royals on 7/15/1993

and the Royals on 9/26/1976 .

I think it’s interesting that of the 7 games I’ve found that fit this pattern, 3 of them occurred in the last year. Also, 3 of them featured the Marlins, who’ve only been around since 1993, including a couple relievers who played a part in two of the games. Unsurprisingly, most of the teams lost, partly because of all the walks, but one of them (the ’99 Marlins) held on to win. However, it’s not just the walks that did these teams in; in many cases, the inning continued to spiral out of control even after the walk streak ended.

All of this makes me wish that I could go back in time and see what would happen if the managers stuck with the original pitcher after the first walk. Or, alternately, what would happen if managers always changed pitchers every time a reliever walked the first man he faced. I suppose I’ll never know the results of those scenarios, but at least I’ll always have “that one time 4 Marlins combined to walk 4 in a row.”