Two-Grand-Slam Games Since 2006

Last night, the Mets broke a long grand-slam drought in spectacular fashion, hitting two in the same game (in back-to-back innings off the same pitcher, no less). In their honor, here is a brief look at the recent history of 2-slam games.

Since 2006, there have been ten 2-grand-slam games by the same team, or about 2 per season. However, before the Mets did it last night, there had been a gap of almost two years since the last time. The Mets also turned the trick in 2006, making them the only team to do it twice in this span. Carlos Beltran, that RBI whore, was in the middle of all four grand slams, hitting two and being on base for the others.

It should come as no surprise that most of the pitchers that served up the slams are… mediocre (to put it nicely). Aside from a young Brett Anderson and an end-of-the-line Kenny Rogers, all the other pitchers are undistinguished.

Daniel Schlereth and Brandon Backe are the only two pitchers on the list to give up both slams. I’m actually kind of surprised it’s happened at all; it seems a sign of poor managerial choices to let a pitcher who’s already given up a slam pitch with the bases loaded again. Particularly since Schlereth is a reliever and Backe had given up 7 runs even before the second slam.

Last night, the Mets hit their slams in back-to-back innings, but they did even better in 2006, when they hit them in the same inning, and rallied from a 5-2 deficit to a 13-5 lead in the process–that’s right, they scored 11 runs in the inning. Not a bad rally.

The only other time in which the slams resulted in a big comeback was for the Phillies in 2009. They trailed 6-2 when  Ryan Howard hit the first slam, tying the game. Then they trailed 11-9 when Raul Ibanez hit the second one, giving them a 13-11 lead that would be the final score.

There are some other interesting games on this list. The Rangers’ two-slam game in 2007 is actually their famous 30-3 win over the Orioles. If you haven’t heard about that game, click on the date in the table–it’s a fun one.

Josh Willingham is the only player in this time range to hit two slams in one game. He hit them in back-to-back innings, too, which is impressive, though not as impressive as Fernando Tatis hitting two in the same inning in this game