Tribe Tidbits

June 16, 2014

tribetidbigs smallerfeather2Sad to hear of Tony Gwynn’s passing. He was always one of my favorite non-Indians growing up. Unfortunately, we never got to see Gwynn in Cleveland since his career only briefly overlapped with interleague play. He did appear in the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, however, playing DH and going 0-3.

feather2The most amazing statistics of Tony Gwynn’s career are his strikeout numbers. During his career, which spanned from 1982 through 2001, he struck out just 434 times—only eight more strikeouts than Carlos Santana currently has in his five-year career.

feather2Gwynn also never struck out more than 40 times in a season. Entering Monday’s game, Bourn, Gomes, Swisher, Santana and Cabrera had already eclipsed that mark. The Indians haven’t had a player with fewer than 40 strikeouts in over 500 plate appearances since Carlos Baerga in 1995.

feather2On June 11, the Indians lost 4-1 to the Royals on four sacrifice flies. It was the first time in franchise history they had lost a game in which they allowed at least four runs, all on sac flies. In fact, it’s just the second time they’ve ever allowed four sac flies in a game. The other game was also against the Royals in 2006.

feather2Lonnie Chisenhall has cooled off the past few days, likely ending his chance at reaching .400 again this season. Since Ted Williams topped the .400 mark, Manny Ramirez‘s .400 average on May 28, 1995 is the latest an Indian has reached .400 with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title.

chisenhall averagefeather2Entering Monday’s game, Chisenhall has a .371 average, which ranks among the best in franchise history at this point in the season. Over the past 100 years, only eight players have posted a higher average through the team’s first 70 games and no one has topped .371 since Jeff Heath in 1941.

feather2Chisenhall still has a shot at the highest Indians pre-All-Streak Game average since the first game in 1933. That record is currently held by Kenny Lofton‘s .378 average entering the 1994 All-Streak break.

feather2Lost in the hype of Chisenhall’s nine-RBI explosion against Texas was the fact that George Kottaras became just the second player in franchise history to hit home runs for each of his first three hits as an Indian. He joined Juan Gonzalez who accomplished the feat in 2001.

feather2I was unsuccessful in my attempt to find a definitive list of Indians with home runs as three of their first four hits, but I did find that Kevin Mitchell and Boog Powell left the yard for three of their first five hits with the Tribe. George Kottaras, Juan Gonzalez, Kevin Mitchell and Boog Powell—that’s quite the eclectic list.

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