Tony La Russa revived the old pitcher-hits-eighth tactic Tuesday, and Brendan Ryan, the ninth-place hitter, started the winning rally. Almost as importantly (to us, at least), Ryan also happened to surpass former teammate and fellow shortstop Cesar Izturis for the most plate appearances as a non-pitching starter batting ninth (in non-DH games):

Most of the top 10 are Cardinals, of course; one notable exception is Joe DeMaestri. You’ve heard of him, right? Oh, you haven’t? He was the main ninth-place hitter for the 1957 Kansas City Athletics, who employed the tactic in 56 games, the third-greatest single-season pitcher-hits-eighth effort:

In fact, those A’s were the culmination of a mini-movement in the 1950s toward the approach: during the decade, 10 different organizations (Orioles, White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees, Senators, Indians, A’s, Cardinals, Pirates, Giants) had someone other than the pitcher start in the nine spot. The 1955 Yankees even batted their pitcher seventh in a handful of games.

In any case, the 2010 Cardinals, despite featuring the all-time ninth-place hitter, won’t be able to match their team record, set in 2008. They can make a valiant effort, though: Including Wednesday’s game, they now have two games in which the pitcher hit eighth; if they keep it up, they’ll finish with 143.

This entry was posted by Pip on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 11:27 pm and is filed under by the numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.