I was watching the Chicago White Sox pick on my Seattle Mariners on 07/19/2010. It seemed like every 3rd pitch thrown by both teams bounced in the dirt. It got me to wondering,
a) How many were there in that game total, and
b) what is the MLB record for most pitches in a game bounced in the dirt by both teams?
Pointless knowledge, but was curious enough to see if there are any Straight Dope fans who know how to get obscure baseball stats?
Thanks in advance!
That’s not a stat that’s tracked. Sorry.
Here’s the boxscore for that game. There were 299 pitches thrown, 102 of which were balls (34%). There were only 6 walks issued, which is pretty low. The Sox starter David Pauley is a sinkerball pitcher (according to his wiki), nothing is mentioned about the Mariners’ starter Dan Hudson (I was looking to see if either was a knuckleball pitcher, which would have really contributed to balls in the dirt).
As has been pointed out this stat is, sadly, not tracked, and so there is no factual answer.
It’s likely, though, that whatever the record is, it’s been set in the last 20 years or so. Recent trends in pitching and tactics are such that more pitches are being thrown low. There’s three reasons I think we’re seeing more pitches in the dirt:
Home runs. The increase in home runs has led to more emphasis on pitchers trying to keep the ball down; generally speaking it is easier to hit a poorly thrown high pitch over the fence than a poorly thrown low pitch.
The strike zone. In the 1980s and 1990s, for a variety of reasons, the de facto strike zone moved away from the rule book and became lower - for awhile umps would not call a strike on a pitch above the hips - and wider. Since pitchers were aiming at a lower zone, the ball came down.
Pitches. Sinking pitches, especially split-fingered fastballs, are now commonplace as favoured pitching weapons. 40 years ago there wasn’t even an expression “split fingered fastball” and forkball specialists were unusual.