A 6-for-6 Attack

Earlier this month on May 7th, Astros star slugger George Springer managed an unlikely feat going 6-for-6 in a nine-inning game. Against the Athletics in Oakland, Springer managed a double, a home run, and four singles. The offensive barrage resulted in four runs scored, three RBI, and 10 total bases.

Springer became the 65th major league player with a six-hit, nine-inning game, the first in his club’s history, and the first in baseball since the Nationals’ Anthony Rendon managed a similar game on April 30 last season. Like Rendon, Springer further distinguished himself by becoming one of just 15 such players ever to log six hits, four runs scored, a home run and three RBI in a nine-inning game.

In 2016 there were two six-hit attacks in a nine-inning contest, including one by the Angels’ C.J. Cron against the Red Sox in a forgettable, 21-2 drubbing by the Halos over the Sox at Fenway Park. In that game, Clay Buchholz allowed four runs over 4.1 IP only to watch his replacement, Heath Hembree, make it a 9-0 Anaheim lead by the end of the fourth. Cron, like Springer this season, was also one of the elite 15 whose six hits included four runs, a HR and three RBI.

Since 1908, the Red Sox have been victims of a 6-for-6 attack in a regulation-length game five times, more than any other American League team. Before Cron in 2016, it was the Royals Kevin Seitzer who turned the trick on August 2, 1987. Also Floyd Robinson for the White Sox (July 22, 1962), George Myatt for the Washington Senators (May 1, 1944), and Myril Hoag for the Yankees in Game 1 on June 6, 1934.

For their part, Boson has just one instance of a 6-for-6 game. It came off the bat of the late Jim Piersall against the St. Louis Browns on June 10, 1953. In that game Piersall (shown here in 1957 at Fenway) hit a double and five singles in an 11-2 Red Sox win at the original Busch Stadium. Two-time All-Star Piersall, who played eight seasons with the Red Sox (1950, 52-58), passed away last summer at age 87.

Six-hit games, of course, indicate an opposing pitching meltdown and, indeed, of the 65 major league players to enjoy such output, only one did so in a losing affair. The Phillies Connie Ryan had two doubles and four singles, but the Pirates nonetheless prevailed on April 16, 1953, winning 14-12.