May 10, 2008: Washington’s Joel Hanrahan allows four inherited runners to score in one inning

Baseball is a game of statistics, and there appears to be a number to objectively measure every aspect of player performance. For instance, when evaluating the effectiveness of relief pitchers, the percentage of inherited runners that score is key.1 A hurler who enters the game with the bases loaded and retires the side without giving up any runs can dramatically shift the momentum of the game. On the other hand, a reliever who comes into that situation and throws gas on the fire might put the game out of reach – not to mention inflate the earned-run average of the previous pitcher.

On May 10, 2008, Washington Nationals reliever Joel Hanrahan entered a game against the Florida Marlins with the bases loaded and one out. Hanrahan did what some thought was impossible: Thanks to a relatively obscure rule, he allowed four inherited runners to score that inning. As of the end of the 2023 season, it was the only time a pitcher was known to have permitted a quartet of inherited runners to score in a National or American League game.2

Washington had kicked off the 2008 season on a high note by winning the inaugural game at Nationals Park on a thrilling walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman. After coming out on top in the next two games, the Nationals came crashing down to earth with a nine-game losing streak. At the start of play on May 10, Washington was mired in last place in the National League East Division with a 15-21 record.

The surprising Marlins – enjoying their best start in franchise history3 − were on a five-game winning streak and in first place in the NL East with a 21-14 mark, one game ahead of the second-place Philadelphia Phillies.

Manager Fredi González tapped 22-year-old Andrew Miller to start for the Marlins. The 6-foot-7 southpaw had come to Florida the previous December in a controversial trade with the Detroit Tigers that saw the tightfisted Marlins dump salary by dealing away future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera and the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year, Dontrelle Willis.4 Miller had struggled mightily in his first three seasons in the big leagues, and he had a 2-2 record and an unsightly 7.96 ERA so far in 2008.5

Washington gave the ball to 27-year-old lefty Mike O’Connor, who had been selected in the seventh round of the June 2002 draft out of nearby George Washington University.6 The Nationals were hoping he would step up and become the team’s fifth starter, which had been a black hole for them up to that point in the season.7 O’Connor had compiled a 1-0 record and a 6.35 ERA in four relief appearances. He was making his first big-league start since September 2006.

Marlins center fielder Cody Ross was the game’s first batter. “I told Hanley [Ramírez when we were stretching before the game, ‘I’m going to try to do what you do on the first pitch [Ramírez had 18 career leadoff home runs],’” said Ross.8 His plan worked perfectly. Ross ambushed O’Connor’s first offering of the game − an 87 MPH fastball – and blasted it about 20 rows into the left-field seats for his second home run of the season.9

O’Connor gave up a walk and a single later in the inning before escaping without any further damage. He retired the Marlins in order in the second, but he ran into more trouble in the third when he loaded the bases on two walks and a single. After O’Connor wild-pitched a run home, Dan Uggla added a sacrifice fly, giving Florida a 3-0 lead.

The Marlins drove O’Connor from the game in the fourth. The inning began with a home run by first baseman Wes Helms and a double by catcher Matt Treanor. After Miller sacrificed Treanor to third, Ross walked and Jeremy Hermida drove in a run with a broken-bat single.10 O’Connor walked Ramírez on four pitches to load the bases. When the first two pitches to Jorge Cantú missed the strike zone,11 Washington manager Manny Acta called for Hanrahan to come in from the bullpen.

The 26-year-old Hanrahan had been converted into a reliever after he struggled as a starter in his rookie season of 2007. He had shown poor control in the upper levels of the minor leagues and the trend continued in the majors. So far in 2008, Hanrahan had issued 19 walks in 20 innings of relief and his ERA stood at 4.95.

Hanrahan’s first offering went for a wild pitch, allowing Ross to come home with Florida’s sixth run. Two pitches later, Hanrahan issued ball four to Cantú and the bases were loaded once again. The next batter, Uggla, drove a first-pitch fastball from Hanrahan into the Marlins bullpen in left field for a grand slam,12 giving Florida a 10-0 lead. The embattled right-hander finally got out of the inning by retiring the next two batters on popups.

Hanrahan had come into the game with the bases loaded and all three of those baserunners scored. But rule 9.16(h) states that a “relief pitcher shall not be held accountable when the first batter to whom he pitches reaches first base on four called balls, if such batter has a decided advantage in the ball and strike count when pitchers are changed.”13 Since Cantú had a 2-and-0 count on him when Hanrahan entered the game, his walk was charged to O’Connor – creating a fourth inherited baserunner. Hanrahan’s historic and incredible-seeming feat appears to have received no mention in the published game accounts.14

Meanwhile, Miller was enjoying the best start of his young career. After giving up an infield single and a walk in the first inning, he retired 14 consecutive batters. He didn’t give up his second and final hit of the game until Felipe López blooped a one-out single in the sixth. After a one-two-three seventh inning, Miller was lifted for a pinch-hitter. He threw a season-high 103 pitches, the majority of which were changeups,15 and he equaled career highs in strikeouts (7) and innings pitched.16

The Marlins tacked on another run in the eighth on an RBI single by Hermida.

Florida relievers Taylor Tankersley and Matt Lindstrom each pitched a scoreless inning to cap the 11-0 blowout victory. It was the fifth time Washington had been shut out in 37 games.

O’Connor was charged with 9 earned runs in 3⅓ innings, ballooning his ERA from 6.35 to 13.00. The next day he was demoted to Triple A and he made only nine more appearances in the big leagues, all as a reliever with the New York Mets in 2011.17

The underdog Marlins – with the lowest payroll in the majors by a wide margin − hung around the pennant race until the middle of August.18 They ended the month by losing 14 of 22 games to fall out of contention, although they managed to post a respectable 84-77 record, only 7½ games behind the division-winning Phillies.

The Nationals floundered in last place for the remainder of the season, with the team hitting rock bottom in July with only five wins in the month. They suffered the indignity of being shut out 21 times in 2008, setting a new franchise record.19 Washington ended the season with the worst record in the majors (59-102).20

In late July the Nationals traded their closer, Jon Rauch, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for prospect Emilio Bonifácio, so they turned to the hard-throwing Hanrahan as their new stopper. Despite never having registered a save at any level, Hanrahan posted a 3.96 ERA with 9 saves in 12 opportunities after Rauch was dealt away.

Hanrahan struggled mightily early in 2009 and his ERA rose to a bloated 7.71, resulting in a trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of June.21 The Pirates had seen Hanrahan’s untapped potential. “We saw a guy who was struggling on the surface … our scouts saw a plus fastball, a plus slider,” said Pittsburgh general manager Neal Huntington. “As we looked at the numbers, we saw a batting average on balls in play [BAbip] that was extraordinarily high, unsustainably high.”22

Hanrahan showed immediate improvement with the change of scenery and help from Pittsburgh pitching coaches Joe Kerrigan and Ray Searage. He became Pittsburgh’s full-time closer in 2011, a role in which he flourished. Hanrahan set a new franchise record with 76 saves in 2011-12, the most by a Pirates reliever in back-to-back seasons.23 That stretch of dominance earned him a pair of All-Star selections.

Not surprisingly, Hanrahan permitted a much lower percentage of inherited runners to score as a Pirate.24 In his two-plus seasons in Washington, Hanrahan had allowed a whopping 47 percent of inherited runners to score. But in his two All-Star seasons in Pittsburgh, that figure plummeted to just 9 percent.25

Acknowledgments

The author thanks SABR member Stew Thornley and Miya Upshur-Williams of the DC Public Library for their research assistance. This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, Retrosheet.org, and the SABR Bio of Joel Hanrahan. Unless otherwise stated, play-by-play details were taken from the article “Capital Night for Marlins” in the May 11, 2008, edition of the (Fort Lauderdale) South Florida Sun Sentinel.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS200805100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2008/B05100WAS2008.htm

Notes

1 Baseball-Reference refers to the statistic as Inherited Score Percentage, or IS%.

2 The author reviewed the data available on Stathead.com and Baseball-Reference.com in October 2023 and could find no other occurrences of a pitcher allowing four inherited runners to score in an inning.

3 Joe Capozzi, “Winning Streak Reaches Six,” Palm Beach Post, May 11, 2008: B1.

4 On December 4, 2007, the Detroit Tigers traded Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin, Dallas Trahern (minors), Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, and Mike Rabelo to the Florida Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

5 The Marlins traded Miller to the Boston Red Sox in November 2010 and the Red Sox converted him into a full-time reliever in 2012. Miller became one of the most dominant relief pitchers in baseball for five seasons (2013-17).

6 O’Connor was drafted by the Montreal Expos. The Expos moved to Washington after the 2004 season.

7 Matt Chico had been Washington’s fifth starter until May 3. Chico posted a 0-5 record and 6.87 ERA in seven starts.

8 Capozzi, “Winning Streak Reaches Six.”

9 Chico Harlan, “O’Connor Fails to Provide Any Answers for Nationals,” Washington Post, May 11, 2008: D1.

10 George Richards, “Marlins Win 6th in a Row,” Miami Herald, May 11, 2008: 6D.

11 Richards, “Marlins Win 6th in a Row.”

12 Richards, “Marlins Win 6th in a Row.”

13 The rule stipulates exactly which counts are considered a decided advantage: 2-and-0, 2-and-1, 3-and-0, 3-and-1, and 3-and-2. The rule was first instituted as rule 70 (section 12) in 1940, but it initially applied to both walks and hits. In 1950 the rule was renumbered to 10.15 (g) and it was changed so that it applied to just walks. Edgar G. Brands, “Pitchers Gain Most Benefit in Changes,” The Sporting News, February 22, 1940: 3.

14 Even reliable sources had difficulty processing this anomaly. Retrosheet’s box score shows Hanrahan inheriting three baserunners and allowing all three to score. Baseball-Reference’s box score shows Hanhrahan inheriting three baserunners and allowing four inherited baserunners to score.

15 Capozzi, “Winning Streak Reaches Six.”

16 Miller’s pitching line was 7 scoreless innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, and 7 strikeouts. He set a new career high for strikeouts 12 days later when he struck out nine Arizona Diamondbacks in seven innings of work. Miller never exceeded seven innings in his 66 career starts.

17 Associated Press, “Gagne Out as Closer with ‘Mental Break,’” Portland (Maine) Press Herald, May 12, 2008: B6.

18 According to Baseball-Reference, the Marlins’ payroll was only $21.8 million in 2008, which was less than half as much as the Tampa Bay Rays, who had the second lowest payroll ($45 million). The New York Yankees led the majors with a payroll of $212.3 million. The Baseball Reference figures may not include every bonus paid or every player called up or acquired in midseason.

19 The previous franchise record was set by the Montreal Expos in 1972 when they were shut out 20 times. As of the end of the 2023 season, the franchise record was still the 21 shutouts in 2008.

20 As a result, the Nationals selected first in the June 2009 draft. They chose Stephen Strasburg with the first overall pick. He led Washington to the 2019 World Series championship, earning MVP honors in the Series. Injuries limited Strasburg to a career record of 113-62.

21 On June 30, 2009, Hanrahan was traded by the Washington Nationals with Lastings Milledge to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan.

22 A very high BAbip can be an indication that a pitcher has had a run of bad luck. Hanrahan’s BAbip was .295 in 2008. It jumped to an “unsustainable” .431 with the Nationals in 2009. Dejan Kovacevic, “Outside Opinion,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 27, 2010: D1.

23 As of the end of the 2023 season, the franchise record for most saves in back-to-back seasons was Mark Melancon’s 84 saves in 2014-15.

24 Of course, Hanrahan inherited baserunners much less frequently as a closer, since he typically came into the game at the start of an inning. He inherited 34 baserunners in his 69 appearances with the Nationals in 2008 and 41 baserunners in his 238 appearances from 2009 to 2012.

25 By comparison, major-league pitchers allowed an average of 30 percent of inherited runners to score in 2011.