Three Pitchers Get Their First Career Hit in the Same Game

When I sat down tonight to watch the Pirates and Astros, I didn't really think I'd be seeing anything all that special. The Pirates and 'Stros are tied for last in the NL Central, after all, and both teams have been pretty frigid of late. When Phil Dumatrait picked up an RBI single in the first, the announcers mentioned it was his first career hit. Then i the in the fourth, Runelvys Hernandez laid down a bunt into noman's land and scored a run. Again, the announcers noted it was his first career hit. That seemed mildly more interesting. In the bottom of the fourth, Denny Bautista came to the plate. Yep, RBI single, first career hit. Now that's odd.

Now, I'm only a baseball historian on Sunday afternoons after three beers, but it strikes me as incredibly rare that three pitchers all managed to pick up their first career hits and have them all be RBI singles in the same game. I'm sure it's happened before, but probably not all that often. I guess it's not all that surprising that it happened in a game where the starters combined to give up 17 runs, but I'm still impressed.

In case you'd forgotten, Runelvys Hernandez is the guy that kicked off the whole Shawn Chacon saga by taking Chacon's spot in the Astros rotation. Tonight he managed to actually give up ten runs (including two RBI singles to pitchers that had no career hits coming into the night), which is pretty rare for a starter. I imagine Shawn Chacon's looking in a mirror somewhere and feeling pretty good about himself.