The Indians fell behind 4-0 Monday night against the Reds, then stormed back to win 15-6, setting new season-highs for hits and runs. All nine starters had at least one of the team's 19 hits, and all nine starters scored at least one of those 15 runs. It's nice when that happens because everyone gets to share in the credit. Unfortunately, like most good things in life, it doesn't happen all that often.
Since 1913 (the first year Baseball-Reference has this sort of data for), last night was the 56th time the Indians have had all nine hitters hit safely and score in the same game. You may or may not be surprised to learn that the Indians won all 56 of those games.
Those 56 games going back to 1913 works out to a little under once every two years. It's become a more frequent occurrence, though:
- 1910s: 1
- 1920s: 8
- 1930s: 7
- 1940s: 5
- 1950s: 5
- 1960s: 0
- 1970s: 2
- 1980s: 4
- 1990s: 9
- 2000s: 7
- 2010s: 8
The Indians eight such games so far this decade are the most of any team. In fact, Toronto (with seven) is the only other team with more than four games like this during the 2010s.
On the opposite end of things, the final one of those game from the 1950s for the Indians came in 1957, and the first one of those games from the 1970s came in 1977, which means the Tribe at one point went twenty years without ever having all nine starters hit safely and score in the same game.
The Indians had two such games in 1922, 1933, 1936, 1995, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2013, but have never had three games like that in the same season.
From 1995 to 1999 the Indians had at least one game like that every season; five consecutive years is their longest such streak. They did it four seasons in a row from 1927 to 1930 and from 2004 to 2007, and they've now done it four seasons in a row again (2013 to 2016).
In last night's game, not only did all nine starters hit safely and score, but late-inning replacement Michael Martinez did too, giving the Tribe ten players with at least one hit and run scored. It's only the 19th time the Indians have done that. (Again, going back to 1913.) Four of those 19 games have come during the 2000s. Two of those were in 2004, making last night only the second time in the last twelve years the Tribe had done it. The first of those two games in 2004 was a 14-0 win over Baltimore. That's nothing compared to the second game from 2004, which was the memorable 22-0 romp over New York at Yankee Stadium.
Was this entire post just an excuse to remind everyone that the Indians beat the Yankees 22-0 on August 31, 2004?
...Maybe.