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Royals Pitchers Hitting - The Least Bad, The Truly Ugly and the Downright Strange

Baseball is back for 2022, and part of the new agreement closes the door on almost a century and a half of games in which any team in Major League baseball is required to send a pitcher to the plate. What better time could there be, then, to reflect on the hitting abilities - or lack thereof - of those pitchers who batted wearing Royal Blue?

The Pre-DH Era (1969-1972)

Auspicious beginnings: The first hit by a Royals pitcher was a double by Wally Bunker in the fifth inning of the Royals' very first game, April 8, 1969 off the Twins' Tom Hall (later to join the Royals himself). The Twins were also the first team to surrender a home run to a Royals pitcher, almost exactly three months later on July 7. Hall of Famer Jim Kaat surrendered two to Jim Rooker, a solo shot in the third inning, and a two-run blast in the fifth. Despite his heroics at the plate, Rooker would get hung with a 6-5 loss, though.

Best full career: Al Fitzmorris. Playing in each of the four pre-DH seasons (though very little in 1969), he managed 24 hits in 99 at-bats, including 5 doubles and 7 walks, to achieve a whopping .242 batting average and .583 OPS. His 7:29 BB:SO ratio is second best of any Royals pitcher with over 100 plate appearances. Fitz would go on pitching for the Royals until 1976, the last member of the inaugural team to still have played for the Royals continuously.

Best single season: Jim Rooker, 1969. Coming in just behind Fitz for the career mark at .579, he hit for a monstrous .849 OPS in his and the Royals' rookie year. Stepping to the plate 59 times, he reached base safely on 18 of those occasions, including 3 doubles and 4 home runs, which remains the season home run record for Royals pitchers and in fact comprises more than half the total for all Royals pitchers (he himself hit one of those others in 1970 and is the only pitcher to have hit any in those two years) in the pre-DH era. While this was a career year for him as a hitter, the next year, he drove in 13 runs that being the single-season team record for a pitcher, and more than any other Royals pitcher had in their entire Royals career. Rooker would also have a decent hitting year (.737 OPS in 106 plate appearances) with the Pirates in 1974.

Frequent Fanner Program: Pitchers at the plate, as a class, are generally expected to strike out, and of the Royals of this era, Bill Butler was the dubious champ, with 60% of his 132 plate appearances between 1969 and 1971 marked with a "K". In raw numbers, Dick Drago tops the list with 149, but he accumulated those in 327 plate appearances - by far the most of any Royals pitcher, more than the pitchers in second and third place combined (Jim Rooker with 170 and Mike Hedlund with 150).

Best Plate Discipline: Wally Bunker took 13 walks in his Royals hitting career to go along with his 42 strikeouts, top rate among Royals pitchers of the era. Only twice has a Royals pitcher walked more than struck out - Steve Jones in 1969, walking twice and striking out once in a mere 10 plate appearances, and Al Fitzmorris, walking four times against three strikeouts in 27 plate appearances in 1972.

Futility Infielder: Ken Wright stepped up to the plate 6 times between 1970 and 1972 and struck out on four of hose occasions, never reaching base safely nor advancing a runner. Mike Jackson had 6 plate appearances and 4 strikeouts in 1972 alone, but at least executed a sacrifice bunt to move Bobby Knoop from first to second, an advance that did not lead to a run scoring.

The World's Most Interesting Pitching Staff: They don't always attempt to steal bases, but when they do, they're successful at it. On May 28, 1969, Mike Hedlund stole second base, as did Wally Bunker on June 7, 1969. On no other occasion did a Royals pitcher even try.

Overall team statistics for the Pre-DH era: .131 Batting Average (206-for-1569) and .348 OPS, 29 doubles, 3 triples, 7 home runs, 86 RBI, 92 walks and 652 strikeouts.

The Oddball Appearances (or: It Could Still Happen!)

From 1973 through 1996, no American League team was ever required to list a pitcher in their batting order, but - lest you think that we will never see a pitcher bat again (other than Shohei Ohtani) - there is always the circumstance where a team loses use of their designated hitter and must bring the pitcher to the plate or pinch-hit for him. On four occasions during this stretch, the Royals actually let their pitcher bat:

June 22, 1975: In the first game of a double-header at Oakland against the A's, Harmon Killebrew started the game as designated hitter and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. With the Royals trailing 5-2 in the top of the 9th, an Amos Otis walk and a Hal McRae single brought the tying run to the plate, and Whitey Herzog brought in Tony Solaita to pinch hit for the aging slugger. This turned out to be a good move, as Solaita walked to load the bases, and was promptly replaced on the basepaths by Freddie Patek. John Mayberry then walked in a forced run and Cookie Rojas singled, allowing the speedy Patek to score from second, tying the game. For the duration of the game, Patek took over (from Frank White) at shortstop, costing the Royals use of the DH. Having pretty much depleted the bench and with a second game yet to play, the pitcher, Steve Mingori, was allowed to bat for himself in the 12th inning and struck out for the second out of the inning. The Royals would manage a run before their half of the inning expired, but the A's put two baserunners on against Mingori and Lindy McDaniel surrendered a double to Sal Bando, walking off the field with a 7-6 win.

June 2, 1976: There must be something about 12-inning June games in Oakland that brings out the batter in Royals pitchers. Jim Wohlford started the game in left field, but failed to help the team in his four plate appearances. Trailing by one run in the top of the 9th and with Freddie Patek on second base, Whitey called on...extra deja vu alert...Tony Solaita, who hit a sacrifice fly which allowed the speedy Patek to score all the way from second, tying the game at 3 runs apiece. Designated hitter Hal McRae was moved to left field to replace Wohlford, and that slot in the batting order fell to Mark Littell, who, with no one on base, was allowed to bat for himself and strike out to end the 11th inning. The Royals scored once in the top of the 12th, and Littell got two outs in the bottom of the inning and then walked the tying run on base. He was promptly replaced with Steve Mingori, who got the last out and saved the Royals' 4-3 victory.

May 21, 1977: Another 12-inning game, another plate appearance by a pitcher. Mark Littell was again allowed to strike out on his own behalf, this time at home against the Cleveland now-Guardians. Tom Poquette started the game in left field and reached base in 2 of his 4 plate appearances, all of which were against right-handed pitchers - started Wayne Garland and his successor, Jim Kern. His turn in the order came around again with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, with the Royals behind by a score of 7-5 and two men on base. Lefty Don Hood was brought in to face the lefty-hitting Poquette, and Whitey Herzog, playing the percentages because that's what smart managers do to win ball games, countered with the righty-hitting Dave Nelson. The move worked, as Nelson tripled in the tying runs, sending the game to extra innings and necessitating a move by Hal McRae, the starting DH, to left field to replace Poquette. Mark Littell was brought in to pitch the 10th, batted and struck out in the 11th, and then gave up five runs in the top of the 12th, for a 12-7 Royals loss.

July 29, 1995: After 18 years without a pitcher at the plate, the Royals found themselves hosting the Detroit Tigers for a 16-inning contest. With the Royals down by a 4-2 score in the bottom of the 8th, starting DH Joe Vitiello singled in run # 3, prompting manager Bob Boone to pinch-run Chris Stynes for him, a successful move, as Stynes went first-to-third on a single from Chris James, pinch-hitting for second baseman David Howard, and then scored two batters later. Stynes then took over Howard's second base position, causing the designated hitter to be lost for the remainder of the game, which ended up being eight more innings. After pinch hitting for the pitcher's spot in the 10th inning, there was no one left on the bench, and Hipolito Pichardo, who took over the mound in the top of the 12th, had two opportunities to bat, lining out in the 12th and grounding out in the 15th. Pichardo continued pitching until Jon Nunnally hit a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 16th.

Twice during this era, a player who is not usually a pitcher was brought in to pitch and hit while serving as pitcher: On August 20, 1979, with the Royals down 14-1 to the Yankees in the 5th inning, Whitey Herzog started subbing out his first string players in order to not risk wear-and-tear on them in a lost cause, and in the 7th, replaced George Brett at third base with Jerry Terrell. One inning later, the Yankees' lead widened to 17-3 and Terrell was moved to the mound (with Clint Hurdle, the DH, taking his place at third) to mop up, batting and singling in that capacity in the bottom of the 9th. (Terrell pitched again on May 14, 1980, but did not come to bat in the game.) On June 24, 1991, Bill Pecota was moved from first base to pitcher (Carmelo Martinez, the DH, took over at first) in the top of the 8th inning of a 8-2 deficit against the California Angels (the final score ended up being 9-4) and flew out in the bottom of the 8th. (Pecota would pitch again the following year as a New York Met.)

Also of note is the game of August 29, 1977, in which pitchers Dennis Leonard, Jim Colborn and Andy Hassler were listed in the starting lineup as designated hitter, right field and first base, respectively. This game, played at Yankee Stadium, was a make-up of a game rained out on July 25. The game was scheduled to begin at 8 that evening and the rain had stopped as early as 5:15, and the Royals would have liked to play the game on the scheduled date, as they were not scheduled to return to New York for the remainder of the regular season, and two of the Yankees' starters were suffering from arm trouble at the time. The re-scheduling forced the Royals to play on a 20th consecutive day, which was more than the Collective Bargaining Agreement of the time allowed. The Royals players had voted to refuse to play, but Royals General Manager Joe Burke persuaded them to change their minds rather than forfeit a game during a division title race. (Though the Royals would eventually take the division by 8 games, at this point in the season, they only led the second-place White Sox by 3.) Whitey Herzog blamed the Yankees' front office and league favoritism toward the Yankees for allowing the situation to come about. To protest the situation, he presented the absurdist starting lineup that included the three pitchers mentioned above. Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' public address announcer, refused to announce the Royals' starting lineup out of embarrassment. Once game play began, the three pitchers were replaced with Hal McRae, Al Cowens and John Mayberry, respectively. The Royals ended up losing the game, 5-3; had they forfeited as per the players' original plan, the effect on the division title race would have been no different, but at least they would have gotten some rest.

The Interleague Era (1997-2019, 2021)

Starting in 1997, American League teams once again had to let their pitchers bat (during the regular season) when playing away games against National League opponents. This comprised no more than 13 games in any season, and in some years, as few as 6, so any statistics will necessarily be small sample size. For the sake of perspective, the top 10 Royals pitchers by plate appearances in the interleague era are:

Plate appearances Pitcher Years (may not have batted in each year)
26 Zack Greinke 2004-2010
24 Danny Duffy 2011-2021
20 Brian Bannister 2007-2010
20 Brad Keller 2018-2021
18 Jeff Suppan 1998-2002
17 Luke Hochevar 2007-2016
17 Jeremy Guthrie 2012-2015
14 Darrell May 2002-2004
14 Yordano Ventura 2013-2016
13 Bruce Chen 2009-2014

Best full career: Bruce Chen. From 2009-2013 (he didn't bat in 2014), he got four hits (all singles) and a walk in 13 plate appearances, good for an .855 OPS.

Best single season: James Shields, 2014. Excluding seasons of fewer than five plate appearances (such as Joel Peralta's OPS of 3.000 in 2007 for hitting a double in his only turn at bat), James's 2-for-7 with a double (.714 OPS) gets the nod over Zack Greinke's identical performance in 2008 due to his also scoring and driving in a run.

Frequent Fanner Program: Royals Hall of Famer Kevin Appier had 8 plate appearances as a Royal between 1997 and 1999 and struck out in 6 of them. At slightly higher volume, Yordano Ventura struck out 10 times in his 14 plate appearances, but at least he offset that with two hits against Appier's none. Luke Hochevar equalled Yordano's strikeout total, and Danny Duffy exceeded it by one (that being the career record for this era), but they did so in more turns at bat (17 and 24, respectively). A number of Royals pitchers have struck out in every one of their few plate appearances as a Royal, Carlos Hernandez representing the nadir of that well with four contactless plate appearances.

Best Plate Discipline: The "small sample size" matter which makes some of the other determinations functionally irrelevant (though still possibly interesting to discuss) makes this one completely laughable. Of the exactly 100 pitchers who batted for the Royals since interleague, not a single one walked more than once. Of these nine, two did not strike out at all - Jake Brentz, who walked in his only plate appearance (August 20, 2021 off of Jake Jewell of the Cubs), and Chris George, whose walk (June 18, 2004 off of Paul Abbott of the Phillies, formerly of the Royals) was one of 6 whiffless plate appearances, the others of which included, productively, an RBI hit and two sacrifice bunts, both of which advanced a runner (it was catcher Mike Difelice both times) who eventually scored. (Disclosure - said runner scored later on a grand slam and on a triple, so it's unlikely that the sac bunt was instrumental in the scoring of the run. Though it did eliminate the possibility of a double play for at least one batter.) Shout-out to Mark Redman, who walked against only one strikeout, no wonder he was selected to the All-Star game in 2006.

Futility Infielder: The Interleague era might have had smaller plate-appearance totals than the Pre-DH era, but it beats out that era for most career plate appearances without helping the team. Edinson Volquez had a Royals-pitcher record 11 regular-season plate appearances without reaching base safely, and he did not even advance a runner in any of them, striking out 7 times. Ironically, he is the only Royals pitcher to get a hit in the post-season. If that hit takes him out of the running, Jason Hammel stepped up to the plate 12 times, getting neither hit nor walk, though he did lay down a sacrifice bunt, though the runner in question died on third base. Of Royals pitchers whose futility at the dish is mitigated by neither a post-season hit nor a productive out, the one with the most plate appearances is Jay Witasick, whose 9 plate appearances in 1999 and 2000 included 6 strikeouts and three grounders.

Only Home Run Hit by a Royals Pitcher in the Interleague Era: Zack Greinke on June 10, 2005 off of Russ Ortiz in Arizona. It was one of Zack's only two plate appearances that year, which gave him an OPS of 2.500 that season.

These Walks Ain't Royal: As mentioned above, few Royals pitchers walked at all (in fact, Royals batters in general have a well-deserved reputation for not taking free passes), but Jeremy Guthrie, as a Royal, somehow managed to get on base every other way that is not considered an out in his record (i.e., error, fielder's choice or dropped third strike). In his Royals career, he collected two hits (April 16, 2013 and August 19, 2015), was hit by a pitch (August 7, 2014), was used as a pinch runner (June 3, 2014, replacing Billy Butler) and even reached base by catcher's interference (April 16, 2013)! But taking pitches outside of the strike zone (the HBP notwithstanding) just must have been outside of his comfort zone, at least as a Royal. (He did walk once in 2012 as a member of the Colorado Rockies.)

Pitcher Perfect: As mentioned above, Joel Peralta hit a double in his only plate appearance as a Royal, making him the only Royals pitcher with a perfect batting average. It happened in the top of the 12th inning on May 20, 2007, and drove in two of the Royals' five tie-breaking runs off of future Royal Ramon Ramirez, then pitching for the Rockies. He also scored afterward on a Mark Teahen single. He shares with Matt Tupman the distinction of having a 1.000 batting average as a Royal (Tupman's lone at-bat coming almost exactly a year later), though unlike Tupman, he did have hitless at-bats with other teams in his career.

Hitting Pitching Hitters: On 12 occasions during this era, the Royals were on the wrong end of a blowout score to such a degree that they sent to the mound someone who is normally a position player, and on 4 of those occasions, those players came to bat while listed in the lineup as the pitcher. On April 15, 2012, the Royals trailed the Cleveland now-Guardians by a score of 13-5, when they decided to have center fielder Mitch Maier (who had previously pitched on July 26, 2011) pitch the top of the ninth (Jason Bourgeois taking over in center). He came to bat in the bottom of the inning and struck out to end the game. On June 25, 2016, backup catcher Drew Butera entered the game in the top of the 9th inning as a relief pitcher (taking the lineup spot of DH Kendrys Morales) with the Royals in a 12-5 hole against the Astros (it would become 13-5 after Drew gave up an RBI double to the first batter he faced), and then doubled in the bottom of the inning, only to be cut down trying to score on a Paulo Orlando single. (Butera would go on to pitch twice more, on July 26, 2016 and on July 7, 2018, the most pitching appearances of any Royals position player.) On August 26, 2019, the Oakland Athletics had a 15-3 lead on the Royals when the Royals sent left fielder Alex Gordon to the mound (Bubba Starling, who was in right field, took over his spot, while DH Jorge Soler, in turn, went to right). Gordon pitched the 7th and to five batters in the 8th (and did not bat) and was then, after surrendering three more runs, relieved by utility infielder Humberto Arteaga (not previously in the game), who singled in the bottom of the 8th and closed the game out. However, Gordon did get his chance to bat as a pitcher four days later, in the 9th inning of a Royals 12-2 deficit against the Baltimore Orioles. After getting through the top of the 9th giving up only two more runs, he drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the frame. On the plus side, the Royals of this era have the distinction of being the first team to cause their opponents to do that in the post-season, specifically with Cliff Pennington of the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the 2015 American League Championship Series. And (small though the sample size is) Royals hitters hitting as pitchers recorded two hits (one of which was a double) and a walk in four such plate appearances, a far better performance than hitting pitchers in general. (Overall, including the two such appearances prior to Interleague play, Royals hitting pitching hitters have a .600 batting average, .667 OBP, .800 SLG and 1.467 OPS. Such as it is, with 6 total plate appearances.)

Overall team statistics for the Interleague era: .124 Batting Average (60-for-482) and .298 OPS, 11 doubles, 0 triples, 1 home run, 20 RBI, 10 walks and 221 strikeouts.

World Series

Royals pitchers came to bat in three of the Royals' four World Series appearances. They did not bat in the Royals' first World Series in 1980, as the arrangement back then was to use the designated hitter in even-numbered years. But when the Royals returned to the Fall Classic, it was 1985, an odd-numbered year, and the Royals pitchers, most of whom had not batted since their amateur days, were seen taking batting-practice swings. The results of those, translated to facing National League championship-level pitching, were predictably bad: none reaching base safely, and 12 of 18 plate appearances ending in strikeouts. Only two Royals pitchers stood on first base as runners: In the top of the 8th inning of Game 5, Danny Jackson reached base on a throwing error by Ozzie Smith, and as a result, Jim Sundberg scored the Royals' fifth run of the game. And in the bottom of the 5th inning of Game 7, the inning in which the Cardinals came completely and comically unglued, Bret Saberhagen stood safely at first base by a fielder's choice which forced out Darryl Motley at second, but advanced Steve Balboni to third. One batter later, he came around to score the eighth of the Royals eleven runs, and despite a batting average and OBP of .000, remains the only Royals pitcher to score a run in the World Series.

When the Royals returned to the World Series after a 29-year absence, the rules had changed; consistent with the regular-season rules of Interleague play, the DH was to be allowed while playing in the American League stadium, and the pitcher would have to bat in the National League stadium. The fact that Royals pitchers had batted under this arrangement during the regular season gave them no noticeable advantage over their predecessors of 29 years earlier; four Royals pitchers failed to reach base at all in 7 total plate appearances, striking out 3 of those times. The results of the same number of plate appearances were ever so slightly better the following post-season. In the second inning of Game 3, Yordano Ventura sacrifice-bunted Alex Rios to third base, and Rios went on to score the Royals' third and last run of that game (which the Royals would lose 9-3). And in the third inning of Game 5, Edinson Volquez (as mentioned earlier) singled for the only World Series hit ever by a Royals pitcher. (He was put out in a double play into which the very next batter, Alcides Escobar, grounded.)

The Final Farewell

The last Royals pitcher required to bat not due to loss of the DH in a game to get a hit was Danny Duffy, September 7, 2019, 5th inning, a single off of Caleb Smith of the Miami Marlins.

The last Royals pitcher required to bat not due to the loss of the DH in a game to reach base safely was Jake Brentz, who walked in the 9th inning of the game of August 20, 2021 off of Jake Jewell of the Chicago Cubs.

The last Royals pitcher required to bat not due to loss of the DH in a game was Carlos Hernandez, August 22, 2021, 7th inning. He struck out against Adrian Sampson of the Chicago Cubs.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.