In the wake of Ryne Nelson, let’s revisit the highs (and lows!) of Arizona pitchers at the plate.
Technically, Ryne Nelson’s hit on Sunday against the Cubs does not count. Because he didn’t throw a pitch, and the official box-score actually records his appearance as a pinch-hitter. But it would be churlish to exclude it on that basis, even if it will never show up in a Baseball Reference search for pitcher hits. It will live forever in the hearts of fans as a hit by a pitcher. While it’s early days, I’d not be surprised were it to make the ballot at season’s end as a Play of the Year candidate in our awards. But it’s not the first memorable hit by an Arizona Diamondback better known on the mound. Let’s look at some others.
April 20, 1998 – Gregg Olson goes deep
The first HR by an Arizona pitcher was by Andy Benes, ten days earlier off Kevin Brown of the Padres, who’d be an All-Star that season. But as a reliever, Olson’s was more remarkable. Best-known here for walking Barry Bonds with the bases loaded, his career spanned 1989-2001 and 622 games, but only four ABs. His sole hit was in extended relief during a 15-4 blowout over the Marlins. In the 7th inning, he faced Miami’s Óscar Henríquez and sent a 3-2 pitch over the fence in left at Bank One Ballpark. He’s one of three pitchers to homer in their last at-bat.
While I could find no video of the homer, Olson described it in a 2020 interview. “He was one of those cross-firing pitchers who threw in the 90s. It felt like he was landing about 12 inches away and throwing right at me. I faced him in the sixth and struck out. At that point in my career, I was 0-3 with three strikeouts. I hadn’t put a ball in play… This guy threw a pitch on the inside half and literally, I saw it and said to myself, “I could hit this.” I hit it and it was just butter off the bat and I was like, “Holy crap!” I had some bombs in high school, so it wasn’t a totally new thing. Then I remembered I was pitching and didn’t want to show anyone up, so I just put my head down and ran my ass off.”
September 19, 2003 – The Big Unit gets a big fly
Most pitchers are not good hitters, which is part of the joy when they get one. Collectively, AZ pitchers have a line of .143/.178/.183, an OPS of .361 (excluding Ryne’s hit, as noted above). Some struggled to reach even that. Geraldo Guzmán was 0-for-20 with no walks for a zero OPS. Merrill Kelly is 4-for-99. Compared to them, Randy Johnson is better, though his .132/.163/.162 line, a .326 OPS, is still below average, and has a 41.8% K-rate – having close to the biggest strike zone in history can’t help. He had his adventures on the basepaths too. But even blind squirrels find a nut. Johnson is the first D-backs pitcher with a playoff hit, singling against Dennis Cook of the Mets in Game #1 of the 1999 NLDS.
There was no bigger nut than in 2003, when Randy hit the sole homer of his 22-year MLB career. It came against the Brewers, off future D-back Doug Davis, and was the margin of victory in a 3-2 win. Said Davis, “It was a 2-0 cut fastball that went from out to in, pretty much right over the plate. I think he was just as surprised as everybody else… When he touched home plate, I could tell he wanted to smile, but he didn’t want to show me up out there on the mound.” Davis recalls RJ threw him nothing but sliders in subsequent at-bats, unwilling to allow any chance for revenge. Johnson became the oldest player to hit his first home run (40 years, 9 days), a mark since surpassed – who else? – by Bartolo Colon.
August 8, 2007 – Micah Owings out-Ohtanis Ohtani, before Ohtani was Ohtani
We may remember Owings as a good hitter, but do we remember just HOW good he was? Over a hundred appearances for the Diamondbacks, he hit .298/.331/.496 for an OPS of .827. That’s top twenty for the franchise all-time (min. 100 games), putting him just below Justin Upton’s .832 OPS. In his rookie season, he was better still than that, going 20-for-60 with an OPS of 1.033 and driving in 15 runs in just sixty at-bats. He and Shohei Ohtani (in 2023) are the only pitchers since 1955 to have an OPS over a thousand for a season, with at least fifty plate-appearances. And in one game that year against the Braves, Owings did something even Ohtani has yet to accomplish when pitching: drive in six runs.
Owings went 4-for-5 with a double as well as two homers – and not cheapies either, both going over 400 feet – while pitching seven innings in a quality start. He was a triple from being the first pitcher ever with a cycle, and his 11 total bases were most for a pitcher since the Boston Braves’ Jim Tobin in May 1942. “I’m just blessed,” Owings said. “Early on in the season I was racking up some ‘W’s’. I had to learn some things and iron some things out. To be back home and have the game that I did tonight, that’s all I can say, I’m unbelievably blessed.” Micah ended his time in Arizona with an ERA+ of 97, and an OPS+ of 108. There can’t be many pitchers since Babe Ruth who were better at the plate than on the mound!
April 17, 2015 – Josh Collmenter’s complete performance
I don’t want you to think Arizona’s pitchers are all about the long ball. Though there were some other candidates I considered. Honorable mentions to Zack Greinke having the other two-homer performance by a D-backs pitcher. Taijuan Walker obliterating a pitch an estimated 455 feet. Humberto Castellanos with what’s likely one of the last home-runs ever by a pitcher. But anyone can luck into a long ball eventually – as Colon proved above! Almost more impressive are the multi-hit games by pitchers, like Dan Haren going 4-for-4 in 2010, or another Owings performance later in 2007, where he had four hits, including three doubles, while tossing 6.1 shutout innings.
But to this end, you cannot do much better than Collmenter. Coming into the game against the Giants with a career batting average of just .114, he got hits off Jake Peavy, Ryan Vogelsong and (near perfect-game hurler) Yusmeiro Petit. It may helped on the mound, as he said, “That was a blessing in disguise. It’s fun when you can hit and be a productive member of the lineup but it also helped out on a cold night to get out there and move around, as opposed to just sitting in the dugout.” For he also tossed a complete-game shutout on… hey, coincidentally, 114 pitches, around four hits and a walk. Only seven of those pitches was faster than 84 mph.
October 4, 2017 – Archie Bradley says, “Mine’s a triple.”
Yeah, you knew this was coming, didn’t you? The first triple ever in the MLB post-season by a relief pitcher. Hell, in the live-ball era only two other pitchers have a playoff triple [Before that, Dutch Ruether had two in Game 1 of the 1919 World Series, though it was against the Black Sox!] You might have predicted this, it had been such an insane game already. By the middle of the fourth both starters were gone, and the teams were emptying their bullpens, with fourteen pitchers used in a regulation game. Arizona was clinging to a 6-5 lead in the seventh. They had two men on, but two outs, and the pitcher’s spot up. Torey Lovullo needed Bradley to pitch the eighth more than he needed an extra run, so Archie got to hit.
There may not be a better argument against the designated hitter than the above. It provided an iconic moment in D-backs playoff history, arguably surpassed only by Gonzo’s bloop single. Three years later, Matt Lopez would write it up, and I get chills just reading that. Of course, Bradley would immediately cough those two runs right back up in the eighth. But who cares, because Arizona would still win – Archie’s was one of four triples hit by the D-backs that night, the most in a playoff game since 1903. Torey Lovullo called it “A defining moment for our club,” and it’s one which maybe even was not beaten during the 2023 run to the World Series.