{"id":211,"date":"2008-08-11T18:29:12","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T01:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/?p=211"},"modified":"2008-08-11T18:29:12","modified_gmt":"2008-08-12T01:29:12","slug":"all-hr-no-hr-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/?p=211","title":{"rendered":"All-HR & no-HR games"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was watching a Cardinals game the other day—can’t remember exactly which one—and after a few innings the only runs were off solo homers. I hate games like that. I don’t mind a few taters, but small ball is more fun. It got me wondering: How many games have all<\/b> their runs knocked in by homers? And how many games have no<\/b> home runs? I took a guess at both numbers. You have a guess. I’ll wait. <\/p>\n

Ready? OK, continue reading.
\n
\nIn 2007 1.9% of games (47 of 2431) had all their runs scored via long balls, one game out of every 52. (My guess was 5%.) In 21 of those 47 games, only solo home runs were hit. <\/p>\n

14.6% of games (355 of 2431) had no home runs. (My guess was 20%.)<\/p>\n

This all came from Retrosheet event files, so we can see how these figures have changed over time. (Standard Retrosheet disclaimers apply: a few games are missing in the earlier seasons, and I may have parsed some of the events incorrectly.)<\/p>\n

game_hr_content.png<\/p>\n

The percentage of games with no home runs drops off in the 90s, which isn’t a big surprise. The percentage of games with all scoring via homers is pretty constant.<\/p>\n

The highest scoring game that had all runs scored on home runs since 1960 (and probably ever) was a 12-3 shellacking<\/a> of the Cubs by the Tigers in a 2006 interleague game that featured 11 homers.<\/p>\n

The largest number of runs on solo shots only? There have been four games with five solo homers since 1960:<\/p>\n