Something stuck with me over the last two months that I never actually got around to looking into, until now. I’m a regular listener of the Effectively Wild podcast on FanGraphs, with Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley, and in August they did a stat blast that happened to involve the Dodgers
.A listener wondered what was the longest succession of the same first name batting consecutively in a starting lineup, and it turned out to be the 1988 Dodgers who topped the list. In two different games, the Dodgers had
these four players batting in order, fifth through eighth:
- Mike Marshall, first base
- Mike Davis, right field
- Mike Deveraux, center field
- Mike Scioscia, catcher
Four straight players with the same first name is the record, so let’s look into the two games in question from 38 years ago.
Rainouts are so rare at Dodger Stadium, that the preemptive rescheduling in August 2023 due to a tropical storm was the first schedule change due to rain in Los Angeles in 23 years, the longest such streak in major league history. The previous record without a rainout was also at Dodger Stadium, between rainouts in 1988 and 1999.
But in 1988, the Dodgers had three home rainouts in a row, from April 19-21 against the San Diego Padres. Then on Friday, April 22 the Dodgers’ opener in San Francisco was also rained out. Figuring out when to make up that Friday game was a sore spot for the Giants, due to a right provided players in the collective bargaining agreement. From Sam McManis at the Los Angeles Times:
It began even before the first pitch, when a vote of Dodger players overturned the Giants’ plans for making up Friday night’s rainout on Monday night–originally a day off for the teams. Since teams are not required to come to the ballpark for more than 20 consecutive days, the Dodgers could–and did–veto the plans of Giant General Manager Al Rosen. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader in July.
“It’s difficult for me to understand why a team that had four days off can invoke the 20-day rule,” an indignant Rosen said. “Seems to me they would want to go back to work.”
The Dodgers would make up the Friday rainout on July 26, and won both games of that doubleheader.
But for the Saturday, April 23 game, it was Mike Marshall who stood out. He walked and scored in the seventh inning, and singled in the eighth. In the ninth inning, the Dodgers were up 6-3 with two outs and runners on second and third base. Giants manager Roger Craig intentionally walked Pedro Guerrero to bring up Marshall.
One year earlier, also in San Francisco, Craig walked Guerrero in the 10th inning and Marshall responded with a game-winning three-run home run, then pointed into the Giants dugout as he rounded the bases.
But on April 23, 1988, Marshall was more muted when he crushed a grand slam, widening the Dodgers’ lead to 10-3. More from McManis in the LA Times:
“I don’t blame any manager for walking Pete,” Marshall said. “He’s one of the top five hitters in the National League. It’s important that I do the job, because batting in the fifth slot is important on this team. The most important thing is that, next time, maybe Pete will get to hit.”
Also in this game, Mike Scioscia singled three times and walked, and scored three runs, the latter matching his career high.
Mike Davis did not get in on the hitting party in that April 23 game, going hitless in five at-bats, with three strikeouts. After hitting 65 home runs in the previous three seasons with the A’s, Davis signed with the Dodgers before 1988. This was a different time in baseball, such that free agency was barely more than a decade old, and the Dodgers for the most part avoided free agency entirely between the disastrous signings of pitchers Don Stanhouse and Dave Goltz after 1980, until 1988.
Davis hit just .216/.279/.315 with a 75 wRC+ in his two seasons with the Dodgers, and he never played in the majors again after his age-30 season in 1989. But he’s also etched in franchise lore for working a walk off the stingy Dennis Eckersley in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, keeping the game alive for Kirk Gibson to do his thing.
Devereaux was a fifth-round draft pick of the Dodgers in 1985 out of Arizona State, and he played in 49 games for Los Angeles in 1987-88 combined. He only started 16 times for the Dodgers, including just five starts among his 30 total games in 1988. Two starts were these games to complete the consecutive Mike quartet.
The Dodgers traded Devereaux in March 1989 for another Mike, pitcher Mike Morgan, the former No. 1-overall draft pick who debuted in the majors at 18 and pitched for a dozen teams during his 22-year career.
Devereaux was 0 for 4 on April 23 against the Giants, then was 0 for 2 on May 1 at home against the St. Louis Cardinals before Franklin Stubbs pinch-hit for him in the eighth inning. Stubbs, more known as a first baseman and occasional corner outfielder in his career, remained in the game for Devereaux in center field, one of 32 career games for Stubbs in center.
In fairness to Devereaux, no Dodgers did much of anything in that May 1 game.
The Cardinals jumped on Tim Leary for six runs in the first inning and he was done after only two outs.
Meanwhile, John Tudor didn’t allow a hit in his six innings. He did walk Alfredo Griffin, he of the low 4.6-percent career walk rate, in the first inning and Devereaux reached on an error in the second. But Tudor got everyone else out, including retiring 13 in a row to finish out his six innings, and exited up seven runs.
Tudor was in his second start coming off the injured list, so the Cardinals were cautious.
“I knew I wasn’t going nine before the game,” Tudor said, per McManis in the LA Times. “But I guess at that point, it was my choice. I could have gone another inning, but I didn’t see the point. I was starting to feel a little stiff.”
“He’s an All-Star, a quality pitcher,” said Steve Sax, per the UPI game recap. “He’s gonna have days like that. We’re just not hitting right now, but the worm will turn.”
Even with the April injury, Tudor will still effective on the mound, and was leading the National League with a 2.29 ERA on August 16, when the Dodgers acquired the 34-year-old left-hander for star hitter Pedro Guerrero. Tudor allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his nine regular-season starts with the Dodgers, then allowed four runs in five innings in his lone NLCS start, and walked off the mound in the second inning of Game 3 of the World Series with an elbow injury that would eventually require Tommy John surgery in the offseason.
Back in that May 1 game, Scott Terry followed Tudor with a scoreless outing of his own to earn a three-inning save. Any chance at a combined no-hitter ended when Kirk Gibson greeted Terry with a single to open the seventh inning. But that was it for the Dodgers other than a Danny Heep walk in the eighth in a 9-0 loss.
The Mike quartet combined to go 0 for 11, but the rest of the team was just 1 for 17.
That was the last time a major league team started four players in a row with the same first name.
