Ben Zobrist: a day (and night) to Remember

Ben Zobrist

April 29, 2011 – Tampa second baseman Ben Zobrist entered play on Thursday having driven in eight runs over his last three games and he matched that total, going 4-for-6 with eight RBI in the Rays’ 15-3 victory in the first game of a day/night doubleheader at Minnesota. Zobrist’s eight RBI on Thursday afternoon matched the highest single-game total by a second baseman in the last 60 years. The other keystoners to do that since 1951 were the Angels’ Adam Kennedy on April 18, 2000 and the Rockies’ Ronnie Belliard on Sept. 23, 2003.

Zobrist then went 3-for-4 with two RBI in the night game, finishing with seven hits and ten RBIs in the Rays’ day/night two-game sweep of the Twins. Since baseball began officially recording RBI in 1920, only three other major-league players amassed at least seven hits and ten RBI in one day: the Cardinals’ Jim Bottomley (July 6, 1929: 7 hits, 11 RBI), the Tigers’ Pete Fox (June 30, 1935: 8 hits, 10 RBI) and the Padres’ Nate Colbert (Aug. 1, 1972: 7 hits, 13 RBI).

Zobrist now has recorded 18 runs batted in over his last five games. Over the last 40 years, the only other major-league players to drive in that many runs over a five-game span were Sammy Sosa in August 2002 (a high of 20 RBI, and two sets of 18 in three overlapping five-game stretches) and Steve Finley in May/June 1999 (18) . Source: ELIAS