August 26, 2016 – Guyer Hit by Pitch Twice in Rout of Rangers

Nearly 32,000 packed the Ballpark in Arlington to watch the first-place Indians take on the Rangers on this summer Friday night. Corey Kluber was matched up with Martin Perez.

Jason Kipnis kicked off the scoring in the top of the third when he punched a grounder into right field that scored Roberto Perez from first.

In the top of the sixth with Mike Napoli on third, Brandon Guyer was struck by Martin Perez’ 0-1 pitch. Abe Almonte doubled into deep left center to clear the bases and put the Tribe up 5-0. Roberto Perez singled in Almonte to chase Martin Perez from the game. Dario Alvarez retired Rajai Davis for the final out of the inning.

Alvarez hit Guyer to lead off the top of the eighth. After consecutive singles by Almonte and Perez, Alvarez was replaced by Rangers reliever Keone Kela. Kela hit Rajai Davis with his fourth pitch to drive in Guyer. After a Jason Kipnis pop-fly, Almonte scored on a wild pitch.

In the top of the ninth, Guyer finally got on base by making bat on ball contact. He dropped a single into short right field, and later scored on a Roberto Perez single. The Tribe routed the Rangers 12-1 and drew within two games of Texas for the best record in the American League.

The two hit-by-pitches brought Guyer’s total on the season to 27. Sportswriter Jordan Bastian posted this amazing diagram to his Twitter account.

Guyer’s plate-crowding stance and high-step with his lead foot play into all of the lower-body bruises. His final stat line: four runs scored with one hit in three official at bats.

Guyer said. “When it’s upper — head or upper body — I’ll move. I’ll throw my arms up or get out of the way. But lower body, I’ve always been that way with getting hit. That’s how it’s been the last three years in the big leagues, and college and the Minor Leagues. It’s just instinctual.”

August Fragerstrom of Frangraphs ran the numbers and found that Guyer was hit by pitch at a higher rate–in nearly 6% of his at-bats–than any player in modern baseball history.

Baseball Reference Box Score

