After today's game against the Mets at Shea Stadium, Chase Utley is on a pace to be hit by 60 pitches this season. The all-time single-season record is 51 set by by Hughie Jennings in 1896.
Before today, Utley was on pace for zero HBP's for the season, and so if you were the type that was good at figuring out "what time did the train leave the station" algebra questions, then you have probably figured out he was hit 3 times today by Mets pitchers.
Three!
And when that wasn't enough, Carlos Delgado hit Utley in the back with a throw down to second base. What is this, dodgeball?
Now, by all accounts, the pitches weren't hard and they did not appear to be intentional. But by the same token, when two teams with a burgeoning rivalry meet, and the best pure-hitter on one of the teams gets hit three times by pitches, and he was hit by a team that's lost nine in a row to the other team, well, where there's smoke...
Some would advocate that Phillies' starter Kyle Kendrick go out tomorrow and bury a pitch in David Wright's kidney in retaliation. But I would instead implore the Phillies to go out there tomorrow and step on the Mets' collective neck even harder.
The Phils have beaten the Mets nine in a row now and which do you think would bother the Mets more, hitting Wright or Reyes or making it ten in a row?
Lets make it ten in a row.
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The career record for hit by pitches is also held by Jennings at 287 and the recently retired Craig Biggio is a close second with 285. Utley has 59 HBP's in 583 games, and so at that rate, if he plays another 1,300 games, he'll end up with 190 HBP. That's well short of Jennings, but good enough for 10th all time, right behind Minnie Minoso.
