First in four years feat for Flubs first baseman

Derrek Lee, the only Cubs hitter that has shown any consistency from the first half of the season through August, accomplished something yesterday he hasn’t done since 2005.

With his two bombs off Daniel McCutchen, Lee hit a home run against the same pitcher twice in one game for the first time in four years. The last time? July 18, 2005, against the Reds’ Brandon Claussen.

It’s kind of surprising the amount of time that’s elapsed since Lee last accomplished the feat. So I checked his home run log. For a power hitter, Lee rarely records a multi-home run game. Since that game against Claussen, Lee only has seven games in which he hit more than one home run. In fact, in 2007 and 2008, Lee didn’t have a single multi-homer games. Not once in that span — or in his career for that matter — did he go deep more than twice in one game.

According to baseball-reference.com, one of the most comparable players to Lee is his cross-town counterpart, Paul Konerko. Since 2005, Konerko has posted 13 multi-homer games, including that three-blast game earlier this season. He’s also hit two home runs in a game off the same pitcher five times in that span. Just something to digest.

What isn’t surprising are the teams in which Lee hit multiple home runs off the same pitcher. In his career, Lee has had great success off Reds and Pirates pitching. Against the Reds, Lee is .284/.360/.544 with 31 home runs, the most home runs he’s hit off any team, and against the Pirates he’s .301/.375/.526 with 22 home runs.

Advertisement