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What is the longest plate appearance in MLB history?
I’m reading "Moneyball," and there’s a lot about the offensive benefit of baseball players seeing a lot of pitches per plate appearance. This got me thinking about who’s taken this the furthest.
That honor goes to Brandon Belt’s first-inning at-bat against the Los Angeles Angels on April 22, 2018. The Giants’ first baseman saw 10 pitches by the time the count ran full, fouling off six and whiffing on another...then fouled off 10 more before finally flying out to right. In total, Jaime Barria (the unfortunate starting pitcher that day) threw Belt 21 pitches.
That said, pitches per plate appearance only started getting counted in 1988. Major League Baseball has been around for over a century, and it’s possible that another plucky batter hung in for more than 21 pitches before ‘88. The late Luke Appling, for instance, claimed to have had at least a 28 pitch plate appearance in 1940, but the Washington Post looked into it, and it looks like that’s a tall tale. Belt’s at-bat is the most verifiable marathon we’ve got.
Oh, and if you have 12 minutes and 45 seconds, here’s Belt’s at-bat. It’s wild.
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CoachBelt hit 16 foul balls in the first-inning plate appearance against Angels starter Jaime Barria that ended with a fly ball to right field. The 21 pitches in the at-bat, which lasted about 13 minutes, were the most on record (since 1988) for a single trip to the plate.
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