pitchers duel, but don't plunk

Andy Pettitte and the bullpen shut out the Padres last night, and it was a good thing, because the Jake Peavy and the Padres 'pen only gave up 1 run. The Astros won 1-0, scoring their only run on an Adam Everett sacrifice fly in the 4th inning. It was quite a pitchers duel, but not the kind where anyone gets hit by a pitch. Neither Biggio nor the rest of the team recorded an HBP.

Woody Williams, tonight's starter for the Padres, will not doubt be studying film today, making sure he has a plan in place to continue to execute the Padres' strategy of not hitting Craig Biggio with a pitch. Williams has never plunked Biggio before, but these strategies don't always work forever. It's fairly certain that Williams wasn't planning to hit the three batters he's hit in his last 4 outings, or very many of the 6 batters he's hit this season. And it's probably an insignificant fraction of his 59 career hit batters that had been carefully planned in advance.

On August 2, 1992 Jose Rijo threw HBP number 15, and became the first pitcher with the letter J in both his first and last name to hit Craig Biggio with a pitch (there have been 4 others).
On August 2, 1996, Mark Gardner hit Craig Biggio with a pitch twice. It was Biggio's 2nd career game with 2 HBPs, and both had been thrown by pitchers named Mark.