Brett Gardner: Phillie Killer

This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). If you are interested in the group and/or would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can find more information here.

 

Seeing Brett Gardner yank a line drive home run into the cornfield during the Field of Dreams game on August 12th this year was a refreshing reminder that Gardner does indeed hit well against teams other than the Phillies. You could forgive Phillies fans for thinking he reserves his best for them alone. In a solid 13-year career, played entirely with the New York Yankees, Gardner has slashed .259/.343/.401 with 134 home runs in 5,606 at bats. Decent, but hardly Hall of Fame-type numbers. Against the Phillies, however, Gardner is the second coming of Babe Ruth. In 14 career games before this year, he has slashed an amazing .386/.460/.750 with 4 home runs in just 44 at bats. In four games in 2021, he has continued the onslaught.

 This is an admittedly small sample size, but his performance against Philadelphia qualifies him a bona fide Phillie Killer. Gardner has some distinguished company on the Phillie Killer list. Other solid, but not spectacular, players who saved their best for the Phillies include the Marlins’ Jeff Connie (.287/.363/.487 with 14 home runs), the Giants’ Bill Mueller (345/.417/.547), the Braves’ Matt Diaz (.316/.353/.529 with 8 home runs) and the Rockies’ Ryan Spillborghs (.419/.463/.649). This list ignores some more traditional Phillie Killers like the Braves’ Freddie Freeman or the Mets’ Michael Conforto, who hammer other teams regularly as well.

Gardner made his debut against the Phillies as a pinch hitter on May 23, 2009. Facing Phillies reliever Ryan Madson, he lashed an eighth inning double to left field in a game the Yankees eventually won, 5-4. The next day he got his first start against the Phillies, going 1 for 4 as the Phillies prevailed, 4-3 behind Cole Hamels. In the 2009 Yankees/Phillies World Series, Phils’ pitchers managed to hold Gardner to 0 for 10 in the five games in which he appeared.

 In 2010, Gardner went 2 for 3 with a triple, a single, a walk, and 2 runs batted in against Roy Halladay in a game the Yankees won 8-3 behind C. C. Sebathia. Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick shut Gardner down in the next two games as Gardner went 0 for 6 and the Phillies won both games.

 The Yankees and Gardner did not face the Phillies again until 2015. That year Gardner firmly established his Phillie Killer credentials. In three games at Yankee Stadium, Gardner collected seven hits, two home runs, a double, five RBIs, and six runs scored. In the June 22 game alone, he went 4 for 4, with a home run, while driving in three and scoring two more. In 2018 Gardner went 1 for 4 with a run scored in a 4-2 Yankees win at Citizens Bank Park but was 0 for 3 against Zach Eflin in the only other Yankee/Phillies match up that year.

 Gardner returned to Phillie Killer form in the pandemic shortened 2020 season. He started in three of the four games the Yankees and Phillies played at Citizens Bank Park that year. On August 3, he homered off Jake Arrieta in a 6-3 Yankees win. On August 5, he homered again, this time off Zack Wheeler and had two hits, two RBIs and scored two runs as the Yankees fell 11-6. On August 6, he had two more hits.

 Gardner’s Phillie Killer status extends even to spring training. In March 2021 in Tampa, he smashed a grand slam homerun off the Phils’ Zack Wheeler. In four regular season games against the Phillies, Gardner has homered, tripled, driven in two, and scored three. The homerun was an atypical Gardner blast, instead of sneaking over the wall in dead right, this one went to deepest right center field off the Phillies’ Aaron Nola.

 So historically, while all other opponents can expect Brett Gardner to get a hit every four at bats or so against them, the Phillies must brace for a Gardner hit nearly twice in every five at bats. While other teams can expect Gardner to homer about once every 42 at bats, the Phillies can expect a dinger once in every 11 at bats, a Ruthian pace.

 What makes Gardner such a terror against the Phillies? Small sample size is certainly an important part of the explanation. If Gardner played more against the Phillies, his statistics would in all probability skew closer to the mean. Short right field porches in both Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park may explain some off the power numbers, but Gardner plays half his games at Yankee Stadium and does not put up these numbers against other teams. Maybe it can all be put down to the revenge of Jerry Gardner, Brett’s dad, who toiled in the outfield for four years in the 1970s in the Phillies minor league system without advancing above Double A Reading.

 The most likely explanation is that in baseball, the wonderful, the weird, and the anomalous happen all the time. How else to explain that a career .267 hitter like Dave Concepcion hit .391 against the great Tom Seaver? Or that the short list of players who have hit four home runs in a game includes Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, and a guy named Scooter Gennett? Or that an unheralded rookie left-hander making his first start in the major leagues, like Tyler Gilbert, could throw a no-hitter against one of the best offensive teams in the league?

When Brett Gardner faces the Philadelphia Phillies the baseball gods take note and smile down upon him.