MAY 3, 1951 | ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI– Six RBI (runs batted in) in a week is pretty good. Six in a day is a headline grabber. How about six RBI in an inning! New York Yankees rookie Gil McDougald exploded for a 6-RBI inning on this date in 1951.
McDougald hit a two-run Triple to kick off a 9th inning rally against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. He came around to bat again. This time he hit a grand slam. The Yankees ended up scoring 11 times that inning on their way to a 17-3 shellacking of the Browns.
The runs batted in (RBI) statistic is a valuable measure of a player’s offensive production, but is dependent on situations. You need to have runners on base or hit a lot of home runs to get RBI. It also depends where you are in the batting order and how productive the hitters ahead of you are.
Fernando Tatis holds the major league record for most RBI in an inning with 8. He hit two grand slams in one inning in 1999. Alex Rodriguez had 7 RBI in one inning in 2009.
Here are the RBI leaders in various other categories:
Season:
Hack Wilson, Cubs (1930) 191
Lou Gehrig, Yankees (1931) 184
Hank Greenberg, Tigers (1937) 183
Career:
Henry Aaron, Braves, Brewers 2,297
Babe Ruth, Yankees, Red Sox 2,213
Cap Anson, Cubs (White Stockings) 2,076
Lou Gehrig, Yankees 1,995
Stan Musial, Cardinals 1,951
Game:
Jim Bottomly, Cardinals, Sept 24, 1924 12
Mark Whiten, Cardinals, Sept 7, 1993 12
Tony Lazzeri, Yankees, May 24, 1936 11
On this date in 1951 Gil McDougald exploded for a 6-RBI inning.
Contributing Sources:
All-time RBI Leaders
Gill McDougald stats
Baseball-Almanac