That time the Blue Jays hit into six inning-ending double plays

On Tuesday night, the Blue Jays ended each of their last four innings on double plays against the Yankees: Edwin Encarnacion grounded into one in the sixth, J.P. Arencibia in the seventh, Anthony Gose in the eighth, and Arencibia again to end the game. Not the best way to end a game, but finishing a game on four straight inning-ending double plays is something that no other Blue Jays team have done before.

In fact, in their 37-year history, the Blue Jays have only grounded into four or more inning-ending double plays in 11 games (Tuesday's included). And among those 11 games, only three have featured four inning-ending twin killings in consecutive fashion.

The last time it happened was almost exactly ten years ago on August 26, 2003 against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Orlando Hudson, Greg Myers, Carlos Delgado, and Reed Johnson hit into double plays to end the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings. The first two double plays were both fly ball double plays. The Jays still managed to win that game 12-9.

The other time that this has happened came on August 29, 1977 in the Blue Jays' inaugural season. (For some reason, the three times this had happened in franchise history all occurred around the same time in August.) A doubleheader was scheduled at Minnesota's old Municipal Stadium, and in game 1 Toronto managed to ground into a franchise record six inning-ending double plays, with the first four happening in the first four innings of the game. Roy Howell started it in the first, Alan Ashby did it in the second, Al Woods followed in the third, and Doug Ault ended the fourth on a 5-4-3 double play. Steve Bowling grounded into double play number five in the sixth, and Doug Rader called it six with a classic 6-4-3 in the seventh. The Blue Jays were leading 6-3 into the eighth when the Twins tied it up, and Minnesota ended up winning it 7-6 with a Bob Gorinski walk-off in the 10th. Later, in game 2, the Blue Jays added a couple more inning-ending double plays for a total of eight in one day!

Games where the Blue Jays have hit into four or more inning-ending double plays

On the other side of the game, Blue Jays pitchers have induced four or more inning-ending double plays 12 times. In fact, they did it once this season. On May 12, Ramon Ortiz and Esmil Rogers combined to get the Rays' Ben Zobrist, Evan Logoria, Kelly Johnson, and Desmond Jennings to ground into inning-enders in the first, fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively.

Jays pitchers have gotten four consecutive inning-ending double plays twice in franchise history, and on June 29, 2001, they got the Red Sox to do it in last four innings of the game. Shea Hillenbrand started it against Pedro Borbon in the sixth, Chris Stynes against Paul Quantrill in the seventh, Jose Offerman against Quantrill in the eighth, and finally Manny Ramirez against closer BIlly Koch int he ninth to end the game, giving the Jays a 8-4 win at Fenway.

The other time it happened was on May 7, 1980, when Dave Stieb induced all four on his own against the Angels' Dan Ford, Freddie Patek, Carey Lansford, and Dan Ford again in innings four through seven.

Games where the Blue Jays' opponent have hit into four or more inning-ending double plays

All research was conducted using Baseball-Reference's Play Index tool.