So, the home team won yesterday, 6-4. Odd stat: their second baseman scored all six runs.
How many men did they leave on base in the 7th?
(Show your work.)
Mike Schilling
Mike has been a software engineer far longer than he would like to admit. He has strong opinions on baseball, software, science fiction, comedy, contract bridge, and European history, any of which he's willing to share with almost no prompting whatsoever.
We have been experiencing some system resource issues. We believe the problem may be resolved, but if it is not please bear with us.
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024I think Israel would go for it if it didn't include them with drawing from Gaza and they got their p…
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024So a little ceasefire and then Hamas can break it and then we can call for another little ceasefire… on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024The "we" who has to agree to this is the Israelis. What I am pointing out is after we strip away the… on Saturday Morning Gaming: Psychonauts is on sale!I was planning on beating Psychonauts and New Vegas and then playing Psychonauts 2. But I have been… on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024That was definitely an "m" he was going for. And now we have a Rorschach test. "He was going for 'mi… on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024If we want to move "never again" to a weaker version of "okay, sometimes you just have to commit a l…
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024Heh, the reporter stopped him from the payoff word(s). Being what? Now the listener/reader gets to i…
on Saturday Morning Gaming: Psychonauts is on sale!I finished Psychonauts 2 not that long ago. It was a lot of fun. It has probably been 20 years since… on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024Realities of war are hard to stomach and lend themselves to wishful thinking. We insisted that Israe…
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024On the one hand, there are many examples of this. On the other hand, Sophie is a rando on twitter an…
April 23, 2024
Friend Husband At The Ballpark
April 22, 2024
Good Morning! Are You An Amateur?
April 21, 2024
On the Way To The Dressing Room After The Game
April 20, 2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
on Embassies, Attacks, and Iran
on The Trump Tax on Embassies, Attacks, and Iran on Embassies, Attacks, and Iran
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
on The Trump Tax
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024 on The Trump Tax on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/22/2024
Don’t I need to know where in the batting order the second baseman appears?Report
Intuitively, it’s an add-on requirement so there’s a unique solution to the question about the seventh inning. I have to hook up the new dryer and run other errands this afternoon, so won’t get a chance to lay this out until this evening. My initial interpretation of the requirement will be that it means all six runs are scored by the same position in the batting order.Report
SPOILER
*
*
*
The pattern I come up with is this:
1. Run – Single – Single – Single – Out – Out – Out
2. Out – Out – Run – Single – Single – Single – Out
3. Out – Out – Single – Out
4. Run – Single – Single – Single – Out – Out – Out
5. Out – Out – Run – Single – Single – Single – Out
6. Out – Out – Single – Out
7. Run – Single – Single – Single – Out – Out – Out
8. Out – Out – Run . . . [various options for remainder of inning]
So, there have to have been three men left on base, because the maximum number of plate appearances need to be used between the 2nd baseman’s at-bats so that he comes to the plate the following inning with nobody on base.Report
Comments:
Home team only bats eight innings because it would be impossible for the second baseman to score two or more runs in the ninth inning. The maximum number of plate appearances per inning without scoring a run is six (three outs, three men left on base). The max. PA per inning and scoring only one run is seven, and two runs is eight.
In order to score six times in eight innings, I think he has to bat first, but I just started with the assumption that it would be easiest if he batted first.Report
I got a similar result, though I had the 2B batting first and sometimes being brought home by bases-loaded RBI singles. The puzzle doesn’t specify that this player gets the RBI associated with the run, only that she be the runner to cross home plate. She could get on base with a BB, also; that doesn’t matter.
Are we sure that there’s no way this could happen in nine innings? If Visitor and Home team are tied going in to the ninth, 2B’s sixth and final run might be a walk-off…
Anyway, I got distracted when considering if 2B batted second or third or even last in the order.Report
The final score is 6-4. If the home team batted in the 9th, the second baseman would have had to score twice i the 9th with no one else scoring; this is not possible.Report
Also, we know the 2nd baseman only came up 6 times, because 7 times would mean at least 55 plate appearances: 6 runs, 24 outs, and thus 25 LOB in 8 innings. That last is impossible.Report
This problem is taken from the article “Baseball Retrograde Analysis” by Jerry Butters and Jim Henle in the Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol.40 No.2 (2018), which contains several similar fun problems. I’m not sure whether it is behind a paywall.Report
Mr. Shaw has pretty much nailed it.Report
I was thinking ‘I need to do this with modulo arthimetic’, then I was thinking ‘I haven’t done modulo arthimetic in over 20 years, so yeah, no’
I started to brute force it, (but I had figured out the 8 inning thing and 5 full times thru the lineup plus the portions of the 6th time thru that are required) but started with the 2B later in the order, so gave up after getting lost in the weeds.
Now seeing the solution, I see I wasn’t completely on the wrong track, but…
…is there a ‘mathematically elegant’ way of solving this? Or just trying combos of batting order and run production until it works?
Eta – oh the other conclusion was that the 2b always batted in the same position in the lineup.
If that didn’t happen, it’s an appeal play, and if the away team failed to call out the illegal substitution, *that* would have been the headline.Report