Bellhorn, Which Is It?

Tonight Mark Bellhorn became the first National Leaguer and only the second player of all time (Carlos Baerga in 1993 being the other) to hit a home run from each side of the plate in the same inning as the Cubbies defeated the Brewers 13-10.

The first came with Bellhorn batting righthanded with Alex Gonzalez on first and a 1-0 count in the fourth of a 0-0 ballgame against lefthanded starter Andrew Lorraine. Lorraine, by the way, was pitching his first major-league game in two years. One-third of an inning and 3 runs (and one throwing error on a sac. bunt) later Lorraine was replaced by rightie Jose Cabrera. Bellhorn then came up batting left with men on first and sceond and two outs. Cabrera got ahead of him 0-2 and then Bellhorn evened the count at 2-2. The next pitch he sent over the rightfield wall. Bill Mueller followed Bellhorn with a solo homer of his own.

In total Chicago scored 10 runs on 7 hits, 3 of which were home runs, 2 walks, and one throwing error. They sent thirteen men to the plate and left no one on base at the end of the inning. Bellhorn hat five RBI on the inning. It's odd that Bellhorn and Baerga are the only two men to accomplish this feat and both are second basemen (though Bellhorn played first in this game). In Bellhorn's career as a first baseman, he had been batting .227 in 22 at bats with 2 home runs and 8 RBI. He had never before his a home run with a 1-0 count (29 AB). He batted sixth for the Cubs. Lifetime he came into the game batting .175 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI in 40 at bats when he batted sixth. He doubled his career totals for home runs with a man on first (1 in 53 AB) and home runs with men on first and second (1 in 18 ABs). The two home runs give him 23 for the year and 30 in his five-year career. OK, have I done this to death yet?

Though Bellhorn has only hit 30 home runs in 670 major-league at bats, he did hit 75 in 1939 minor-league at bats. His career high was 24 in 117 games with Sacramento of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 2000. On June 30 of this year, Bellhorn hit two home runs from each side of the plate in one game. He is one of many players to have done this, but is the only man to have done it this year (and did it twice) besides Jorge Posada. He is one of 39 men in baseball history to have hit two home runs in the same inning.

Bellhorn is second among switch-hitters in home runs this year (behind Lance Berkman, 37). He is 32nd among active major-league switch-hitters in home runs. Here are all active switch-hitters with home runs totals of at least 20:

Rk Name             HR
 1 RUBEN SIERRA    275
 2 CHIPPER JONES   248
 3 BERNIE WILLIAMS 224
 4 ROBERTO ALOMAR  200
 5 TODD HUNDLEY    197
 6 JOSE VALENTIN   162
 7 TONY CLARK      159
 8 J. T. SNOW      157
 9 DAVID SEGUI     133
10 CARL EVERETT    131
   JOSE CRUZ       131
12 CARLOS BAERGA   126
13 DAVE HOLLINS    112
14 RAY DURHAM      108
15 JORGE POSADA    105
16 ORLANDO MERCED  100
17 LANCE BERKMAN    96
18 DMITRI YOUNG     79
19 CARLOS BELTRAN   74
20 SCOTT SPIEZIO    71
21 JOSE VIDRO       70
22 OMAR VIZQUEL     56
23 CHAD KREUTER     54
24 JOSE OFFERMAN    52
   GREG NORTON      52
   JASON VARITEK    52
27 MARK MCLEMORE    49
28 LUIS ALICEA      47
29 NEIFI PEREZ      46
30 BILL MUELLER     41
31 GEOFF BLUM       35
32 MARK BELLHORN    30
33 GREG ZAUN        29
34 ROGER CEDENO     28
35 MATT WALBECK     27
   CRISTIAN GUZMAN  27
37 JOSE VIZCAINO    25
   GARY MATTHEWS    25
39 BEN DAVIS        24
   DESI RELAFORD    24
41 JIMMY ROLLINS    23
42 DENNIS HOCKING   22
43 MIKE MORDECAI    21
   CARLOS GUILLEN   21
45 LUIS LOPEZ       20