Inge's Home Runs

My pal Kenny e-mailed me this morning with an idea for a post.  It’s pretty simple, so I’ll just copy-and-paste his brief message:

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"After watching Brandon Inge hit a late inning home run in a blow out I started to think. Without looking at the stats I believe most of his home runs this year have been unimportant."

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So, have Inge’s home runs this season been “unimportant?”  I’m not so sure.  I don’t think the point here is to say that we don’t enjoy the power surge by Mr. Inge, but some guys do hit a lot of meaningless home runs.  Here’s the run down on his home runs this season:

1. April 6th, off of Roy Halladay.  Tigers were trailing 9-3 at the time of this 2-run homer.
2. April 7th, off of BJ Ryan.  Inge’s solo shot here tied the game in the 9th inning.
3. April 8th, off of Jess Litsch.  His solo shot in the 6th inning gave the Tigers a 5-1 lead.
4. April 12th, off of CJ Wilson.  This solo shot brought the Tigers to within three runs in the 8th inning.  This home run would ignite a rally that led to a Tigers win.
5. April 22nd, off of Rich Thompson.  This solo shot bumped the Tigers lead from three to four in the top of the 9th inning.
6. April 23rd, off of Matt Palmer.  Yet another solo home run.  This one gave the Tigers a two run lead in the second inning.
7. April 26th, off of Sidney Ponson.  This two run homer in the second inning helped get the Tigers a 3-2 victory.
8. May 3rd, off of Cliff Lee.  Inge hit a solo shot in the bottom of the second to help give the Tigers a 3-1 win over the Indians.
9. May 13th, off of Glen Perkins.  This two-run homer in the 6th turned a one run deficit into a one run lead.
10. May 15th, off of Dan Giese.  The Tigers lead 9-1 when Inge hit his only grand slam of the season in this one.
11. May 20th, off of Matt Harrison.  Inge hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to turn a one run lead into a three run lead.  The Tigers would win by two.
12. May 22nd, off of Ubaldo Jimenez.  This solo shot in the fourth inning made a 2-0 lead a 3-0 lead.
13. June 9th, off of Mark Buehrle.  The Tigers trailed 1-0 in the second inning when Inge hit a solo shot to tie the game.
14. June 12th, off of John Grabow.  The Tigers led 2-1 in the 8th inning when Inge provided some breathing room with a solo homer.
15. June 16th, off of Adam Wainwright.  The Tigers were down 9-0 when Inge hit a solo homer.

Here are some of the facts about his home runs:

• Tigers are 10-5 when Inge hits a home run.
• 10 of his 15 home runs have been solo shots.  However, that’s not really his fault, is it?
• Six of his HRs came with the Tigers trailing.
• Seven came when the Tigers were leading.
• Two came when the game was tied.
• Nine of his HRs have come when the deficit/lead was two runs or fewer.
• Four of his HRs came off of an All Star pitcher.
• Five of his HRs came in the 7th inning or later.

Looking at the homerun log above, I don’t think most of his HRs have been meaningless.  Most of his HRs have come while the game was still within reach for either team.  Every guy who hits a lot of homeruns, is going have some come in cheap spots, so a few of those are expected.