Orioles surprisingly break obscure MLB record during 2024 season

For double plays, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you are a pitcher, double plays are your "best friend" - getting two outs on one pitch is a great way to get out of jams and keep your pitch count low. Back on September 3, 2004, the Orioles were playing the first of three games in the Bronx on a Friday night. Rodrigo Lopez allowed a one-out home run to Derek Jeter in the bottom of the first inning and proceeded to allow the Yankees to load the bases on a single and two walks. Pitching coach Ray Miller came out to the mound to calm Lopez down: "Boy, you are in a heap of trouble." After heading Miller's statement of the obvious, Lopez was able to relax and induce an inning-ending double play off the bat of Jorge Posada. The Orioles went on to win, 3-1. The double play truly was Lopez's best friend there.

On the other hand, for an offense, double plays are a deflating rally-killer. Two outs on one pitch can literally end a rally, or if there are no outs, turn a big inning into a smaller one.

While the Orioles' offense was frustrating sluggish at times last season - especially in the second half - the Orioles were historically elite in one surprising category: grounding into double plays. Incredibly, the 2024 Orioles grounded into only 71 double plays, breaking the 1945 St. Louis Cardinals' record of 75. Although it's his job to focus on analytics and numbers, Orioles Vice President and Assistant GM Sig Mejdal and his team were pleasantly surprised by the Orioles' record-breaking season. Mejdal told Slate that while he knew the Orioles were good at avoiding double plays, the people [he'd] mentioned it to were quite surprised."

Indeed, the Orioles ranked first in baseball in 2024 in double plays per game, averaging only 0.43 double plays per game this past season. The next closest teams were the Reds and Rays, clocking in at 0.53 and 0.54 double plays per game. The highest rate belonged to the New York Yankees, who bounced into a double play 0.85 times per game.

The 2024 Baltimore Orioles broke a little known record, hitting into the fewest double plays in MLB history

What, if anything, does this tell us? While stats over an entire season are often enough to avoid the "small sample size" warning, the grounding into double plays stat appears to be one of chance more so than skill. The Orioles fielded a very similar team in 2024 to the team that played in 2023: Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Ryan O'Hearn, and Anthony Santander all received regular at bats each season. But in 2023, the Orioles finished in the middle of the pack with 0.7 double plays per game (14th overall). The Pirates mark of 0.57 led MLB in 2023.

Undoubtedly, the 0.43 number is incredibly low. It means the Orioles grounded into a double play less than once every two games. The low number likely played at least some role in the Orioles finishing fourth in MLB with 4.85 runs per game, as they had less rally-killing double plays.

The Orioles are no stranger to going on historic runs on obscure and questionable relevance. From May 15, 2022 until May 22, 2024, the Orioles were not swept by anyone (aside from their playoff sweep at the hands of the Rangers), with the historic streak ending at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Of course, grounding into the fewest double plays is not the Orioles' goal. Winning the World Series is, and the Orioles have come well short of their ultimate goal over the last two seasons. But while the Orioles' ultimate goal is to win, that shouldn't stop us from appreciating some bizarre and obscure records along the way.