He Couldn't Score From Second on a Double!

When Barry Bonds was playing with almost no cartilage in his knees, one of the criticisms of him that made me smirk was some snarky pundit saying, "he couldn't score from second on a double." True about Bonds or not, every season sees a few doubles hit with runners on second who don't end up scoring on the play. It doesn't mean much because, among myriad other explanations, the runner may have thought the ball would be caught while the batter was hustling around first and/or the official scorer of the game was generous in not charging the fielder with an error.

Looking at all the doubles hit with only a runner on second or with runners on second and third I found twenty-six instances of the runner not scoring from second on the hit.

1. April 11 - TBD @ TEX (box/play-by-play) - Ty Wigginton doubled to left off Robinson Tejeda, scoring Ben Zobrist from third and moving Carl Crawford from second to third.
2. April 16 - BAL @ TBD (box/play-by-play) - Aubrey Huff's double to center moves Miguel Tejada from second to third.
3. April 17 - LAD @ ARI (box/play-by-play) - Conor Jackson's line drive double to right moves Carlos Quentin from second to third.
4. April 19 - TEX @ CHW (box/play-by-play) - Sammy Sosa moves to third on Hank Blalock's double to left.
5. April 21 - MIN @ KCR (box/play-by-play) - Torii Hunter drives in Michael Cuddyer on a line drive double to left, but Joe Mauer only moves up one base to third.
6. April 30 - LAA @ KCR (box/play-by-play) - Chone Figgins plates Erick Aybar but Ross Quinlan only reaches third base on the double to left.
7. May 2 - WSN @ SDP (box/play-by-play) - Kory Casto moves Robert Fick up one base on a double to center.
8. May 12 - CHC @ PHI (box/play-by-play) - Cesar Izturis doesn't get an RBI on his double to right since Mark DeRosa stops at third.
9. May 14 - LAA @ TEX (box/play-by-play) - Mike Napoli gets one RBI as Casey Kotchman stops at third on a double to center.
10. May 20 - NYY @ NYM (box/play-by-play) - Hideki Matsui doubles to right, moving golden boy Derek Jeter to third base.
11. May 29 - LAD @ WSN (box/play-by-play) - Juan Pierre gets a double to left but pitcher Brad Penny can't score.
12. June 1 - LAD @ PIT (box/play-by-play) - Jason Bay plates the first run of the game on a center field double but Freddy Sanchez can't give the Bucs a two-run lead, instead stopping at third.
13. June 2 - LAD @ PIT (box/play-by-play) - Ronny Paulino doubles to right and Adam LaRoche only moves to third.
14. June 5 - HOU @ COL (box/play-by-play) - Against all odds, Adam Everett gets an extra base hit, doubling to right. Unfortunately, he doesn't get an RBI as Luke Scott only moves up one base.
15. June 7 - DET @ TEX (box/play-by-play) - Magglio Ordonez moves to third on Sean Casey's double to right.
16. June 18 - MIN @ NYM (box/play-by-play) - Paul Lo Duca scores and Carlos Beltran reaches third on David Wright's double to center.
17. June 23 - MIN @ FLA (box/play-by-play) - Torii Hunter is robbed again by Joe Mauer's inability to score from second on his double to left.
18. June 25 - HOU @ MIL (box/play-by-play) - Johnny Estrada remains slow, moving only to third on Geoff Jenkins' double to right.
19. June 25 - SDP @ SFG (box/play-by-play) - Adrian Gonzalez doubles to center and Jose Cruz Jr. only moves to third on the play.
20. July 8 - TBD @ KCR (box/play-by-play) - The only play like this for the entire month takes place as Carlos Pena doesn't score on Ty Wigginton's double to right.
21. August 4 - TEX @ TOR (box/play-by-play) - Lyle Overbay scores but Alexis Rios doesn't when Vernon Wells doubles on a line drive to left.
22. August 13 - SFG @ PIT (box/play-by-play) - In the second game of a doubleheader, pitcher Noah Lowry can't score on a Rajai Davis double to center.
23. August 20 - STL @ CHC (box/play-by-play) - Albert Pujols scored and Juan Encarnacion moves to third on Scott Rolen's "double to 3B," however that works.
24. August 25 - OAK @ TBD (box/play-by-play) - Tampa Bay is victimized a third time as B.J. Upton deprives Delmon Young of an RBI on his double to center.
25. August 26 - MIN @ BAL (box/play-by-play) - Michael Cuddyer doubled to third base and Justin Morneau ends up there from second.
26. September 28 - ATL @ HOU (box/play-by-play) - Chipper Jones ends a month-long drought of these plays with a double to center that fails to plate Yunel Escobar.

Even more rare is a runner on third base failing to score on a double. As far as I can find, the last time this happened was almost thirty years ago and only four such plays took place in the fifty-one seasons cataloged by the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index.

1. June 15, 1965 - PHI @ MLN (box/play-by-play) - Mack Jones doubled to right in the bottom of the fourth but Rico Carty somehow didn't score.
2. July 4, 1970 - OAK @ CAL (box/play-by-play) - Maybe he was excited thinking about fireworks later that night, but Ken McMullen can't score from third on Jay Johnstone's double in the bottom of the second. In his defense, it was a double to third base, so maybe it was a fluky play.
3. July 31, 1972 - KCR @ CAL (box/play-by-play) - Paul Schaal hits a bloop double to right field and Lou Piniella stays at third base on the play. I don't know about you, but I think it'd be fun to see Sweet Lou's reaction if a player on his team was caught in the same situation.
4. April 18, 1978 - MIL @ BOS (box/play-by-play) - Larry Hisle finds himself in Lou Piniella's situation as Dick Davis hits a bloop double to left.