Frank Robinson’s grand game

In peeling off the layers of Frank Robinson’s fabulous, if often-overlooked, Hall of Fame career, we know that he hits 586 homers for five teams.

Now, of those 586 homers, 179 come during his six seasons with the Baltimore Orioles.

And, of those 179 for Baltimore, only two are grand slams.

And both of those grand slams are hit on the same day – 54 years ago today – and they come in consecutive at-bats against Washington’s Joe Coleman and Joe Grzenda in the fifth and sixth innings of the Orioles’ 12-2 victory over the Senators before a Friday night crowd of 13,194 at RFK Stadium.

Both slams come with one out with – again, both times – Dave McNally, Don Buford and Paul Blair on base in front of Robinson.

The pair of slams push Robinson’s total to 14 in a 1970 season in which he hits 25 homers in only 132 games. He then hits two more homers in five games of the Orioles’ World Series victory over the Cincinnati Reds.