Baseball Reference Blog

This morning, while shaving, I found myself wondering "How many times has a pitcher started a post-season game, and they went 6 innings or more, and their team won the game - but, the starting pitcher had no strikeouts in the game?"  (And, yes, at that moment, I also thought to myself "Only a baseball nut like you would wonder this type of stuff while shaving.")

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder for the Post-season, finding an answer to a question like this is a snap.  And, here's the answer:

  Cnt Player            Date          Series G Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str **GmSc** IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA 

 ----+-----------------+-------------+------+- ---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--------+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------ 

    1 Tom Zachary       1924-10-05    WS     2 WSH  NYG W  4-3  GS-9  ,W   8.2  6  3  3  3  0  0             57         33 30  0  0   0   0  0  0   3  0  0  0  0  0   3.12 

    2 Babe Ruth         1918-09-09    WS     4 BOS  CHC W  3-2  GS-8  ,W   8    7  2  2  6  0  0             54         33 27  0  0   0   0  0  0   2  0  0  1  0  1   2.25 

    3 Andy Messersmith  1974-10-06    NLCS   2 LAD @PIT W  5-2  GS-7  ,W   7    8  2  2  3  0  0             50         31 26  0  0   0   1  1  0   2  1  0  0  0  0   2.57 

    4 Livan Hernandez   2002-10-13    NLCS   4 SFG  STL W  4-3  GS-7       6.1  9  2  2  1  0  0  84  58     46         29 25  2  0   0   1  2  0   2  0  0  0  0  0   2.84 

    5 Greg Maddux       1995-10-03    NLDS   1 ATL @COL W  5-4  GS-7       7    9  3  3  2  0  1  85  54     45         29 24  2  0   1   1  1  1   4  0  0  0  0  0   3.86 

    6 Bob Turley        1960-10-06    WS     2 NYY @PIT W 16-3  GS-9  ,W   8.1 13  3  2  3  0  0             44         42 38  3  0   0   1  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   2.16 

    7 Andy Pettitte     1995-10-04    ALDS   2 NYY  SEA W  7-5  GS-7       7    9  4  4  3  0  1 115  74     40         30 26  2  0   0   0  0  1   0  0  2  2  0  0   5.14 

    8 Roy Oswalt        2004-10-17    NLCS   4 HOU  STL W  6-5  GS-6       6    8  5  5  4  0  1  97  62     32         29 23  1  0   0   0  1  1   0  0  0  0  0  0   7.50

As you can see, it's only happened 8 times in baseball history.  That's always interesting - when something happens so few times.  It's also interesting that no pitcher has ever thrown 9 innings (or more) in a post-season game, where his team won, and he did not register a whiff.

Note that the last time this "trick" happened in the World Series was 1960.  That's almost a half-century.  But, it's happened in the LCS as recent as 2004.

What I found very interesting was that 5 (out of these 8 games) were one-run contests.  Check out that game by Babe Ruth in 1918.  He allowed 13 baserunners in 8 IP - in a 3-2 game - and won.  An unearned run in the bottom of the 8th sealed the win for the Babe.  Must have been a nail-biter.

Related posts:

Stan Hack’s Bad Day In The Big Apple On The Big Stage

15 Yankees Punch-outs In A 9-Inning Post-Season Game