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Starting Off With Consecutive Starts of 6 Shutout Innings

Posted by Raphy on May 27, 2010

Elias is reporting that last night Hisanori Takahashi became the first Met pitcher in history to pitch at least six shutout innings in each of his first 2 major league starts. What about other teams? Here are all (1920-1939,1952-2010) the other pitchers who have accomplished this:

Rk Strk Start End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Tm
1 Ryan Sadowski 2009-06-28 2009-07-03 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 13.0 7 0 0 4 6 0 0.00 0 1 0 SFG
2 Vin Mazzaro 2009-06-02 2009-06-07 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 13.2 8 0 0 4 5 0 0.00 0 0 0 OAK
3 Scott Lewis 2008-09-10 2008-09-15 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 14.0 6 0 0 2 8 0 0.00 0 1 0 CLE
4 James Parr 2008-09-04 2008-09-10 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 7 0 0 3 8 0 0.00 0 1 0 ATL
5 Carlos Hernandez 2001-08-18 2001-08-23 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 13.0 7 0 0 3 14 0 0.00 0 1 0 HOU
6 Vaughn Eshelman 1995-05-02 1995-05-07 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 13.0 7 0 0 2 4 0 0.00 1 1 0 BOS
7 Marty Bystrom 1980-09-10 1980-09-14 2 2 0 2 1 1 0 0 16.0 10 0 0 3 7 0 0.00 0 1 0 PHI
8 Larry McWilliams 1978-07-17 1978-07-23 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 13.0 9 0 0 2 3 0 0.00 0 0 0 ATL
9 Dan Schatzeder 1977-09-16 1977-09-22 2 2 0 2 1 1 0 0 15.1 11 0 0 6 9 0 0.00 0 0 0 MON
10 John Hiller 1967-08-20 1967-08-25 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 10 0 0 1 8 0 0.00 0 0 0 DET
11 Tom Phoebus 1966-09-15 1966-09-20 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 9 0 0 5 15 0 0.00 0 1 1 BAL
12 Karl Spooner 1954-09-22 1954-09-26 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 7 0 0 6 27 0 0.00 0 0 0 BRO
13 Al Worthington 1953-07-06 1953-07-11 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 6 0 0 5 13 0 0.00 0 0 0 NYG
14 Ned Garver 1952-04-15 1952-04-20 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 8 0 0 2 11 0 0.00 0 0 0 SLB
15 Bill Lee 1934-05-07 1934-05-12 2 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 18.0 6 0 0 5 10 0 0.00 0 0 0 CHC
16 Johnny Marcum 1933-09-07 1933-09-11 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 10 0 0 9 7 0 0.00 0 1 1 PHA
17 Dutch Henry 1923-05-29 1923-07-10 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 18.0 9 0 0 3 2 0 0.00 0 0 0 BRO
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/27/2010.

A couple of notes:

  • This is not a very impressive collection of pitchers. Only Garver (129 wins) and Lee (169) were able to pitch long enough to win 100 games.
  • Of the 4 pitchers to do this from 2008-2009, only Mazzaro (8 IP 6.75 ERA) has even pitched in the majors this season.
  • Takahashi is the 5th pitcher to do this in the past 3 seasons. I assume that this is related to the current philosophy of babying pitchers. In earlier times, similar pitchers probably lost their shutouts in the later innings. Carl Spooner kept his shutouts, but lost his arm.

Related posts:

    Consecutive Starts of At Most 5 Innings to Start the Season
    Most Starts of at Least 7 Shutout Innings
    Consecutive starts with 6+ IP
    Most consecutive starts without issuing a walk
    Consecutive Starts with 2 Runs or Fewer to Start the Season

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 5:27 am and is filed under Streak Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “Starting Off With Consecutive Starts of 6 Shutout Innings”

  1. Mark Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 7:15 am

    Hisanori is no doubt the oldest "rookie" to do this, at 35 years old!

  2. JR Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 8:03 am

    Mets fans think they have their 3rd starter now. Just a matter of time before this guy gets clobbered.

  3. JN Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 8:49 am

    Garver was not making his first two major league starts; he was only making his first two starts in the play index time period.

  4. Andy Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 8:53 am

    Phillies fans fondly remember Bystrom in 1980.

  5. Gabriel Schechter Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:01 am

    The point about babying recent starters is a good one. If Fernando Valenzuela had been limited to 7 innings per start in 1981, he would've had zero runs allowed in his first SEVEN major league starts. As it was, he opened with a shutout, allowed an 8th-inning run in the second start, and followed with three more complete-game shutouts.

  6. nightfly Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:42 am

    Spooner's record is kind of odd... did he hurt himself in the offseason? It looks like he pitched fairly well down the stretch in '55, though he finished with a couple of rough starts and got hit hard in his only WS game. It looks like he pitched well enough to be a credible mid-rotation starter. He would only have been 25 the next season. Nobody gave him a chance after this?

  7. Mark Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:47 am

    Those were Spooner's only starts in 1954. He was a highly touted prospect and proved why. He hurt himself in spring training in 1955 and was never the same. The Dodgers still gave him a fair chance in 1955, but his arm was done.

  8. Morten Jonsson Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:59 am

    John Hiller might be the best pitcher on that list. He had a long, very successful career as a reliever, and pitched quite well when he was called upon to start--a 3.03 ERA in 43 starts, with six shutouts.

    The most memorable thing about Dan Schatzeder was hearing Ralph Kiner try to say his name.

  9. Djibouti Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 11:41 am

    I remember when Scott Lewis did this, I don't remember anything about him since then.

    According to Wikipedia, he was a September call-up in '08, started 4 games, went 4-0 with a 2.63 ERA. He began his career with 15 consecutive shutout innings and won the AL Rookie of the Month award for September. In spring training '09 he was slated to be in the rotation before developing elbow problems. He appeared in one game before being sent to the DL. Coming off the DL he was optioned to AAA, stayed there through this spring, and was just released outright a few weeks ago. Another promising career destroyed by injuries or a fluke start for a below average pitcher?

  10. DoubleDiamond Says:
    May 27th, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    I didn't know that "The Spaceman" was pitching in the big leagues as early as 1934.

    More seriously, I don't recall ever hearing about that "other" Bill Lee until just now, despite his 169 wins.

  11. Gerry Says:
    May 28th, 2010 at 12:20 am

    You can get Baseball Digest September 1967 online. On page 67 there's a list of pitchers starting a career with two shutouts. It says Jay Hughes, 1898; Joe Doyle, 1906; John Marcum, 1933; Dave Ferriss, 1945; Al Worthington, 1953; Karl Spooner, 1954; Tom Phoebus, 1966. Baseball Digest doesn't include Dutch Henry because he had several relief appearances before his starts.

    Aaron Gleeman had a post at nbc when Mazzaro had his hot start last year, but his list is a little different than the one Raphy posted. I haven't investigated.
    http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/06/mazzaros-career-starts-with-132-shutout-innings.html.php

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