Once Every 44 Years In Fenway
Twenty-three year old Clay Buchholz will pitch in his 6th big league baseball game this evening when he faces the New York Yankees at Fenway Park.
When was the last time that the Sox sent someone this young and this green to the hill to start a game against the Yankees? Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Game Finder, the answer is easy to find. I set the filters for “Against NYY, At Fenway Park, as Starter, In first 6 games, (requiring BF>=1 and Age=23)” and found that the last time this happened was May 10, 1965.
On that day, in front of 11,163 fans at Fenway Park, Jim Lonborg went 8 and 2/3rds for Boston and beat the Yankees, 3-2, in one hour and 57 minutes. Different times, huh?
Update: Good catch by Raphy! By using age = 23, and not 23 or younger, I missed someone. Rocket Clemens in 1984 was the last time - not 1965. Mea culpa!
By setting the age=23 and not 23 or younger, you’ve eliminated some names, including one very familiar one.
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/tKmD
Comment by Raphy — April 11, 2008 @ 4:54 pm
[...] Baseball Reference has looked up the last time the Red Sox sent a rookie to the mound against the Bombers with fewer than 6 major [...]
Pingback by The First Sox-Yanks game of 2008 [Liveblog] | umpbump.com — April 11, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
First time I’ve gotten to see much of Buchholz. He throws too many curves.
Wang seems a very unlikely no-hitter candidate, but it seems like he’s come close a few times now. Tonight is the 7th time he’s given up 3 or fewer hits in at least 7 IP, in his 83rd career start: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/WfqS . Johan Santana’s done it 25 times in 177 starts. Peavy 25 in 174 starts.
Great to see a 4-1 game in which one starter throws 90 pitches still lasts 3 hours.
Comment by Johnny Twisto — April 12, 2008 @ 1:19 am
yea Clay is young and green, but how many people that young an green threw a No-Hitter?
Comment by Jgeller — April 12, 2008 @ 12:27 pm