The Baseball-Reference.com Play Index Stat of the Day

Well, well, well. Tampa Bay got itself a 1-hit shutout yesterday.

Here are the leaders so far this season for 3-hit (or fewer) shutouts:

 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+
 TBR 2008     4 Ind. Games
 ATL 2008     3 Ind. Games
 CLE 2008     2 Ind. Games
 BOS 2008     2 Ind. Games
 WSN 2008     1 Ind. Games
 TOR 2008     1 Ind. Games
 TEX 2008     1 Ind. Games
 SDP 2008     1 Ind. Games
 KCR 2008     1 Ind. Games
 FLA 2008     1 Ind. Games
 CHW 2008     1 Ind. Games
 ARI 2008     1 Ind. Games                

And hey, guess what, Tampa Bay did it again today, their 5th such game of the season.

Last year, only two teams (Mets and Padres) had as many as 5 shutouts with 3 or fewer hits.

Folks, we are seeing the first good season for Tampa Bay. No more over-the-hill veterans helping them slug their way to a few victories. They’ve got a core of excellent young talent, including several pitchers, and they are going to be competitive.

Here’s a fun little sort via Play Index:

From 1956 to 2008, Playing for NYY, In team’s first 35 games, (requiring R=0), sorted by greatest number of games matching selected criteria in a game

                   Year Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+
 Alvaro Espinoza   1990    30 Ind. Games
 Bobby Richardson  1960    29 Ind. Games
 Bill Skowron      1960    28 Ind. Games
 Clete Boyer       1966    28 Ind. Games
 Sandy Alomar      1975    28 Ind. Games
 Bobby Richardson  1961    27 Ind. Games
 Gene Michael      1968    27 Ind. Games
 Jim Mason         1974    27 Ind. Games
 Roger Maris       1966    27 Ind. Games
 Alvaro Espinoza   1989    27 Ind. Games
 Robinson Cano     2008    27 Ind. Games
 Gene Michael      1971    26 Ind. Games
 Jim Mason         1975    26 Ind. Games
 Bucky Dent        1977    26 Ind. Games                 

Not exactly a group that Robinson Cano, coming into this season, probably wanted to join.

Joey Votto just hit 3 homers in his 57th career game. Here are all the players before Votto to have a 3+ HR game among their first 57:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Jose Ortiz            1 Ind. Games
 Jonny Gomes           1 Ind. Games
 Bobby Estalella       1 Ind. Games
 Don Demeter           1 Ind. Games

Phil Hughes has created quite a stir here in New York, by pitching miserably in his first 6 starts. Andrew Miller has been just as bad, if not worse, for the Marlins.

I thought that it might be interesting to look at the players who have had a similar experience to these prospects.

Here are my criteria:

1) Young: 23 or younger

2) Inexperienced: Less that 32 games (a current season’s worth of starts) pitched in their career.

3) Starting a season: The team’s first 30 games (6 games in a 5 man rotation)

4) Struggling: A game score of 35 of lower.

Hughes and Miller join 6 other pitchers with 4 games that match these criteria.

 Pete Redfern      1977     4 Ind. Games

 Jaime Navarro     1990     4 Ind. Games

 Rafael Medina     1998     4 Ind. Games

 Phil Huffman      1979     4 Ind. Games

 Jose Guzman       1986     4 Ind. Games

 Alex Fernandez    1991     4 Ind. Games

Not very encouraging if you’re a Yankees or Marlins fan.

Here are the season and career totals for each of the pitchers:

Thanks to my buddy Eric for this idea. (Not you, Eric H, this time it’s Eric P.)

Last night, Roy Halladay lost his third straight complete game. I am willing to bet than in the early 1900s, such a streak was very common since most starts were CGs. But, it’s rare these days. Here are the longest such streaks since 1956:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   GS  CG SHO  GF  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Mickey Lolich      1975-07-17  1975-08-15     7    0   7   7   7   0   0   0   59     59   30   26   15   31   6   3.97   0   1   0 DET                                  

 Rick Langford      1980-06-03  1980-06-30     6    0   6   6   6   0   0   0   52.2   51   25   23   13   22   8   3.93   0   2   1 OAK                                  

 Jack Harshman      1958-05-17  1958-06-07     5    0   5   5   5   0   0   0   43     42   20   19   10   40   6   3.98   1   2   0 BAL                                  

 Curt Schilling     1998-05-17  1998-06-07     4    0   4   4   4   0   0   0   33.2   31   13   11    7   36   1   2.94   1   2   0 PHI
 Phil Niekro        1978-09-21  1979-04-06     4    0   4   4   4   0   0   0   33     28   10    9   12   21   1   2.45   1   1   0 ATL
 Ken Brett          1976-06-20  1976-07-06     4    0   4   4   4   0   0   0   35.1   29   13   12   15   17   0   3.06   1   1   0 CHW
 Clyde Wright       1974-07-20  1974-08-02     4    0   4   4   4   0   0   0   33     37   14   13    7    9   1   3.55   0   1   0 MIL
 Bob Gibson         1965-05-25  1965-06-08     4    0   4   4   4   0   0   0   35.2   26   15   13   15   21   5   3.28   1   1   1 STL                                  

Halladay is tied with roughly 60 other streaks at 3 games, although the last one was by Randy Johnson in 1999. See here for the full list.

Here are the leaders:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Kent Tekulve         12 Ind. Games
 Hoyt Wilhelm         11 Ind. Games
 Charlie Hough        11 Ind. Games
 Wilbur Wood          10 Ind. Games
 Mike Marshall        10 Ind. Games
 Rick Honeycutt       10 Ind. Games
 John Hiller          10 Ind. Games
 Clay Carroll         10 Ind. Games
 Al Worthington        9 Ind. Games
 Dick Tidrow           9 Ind. Games
 Bob Stanley           9 Ind. Games
 Phil Niekro           9 Ind. Games
 Roger McDowell        9 Ind. Games
 Darold Knowles        9 Ind. Games
 Rich Gossage          9 Ind. Games
 Elias Sosa            8 Ind. Games
 Barney Schultz        8 Ind. Games
 Greg Minton           8 Ind. Games
 Tug McGraw            8 Ind. Games
 Sparky Lyle           8 Ind. Games
 Joe Horlen            8 Ind. Games
 Greg Harris           8 Ind. Games
 Gene Garber           8 Ind. Games
 John Franco           8 Ind. Games
 Mark Clear            8 Ind. Games
+—————–+—–+————————-+
                   Games Link to Individual Games
+—————–+—–+————————-+
 Jim Brewer            8 Ind. Games
 Ted Abernathy         8 Ind. Games

As you can imagine, these are all games where the pitcher allowed an unearned run to score by any of various means. Let’s take a look at Tekulve’s 12 such games:

  Cnt Date          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 1978-05-09    PIT @SFG L  2-3   9-9f ,L   0.1  2  1  0  0  0  0               0  0  3  3  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   0.00
    2 1978-05-25    PIT  NYM L  2-3  10-11f,L   2    1  1  0  2  1  0               0  0 10  8  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  1   0.00
    3 1978-07-22    PIT @SFG L  2-3   9-10 ,L   0.1  1  1  0  2  0  0               1  0  4  2  0  0   1   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  1   0.00 

    4 1979-04-06    PIT  MON L  2-3   9-10f,L   2    0  1  0  0  3  0               0  0  9  8  0  0   0   1  0  0   0  1  0  0  0  0   0.00
    5 1979-04-21    PIT @HOU L  4-5   8-10f,L   1.2  2  1  0  1  0  0               1  0 10  8  0  0   1   0  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

    6 1980-06-18(1) PIT @ATL L  2-3   9-9f ,BL  0.1  1  1  0  0  0  0               2  2  3  3  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

    7 1982-06-09    PIT @NYM L  2-3   9-9f ,BL  0.1  1  1  0  1  0  0               1  1  5  4  0  0   1   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

    8 1983-06-28    PIT @CHC L  7-8   9-11f,L   2    3  1  0  2  3  0               0  0 12 10  1  0   2   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

    9 1984-05-29    PIT @CIN L  4-5  10-10f,L   0.1  1  1  0  2  1  0               0  0  5  3  1  0   1   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00
   10 1984-07-27    PIT  STL L  2-3  10-10f,L   1    1  1  0  2  0  0               0  0  6  3  0  0   1   0  0  1   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

   11 1987-06-20    PHI @NYM L  2-3   9-9f ,L   0.1  1  1  0  0  0  0               0  0  3  2  0  0   0   0  0  1   0  0  0  0  0  0   0.00 

   12 1989-07-13    CIN  MON L  3-6   7-7  ,BL  1    2  1  0  0  1  0  22  15       2  1  6  6  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  1  0  0  0   0.00

Here is what happened in those 12 games:

1. Tekulve allowed a one-out single to Jack Clark, who advanced to 3rd after an error on the catcher attempting to throw him out stealing. Larry Herndon then singled in Clark.

2. With two outs in the 11th, pitcher Dale Murray reached on an E5, then moved to second on a wild pitch by Tekulve. Then Len Randle singled him in.

3. Terry Whitfield led off the 10th with a single against Tekulve, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Tekulve then walked Jack Clark, and was relieved by Dave Hamilton. Willie McCovey then singled off Hamilton to end the game.

4. Here’s a weird one. Andre Dawson led off getting hit by Tekulve. Then, Dawson was picked off by Tekulve but moved to 2B on an error by Tekulve himself. Warren Cromartie grounded out, sending Dawson to third. Then Ellis Valentine reached on E5, scoring Dawson. That’s some seriously tough luck for Tekulve.

5. The Astros loaded the bases on a single, E5, and sac bunt on which Craig Reynolds successfully reached. The next play was a FC groundout by Cesar Cedeno, forcing Denny Walling at home. Next, Jose Cruz singled, scoring Terry Puhl, who had reached on error.

6. Here’s a painful one. Down 2-0, Dale Murphy singled. Then Chris Chambliss reached on an error on the first baseman. Then Tekulve came into the game. Gary Matthews reached on an error on the shortstop. A guy named Brian Asselstine flew out. (I have never heard of that guy–what a name!) Then Bill Nahorodny doubled in all three runs, winning the game. So, Tekulve came in with 2 on and nobody out, the defense allowed the next guy to reach, Tekulve got an out, then gave up a bases-loaded double. That is a tough loss, folks.

7. This one is too long to give in detail, but suffice it to say that the Mets got two guys on by a single and an error. Then, Tekulve picked the guy off 2B, but he was safe on an error by the second baseman and he went to third. Then after a groundout and an intentional walk, Hubie Brooks drove in the winning run on a fielder’s choice.

8. Cubs won when Larry Bowa reached on an error on the second baseman with two guys on base, scoring Leon Durham.

9. Tekulve loaded the bases on a double, intentional walk, and another walk, and then Brad Gulden reached on an error on the second baseman, scoring Dave Concepcion to end the game.

10. Chris Speier led off the inning with a fly ball and got to 3rd base on an error by the right fielder. Oops. Tekulve got Darrel Porter on a lineout. After a walk, he gave up a sac fly to Willie McGee. He then intentionally walked Andy Van Slyke. Then Terry Pendleton singled and the runner was out at home (b ut the go-ahead run had previously scored.)

11. Gary Carter singled and was lifted for pinch-runner Lenny Dykstra. Darryl Strawberry reached on an error by the shortstop and Dykstra got all the way to third. Then Kevin RcReynolds hit a game-ending sac fly.

12. This is the only time that Tekulve got the loss when the run didn’t score in the last inning of the game. What happened is kind of crazy, so here’s the entire inning.

Top of the 7th, Expos Batting, Behind 1-3, Norm Charlton facing 2-3-4
          ---  4  D Garcia        Walk
   R      1--  2  A Galarraga     Double to LF (Ground Ball thru 3B); Garcia Scores
          -2-  2  T Raines        Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Galarraga to 3B
                  Kent Tekulve replaces Todd Benzinger pitching and batting 6th; Ken Griffey replaces Norm Charlton playing 1B batting 9th
   R      1-3  3  H Brooks        Reached on E6 (Ground Ball to SS); Galarraga Scores; Raines to 2B
                  Dave Martinez pinch runs for Hubie Brooks batting 5th
   O      12-     T Wallach       Raines Caught Stealing 3B (C-3B); Martinez to 2B
          -2-  5  " "             Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Martinez to 3B
   O      1-3  4  M Fitzgerald    Strikeout Swinging
   R      1-3  4  S Owen          Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B); Martinez Scores/unER; Wallach to 3B
                  Wallace Johnson pinch hits for Dennis Martinez batting 9th
   O      1-3  3  W Johnson       Groundout: 2B-1B (2B)
                  3 runs, 4 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB. Expos 4, Reds 3.

So Norm Charlton made a nice mess of things, and it all blew up on Tekulve.

By the way, this was Tekulve’s second-to-last major-league appearance. His last game came 3 days later, also against the Expos. He came into a tie game in the top of the 12th, gave up 3 runs, got the loss, and retired. He had a couple of rough outings at the end there, but he had a great career, finishing with an ERA+ of 132 while pitching in more than 1000 games.

The Royals recently threw 2 consecutive complete games, one by Brian Bannister and one by Zack Greinke.

That makes them the 4th team to accomplish the feat since the beginning of the 2007 season:

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   CG SHO  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 KCR      2008-04-13  2008-04-14     2    2   0   2   0   0   18      8    2    1    2    7   0   0.50   1   0   0 MIN,SEA
 CHW      2007-09-19  2007-09-20     2    1   1   2   1   0   17     11    3    3    1   10   0   1.59   2   0   0 KCR
 PIT      2007-08-12  2007-08-13     2    2   0   2   1   0   18      8    1    1    1    8   0   0.50   0   0   0 SFG
 LAA      2007-07-30  2007-07-31     2    1   1   2   1   0   17     15    2    2    4   12   0   1.06   0   0   0 SEA

Going back to 1997, there are 4 teams who have had 3 CGs in a row:

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   CG SHO  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 MIN      2004-07-05  2004-07-07     3    3   0   3   3   0   27     13    0    0    2   24   0   0.00   3   0   0 KCR
 OAK      2000-09-08  2000-09-10     3    2   1   3   2   0   27     12    4    2    0   16   1   0.67   0   0   0 TBD
 MIN      1999-07-30  1999-08-01     3    2   1   3   1   0   26     17    3    3    4   17   1   1.04   0   1   0 ANA
 ATL      1998-06-14  1998-06-17     3    3   0   3   1   0   27     12    3    1    2   22   1   0.33   0   1   0 MON,FLA

And here are the leaders since 1956:

 Team    StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   CG SHO  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 DET      1968-09-06  1968-09-19    12   10   2  12   3   0  108     81   20   20   18   98  11   1.67   0   1   0 MIN,CAL,OAK,NYY                              

 OAK      1980-08-09  1980-08-17     9    6   3   9   0   0   86.1   63   20   17   12   43   9   1.77   1   0   0 SEA,MIN                                      

 CHW      1956-09-16  1956-09-23     8    5   3   8   0   0   75     55   22   18   12   34   4   2.16   0   1   1 WSH,NYY,KCA

I would bet that if we could go all the way back to 1901, there were lots of times when teams when 20, 30, or more games in a row with CGs, since there were periods back then when use of relief pitchers was very rare. It’s ironic the type of reversal we’ve seen. Back in the very early 1900s, it was probably a significant pain in the butt for the manager if he had to bring in a relief pitcher.

These days, most teams have a relief pitcher who is accustomed to throwing every 2 days, or 2 out of every 3, etc, and having a few complete games in a row could potentially mess up such players. Of course, that problem is easy to fix–you can always have a relief guy throw a bullpen session to keep his arm fresh.

Here’s a fun little list via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Game Finder - - Since 1956, games where the starting pitcher threw just one pitch and then left the game: 

                   Games Link to Individual Games   

+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Wade Miller           1 Ind. Games
 Dennis Martinez       1 Ind. Games
 Al Leiter             1 Ind. Games
 Don Cardwell          1 Ind. Games
 Chris Bosio           1 Ind. Games
 Pedro Astacio         1 Ind. Games     

 Games found: 6.

As crazy as this may sound, I expected to find more games than this.  Not a ton of games, mind you.  But, I would have guessed that there were at least 20 games like this since 1956.  But, it’s just a half-dozen.  Rare, indeed.

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!

Tampa Bay won today hurling a 3-hit shutout against the Mariners.

Here are all their such games in history:

 Year Games Link to Individual Games
+----+-----+-------------------------+
 1999     4 Ind. Games
 2003     3 Ind. Games
 2000     3 Ind. Games
 1998     3 Ind. Games
 2006     2 Ind. Games
 2004     2 Ind. Games
 2001     1 Ind. Games

These are games allowing 0 runs and 3 or fewer hits. They didn’t do it once last year.

By comparison, here are the team totals from last year:

 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+
 SDP 2007     7 Ind. Games
 NYM 2007     5 Ind. Games
 TOR 2007     4 Ind. Games
 OAK 2007     4 Ind. Games
 DET 2007     4 Ind. Games
 CHW 2007     4 Ind. Games
 CHC 2007     4 Ind. Games
 BOS 2007     4 Ind. Games
 BAL 2007     4 Ind. Games
 ARI 2007     4 Ind. Games
 STL 2007     3 Ind. Games
 SEA 2007     3 Ind. Games
 WSN 2007     2 Ind. Games
 TEX 2007     2 Ind. Games
 SFG 2007     2 Ind. Games
 NYY 2007     2 Ind. Games
 MIN 2007     2 Ind. Games
 FLA 2007     2 Ind. Games
 CIN 2007     2 Ind. Games
 PIT 2007     1 Ind. Games
 PHI 2007     1 Ind. Games
 LAD 2007     1 Ind. Games
 LAA 2007     1 Ind. Games
 KCR 2007     1 Ind. Games
 COL 2007     1 Ind. Games
+—+—-+—–+————————-+
 Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+—+—-+—–+————————-+
 CLE 2007     1 Ind. Games
 ATL 2007     1 Ind. Games                

In addition to the Rays, the Brewers and the Astros didn’t do it in 2007.

This year, only the Rays, Royals, and Nationals have done it so far.