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World Series Game 1 Pitcher’s Duels…Not!

Posted by Steve Lombardi on October 18, 2011

Using Play Index, I think these are 5 of the most notable World Series Game 1 situations where both starting pitchers spit the bit:

Player Date Series Gm# Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA WPA RE24 aLI
Tim Lincecum 2010-10-27 WS 1 SFG TEX W 11-7 GS-6 ,W 5.2 8 4 4 2 3 0 6.35 -0.008 -1.559 .930
Cliff Lee 2010-10-27 WS 1 TEX SFG L 7-11 GS-5 ,L 4.2 8 7 6 1 7 0 11.57 -0.349 -3.036 1.246
Woody Williams 2004-10-23 WS 1 STL BOS L 9-11 GS-3 2.1 8 7 7 3 1 1 27.00 -0.360 -4.891 .914
Tim Wakefield 2004-10-23 WS 1 BOS STL W 11-9 GS-4 3.2 3 5 5 5 2 1 12.27 -0.148 -2.888 1.016
Bob Walk 1980-10-14 WS 1 PHI KCR W 7-6 GS-7 ,W 7.0 8 6 6 3 3 3 7.71 -0.227 -2.711 .832
Dennis Leonard 1980-10-14 WS 1 KCR PHI L 6-7 GS-4 ,L 3.2 6 6 6 1 3 1 14.73 -0.480 -4.430 .851
Whitey Ford 1964-10-07 WS 1 NYY STL L 5-9 GS-6 ,L 5.1 8 5 5 1 4 1 8.44 -0.275 -1.738 1.235
Ray Sadecki 1964-10-07 WS 1 STL NYY W 9-5 GS-6 ,W 6.0 8 4 4 5 2 1 6.00 -0.170 -1.067 .900
Mule Watson 1923-10-10 WS 1 NYG NYY W 5-4 GS-2 2.0 4 3 3 1 1 0 13.50 -0.181 -1.899 1.042
Waite Hoyt 1923-10-10 WS 1 NYY NYG L 4-5 GS-3 2.1 4 4 4 1 0 0 15.43 -0.230 -2.329 1.228
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/18/2011.

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Any others that maybe I missed?

18 Responses to “World Series Game 1 Pitcher’s Duels…Not!”

  1. BSK Says:

    Funny thing is if you had to bet on which list those first 2 guys would be on, you'd probably lay the house on yesterday's...

  2. Larry R. Says:

    How about 1932? Ruffing gives up 10 hits and 6 walks. Bush gives up 5 walks and 8 ER in 5.1 IP.

  3. John Autin Says:

    -- In the 1966 WS opener, both Drysdale and McNally were gone by the 3rd inning. McNally was only charged with 2 runs, but he walked 5 and allowed a HR and a double.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196610050.shtml

    Moe Drabowsky relieved in the 3rd after McNally walked the bases full with 1 out. He escaped that jam with only 1 scoring, and pitched the rest of the game, allowing no runs on 1 hit, with 11 Ks -- a WS relief record. Drabowsky's performance, had it been a start, would have rated a 79 Game Score.

  4. Richard Chester Says:

    In the 1953 WS Carl Erskine of the Dodgers pitched 1 inning and gave up 4 runs. Alie Reynolds of the Yankees was a bit better going 5.1 innings to give up 4 runs.

  5. Zachary Says:

    The Fenway games in 2004's series were strange as all get out. The Sox committed about 4 million errors in both games and still won.

  6. Doug Says:

    1908, Ed Killian (2.1 IP, 3 R, 5 H), Ed Reulbach (6.2 IP, 4 R, 8 H)
    1927, Ray Kremer (5 IP, 5 R, 5 H), Waite Hoyt (7.1 IP, 4 R, 8 H)
    1978, Ed Figueroa (1.2 IP, 3 R, 5 H), Tommy John (7.2 IP, 5 R, 8 H)
    1993, Curt Schilling (6.1 IP, 7 R, 8 H), Juan Guzman (5 IP, 4 R, 5 H)
    1997, Orel Hershiser (4.1 IP, 7 R, 6 H), Livan Hernandez (5.2 IP, 3 R, 8 H)
    2002, Jason Schmidt (5.2 IP, 3 R, 9 H), Jarrod Washburn (5.2 IP, 4 R, 6 H)

  7. Lawrence Azrin Says:

    @3/ John Autin "-- In the 1966 WS opener, both Drysdale and McNally were gone by the 3rd inning. McNally was only charged with 2 runs, but he walked 5 and allowed a HR and a double..".

    John - perhaps the most remarkable thing about the 1966 WS is that after that third inning of Game 1, the Dodgers never scored another run the rest of the WS.

  8. John Says:

    Interesting, Lawrence. I also noticed that, after the Wakefield/Williams debacle in Game 1 in 2004, the Cardinals only scored 3 more runs (2 unearned) the rest of the series, including only a single unearned run against the Red Sox' three starters.

  9. Chris Says:

    @1 - I remember being very surprised to see the losing team in a Cliff Lee-Tim Lincecum matchup score seven runs.

  10. Timmy P Says:

    Why can't Josh Beckett eat some chicken if he wants? I like fried chicken! I like Popeye's deep fried popcorn chicken, can't remember if they have shrimp at Popeye's, but I do enjoy deep fried breaded shrimp if I can find it. The Popeye's in south Minneapolis used to run out of stuff all the time, they'd even run of chicken sometimes.

  11. bluejaysstatsgeek Says:

    Off Topic - for this posting at least - but hardly less that Timmy P's 🙂

    On the front page, under 2011 World Series, it lists:

    Saint Louis Cardinals

    Isn't it quite rare to see the "St." spelled out as "Saint"?

  12. SocraticGadfly Says:

    Game 7, 1960 could probably go on the list.

    And, other "oddities" of 1966 include Willie Davis' three errors in an inning.

  13. Doug B Says:

    that's pretty sad. Sandy Koufax went out like that?

    Willie Davis had more errors in 1 inning than the Dodgers scored in the entire series.

    wow.

  14. Lawrence Azrin Says:

    @13/ Doug B -
    "that's pretty sad. Sandy Koufax went out like that?..."

    Doug - actually, Koufax had perhaps his worst WS start in Game 2, giving up 4 runs in 6 innings (although only one was earned, because of the aforementioned three errors by Willie Davis).

    Another useless factoid: the Orioles won each of the last two games 1-0.

  15. Doug B Says:

    "actually, Koufax had perhaps his worst WS start in Game 2"

    who said he didn't? I just didn't realize his team was just shut down with complete domination by the O's and Koufax was a non-factor in his final week as a baseball player. The impression is always that he walked away as his dominant self.

  16. Lawrence Azrin Says:

    @15/ Doug B -
    To be fair to Koufax, if Davis hadn't made the three errors in one inning, Koufax may have pitched a complete-game1-0 loss in his last MLB game.

    Going down the list of the all-time greats, I see only one player besides Koufax that "walked away as his dominant self', as you put it. It's just the nature of even the greatest players gradually declining, and eventually not being good enough to play at the major-league level.

    Ted Williams was still a dominant player in 1960, his last year; he would've led the AL in OBA and SLG if he had enough PA, plus of course he hit the famous "Kid Bids Hub Adieu"* HR in his final at-bat. Despite that, he was playing on a team that finished in 7th place, 32 games back. So there's no such thing as the fairytale ending

    *in reference to John Updike's wonderful short story he wrote after attending William's last game

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