Scoreless innings streak
In baseball, a scoreless innings streak is the number of consecutive official innings in which a pitcher appears and allows no runs. Such a streak will end when the pitcher allows a run, earned or unearned. Since 1998, the Official Baseball Rules state that a pitcher does not get credit for any outs recorded during an inning in which he is charged with an earned or unearned run.[1]
Orel Hershiser holds the Major League Baseball record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings which began on August 20, 1988 and ended on September 28, 1989, breaking Don Drysdale's record of 58 consecutive scoreless innings in 1968, the "Year of the Pitcher."[2] Drysdale and Hershiser are the only pitchers to record a 50-inning streak in the live ball era; Walter Johnson and Jack Coombs both also recorded 50 consecutive scoreless innings, with Johnson's 55-inning streak being the MLB record for 55 years and still being the American League record and Coombs' 53-inning streak being the record before that.[3]
Mariano Rivera holds the postseason record for consecutive scoreless innings, with 33+1⁄3. The second-longest postseason streak was pitched by Whitey Ford, whose 33 consecutive scoreless innings is a World Series record; Ford broke Babe Ruth's 43-year-old record of 29 scoreless innings. Christy Mathewson holds the National League record with 28 consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason.[4]
Major League Baseball
[edit]Regular season
[edit]
The following is a list of Major League pitchers with at least 40 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Only Walter Johnson and Luis Tiant have multiple streaks of at least 40 scoreless innings, with two each.
| # | Player | Team | IP | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orel Hershiser | Los Angeles Dodgers | 59 | 1988 |
| 2 | Don Drysdale | Los Angeles Dodgers | 58 | 1968 |
| 3 | Walter Johnson | Washington Senators | 55 | 1913 |
| 4 | Jack Coombs | Philadelphia Athletics | 53 | 1910 |
| 5 | Bob Gibson | St. Louis Cardinals | 47 | 1968 |
| 6 | Cy Young | Boston Americans | 45 | 1904 |
| Doc White | Chicago White Sox | 1904 | ||
| Carl Hubbell | New York Giants | 1933 | ||
| Sal Maglie | New York Giants | 1950 | ||
| Zack Greinke | Los Angeles Dodgers | 2015 | ||
| 7 | Ed Reulbach | Chicago Cubs | 44 | 1908 |
| R. A. Dickey | New York Mets | 2012 | ||
| Zac Gallen | Arizona Diamondbacks | 2022 | ||
| 8 | Rube Waddell | Philadelphia Athletics | 43 | 1905 |
| 9 | Rube Foster | Boston Red Sox | 42 | 1914 |
| Brandon Webb | Arizona Diamondbacks | 2007 | ||
| 10 | Jack Chesbro | Pittsburgh Pirates | 41 | 1902 |
| Grover Cleveland Alexander |
Philadelphia Phillies | 1911 | ||
| Art Nehf | Boston Braves | 1917 | ||
| Ted Lyons | Chicago White Sox | 1926 | ||
| Luis Tiant | Cleveland Indians | 1968 | ||
| Clayton Kershaw | Los Angeles Dodgers | 2014 | ||
| 11 | Walter Johnson | Washington Senators | 40 | 1918 |
| Gaylord Perry | San Francisco Giants | 1967 | ||
| Luis Tiant | Boston Red Sox | 1972 |
Postseason
[edit]
The following is a list of pitchers with at least 20 consecutive postseason scoreless innings. Mariano Rivera holds the postseason record, and Whitey Ford holds the World Series record.[5]
| # | Player | Team | IP | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mariano Rivera | New York Yankees | 33+1⁄3 | 1998–2000 |
| 2 | Whitey Ford | New York Yankees | 33 | 1960–1962 |
| 3 | Babe Ruth | Boston Red Sox | 29 | 1916, 1918 |
| 4 | Christy Mathewson | New York Giants | 28 | 1905, 1911 |
| 5 | Madison Bumgarner | San Francisco Giants | 24 | 2014, 2016 |
| 6 | Sandy Koufax | Los Angeles Dodgers | 22 | 1965–1966 |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Consecutive Scoreless Innings Pitched Records". Baseball Almanac.
- ^ Wexler, Sarah (September 28, 2022). "Here's how Hershiser's historic streak happened". MLB.com.
- ^ Simon, Andrew (September 12, 2022). "Longest scoreless innings streaks in history". MLB.com.
- ^ Kelly, Matt. "Ford breaks Ruth's World Series scoreless innings streak". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
- ^ Nowak, Joey (September 3, 2013). "Mo eclipsed Whitey to enter class by himself". MLB.com. Retrieved October 28, 2024.