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Fewest pitches in a CG

Posted by trent_mccotter on July 26, 2007

On Wednesday, Aaron Cook threw just 74 pitches in a nine-inning game.  Although it doesn't have pitch data for all the games since 1957, PI does have pitch counts for a ton of games, and here are the pitchers with the fewest pitches thrown in a 9+ inning CG. I should hold-off until Cook's 74-pitch gem is in the database, but I just can't wait!

Not only is Cook tied with walkaphobic Carlos Silva for fewest pitches in a CG, but also note that Cook's game is just the eighth known game in the retrosheet-era in which a pitcher's gone the distance but required less than 80 pitches.

According to the record books, Red Barrett needed only 58 pitches to throw a nine-inning complete game on August 10, 1944, which is believed to be the record. I doubt anyone will come close to matching that anytime soon.

3 Responses to “Fewest pitches in a CG”

  1. Andy Says:

    When you lift the 9-inning restriction, I expected to find some pitchers who threw 8-inning complete games that were road losses because the home team didn't need to bat in the bottom of the 9th. But no such games show up (although shortened games such as Pascual Perez' 5-inning no hitter do show up.)

    Anybody know the deal with that? Does Retrosheet not count losses as CGs anymore?

  2. moondoggyJ55 Says:

    ITs cool how harden was had the most strikeouts outa the bunch. It goes to show you that sinker ballers are more efficientadn can really last longer. Cook adn Silva both suprised me to be on that list andat the top of it. i would''ve assume clemens or someone wit a real accurate arm would dominate he list. Cool stat.

  3. birtelcom Says:

    I'm curious, what years or parts of years does the database have pitch counts for? Or to put in another way, when we do a PI search for pitch count, what years (or parts of years) are we looking at?