Big & Quick Week For A’s Pitchers In ’72
Posted by Steve Lombardi on March 2, 2009
Via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Team Pitching Streak Finder - since 1956, the longest winning streak by a team's pitching where they faced 32 batters or less in each game:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Opponents +-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ OAK 1972-08-27 1972-09-01 5 5 0 138 14 31 1 2 3 14 15 11 0 3 .225 .280 .326 .606 BAL,CLE,DET LAD 1988-08-18 1988-08-21 4 4 0 113 12 25 5 0 3 10 17 3 5 1 .221 .237 .345 .582 PHI,MON SFG 1963-06-12 1963-06-15 4 4 0 111 8 18 4 0 5 8 16 6 0 2 .162 .205 .333 .538 CHC,HOU KCA 1958-05-15 1958-05-18 4 4 0 112 14 23 4 0 4 13 20 4 0 0 .205 .233 .348 .581 CHW,DET
That run in 1972 was a Sunday to Friday thing. What happened on the 7th day, that Saturday? The A's lost, 3-1, facing 44 batters - in extra innings! But, they won the next day, 3-1, facing just 33 batters, for what it's worth.
So, those A's came pretty darn close to having this streak run for 7 full games. Nice...
Update: Yikes! As you can see from the comments to this entry, I got my tools crossed on this one! Oh, well, it was a big and quick week for the A's batters back in '72! At least someone had a good time! OK, I'm going to go back into my cave now...sorry for the screw up! Mea culpa.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Those '58 A's stand out like a sore thumb. And their future Yankees (Grim and Terry) weren't even part of the streak.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Just what I was thinking, Johnny. I mean, we all know about the great pitching on those other three teams, the top two winning the World Series. But the 1958 A's? I remember reading somewhere that Kansas City A's fans didn't have anyone "of their own," that all of their stars were either holdovers from Philly, guys who made their mark later in Oakland or guys who became stars elsewhere.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Mea culpa, Grim was actually a former Yankee. And Terry was both a former and future Yankee -- his best years being in the future.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
The link goes to the Oakland *batting* game log - seems to me you've found 5 straight games Oakland won despite being held to 32 batters or fewer. There's no info at that link on how many batters Oakland's pitchers faced.
I didn't check the others.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Gerry's right. If I understood your search parameters correctly, the record is still five, by the '63 Yankees and the '62-'63 Cardinals
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/w7Ff
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Yikes - I must have been out in the snow and the cold too long today! Thanks guys.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:09 am
I still think its a very interesting stat.
They won 5 straight even though their offense was held to +5 the game minimum. I think that says just as much about their pitching staff during that stretch tahn the original stat, if not more
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 am
Something's wrong with one of those 1963 Yankee games. They pitched 9 full innings on 7 August, gave up 3 hits and 6 walks, and still only faced 32 batters. You've got to get 4 outs on the bases for that to add up, but the line shows no CS and only 2 DP. But if you click through to the play-by-play, the Yanks pulled off 4 DP in that game, so the 2 in the DP column is wrong.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
My guess is that DP listed on the pitching gamelog are really GIDP. Two of the DPs the Yankees turned in that game were on line drives. But I haven't checked other games to confirm this.