CC’s streak
Posted by John Autin on July 16, 2011
With 2 out in the 8th and a runner on 3rd, Yankees CF Brett Gardner got a great jump on a sinking liner by Eric Thames and caught it belt high on the dead run towards the infield. By using his wheels and terrific OF instincts to keep that run off the board, Gardner gave CC Sabathia a little piece of Yankee history.
Sabathia allowed just 1 run in 8 innings, and after 110 pitches, he turned over a 4-1 lead to Mariano Rivera in the 9th. It was Sabathia's 5th straight game of at least 7 IP and no more than 1 run allowed. No other Yankee managed even 4 straight since Clemens in 2000. The last Yankee to do it in 5 straight games was a long time ago, and you'd have to be a real student of Yankee history to guess who it was. I'll tease you for a little while before revealing the name and the year.
Through Sept. 2 of that year, our 24-year-old mystery pitcher was 15-5 with a 1.71 ERA, with 200.1 IP in 26 starts (averaging over 7-2/3 IP) -- despite a K rate of less than 2 SO/9. He slumped in his last 6 starts and wound up the season 16-9, 2.40, with 4 shutouts and 11 CG in 32 starts.
With 58 Ks in 236.1 IP for the year, he averaged 2.21 K/9. It was the last season ever by a qualifying pitcher with such a low K rate but an ERA+ of at least 100.
Opposing pitchers accounted for 12 of his 58 strikeouts -- 12 Ks in 58 ABs, or 20.7%. He fanned just 46 "real" hitters in 829 ABs, or 5.5%.
(For the pitcher's name, click "Read the rest of this entry.")
And the answer is:
The last Yankee starter with at least 5 straight games of 7+ IP and no more than 1 run allowed was Steve Kline, who had a 6-game streak in 1972.
Kline, a right-hander from Wenatchee, WA (and no relation to the more recent reliever of the same name). Through his first 3 seasons, Kline was 34-28 with a 2.80 ERA and 114 ERA+, and 31 CG in 77 starts. But he got hurt in '73, and would never be the same; the Yankees included him in the '74 trade with Cleveland that brought Chris Chambliss and Dick Tidrow to the Bronx. Kline won just 9 more games after that excellent '72 season, and he finished with a career mark of 43-45, a 3.26 ERA and 102 ERA+.
Notes
-- Sabathia won his 7th straight start, tying Justin Verlander for the longest streak this year and one shy of his career best. He won 8 straight outings last year, and also won 7 straight in 2005. He's won 11 of his last 12 games, averaging 7.9 IP, and his 14 wins are 2 more than any other pitcher.
-- For the first time in over a year, Toronto has not homered in 3 straight games. Sabathia has allowed only 5 HRs in 153.2 IP this year, and none in his last 5 starts; his rate of 0.29 HR/9 is the 3rd lowest in the majors.
-- Gardner, who went 3 for 4 including a beautiful drag bunt, led the AL in Total Zone Runs fielding last year and is leading again this year.
July 16th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
*opens up game of Trivial Pursuit - Greatest Yankee Moments in History*
*Looks for card that contains 'Who was the last Yankee to pitch 5 consecutive games of 7+ IP and no more than1 run allowed'*
*crosses off Steve Kline on back of card*
July 16th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
JA, I didn't want to see the answer. Why is it already showing on the blog?
July 16th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
The final record and ERA gave it away....
July 16th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
...I should also add the low SO total did also
July 16th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
OK, guys, I'm obviously no judge of how good a student of Yankee history one must be to know about this Steve Kline. I'd never heard of him, to be honest; although I started following the game around 1969, I was really just aware of my Tigers and our archrival Orioles for the first few years. And even now, my knowledge of the '71-72 Yanks was limited to the All-Star types like Murcer, Roy White, Thurman, Stottlemyre....
Neil -- The "Read more..." tag only appears on the B-R blog main page. Once you click on the topic, you see that whole page. I guess I expected folks to read all that they could on the main page, which was probably naive of me. Sorry!
July 16th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
P.S. Neil -- I don't really know any other way of hiding something on one of these posts. And I guess I didn't really mean this to be an episode of "Mystery High-Quality-Start-Streak Theater." 🙂
July 16th, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Sabathia is clearly pitching for his next contract.
No confirmation on the rumor the top song on is iPod is "I Love LA" by Huey Lewis.
July 16th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Make that Randy Newman, Chuck.
July 16th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Well, hey, Chuck.
Gee, I hadn't really thought about CC's opt-out clause. I find it hard to imagine that he derives extra motivation from the chance to tear up a guaranteed $92 million and hit the open market at age 31 -- but of course, I have no inside access to CC's braintrust.
Maybe he'll hire Boras at the last minute and work out a deal that converts the opt-out into a flat percentage of the "DJ3K" merchandise.
Kidding aside ... While I don't really think there's a better deal out there for Sabathia, it won't surprise me if he squeezes something out of the Yankees; most players would, and after all, what's the point of having a cash cow if you're not going to milk it?
July 16th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Chuck must have been thinking of the Huey Lewis song "I Want a New Deal."
July 16th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I win the cigar. I remember Steve Kline, largely because I was at Yankee Stadium for a game he pitched against Oakland. Yankees scored 3 off of Catfish Hunter in the first inning, and they threatened afterwards, but, being that generation's Yankees (and Catfish being that generation's Catfish), that's all they could do. Kline, however, was perfect through six innings. In the seventh, Oakland broke through-four straight batter led to fun runs, with Reggie hitting one out. No perfect game, no win. Tough to be a Yankee fan then.
July 16th, 2011 at 6:56 pm
My guess is he'll work out an extension with the Yankees, giving him another 7 guaranteed seasons or so.
Glad to learn he's motivated by a new contract. If only he had been worth a damn the last two seasons.
July 16th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
If the Yanks didn't learn their lesson the last time one of their over-paid veterans used an opt-out, I have no sympathy for them.
July 16th, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Well, look who's back!
So, now ... whatever happened to that Moo-stash Renegotiation fellow?
July 16th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Let's see, the last time I saw the Yankee front office looking for sympathy about their cash-flow situation was ... um ... December 1972?
July 16th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
JA, those were brutal years to be a Yankee fan. Have you no compassion?
July 16th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Mike L, I have underdeveloped senses of both compassion and irony -- it took me 5 minutes to realize that you had to be kidding.
(You were kidding, right???)
July 16th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
John A, I use irony as a parenting tool. Along with (I hope) compassion. Actually, it was hard to be a Yankee fan from 1965-72. They were pretty darn lousy. But, no, I can't really claim extended suffering. I absolve you.
July 16th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
See, that "1965-72" line was why it took me a while to decide you were being facetious.
With all I heard over the years about that "dark age" in Yankee history, I was shocked when I realized that it contained exactly 3 bad years (1965-67, with one last-place finish but never more than 90 losses) -- and that from 1968 all the way through '88, they were never more than 4 games below .500.
But there I go, being overly earnest again....
July 16th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
I became a Yankee fan between 1965-1972.
No one could accuse me of jumping on the bandwagon back then because there wasn't one.
Off the top of my head;
Dooley Womack, Thad Tillotson, Ellie Hernandez, Fred Talbot, Steve Whitaker, Tom Shopay, Steve Hamilton, Horace Clarke, Charlie Spikes, Ross Moschitto, Bobby Cox, Mike Kekich.
July 16th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
You missed Jake Gibbs, who must have been on a Topps Yankee rookies card for about 4 years in a row around that time.
July 16th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
@6
JA, no problem. I'm still waiting for the next installment of Autin's Baseball Mystery Theatre.
@7
Chuck, I have to admit Sabathia was dominant today. He was a strike-throwing machine with his fastball in the mid-nineties.
@12
All's well with the BBRef world ....., Johnny's back! 🙂
July 17th, 2011 at 12:05 am
John A, there's context as well. Not only did I have to watch Jerry Kenney and Celerino Sanchez. But the Red Sox in 1967. The Miracle Mets. The expat Dodgers-who were on every game of the week-all year long-even in the winter!!!. The Orioles (oh, the Orioles, so good that they didn't need to cheat-but they had Earl Weaver to boot, using every trick in the book). This could clearly cause some damage to the DNA. They stunk the joint out again from 89-92. Sometimes those genetic mutations can take a generation to manifest themselves.
July 17th, 2011 at 12:16 am
@6
I will only watch, "Mystery High-Quality-Start-Streak Theater" if Mike Nelson is flanked on either side by Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot.
July 17th, 2011 at 12:41 am
I remember Steve Kline, I went to a Yankee game that year, one of my last visits to the "real" original Yankee Stadium.
Kline was featured in an article in the official game program I bought (though not on the cover). I guess that was because he was in the middle of that hot streak.
Also in the news during that time: Celerino Sanchez.
July 17th, 2011 at 12:46 am
@25 -- So, what's the opposite of Bahnsen? And what ever happened to Rich McKinney?
And where can I get a Zehcnas Onirelec rookie card?
July 17th, 2011 at 1:16 am
If the Yanks didn't learn their lesson the last time one of their over-paid veterans used an opt-out, I have no sympathy for them.
By how much is Sabathia overpaid? (If you think that any baseball player who earns more than a public school teacher is overpaid, please advise.)
Would you recommend that they not resign him after this season?
Surely there must be a happy medium between letting CC go and giving him a contract to age 41 when no one else is even bidding.
***
whatever happened to that Moo-stash Renegotiation fellow?
Did he finally leave? I noticed some posts by him lately. Seemed like a real jackash.
July 17th, 2011 at 2:18 am
Dooley Womack, Thad Tillotson, Ellie Hernandez, Fred Talbot, Steve Whitaker, Tom Shopay, Steve Hamilton, Horace Clarke, Charlie Spikes, Ross Moschitto, Bobby Cox, Mike Kekich. . .Jake Gibbs. . . Jerry Kenney and Celerino Sanchez. . . Rich McKinney
A few more for the guest book: Felipe Alou, Johnny Callison, Andy Kosco, Frank Fernandez, Ron Woods, Jimmy Lyttle, Roger Hambright, Gary Jones, Gene Michael, Frank Baker (the shortstop), Bill Burbach, Len Boehmer, Roger Repoz, Joe Verbanic, Doc Edwards, Ray Barker, Ruben Amaro, Lindy McDaniel, Fred Beene, Al Closter, Rob Gardner.
To quote the old Joe Garagiola line, "It was like the first team missed the bus."
July 17th, 2011 at 7:54 am
Busted. Yeah, I use the Bahnsen tag line to remind me of the Yankees in the pre-Seitz era. Baseball seemed a fairer game back then...if you weren't a player, I suppose.
July 17th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Im not sure CC will ever match the streak he had in Milwaukee, 17 starts, with the Brewers going 14-3 in them. 7 CG and 3 shutouts, allowing him to league both leagues in shutouts in 2008. He averaged more than 7 2/3 per start and had 8 outings of 7+ IP with no more than 1 run allowed.
He also piled up 4.8 WAR in only 130.2 IP, or 3.67 WAR/100 IP. The only pitchers to EVER match that rate in a season (although this is still only a partial season for CC) are:
2009 Zach Greinke
2003 Pedro
2000 Pedro
1999 Pedro
1997 Roger Clemens
1995 Greg Maddux
1994 Greg Maddux
1990 Roger Clemens
1985 Doc Gooden
1968 Bob Gibson
Also Josh Beckett and Jair Jurrjens are on this pace so far this season
July 18th, 2011 at 12:28 am
@30, Topper -- Divergent outcomes for Jurrjens and Beckett on Sunday. Is J.J. still on that pace?
July 18th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
what's the opposite of Bahnsen?
Bahnsen's first three MLB teams were the Yankees, White Sox, and A's. On that basis, the opposite of Bahnsen must be Nick Swisher.
July 18th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Let's see:
-- Bahnsen was a pitcher. Swisher is an OF (and son of a catcher)
-- Bahnsen threw and batted right. Swisher throws left, bats both.
It works for me!
Your next challenge, Kahuna: What's the contrapositive of Horace Clarke?
July 19th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Your next challenge, Kahuna: What's the contrapositive of Horace Clarke?
This one's pretty easy.
If Horace Clarke is in the lineup then the Yankees will not reach the postseason. Contrapositive: If Horace Clarke is not in the lineup then the Yankees will reach the postseason.
Whom does this describe? Bernie Williams.
The other major difference between them, of course, is the number of names by which the Angels franchise was called during their careers. Horace played in a simpler time.
Both men are switch-hitters and accomplished musicians who grew up in Caribbean territories of the United States.
Just call me if you need me, John. (-;þ
July 22nd, 2011 at 12:34 am
[...] (By the way, this game snapped his streak of 5 starts with 7+ IP on 1 run or less that I mentioned here, but his current streak of 6 starts with 7+ IP on 2 runs or less matches the longest by a Yankee [...]