33 Responses to “Longest Streaks With 6+ IP On The Road Since 1919”

1. Tim Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:07 pm

   I like that Tom Seaver is on this list 5 times!

2. Larry R. Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:11 pm

   I heard on the radio that Doc's streak was 63, second only to Walter Johnson's 84 back in the teens. Somebody miscalculated.

3. Steve Lombardi Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:11 pm

   I keep reading that the early exit for Roy Halladay ended his string of 63 road starts in which he lasted at least six innings. It was the longest such streak since Walter Johnson went 82 from 1911-15.

   Where are they getting 63?

4. Steve Lombardi Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:12 pm

   Whoops - we posted at the same time.

5. Steve Lombardi Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:13 pm

   Maybe it has something to do with a home game that was actually played on the road, or vice versa?

6. Tim Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:20 pm

   Seaver's 5 times total 118 games with a 58-29 record and 12 shutouts.

   Bob Gibson is even more impressive. Gibson's 4 times on the list total 130 games with a 84-39 record and 23 shutouts!

7. SJBlonger Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:23 pm

   The game before the one that starts this streak was a short relief appearance. So it probably is 63, if only starts are included.

8. statboy Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:25 pm

   The leaderboard posted here is NOT 6+ inning road starts, like you guys heard. Halladay relieved on May 18, 2008, so that is why his streak was 50 on this leaderboard.

9. John Autin Says:
   July 19th, 2011 at 1:26 pm

   Steve, I think the discrepancy is due to the distinction between Starts and Games.

   Halladay had a road relief appearance on May 18, 2008, that precedes the beginning of the streak you highlighted.

   If you redo the search specifying Starts, you'll get 64 games, starting July 17, 2007.

10. topper009 Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Roger Clemens had a nice streak from '87-88, going 16-1.

    Bob Gibson leads (of course) with 10 SHO since his longest streak includes all of '68 and '69.

    Randy Johnson is the only one without at least 1 CG in a streak, during his '01-02 run. Also interesting to note the Big Unit's GF, which came exactly 10 years ago yesterday, where he started the 3rd inning for Curt Schilling and finished the game throwing 109 pitches just 3 days after starting and throwing 108 pitches. Before that start he had 9 days off since his last regular season start with a All-Star game start in between.

    Not sure what happened to Schilling but he led the league in starts that year and started his next game on only 2 days rest allowing 1 H, 2 BB over 7 IP with 12 Ks, I guess he was OK after that mysterious July 18 start.

    Image the Padres hitters that day getting excited thinking Schilling has to exit only to see that they are bringing in Randy Johnson to replace him.

    Here is the game
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN200107180.shtml
    Another oddity is that the play-by=play says Brain Anderson pinch hits for Schilling to lead off the 3rd and end Schilling's day but then it shows Schilling bat and strike out.

11. topper009 Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    @10 oops should be play-by-play obviously, I guess by = 0 in my original equation.

12. SJBlonger Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    I suppose that would be possible if Shilling was injured in his at-bat and had two strikes when he left the game. Then Anderson replaced him, but the K went to Shilling.

13. SJBlonger Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Er, Schilling.

14. topper009 Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    Ah nice catch there SJB

15. topper009 Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    A similar thing happened just on Sunday when Shaun Marcum left the game mid at-bat, 2-0, vs Tulo and his reliever, Latroy Hawkins, went on to walk him. The BB was credited to Marcum.

16. Tmckelv Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    Steve Rogers, nice.

    Not to geek out even more than normal, but I believe that was the name of "Captain America", which opens this weekend. Nice timing.

17. Neil L. Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Only eighteen of the seventy streaks were prior to 1970 and six prior to 1950. Why such an uneven distribution over time? There were many effective pitchers back then with a ton of complete games.

    Were the home team's fans more unruly prior to 1950 in terms of heckling the opposition pitcher and reducing his effectiveness?

18. Charles Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    His streak as a starter is 64 games on the road with 6 or more innings pitched

19. Charles Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    The game involving Schilling was suspended in the third inning after explosions knocked out a bank of lights over left field and finished Thursday. Schilling must have been batting. Johnson struck out 16 breaking the record for SO's by a reliever and came within 4 outs of a combined no hitter.

20. topper009 Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    Nice tid bit Charles, so I guess RJ's record relief appearance occurred exactly 10 years ago today! Funny how according to MLB everything took place on the day the game started, reminds me of the mystery of Barry Bonds' first career hit. If you look at his gamelogs in his rookie season it shows him going 1-1 on April 30 with the game-winning pinch hit RBI single in the top of the 17th against Dave Gumpert, but that game was actually finished on Aug. 11 of that season, when Bonds played in it. Bonds' actual first career hit was a 2B on May 31 of 1986 against Rick Honeycutt.

21. Johnny Twisto Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Only eighteen of the seventy streaks were prior to 1970 and six prior to 1950. Why such an uneven distribution over time? There were many effective pitchers back then with a ton of complete games.

    There was a lot more variance in pitcher usage back then, in many ways. While SP were more likely to complete games back then, they were also more likely to be pulled after just an inning or two. These days managers always try to get a some length out of their SP, unless they're being absolutely shelled.

    Oh! Also, since Steve didn't limit the search to starts, this is catching all the relief appearances old-time pitchers made. No pitchers were strictly SP back then, they'd all get some relief work as well. This is probably the bigger factor, more than my first reason.

22. Nash Bruce Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    @17 Neil: Maybe travel was, if not a little rougher back then, a little more...........uncommon? Trying to say, that maybe some 22-3 year-old, from a rural area, is maybe not so used to traveling anywhere, and as a result, road trips were more of a distraction.

23. Jimbo Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    Didn't starters of way back in the day commonly come in to pitch in relief, from time to time? Otherwise I don't see how they wouldn't be on this list, considering they used to pitch complete games almost every time out.

24. Kingturtle Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    Bob Gibson is on the list 4 times! Seaver, 5!!

25. Charles Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    @ 23 Wilbur Cooper's two streaks would be 45 consecutive road starts with 6 or more innings.

    Bob Gibsons streak in 1965 began on April 23 with 48 consecutive road starts with 6 or more innings. He had 87 out of 88 road starts with 6 or more innings from April 23, 1965 to April 21, 1970. The one miss was a game on Sept. 7, 1967, his first game since July 15 when he broke his leg. On Sept. 7 he piched to one batter in the 6th, left with an 8-1 lead and earned the victory.

    From April 23, 1965 to April 25, 1972 he had 147 road starts, 143 were 6 innings or more. That would include all his games in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1971

    For his career he had 134 road wins with a 2.76 ERA and 117 home wins with a 3.08 ERA.

26. Charles Says:
    July 19th, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Actually Cooper's streak was 44 because one of the 7 inning outings on the road was as a reliever. He did go on to have 17 straight after the streak 61/62.

27. Charles Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 6:03 am

    Walter Johnson holds the record at 82 from 1911 to 1915.

28. Neil L. Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 11:10 am

    @17 @21
    Johnny, I didn't think that relief appearances of 6 innings or more might have been more common before 1950 than today.

    But if you examine the list again, you will see that every game included from every streak is a start. No 6+ IP relief appearances in sight!

    It's not a big deal, but the question about the uneven distribution of the road streaks across eras remains unanswered.

    Nash's explanation @22 may have a bit more merit.

    If we use the number of streaks in a given decade as a rough measure of road pitching effectiveness, then the conclusion is pitchers before 1950 were not left in road games as much. Presumably, they didn't pitch on the road as well as at home. Again, why?

29. Neil L. Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 11:35 am

    @28
    Ah, disregard most of the last post. It helps to actually try and look something up instead of being lazy. 🙁

    Unscientifically, I eyeballed the gamelogs of Burleigh Grimes in his 1928 season with Pittsburg. While most of his road apperances were 8+ IP, he was used in relief enough times, always pitching less than 6 innings, to break any potential streak.

    So the answer has to do with pitcher usage in the old days. Starters were used to eat a couple if innings in relief from time to time, particularly in stretches where there were a couple of double headers close together.

30. CHARLES Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 5:11 pm

    One of Randy Johnson's streaks and one of Wilbur Copper's streaks include a relief appearance on the road with 6 innings or more. GS does not match the streak.

    What I've noticed about low inning outings in the 1930s, it's almost always because they've given up three or more runs. You also occasionally see CG less than 6 innings. Maybe the manager will let them pitch through it in a home game. Also, maybe they were less likely to take a day off back then if they didn't feel well.

31. CHARLES Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 6:01 pm

    I looked at the number of pitchers with at least 200 career starts within 20 year blocks from and the number of pitchers on the list. You can see the % from 1939 to 2011 is fairly consistent. You might see the number of pitchers on the consecutive game list from 1919 to 1949 go up if the table were revised to only consider games started on the road. Pitchers on the list more than once were only counted once per 20 year time period. I did not take into account if the pitchers themselves had 200 career starts. You can see it's about 5 pitchers/club with 200 career starts except for the two data sets from WWII.

    1919-1939 81 4 5%
    1929-1949 58 4 7%
    1939-1959 55 8 15%
    1949-1969 86 12 14%
    1959-1979 120 17 14%
    1969-1989 134 23 17%
    1979-1999 140 22 16%
    1989-2011 156 19 12%

32. Charles Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    If you only cosider away games started.

    From 1919 to 1926 there were 18 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 5 pitchers started 125 games or more away games..

    From 1927 to 1934 there were 13 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 2 pitchers started 125 games or more away games.

    From 1935 to 1942 there were 11 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 3 pitchers started 125 games or more away games.

    From 1987 to 1994 there were 10 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 7 pitchers started 125 games or more away games..

    From 1995 to 2002 there were 8 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 6 pitchers started 125 games or more away games.

    From 2003 to 2010 there were 6 streaks of 20 away GS with 6 or more innings. 10 pitchers started 125 games or more away games.

    From 1929 to 1949 there were 9 streaks of 30 or more.
    From 1989 to 2011 there were 4 streaks of 30 or more.

    From 1919 to 1926 (8 years) there were 18 streaks of 20 or more with 147 pitchers with 40 or more total starts.
    From 1993 to 2011 (19 years) there were 19 streaks of 20 or more with 545 pitchers with 40 or more total starts.

    From 1919 to 1926 74% of away starters went 6 innings with 49% quality starts.
    From 1919 to 1926 76% of home starters went 6 innings with 54% quality starts.
    From 2003 to 2010 58% of away starters went 6 innings with 46% quality starts.
    From 2003 to 2010 64% of starters went 6 innings with 52% quality starts.

    The table above shows 1 20 game streak in the 1930's
    If the play index is revise to only examine starting pitchers there are 16.
    For example:
    Lefty Grove with his 19-2 record in 21 consecutive starts also had 12 relief appearances in away games during the streak, going 2-1 with 8 saves.

33. Charles Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    Nowadays, a pitcher may be taken out before he gets into trouble because of the pitch count. In the past, they probably weren't taken out until they ran into trouble. Roughly 70% of the 6 inning games were quality starts in the earlier seven year period vs roughly 80% in recent years. I don't know if this is a general trend for the past 90 years or it was just because of the two time periods selected.