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Multiple Games of 9+ IP 0R without a Win

Posted by Raphy on August 7, 2011

On Friday night,  Jered Weaver managed to pitch 9 innings without allowing a run and still not earn a win. Not only that, it was the second time that Weaver has done that this season, making him the 11th pitcher since 1919 to finish with a line of at least 9 innings, 0 runs and no win twice in the same season.  Here are the others:

Rk Player Year #Matching W L W-L% ERA GS CG SHO SV IP H ER HR BB SO WHIP
1 Jered Weaver 2011 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 18.0 9 0 0 3 15 0.67
2 Don Sutton 1976 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 20.0 12 0 0 5 10 0.85
3 Chris Short 1965 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 24.0 15 0 0 6 23 0.88
4 Tom Seaver 1971 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 19.0 8 0 0 5 24 0.68
5 Dan Petry 1985 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 19.0 8 0 0 7 10 0.79
6 Jim Perry 1968 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 19.0 10 0 0 1 14 0.58
7 Jon Matlack 1976 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 18.2 11 0 0 4 16 0.80
8 Dwight Gooden 1985 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 18.0 10 0 0 3 17 0.72
9 Gary Gentry 1969 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 19.0 8 0 0 6 7 0.74
10 John Denny 1976 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 18.0 10 0 0 6 5 0.89
11 Tom Browning 1990 2 Ind. Games 0 0 0.00 2 0 0 0 18.0 11 0 0 5 11 0.89
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/7/2011.

 

Related posts:

    Multiple Multiple Home Run Games by Quadragenarians
    3+ Games In One World Series With Multiple RBI
    Multiple Five Hit Games in a Season by Older Players Revisited
    Complete games for Mets
    Multiple blown saves in a game

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 7th, 2011 at 7:30 am and is filed under Game Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

30 Responses to “Multiple Games of 9+ IP 0R without a Win”

  1. ctorg Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:00 am

    How is it possible that no pitcher between 1919 and 1965 had multiple 9+IP games without a run and without a win, when completing games was far more of a standard practice in the earlier days? Surely these must have been more common back in those times, right?

  2. Raphy Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:28 am

    Ctorg - I think you answered your own question. Pitchers back then weren't lifted after 9 innings in a scoreless tie.

  3. Tristram Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Hard to not notice 4 Mets out of the 11. Must be tough to be a Mets fan sometimes.

  4. nesnhab Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 10:22 am

    Tristram,

    The Mets suckered me out of a lifetime of nurturing, satisfying, Yankee fandom by being so good in 1969. Before 1969 I was not even aware of major league baseball.

    ===================== Digression:

    There are many reasons I might have chosen them anyway. Don Grant got hell from the press after refusing to participate in the initial post-Seitz free agent madness, but that was the way he was, you take the bad with the good.

    Read about the early days of the Mets. The managerial engine supporting Joan Payson, Grant always put fans first--especially young fans. Ever hear of Banner Day? Who else would have put on a Banner Day but the Mets?

    Did you know that Don Grant and Joan Payson were the only NY Giants board members who voted against moving the Giants to San Francisco? Fans first.

    Whew. I'm back now.

    I wonder if Sabermetrics could uncover exactly how a fan becomes loyal to a team. And, is 8 yrs old the median age? Any studies?

  5. nesnhab Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 10:36 am

    3 digressions later...

    One of the Gooden 1985 games was in the final weeks of the pennant race. Both John Tudor and Gooden went 9 without allowing a run, but Cesar Cedeno slammed a homer in the top of the 10th against Jesse Orosco and then Tudor slammed the 'dor.'

    Darryl Strawberry returned the favor a few weeks later in St. Louis. Home run in the 11th--Mets 1, Cardinals 0

    Winner Jesse Orosco (after Ron Darling went 9, and John Tudor 10, without either allowing a run). It was the Mets' last hope that year. That was a heck of a race.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198510010.shtml

  6. nesnhab Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 10:53 am

    In 1976, after the first Matlack game, the Mets bounced right back and won the next 3 in a row to reach .667 with a record of 18-9 under rookie manager Joe Frazier. After that the Phillies and then the Pirates just blew right past them. They still managed to finish the season with their heads well above water (86-76).

    I remember that game for another reason--it was the first shutout against the Mets all season, so it cost me money. Prior to the season a friend who was smarter than me bet me that the Reds' run total, of all games added together, would be more than the product of all the Mets' runs in their games. It sounded so easy.

  7. John Q Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Koosman, Matlack and Seaver all suffered from terrible run support and fairly mediocre defenses on those mid 70's Mets teams.

    I think Koosman had a 2.84 era in 1973 and had a Losing record.

    The worst had to be in 1974 with Jon Matlack. Matlack had a 2.41 era and had a 13-15 record. WAR rates Matlack as the best pitcher in the majors in 1974. And the era doesn't even tell the full story because they had a horrible defensive outfield in '74 with Don Hahn, George Theodore, a 31 year old Cleon Jones in LF and a 30 year old Rusty Staub in RF.

    Matlack had 2 games in '74 where he gave up 1 earned run and had a no decision and he had 1 game where he gave up 1 earned run and actually lost the game.

    Matlack had 3 games in '74 where he gave up 2 earned runs and had a no decision and unbelievably he had 4 games where he gave up 2 earned runs and actually recorded a loss!

  8. Tristram Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 11:13 am

    @5 Nesnhab - your '85 story reminds me of a Mets game I went to then. It was early in the year. Carlton vs. Gooden. Mets win 1-0, scoring in the 9th. but definitely felt like a passing of the torch. Sad day for us Phils fans.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI198504190.shtml

  9. John Autin Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    These weren't in the same year, but ... Frank Tanana is the only pitcher since 1919 who had 2 career games of 12+ scoreless IP and no decision -- and both were 13-inning stints:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL197509220.shtml
    (Angels won in the bottom of the 16th on a 3-run HR by PH Adrian Garrett off Goose Gossage, in his 8th inning of relief.)

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL197608270.shtml
    (Catfish Hunter also went 13 scoreless IP; Yanks scored 5 in the 15th.)

  10. jason Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    #1

    cg's were way more common but shutout rates were much closer to today's. also i think the 1919 cutoff affects the list significantly, as i believe from 1901-1919 would have been the most common era for the phenomenon described.

  11. jason Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    however #2 is probably more right. but i would like to reiterate, cg's were way more common, but shutouts really weren't.

  12. DoubleDiamond Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    Dividing the situations into two categories:

    1. Pre-DH regardless of league and NL in the DH era.

    2. AL in the DH era.

    Before I posted this comment, I checked to make sure that Weaver's previous such game this year was not an interleague game in an NL park. Since Petry's year was before the interleague era, I didn't have to do it for him. None of the NL pitchers listed above did it in the interleague era, where there would have been a chance that one or both of the games were pitched as the visiting team in a game using the DH.

    Category 1:
    Sutton, Short, Seaver, Perry, Matlack, Gooden, Gentry, Denny, and Browning

    Category 2:
    Weaver, Petry

    So, before this season, it had only been done once in the AL in the DH era.

    I would have thought it would have been more common in such games. In a scoreless game with the pitcher due up to bat, I would think that a manager would be more likely to hit for him in an attempt to get on the scoreboard. With the DH, there would not be a need to remove the pitcher in this situation. On the other hand, a manager may decide to leave the pitcher in anyway and not pinch hit for him because he's doing such a good job in keeping the opposing team off the scoreboard. The manager may not have such faith in the bullpen.

  13. John Autin Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    It's worth clicking the Chris Short games in the table.

    The 2nd entry was the 2nd game of a doubleheader on the next-to-last day of the year. Short (who somehow had not beaten the Mets in 3 prior starts that year, despite 18 wins against others) shut them down for FIFTEEN INNINGS, with 18 Ks -- yet was matched zero for zero by Rob Gardner, a 20-year-old rookie making his 4th start (and hadn't gone past 6 IP before).

    The game was called after 18 innings, a scoreless tie.

    Oh, and in the opener, Jim Bunning shut out the Mets on 2 hits, handing them their 110th loss (3rd time in 4 years they'd reached that depth). Counting the games on either side of that doubleheader, the Mets went 30 innings without scoring.

    P.S. The teams played another doubleheader the next day to close out the year, and the Phils swept both by 3-1. In that 2nd game, the win went to rookie Fergie Jenkins, with 2 IP of 4-K relief. It was to be his last win for the Phils.

  14. Charles Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    @2 You are correct. There were 59 games from 1919 to 1960 where the starting pitcher went 9 or more innings and gave up 0 runs with no decision. 47 (80%) pitched more than 9.
    There were 287 games from 1961 to 2011 where the starting pitcher went 9 or more innings and gave up 0 runs with no decision. 127 (44%) pitched more than 9.

    For pitchers pitching at least 9 innings in games 0-0 after 9 innings.
    At least 341 games from 1919 to 1960 versus 469 in later years. I say at least because I looked at pitchers pitching at least nine with no runs and no decision, a picher pitching more than 9 with a win and 0 runs and pitchers with more than 9 with a loss and only 1 run. I missed when the pitcher gave up 1 or more runs in extra innings with a win or ND or two or more in extra innings and lost.

    329/341 pitchers pitched beyond 9 innings in early years. 309/469 pitchers went beyond 9 innings in later years. But I could not count all the scoreless 9 inning games

    282/329 pitchers stayed in long enough to get a decision. 182/309 stayed in long enough to get a decision in later years.

    There was a tendency in earlier years to keep a pitcher in the game longer.

    Overall
    From 1919 to 1960 starting pitchers were 1717-1711 with 429 no decisions when they went beyond 9 innings. 3199 CG (> 80%)

    From 1961 to 2011 starting pitchers were 517-442 with 613 no decisions when they went beyond 9 innings. 742 CG (< 50%).

  15. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Nesnhab, very good writing in #4-#6, particularly #4. I have a little better understandind of medieval Mets' history.

  16. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    @13
    John, the Chris Short games were the first ones I wanted to look at when I saw the initial list because of the IP.

    The game scores of that near end-of-season game are crazy, Short 114, Gardner 112.

    No pitch counts available from the game but can you imagine leaving a 20-year-old hurler like Ron Gardner in a game for 53 batters today?

    How did they(the pitchers) do it without suffering harm?

    Interesting about Rob Gardner that his other appearances in 1965 were kind of spotty. His 15 runless innings against Chris Short cut his ERA from 6.92 to 3.21. It looks like he was a September callup.

    Looking at both Gardner's major- and minor-league stats during the sixties, there must be a story there, waiting to be unearthed.

  17. John Autin Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    @16, Neil -- One thing I just noticed on Rob Gardner's stat sheet is that, despite that 15-IP scoreless game, he never did get credit for a shutout, in 42 career starts.

    So of course I had to check....

    Since 1919, 50 pitchers had a start of at least 13 scoreless innings. Rob Gardner is the only one who never got an official shutout.

    While looking at that group, I noticed another guy, Bob Osborn. In the 1927 game linked below, Osborn came on to pitch the bottom of the 9th for the Cubs in a 3-3 game. The game stayed tied until the 22nd inning, when the Cubs pushed a run across, and Osborn shut down the Braves one last time to earn the win. He had pitched 14 scoreless innings in relief.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN192705170.shtml

    Osborn would make 43 career starts, also without a shutout.

    Notably, the Braves' starter in that marathon, Bob Smith, went all 22 innings, allowing 20 hits, and took the loss. While the length was unusual, the outcome was not; Smith went 54-79 with the sad-sack Braves from 1926-30, despite a solid 102 ERA+.

    Smith's 22-IP CG is the 3rd-longest outing in the searchable era. The 2 longer ones came in the same game, a 26-inning, 1-1 tie between Brooklyn's Leon Cadore and Boston's Joe Oeschger; they finished the game with streaks of 20 and 21 straight scoreless IP, respectively.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN192005010.shtml

  18. BalBurgh Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    Hard to believe Walter Johnson isn't on this list, though much of his career is pre-1919.

  19. Charles Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 6:34 pm

    Grover Alexander and Jack Coombs had two scoreless no decisions in one year. Walter Johnson had 1 in 1919. In 1884, Sam Kimber pitched a 10 inning complete game no hitter in a scoreless tie.

    Here's the list of scoreless ties from 1901 to 1975.

    http://research.sabr.org/journals/nothing-to-nothing-in-overtime

  20. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    @17
    "---he never did get credit for a shutout, in 42 career starts."

    JA, well, of course, he did not pitch a complete game in October 1965. But at least he got to keep his personal statistics from the sister-kisser.

    Bringing names like Gardner and Osborn to light in here, you must feel a bit like building a diamond next to an Iowa cornfield to see if they will show up. 🙂

  21. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    @18
    Balburgh, talk to us. You've seen me bleed for the Pirates in recent blogs.

    Did that 19th-inning blown, home-plate call in the Atlanta game precipitate the Pirates funk?

    I can't take credit for the observation, it was on my local radio pre-game show, but Pittsburg has lost 12 out of 13 since that injustice.

  22. John Autin Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    @21, Neil -- I'm sure that if anyone connected with the Pirates were to suggest that the blown call brought on this slump, Clint Hurdle would give that person an immediate and forceful dressing-down.

    I've been rooting hard for the Buccos, as you have. But let's not lose sight of the fact that they had lost 3 of 5 before that blown call, and they won 2 days later.

    I don't think there's any reasonable connection between the call and the skid. To me, the more logical emotional narrative has nothing to do with that game, but everything to do with the next series. Consider:

    Leading up to the Atlanta series, Pittsburgh had edged their way into the pennant race by beating some bad teams. They'd won 2 of 3 from Houston, 2 of 3 from Chicago, 2 of 3 from Houston again, 2 of 3 from a slumping Reds team. They dropped 2 of 3 to the Cardinals, but split 4 with Atlanta despite the blown call.

    But during the Pirates-Braves series, the Brewers had gotten hot -- coinciding with a soft part of their schedule. They swept the Cubs to take a 1.5 game lead, then welcomed the hapless Astros into town as the Pirates headed into Philly.

    No big surprise that Pittsburgh got swept, while the Brewers swept Houston. In less than a week, they had fallen from a 1st-place tie to 4.5 games behind.

    If there was a psychological tipping point, I think that was it; perhaps they had gotten a little too caught up in the excitement of first place, and then sort of panicked when they started to slide in the standings. If so, it's a pity; because anyone can drop 3 straight in Philly, but losing 4 straight at home to the Cubs suggests a team in crisis.

    It wouldn't be the first time we've seen an inexperienced team go into a spiral from the pressure of a pennant race.

  23. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    @23
    John Autin, tip 'o the cap to you for your level-headed, detailed analysis of the Pirates' skid.

    I believe you are right about Clint Hurdle. I heard a radio sound bite of his after his game today to the effect that his young players were going to learn from this adversity. No Lou Pinella, Ozzie Guillen, or Tony LaRussa expletive-deleted rants. (I can't believe what LaRussa gets away with and still maintains his local-market respect.)

    I have a lot of respect for what I know of Hurdle's approach.

  24. Gerry Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    So who lists stats in reverse alphabetical order of players' names?

  25. Raphy Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:55 pm

    @24
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/feedback/

  26. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    Thanks to Retrosheet and the PI, I learned that two pitchers share the single-season record for most games started (five) that wound up as ties: George Mullin of the 1904 Tigers and Dick Rudolph of the 1916 Braves.

    It doesn't fit the topic here, of course; however, Mullin has one 1904 start and Rudolph one 1916 start listed in the SABR scoreless-tie chart linked to by Charles in #19.

  27. Gerry Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 1:12 am

    @25
    Thanks, but I didn't see anything on that page about listing stats in reverse alphabetical order of players' names, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do there.

  28. MLS Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 11:27 am

    Great article Raphy..reminds me of Marichal (25yo) VS Spahn (42yo) 15 plus 0-0 game won by Mays' 16 inning HR giving Marichal the victory. Can you just imagine? Neither team had shortages of great hitters either. Which comes this question. Is there ANY emperical data that demonstrates that having a 100 pitch count and a 5 man rotation actually "saves" a pitchers arm??? If not...why are we getting short changed as fans into "thinking" it will? Which comes to this question. If you paid good money to see the Rolling Stones perform...wouldn't it sorta upset you if in the middle of their performance...they let a local band perform to close out the night?? If you "think" along those lines..I believe anyone would agree...we the fans are indeed short changed for our entertainment buck...something to think about!

  29. nightfly Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    Poor Frank Tanana.

    I was just looking him up in another context. He was one hell of a great young pitcher - ages 19-23, he comes up with a 131 ERA+ over 1082 IP, nearly 8 K per 9, and over half of his career CG and SHO in just those five years - and since he only had four starts (1 CG) in his rookie year, it's really just four years.

    It turns out that it might not be the best thing for your young, promising pitcher to complete 73 games in such a short time... including 14 consecutive starts ending with his 24th birthday (7/3/1977). (stick tap to his page sponsor, Matt Welch, for that factoid.)

    It was one hell of a stretch - only 9-5, but an ERA of 1.36, WHIP of .873, and average game score north of 74. He also got 10 GDP and his catchers threw out 8 of 11 attempted base stealers.

  30. AlbaNate Says:
    August 13th, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    I just noticed on Rob Gardner's bullpen page that he was twice traded from the A's to the Yankees--and both times for an Alou brother!

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