Most saves, first 4 games of the season
Posted by Andy on April 14, 2009
Here are the leaders:
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Derrick Turnbow 2006 4 Ind. Games Tim Worrell 2003 3 Ind. Games Mitch Williams 1990 3 Ind. Games Mike Williamsonline casino 2002 3 Ind. Games Hoyt Wilhelm 1969 3 Ind. Games Duane Ward 1993 3 Ind. Games Ugueth Urbina 2002 3 Ind. Games Salomon Torres 2007 3 Ind. Games Lee Smith 1994 3 Ind. Games George Sherrill 2008 3 Ind. Games Jeff Russell 1994 3 Ind. Games Dave Righetti 1988 3 Ind. Games Arthur Rhodes 2004 3 Ind. Games Edwin Nunez 1985 3 Ind. Games Randy Myers 1996 3 Ind. Games Randy Myers 1997 3 Ind. Games Randy Myers 1995 3 Ind. Games Tom Murphy 1975 3 Ind. Games Danny Kolb 2005 3 Ind. Games Eddie Guardado 2002 3 Ind. Games Dennis Eckersley 1992 3 Ind. Games Armando Benitez 2004 3 Ind. Games Rod Beck 1997 3 Ind. Games Salome Barojas 1982 3 Ind. Games Ted Abernathy 1967 3 Ind. Games
Turnbow is the only guy to save all of his team's first four games. Nobody has done 5 or more. Of course, saving 4 games in a row requires there to be 4 save situations, which itself is pretty rare.
No pitcher has ever been in 4 save opportunities (other than Turnbow) in his team's first 4 games, either. It's possible that some team out there had more than 1 pitcher save each of their first four games, but that's a lot harder to search for.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Well, now I'm curious. What's the longest save streak in consecutive games at any time during a season? It's hard to imagine it being more than maybe 6 or 7 - you'd need the opportunities every day and a player would need to be willing to come in every time. Especially now. Managers are hesitant to use a closer more than two or three days in a row.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I found a streak of 6 by Eric Gagne in 2003 and a streak of 6 by rod Beck in 1998...didn't look further than that.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I have a vague memory that the longest consecutive game streak by a reliever (just appearances, not saves) was 10 or 11 in the '60s or '70s. Lemme see if I can search for this... Well, unless I'm missing something, the best you can do is search for consecutive games with Days Rest = 0, and I found Kent Tekulve in '87 had 8 (which means he actually pitched in 9 games in a row). But this search will miss streaks which surround off-days. Any other ideas?
John Wetteland got saves in 24 straight appearances in '96, but that's not 24 straight team games.
Here we go...use the Team Pitching Streak finder for consecutive games with a save, then check to see which were done by only 1 player. There are 4 streaks of 7 games. And...none of them were by only 1 player. So Andy is correct (and good guess by Bluestraggler), the record for one player is 6. There look to be about 25 team streaks of 6 saves in a row, and I don't have time right now to check all of them to see which were done by just 1 guy.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
In 1997 the Orioles started the season off with 4 straight saves. The first two games were saved by Randy Myers. The 3rd game was saved by Benito Santiago & the 4th by Myers again.
Jack
April 16th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Just a guess, but no one WILL EVER get 5 saves in the first four games. 😉
April 17th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
MLB Network flashed a stat last night that Heath Bell (I think) had 5 saves now in the first 10 games...quickest ever to 5.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Actually they called me to ask if they could reference this post when talking about Bell.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
Correction; the O's 3rd game in 1997 was saved by Armando Benitez, not Benito Santiago. (Santiago was a catcher who played for Toronto thaty year).