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Most Runs Allowed in a Major League Debut of Less than 2 Innings

Posted by Raphy on April 18, 2009

Anthony Claggett made his major league debut  today for the New York Yankees.  That was the good news for him. Unfortunately, things didn't go too well after that as Claggett allowed  8 runs in only 1.2 innings.  Claggett became  just the  third pitcher since 1954 to allow 8 runs while pitching under 2 inning in his major league debut:

  Cnt CarGm Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  **R** ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+------+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
    1     1 Ben Diggins       2002-09-02(2) MIL @CHC L  4-17 GS-2  ,L   1.1  4    8    7  6  2  0  65  29   12       14  8  1  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0  47.25
    2     1 Mike Smith        1989-06-30    BAL  DET L  5-16  7-8       1.1  7    8    8  2  1  0  45  20       2  0 13 10  1  0   1   0  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  1  54.00

That's not such good news for Claggett. The 2 previous  pitchers combined for 20 career appearances.

Here are the most runs allowed by a pitcher in a major league debut on any length:

  Cnt CarGm Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  **R** ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
 ----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+------+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------
    1     1 Mike Busby        1996-04-07    STL @ATL L  3-13 GS-4  ,L   4    9   13    8  4  4  4            2       28 22  2  1   0   1  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  0  18.00

    2     1 Arnie Munoz       2004-06-19    CHW @MON L 14-17 GS-3  ,L   3   10   11   11  3  1  2  91  49   -7       22 17  3  1   1   1  1  0   0  1  1  0  0  2  33.00

    3     1 Doug Davis        1999-08-09    TEX  TOR L  4-19  6-8       2.1 11   10   10  0  2  3  73  47       2  2 18 18  4  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0  38.57
    4     1 Carlos Crawford   1996-06-07    PHI @HOU L  5-11 GS-4  ,L   3.2  7   10    2  2  4  1  79  51   25       22 18  1  0   0   1  1  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   4.91
    5     1 Willard Hunter    1962-04-16    LAD @SFG L  8-19  6-7       2    6   10    9  4  1  1  64  38       0  0 17 11  1  0   0   0  1  1   0  1  0  0  0  0  40.50

    6     1 John Stephens     2002-07-30    BAL @TBD L  3-10 GS-3  ,L   3   10    9    9  1  1  3  56  32    3       18 17  2  0   1   0  0  0   1  0  1  0  0  0  27.00
    7     1 Luis de los Santo 2002-07-20    TBD @TOR L 10-12 GS-5  ,L   4    9    9    8  1  3  0  97  66   12       26 21  5  0   0   3  0  1   0  0  0  0  0  0  18.00
    8     1 Stefan Wever      1982-09-17    NYY @MIL L  0-14 GS-3  ,L   2.2  6    9    8  3  2  1           11       18 14  2  0   0   0  0  1   0  0  0  0  0  3  27.00
    9     1 Tom Makowski      1975-05-01    DET @MIL L  3-17  5-8f      3.1  6    9    3  4  0  2               1  0 22 15  0  0   0   0  1  2   0  0  0  0  0  0   8.10

2 Responses to “Most Runs Allowed in a Major League Debut of Less than 2 Innings”

  1. damthesehigheels Says:

    Poor Carlos Crawford!! One career game and that's how it turned out!! Makes you wonder why he never got another shot? I mean, in '96 the phills were already 10 games back in June.. and got a whole lot worse.

  2. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    I remember John Stephens was putting up good numbers in the minors for Baltimore. Scouts didn't like him, because he had had some neck injury and could barely throw above 80 mph, but he had a big curve. After that initial terrible outing, he actually pitched some decent games for the O's, with a pretty good strikeout rate. But he never returned to the majors after '02. It looks like he didn't pitch that well in minors after that either. I don't know if he got hurt or even minor leaguers finally caught up to his subpar fastball and big curve. Looks like he retired a couple years ago, all of 26 years old.