Modern Day Shame Makers
Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 9, 2009
The "complete game" is a rare thing these days. So, naturally, a starting pitcher throwing a "shutout" victory is even more rare.
In "Take me out to the ballgame," we're told to root, root, root for the home team - as, if they don't win it's a shame. So, which modern day starting pitchers are the best at doing that rare thing - notching a road shutout victory, since, say 1996, and creating shame for some home team? Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder, it's easy to work up a list of such starters. Here's the ones who have done it 4+ times since 1996:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Curt Schilling 8 Ind. Games Tom Glavine 8 Ind. Games Darryl Kile 7 Ind. Games Pedro Martinez 6 Ind. Games Scott Erickson 6 Ind. Games Randy Wolf 5 Ind. Games David Wells 5 Ind. Games Javier Vazquez 5 Ind. Games Jason Schmidt 5 Ind. Games C.C. Sabathia 5 Ind. Games Mike Mussina 5 Ind. Games Greg Maddux 5 Ind. Games Al Leiter 5 Ind. Games Randy Johnson 5 Ind. Games Bartolo Colon 5 Ind. Games Brandon Webb 4 Ind. Games Steve Trachsel 4 Ind. Games John Smoltz 4 Ind. Games Johan Santana 4 Ind. Games Hideo Nomo 4 Ind. Games Roy Halladay 4 Ind. Games Mark Buehrle 4 Ind. Games
I never would have guess that Randy Wolf would be so high on this list. How about you? Any names on, or not, on the list that surprise you?
May 11th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I would've expected to see Clemens on the list. Though these years were the second half of his career, he was the dominant pitcher of the era (5 Cy Youngs in those years) with nasty stuff. Looking at his encyclopedia enrty, he pitched 24 CG and 10 ShO during that span. Maybe the juice was harder to get on the road...
In addition to Wolf, the name on the list that surprises me is Scott Erickson. I always thought of him as starting his career hot (before the years you considered), but then tailing off to a mediocre innings horse who just hung around a long time. I never really saw him as a shutout machine.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Surprised by Darryl Kile being a game off the pace. Not because he wasn't great, but because he died in 2002.