Most conseuctive starts 7+ IP to start a season
Posted by Andy on May 28, 2009
Roy Halladay did it again last night, pitching 7 innings in the Blue Jays' eventual 12-10 loss (their 9th straight--ouch!) He's gone at least 7 innings in every one of his 11 starts so far this year, but as you might except he's a long way from the record for most starts with 7+ IP to start a season:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Bob Gibson 1968-04-10 1968-09-27 34 22 9 34 28 13 0 0 304.2 198 49 38 62 268 11 1.12 7 4 0 STL Tom Seaver 1970-04-07 1970-08-15 27 17 7 27 18 2 0 0 231.2 163 65 62 60 226 19 2.41 2 3 0 NYM Gaylord Perry 1972-04-15 1972-06-13 15 10 5 15 11 3 0 0 131.2 93 28 26 29 90 5 1.78 5 4 0 CLE Roger Clemens 1992-04-07 1992-06-16 14 9 4 14 6 3 0 0 112.1 80 24 22 24 104 5 1.76 3 0 0 BOS Curt Schilling 2001-04-04 2001-06-06 13 10 1 13 4 1 0 0 100.1 86 30 29 12 108 16 2.60 0 1 0 ARI Mark Fidrych 1976-05-15 1976-07-20 13 11 2 13 12 2 0 0 120.1 93 26 23 28 50 5 1.72 1 2 0 DET Phil Niekro 1969-04-08 1969-06-16 13 9 4 13 11 3 0 0 112 78 28 23 22 80 4 1.85 3 5 0 ATL Ron Darling 1988-04-06 1988-06-04 12 6 3 12 3 2 0 0 93 66 24 23 23 60 6 2.23 1 1 2 NYM Jack Morris 1984-04-03 1984-05-28 12 10 1 12 7 1 0 0 100.1 65 26 21 32 68 5 1.88 2 6 0 DET Rick Langford 1981-04-10 1981-06-10 12 5 7 12 11 0 0 0 103 93 41 33 38 49 5 2.88 0 0 0 OAK Nelson Briles 1968-04-11 1968-06-08 12 7 4 12 5 1 0 0 97.2 99 27 25 19 61 6 2.30 1 1 0 STL Bill Singer 1968-04-11 1968-06-05 12 5 5 12 5 2 0 0 97.1 68 24 19 24 94 2 1.76 2 4 1 LAD Bob Shaw 1962-04-16 1962-06-18 12 9 2 12 8 1 0 0 105.2 96 29 23 14 59 8 1.96 2 1 0 MLN Ned Garver 1954-04-17 1954-06-16 12 4 3 12 6 1 0 0 101 78 25 17 25 27 6 1.51 2 0 0 DET Roy Halladay 2009-04-06 2009-05-27 11 8 1 11 1 0 0 0 82 76 26 24 11 68 6 2.63 2 1 0 TOR Pedro Martinez 2000-04-04 2000-06-08 11 9 2 11 3 2 0 0 85.1 45 10 9 16 114 3 0.95 7 1 0 BOS Curt Schilling 1998-03-31 1998-05-23 11 5 5 11 4 1 0 0 85.2 57 22 19 20 117 6 2.00 0 3 0 PHI Kevin Brown 1993-04-11 1993-06-04 11 5 3 11 6 1 0 0 89.2 73 28 19 19 52 5 1.91 4 1 0 TEX Bill Wegman 1992-04-06 1992-05-29 11 5 4 11 2 0 0 0 90.1 80 27 26 18 39 10 2.59 5 0 1 MIL Chris Bosio 1988-04-06 1988-05-26 11 6 5 11 8 1 0 0 90 83 27 22 15 35 5 2.20 2 1 2 MIL Dave Stieb 1984-04-07 1984-05-30 11 7 1 11 2 1 0 0 86 58 21 20 28 63 5 2.09 3 0 0 TOR Kip Young 1978-07-24 1978-09-17 11 6 5 11 6 0 0 0 89.1 80 26 25 21 40 8 2.52 2 0 0 DET Jerry Augustine 1977-04-09 1977-05-28 11 6 5 11 7 0 0 0 91.2 77 36 33 31 27 9 3.24 2 1 0 MIL Steve Busby 1975-04-07 1975-05-25 11 7 3 11 7 2 0 0 92.1 70 26 25 29 61 3 2.44 2 3 0 KCR Ken Holtzman 1973-04-08 1973-05-22 11 9 2 11 9 1 0 0 96.2 63 20 14 19 55 6 1.30 1 5 0 OAK +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Don Sutton 1972-04-15 1972-06-09 11 8 1 11 5 3 0 0 93.2 53 18 13 18 66 4 1.25 1 1 0 LAD Dave Giusti 1968-04-13 1968-06-02 11 4 5 11 6 1 0 0 90 61 20 18 25 60 6 1.80 1 3 1 HOU Bob Friend 1960-04-12 1960-06-01 11 6 2 11 5 3 0 0 90 68 22 21 12 66 5 2.10 0 1 0 PIT Warren Spahn 1958-04-15 1958-05-31 11 8 1 11 9 1 0 0 98.2 83 28 26 27 45 7 2.37 0 1 0 MLN Bob Keegan 1954-04-17 1954-06-09 11 9 1 11 9 2 0 0 96.1 86 27 23 33 26 5 2.15 0 0 1 CHW
A note on Bob Gibson's incredible 1968 season. Those 34 starts to start the season with 7 IP? Those were all of his starts that year. Yeah, that's right...the guy threw at least 7 innings in every start. In fact, he completed 28 of those 34 games (and also won the Cy Young, MVP, ERA and strikeout titles, and threw 13 shutouts.)
So Halladay has a long, long way to go to approach that post-1954 record (don't hold your breath.) But the only guys ahead of him from the last 20 seasons are Roger Clemens, 14 in 1992, and Curt Schilling, 13 in 2001.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Wow thats quite the achievement by Gibson.
I took a quick look at at his game logs for 1967 and 1969. He pitched complete games in the last 3 games of 67 and the first 3 games of 69, bringing his total to 40! consecutive games of 7+ IP. Theres a modern record not likely to be broken. coincidentally, the team that broke the chain on both ends was the Phillies, and in that game in 1967, he was pulled after 6.1 shutout innings, must have gotten injured.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Gibson broke his leg in '67 (I think by a batted ball) and came back about 7 weeks later. That 6.1 IP game vs Philly was only his 2nd start back, so he may have been getting eased back into action (the previous start was only 5 IP). Pretty incredible that his best run of pitching came right after an injury like that. Don't forget he threw also 6 CG in the '67 and '68 Series.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I'd never looked into Gibson's '68 year before, and I just had my mind blown. The June/July splits are straight out of a video game. 12 starts, 12-0 record, 12 CG, 8 SHO, 0.50 ERA! That's insane.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Part of his relatively disappointing W-L record that season is because the Cards gave him their best offensive support during that incredible run when he needed it least. They average 4.3 RPG in those 12 starts, and only 2.3 RPG during the other 22 starts when he was only superhuman instead of godly.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I am in no way trying to take away from Gibsons achievements.
However, this all came during the second "reign of the pitcher" with his peak being in68 when they raised the mound height. Also, he came from a time when a pitcher was still expected to pitch a complete game, or atleast 8 innings.
That being said, these are still overwhelming numbers.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:15 am
There's no question certain circumstances were in Gibson's favor, but you overstate it. Even in 1968 the average start was only 6.6 IP and only 28% of starts were completed.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
That ERA (1.12) has always been mind-boggling to me. I just found a couple more nuggets from that season. Even if all of his unearned runs allowed had been scored as earned, he would have had a 1.45 for the season...still unmatched in recent decades. Also, four of his complete games were extra-inning affairs, including a 12-inning win over Houston and an 11-inning gem over Tom Seaver and the Mets in back-to-back starts. Finally, to emphasize what 'Damnthesehighheels' said, he took the mound on June 2 with a 3-5 record through his first ten starts. It obviously got better from there.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
there's actually a fifth extra inning complete game. 2 games after the back-to-back he pitched 9.2 and lost in the 10th.
Another thing that got me was that going into his start on September 6th, his ERA was under 1. OR this one... from June-September he didn't give up an earned run in consecutive starts. What!!
May 31st, 2009 at 9:21 am
Gibson's 258 ERA+ is also eye-popping. Yet it is "only" 6th all-time (since the mound was moved back from 45 feet to 60-6).
Pedro Martinez's 1999 season -- 291 ERA+ -- is the best all-time. Greg Maddux's consecutive seasons of 1994 and 1995 -- 271 and 262 -- are also both better than Gibson's 1968 mark.
In 1994, Maddux pitched at least 7 innings in 23 of his 25 starts. His other year and Pedro in 1999 are worse. Gibson's endurance was amazing.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:53 pm
CG, career high 14 K for Doc tonight. Longest streak to open a season since '92.
The longest streak of 7+ IP at any time is Catfish Hunter in '75-'76 with 42, narrowly edging Gibson. Since '93 (the "Sillyball Era," as Chris Jaffe would call it) the longest streak is 20, by both Clemens and Hentgen '96-'97.
Mark Buehrle had 49 consecutive starts with at least 6 IP in '04-'05. I remember that; can't believe that's already 4 years ago. Gibson has the Retrosheet era record of 78, adding on to the end of his 7-inning streak. Halladay is the longest currently, now at 31.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Just to clarify, of course the Hunter streak I mentioned is only the longest since '54; there were of course longer ones before that.