Streaks with a decision
Posted by Andy on August 8, 2007
Thanks to Sean, we can now search for pitching game streaks that include getting (or not getting) a decision. (In case you don't know who Sean is, check out this recent interview over at THT.)
Anyway, he pointed out to me a stat like this: the longest streaks since 1957 to start a season where every start yielded a decision:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Gaylord Perry 1972-04-15 1972-10-01 40 24 16 40 29 5 0 0 341.2 253 79 73 82 233 17 1.92 12 11 0 CLE Wilbur Wood 1973-04-07 1973-08-04 35 19 16 35 18 4 0 0 271.1 263 118 98 63 153 19 3.25 3 6 0 CHW Phil Niekro 1969-04-08 1969-09-09 30 18 12 30 21 4 0 0 239.2 193 78 69 47 165 19 2.59 3 16 0 ATL Wilbur Wood 1974-04-05 1974-07-25 28 16 12 28 13 1 0 0 208.2 187 91 83 56 110 21 3.58 7 4 0 CHW Jack McDowell 1993-04-06 1993-08-22 27 20 7 27 8 4 0 0 206.2 212 85 78 56 128 15 3.40 3 7 1 CHW Fergie Jenkins 1971-04-06 1971-08-07 27 18 9 27 22 2 0 0 227.2 207 74 69 25 190 23 2.73 3 1 2 CHC Jim Merritt 1970-04-06 1970-08-04 26 16 10 26 9 1 0 0 180.1 187 86 80 38 99 17 3.99 1 4 0 CIN Dick Ellsworth 1964-04-17 1964-08-11 25 12 13 25 14 1 0 0 192.1 182 82 69 52 117 20 3.23 2 4 0 CHC
Now, these are streaks to start a season, most of which were broken later on in their respective years. But Gaylord Perry actually did it...40 starts, 40 decisions in 1972. The full game log is here. He did also have one relief appearance, pitching the 16th inning and earning the save against KC. It's possible that this is also the only season in which a pitcher got a win, loss, or save in every appearance.
Following up on my post about Tim Wakefield from yesterday, he got bombed again last night (7 runs, 6 earned, in 4+ innings,) getting the loss and keeping his own decision streak alive. Here are the longest streaks from the beginning of the 2007 season.
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Tim Wakefield 2007-04-06 2007-08-02 22 13 9 22 0 0 0 0 138.1 136 72 70 48 79 15 4.55 4 9 0 BOS John Lackey 2007-04-02 2007-06-13 14 10 4 14 0 0 0 0 92.2 83 31 26 24 71 8 2.53 5 2 0 LAA Jeff Suppan 2007-04-04 2007-06-12 14 7 7 14 1 0 0 0 91.1 98 45 41 29 41 11 4.04 4 1 0 MIL Jason Simontacchi 2007-05-08 2007-07-15 13 6 7 13 0 0 0 0 70.2 95 53 50 23 42 13 6.37 3 1 0 WSN Kip Wells 2007-04-03 2007-06-02 12 2 10 12 0 0 0 0 70.1 74 57 50 33 50 12 6.40 2 2 1 STL
Not sure why Wakefield's streak is not yet updated. If you go to his main page, you'll see he's now got 23 starts, 13 wins, 10 losses, and a 4.81 ERA. All of the other streaks here have ended already, except for Simontacchi's. But, he's on the DL with tendinitis. When asked whether he expects the play again this season, Simontacchi said (and this is a real quote, as reported by the Associated Press) "I ain't here to freaking sit here and pick up paychecks and be nobody on this team. I'm not here for that. I want to play. Yeah, I definitely want to get back as soon as I can." If he makes it back this "freaking" season, we'll see if he can keep his streak alive.