Multiple No Hitters Facing the Minimum Batters
Posted by Raphy on July 23, 2009
Congratulations to Mark Buehrle on his perfect game! It has been reported that this is Buehrle's second no hitter, however it is more than that. Buehrle is only the second pitcher since 1954 (if you have time to check prior to 1954, let me know and I'll post it, otherwise I'll try to do it later) to have 2 no-hitters in his career in which he faced the minimum 27 batters. The other is Sandy Koufax. Here are the lines from Buehle's previous no hitter and Koufax's games:
Cnt 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 +----+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ Buehrle 1 2007-04-18 CHW TEX W 6-0 SHO9 ,W 9 0 0 0 1 8 0 106 66 94 27 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 Koufax 1 1964-06-04 LAD @PHI W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9 0 0 0 1 12 0 92 66 98 27 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 Koufax 2 1965-09-09 LAD CHC W 1-0 SHO9 ,W 9 0 0 0 0 14 0 113 79 101 27 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I just found the same thing! Actually, regardless of it being a no-hitter, Buehrle is the only pitcher to have 3 shutouts where he faced the minimum of 27 batters. The other game was a 2-hitter on July 21, 2004, where both baserunners were wiped out by double plays.
The other interesting fact is that this is only the third no-hitter since 1954 where a grand slam was hit. The other two: Buerhle's first no-hitter, and Jeff Burroughs hit one in Jim Bibby's no-hitter back on July 30, 1973.
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I have a question related to the feat. I noted that former-Met Ramon Castro caught Buehrle's perfecto. No, everybody knows the Mets are still chasing that elusive no-hitter, despite pitchers pitching the no-hitter before or after being on the team. How many catchers have caught a no-hitter before or after being a Met?
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Leatherman- nice finds!
Thomas - I don't know the answer to your question, but if you know your former Mets, you can count them up here.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Wow! That is awesome! And I can't help but notice that Koufax nearly threw a perfect game against the Phillies just a couple weeks before Bunning would throw one for the Phils. Reminds me of Sanchez throwing a near perfecto for San Francisco earlier this month, and now a perfect game is thrown just a couple weeks later. Also, in 1880...the 1st two perfect games came within the same week and then no more for 20+ years.
Is it common for extremely well pitched games to come close to each other like this? Or are those examples I mentioned, the exceptions? Can you look that up?
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I can't imagine any reason why perfect games or no-hitters would come in clusters since they are very independent events.
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Thomas: 7 different Mets catchers, by my count:
Yogi Berra (3), Ramon Castro, Mike Piazza (2), Alberto Castillo, Duffy Dyer, Gary Carter, Jerry Grote.
Former Mets manager Jeff Torborg also caught 2 no-hitters.
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I wonder if maybe there's a psychological element behind games like this coming in clusters. For example... perhaps watching Koufax throw such an awesome game, gave Jim Bunning the confidence and belief that a perfect game could still be pitched. Perhaps Buehrle was affected similarly by Sanchez in some small way that he might not even be consciously aware of. A sort of "if he can do it, so can I" or "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.." or something.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I have heard that this is Buehrle's 3rd game in which he has faced 27 batters for a complete game. The other being a two-hitter that had two double plays. Does anyone know if any other pitcher has face the minimum that many times?
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Wow, sorry I should read the other comments before I post. Sorry!
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Stringkarma - other than Koufax (who only had the 2 that I posted) and Buehrle (who has 3 as you and leatherman posted) no one since 1954 has more than 1.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
...and yet Mark still needed to have another 3 innings of this perfection to match the famous game by Harvey Haddix.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Regarding games facing the minimum- This post by Andy from almost 2 years ago is worth a read. Roy Oswalt (9-11-2008) is the only player to face the minimum while allowing a base runner since the post was made.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I also find interesting that in three of the last five perfect games have been called by a catcher from Puerto Rico. Ivan Rodríguez with Kenny Rogers in '94, Jorge Posada with David Wells in '98 and Ramón Castro today.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Hey I've got a question for the group... If a pitcher has a no-hitter going, even a perfect no-hitter, and the game is called after the minimum amount of innings, making it a complete game, is that pitcher awarded a perfect game no-hitter? What's the minumum number of innings, Five?, would he have his no-hitter after facing 15 batters?
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Divingron - Not any more. MLB made a rule in 1991 requiring all no hitters to be at least 9 innings long. All the short no hitters before 1991 lost their status as official no hitters.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Thanks Raphy for the clarification. Hey any idea on what is the most rarest feat in baseball? 18 perfect games throughout history is a fairly small occurence.... any other feat that has been done less frequently?
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I know there have been less unassisted triple plays - I think it's 14 or 15. How about 4 homers in a game? Or 2 grand slams in a game? Anyone?
July 24th, 2009 at 1:20 am
15 players with 4 home runs in one game. It seems as though they are indeed bunched up, but, as with the no-hitters and whatnot, I doubt there's any significance (statistically or otherwise) in this. But I could be wrong.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:22 am
And 12 players with 2 grand slams in a game. With the 4 homers and 2 grand slams, no one's ever done it twice.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:44 am
as to the apparent clustering of these events (i haven't seen the data so i couldn't possibly know if its _statistically_ significant), but they could be correlated through environmental factors. specifically, periods of time were teams, on average, have a lower BA could imply a higher likelihood of a no-hitter/perfect game happening. it also could be that these differences in team BA's between time periods aren't large enough to significantly change the likelihood of these events, but it's a thought.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Divingron @ 16:
Rarity all depends on the number of variables you want to include. For example, it might be pretty rare to find a switch-hitter who hit 3 home-runs in one game off 3 different pitchers all of whom were left-handed during the second game of a double-header on a Saturday that went into extra innings... etc, etc, etc.
But for fairly simple things, I think Fernando Tatis' two grand slams in a single inning won't be duplicated soon or very many times.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Divingron @ 16:
Rarity all depends on the number of variables you want to include. For example, it might be pretty rare to find a switch-hitter who hit 3 home-runs in one game off 3 different pitchers all of whom were left-handed during the second game of a double-header on a Saturday that went into extra innings... etc, etc, etc.
But for fairly simple things, I think Fernando Tatis' (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN199904230.shtml) two grand slams in a single inning won't be duplicated soon or very many times.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:03 am
This guy is amazing.
200+ IP for the past 8 consective years. HOW RARE IS THIS? I asked it in a different post, but saw nothing.
2005 Postseason 2W, 1ND, 1S (very cool)
Hit his first HR this year, (only 40 career AB's)
2 no hitters, 1 perfect game.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Here's a little tidbit on a similar topic that doesn't get remembered too much anymore. Over a span of two games on 8/23/72 and 8/29/72, Jim Barr of the Giants retired 41 consecutive batters (the last 21 Pirates and then the first 20 Cardinals).
July 24th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Bland3080 - he's the only pitcher with 200+ IP for the last 8 years: http://www.bb-ref.com/play-index/shareit/QX5q
July 24th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Thanks Metsguy234 for working out the answer for Mets' catchers who've caught no-hitters.
I'm thinking Buehrle just took a large step closer to potential hall-of-fame-dom.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Perhaps even more surprising than Fernando Tatis' 2 grand slams in one inning is that both of them were given up by Chan Ho Park. I could possibly see another player hitting 2 grand slams in one inning...but I can't see both of them being off the same pitcher in the same inning again.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Okay, concerning the Mets catchers who've caught a no-hitter before or after joining the Mets, the final total is in fact 12:
Name // Year of no-hitter(s) // Year as Met
Yogi Berra 3 (51, 51, 56) Met in 65
Joe Ginsburg (52) Met in 62
Jerry Grote (64) Met from 66-77
JC Martin (67) Met in 68-69
Jerry May (70) Met in 73
Duffy Dyer (76) Met in 68-74
Gary Carter (81) Met in 85-89
Brett Mayne (91) Met in 96
Mike Piazza 2 (95,96) Met from 98-05
Alberto Castillo (99) Met from 95-98
Eli Marrero (01) Met in 06
Ramon Castro (09) Met from 05-09
July 26th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Thomas, I don't think Buehrle's perfect game will make one iota of difference in his reaching the HOF.