Starting Without Any (or Less) Rest
Posted by Raphy on February 13, 2008
Since 1957 there have been 97 games in which a pitcher has started, despite the fact that he had pitched the day before. The most recent of these was by Elizardo Ramirez in 2006. The most dominant of those starts include 4 shutouts and a seven inning, 11 strikeout , 3 hit performance by Calvin Schiraldi.
There have also been pitchers who have started games without any rest. These pitchers pitched in the first game of a double header and then started the second. The most famous of these is Wilbur Wood who started (and lost) both games of a double header against the Yankees in 1973.
As evidenced in the "both games" link, the pitchers in these cases are recorded as having -1 days of rest. Unfortunately, PI does not allow for the searching of negative numbers. However, we can determine that there have been 102 starts with 0 or less days rest. Since there were 97 with 0, that leaves 5 games in which the pitcher played in the first game of a double header and then started the second. In addition to Wood, these starts were made by Al Santorini in 1971, Clay Carroll in 1968, Orlando Pena in 1967, and Billy Loes in 1961.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Six pitchers have started on 0 days' rest twice since 1957. Of those, the most impressive performance is probably by Joe Nuxhall in '58, with a CG win the day after going 2.2 IP to get an extra-innings relief win.
It would be interesting to see how many of these starts are following a brief relief appearance or aborted start of less than an inning, and how many follow on the heels of a multiple-inning appearance. I don't think there's any easy to find that except by checking every single game log. I only checked them for the guys who had the multiple no-rest starts.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
The Tony Cloninger game is interesting. Shuts out the Padres a day after he starts and can't get any of the 1st 5 Padres out. What a difference a day makes!
February 19th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
The pitcher's record for the 102 games with 0 or less DR was 30-39 -- not so good. However, the team they pitched for was 50-51-1 in those games.
For the five who pitched in both games of a DH, only Wood had a bad performance in the second game. Loes and Carroll did the best, pitching 9 innings and allowing only one run (Carroll's was unearned).
Pena and Carroll got a save in the first game, Loes a BS. Santorini started both games, but only pitched to one batter in the first game (a ground out) -- why was he replaced, then tabbed to start the second game?
February 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
If I had to guess about Santorini, I would say that it was strategy. Houston platooned at a couple of positions. When Santorini was put in as the starter, Houston put in their lefty lineup to face the right hander. Preston Gomez then put Dave Roberts, a lefty who was also scheduled to start that day. Houston then had to burn their bench replacing their lefties with right handed batters.
Can anyone confirm that this is what happened?