Most losses in games allowing 0 ER
Posted by Andy on April 26, 2008
Here are the leaders:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Kent Tekulve 12 Ind. Games Hoyt Wilhelm 11 Ind. Games Charlie Hough 11 Ind. Games Wilbur Wood 10 Ind. Games Mike Marshall 10 Ind. Games Rick Honeycutt 10 Ind. Games John Hiller 10 Ind. Games Clay Carroll 10 Ind. Games Al Worthington 9 Ind. Games Dick Tidrow 9 Ind. Games Bob Stanley 9 Ind. Games Phil Niekro 9 Ind. Games Roger McDowell 9 Ind. Games Darold Knowles 9 Ind. Games Rich Gossage 9 Ind. Games Elias Sosa 8 Ind. Games Barney Schultz 8 Ind. Games Greg Minton 8 Ind. Games Tug McGraw 8 Ind. Games Sparky Lyle 8 Ind. Games Joe Horlen 8 Ind. Games Greg Harris 8 Ind. Games Gene Garber 8 Ind. Games John Franco 8 Ind. Games Mark Clear 8 Ind. Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Jim Brewer 8 Ind. Games Ted Abernathy 8 Ind. Games
As you can imagine, these are all games where the pitcher allowed an unearned run to score by any of various means. Let's take a look at Tekulve's 12 such 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 +----+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 1978-05-09 PIT @SFG L 2-3 9-9f ,L 0.1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 2 1978-05-25 PIT NYM L 2-3 10-11f,L 2 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 10 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.00 3 1978-07-22 PIT @SFG L 2-3 9-10 ,L 0.1 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 4 1979-04-06 PIT MON L 2-3 9-10f,L 2 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 9 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 5 1979-04-21 PIT @HOU L 4-5 8-10f,L 1.2 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 8 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 6 1980-06-18(1) PIT @ATL L 2-3 9-9f ,BL 0.1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 7 1982-06-09 PIT @NYM L 2-3 9-9f ,BL 0.1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 8 1983-06-28 PIT @CHC L 7-8 9-11f,L 2 3 1 0 2 3 0 0 0 12 10 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 9 1984-05-29 PIT @CIN L 4-5 10-10f,L 0.1 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 10 1984-07-27 PIT STL L 2-3 10-10f,L 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 11 1987-06-20 PHI @NYM L 2-3 9-9f ,L 0.1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 12 1989-07-13 CIN MON L 3-6 7-7 ,BL 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 22 15 2 1 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00
Here is what happened in those 12 games:
1. Tekulve allowed a one-out single to Jack Clark, who advanced to 3rd after an error on the catcher attempting to throw him out stealing. Larry Herndon then singled in Clark.
2. With two outs in the 11th, pitcher Dale Murray reached on an E5, then moved to second on a wild pitch by Tekulve. Then Len Randle singled him in.
3. Terry Whitfield led off the 10th with a single against Tekulve, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Tekulve then walked Jack Clark, and was relieved by Dave Hamilton. Willie McCovey then singled off Hamilton to end the game.
4. Here's a weird one. Andre Dawson led off getting hit by Tekulve. Then, Dawson was picked off by Tekulve but moved to 2B on an error by Tekulve himself. Warren Cromartie grounded out, sending Dawson to third. Then Ellis Valentine reached on E5, scoring Dawson. That's some seriously tough luck for Tekulve.
5. The Astros loaded the bases on a single, E5, and sac bunt on which Craig Reynolds successfully reached. The next play was a FC groundout by Cesar Cedeno, forcing Denny Walling at home. Next, Jose Cruz singled, scoring Terry Puhl, who had reached on error.
6. Here's a painful one. Down 2-0, Dale Murphy singled. Then Chris Chambliss reached on an error on the first baseman. Then Tekulve came into the game. Gary Matthews reached on an error on the shortstop. A guy named Brian Asselstine flew out. (I have never heard of that guy--what a name!) Then Bill Nahorodny doubled in all three runs, winning the game. So, Tekulve came in with 2 on and nobody out, the defense allowed the next guy to reach, Tekulve got an out, then gave up a bases-loaded double. That is a tough loss, folks.
7. This one is too long to give in detail, but suffice it to say that the Mets got two guys on by a single and an error. Then, Tekulve picked the guy off 2B, but he was safe on an error by the second baseman and he went to third. Then after a groundout and an intentional walk, Hubie Brooks drove in the winning run on a fielder's choice.
8. Cubs won when Larry Bowa reached on an error on the second baseman with two guys on base, scoring Leon Durham.
9. Tekulve loaded the bases on a double, intentional walk, and another walk, and then Brad Gulden reached on an error on the second baseman, scoring Dave Concepcion to end the game.
10. Chris Speier led off the inning with a fly ball and got to 3rd base on an error by the right fielder. Oops. Tekulve got Darrel Porter on a lineout. After a walk, he gave up a sac fly to Willie McGee. He then intentionally walked Andy Van Slyke. Then Terry Pendleton singled and the runner was out at home (b ut the go-ahead run had previously scored.)
11. Gary Carter singled and was lifted for pinch-runner Lenny Dykstra. Darryl Strawberry reached on an error by the shortstop and Dykstra got all the way to third. Then Kevin RcReynolds hit a game-ending sac fly.
12. This is the only time that Tekulve got the loss when the run didn't score in the last inning of the game. What happened is kind of crazy, so here's the entire inning.
Top of the 7th, Expos Batting, Behind 1-3, Norm Charlton facing 2-3-4
--- 4 D Garcia Walk
R 1-- 2 A Galarraga Double to LF (Ground Ball thru 3B); Garcia Scores
-2- 2 T Raines Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Galarraga to 3B
Kent Tekulve replaces Todd Benzinger pitching and batting 6th; Ken Griffey replaces Norm Charlton playing 1B batting 9th
R 1-3 3 H Brooks Reached on E6 (Ground Ball to SS); Galarraga Scores; Raines to 2B
Dave Martinez pinch runs for Hubie Brooks batting 5th
O 12- T Wallach Raines Caught Stealing 3B (C-3B); Martinez to 2B
-2- 5 " " Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B-1B); Martinez to 3B
O 1-3 4 M Fitzgerald Strikeout Swinging
R 1-3 4 S Owen Single to RF (Line Drive to Deep 2B); Martinez Scores/unER; Wallach to 3B
Wallace Johnson pinch hits for Dennis Martinez batting 9th
O 1-3 3 W Johnson Groundout: 2B-1B (2B)
3 runs, 4 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB. Expos 4, Reds 3.
So Norm Charlton made a nice mess of things, and it all blew up on Tekulve.
By the way, this was Tekulve's second-to-last major-league appearance. His last game came 3 days later, also against the Expos. He came into a tie game in the top of the 12th, gave up 3 runs, got the loss, and retired. He had a couple of rough outings at the end there, but he had a great career, finishing with an ERA+ of 132 while pitching in more than 1000 games.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I'm assuming that the abundance of knucklers (Wilhelm, Hough, Wood, Niekro, Schultz) stems from passed balls by the catcher.
April 27th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
That's awesome stuff! Very fun to read. Very entertaining.
Are there no pre-1950s pitchers on the list because you are only using play-by-play data, or is it because of the limited use of relief pitchers back in the day? Is it possible to run the query and limited to pre-1955 games? I'd like to see what real old-timers show up.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I don't see how game #3 could result in an unearned run.
A run scoring after a wild pitch with no errors noted is an earned run.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
#3 - The play by play on the game shows that there was an error. The winning run scored when he was able to advance on an E9 after the single.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Wilhelm actually had 12 if you include 1956 - and he may have had more, since his career started in 1952. And as BunnyW suggested, half were due to a passed ball. There were 2 or 3 wild pitches as well, but these were preceded by an error in the field.
I love these game logs. I haven't been here long, what's the chance they can be taken back even further?