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One pitcher getting the win and the loss in the same game

Posted by Andy on May 26, 2010

How, you ask, can a single pitcher get the win and the loss in the very same game?

Yesterday's Yankees/Twins game was suspended by rain and completed today before their regularly-scheduled game. Yesterday, A.J. Burnett and Scott Baker matched zeros for 5 innings until the game was suspended. The game resumed today in the top of the 6th and Derek Jeter homered to put the Yankees ahead and provide the only run of the game. Burnett, as the pitcher of record, got the win despite not appearing in the game today.

Imagine that the game had been suspended just the same but instead of being completed today, the game got completed sometime in August or September. Now imagine that A.J. Burnett had been traded to the Twins in the interim. When there is a significant delay in between the original date and the completion date of a suspended game, the teams negotiate beforehand over the handling of personnel changes, meaning players who appeared in the original game who are no longer available due to injury or being removed from the roster in any of a number of ways.

Anyway, imagine that Burnett was on the Twins when the game resumed. Imagine that he came in to pitch the top of the 6th inning and it was he who surrendered Jeter's go-ahead homer. That would make Burnett the pitcher of record for both the Yankees and the Twins!

I think there might be an explicit rule against a single pitcher earning two decisions in a game--I'm not sure about that. But it's fun to think about the possibilities 🙂

19 Responses to “One pitcher getting the win and the loss in the same game”

  1. Jay Says:

    I've always wanted to see a pitcher save his own win by moving to the field for one or more batters.

  2. Jason Says:

    Actually, a pitcher cannot earn the win and save in the same game because one of the requirements for a save is that he is not the winning pitcher.

  3. Frank Clingenpeel Says:

    Andy, ol' amigo, it's thoughts like this that convince my wife that I need some sort of hobby. But what can you say -- she's a Red Sox fan, and not that well-acquainted with reality herself.

  4. TheGoof Says:

    Has anyone ever appeared on both teams in a game?

  5. SJBlonger Says:

    I heard this one presented theoretically many years ago and have always been tickled by the prospect, but according to the event data no player appeared for both teams in the same game (1952-2009). Unless I messed up my query.

  6. Mr.Dave Says:

    If this was to ever to happen, it would instantly become my favorite bit of sports trivia ever.

  7. Andy Says:

    Suspended games can cause all sorts of weird phenomena. They account for how Tim Raines and Barry Bonds "appeared" in games months before their actual major league debuts. They can also cause players to achieve feats for both teams in the same game. I do think there was a case of a pitcher earning a win and a loss on the same day due to completion of an earlier game in which he was the losing pitcher and then starting and winning a second game that day.

  8. dukeofflatbush Says:

    Who can forget July 22, 1986; Orosco and McDowell.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN198607220.shtml#NewYorkMetspitching
    Close [x]

  9. dukeofflatbush Says:

    Also that July 22, '86 game featured 5 pitchers who had 25 Save seasons. Maybe a record?

  10. TheGoof Says:

    Duke, one of my all-time favorites. Even besides the Orosco/McDowell thing, that game was a classic. Up there with the Yanks-Mariners Game 2 and Game 5 in 1995, the Tigers-Twins one-game playoff last year, Game 7 in the '91 Series, the Jeter catch in the stands vs. Boston game...

  11. dukeofflatbush Says:

    Goof,
    Davey Johnson was a marvel to watch. Imagine if that didn't work, the crap NYC media would of gave him! When it worked - no one seemed to give him just credit. LaRussa is always heralded as a "genius" for batting the pitcher eighth or hitting McGwire 1st a few games in '98, but no manager today could pull off something so inventive and daring. I think Used sparingly, keeping a lefty/righty combo in the field, while a bit defensively dangerous, should be implented more. It gives the manager so much more options, just hope they don't hit it to left. Managers need to take more chances nowa days. It seems a computer program could manage a game. Bobby Valentine was the last great Iconoclast! Come on, mustachioed disguises!!
    Ditto for me with the '91 series. The Smoltz/Morris dual 10 inning complete game, the likes of which will likely never be seen again was one for the ages.

  12. dukeofflatbush Says:

    Sorry, '91 game 7 didn't see Smoltz go 10, but Morris did. 36 years old, a work horse all season/all career pitching a 10 inning complete game 7 shutout. Big time pitcher. You think he had a pitch count?!?

  13. Jeff H Says:

    I seem to recall someone getting traded between games of a double-header, and thus appeared for two different teams on the same day.

  14. nightfly Says:

    Joel Youngblood is, to my knowledge, the only man to get hits for two different teams in the same day. He singled in a day game, was removed BECAUSE he had been traded, got changed, caught a flight, and then got a pinch-hit for his new team in the late innings. I'm not sure of the day, but I think the teams were Montreal and San Francisco.

  15. nightfly Says:

    OK... I am (slightly) in error. He was traded from the Expos to the Giants after the 1982 season. BUT, on August 4 of that year, he singled in two runs for the Mets against the Cubs (heh, according to WPA it was the biggest play of the game!); got traded, flew out to Philly, and came in to play RF in the bottom of the sixth. Then he singled in the seventh. So it wasn't a pinch hit, and I only got one of the teams right.

    That's a heck of a day - drive in two runs against Fergie Jenkins and then single off Steve Carlton. He's probably the only guy in history to have hits against those guys on the same day, unless someone did it in an All-Star game.

  16. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    I seem to recall someone getting traded between games of a double-header, and thus appeared for two different teams on the same day.

    This happened with outfielders Max Flack and Cliff Heathcote in between games of a Memorial Day doubleheader between the Cubs and Cardinals in 1922. Flack played Game 1 for the Cubs and Game 2 for the Cardinals; Heathcote, the reverse. Both players got hits in the second game after going hitless in the first game.

    The Mets acquired José Cardenal from the Phillies in between games of a Mets-Phillies doubleheader on August 2, 1979. However, Cardenal did not play in either game of the doubleheader.

  17. Bryan Mueller Says:

    Speaking of fun possibilities, my brothers and I always wondered what games would be like if, instead of 9 innings, only one inning was played with the away team getting 27 outs followed by the home team. I am guessing many games would have scores resembling that of football games.

  18. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    Joel Youngblood is "probably the only guy in history to have hits against those guys [Carlton and Jenkins] on the same day, unless someone did it in an All-Star game."

    In the only two years they were both selected to the NL All-Star staff (1971 and 1972), only one of them actually pitched in the game — Jenkins in 1971, Carlton in 1972.

  19. Andy Says:

    Imagine if the phils hadn't dumbly traded fergie