Consecutive complete game losses
Posted by Andy on April 30, 2008
Thanks to my buddy Eric for this idea. (Not you, Eric H, this time it's Eric P.)
Last night, Roy Halladay lost his third straight complete game. I am willing to bet than in the early 1900s, such a streak was very common since most starts were CGs. But, it's rare these days. Here are the longest such streaks since 1956:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mickey Lolich 1975-07-17 1975-08-15 7 0 7 7 7 0 0 0 59 59 30 26 15 31 6 3.97 0 1 0 DET Rick Langford 1980-06-03 1980-06-30 6 0 6 6 6 0 0 0 52.2 51 25 23 13 22 8 3.93 0 2 1 OAK Jack Harshman 1958-05-17 1958-06-07 5 0 5 5 5 0 0 0 43 42 20 19 10 40 6 3.98 1 2 0 BAL Curt Schilling 1998-05-17 1998-06-07 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33.2 31 13 11 7 36 1 2.94 1 2 0 PHI Phil Niekro 1978-09-21 1979-04-06 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33 28 10 9 12 21 1 2.45 1 1 0 ATL Ken Brett 1976-06-20 1976-07-06 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 35.1 29 13 12 15 17 0 3.06 1 1 0 CHW Clyde Wright 1974-07-20 1974-08-02 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 33 37 14 13 7 9 1 3.55 0 1 0 MIL Bob Gibson 1965-05-25 1965-06-08 4 0 4 4 4 0 0 0 35.2 26 15 13 15 21 5 3.28 1 1 1 STL
Halladay is tied with roughly 60 other streaks at 3 games, although the last one was by Randy Johnson in 1999. See here for the full list.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Over those three games, Randy Johnson gave up only three runs. Even more remarkable, though, is that he was shut out twice, 1-0 each time, by José Jimenez. These two starts, a no-hitter and a two-hitter, were the only complete games that Jimenez ever threw.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
So those aren't quite complete-game losses in consecutive starts, though. This list shows the greatest number of consecutive losses in complete games, which is not quite the same thing. Take a look at Schilling in '98, for example - he had two complete game losses, followed by a five-inning start on May 28, followed by two more complete game losses. Not quite sure how to use the streak finder to find this exact streak (consecutive starts resulting in complete game losses) - anybody know?
April 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
jokeeffe the reason that Schilling and Ken Brett are on the list is because the only games in between are no decisions.
If you want to find consecutive games that are all complete game losses, you would do the same search, but select "any" under "pitcher decision" .
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/32Bv
April 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Using pitching streak finder, look for streaks by a starting pitcher in which Complete Games = 1 and Losses = 1. I think that does it, right? Only Schilling is eliminated from the list above.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Yeah--you guys found my mistake exactly. Thanks.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Speaking of the Jimenez no-hitter - I wonder how many times a pitcher has had an ERA of over 6.00 for the
season after pitching one.