Clay Buchholz: A good game score despite his team giving up 10+ runs
Posted by Andy on June 16, 2010
I have been meaning to post this for a while. While Clay Buchholz picked up another win last night, his previous start yielded something truly unusual.
In the June 9th game against Cleveland, Buchholz had a pretty good game. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 3 earned runs on 3 hits and 4 walks. He had only 1 strikeout and took the loss as Justin Masterson, former Red Sox reliever, has his best career start. After Buchholz left the game, the Boston bullpen was blitzed as both Boof Bonser and Joe Nelson gave up 4 earned runs to run the final score of the game to 11-0.
There's nothing too unusual about Buchholz's start itself. Pitchers pitch fairly well and lose all the time. Here are the guys just in the last week who had a Game Score at least as high at Buchholz's 56 where the team also lost the game:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Pit | Str | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Johnson | 2010-06-15 | FLA | TEX | L 2-3 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 111 | 74 | 71 |
| 2 | Gavin Floyd | 2010-06-13 | CHW | CHC | L 0-1 | CG 8 ,L | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 109 | 66 | 78 |
| 3 | Clayton Richard | 2010-06-13 | SDP | SEA | L 2-4 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 111 | 64 | 59 |
| 4 | Jeff Karstens | 2010-06-13 | PIT | DET | L 3-4 | GS-8 | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 96 | 67 | 59 |
| 5 | Carlos Silva | 2010-06-12 | CHC | CHW | L 1-2 | GS-7 ,L | 7.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 123 | 81 | 59 |
| 6 | Nick Blackburn | 2010-06-12 | MIN | ATL | L 2-3 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 98 | 69 | 60 |
| 7 | Brandon Morrow | 2010-06-12 | TOR | COL | L 0-1 | GS-7 ,L | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 98 | 56 | 61 |
| 8 | Brian Matusz | 2010-06-12 | BAL | NYM | L 1-3 | GS-8 ,L | 8.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 96 | 72 | 64 |
| 9 | Tim Hudson | 2010-06-11 | ATL | MIN | L 1-2 | CG 8 ,L | 8.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 99 | 64 | 61 |
| 10 | Roy Halladay | 2010-06-10 | PHI | FLA | L 0-2 | GS-8 ,L | 8.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 118 | 76 | 73 |
| 11 | Wade Davis | 2010-06-10 | TBR | TOR | L 2-3 | GS-7 ,L | 7.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 105 | 75 | 57 |
| 12 | Max Scherzer | 2010-06-10 | DET | CHW | L 0-3 | GS-8 ,L | 7.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 107 | 69 | 62 |
As you can see, most of the starters got the loss themselves as well.
The odd part is having a game score as high as 56 in game in which the team surrenders 10 or more runs and loses.
Before Buchholz and the Red Sox did it last week, here are the previous such games I could find:
- Mike Leake scored a 59 in the 5/20/2010 game the Braves lost to the Reds, 10-9
- Adam Wainwright scored a 56 in the 10/2/2009 game the Cardinals lost to the Brewers, 12-6
- Brett Tomko scored a 57 in the 8/28/2009 game the Athletics lost to the Angels, 11-7
It happened twice with the Giants last year, in games started by Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez. It also happened in games started by Erik Bedard, and again by Adam Wainwright, and Ubaldo Jimenez, Randy Wolf, and Edwin Jackson. (Click the names to see the individual games.)
The formula is typically a good game by the starter followed by a horrendous performance by the bullpen.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
How about this? — Only PI-searchable game in which the starter registered a game score above 56 while surrendering 10+ runs: This late-season 1928 game between the Cardinals and Braves. The starting pitcher was Boston's Bob Smith.
Obviously, the recipe is lots of innings (15) and lots of unearned runs (seven). The Retrosheet box score indicates that the Braves made two errors in the game, although there's no play-by-play so we don't know why all the Cardinals' 15th-inning runs were unearned. Baseball Library's Chronology notes that Frankie Frisch stole home in that inning; it was his second extra-inning steal of home (first one 7/20/27), a major-league record at the time and still the NL record.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The Game Score seems to break down for extreme games like that. That performance bears little resemblance to anything we see today. Nine hits and twelve walks in 14.1 innings...not good.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
One game comes to mind as a possibility, but I have yet to learn how to use search tools proficiently enough to find out. What about Christy Mathewson's sole appearance as a Redleg, back in 1916?.
And despite what the missus is saying right now, no, I was NOT there for it. What is the market like for smart-alecky wives these days?
June 16th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
You spelled Bedard's name wrong. It's Erik.
On another note, I quite enjoyed this. I find it quite interesting.
June 16th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Fixed, thanks.
June 16th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Andy - you're just lucky that Eriq La Salle went into acting instead of baseball. 😀
June 16th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
One game comes to mind as a possibility, but I have yet to learn how to use search tools proficiently enough to find out. What about Christy Mathewson's sole appearance as a Redleg, back in 1916?
The following account is based on an entry from the Baseball Library Chronology:
[September 4, 1916] To help draw a Labor Day crowd‚ longtime rivals Christy Mathewson and Three Finger Brown agree to close out their careers in the same game. Both pitchers stagger to complete games in the nitecap of a doubleheader. Matty‚ now managing the Reds‚ beats Brown and the Cubs 10-8. The Reds rack up 19 hits (three by Matty) off Brown‚ while the Cubs tally 15 (two by Brown) off Mathewson. Vic Saier hits a three-run homer for the Cubs‚ his fifth off Matty‚ the most Matty gave up to any one hitter. The Cubs score three in the ninth before Mathewson retires Fritz Mollwitz‚ representing the tying run‚ on a pop-up.
The win, Matty's 373rd, was the only game he pitched in a uniform other than the Giants'. In the 25 games started by the two pitchers against each other since 1903, Brown won 13 and lost 10, while Matty went 11-13.
Mathewson's line for this game: 9 IP, 15 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, game score of 27.
June 16th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Thanks again, Kahuna.
June 16th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
how doyou determine game score?
June 17th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Game Score definition and calculation can be found here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/pi_glossary.shtml
June 18th, 2010 at 11:43 am
How often do pitchers lose games when they've got a higher game score than their opponent? What's the biggest difference in game score where the loser had the higher game score?
June 18th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Albanate, those are good questions that are not searchable in the Play Index in any easy way--they'd need to be researched manually.