One Hitters Allowing 2+ Runs

Posted by Steve Lombardi on July 27, 2010

A just for the fun of it list - all games available under Play Index where the starting pitcher went at least 9 innings, allowed only one hit, but allowed 2 runs (earned or not) to score. It hasn't happened all that often.

From 1920 to 2010, Games in Play Index, where SP had IP>=9, H=1 and R>=2, sorted by greatest R

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	GSc	BF	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	WP	ERA
1	Curt Young	1987-06-09	OAK	CHW	W 8-3	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	3	2	3	7	1	79	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.00
2	Bruce Hurst	1989-04-10	SDP	ATL	W 5-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	1	13	1	89	29	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.00
3	Jose DeLeon	1984-08-24	PIT	CIN	L 0-2	CG 9 ,L	9.0	1	2	1	3	8	0	84	31	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1.00
4	Jack Morris	1980-08-21 (2)	DET	MIN	W 4-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	0	3	6	0	84	31	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0.00
5	Mike Norris	1979-05-09	OAK	BAL	W 4-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	1	4	6	0	81	33	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.00
6	Silvio Martinez	1978-05-30	STL	NYM	W 8-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	6	2	1	73	34	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	2.00
7	Vida Blue	1976-08-28	OAK	DET	W 5-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	1	1	5	1	83	31	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.00
8	Joe Coleman	1975-05-06	DET	MIL	W 4-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	4	8	1	81	33	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	2.00
9	Gary Gentry	1971-04-18 (1)	NYM	PIT	W 5-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	3	6	0	80	32	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2.00
10	Phil Niekro	1969-09-05	ATL	CIN	W 11-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	1	10	1	86	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.00
11	Joe Sparma	1969-05-31	DET	SEP	W 3-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	0	7	8	0	82	34	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	0.00
12	Denny McLain	1966-05-30	DET	KCA	W 5-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	2	5	7	0	79	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.00
13	Whitey Ford	1955-09-02	NYY	WSH	W 4-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	1	2	0	4	4	0	81	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
14	Charley Schanz	1944-05-02	PHI	NYG	W 5-2		9.0	1	2	2	5	3	1	75	32		0	0					0	2.00
15	Bob Feller	1941-09-26 (2)	CLE	SLB	W 3-2		9.0	1	2	2	7	6	0	76	34		0	0					0	2.00
16	Bobo Newsom	1934-09-18	SLB	BOS	L 1-2		10.0	1	2	1	7	9	0	86	41		0	0					0	0.90
17	Lon Warneke	1934-04-22	CHC	STL	W 15-2		9.0	1	2	1	6	5	0	78	34		0	0					0	1.00

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/27/2010.

That Bobo Newsome game on September 18, 1934 was a wild one. Bobo had a no-hitter through nine that day and lost it in the 10th inning - it being the game and the no-no. Newsom gave up a single with two out in the 10th (the only hit against him) but lost the game.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Game Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

12 Responses to “One Hitters Allowing 2+ Runs”

Johnny Twisto Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Jose DeLeon on another hard luck list.
Kahuna Tuna Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
In Ball Four Jim Bouton describes the Pilots half of the first inning of Joe Sparma's 1969 one-hitter, which went walk, caught stealing, walk, 5-3-6 double play in which the runner on first tried to advance to third on a throw from the third baseman. Bouton noted that Sparma threw ten pitches in that inning — all balls.

The Tigers and Pilots combined in that game for seven hits while making seven errors. I wonder how often both teams' combined errors have equaled or exceeded their combined hits in a single game. Can the PI search that?
SJBlonger Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Who hit the home run in the 3-run, 1-hit job at the top of the list? Kenny Williams!
Kahuna Tuna Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
McLain's 1966 one-hitter came against Chuck Dobson, who in a fairly short career ran up against a lot of good pitching. Dobson was also on the losing end of two no-hitters (against Jim Palmer on 8/13/69 and Clyde Wright on 7/3/70) and one other one-hitter (against Sam McDowell on 8/19/69, his next start after the Palmer no-hitter).
Gerry Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I would have suggested running the search with hits at most 1, rather than exactly 1.
Al Atkinson, 1 May 1886, pitched a no-hitter and won, 3-2.
Ed Seward, 26 July 1888, 12-2.
Ben Sanders, 22 August 1892, 6-2. He pitched for Louisville, making him the Colonels' Sanders.
Ed Lafitte, 19 September 1914, 6-2 (a Federal League game).
Those are the no-hitters pre-1920 with 2 (or more) runs given up.

Oh, and there's no e at the end of (Bobo) Newsom.
Mike Felber Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 2:08 am
I have wondered how often a game with minimal hits is due to random variation rather than a great outing-the same can be asked for the opposite: that is, how often due to pure chance do more well hit balls get hit right at fielders, how often the whole team just tends to be weaker than normal due to coincidental converging slumps, at least for that day...Usually a near or actual no hitter means great pitching-though I would say not so much when many are walked-but surely sometimes what would "normally" be a 6 hitter becomes 1 or none.
DoubleDiamond Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 6:54 am
I read in a book about perfect games that I had out from a library a few years ago that no-hitters are due to the skill of the pitcher, while perfect games are often due to both the skill of the pitcher and the fielding of the position players. In the Terry Mulholland game, the only baserunner reached as the result of an error. And the position player designation includes the pitcher himself - in the Dick Bosman perfect game, the only baserunner reached on an error by Bosman himself.

Regarding the Bosman no-hitter, which was in 1974 against Oakland - I wonder how many times the eventual World Series winner has a no-hitter pitched against them. Also, just like the Mets fans are agonizingly aware of all of the no-hitters that Mets pitchers threw after leaving the team, while there's still never been such a game in their history, Dick Bosman was with the Washington Senators for a few years but pitched this no-hitter later in his career, after he was no longer with the team and when there was no longer a team in Washington (and wouldn't be for another 30 years).
Steve Lombardi Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Gerry - thanks. I took that "e" out now and charged it to myself. 😉
koma Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 10:48 am
the simple parameters:

From 1920 to 2010, Pitcher Lost, (requiring H=0 and IP>=9), sorted by most recent date

show only ONE occurance:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196404230.shtml

and who is the winning run in a NO-hitter???

the Hit-King:)
eorns Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Ditto #1 about DeLeon. Three times in his career he allowed only 1 hit over 9 or more innings...and his team lost all three!! In addition, his team also lost the only game in which he allowed 1 hit over 8 innings! Two of these occurred in a 6 week span in 1984 when he twice managed to allow 2 runs on only 1 hit while his team didn't score. And his 8/30/89 game is the longest outing in which a pitcher faced the minimum (33 batters in 11 innings...in fact, the Reds sent only 37 batters to the plate over the first 12.1 innings...I wonder what the record is there?). Pitching for the mid-80's Pirates didn't exactly help, but still!
Gerry Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
#7, the 1958 Yankees were no-hit by Hoyt Wilhelm (and you thought he was just a reliever...), then went on to win the World Series.
Gerry Says:
July 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
#10, I don't know the answer to your question, but I did find this: on 19 August 1923, in a 12-inning game, the Giants faced only 38 batters. Jack Scott pitched, gave up 1 run on 3 hits. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1923/B08190NY11923.htm but the play-by-play is not available. Haddix faced 40 batters in 12-and-two-thirds in his 1959 game. The (1920-2010) record for a 13-inning game seems to be 42 batters faced, in the 1989 game you cite. There have been 4 14-inning games with only 45 batters faced, most recently http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL198908190.shtml

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