The Mets get their 17th shutout
Posted by Andy on August 13, 2010
Last night, Johan Santana pitched the Mets' 17th shutout the the season and brought the team back to .500 for the season.
That puts the Mets on pace for 24 shutouts this season. Has any team ever had such a poor overall record with so many shutouts? Click through...
Here are all the teams since 1920 with at least 23 shutouts in a season:
| Rk | Tm | Year | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | STL | 1968 | 30 | Ind. Games |
| 2 | NYM | 1969 | 28 | Ind. Games |
| 3 | LAA | 1964 | 28 | Ind. Games |
| 4 | STL | 1944 | 26 | Ind. Games |
| 5 | CLE | 1948 | 26 | Ind. Games |
| 6 | NYM | 1968 | 25 | Ind. Games |
| 7 | NYY | 1951 | 24 | Ind. Games |
| 8 | LAD | 1963 | 24 | Ind. Games |
| 9 | LAD | 1988 | 24 | Ind. Games |
| 10 | CHW | 1967 | 24 | Ind. Games |
| 11 | ATL | 1992 | 24 | Ind. Games |
| 12 | OAK | 1972 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 13 | NYG | 1933 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 14 | MIL | 1971 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 15 | LAD | 1968 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 16 | LAD | 1965 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 17 | LAD | 1972 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 18 | CLE | 1968 | 23 | Ind. Games |
| 19 | ATL | 1998 | 23 | Ind. Games |
The 1964 Angels were just 82-80. The 1968 Mets were 73-89. The 1971 Brewers were 69-92. The 1968 Dodgers were 76-86.
The rest of the teams were all above .500, most of them were division winners with 95+ wins.
In 1968, scoring was so low that there were tons of shutouts, even by lesser teams.
Anyway, what the Mets are doing this year is pretty unusual.
August 13th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I guess with the '68 Mets it wasn't just the run-scoring environment, but a harbinger of things to come. And look at the '88 Dodgers! Even besides Orel, they had shutout power.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
That performance by Santana yesterday was pretty damn good for someone who isn't an "ace."
August 13th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
You've lost all credibility, Duff.
August 13th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
The 1971 Brewers are intersting (one-third of thier wins was via Shutout). They had 3 starters (Pattin, Slaton, Parsons) with at least 4 Shutouts. And the Closer, Ken Sanders, was 31/35 in save opportunities with a 7-12 record (a lot of decisions) with an ERA under 2.00. So they had 3 starters and a reliever that could pitch pretty well. I guess the hitting was bad which would lead to an overall 69-92 record...which I guess you might expect from a 3rd year team.
August 13th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I amazed to see that yesterday's game was only the second double digit strikeout - shutout of Santana's career.
August 13th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Raphy, Santana only has 11 CG, 8 for SHO in his career. He has a tendency to rack up high pitch counts, get to around 110-115 after about 7 innings and get removed from the game. Hence his reputation has a 7 inning pitcher. When he has a high SO game it is even harder for him to keep the pitch count low enough to finish the game. But, yes, given his reputation for being a high strikeout, dominant pitcher, I too would have guessed more than 2 double digit SO SHO performances for his career.
August 13th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Until this month, Santana had gone 37 consecutive starts without double-digit strikeouts. He had four double-digit K games in his first ten starts of last season (the last coming against the Nationals on May 27), but didn't have another one until his 11K game against the Braves earlier this month (Aug. 2). In fact, during that drought, he only had three games in which he had more than six strikeouts. Clearly the elbow trouble he had last year that resulted in off-season surgery has taken its toll. The tip-pitching problem he had earlier this year certainly didn't help, either. Two double-digit K games in his last three starts has got to be a good sign for him, though.
August 13th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
What those Brewers did with five journeyman starters (two of whom had never thrown a pitch in the big leagues before 1971) and a bullpen of Ken Sanders, period, was absolutely phenomenal. Pitching coach Wes Stock got career-low ERA+s from starters Lew Krausse, Skip Lockwood, and Bill Parsons (who, two years later, came down with Steve Blass Disease at the same time Steve Blass did), the third-best ERA+ Marty Pattin would ever post, and an acceptable 92 ERA+ from raw rookie Jim Slaton. Fireman of the Year Sanders had by far his best season in 1971. Stock was fired by the Brewers in late August of 1972, but he landed well — as the pitching coach for the '73 and '74 World Champion A's.
The '71 Brewers had one of the worst offenses seen in the AL in years. If Stock hadn't coaxed such wonderful performances out of the pitching staff, that team could have lost 110 games.
August 13th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Well there's another one.
August 13th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Grr, make that 18. With at least five against one opponent in particular.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
The only hit against Dickey tonight was by Cole Hamels. I wonder how many one-hitters there have been in which a pitcher got the only hit.
And speaking of Hamels, this is his second straight 1-0 loss to the Mets. Talk about tough luck.
August 13th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
The Mets last had two consecutive shutouts (CG) in 2002. Their longest streak was three, done three times.
[code]
Rk Strk Start End Games W L CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Opp
1 NYM 1988-04-12 1988-04-15 3 3 0 3 3 0 24.0 9 0 0 4 16 0 0.00 0 0 0 MONSTL
2 NYM 1970-05-13 1970-05-16 3 3 0 3 3 0 27.0 6 0 0 8 32 0 0.00 1 0 0 CHCPHI
3 NYM 1969-09-24 1969-09-27 3 3 0 3 3 0 27.0 11 0 0 6 16 0 0.00 0 0 0 STLPHI
4 NYM 2002-05-14 2002-05-15 2 2 0 2 2 0 18.0 4 0 0 4 17 0 0.00 0 0 0 LAD
[/code]
August 13th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
It's the first Met 1-hitter, with the opposing pitcher getting the only hit since 8/18/03 when Trachsel 1-hit the Rockies.
Taiwanese pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao had the only hit in that game -- the first ever in MLB game for a Taiwanese born player.
The 3 straight shutouts in 1988 were by familiar names: Darling, Ojeda and Gooden.
Now a question-- is there a way to configure the play index to do either of the following:
--show only 1-0 wins by a team
--show only wins in which a team allows at least 9 runs
August 14th, 2010 at 6:37 am
#13 Eric, those are pretty easy to look up.
In the batting team game finder, set runs = 1 and click the bubble to the left for team wins. So far in 2010 there have been 38 games won 1-0, and the Dodgers have the most with 5.
In the pitching team game finder, set runs > 9 and click the bubble for team wins. So far in 2010, teams have won 20 games in which they gave up at least 9 runs.
August 14th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Incidentally, the info above, plus lots of other run-scoring situations, can be looked up in the Situational Reports tool:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/situational.shtml
For example, here are all the games this season won by a score of exactly 3-2. The report doesn't give a handy-dandy link to the individual games, but at least it enables you to identify the teams and then you can look up the individual team results manually.
August 14th, 2010 at 8:12 am
I might be wrong, but didn't the Mets also have 3 consecutive shutouts this very season against that same team from Philadelphia?
August 14th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Thanks Andy--I didn't see the bubble for team wins! Couldn't imagine that it wasn't set up to do it. Thanks.
August 14th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
I'm not sure on a better way to find matches, but I searched for teams who were shutout the most in a single season, then teams who threw the most shutouts in the same season.
The two top teams were, surprise, in 1968.
LAD - Threw 23 Shutouts and were Shutout 23 times.
NYM - Threw 25 Shutouts and were Shutout 22 times.
Both teams were under .500
Amazingly, the Mets were led in Shutouts by, not Seaver, not Ryan, but one of the most underrated pitchers of all time, 19 win rookie, Jerry Koosman.