13 Responses to “12+ BB Allowed & Got The Win”

1. LJF Says:
   December 21st, 2010 at 7:13 pm

   Anyone have any insight into the Stan Williams game? In his previous start he was pulled after facing 2 batters in the 2nd with the Dodgers ahead 4-1. Perranoski threw 8 innings of relief for the win. Williams seems to have been ineffective to that point in the season (ERA over 5), but it I wonder if there was an injury. Then he threw in relief two days before the game on this list and threw 40(!) pitches. Even though the starters had been beaten up a little in the couple of games prior to this one, there was an off day before a series with the Giants.

   In WIlliams next start, he threw a 10 inning CG, but needed "only" 128 pitches.

2. dukeofflatbush Says:
   December 21st, 2010 at 8:11 pm

   Just a side thought, but this reminded me of Edwin Jackson's No-No this year. It doesn't quite make the list, but eight walks without a hit is impressive. He threw 149 pitches that game. The last player to go that high was Livan Hernandez, who threw 145 then 150 a month apart from eachother in 2005. Since 1990 there have only been 106 games where a starter has thrown 145 pitches. 18 of those 106, were either thrown by Clemens or The Unit. In 1993, Wakefield almost makes the list above by walking 10 in 10 innings, while only striking out one.
   And only four pitchers have gone 149+ pitches since 2000. Livan, Jackson, The Unit and Randy Villone. Both Villone and Hernandez went exactly 150. I wonder if we'll see another 150+ game any time soon?

3. John Autin Says:
   December 21st, 2010 at 10:01 pm

   I'd never heard of Bud Podbielan before. Turns out that the game on this list is an extreme outlier in his 1953 season and his career. Podbielan made 24 starts and 12 relief appearances in '53, and this was the only time he walked more than 4. The 13 walks represents over 19% of his season total of 67 walks in 186 IP. And it's more than twice as many walks as in any of the other 75 starts in his career.

   Podbielan's BB/9 were almost exactly average in both 1953 and for his career. He just had a freakishly wild day.

   Ironically, it was one of just 6 wins he got that year, against 16 losses.

4. John Autin Says:
   December 21st, 2010 at 10:20 pm

   ... and what I said about Podbielan goes double for Fat Jack Fisher. In 100 career starts, the 12-walk game shown above was the only time he walked more than 6. His 3.4 BB/9 in 1961 was better than the AL average of 3.7, and for his career he averaged just 2.8 BB/9.

   Fisher obviously didn't have his best control that day, but there's some logic in the particular walks he issued. Three went to "Little Albie Pearson," who stood just 5'5" (per B-R) and drew over 90 walks a year from 1961-63; in 1961, he had a .420 OBP, and in '62 he led the AL with 115 runs. (Wow, I did not know that!) Three more walks went to Earl Averill, Jr., who was having his best year (21 HRs, .384 OBP) and was followed by the very light-hitting Rocky Bridges. Even the walk Fisher handed out to pitcher Ron Moeller isn't surprising once you see that Moeller drew 8 walks in 38 PAs that year.

   Steve, you've really found some bizarro games here!

5. John Autin Says:
   December 21st, 2010 at 11:26 pm

   The ironies keep coming....

   In the Stan Williams game, the winning run for his Dodgers scored on a bases-loaded walk, to the man who pinch-hit for Williams.

   Frank Howard had opened the 11th with a rare triple, sending Warren Spahn to the showers. Moe Drabowsky came on and issued 2 intentional walks to load the bases and bring up catcher Norm Sherry, who had homered in the 7th for the Dodgers' only run so far.

   A series of lefty-righty maneuvers by both sides left LHP Seth Morehead, who was also known as Moe,* facing RHB Bob Aspromonte, who whiffed. With Williams due up, Bob Lillis was sent in to pinch-hit. Lillis was a light-hitting shortstop (career .236 BA with 3 HRs in almost 2,500 PAs) whose only visible plus as a hitter was that he rarely struck out. But Lillis had a hidden strength: the ability to work the count with the bases loaded. For his career, he averaged a miserable 1 walk per 25 PAs, but in 48 bases-loaded trips, he fanned just once and drew 5 walks -- including this game-winner.

   * Morehead seems a curious choice for this situation, since he was a mediocre pitcher at best -- he would be sent to the minors at month's end and wouldn't pitch in the majors after that year -- and the bullpen seems rested, having used only Drabowsky in the previous 2 games. But apparently, closer Don McMahon was on the shelf, and the rest of the Braves' bullpen was pretty weak.

6. John Autin Says:
   December 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 am

   When Fritz Ostermueller walked 12 in a win, 3 walks went to Fred "Fritz" Schulte (no relation to the 1911 NL MVP Frank "Wildfire" Schulte), and 3 went to Washington's backup catcher, Sammy Holbrook.

   Holbrook, a pure rookie at 24, made the Opening Day roster and stayed with the club all year, playing in 52 games. In 169 PAs, he had a .408 PA, with 30 walks against 16 strikeouts, 2 HRs and 25 RBI. But he was farmed out that winter and never made it back to the majors. His .408 OBP is the highest of any one-year player with at least 100 PAs. (Sorry, John Potts, but I don't count the Federal League as a major league.) (Any arguments?)

   In his 4th start, Holbrook hit a triple and 2 HRs, good for 5 RBI in an 11-3 win at Sportsman's Park. It would be the only 2-HR game by any player on the '35 Senators, who hit just 32 HRs all year.* They were also the only HRs of Holbrook's career. The 11 total bases was one shy of the AL high that year, done by 3 players.

   * The Senators weren't built for HRs, mainly because Griffith Stadium was the toughest HR park in modern MLB history. They hit just 5 HRs there in all of 1935.

7. John Autin Says:
   December 22nd, 2010 at 12:48 am

   For Tommy Bridges, that 12-walk game was the first start of his career, and the first of his 194 career wins.

   Among HOF-eligible non-HOF pitchers, Tommy Bridges has the 14th highest WAR, 50.7, just behind Orel Hershiser and tied with David Wells. He was an excellent pitcher from 1932-43, with 3 straight 20-win seasons, a couple of strikeout titles, and was a 6-time All-Star. If he had been able to last a few more years, or just pitch more innings in the 2nd half of that run, he might have been elected. From 1933-37, he averaged a 127 ERA+ in 254 IP, and amassed 109 wins. From 1938-43, he averaged a 135 ERA+, but 177 IP, never reaching 200 IP, and totaled just 72 wins.

   He lost almost 2 years to WWII service, and won just 2 more games after he returned.

   Bridges had 4 CG wins in 5 WS starts. He won both his starts in the 1935 WS, including the game-6 clincher, when Goose Goslin's 2-out single in the 9th drove in Mickey Cochrane for Detroit's first championship. In the top of the 9th, Bridges had allowed a leadoff triple to Smilin' Stan Hack, but stranded him there. With 1 out and the go-ahead run on 3rd, facing elimination, Charlie Grimm let pitcher Larry French bat for himself; French bounced back to the mound, and Augie Galan flied out to end the threat.

   He spent his entire MLB career with Detroit, and pitched quite effectively for 3 years in the PCL afterwards, through age 42.

8. John Autin Says:
   December 22nd, 2010 at 12:58 am

   Steve, FYI, the last 3 games on the list are missing the pitcher's decision. Ostermueller had a 9-IP CG Win, Bridges won with 8.2 IP, and Gibson won with 8 IP.

   You told us that they won, but it still feels odd not to see it up there, especially the CG.

9. John Autin Says:
   December 22nd, 2010 at 1:08 am

   (completing the cycle)

   If Detroit's Sam Gibson felt a little nervous during his 12-walk win, it might have been because the top 4 hitters in Washington's lineup were all future Hall of Famers: Sam Rice, Bucky Harris (HOF as a manager), Tris Speaker and Goose Goslin. All but Harris finished with more than 2,700 hits.

   On the other hand, Gibson had a little help in his own lineup -- HOFers Charlie Gehringer, Heinie Manush and Harry Heilmann. That HOF trio was split up by Fats Fothergill, who hit a mere .342 over his first 8 seasons and .325 for his career.

10. DavidRF Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 6:31 am

    @8
    It looks like the Apps,Dec column is only filled for the play-by-play era and not for the box-only era. My guess is that its a script thing. A human reading the box can fill in that column but the data the scripts are mining is very different.

11. Steve Lombardi Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 9:56 am

    I think that's it David.

    And, John, great work with the stories here!

12. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    Just for fun, I ran a PI search for teams that won regulation-length games despite allowing 12 or more walks.

    The most walks ever allowed by a team that won a nine-inning game is 16. It has been accomplished twice: first by the Senators over the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees on May 3, 1932, and then by the St. Louis Browns with a four-run bottom-of-the-ninth rally against the Joost-Fain Philadelphia A’s on June 21, 1948. I would bet that Connie Mack dozed off a couple times during that 1948 game.

    The 1950 Red Sox are the only team to win two such nine-inning games in the same season.

    Those 1932 World Champion Yankees lost another nine-inning game in which their batters received twelve walks — June 23, against the Browns. Not to be outdone, the 1950 Browns lost three regulation games in which their batters received twelve or more walks. One of those three losses was, as you might expect, to the 1950 Red Sox, in a see-saw 8-6 game where the win-probability graph crossed the 50% line 14 times. (Wouldn’t that make a terrific PI search topic?)

13. John Autin Says:
    December 22nd, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    Thanks, Steve. (Although you may regret the compliment when you see what a little encouragement will drive me to....)

    Following up the note on Fats Fothergill (@9), I checked the Play Index for players who hit .340+ over their first 8 seasons (min. 2,000 PAs).

    There have been 23 such players. Nineteen are in the HOF; here are the four who aren't, and the main reasons why not:
    -- Fats Fothergill: Defense (and injuries?) limited him to just one qualifying season;
    -- Lefty O'Doul: Very late start as a hitter, after converting from pitching;
    -- A certain unshod and ineligible fellow; and
    -- Bill Lange, a.k.a. Little Eva, a star of the 1890s who, it is said, "retired due to marriage." (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Bill_Lange)

    I'm ashamed to say that whatever I may have read before about Bill Lange, I've forgotten. B-R Bullpen has some lovely quotes & notes:
    -----------
    Bill's baserunning was called "the greatest I ever saw" by Connie Mack. Clark Griffith said that Lange "was the toughest, roughest base runner who ever strode the bases." Frank Chance said Lange could "run the bases as good as Ty Cobb." Amos Rusie felt that a pick off he designed to get Lange ruined his arm. Griffith recounted a story where Lange "made a home run on a slow roller to shortstop" by bowling over every fielder who tried to stop him.

    In addition to his contact hitting and speed, Lange was noted for his defense (Chance compared it to Tris Speaker's) and power.
    ...
    At age 28, Lange retired. The team offered to double or triple his salary but he said no. His father-in-law said he would help him get a job in real estate. Lange and his wife were frequently part of the social scene in San Francisco, where they were noted for their dancing. Bill became a success in real estate but the marriage failed and Lange remarried, but that also did not work out. In 1912, Chicago fans bought Lange a Chalmbers car as gift. In 1924, Lange eloped and got married for a third time; his friends were upset that they were not invited.
    -------------
    P.S. The picture on his player page features the most perfect hair & grooming I've ever seen among the B-R pictures:
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/langebi01.shtml