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One-Hit Loss

Posted on by metbaseball

One of the toughest games for a pitcher to lose is a one-hitter. Since 1901, that’s happened 31 times when, for the losing team, only one pitcher was on the mound the entire game. It last happened in 2014 on August 21 when the Detroit Tigers lost to the Tampa Bay Rays despite David Price’s stellar outing, Price one of the better pitchers of his era.

The lone Rays’ run scored in the bottom of the first after Eugenio Suarez, the Tigers’ shortstop, made a throwing error on Ben Zobrist’s grounder and then Brandon Guyer tripled, scoring the runner.

It was the only triple Guyer hit that season. (In his seven-year MLB career, he did just seven.)

Price’s Game Highlights:

  • Nine strikeouts
  • No walks
  • Two baserunners
  • 100 pitches, 73 strikes
  • 87 Game Score

In his Sports Illustrated writeup on the game, Jay Jaffe wrote about the Tigers’ inability to support Price.

“The Tigers went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, a tally that included stranding runners at third base in the third (Alex Avila, who reached with two outs) and seventh (Torii Hunter, who reached with one out).”

“Additionally, Price was the first pitcher to throw a complete-game one-hitter and lose since the Cardinals‘ Anthony Reyes on June 22, 2006 against the White Sox, and the first to throw a complete-game one-hitter in which the only knock was a triple since the Cubs’ Frank Castillo on Sept. 25, 1995 against the Cardinals.”

Price’s Game Score of 87 was the second-highest in 2014 for a losing pitcher and the highest in his 14-year career. During that time, he had a Game Score of at least 70 in 76 games and lost only 12, thus he won 84% of them.

In 2014, only 11 pitchers who started >= 25 games had an average Game Score for that season above 60. The leader was Clayton Kershaw with an average Game Score of 70.3, the only pitcher above 70. Price was #11.

All but Price had an ERA below 3.00. Price’s was 3.26, well below the Major League average of 3.74, the lowest since 1992 when it was the same. In 2014, he also led the majors with 248.1 innings pitched and struck out more than 200 batters for the fifth time in his career, his 271 strikeouts tops in the American League.

In 2015, when the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Price in a trade, its GM made this statement about Price’s value:

“These types of players, the great superstar players, rarely become available,” Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos said. “We think we’re a good team, and adding a guy like Price we think makes us that much stronger and will give us a chance to win. It’s as simple as that.”

From 2000 through 2022, which includes the 14 years Price pitched, 82 pitchers threw at least 200 innings while striking out at least 200 batters 189 times. Justin Verlander did it in nine seasons, Felix Hernandez and Max Scherzer in six seasons, and 10 pitchers five times. Among the 10 were Clayton Kershaw, Johan Santana, Randy Johnson, and David Price.

Jason Jones wrote, “Price finished his career with the Dodgers in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Jones concluded that “by then, he’d [Price] already cemented his legacy as one of the best pitchers of his era.” The data in the previous paragraph supports that conclusion.

MLB No-Hitter Facts

Posted on by metbaseball

As of June 21, 2024, 284 no-hitters have been thrown in Major League Baseball, per Stathead, using this criteria: “From 1901 to 2024, in the regular season, requiring Hit Allowed = 0 and Runs Allowed =0.”

The first no-hitter was on June 30, 1901. Cleveland (Blues) played the Milwaukee Brewers before a crowd of 4,500. While the Brewers were hitless, Cleveland’s baserunners crossed the plate seven times during an afternoon in which the team got 18 hits but, surprisingly, just one walk.

In the Brewers’ lineup were four players whose first name was either Bill or Billy. Even more interesting is that the home plate umpire was the game’s only umpire.

The 1901 season was not a good one for the Brewers. Their game against the Blues was their 56th of the season and they were in the midst of an eight-game losing streak, one in which they had been shut out in their previous two games, their June 30th loss worsening their record to 19-36-1.

It was a no-hitter that, for many years, wasn’t.

SABR devoted an article to the game, explaining why. In it is stated, “This is the story of that confounding game and the baseball community’s century-long journey in finally recognizing Dowling’s gem as a no-hitter.”

One reason it’s “confounding,” according to its author, Gary Belleville,” is that “At the start of the twenty-first century, baseball’s consensus was that Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan had thrown the American League’s inaugural no-hitter, in 1902, and Bob Rhoads had tossed the first one for the Cleveland Indians franchise in 1908,” not Pete Dowling, who was on the mound for Cleveland on June 30, 1901.

After that game, Cleveland pitchers threw 12 more no-hitters, tying them for fourth place in most no-hitters thrown. One was thrown again on June 30, but 47 years later in 1948. Bob Lemon beat the Tigers 2-0, the Indians scoring both their runs in the top of the first on Lou Boudreau’s double.

After the game, Lemon’s batting average was .347. He finished the season with a .286 batting average, the second highest of his career, which was the same as Whitey Lockman’s and higher than Dom DiMaggio’s.

In Lemon’s SABR bio, Jon Barnes wrote that Lemon “was one of the best hitting pitchers ever in the majors.” He also pitched well enough to earn a spot in baseball’s Hall of Fame.