Tom Baker’s Wild Cherry
Posted by Steve Lombardi on September 19, 2007
The question popped into my head: Has there every been a pitcher, when making his big league debut, who has faced only one batter and threw a wild pitch during that plate appearance -without retiring the batter? So, I decided to use Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Event finder and set it for "From 1957 to 2007, In first 1 games, (requiring IP=0, WP=1, and BF=1), sorted by most recent date in a game." And, I found out that, since 1957, there are only two times where a pitcher making his major league debut faced one batter, didn't retire him, and threw a wild pitch in the process: Bud Black on September 5, 1981 and Tom Baker on August 2, 1963.
The Baker game is interesting - Tom came into the game in the 8th inning, making his debut, to face Willie McCovey. Baker threw a wild pitch and then hit McCovey with a pitch. (Cal Koonce was then brought in to replace Baker.)
That's one wild cherry, for sure.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Both dates link to the same game.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
You should run it with BF=0.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Miguel Asencio seems to have had the wildest career start ever: 19 pitches: 19 balls, 4 walks and 1 wild pitch. All 4 batters ended up scoring. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA200204060.shtml
If Asencio threw 19 pitches that means he went to 3-0 on last batter before being replaced. That batter walked. Shouldn't the walk be given to him for a total of 5 walks?
September 19th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=220406107&full=1
has Asencio being replaced after 4 batters in which case he only threw 16 pitches.
MLB.tv subscibers can even watch it.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
~~~Both dates link to the same game.~~~
Thanks. Fixed that now.
~~~You should run it with BF=0.~~~
Huh?
September 19th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
While researching the topic I came across this interesting list.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/vvBG
PI returns 3 players who have had their only pitch of the game be a wild pitch. Clontz and Ruffin lost their games, but Searage was removed.