Most wins with zero strikeouts
Posted by Andy on June 20, 2007
As promised, here's the list of most career wins (since 1957) as a starter with zero strikeouts:
Tommy John 18 Ind. Games Bob Forsch 14 Ind. Games Mike Caldwell 14 Ind. Games Jim Barr 12 Ind. Games Doyle Alexander 12 Ind. Games Tom Glavine 10 Ind. Games Kirk Rueter 9 Ind. Games Al Fitzmorris 9 Ind. Games
Tommy John had an amazing total of 18 such games, and if you click on the "Ind. Games" link next to his total, you'll see that they were spread over his entire career, from 1966 to 1987. Unsurprisingly, he didn't allow too many hits or walks in these games either. In fact, he didn't walk more than 3 in any of those games, and walked none or one 11 times.
Notice something else interesting? The top 4 guys (John, Forsch, Caldwell, Barr) were all well known for having very low walk rates. They all finished in the top 10 in fewest walks per 9 innings several times in their career. Even the next several guys did it at least a couple of times. A little bit further down the list, we see names like Tewksbury and Reuss, guys well known for low walk rates.
June 20th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
How about:
"Most career wins (since 1957) as a starter with zero strikeouts...in a complete game of 9 innings or more"
When a player only pitches 6 or 7 innings, that leaves him with 6 or 9 outs left (and considering that we have pitchers that have 10 K's in 4 innings, that's a huge space not to count...those 2 or 3 innings).
June 20th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Dave: I have also run that list and it's fairly similar:
Doyle Alexander 6 Ind. Games
Jerry Reuss 5 Ind. Games
Ken Forsch 5 Ind. Games
Mike Caldwell 5 Ind. Games
Al Fitzmorris 4 Ind. Games
Frank Baumann 4 Ind. Games
Jim Barr 4 Ind. Games
Mel Stottlemyre 3 Ind. Games
Warren Spahn 3 Ind. Games
Dave Roberts 3 Ind. Games
Bill Lee 3 Ind. Games
Tommy John 3 Ind. Games
Ken Holtzman 3 Ind. Games
Ross Grimsley 3 Ind. Games
Jerry Augustine 3 Ind. Games
Funny, though, that Ken Forsch took his brother's spot on the list...