Pitching into extra innings in a major-league debut
Posted by Andy on June 9, 2010
Can you name any of the pitchers to go more than 9 innings in their major-league debut? It's happened more often than I expected. The list is after the jump.
| Rk | Gcar | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc | BF | AB | 2B | 3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Allan Anderson | 1986-06-11 | MIN | TEX | L 2-6 | GS-10 | 10.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 67 | 37 | 33 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Danny Cox | 1983-08-06 | STL | PHI | L 0-1 | GS-10 | 10.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 84 | 38 | 35 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | Al Olmsted | 1980-09-12 (2) | STL | PHI | W 5-0 | GS-10 | 9.1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 76 | 37 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 | Jesse Jefferson | 1973-06-23 (2) | BAL | BOS | W 2-1 | CG 10 ,W | 10.0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 72 | 38 | 35 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | 1 | Ron Taylor | 1962-04-11 | CLE | BOS | L 0-4 | CG 12 ,L | 11.0 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 63 | 43 | 40 | 2 | 1 |
| 6 | 1 | Slick Coffman | 1937-05-21 | DET | BOS | W 4-2 | 11.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 70 | 44 | 39 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | 1 | Fred Archer | 1936-09-05 | PHA | WSH | W 4-3 | 10.0 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 61 | 41 | 35 | 2 | 0 | |
| 8 | 1 | Tony Freitas | 1932-05-31 | PHA | WSH | L 4-5 | 10.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 66 | 37 | 36 | |||
| 9 | 1 | Augie Walsh | 1927-10-02 | PHI | NYG | L 4-5 | 9.1 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 39 | 42 | 36 | 2 | 0 | |
| 10 | 1 | Wayland Dean | 1924-04-17 | NYG | BRO | W 3-2 | 10.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 71 | 37 | 33 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | 1 | Skipper Friday | 1923-06-17 | WSH | CHW | L 3-5 | 11.0 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 59 | 47 | 28 | 0 | 0 | |
| 12 | 1 | Fred Johnson | 1922-09-27 (1) | NYG | PHI | L 3-5 | 10.0 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 51 | 41 | 39 | ||||
| 13 | 1 | Monty Swartz | 1920-10-03 | CIN | STL | L 3-6 | 12.0 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 44 | 53 | 51 | 3 | 0 | |
| 14 | 1 | Shovel Hodge | 1920-09-06 (2) | CHW | DET | W 5-4 | 10.0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 75 | 38 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
Of course this excludes any possible instances from 1940 to 1951 or pre-1920.
I can't imagine this ever happening again except under very unusual circumstances or unless pitching methodology gradually changes back to the way it used to be (in, you know, 100 years...)
Lots of Philly teams on this list and also 4 out of 14 games were part of doubleheaders, which makes sense.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:30 am
I think what else is interesting is none of those pitchers pitched more than 1500 innings and one 3 posted and above average ERA+ Al Olmstead who only pitched 5 games with a 132 ERA+, Danny Cox who probably was the best pitcher on the list with a 104, and Allan Alderson with a 102.
Who'd think that not abusing young pitchers would be a good idea?
June 9th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Has anyone noticed that a grand total of NONE of these pitchers followed their 9+ inning debuts with a Hall-Of-Fame career?
June 9th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
It's not surprising that none of them made the HOF. The % of players who do is miniscule.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
How do you not love a guy with a name like Shovel Hodge?
June 9th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Shovel Hodge may not be in the baseball HoF, but he's in my personal 'awesome baseball nicknames' HoF. A list headed, of course by High Pockets Kelly.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
What about Pickles Dillhoefer (or Pickles Gerken...take your pick) and, my personal favorite, Bow Wow Arft.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Has anyone noticed that a grand total of NONE of these pitchers followed their 9+ inning debuts with a Hall-Of-Fame career?
Not true. Tony Freitas was elected to the Pacific Coast League HoF in 2003.
June 9th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
How about Pud {Short for "Pudding"} Galvin?
June 9th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Wow. Not only are they not Hall of Famers, I think you'd be hard pressed, statistically speaking, to randomly select another group of starting pitchers this mediocre. Did any of them even win 40 career games?
June 9th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Cox won 74 and was a pretty good pitcher before his injury. And he didn't always pitch fantastically in the playoffs but he was nevertheless part of 4 different playoff teams including two World Series winners.
June 9th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Wow, 14 EXTRA INNING CG's and your record is 6-8
June 9th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Ron Taylor has an interesting life story, though. First, I wondered if he was the same Ron Taylor who was from Canada, played for the Mets and later became a doctor. After checking both his Baseball-Reference.com Player page and his Bullpen page, I verified that he was. That April 11, 1962, game is noted in his Bullpen entry as being, "the only time in MLB history that a scoreless tie was broken with a walkoff grand slam in the 12th inning. (This has never happened in a later inning either)."
Taylor has also served as the team doctor for the Blue Jays. I remember Howard Johnson, then with the Mets, being interviewed before the 1991 All-Star Game, which was in Toronto. He had brought his 8-months-pregnant wife with him, and he said that Ron Taylor had arranged for possible care for her if she ended up delivering on the trip.
June 15th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
I'd like to add to Andy's list three games that probably aren't PI-searchable yet:
The debut of Cardinals pitcher Al Jurisich on April 26, 1944. Twelve and two-thirds innings pitched, one earned run, four walks, seven strikeouts, a game score of 87 — and a 1-0 loss.
Second, the debut of Senators pitcher Marino Pieretti on April 19, 1945: Twelve IP, 14 H, 3 runs (two earned), a game score of 62. He won the game 4-3.
Third, the debut of Yankees pitcher Don Johnson on April 20, 1947: Ten IP, 11 H, two earned runs, a game score of 64. He won the game 3-2.