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A Game Score of 90 Early in a Career

Posted by Raphy on July 11, 2010

In another post, reader Scott V. wrote the following about Travis Wood's game score of 93 yesterday:

This was Wood's third major league start, and that comparable game referenced to that Ryan Rupe pitched? His fourth major league start. I'd be interested to know the earliest 90+ game score efforts in a player's career.

Sounds like an interesting question (its probably been addressed in some form in the blog before, but I can't remember where and it is interesting enough to take another look), so lets run in through PI.

Here are the pitchers in the current PI era (1920-1939,1952-2010) to have recorded a game score of at least 90 in their first 10 career games:

Rk Gcar ▴ Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS PO BK WP ERA WPA RE24 aLI
1 1 Steve Woodard 1997-07-28 (1) MIL TOR W 1-0 GS-8 ,W 8.0 1 0 0 1 12 0 119 76 91 26 25 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.607 4.483 1.061
2 1 Jimmy Jones 1986-09-21 SDP HOU W 5-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 1 0 0 0 5 0 90 28 28 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.257 4.036 .414
3 1 Juan Marichal 1960-07-19 SFG PHI W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 1 0 0 1 12 0 96 30 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 0.535 4.036 .942
4 1 Karl Spooner 1954-09-22 BRO NYG W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 3 0 0 3 15 0 143 89 93 34 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.438 4.772 .891
5 2 Clay Buchholz 2007-09-01 BOS BAL W 10-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 0 0 0 3 9 0 115 73 93 30 26 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 0.316 5.252 .616
6 2 Dick Selma 1965-09-12 NYM MLN W 1-0 SHO10 ,W 10.0 4 0 0 1 13 0 96 36 32 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 0.758 4.297 1.436
7 2 Cy Blanton 1935-04-19 PIT STL W 3-0 9.0 1 0 0 1 6 0 90 31 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
8 3 Travis Wood 2010-07-10 CIN PHI L 0-1 GS-9 9.0 1 0 0 0 8 0 109 74 93 28 28 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.692 4.570 1.230
9 3 Jose DeLeon 1983-07-31 (2) PIT NYM L 0-1 GS-9 9.0 1 0 0 3 11 0 93 30 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 0.654 4.077 1.316
10 4 Ryan Rupe 1999-05-23 TBD ANA L 0-4 GS-9 9.0 1 0 0 0 8 0 86 59 93 28 27 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 0.748 5.311 1.221
11 4 Frank Tanana 1973-09-30 CAL MIN W 3-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 1 9 0 91 30 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 0.404 3.956 .672
12 4 Bruce Kison 1971-07-23 PIT SDP W 4-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 2 9 0 90 32 29 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.292 3.640 .525
13 4 Bo Belinsky 1962-05-05 LAA BAL W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 0 0 0 4 9 0 92 34 28 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.537 4.318 1.235
14 5 Kerry Wood 1998-05-06 CHC HOU W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 1 0 0 0 20 0 122 84 105 29 27 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 0.673 4.742 1.070
15 5 Rob Gardner 1965-10-02 (2) NYM PHI T 0-0 GS-15 15.0 5 0 0 2 7 0 33 26 112 53 50 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 1.371 6.446 1.592
16 5 Charlie Robertson 1922-04-30 CHW DET W 2-0 9.0 0 0 0 0 6 0 93 27 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
17 6 Bob Klinger 1938-05-18 PIT BSN L 1-2 12.1 5 1 1 4 5 0 90 44 38 1 1 1 0 0.73
18 7 Jose DeLeon 1983-08-20 PIT CIN W 4-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 3 13 0 93 30 27 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.423 4.238 .757
19 7 Jorge Rubio 1966-10-02 CAL CLE W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 5 0 0 2 15 0 90 33 30 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.568 3.778 1.221
20 7 Sandy Koufax 1955-08-27 BRO CIN W 7-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 5 14 0 135 82 92 34 29 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 0.267 4.752 .473
21 7 Bob Turley 1953-09-05 SLB DET W 1-0 SHO12 ,W 12.0 3 0 0 4 14 0 106 45 39 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 1.110 6.108 1.562
22 8 Dontrelle Willis 2003-06-16 FLA NYM W 1-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 1 0 0 1 8 0 109 76 92 29 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.747 4.570 1.105
23 8 Art Mahaffey 1960-08-29 PHI SFG W 2-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 0 7 0 90 29 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.584 4.036 1.076
24 10 Jimmy Zinn 1920-09-25 (1) PIT STL W 2-1 12.0 6 1 1 0 5 0 91 41 40 1 1 1 0 0 0 0.75
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/11/2010.

Related posts:

    3-HR game early in a career
    3-homer game early in career
    Most Career Post-Season Starts With Game Score >70
    Strikeouts early in a career
    Best Game Score in a Post-Season Debut

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

12 Responses to “A Game Score of 90 Early in a Career”

  1. Gerry Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    Two HoFers, a few other guys with substantial careers, and a lot of people you and I never heard of.

  2. Raphy Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    Jose DeLeon is on the list twice. He broke 90 in games 3 and 7 of his career and then did it only twice after:

    Rk Gcar Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS PO BK WP ERA WPA RE24 aLI
    1 3 1983-07-31 (2) PIT NYM L 0-1 GS-9 9.0 1 0 0 3 11 0 93 30 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 0.654 4.077 1.316
    2 7 1983-08-20 PIT CIN W 4-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 2 0 0 3 13 0 93 30 27 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.423 4.238 .757
    3 160 1988-09-06 STL MON W 1-0 SHO9 ,W 9.0 3 0 0 1 12 0 135 89 92 30 29 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 0.695 3.907 1.471
    4 195 1989-08-30 STL CIN L 0-2 GS-11 11.0 1 0 0 0 8 0 109 74 103 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.907 4.958 1.148
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
    Generated 7/11/2010.
  3. BSK Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    I like that there's a tie on the list! I also got excited over Benny Agbyani being on the top of a list recently. I like stupid stuff!

  4. Dave V. Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Wow, that last game by DeLeon is pretty amazing...11 innings and only 1 hit (and 0 BB's)! Its a shame he got a ND in that game. And he only threw 109 pitches in 11 innings!

  5. Travis Wood Game Score = 93 | Redleg Nation Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 9:55 pm

    [...] Game Score = 93 by Steve Price on July 11th, 2010 in 2010 Reds, Big Red Machine, Reds History Baseball-reference.com has a blog site which reports that Travis Wood’s outstanding pitching performance from the [...]

  6. Johnny Twisto Says:
    July 11th, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    I really liked DeLeon. I used to sponsor his page, and probably will again some day...

  7. Shazbot Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 12:13 am

    Dang, Halladay missed it by one, only an 89 in that one hitter he had.

  8. Malcolm Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 1:40 am

    Apparently Rob Gardner pitched 15 innings and threw 33 pitches? I'm going to assume that's a mistake.

  9. Andy Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 7:51 am

    DeLeon is hugely underrated.

  10. Rioraton Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Quite a few "flame-outs' or guys who had injury problems - Dontrelle, Wood, Kison, Gardner, Belinsky. Karl Spooner must have had something happen to him, 21-9 in AAA in '54, good end of the season call-up, then a decent year with the Dodgers in '55, then just a few minor league appearances through '58. Mahaffey finished 3rd in the ROY voting, then was an AS the next two years, then pfffffft.

  11. Jonathan Frankel Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Although just missing this list, Jay (Jim) Hughes of the 1898 Orioles, had Game Scores of 87 in his 1st 2 career games.

    April 18, 1898 - 9 ip, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 bb, 5k - GS 87
    April 22, 1898 - 9 ip, 0 hits, 0 runs, 3 bb, 3k - GS 87

    - not too bad, especially considering that he in an era of very low strikeout totals (pre-foul strike).

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hugheja01.shtml

  12. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    July 12th, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Apparently Rob Gardner pitched 15 innings and threw 33 pitches? I'm going to assume that's a mistake.

    A better estimate is probably around 190. (-;þ

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