Kevin Slowey pulled after allowing no hits
Posted by Andy on August 15, 2010
Kevin Slowey was pulled by manager Ron Gardenhire today after 7 innings despite allowing no hits.
Here are the most recent starts where the pitcher went at least 7 innings, allowed no hits, but went no more than 8.2 innings in the game:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damian Moss | 2002-05-03 | ATL | STL | W 2-1 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 76 |
| 2 | David Cone | 1996-09-02 | NYY | OAK | W 5-0 | GS-7 ,W | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 80 |
| 3 | Matt Young | 1992-04-12 (1) | BOS | CLE | L 1-2 | CG 8 ,L | 8.0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 73 |
| 4 | Andy Hawkins | 1990-07-01 | NYY | CHW | L 0-4 | CG 8 ,L | 8.0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 72 |
| 5 | Mark Langston | 1990-04-11 | CAL | SEA | W 1-0 | GS-7 ,W | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 76 |
| 6 | Don Wilson | 1974-09-04 | HOU | CIN | L 1-2 | GS-8 ,L | 8.0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 76 |
| 7 | Clay Kirby | 1970-07-21 | SDP | NYM | L 0-3 | GS-8 ,L | 8.0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 77 |
| 8 | Steve Barber | 1967-04-30 (1) | BAL | DET | L 1-2 | GS-9 ,L | 8.2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 71 |
| 9 | Whitey Ford | 1962-05-22 | NYY | LAA | W 2-1 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 70 |
| 10 | Sam Jones | 1959-09-26 | SFG | STL | W 4-0 | SHO7 ,W | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 80 |
| 11 | Johnny Klippstein | 1956-05-26 | CIN | MLN | L 1-2 | GS-7 | 7.0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 70 |
| 12 | Fred Frankhouse | 1937-08-27 | BRO | CIN | W 5-0 | 7.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 76 | |
| 13 | Walter Johnson | 1924-08-25 | WSH | SLB | W 2-0 | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 77 |
August 15th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Of course, some of those games are not examples of being pulled before the end - they were complete game losses on the road.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Also, it looks like the 1937 game was called after 7.2, rather than Frankhouse being pulled - he's the only pitcher noted in the boxscore. So the table is really mixing apples and oranges.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I remember the Cone and Hawkins games. Cone had missed several months due to an aneurysm. Nobody expected him to dominate like that. Joe Torre wasn't going to risk letting him finish up. Hawkins had a no-hitter on the road blemished by errors.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
The Curse of Clay Kirby lives on! (Read more: http://bit.ly/ca0YEL) Always enjoy seeing that game pop up here ...
Anybody know the circumstances of the Walter Johnson game? I assume rain, but maybe it was darkness. I knew it took him about 13 years to finally pitch a no-hitter, but didn't know he had another one called in the 7th. Was there any uproar?
August 15th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I'm curious about that no-hit through 8.2 Steve Barber game. He had 10 walks, including 3 in the 9th inning. You have to wonder if he got greedy and wouldn't give the other team anything to hit just so he could get the no-hitter, which ultimately lost the game, so his manager got pissed and pulled him.
Of course, maybe he was just wild and completely tired and naturally couldn't throw it over the plate.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
I think that 10 walks over the game points more to the wildness theory than any kind of attempt to secure a no-no, especially back then
August 15th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Here's a link to a contemporary article about that game (written by Murray Chass no less).
http://tiny.cc/chvfg
Looks like he was just really tired and coming off arm problems.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
The Washington, DC, area has produced fewer major leaguers than expected for a metropolitan area its size, even when compared to other areas in the northern U.S. Yet, at least three of the pitchers in the above list are from the DC area - Klippstein, Barber, and Kirby. In fact, Klippstein and Barber both attended the same high school, and I believe the only other major leaguer from that school, Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring with no "s" at the end, MD, was Sonny Jackson. (There's no link to that school on either Klippstein's or Barber's B-R Bullpen page, and I didn't take the time to look to see if it has a page there.) Kirby was from the Virginia suburbs.
Maybe they were inspired by the presence of the best pitcher in Washington major league history to date (Strasburg still has a long way to go to take over this slot), Walter Johnson. Johnson later had a high school named for him in Bethesda, MD, the same county where Montgomery Blair is located, and the two schools may be in the same league for various sports.
I remember Scott Ruffcorn being pulled from a Phillies game without having given up any hits but having given up one or more runs on June 29, 1997. Ruffcorn was a "Quadruple-A" pitcher who, I believe, never won any games that year for the Phillies and possibly never won any major league games, period, while doing well in the minors. But he no doubt didn't make it through the 7th. He probably got pulled around the 5th or 6th inning.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Using the pitching streak finder to eliminate the CG, there seems to be 9 prior pitchers who were pulled having pitched at least 7 innings without a hit.
Generated 8/15/2010.
The only one here who isn't included in Andy's list is Cordova, who pitched 9 innings on July 12, 1997, but was lifted for the 10th.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT199707120.shtml
August 15th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Strasburg "still has a long way to go" to be the best DC club pitcher? That is a massive understatement: When considering longevity, matchless peak, advanced metrics: Johnson is at least the best pitcher even relative to his era, & only if the overall level of play has in increased enough is he not the best in absolute terms. S.S. has just started, & to clearly exceed Johnson he will need to be the Best Pitcher Ever. The odds against that are pretty strong indeed.
August 16th, 2010 at 1:34 am
No game where the starter was pulled should ever be recorded as a "no-hitter" in the record books.
Andy Hawkins, included on the list above, pitched what was originally recorded as a complete-game no-hitter for the Yankees in a losing cause against the White Sox in 1990. MLB ultimately changed the rules to note that a no-hitter has to cover a complete nine innings to be official, basically eliminating any road no-hitter when the visiting pitcher is on the losing side. No issue with that. Hawkins wasn't the only pitcher to lose his no-hitter designation after the fact. Other players who pitched similar games to Hawkins, or ones who were awarded no-hitters in rain-shortened games, also lost their no-hitters. Makes sense, since it firmly establishes requirements for a no-hitter beyond the obvious, ensuring and preserving the special individual achievement.
That's why MLB needs to make one additional requirement for a no-hitter to enter the record books: The pitcher who started the game has to finish the game. If the Twins bullpen today managed to toss two more no-hit innings, the game would have entered the record books as a no-hitter. There have been a few games like this in MLB history. Every one of them should be eliminated from the record books. They're B.S.
August 16th, 2010 at 2:10 am
The MLB rule change regarding what constituted a no-hitter was a pathetic piece of work. If they wanted to weed out the no-hitters that were broken up after nine because they weren't complete game no-hitters, fine--but to be consistent rain shortened complete game no-hitters should have been preserved in the books, and most definitely eight inning complete games where the pitcher gave up one or more runs in a road game most definitely should have been counted as legitimate no-hitters. Another stupid legacy of the power-abusing moron who was Commissioner Fay Vincent.
August 16th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Interesting tidbit:
As the chart indicates, both Clay Kirby and Don Wilson were pulled from games after pitching 8 innings of no-bit baseball. The manager who pulled both Kirby and Wilson was Preston Gomez. In both games, Gomez's team was trailing by a run when he pinch hit for the pitcher with two out and nobody on in the eighth inning.
August 16th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Here's a list of no-hitters broken up in extra innings, courtesy of Wikipedia. It's only happened twice since 1965 (weirdly, both times by Montreal Expos!).
August 16th, 2010 at 9:45 am
#13 Alan,
I was about to write about the Gomez-Kirby/Wilson connection. I remember those two.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:15 am
#8 Not only did Scott Ruffcorn not win any games over his Major League career, his team lost all 30 Major League games he ever appeared in. That is quite a feat to pitch that many games and never be involved in a victory.....
August 16th, 2010 at 10:24 am
That's an incredible stat, ES. I just double-checked it and you are right. I wonder if that's the record?
August 16th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
[...] another post, reader ES made the following observation: Not only did Scott Ruffcorn not win any games over his [...]
August 16th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Here's a link to a report on Whitey Ford's May 22, 1962 game. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8_tS2Vw13FcC&dat=19620523&printsec=frontpage He held the Angels hitless for seven that day, then strained his back and he didn't come out for the eighth. The Angels scored in the first, on a BB, SB and SF. The Yanks eventually won in 12, on a walk-off SF by Elston.
August 16th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
It doesn't qualify for this list, but I attended this game - http://www.ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=4055&tabno=A - on May 15, 1987, in which "El Sid" Fernandez pitched 5 no-hit innings, but hurt his leg running out a double and was forced to leave.
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
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