An ode to old school workhorse pitching performances

A tweet crossed my timeline on Sunday and introduced me again a decade-plus to revisit one in every of my favourite pitchers of my lifetime, Tim Lincecum. The wording of it was good, describing a time that was solely 12 years in the past however looks like a full era.

It bought me interested by a number of the extra underappreciated “workhorse” pitching performances from all through the years. And made me want we bought some extra of those at the present time. Listed here are just a few of my favorites.

Tim Lincecum’s First No-Hitter

June 13, 2013 – San Francisco Giants 9, San Diego Padres 0 (BOX)

In 2013, within the midst of a subpar season, Lincecum turned again the clock and was allowed by supervisor Bruce Bochy to throw an outrageous 148 pitches in his first profession no-hitter, strolling 4 and hanging out 13 within the outing. Within the age of the scorebug with pitch counts within the nook of the display, one thing is jarring about seeing “147” in that clip.

Years prior, Lincecum had dominated the league from the soar, successful back-to-back Cy Youngs in his first two full seasons for the Giants, 2008 and 2009. He threw 225+ innings in every season, hanging out 265 and 261 batters, respectively, and adopted these up with two extra top-10 Cy Younger seasons. His four-year run from 2008-2011 was legendary, going 62-36 with a 2.81 ERA over that span, earlier than all the early miles on his arm caught up with him.

Extra importantly, his entrance music was “Electric Feel” by MGMT, which appeared to simply match with the surf/skateboard look that Lincecum was going for. Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony goes with the identical walk-up tune this 12 months, and I nonetheless approve practically twenty years later.

A 12 months after the primary no-no, Lincecum threw one other no-hitter against the Padres. This time, he wanted “simply” 113 pitches; the second pitcher in historical past to throw two no-hitters towards the identical workforce.

Pedro Martinez’s (Not) Good Sport

June 3, 1995 – Montreal Expos 1, San Diego Padres 0, 10 inn. (BOX)

If Tim Lincecum was my favourite pitcher of the late 2000s, Pedro Martinez was, in fact, the equal of the late Nineties. There’s one thing particular a few so-called “undersized” pitcher making the good energy hitters of a era look silly, begin after begin. Coincidentally, each pitchers are listed on Baseball-Reference at an equivalent top and weight.

Baseball Reference

On June third, 1995, Pedro took the mound for the Expos at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn was within the opposing lineup throughout a season during which he hit .368, one in every of his eight batting titles. Pedro proceeded to face 27 Padres batters and retiring each single one in every of them. On some other day, it might have been an ideal sport, including his title to the group of 24 who had thrown one in MLB historical past. Sadly, Montreal couldn’t rating a run, and the sport was tied 0-0 after 9 innings. With the Expos going forward 1-0 within the prime of the tenth, Martinez returned to complete the job however allowed a leadoff double to Bip Roberts and was taken out of the sport. Mel Rojas closed out the tenth inning for the save, and Martinez bought a 1-0 win, however it was a small comfort to what ought to’ve been. Essentially the most unjust results of an ideal outing of all time, if Harvey Haddix didn’t exist.

Every of Martinez’s different close to no-hitters featured bench-clearing brawls, as Pedro’s begins tended to do incessantly. In April of 1994, Pedro had an ideal sport within the backside of the eighth inning towards the Reds. Apparently, Reggie Sanders was irritated that he had been thrown inside in his prior two at-bats, and when hit by an 0-2 pitch late in an ideal sport, he responded by charging the mound and beginning a brawl. Martinez dusted himself off and saved the no-hitter intact till the ninth inning when he allowed a leadoff single however did not get the win within the sport.

The third time that Pedro introduced a no-hitter into the ninth inning, as a member of the Pink Sox, additionally concerned him being charged on the mound. On this case, it was Gerald Williams within the first inning. I already wrote method too many phrases about that sport earlier this 12 months in my “Top Ten Brawls in Red Sox History”.

Pedro ought to have had an ideal sport, and he had two different no-hitters that have been close to misses. Regardless of his limitless accomplishments, Martinez retired with out a no-hitter to his title.

CC Sabathia, 2008 Milwaukee Brewers (Game Log)

CC Sabathia performed 7 ½ seasons with the Cleveland Indians and 11 seasons with the New York Yankees, however it was his temporary time with the Milwaukee Brewers that I’ll keep in mind most. Sabathia was traded on July seventh, 2008, from the Indians to the Brewers as a “rental”, previous to free company. What he did within the (lower than) three months that adopted was legendary. The Brewers began Sabathia 17 occasions in that point interval, totaling 130 ⅔ innings. Sabathia threw seven full video games, together with three shutouts, in lower than a half-season, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA. Sabathia began 4 of the ultimate 12 video games of the Brewers’ season, all on 3-days relaxation. Should you assume they eased up on his workload in these begins, you’d be mistaken, as Sabathia threw a whole sport shutout in Sport 162 because the Brewers snagged the lone Wild Card spot by one sport.

Baseball Reference

It was as near a “again in my day” stretch as we’ve seen from any pitcher within the twenty first century. The Brewers didn’t have any cause to cap Sabathia’s innings as he entered free company, however Sabathia needed to agree to take action. The aggressive season didn’t noticeably have an effect on Sabathia’s arm as he signed a seven-year cope with the Yankees that offseason, which was later prolonged as he retired a Yankee in his Corridor of Fame profession.

Luis Tiant vs. Nolan Ryan

June 14, 1974 – California Angels 4, Boston Pink Sox 3, 15 inn. (BOX)

On June 14, 1974, Luis Tiant and Nolan Ryan confronted off at Anaheim Stadium. Many articles have been written about this sport, together with an incredible one by Alex Speier a 12 months in the past. Ryan pitched 13 innings within the sport, strolling ten and hanging out 19, and throwing 235 pitches. Within the Speier piece, it’s talked about that supervisor Bobby Winkles tried to tug Ryan after 12, however he talked him into throwing the thirteenth. Tiant, then again, had no such debate along with his supervisor, however he additionally hadn’t walked ten batters within the sport. Tiant pitched to the tip, throwing 14 ⅓ innings and at last permitting a walk-off hit within the backside of the fifteenth. No pitcher has recorded an out within the fifteenth inning since that day, and Tiant estimated that he threw 220 pitches.

My favourite a part of this story is that Ryan made his subsequent scheduled begin on the usual three-day relaxation. The workforce tempered his workload to 6 innings in that outing earlier than ramping again as much as the usual full video games for the remainder of the month.

Baseball Reference

Tiant was lucky to get a fourth day in between begins, and but he would pitch into additional innings in his subsequent begin as effectively, this time getting a W, fortunately.

Baseball Reference

Harvey Haddix: 12 Good Innings (L)

Might 26, 1959 – Milwaukee Braves 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 0, 13 inn. (BOX)

Haddix’s outing in 1959 makes Pedro’s efficiency appear to be youngster’s play. Haddix, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, threw 12 good innings towards the Milwaukee Braves, however the rating was nonetheless 0-0. Haddix lastly hit a wall within the thirteenth and ultimately gave up a three-run walk-off house run to Joe Adcock. In fact, since a sport like this couldn’t probably have a standard ending, Adcock passed Hank Aaron whereas operating the bases (Aaron thought the ball landed wanting the fence and reduce throughout the infield), and the sport is listed as a 1-0 last.

Baseball Reference

Outdated Hoss Radbourn’s 1884 Windfall Grays Season (Baseball Ref. Page)

We are able to’t have any workhorse pitcher dialogue with out citing the person who was born Charles Radbourn, however got here to be generally known as Outdated Hoss. Outdated Hoss Radbourn was a part of a two-man pitching rotation for the Windfall Grays in 1884. Sadly, the opposite pitcher, Charlie Sweeney, was kicked off the team for pitching whereas intoxicated throughout a sport, verbally abusing the supervisor when he made a pitching change, after which being ejected, forcing the workforce to proceed with eight gamers. Outdated Hoss was as much as the problem, stating, “I’ll pitch daily and win the pennant for Windfall, even when it prices me my proper arm.” He mainly did simply that. As explained on SABR:

Of the remaining 51 video games, Radbourn began 41 of them. In these begins, he put up an eye-popping 35-4-1 report, nearly single-handedly driving the membership to the pennant. He gained eighteen straight from August 7 to September 6, a brand new main league report, together with an unbelievable 14 victories in August. He began all however one sport between August 9 and September 24, amassing a report of 24-4 in the course of the span. That August 7 victory put Windfall in first place completely. To make certain, the every day grind took its toll on the pitcher. Bancroft, who roomed with Radbourn in ’84, later declared, “His exhibiting was all of the extra outstanding and phenomenal when one is aware of that this nice pitcher suffered untold agony in endeavoring to realize the aim for which he labored so laborious and so pluckily. Morning after morning upon rising he could be unable to boost his arm excessive sufficient to make use of his hair brush.

Outdated Hoss already had the report for many wins in a season, tallying 48 within the earlier season. In 1884, he completed the season at 60-12 with a 1.38 ERA, over 678 ⅔ innings. Imagine it or not, the wins are nonetheless a single-season report to today. Nonetheless, his innings fell simply wanting the report (680) held by the monopoly guy.

Wikipedia | Will White

In fact, Radbourn’s biggest contribution to society was that he was allegedly the primary particular person to be photographed giving the center finger. Whereas some imagine it’s a cigar in his hand, I select to imagine the legend to be true of my hero, Outdated Hoss.

Wikipedia

I didn’t go into this week meaning to hyperlink Tim Lincecum to Outdated Hoss Radbourn, however the All-Star Break will do some bizarre stuff to individuals. Friday at 2:20 at Wrigley Subject can’t come quickly sufficient.