Consecutive Decisions

With the advent of pitch counts and specialized bullpens, starting pitchers have begun averaging fewer and fewer innings per start. One often-noted effect of this is a reduced number of complete games and shutouts around the league. Where the league complete games leader routinely reached double-digits and often more than 20 CG in the 1970's, now baseball has seen only two pitchers complete more than ten games in one year since 1999: Randy Johnson's 12 that season and CC Sabathia's 10 last year. Shutouts are the same way. Where leaders used to regularly place between 5-10, baseball has only seen three players reach five in a year since 1999: AJ Burnett in 2002, Dontrelle Willis in 2005, and CC Sabathia in 2008.

Complete games and shutouts aren't the only casualties of starters not pitching as deep into games anymore. The number of decisions by those starters have been falling as well. If pitchers only last six innings on a quality night, that leaves plenty of time for a bullpen to blow a lead. Likewise, there are plenty of opportunities for his offense to let him off the hook for the loss. This means it's tough for starters to put together long streaks of decisions in each start - somewhere along the line some reliever or batter messes things up.

NOTE: When I wrote this, I was actually looking at streaks of decisions in each appearance, whether starting or in relief. Since starters appeared in relief more prior to the 1970's, it makes a difference in some of the streaks below. You can find the longest streaks of decisions in starts here. The longest such streak is really Fergie Jenkins' 63 in 1970-1971. Sorry for the confusion.

On Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Atlanta Braves 1-0 after a Casey Kotchman sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 8th. Jays starter Roy Halladay had been pinch-hit for the inning before, so Jesse Carlson was tagged with the loss. Notably, Halladay hadn't had a no-decision since June 25, 2008. That start also occurred in interleague play, but the Blue Jays were at home, so you can't blame pinch-hitting. Halladay's string of 26 decisions in 26 starts ties him for the 40th longest such streak since 1954. The only other starters to carry a streak that far since 2000 were Roy Oswalt (26, 2004-2005), Tim Wakefield (26, 2007), and Bartolo Colon (30, 2004-2005). Colon is one of only nineteen pitchers to reach 30 straight decisions since 1954:

• Gaylord Perry, 47 (28 W, 19 L) - 1972-1973
• Nolan Ryan, 42 (25-17) - 1974-1975
• Juan Marichal, 41 (28-13) - 1964-1965
• Wilbur Wood, 38 (20-18) - 1972-1973
• Charlie Hough, 36 (18-18) - 1985-1986
  
• Fritz Peterson, 35 (18-17) - 1971-1972
  
• Nolan Ryan, 34 (19-15) - 1976-1977
  
• Dick Ellsworth, 34 (17-17) - 1963-1964
  
• Gaylord Perry, 33 (12-21) - 1974-1975
  
• Fergie Jenkins, 33 (20-13) - 1970
  
• Robin Roberts, 33 (15-18) - 1959-1960
  
• Bob Friend, 32 (19-13) - 1958
  
• Ron Guidry, 31 (21-10) - 1983-1984
  
• Luis Tiant, 31 (20-11) - 1973
  
• Stan Bahnsen, 31 (12-19) - 1973-1974
  
• Bartolo Colon, 30 (18-12) - 2004-2005
  
• Steve Rogers, 30 (19-11) - 1981-1982
  
• Mickey Lolich, 30 (19-11) - 1971-1972
  
• Fergie Jenkins, 30 (20-10) - 1970-1971
  

Randy Johnson came close to joining in 1998, carrying a streak of 29 straight through the end of the year, but the Diamondbacks bullpen couldn't protect a lead in his first start of 1999.

Halladay hasn't had a no-decision against an American League opponent since September 21, 2007, when he threw 8 2/3 innings against the Yankees in what was eventually a 14-inning, 5-4 Toronto triumph. That gives him 40 straight starts with a win or loss against the AL, placing him behind only Perry's 47 51 and Ryan's 42 41 since 1954. In those 40 starts, Halladay is 29-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 246 strikeouts in exactly 300 innings pitched. Can he go eight twelve more starts to eclipse Perry? It's definitely something to keep tabs on when following the tight AL East race.