Jamie Moyer's Milestone

Jamie Moyer is slated to take the mound for the Phillies on Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs. It will be the 603rd start of his career, moving him into a tie with Randy Johnson for 20th all-time. Moyer is also knocking on the door of the top ten in career earned runs allowed, 24 behind #10 Bert Blyleven (1830). He's also getting close to 2000 career runs allowed.

However, neither run record will occur in the immediate future. He will, however, soon reach a milestone that may not be reached for a very long time, if ever. The seventh hit he allows Wednesday night (or from this point forward) will be the 4000th hit allowed of his career. He'll be the 39th pitcher in baseball history to reach that mark and the first since Tom Glavine in 2006. Behind Moyer, there's no one even close to 4000.

Randy Johnson is currently at 3339 hits allowed. John Smoltz just passed 3000, 37-year-old Andy Pettitte is at 2990. Always hittable Livan Hernandez is still five seasons of 200+ hits away from the mark. The top pitchers 30 and younger are Mark Buehrle (30) at 2043, Jon Garland (29) at 1850, and CC Sabathia (28) at 1656. It's hard to stay around long enough to give up 4000 hits, especially with the increase in strikeouts these days compared to the past.

Here are the last ten pitchers to reach the 4000 hit plateau:

Name	Date	Hitter (hit)
Tom Glavine	September 19, 2006	Josh Willingham (single)
Roger Clemens	June 22, 2006	Jason Kubel (double)
Greg Maddux	July 31, 2005	Chad Tracy (double)
Frank Tanana	August 8, 1993	Carlos Garcia (single)
Bert Blyleven	July 14, 1988	Ken Gerhart (single)
Don Sutton	April 22, 1985	Bobby Grich (single)
Tommy John	July 21, 1984	Jackie Gutierrez (single)
Steve Carlton	April 8, 1984	Nick Esasky (double)
Fergie Jenkins	May 1, 1983	Mike Scioscia (single)
Phil Niekro	September 22, 1982	Alan Ashby (single)

Even if someone does reach 4000 hits after Moyer, I have to believe Phil Niekro will be the last pitcher to give up 5000 hits in his career.

More Strikeouts than Hits, Total Bases

Individual batting strikeouts have been recorded all through major league history except for 1897-1909 in the National League, 1901-1912 in the American League, and all except two seasons of the 1880's American Association. Keeping those gaps in mind, there have only been thirty-four non-pitchers who have had over 100 more strikeouts than hits in their playing career.

Non-Pitchers with 100+ More Strikeouts than Hits in Career

Name	Years	SO	H	SO-H
Rob Deer	1984-1996	1409	853	556
Russell Branyan	1998-2008	797	460	337
Adam Dunn	2001-2008	1256	955	301
Gorman Thomas	1973-1986	1339	1051	288
Dave Nicholson	1960-1967	573	301	272
Bo Jackson	1986-1994	841	598	243
Mark Bellhorn	1997-2007	723	484	239
Pete Incaviglia	1986-1998	1277	1043	234
Jose Hernandez	1991-2006	1391	1166	225
Melvin Nieves	1992-1998	483	284	199
Jack Cust	2001-2008	420	244	176
Ron Karkovice	1986-1997	749	574	175
Mickey Tettleton	1984-1997	1307	1132	175
Mike Cameron	1995-2008	1642	1474	168
Ruben Rivera	1995-2003	510	343	167
Brad Wilkerson	2001-2008	947	788	159
Steve Balboni	1981-1993	856	714	142
Jim Thome	1991-2008	2190	2048	142
Carlos Pena	2001-2008	810	669	141
Tom Egan	1965-1975	336	196	140
Shane Andrews	1995-2002	515	375	140
Jason LaRue	1999-2008	731	592	139
Ray Oyler	1965-1970	359	221	138
Don Lock	1962-1969	776	642	134
Jay Buhner	1987-2001	1406	1273	133
Wily Mo Pena	2002-2008	520	402	118
Jonny Gomes	2003-2008	413	297	116
Craig Wilson	2001-2007	643	527	116
Ryan Howard	2004-2008	692	578	114
Pat Burrell	2000-2008	1273	1166	107
Todd Hundley	1990-2003	988	883	105
Gary Pettis	1982-1992	958	855	103
Dean Palmer	1989-2003	1332	1229	103
Mark Reynolds	2007-2008	333	231	102

In addition to the guys with more strikeouts than hits, there have also been some players with more strikeouts than total bases. It's a list mostly made up of players with short careers and very little power. Ten guys have wound up with 20 more strikeouts than total bases:

Non-Pitchers with 20+ More Strikeouts than Total Bases in Career

Name	Years	SO	TB	SO-TB
Tom Egan	1965-1975	336	293	43
Ray Oyler	1965-1970	359	317	42
Dave Nicholson	1960-1967	573	540	33
Ed Gastfield	1884-1885	37	7	30
Dave Adlesh	1963-1968	80	51	29
Chris Latham	1997-2003	85	59	26
Rob Nelson	1986-1990	66	43	23
Enrique Cruz	2003-2007	30	7	23
Moe Thacker	1958-1963	81	59	22
Tom Brown	1963	45	24	21

P.S. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that the idea for this post came from an article about Mike Cameron posted on BrewCrewBall.com.

Highest Game Score in a Loss

Yesterday I posted about the lowest game scores for a winning pitcher. For a refresher on what a game score is and how it's figured, click here to see the post.

Today I want to look at the opposite of yesterdday's post: the highest game scores by a losing pitcher. Since game scores reward pitchers who throw a lot of innings in a game, I'm going to split it into nine-inning games and extra-inning games in order to avoid a bunch of ten and eleven inning outings on the list before getting to any regular-length games. Since it's rare for a pitcher these days to go past nine innings, having two different leaderboards should help get some more recent games on the list.

I decided to forgo making a table in favor of a simpler list. I don't have the pitcher's team or opponent, but that information can be found by clicking on the date of each pitcher's start.

Highest Game Score by a Losing Pitcher, 1956-2008
(Games with ten or more innings)

• Harvey Haddix - 107 - 5/26/1959 - 12.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
  
  
• Jim Maloney - 106 - 6/14/1965 - 11.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 18 K
  
  
• Juan Marichal - 104 - 8/19/1969 - 13.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Nolan Ryan - 99 - 8/20/1974 - 11.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 19 K
  
  
• Dick Drago - 98 - 5/24/1972 - 12.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Warren Spahn - 97 - 7/2/1963 - 15.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
  Pedro Ramos - 97 - 8/23/1963 - 13.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  Bill Singer - 97 - 8/3/1973 - 11.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 R, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Al Jackson - 96 - 8/14/1962 - 15.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K
  Steve McCatty - 96 - 8/10/1980 - 14.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
  
  
• Sandy Koufax - 93 - 5/28/1960 - 13.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 9 BB, 15 K
  
  
• Bob Rush - 92 - 8/23/1957 - 15.1 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K
  Camilo Pascual - 92 - 6/5/1958 - 13.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  
  
• Chuck Dobson - 91 - 5/21/1968 - 11.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
  Sam McDowell - 91 - 6/13/1968 - 11.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 14 K
  Ed Halicki - 91 - 5/26/1975 - 10.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

Those games show how starters have been reigned in over the years. Only five of those sixteen games took place after 1970 and the last one was in 1980. Given that only five pitchers in the past decade have reached ten innings in a game (and a starter going past nine innings has happened 50 times since 1990), these days it's impossible to think of a starter going 12 or more innings.

There are a couple notable games in the above collection. Harvey Haddix's outing on top of the list was a perfect game for twelve innings. In the bottom of the thirteenth, Felix Mantilla reached on an error, Eddie Mathews bunted him to second, Hank Aaron was intentionally walked, and Joe Adcock hit a double to center field to end the game. Warren Spahn's start on July 2, 1963, was his famous sixteen-inning duel with Juan Marichal (who got a game score of 112). Two strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings is nuts.

Highest Game Score by a Losing Pitcher, 1956-2008
(Games with nine innings or less)

• Ken Johnson - 92 - 4/23/1964 - 9.0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
  
  
• Kevin Appier - 91 - 7/27/1993 - 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K
  
  
• Bob Sebra - 90 - 7/1/1987 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 14 K
  
  
• Sam McDowell - 89 - 7/6/1968 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  
  
• Fernando Valenzuela - 88 - 4/28/1985 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  
  
• Rudy May - 87 - 69/1973 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
  Floyd Youmans - 87 - 9/27/1986 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 BB, 15 K
  Pedro Martinez - 87 - 5/6/2000 - 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 17 K
  
  
• Jim Bouton - 86 - 9/16/1966 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
  Andy Hassler - 86 - 9/8/1974 - 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
  Bill Singer - 86 - 5/31/1975 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  Pete Smith - 86 - 4/15/1989 - 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Jim Nash - 85 - 7/23/1967 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 12 K
  Bill Singer - 85 - 6/12/1969 - 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K
  Vida Blue - 85 - 8/24/1971 - 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
  Fred Norman - 85 - 5/7/1974 - 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  Randy Johnson - 85 - 6/25/1999 - 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  Jon Lieber - 85 - 5/29/2000 - 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K

Jon Lieber and Pete Smith are the only guys on that list who didn't go nine innings in their starts. In Smith's case, it was because the game was over when his team didn't score in the top of the ninth. Lieber was pulled after throwing 116 pitches over his eight innings.

Bill Singer was pretty unlucky. He appeared once on the extra-innings list and twice on the regular game list. Of course, he managed to win 20 games in 1969 and 1973, two of the years he appeared on these lists, so I guess he wasn't hurt too badly.

Since the most recent game in the lists above took place in 2000, I looked up the highest game score by a losing pitcher during the 2008 season. On July 20, Scott Baker of the Twins gave up one run on two hits over eight innings. He walked one and struck out eight for a game score of 81.

Lowest Game Scores in a Win

A pitcher's Game Score is a quick and dirty way of examining his effectiveness during a particular start. Originally created by Bill James, it's found through this formula:

1. Start with 50 points.
2. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (3 points per inning).
3. Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th.
4. Add 1 point for each strikeout.
5. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed.
6. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed.
7. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed.
8. Subtract 1 point for each walk.

It's available plenty of places, but I took that from ESPN.com's MLB Best Games page which contains a handy-dandy list of the best game scores of the season. Ricky Nolasco's nine-inning, eleven-strikeout shutout of the Giants last Tuesday gave him the highest game score by an NL pitcher in 2008 - neat.

Anyway, game score is a neat little tool because it rewards starters who go deep into a game while striking out a lot of enemy batters and preventing opposing baserunners and runs. That's pretty common sensical-like. For more basic trivia about game scores, check out the Game Score Wikipedia article.

The reason I bring up game scores ultimately has to do with abysmal pitching. I'm sure most baseball fans can think of an awful outing by a starting pitcher who managed to come away with a win. As luck would have it, Matt Harrison of the Rangers had such a win earlier this month. On August 10, he gave up six runs on ten hits and two walks in five innings and was the winning pitcher in a 15-7 slugfest. While other pitchers have given up more runs in a start and come away with a win (Russ Ortiz, for one), you get the idea.

I want to look at the lowest game scores by a winning starting pitcher since 1956. Matt Harrison's win two weeks ago came with a game score of 21 and Russ Ortiz's bad day I linked to had a game score of 22 thanks to his seven strikeouts. There have been even lower game scores coupled with pitching wins. They were achieved, obviously, by pitchers who didn't strike out many batters while scattering hits and walks around the yard en route to a bunch of runs scored against them. Below is the list of the twenty-seven games since 1956 in which a starting pitcher with a game score of 19 or lower was the winning pitcher. The dates listed link to the box score of the game.

Lowest Game Scores by a Winning Pitcher, 1956-2008

Name	Date	Tm	Opp.	Final Score	Game Score	Pitching Line
Ike Delock	6/14/1956	BOS	CLE	10-9	19	5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 2 K
Rick Waits	8/4/1979	CLE	TEX	12-8	19	5.1 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Rick Aguilera	8/8/1985	NYM	MON	14-7	19	5.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Jimmy Jones	7/30/1987	SDP	CIN	12-8	19	5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Mike Mussina	7/1/1994	BAL	CAL	14-7	19	5.0 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Bobby Witt	4/25/1998	TEX	KCR	11-8	19	5.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Brian Bohanon	6/15/1999	COL	SFG	15-6	19	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
Chris Peters	8/30/1999	PIT	COL	11-8	19	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Ken Holtzman	5/28/1969	CHC	SFG	9-8	18	5.0 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 4 K
Charles Hudson	6/11/1985	PHI	NYM	26-7	18	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Steve Woodard	5/11/2000	MIL	CHC	14-8	18	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Jake Westbrook	7/31/2005	CLE	SEA	9-7	18	5.2 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Bob Rush	5/12/1956	CHC	STL	14-10	17	5.1 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Don Sutton	5/5/1976	LAD	CHC	14-12	17	5.2 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Todd Stottlemyre	4/23/1992	TOR	CLE	13-8	17	6.2 IP, 13 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Sid Roberson	6/30/1995	MIL	NYY	12-6	17	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
Shawn Estes	7/6/1999	SFG	SDP	10-9	17	5.0 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Bill Campbell	8/3/1975	MIN	CHW	12-9	16	5.2 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 6 BB, 3 K
Kirk Rueter	6/12/1999	SFG	SEA	15-11	16	5.1 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Casey Daigle	5/10/2004	ARI	NYM	12-8	15	5.0 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Jaret Wright	4/18/2005	NYY	TBD	19-8	15	5.1 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Jae Seo	5/24/2007	TBD	SEA	13-12	15	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Don Sutton	5/31/1979	LAD	SFG	12-10	14	6.2 IP, 13 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Jon Garland	4/13/2006	CHW	DET	13-9	14	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Andy Pettitte	9/29/2007	NYY	BAL	11-10	14	5.0 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 0 K
Dan Haren	8/21/2006	OAK	TOR	12-10	13	5.2 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Woody Williams	4/7/2001	SDP	COL	14-10	12	5.0 IP, 12 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

As you can see, the difference between Woody Williams' start and many of the ones above it is negligible - a hit, walk, or strikeout here or there accounts for the difference in game scores and if you've given up nine runs in five innings, who really cares how you did it, right? The same can be said for most of the games listed here. That said, there's something special about having a unique combination of innings, hits, walks, strikeouts, and runs allowed among all winning pitchers in the past 52 years. I'm sure Woody Williams was glad to forget April 7, 2001, but he still got the win and (retroactively) a very dubious distinction for his trouble.

I also found the number of good pitchers on the list interesting. Hall of Famer Don Sutton shows up twice while more recent 200-game winners Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte also appear. It might not mean as much anymore, but besides those three, nine more pitchers on the list were named to the All-Star team at least once. I guess it just goes to show you that any pitcher can have a bad day...and any pitcher can have his team's bats let him off the hook.

The "Worst" Hitting Streaks

Have you ever heard a player has a relatively long hitting streak and thought, "Really? He doesn't seem to be hitting that well." Since most regular players will get to the plate about four times in any given game, the lowest batting average a player with a lengthy hitting streak could possibly have would be somewhere around .250. That's assuming the guy never walks and only gets one hit every night.

In reality, it's rare to see a batter take a hitting streak past fifteen games while hitting below .300. Since 1956, only fifteen players have gone to fifteen or more games with such a low batting average, and only one of those guys got to twenty games. It's important to remember that even though they hit below .300, getting a hit in every game is still a positive thing.

Lowest Batting Average in a 15+ Game Hitting Streak, 1956-2008

Rank	Name	Streak	Games	Average	H-AB
1	Juan Pierre	Sept. 6-22, 2000	15	.273	18-66
2	Jody Davis	May 16-June 1, 1984	15	.281	16-57
	Brian Roberts	June 22-July 12, 2001	15	.281	18-64
4	Don Lock	Sept. 6-22, 1963	15	.286	16-56
	Richie Sexson	July 1-18, 2003	15	.286	16-56
6	Tommie Agee	Apr. 16-May 9, 1970	20	.288	23-80
	Joe Carter	Apr. 6-23, 1992	16	.288	19-66
	Lee Tinsley	June 10-25, 1995	15	.288	19-66
9	Ted Sizemore	June 1-19, 1975	17	.290	18-62
10	Eric Karros	May 16-June 2, 1995	17	.292	19-65
11	Dave McKay	May 19-June 2, 1978	16	.295	18-61
12	Tony Kubek	Aug. 29-Sept. 13, 1963	15	.297	19-64
	Brian Downing	July 28-Aug. 17, 1987	17	.297	19-64
	Adam Kennedy	July 8-Aug. 3, 2006	17	.297	19-64
15	Bill Buckner	Aug. 15-30, 1981	16	.299	20-67

The links go to the Baseball-Reference.com gamelogs of each streak. Pierre, Davis, Tinsley, and Karros all had their season batting averages go down during their streaks. Karros and Davis have the excuse that their streaks were relatively early in the season, though. Bill Buckner's streak raised his 1981 average by .00017 from .29778 to .29795.

For fun, I found the lowest batting average for streaks of 20, 21, 22, etc., games since 1956. I've made each player's name the link to his streak. I've also put the year each guy had his streak next to his name. Any gaps in counting (33 games, etc.) means there hasn't been a streak of that length since 1956.

• 20 games: Tommie Agee, 1970, .288 (23-80)
  
• 21 games: Ron Oester, 1984, .306 (26-85)
  
• 22 games: Sandy Alomar Sr., 1970, .313 (31-99)
  
• 23 games: Kent Hrbek, 1982, .308 (28-91)
  
• 24 games: Miguel Tejada, 2002, .333 (34-102)
  
• 25 games: Joe McEwing, 1999, .318 (35-110)
  
• 26 games: Casey Blake, 2007, .317 (33-104)
  
• 27 games: Ron LeFlore, 1978, .311 (37-119)
  
• 28 games: Shawn Green, 1999, .366 (41-112)
  
• 29 games: Johnny Damon, 2005, .348 (46-132)
  
• 30 games: Jerome Walton, .338 (46-136)
  
• 31 games: Vladimir Guerrero, 1999, .386 (49-127)
  
• 32 games: Hal Morris, 1996-1997, .379 (47-124)
  
• 34 games: Benito Santiago, 1987, .346 (47-136)
  
• 35 games: Luis Castillo, 2002, .403 (62-154)
  
• 38 games: Jimmy Rollins, 2005-2006, .379 (64-169)
  
• 39 games: Paul Molitor, 1987, .415 (68-164)
  
• 44 games: Pete Rose, 1978, .385 (70-182)

EDIT: It was before 1956, but Joe DiMaggio went 91-223 (.408) during his record 56-game hitting streak.

Most Team Hits in a Loss

Reading the most recent "JoeChat" entry on Fire Joe Morgan, I was intrigued by this question: "When is the last time you saw a team get 18 hits (the Rays) and lose?" Well, it turns out the Rays are the only team to lose this year while collecting eighteen hits, but five teams pulled off the feat last season. In fact, a team has knocked out eighteen hits and lost 105 times since 1956. Looking all that up made me wonder what team holds the record for most hits in a loss. Again, this is a record that will be skewed by extra innings so I'll post separate lists for regular and extra-inning games.

Most Team Hits in a Loss (10+ innings), 1956-2008

Team	Opponent	Score	Date	Hits	Opp. Hits	Innings
Cleveland Indians	Philadelphia Athletics	17-18	7/10/1932	33	25	18
Chicago Cubs	Philadelphia Phillies	22-23	5/17/1979	26	24	10
Kansas City Athletics	New York Yankees	9-10	7/27/1956	26	16	14
Montreal Expos	San Diego Padres	8-11	5/21/1977	25	13	21
Boston Red Sox	Seattle Mariners	7-8	9/3/1981	23	24	20
San Francisco Giants	San Diego Padres	16-17	5/23/1970	23	21	15
St. Louis Cardinals	Cincinnati Redlegs	15-19	7/1/1956	23	20	10
Atlanta Braves	Houston Astros	11-12	8/2/2007	22	11	14
Detroit Tigers	Chicago White Sox	16-17	9/14/1998	22	19	12
Minnesota Twins	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	12-13	4/13/1998	22	19	14
Pittsburgh Pirates	Los Angeles Dodgers	10-11	8/12/1995	22	17	11
Texas Rangers	Baltimore Orioles	11-14	5/14/1983	22	19	11
Boston Red Sox	Toronto Blue Jays	6-7	10/4/1980	22	17	17
Baltimore Orioles	Chicago White Sox	10-11	8/21/1976	22	15	12
Cincinnati Reds	San Diego Padres	9-12	5/25/2008	21	18	18
Seattle Mariners	Detroit Tigers	10-11	8/21/2004	21	15	11
Baltimore Orioles	Seattle Mariners	4-6	9/5/2003	21	14	13
Minnesota Twins	Oakland Athletics	11-12	4/24/1997	21	19	11
Chicago Cubs	Colorado Rockies	13-14	5/4/1993	21	17	11
Texas Rangers	Oakland Athletics	12-13	7/1/1979	21	29	15
Oakland Athletics	Baltimore Orioles	5-6	4/26/1974	21	10	15
Philadelphia Phillies	Cincinnati Reds	11-12	6/1/1958	21	16	13

Most Team Hits in a Loss (≤9 innings), 1956-2008

Team	Opponent	Score	Date	Hits	Opp. Hits	Innings
Baltimore Orioles	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	12-13	7/22/2006	22	17	9
Chicago Cubs	Cincinnati Reds	12-15	9/12/2002	22	17	9
Oakland Athletics	Minnesota Twins	11-20	4/27/1980	22	20	9
Detroit Tigers	Chicago White Sox	9-13	4/13/2006	21	17	9
Chicago Cubs	Montreal Expos	15-16	5/14/2000	21	16	9
Colorado Rockies	Chicago Cubs	7-9	5/14/1998	21	15	9
Seattle Mariners	Baltimore Orioles	13-14	5/17/1996	21	21	9
Chicago Cubs	Los Angeles Dodgers	12-14	5/5/1976	21	16	9
Philadelphia Phillies	Cincinnati Reds	17-19	8/3/1969	21	25	9
Milwaukee Brewers	Pittsburgh Pirates	10-17	8/24/2002	20	16	9
Cleveland Indians	Toronto Blue Jays	10-11	5/5/2000	20	13	9
Montreal Expos	Colorado Rockies	10-11	4/19/1999	20	11	9
New York Mets	Colorado Rockies	11-12	5/6/1997	20	14	9
San Diego Padres	Colorado Rockies	12-14	8/4/1995	20	12	9
Atlanta Braves	Montreal Expos	14-16	7/15/1990	20	14	9
Minnesota Twins	Texas Rangers	10-14	6/10/1986	20	17	9
Chicago Cubs	Montreal Expos	15-17	9/24/1985	20	17	9
Seattle Mariners	Cleveland Indians	11-17	8/30/1981	20	16	9
Pittsburgh Pirates	San Francisco Giants	11-13	5/30/1970	20	15	9
New York Mets	Atlanta Braves	10-15	7/26/1964	20	19	9
Boston Red Sox	Washington Senators	10-11	4/24/1960	20	13	9

Most Career Hits Allowed per 9 Innings, 1901-2007

This kind of relates to the previous post about WHIP. Hits Allowed as a statistic has been dismissed more and more as the concept of a pitcher not having much control over a ball put in play takes hold in sabermetric circles. Of course, that's not much comfort to the guy who's just given up seven straight hits in an inning leading to a quick exit. Instead of focusing on hits per inning, however, let's look at hits per nine innings (mostly because it's easier and doesn't involve envisioning three-quarters of a hit).

It's common sense that if a pitcher, through whatever means, allows only a few hits every time he's on the mound, he'll do better than a guy who gives up hits a lot. A pitcher that records most of his outs through strikeouts is a good example: if you strikeout one batter every inning, that's one less play for your defense to screw up. The list of the fewest Hits Allowed per 9 Innings (H/9) can be found here. As expected, there's a lot of good pitchers at the top of the list.

As with WHIP, I've made a chart showing the average number of hits allowed per 9 innings for the major leagues from 1901-2007. It's easy to see the various periods of baseball in the twentieth century: the deadball era has a big drop followed by an explosion in the 1920's and 1930's. Relative stability in golden era of the 1940's and 1950's is followed by a drop in 1968 before a slow and steady rise to about 9.4 H/9 today. Since I haven't adjusted any of the numbers below, it makes sense the leaders in this category threw in the era from 1920-1940. Thus I'll post the overall list first, and then one of pitchers since 1940 to try and bring a more recent feel.

Most Career Hits Allowed per 9 Innings, Minimum 1000 Innings Pitched
1901-2007

1. Chief Hogsett, 11.13
2. Dick Coffman, 10.982
3. Benny Frey, 10.978
4. Sloppy Thurston, 10.85
5. Jack Russell, 10.77
6. Ken Holloway, 10.63
7. Clarence Mitchell, 10.61
8. Jake Miller, 10.60
9. Lil Stoner, 10.58
10. Brian Moehler, 10.56
11. Alex Ferguson, 10.5463
12. Fred Heimach, 10.5458
13. Clint Brown, 10.54
14. Glendon Rusch, 10.49
15. Phil Collins, 10.47
16. Scott Karl, 10.46
17. Rollie Naylor, 10.451
18. Ray Benge, 10.448
19. George Blaeholder, 10.44
20. Huck Betts, 10.41

Cripes. Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be Chief Hogsett (or a Lil Stoner, but that's a different story). Hogsett is atop this list and the WHIP list. His career is nothing special: he had an ERA+ of 94 and a record of 63-87, but he had decent seasons in 1932 and 1935. I like that he issued 501 walks against 441 strikeouts in his eleven seasons.

Those who know their mediocre pitchers will note only three pitchers in that list did not pitch between 1920 and 1940. As promised, here's the list from 1941 until today.

Most Career Hits Allowed per 9 Innings, Minimum 1000 Innings Pitched
Active Picthers

1. Brian Moehler, 10.56
2. Glendon Rusch, 10.49
3. LaTroy Hawkins, 10.17
4. Josh Fogg, 10.12
5. Elmer Dessens, 10.11
6. Esteban Loaiza, 10.10
7. Aaron Sele, 10.087
8. Sidney Ponson, 10.086
9. Kyle Lohse, 10.07
10. Darren Oliver, 9.97
11. Jason Jennings, 9.96
12. John Thomson, 9.90
13. Jeff Suppan, 9.87
14. Rodrigo Lopez, 9.85
15. Jamey Wright, 9.833
16. Mark Redman, 9.827
17. Julian Tavarez, 9.81
18. Jeff Weaver, 9.77
19. Paul Byrd, 9.75
20. Jon Lieber, 9.74

Paul Byrd has the highest career ERA+ of those on the list, at 105. None of the guys on this list are great pitchers, but some of them have the "quality innings-eater" label.

Most Career Hits with Zero RBI

Given enough time, pretty much every player lucks into a run batted in somehow. Since the most common way of getting an RBI is via base hits, I want to find the players with the most hits without driving in a single run in their career. As luck would have it, there are only twenty players since 1901 who have reached double digits in career hits with zero RBI.

Most Career Hits, Zero Career RBI (Since 1901)

• Gene Good, 18
• Irv Higginbotham*, 15
• Doug Sanders, 14
  Tom Burgmeier*, 14
  Lefty Hoerst*, 14
  Kid Durbin, 14
• Rickey Clark*, 13
  Billy Reed, 13
  Milo Allison, 13
  Duke Reilley, 13
  Bill Schwartz, 13
• Ricky Horton*, 12
  Dan Pfister*, 12
  Vito Valentinetti*, 12
  Frank Manush, 12
• Rick Matula*, 11
• Tommy Watkins^† , 10
  T.J. Tucker*, 10
  Tim Pyznarski, 10
  Charlie Beamon, 10

* - pitcher
† - active player

Highest WHIP in Season, 40+ Appearances in Relief

A stat that helps tell the story of a pitcher's effectiveness is WHIP, or Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched. This is kind of like on base percentage for a pitcher, since it tells you how many baserunners he allows in an average inning. Obviously, it's advantageous to have as low a WHIP as possible, since no baserunners means less opportunity to allow runs.

Below is the list of the twenty highest WHIP's put up by relievers appearing in 40+ games, since 1901. I'm defining a reliever as a pitcher making 80% or more of his appearances in relief so a few swingmen may show up on the list.

Highest WHIP in a Season by a Reliever in 40+ Appearances

Rank	Name	Year	IP	WHIP	ERA	FIP
1	Mike Flanagan	1992	34.7	2.106	8.05	5.77
2	Franklyn German	2003	44.7	2.060	6.04	5.98
3	Mike Holtz	2002	35.0	2.057	5.40	6.31
4	Dick Welteroth	1949	95.3	2.056	7.36	6.07
5	Rob Murphy	1990	57.0	2.053	6.32	5.32
6	Vic Darensbourg	1999	34.7	2.048	8.83	5.65
7	Danny Graves	2005	38.7	2.043	6.52	6.98
8	Paul Assenmacher	1999	33.0	2.030	8.18	5.44
9	Tony Fossas	1998	22.7	2.029	5.96	3.86
10	Kevin Wickander	1993	34.0	2.029	6.09	7.02
11	Frank Biscan	1948	98.7	2.027	6.11	5.12
12	Shawn Camp	2007	40.0	2.025	7.20	5.25
13	Ron Davis	1986	58.7	2.011	9.20	5.89
14	Bryan Hickerson	1995	48.3	2.007	8.57	5.50
15	Pedro Borbon	2000	41.7	1.992	6.48	6.46
16	Jim Poole	1997	49.3	1.986	7.11	5.49
17	Joe Grahe	1994	43.3	1.985	6.65	5.16
18	Brian Bruney	2005	46.0	1.978	7.43	5.29
19	Kevin Gryboski	2005	31.0	1.968	5.52	5.20
20	Jim Todd	1979	81.0	1.963	6.56	6.45

The only pitcher with a decent FIP is Tony Fossas, but I'm almost positive that's because he was a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY) by that time, although the fact he only gave up one home run didn't hurt. Dick Welteroth has one of the worst K:BB ratios I've seen, striking out 37 strikeouts while walking 89 batters. It may not entirely be his fault; the American League as a whole put up one of the worst K:BB ratios as a league in their history in 1949.

To wit, here's a chart I quickly put together using the total bases on balls and strikeouts for each season available on Baseball-Reference.com (click to enlarge the image in a new tab/window):



Not only is it evident the AL in 1949 saw more walks relative to strikeouts, you can also see the pitching-dominant year of 1968 in the chart as well, in climax of the upswing following 1949. Pretty crazy stuff going on in the junior circuit.

Fewest Innings Pitched in a Season, 200+ Hits Allowed

In 2007, forty-three pitchers allowed 200 or more hits while on the mound. Eighteen of them had fewer than 200 innings pitched. David Wells had the lowest IP total, giving up 201 hits in 157 1/3 innings for San Diego and Los Angeles. He managed to avoid having the highest H/9 IP total of the forty-three, as his 11.50 was edged out by Scott Olsen (226 hits in 176 2/3 IP => 11.51 H/9 IP).

Forgetting about the H/9 IP numbers for now, I was curious to find out which pitcher gave up more than two hundred hits in the fewest innings pitched. I looked at the years 1901-2007 in order to avoid the myriad rule changes and schedule havoc of the nineteenth century. Twenty-six pitchers since 1901 have given up over 200 hits in less than 160 innings. Here they are, for your reading pleasure:

Name	Season	Hits	Innings
Jack Knight	1926	206	142.2
Dick Coffman	1935	206	143.2
Jim Walkup	1937	218	150.1
Jack Russell	1932	207	152.2
Claude Willoughby	1930	241	153.0
Dennis Martinez	1983	209	153.0
Dutch Henry	1930	211	155.0
Lefty Weinert	1923	207	156.0
Joe Mays	2005	203	156.0
Ernie Wingard	1927	213	156.1
Jeff Fassero	1999	208	156.1
Whitey Glazner	1924	210	156.2
Bill Trotter	1939	205	156.2
Clise Dudley	1929	202	156.2
Jack Bentley	1925	200	157.0
Herb Pennock	1929	205	157.1
David Wells	2007	201	157.1
Jesse Barnes	1926	204	158.0
Jake Miller	1928	203	158.0
Mark Hendrickson	2003	207	158.1
Ed Whitson	1985	201	158.2
Chubby Dean	1940	220	159.1
Jeff Weaver	2003	211	159.1
Huck Betts	1935	213	159.2
Mike Paxton	1979	210	159.2
Jaime Navarro	1999	206	159.2

Unsurprisingly, almost all of these seasons took place during the two most batter-friendly eras in baseball history: the 1920's-1930's and the late 1990's through today.

I didn't list them all, obviously, but a pitcher gave up 200+ hits in less than 200 IP 701 times since 1901. There have been 4,588 total 200+ hits allowed seasons since the AL came into existence that year.