Most Runs Allowed in a Season, All Earned

In 2009, Houston's Roy Oswalt allowed 83 runs in 181 1/3 innings pitched. Every single one of his runs were earned. He became just the twentieth pitcher in major league history to allow more than 70 runs in a season with all of them earned. The full list:

1. Joel Pineiro, 2005 SEA, 118 R
2. Dick Ruthven, 1976 ATL, 112 R
3. Frank Tanana, 1990 DET, 104 R
4. Brian Anderson, 1998 ARI, 100 R
5. Daisuke Matsuzaka, 2007 BOS, 100 R
6. Rick Sutcliffe, 1988 CHC, 97 R
7. Kelvim Escobar, 2004 ANA, 91 R
8. Curt Schilling, 2006 BOS, 90 R
9. Bobby Jones, 1998 NYM, 88 R
10. John Thomson, 1998 COL, 86 R
11. Omar Olivares, 1992 STL, 84 R
12. Roy Oswalt, 2009 HOU, 83 R
    
13. Scott Erickson, 2000 BAL, 81 R
14. Art Decatur, 1927 PHI, 78 R
15. Dennis Ribant, 1967 PIT, 78 R
    
16. Hideki Irabu, 1998 NYY, 78 R
17. Ryan Dempster, 1999 FLA, 77 R
18. Hideo Nomo, 2004 LAD, 77 R
19. John Farrell, 1993 CAL, 74 R
20. Phil Regan, 1961 DET, 70 R
    

Unearned Run Average

I said I'd post this a couple days ago but haven't been able to get around to it until now. Oops.

In my last post I talked about unearned runs throughout baseball history. To quickly recap, the nineteenth century was filled with errors and unearned runs, the early twentieth century saw steadily decreasing totals of unearned runs. Since the end of World War II, baseball's been relatively even when it comes to unearned runs, though they've again been decreasing in recent years.

With all of that in mind, I want to look at the career and single-season records for the highest unearned run average (UERA). Since a list of guys from the nineteenth century is pretty boring for a lot of baseball fans these days, I'll make a post-1946 list for the career record to go along with the overall list. For the single-season numbers, I've split the record into 1876-1919, 1920-1945, and 1946-present lists. For the career list, I'm going to use the usual minimum of 3000 career innings. For the season lists, I'll use the nice round number of 100 innings pitched as a minimum.

Highest Career Unearned Run Average
(miminum 3000 IP)

1. Will White, 1877-1886, 2.41
2. Jim Whitney, 1881-1890, 2.24
3. Pud Galvin, 1879-1892, 2.16
4. Adonis Terry, 1884-1897, 2.15
5. Mickey Welch, 1880-1892, 2.08
6. Bill Hutchison, 1884-1897, 2.00
7. Jim McCormick, 1878-1887, 1.98
8. Tony Mullane, 1881-1894, 1.96
9. Silver King, 1886-1897, 1.92
10. Gus Weyhing, 1887-1901, 1.92

Highest Career Unearned Run Average, 1946-2008
(miminum 3000 IP)

1. Curt Simmons, 1947-1967, 0.63
2. Jim Kaat, 1959-1983, 0.60
3. Phil Niekro, 1964-1987, 0.54
4. Bob Friend, 1951-1966, 0.53
   
5. Charlie Hough, 1970-1994, 0.53
   
6. Jerry Reuss, 1969-1990, 0.53
   
7. Juan Marichal, 1960-1975, 0.52
   
8. Tommy John, 1963-1989, 0.51
   
9. Rick Wise, 1964-1982, 0.50
   
10. Mike Torrez, 1967-1984, 0.48
11. Kevin Brown, 1986-2005, 0.48

The active pitcher with the highest career UERA is Kenny Rogers at 0.47. Randy Johnson is second at 0.41. He won't reach 3000 innings pitched, but active reliever Julian Tavarez clocks in with a 0.64 career UERA, the highest among active players with 1000 or more innings.

Highest Single-Season Unearned Run Average, 1876-1919
(miminum 100 IP)

1. Lon Knight, 1876 Philadelphia Athletics, 6.57
2. Dory Dean, 1876 Cincinnati Reds, 5.45
3. Mike Golden, 1878 Milwaukee Grays, 5.42
4. Scott Stratton, 1889 Louisville Colonels, 5.25
5. Bobby Mathews, 1877 Cincinnati Reds, 5.15
6. Ernie Hickman, 1884 Kansas City Cowboys, 5.05
7. Fred Corey, 1882 Worcester Ruby Legs, 4.99
8. Cherokee Fisher, 1876 Cincinnati Reds, 4.91
9. Mike Morrison, 1887 Cleveland Blues, 4.77
10. Tom Poorman, 1880 Buffalo/Chicago, 4.68

The 1876 Reds had some issues on defense, methinks.

Highest Single-Season Unearned Run Average, 1920-1945
(miminum 100 IP)

1. Lefty Weinart, 1922 Phillies, 2.16
2. Lefty Weinart, 1923 Phillies, 2.13
3. Jesse Winters, 1921 Phillies, 2.13
4. Junior Thompson, 1942 Reds, 2.04
5. George Smith, 1921 Phillies, 1.99
6. Carl Holling, 1921 Tigers, 1.99
7. Chubby Dean, 1939 Athletics, 1.93
8. Ed Heusser, 1940 Athletics, 1.88
9. Dave Keefe, 1921 Athletics, 1.87
10. Dutch Henry, 1930 White Sox, 1.86
    

This time it's the early-20's Phillies defense that didn't back up their pitching staff.

Highest Single-Season Unearned Run Average, 1946-2008
(miminum 100 IP)

1. Craig Anderson, 1962 Mets, 2.06
2. Anthony Young, 1993 Mets, 1.79
3. Leo Kiely, 1954 Red Sox, 1.58
4. Eddie Smith, 1946 White Sox, 1.55
5. Ray Sadecki, 1966 Cardinals/Giants, 1.53
6. Bobby Bolin, 1963 Giants, 1.51
7. Sheldon Jones, 1951 Giants, 1.50
8. Ed Farmer, 1979 Rangers/White Sox, 1.50
9. Al Papai, 1949 Browns, 1.45
10. Jack Hamilton, 1966 Mets, 1.45

It seems fitting that the hapless 1962 Mets have a pitcher on top of this list. For the curious, the 2008 leader was Jay Bergmann of the Nationals with a 0.97 UERA. Sidney Ponson of the Rangers and Yankees was the AL leader (and second overall) at 0.86.

Unearned Runs

This should come as no surprise, but baseball defense was terrible in the first half-century of the game. Given that many players didn't use baseball gloves until the 1890's and the ones used for many years after that didn't have the familiar web between the thumb and forefinger. Looking at some of the gloves pictured here gives a little perspective into why error totals were so staggeringly high in the early part of the game.

You can find error records by position at Baseball-Almanac.com. The most recent such record was set in 1929 when Roy Johnson of the Tigers committed 31 errors in the outfield. Using the Historical Stats feature at mlb.com, it's possible to figure out that Johnson was an outlier among outfielders (the runner up in errors committed by an outfielder that season was Russ Scarritt with 19), but he wasn't the only guy with a bunch of errors. In fact, his teammate Heinie Schuble committed 46 errors in 86 games at shortstop that year. Joe Cronin led the league with 62 errors.

To give another idea of how bad fielding was, I've put the record for errors at each position into a table, along with each player's games played at that position in that season and their fielding percentage. I've only listed the AL & NL records, just to keep things simpler:

Position	League	Name	Year	Games	Errors	Fielding %
Pitcher	AL	Rube Waddell Ed Walsh	1905 1912	46 62	15	.872 .915
	NL	Jim Whitney	1881	66	28	.808
Catcher	AL	Oscar Stanage	1911	141	41	.952
	NL	Nat Hicks	1876	45	94	.741
1st Base	AL	Jerry Freeman	1908	154	41	.975
	NL	Cap Anson	1884	112	58	.956
2nd Base	AL	Kid Gleason	1901	135	64	.925
	NL	Pop Smith	1880	83	89	.855
3rd Base	AL	Sammy Strang	1902	137	64	.890
	NL	Charlie Hickman	1900	120	86	.842
Shortstop	AL	John Gochnauer	1903	134	98	.869
	NL	Joe Sullivan	1893	128	102	.860
Outfield	AL	Roy Johnson	1929	146	31	.928
	NL	Fred Clarke	1895	132	49	.881

I know Sullivan committed more errors, but I think Gochnauer's mark is pretty amazing. The only player close to him in 1903 was Rudy Hulswitt of the Phillies with 81 errors. The only American Leaguer besides Gochnauer to reach even 80 errors in a season during the first decade of AL play was New York shortstop Neal Ball in 1908 (he had exactly 80). Gochnauer was maybe even worse with a bat in his hands: he hit .185 in 1902 and 1903. His career batting line wound up at .187/.258/.240 in 1030 PA, good for a 46 OPS+...in the early 1900's! His career wasn't completely forgotten, however: over a century after his last major league game, he was talked about in Congress.

Anyway, the point isn't to laugh at Mr. Gochnauer's historic ineptitude at short, it's that errors were commonplace back in the early days of baseball. Since errors were so common, so too were unearned runs. After all, most unearned runs come about because of errors. That's how you can get years with a league average of four runs per game but a league ERA of under 3.00. One example of that is the 1888 National League. The league average was 4.54 runs per game, but the league ERA was 2.83. When you hear of great pitchers from long ago with miniscule ERA's, chances are they gave up a ton of unearned runs. For example, Cy Young gave up 1020 unearned runs in his long career. Christy Mathewson gave up nearly 500. Addie Joss gave up 241 unearned runs in 286 career games.

This certainly doesn't take anything away from those guys. After all, the playing field was even and everyone had to deal with abysmal defense so putting up a tiny ERA is still impressive. It does explain how an era with such dominant pitching wasn't completely overrun by 1-0, 2-1, or other low-scoring games. Runs were still scored, though not as much as today, but many of them were unearned.

Using the total runs scored and ERA of each league from 1876 through 2007, it's possible to estimate the number of earned and unearned runs. It's not perfect since the ERA rounded to only two decimal places leaves a lot of leeway over, say, 30000 innings, but it's close. I did that and then made a chart showing the percentage of runs scored that were unearned (UER%) over that span. As expected, the percentage has decreased over time:

(click to enlarge in new window)

As you can see, over 60% of runs scored in the National League's first year were unearned. From year-to-year it occasionally bounced back up but overall the percentage fell as better gloves were introduced, rules were changed, managing philosophies developed, and official scorers became more professional. You can even sort of make out the end of the "dead-ball" era when more runs were scored via home runs which are likely to be earned runs. The little hump in the middle of the graph is World War II when teams filled their rosters with guys that wouldn't have been picked for the majors a few years before. Following the end of WWII, the UER% dipped back down to pre-war levels. It rose slightly in the 50's and 60's but has been declining pretty consistently since the mid-1970's. In the past couple seasons, fewer than 8% of all major league runs scored have been unearned.

I started looking all this up after realizing Cy Young had allowed more than one thousand unearned runs. I was curious about who else was high on the list of the most unearned runs allowed. Obviously, it was guys who pitched a lot back in the early days of baseball. Since most people (including myself) aren't hip to the pitching stars of the 1880's, I've made a separate list of pitchers who debuted in 1900 or after.

Most Career Unearned Runs Allowed
Debuted Before 1900

Rank	Name	Career Span	IP	ER	UER
1	Pud Galvin	1879-1892	5941.1	1895	1423
2	Mickey Welch	1880-1892	4802.0	1447	1109
3	Cy Young	1890-1911	7354.2	2147	1020
4	Tim Keefe	1880-1893	5047.2	1472	996
5	Tony Mullane	1881-1894	4531.1	1537	986
6	John Clarkson	1882-1894	4536.1	1417	959
7	Will White	1877-1886	3542.2	896	948
8	Jim McCormick	1878-1887	4275.2	1155	940
9	Charley Radbourn	1881-1891	4535.1	1348	927
10	Gus Weyhing	1887-1901	4324.1	1867	921

Most Career Unearned Runs Allowed
Debuted in 1900 or After

Rank	Name	Career Span	IP	ER	UER
1	Christy Mathewson	1900-1916	4780.2	1133	483
2	George Mullin	1902-1915	3686.2	1156	480
3	Walter Johnson	1907-1927	5914.2	1424	478
4	Eppa Rixey	1912-1933	4494.2	1572	414
5	Burleigh Grimes	1916-1934	4180.2	1638	410
6	Jack Quinn	1909-1933	3920.1	1433	402
7	Eddie Plank	1901-1917	4495.2	1174	395
8	Red Faber	1914-1933	4086.2	1430	383
9	Tom Hughes	1900-1913	2644.0	909	382
10	Red Ames	1903-1919	3198.0	934	377

There's perhaps a few more recognizable names on the second list. They're all still early-century pitchers, which prompts a question about where more recent pitchers fall. Three long-time hurlers that pitched as recently as the 1980's show up in the top 35 of the list of pitchers to debut since 1900. See if you can think of who they might be while looking at the list of the active career leaders in unearned runs allowed. Through last night's game, fifteen players who have pitched in 2008 have allowed more than 100 unearned runs over their career. There's still a few games left, but the only guy on the list who has a good shot to change his position is Jeff Suppan, pitching tonight for the Brewers.

Most Career Unearned Runs Allowed
Active Players (through 9/25/08)

1. Greg Maddux, 225
2. Randy Johnson, 186
3. Tim Wakefield, 177
4. Kenny Rogers, 171
5. Tom Glavine, 166
6. Jamie Moyer, 138
7. Andy Pettitte, 128
8. Derek Lowe, 116
9. Jon Lieber, 115
10. Steve Trachsel, 108
11. John Smoltz, 107
12. Jeff Suppan, 107
13. Julian Tavarez, 104
14. Mike Mussina, 103
15. Miguel Batista, 100
    

Paul Byrd sits at 98, but he hasn't allowed an unearned run since being traded to Boston. Livan Hernandez has allowed 95 unearned runs but hasn't allowed any since being signed by Colorado. One guy to keep an eye on both as this year ends and for the future is durable lefty Mark Buehrle. He's allowed 96 unearned runs by the age of 30. If he stays healthy and has the right kind of defense behind him, he could reach 200.

Finally, to answer the question I posed above: the three guys who pitched into the 1980's while finishing in the top 35 were Phil Niekro (325 UER - #16), Jim Kaat (300 UER - #23), and Gaylord Perry (282 UER - #34). If you got all three, have an iron glove. In case you're wondering, Greg Maddux's 225 UER allowed puts him at #70 on the list, tied with Charlie Hough.

Most Unearned Runs In a Game

If you've ever scrolled to the bottom of my blog you may have noticed a small Site Meter logo. Clicking on it takes you to the site summary for Recondite Baseball, and from there you can see the number of visits here every day. Another cool page there lists the referring URL for people who make it to my site. Most of the time it's Google searches directing people here but occasionally it's a new link from another website. Every once in a while, one of those Google searches or links brings up something interesting.

Last night, someone visited from a forum where a question was posted about the most unearned runs given up by a team in one game. I didn't have the answer on the site, but last September, I posted about the most unearned runs charged to individual pitchers and that entry was linked to in the forum. Of course, once I saw that, I wanted to know what the answer actually was.

I'm sure unearned runs were far more common in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when errors occurred much more frequently. In fact, looking at the career numbers of some pitchers from then confirms this. Nearly one-third of the runs allowed by Christy Mathewson were unearned. One-quarter of the runs Walter Johnson allowed were unearned. Cy Young gave up over 1000 unearned runs in his career.

When so many runs were unearned, it's likely at least some blowout games saw a lot of unearned runs. I would also think unearned runs weren't very notable. Sure, fans might harp on a team's defense (or lack thereof), but giving up, say, five unearned runs in a game probably wouldn't have the same surprise factor as it would today. With that in mind, perhaps it's good that the following list covers 1956-2008, where a lot of errors in a game is pretty glaring.

Most Unearned Runs Allowed In a Game By One Team, 1956-2008

Team	Opponent	Date	Runs
			Total	Earned	Unearned
Houston Astros	New York Mets	7/27/1985	16	0	16
Houston Astros	Chicago Cubs	5/31/1973	16	3	13
Minnesota Twins	Kansas City Royals	9/12/1976	16	3	13
Texas Rangers	California Angels	9/14/1978	16	3	13
New York Yankees	Baltimore Orioles	6/5/1989	16	3	13
Toronto Blue Jays	Balitmore Orioles	9/28/2000	23	10	13
New York Mets	Los Angeles Dodgers	8/26/1962	16	4	12
Chicago Cubs	San Francisco Giants	9/3/1963	16	5	11
Toronto Blue Jays	Texas Rangers	6/30/1992	16	5	11
Boston Red Sox	Cleveland Indians	7/14/1957	17	7	10
Chicago Cubs	Montreal Expos	6/25/1975	12	2	10
San Francisco Giants	St. Louis Cardinals	4/26/1976	15	5	10
California Angels	Chicago White Sox	5/31/1978	17	7	10
Oakland Athletics	Minnesota Twins	4/27/1980	20	10	10
Los Angeles Dodgers	Pittsburgh Pirates	5/3/1985	16	6	10
Oakland Athletics	Cleveland Indians	6/7/1987	12	2	10
Oakland Athletics	Chicago White Sox	10/3/1987	17	7	10
Minnesota Twins	New York Yankees	7/22/1990	10	0	10
Houston Astros	San Diego Padres	4/7/1996	17	7	10
Boston Red Sox	Toronto Blue Jays	5/5/1996	11	1	10
Arizona Diamondbacks	Milwaukee Brewers	10/7/2001	15	5	10
Los Angeles Angels	New York Yankees	8/3/2008	14	4	10

Hm, I guess sixteen runs allowed is the magic number for a lot of them to be unearned. I didn't realize the Angels gave up ten unearned runs only a couple weeks ago. I guess you learn something new every day.

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.

If not for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all

I want to look at games where a pitcher for a team gave up zero earned runs but a bunch (sorry to get all scientific there) of unearned runs. Specifically, the games with the most unearned runs with no earned runs. Conveniently, there's only been nine games (since 1957) where the starter had eight or more unearned runs without any earned runs. Let's look at those nine.

First up, the eight unearned runs appearances

• August 3, 1991 - Bill Wegman for Milwaukee pitching against Texas. Three errors within the first four batters of the game followed by a rocky first inning gave him a final line of 0.2 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 0 HR.
• October 7, 2001 - Eric Knott for Arizona pitching at Milwaukee. Everything was going fine until the fourth inning when two ill-timed errors coupled with a run of hits and a home run off a reliever, ensuring Knott's final line read 3.2 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0 HR.
• June 1, 2002 - Todd Ritchie pitching for Chicago (AL) against Cleveland. The fifth inning went as follows: F8, ROE5, 2B, K, BB, 1B, BB, 1B, FC/E4 (no out), HR, F9. Ritchie wound up with a cool 5.0 IP, 4 H, 8 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR.
• May 2, 2004 - Horacio Ramirez pitching for Atlanta at Colorado. Ramirez managed to be given unearned runs in three different innings as his defense melted down behind him. The lowlights: an E6 on a caught stealing in the first, setting up a throwing error by the second baseman leading to the first three unearned runs. An E5 allowing the batter to reach and a runner to reach second, followed by a walk, a balk, a sac fly, and a single, for three more unearned runs. Finally in the fourth two errors by the third baseman after Ramirez had been pulled allowed the two runners belonging to the unfortunate pitcher to score. 3.1 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 0 HR.

Next up, the nine unearned run games:

• July 14, 1957 (game 2) - Dean Stone in relief for Boston at Cleveland. Four hits and five walks artfully arranged around three errors in the eighth sank Stone. 2.0 IP, 4 H, 9 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 0 HR.
• May 8, 1976 (game 2) - Luis Tiant for Boston against Texas. An error on a grounder to short in between a strikeout and a pop fly meant the second inning should have ended, but the Rangers didn't let their second chance go, socking two singles, two doubles, a triple and a home run off El Tiante before an insult-to-injury error by the third baseman allowed the final unearned run of the inning to score. 1.2 IP, 6 H, 9 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR.
• May 2, 1994 - Bobby Jones for New York (NL) against San Francisco. Here's the third inning: G63, 1B, G13, ROE6, HR, 1B, SB/BB, ROE4, WP, IBB, 3B, 1B, F8. Blech. 2.2 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.
• July 3, 2002 - Chris Reitsma for Cincinnati against Houston. An error by Reitsma himself allowing a run should have been the second out, voiding the sacrifice fly immediately following and surely preventing the three-run home run after the sac fly. Of course, five runs wasn't enough, so in the fourth an error by the shortstop and an error on a relay for a double play meant four more unearned runs would eventually score. 4.0 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 HR.

And the outing that takes the cake:

• June 6, 1989 - Andy Hawkins on the mound for the home Yankees against the Orioles. In the top of the first, two quick outs were followed up by a ground-rule double and two walks, loading the bases for Jim Traber. Jesse Barfield misplayed a fly ball to deep center, allowing the first three unearned runs off Hawkins to score. Larry Sheets grounded out to second to end the inning. The second inning went quickly, but the third probably gives Hawkins nightmares to this day. Steve Finley led off with a bunt pop-up that was dropped by first baseman Don Mattingly. Cal Ripken Jr. then hit a grounder to Hawkins who promptly threw wildly to second, allowing Finley to reach third. Mickey Tettleton then reached on an E4, putting runners on the corners again and allowing Finley to score. Joe Orsulak then singled to right, plating Ripken; Tettleton was out at third but Orsulak took second on the throw. Jim Traber drove the next pitch into the gap in right-center, scoring Orsulak and placing himself at second. Larry Sheets was intentionally walked. Craig Worthington singled up the middle, scoring Traber and moving Sheets to second. Billy Ripken singled to center, loading the bases. Hawkins was then relieved by Chuck Cary who induced a ground ball to Mattingly, getting the lead runner at home for the second out of the inning. Before anyone could get optimistic, Steve Finley closed the book on Hawkins by hitting Cary's next pitch for a grand slam. The total damage: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 10 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 0 HR.

Andy Hawkins certainly had a bad day on June 5, 1989. I would guess that he may remember July 1, 1990 a little bit more. That was the day he lost a game 4-0 while holding the Chicago White Sox hitless for eight innings. His given name is Melton, but it may as well be Meltdown for what his defense did behind him.

Not So Sweet Relief

Here's a list of the longest streaks of giving up one run (whether earned or not) or more in relief appearances. Starts may be in between relief appearances for some of these guys.

• Players to give up at least one run in 14 consecutive appearances
• Benj Sampson, 6/12/1999 to 8/19/1999
• Players to give up at least one run in 13 consecutive appearances
• Tanyon Sturtze, 6/9/2004 to 8/31/2004
• Sammy Stewart, 4/30/1983 to 6/11/1983
• Players to give up at least one run in 12 consecutive appearances
• Steve Shields, 9/18/1985 to 7/5/1986
• Dave Lemanczyk, 9/16/1978 to 6/29/1980
• Allen Ripley, 7/7/1979 to 9/16/1979
• Players to give up at least one run in 11 consecutive appearances
• Tanyon Sturtze, 7/17/1997 to 4/25/2000
• John Davis, 5/8/1988 to 7/17/1988
• Steve Baker, 4/21/1979 to 4/7/1983
• Bryan Clark, 7/3/1982 to 8/21/1982
• Shane Rawley, 7/14/1978 to 8/18/1978
• Steve Dunning, 8/13/1973 to 6/11/1976
• Claude Raymond, 7/9/1964 to 8/16/1964
• Jack Meyer, 6/19/1959 to 8/21/1959
• Players to give up at least one run in 10 consecutive apperances
• Marty McLeary, 8/22/2004 to 5/19/2007 (active)
• Joaquin Benoit, 7/13/2003 to 6/13/2004
• Travis Miller, 8/1/1997 to 8/7/1998
• Danny Graves, 8/31/1997 to 5/17/1998
• Carl Willis, 9/26/1986 to 5/8/1991
• Dave Gumpert, 9/28/1986 to 5/29/1987
• Jon Matlack, 7/8/1978 to 7/19/1982
• John Verhoeven, 6/28/1980 to 8/2/1980
• Paul Reuschel, 8/8/1978 to 7/29/1979
• Jim Shellenback, 5/23/1974 to 9/10/1977
• Don Kirkwood, 6/20/1977 to 8/14/1977
• Dave Pagan, 5/7/1977 to 7/4/1977
• Bill Butler, 4/11/1975 to 7/20/1975
• Craig Anderson, 8/19/1962 to 5/19/1964
• Ray Daviault, 4/13/1962 to 7/15/1962
• Wally Burnette, 5/12/1957 to 7/25/1957

I wonder if Benj Sampson knows he's a record-holder?