NOT ALWAYS THAT EASY TO CONTROL!!!
Earlier this week (Wednesday, April 16), The Red Sox topped the White Sox 6-4 in a game in which nine White Sox pitchers (including infielder Leury Garcia, who took the loss) issued 15 walks. The Red Sox used a pair of free passes and a double to score two runs in the top of the 14th inning to pull out the victory. The very next day, in the second game of a split doubleheader, BBRT’s home team Twins – trailing the Blue Jays 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth – put together a six-run, game-winning rally on the backs of eight walks, three wild pitches and one lone hit (a Jason Kubel single).
Those two games got BBRT thinking about what events might be found if they made a low-budget video of “Pitchers Gone Wild.”
First, while the games mentioned above might make the cut, they would be far from the headliners. Those fifteen walks by the White Sox fell short of the record (for one team) for walks in a game. The record for a nine-inning contest stands at 18, accomplished twice. First, on May 9, 1916, three Philadelphia Athletics hurlers walked 18 Tigers in a 16-2 loss at home. Lefty Carl Ray, whose MLB career consisted of just five appearances, took the brunt of the punishment. Ray came on in a mop-up role with the Athletics down 9-0 after two innings. He threw the final seven frames, giving up seven runs on six hits and twelve walks. By the way, the Tigers also contributed to the Pitchers Gone Wild audition in this game – the two Tiger pitchers gave up a combined 12 walks, playing a solid supporting role in setting the record for most walks by both teams in a nine-inning contest (30). The magic number of 18 walks in nine innings was reached again on May 20, 1948, when a pair of Red Sox pitchers walked 18 in a 13-4 loss to the Indians in Cleveland.
Note: The pre-1900 record for walks by one team in a nine-inning game is 20, by the American Association (then a major league) Cleveland Blues (versus the Louisville Colonels) on September 21, 1987. The National League record of 17 has been reached three times.
The record for walks in a single game (including extra innings) is held by the Cleveland Indians, whose used seven pitchers and issued 19 free passes in a 20-inning 8-6 loss to the Washington Senators on September 14, 1971. Here again, the opposition held up its send of the Pitchers Gone Wild script, with the Senators using nine pitchers to issue eleven walks, setting the extra-inning walks record by both teams at 30 (equal to the nine-inning record.) Notably, two well-known starters were in the game at the end, with former Tiger and last MLB single season 30-game winner Denny McLain picking up the win for the Senators, and Cleveland’s hard-throwing Sudden Sam McDowell taking the loss.
Turning now to the eight walks the Blue Jays “gave” to the Twins in a single inning – again, the total is short of the record. On September 11, 1949, four Washington Senators’ pitches gave up 12 runs to the Yankees in the bottom of the third inning of a 20-5 loss to the Bronx Bombers – courtesy of a record (for a single inning) eleven walks, accompanied by two doubles, two singles and an error. During the inning, a record four Yankees were walked twice – Cliff Mapes (RF), Charlie Keller (LF), Joe Collins (1B), and Jerry Coleman (2B). The Yanks, by the way, scored their twenty runs on a combination of 17 hits and 17 free passes.
Pitchers Gone Wild was the theme in the seventh inning of the White Sox/Athletics game of April 22, 1959 – when the Sox scored eleven runs off three As’ pitchers on just one hit (a single). The inning started off with two errors (by the shortstop and third baseman) and a single (actually three errors, the third hitter, Johnny Callison, hit a run-scoring single and a second run scored on an error by the right fielder). It was then that the fun began. The Sox went on to collect 10 bases on balls (a record eight with the bases loaded) and one hit-by-pitch (with the bases loaded) for eleven runs.
Pitchers Not As Wild As You Might Think. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. On May 2, 1956, The Giants and Cubs (playing in Chicago) matched up in a 17-inning contest (won by the Giants 6-5) that featured 19 bases on balls. The pitchers, however, were not that “out of control” – a record 11 of those were intentional walks – and ten of the eleven worked as planned.
- In the bottom of the second, with a man on second and two out, the Giants’ Al Worthington intentionally walked Cubs’ catcher Hobie Landreth to get to pitcher Russ Meyer (who grounded to end the inning, preserving a 1-1 tie).
- The next intentional pass didn’t come until the top of the eighth (with the Giants up 5-4), when the Cubs’ Russ Meyer intentionally walked Giants’ catcher Wes Westrum with a man on second and two out to bring up pitcher Don Liddle (who flied out to end the inning).
- Things got a little more complicated in the bottom of the ninth, when – with the game tied 5-5 – Giants’ reliever Hoyt Wilhelm faced Cubs’ slugger Ernie Banks with the winning run on second base. Wilhelm intentionally walked Banks, then Steve Ridzik was brought in and intentionally walked Cubs number-five hitter Walt Moryn to load the bases. Ridzek than fanned Monte Irvin and Gene Baker to end the inning.
- In the top of the eleventh, the Giants put a man on second with two out and center fielder Willie Mays due up. Cubs’ pitcher Jim Davis intentionally walked Mays to bring up Bob Lennon (who was zero-for-five with two strikeouts). The Giants countered with pinch hitter, Bobby Hoffman, who grounded out pitcher-to-first.
- The Giants threatened again in the top of the twelfth – with runners on second and third (single, single, sacrifice) and one out. Giants’ catcher Westrum got his second intentional pass, bringing up pitcher Steve Ridzik. Wayne Terwilliger hit for Ridzik and struck out. Davis then got leadoff hitter Whitey Lockman to foul out, again preserving the tie.
- In the top of the sixteenth, the Cubs’ fifth pitcher, Jim Brosnan, gave up a double to Giants’ third baseman Foster Castleman with two outs, and the intentional-pass parade continued. Brosnan intentionally walked Don Mueller and pinch hitter Hank Thompson to load the bases and bring pitcher Windy McCall to the plate. Benches were getting short (ultimately 48 players would appear in the game), so the Giants used pitcher Johnny Antonelli as a pinch hitter. Antonelli grounded out to end the threat.
- In the bottom of the sixteenth, the Cubs’ fleet outfielder Solly Drake attempted to bunt for a hit and reached on an error (ending up at second base) to start the inning. Dee Fondy sacrificed him to third and Banks was again intentionally walked before the Giants’ Joe Margoneri retired Walt Moryn and Monte Irvin to escape unscathed and send the contest into the 17th inning.
- The Giants finally pushed across the winning run in the top of the 17th, but not without a struggle. Al Dark doubled with one out and went to third on a Brosnan wild pitch. Willie Mays and Dusty Rhodes were walked intentionally, loading the bases before Dark scored on a sacrifice fly by Daryl Spencer. (The Cubs did have one last hope in the bottom of the inning, putting a runner on second with two outs before the Giants brought in Ruben Gomez, who fanned Don Hoak to finally end the contest).
Finally, we can’t simply malign pitchers. We need to give credit where credit is due. So, we’d like to acknowledge Montreal Expos’ pitchers Pascual Perez, Tim Burke, Bryn Smith, Zane Smith, Rich Thompson and Dennis Martinez, who – on August 23, 1989 – combined to pitch twenty-two innings without giving up a single walk (17 strikeouts). They did give up 20 hits and it was the 20th safety (leading off the 22th inning) – a home run by catcher Rick Dempsey – that gave the visiting Dodgers a 1-0 victory that day. The Expos still hold the record for the longest game without giving up a walk.
