Once again, it’s time for Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” those one-of-a-kind accomplishments or statistics.
Once again, the usual pair of declaimers: Given statistical accuracy and game formats, I am restricting myself to the Modern Era (post-1900) and not all Negro League game stats have been fully documented and incorporated into the MLB record books. (In 2020, the Negro Leagues from 1920-48 were designated major league.)
Boston Red Sox Photo Cards, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today we’re focusing on nine-inning games in which a starting pitcher fanned a record 20 batters – largely because today is the 39th anniversary of the first such contest. On April 29, 1986, the Red Sox’ Roger Clemens fanned 20 batters in a nine-inning, three-hit, 1-0 win over the Mariners (in Boston). Since that time, we have seen three more nine-inning contests that featured 20 strikeouts by the winning pitcher/starter. We’ll get to this in a bit, but I should note here that there was also one 11-inning game in which the starter went nine and fanned 20 batters.
What has always struck me about these 20-whiff games is a unique common denominator. As the chart shows, there was not a single free pass issued by the record-tying hurler in any of the games.
Now, you know how The Roundtable likes “unicorns,” so before we go any further, I’d like to drop one into this post. There has been only one occasion when an MLB pitcher fanned more than 20 batters in a game. On September 12, 1962, Senators’ righty Tom Cheney started on the mound versus the Orioles (in Baltimore). Sixteen innings later, he was still on the mound – striking out Orioles’ pinch-hitter Dick Williams (yes, that Dick Williams) for the final out and his 21st strikeout (on Cheney’s 228th pitch) in a 2-1 victory. Sixteen innings and 228 pitches! Shows how times have changed. Also, a sign of the times, reports are that Cheney chain-smoked cigarettes between innings. In his Society for American Baseball Research article “September 12, 1962: Tom Cheney strikes out a record 21 batters,” Andrew Sharp related a quote from Cheney teammate Chuck Hinton: “That game, he (Cheney) must have gone through three packs of cigarettes.”
The victory ran Cheney’s record on the season to 6-8, 3.01 and he would finish the season at 7-9, 3.17. Cheney pitched in eight MLB seasons (1957, 1959-64, 1966 … Cardinals, Pirates, Senators), going 19-29, 3.77, with 13 complete games and eight shutouts in 71 starts (155 total appearances). His career was interrupted and cut short by a 1963 elbow injury. (There has been speculation about the impact on Cheney’s arm of the 228-pitch outing the previous season.)
Now, back to our scheduled programming. Clemens, whose August 29, 1962 accomplishment triggered this post, is a bit of a unicorn himself – the only pitcher with two 20-strikeout, nine-inning games. Oh, and that starter who went nine-innings and fanned 20 in an extra-inning game? That was Randy Johnson. On May 9, 2001, Johnson started for the Diamondbacks (versus the Reds) in Arizona. After nine innings, he had recorded 20 strikeouts, while giving up one run on three hits. And, like the other 20-whiff pitchers, he had walked no one. Sadly, for Johnson, the score was knotted at 1-1 and he was relieved in the tenth by Byung-Hyun Kim. (The Diamondbacks eventually won 4-3 in 11 innings.)
A couple of other tidbits.
- Before Clemens’ record-breaking performance, the mark for strikeouts in a nine-inning game was 19 – shared by Steve Carlton (1969 Cardinals); Tom Seaver (1970 Mets); and Nolan Ryan (1974 Angels).
- Ryan threw four 19-strikeout games in his career – going more than nine innings in three of them (10, 11 and 13 innings). Three of his 19-strikeout games came in 1974.
- The list of players with 19-strikeout games is an impressive one: Nolan Ryan; Randy Johnson; Tom Seaver; Luis Tiant; Steve Carlton; and David Cone.
- Carlton, Ryan and Johnson are the only pitchers to fan 19 batters in a game and take a loss.
Side Note: Of the ten nineteen-strikeout outings (games of any length) only two have been walk-free.
Primary Resource: Stathead.com
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