It’s time again for Baseball Roundtable’s 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,” one-of-a-kind MLB accomplishments or statistics.
This Tidbit looks at what is now popularly termed a “Maddux” – designated as a single-pitcher shutout of at least nine innings in which the pitcher threw less than 100 pitches.
There were three in 2025, tossed by the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi (99 pitches in a 1-0 win over the Reds April 1); the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal (94 pitches in a 5-0 win over the Guardians May 25); and the Cardinals’ Sonny Gray (89 pitches in a 5-0 win over the Guardians on June 27). Overall, I was able to find 395 documented regular-season “Madduxes” – 329 since MLB officially began tracking pitch counts in 1988 and 66 pre-1988 listed by stathead.com.
Now, of course, the Baseball Roundtable goal is to find a “unicorn” or two among those 395 outings. Well, it wasn’t no-hitters, 17 of the recorded Madduxes were no-nos. It also wasn’t perfect games. Available pitch counts (Baseball-Almanac.com) show that at least ten of MLB’s 24 regular-season perfect games were completed in less than 100 pitches (and you can add in Don Larsen’s perfecto in the 1956 World Series, which came in at 97 pitches). A bit of #InBaseballRoundtableOneThingAlwaysSeemsToLeadToAnother, the most pitches thrown in a Perfect Game is 125, by Matt Cain of the Giants in his perfect outing versus the Astros (a 10-0 win) on June 13, 2012. In that one, Cain fanned 14 Astros, giving him a tie (with Sandy Koufax) for the most strikeouts in a Perfect Game. But I digress. Let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming.
It became clear, I was looking in the wrong forest for my Maddux unicorn. So, I changed direction – and I found my first unicorn: Only one pitcher has ever thrown a Maddux while giving up ten or more hits.
Photo: Keith Allison on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On August 3, 2004, Twins’ righthander Carlos Silva shutout the Angels on 99 pitches – while giving up 11 hits and two walks (he struck out three) and having one batter reach safely on an error. The Twins, ironically, equaled the Angels’ 11 hits, but tallied ten runs. They did draw three walks to the Angels’ two and had two hit batsmen, with no one reaching on an an error. However, there were two big differences. First, The Angels’ hits were all singles, while the Twins’ hit parade included four home runs and a double. Second, the Twins turned six double plays behind Silva to zero twin killings turned by the Angels. In Silva’s Maddux, 19 of the thirty batters he faced saw two or fewer pitches (seven of those putting the first pitch of the at bat in play).
Silva went 14-8, 4.21 in 2004 and that Maddux was his only complete game. For his career (2002-2010 … Phillies, Twins, Mariners, Cubs), Silva went 70-70, 4.68 in 316 games/180 starts, with six complete games and two shutouts.
I also found another interesting unicorn. Only one player has pitched what I’d call an Uber-Maddux. On September 6, 2003, the Blue Jays’ Roy Halladay pitched the only extra-inning Maddux. In a tough 1-0 win over the Tigers, Halladay pitched ten shutout innings (three hits, one walk, five strikeouts) on just 99 pitches.
Now, a few more Maddux’ tidbits.
- Strikeouts, of course, run up the pitch count and diminish the opportunity for a Maddux. The most strikeouts in a Maddux is 13, achieved by the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal May 25 of this season (in a 5-0, 94-pitch win over the Guardians). Seventy-two of Skubal’s 94 pitches were strikes (includes balls put in play) and his 13 strikeouts used 59 pitches, while the 16 batters he faced that didn’t fan required a total of 35 pitches.
- Walks also run up the pitch count and the most walks issued in a Maddux is five, by the Dodger’s Vic Lombardi in a 5-0, 92-pitch win over the Cubs on July 11, 1947. Lombardi’s Maddux got off to a slow start. In the first two innings, he gave up three walks and a single and used 35 pitches. He struck out two in the game and was aided by four double plays.
- The fewest pitches thrown in a Maddux is 58 by the Braves’ Red Barrett in a 2-0 win over the Reds on August 10, 1944. Barrett’s game was a two-hitter, with no strikeouts or walks. Although the pitch count for this game is not listed in stathead.com (so, if you’ve read this far, you can add one to my 395 Maddux count), it is generally recognized and can be found in his Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) bio by Sidney Davis; The SABR Article “August 10, 1944: Braves’ Red Barrett shuts out the Reds with record-low 58 pitches” (by Jack Zerby); the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen section; the “Michelson Book of World Baseball Records”; and Baseball-Almanac.com. This outing is also recognized as the fewest pitches ever in any nine-inning complete game.
- As you might expect, Greg Maddux holds the record for the most career Madduxes thrown (13). Next on the list is Zane Smith with seven. Maddux shares the record for the most Madduxes tossed in a season (three in 1998), with Smith (1991) and Sandy Koufax (1964).
I would add that Madduxes are becoming more of a rarity (which is an obvious trend given today’s pitching usage. Going back to the first year of MLB officially tracking pitch counts as a statistic: The five seasons from 1988-92 saw 92 Madduxes, while the most recent five MLB seasons (2021-25) saw 17. The last season in which we saw ten or more Madduxes was 2014 when there were 12.
Primary Resources: Stathead.com; Baseball-Almanac.com
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