Tom Cheney’s Remarkable 21-Strikeout Performance

Cheney, sent 21 Orioles down swinging and looking, in a record-setting performance.

As Yu Darvish notched 14 strikeouts in seven innings yesterday, BBRT observed a lot of online chatter about his chance to reach the twenty-strikeouts in a game record of Kerry Wood and Roger Clemens. Woods and Clemens did indeed strikeout 20 batters in a nine-inning game (as did Randy Johnson in the first nine-innings – before being relieved – of an 11-inning contest).  What I didn’t read was much recognition for a slight (5’11”, 170-pound) righthander named Tom Cheney, who struck out a record 21 hitters in a single (extra inning) major league game – a 16-inning contest between the Washington Senators and Baltimore Orioles (in Baltimore) on September 12, 1962.  So, BBRT will use this post to give Cheney his “props.”

The 27-year-old Cheney began the night with a 5-8 record on the season (and a 9-18 career record).  He didn’t strike out anyone in the first inning, and had only one strikeout after two, but players later said his curveball was electric and he had total control of his fastball.  The result?  After sixteen innings,  Cheney had a complete game, 2-1 win, and a new strikeout record.

His line looked like this.

IP        H    R    ER     BB    SO

16      10    1       1        4      21

The scoreboard looked like this:

Wash.  100 000 000 000 000 1      2  10  0

Balt.    000 000 100 000 000 0      1   10 2

Cheney threw 228 pitches.

Four players fanned three times each:  Second baseman Marv Breeding; Pitcher Dick Hall; Center fielder Dave Nicholson; Right Fielder Russ Snyder.

The losing pitcher was Dick Hall, who tossed 8 1/3 innings in relief.

The game was won on a home run in the top of the 16th by Senators’ first sacker Bud Zipfel, who also drove in the Senators first-inning run (on a groundout) and went three-for-seven in the game.  The 16^th inning homer was the tenth and final home run of Zipfel’s two-year, 118-game major league career (.220-10-39).

The final out was a called strike out of pinch hitter Dick Williams (yes, the Dick Williams who went on to a long career as a major league manager.).  Williams, by the way, had a 13-year (1,023-game) MLB career as a player – in which he hit .260, with 70 homers and 331 RBI.

Cheney finished the year at 7-9, 3.17, and went 19-29, 3.77 for his eight year MLB career (1957-66).

Inning by inning strikeouts for Cheney looked like this:

1^st  –  0

2^nd  – 1

3^rd  –  3

4^th  –  1

5^th  –  3

6^th  –  1

7^th –   0

8^th –   2

9^th  –  2

10^th – 2

11^th – 2

12^th – 0

13^th – 0

14^th – 2

15^th – 1

16^th – 1