Welcome to another edition Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday, a weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances or statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that caught my eye.
Let’s start this one with a Trivia(l) question.
“In 2005, when he pitched 188 1/3 innings for the Twins, how many right-handed hitters did Carlos Silva walk?” The answer is one – the Tigers’ Craig Monroe – and that was Silva’s one intentional walk that season. It came in the fourth inning of a game in Detroit. The Twins were trailing 1-0, there were two outs and a runner on second. Monroe, who was hitting in the .290s came up and Silva was ordered to send him to first base, bringing up 2B Omar Infante, who came into the game with a .233 average. Silva fanned infante on five pitches. So, not a single righty was able to “work” Silva for a walk all season. Monroe, by the way, drew only 40 walks in 623 plate appearance in 2005.
Silva’s 2005 season saw him produce the lowest single-season walks per nine innings mark by qualifying AL/NL pitcher since the four-ball walk rule was instituted (Four balls became a walk in 1888, prior to that walks were – at varying times – nine, eight, six and five balls.) Silva walked just nine batters in 188 1/3 innings – a stingy 0.43 walks per nine frames. Note: Baseball-Reference.com indicates Negro League rankings from 1920-48 are not yet complete.
Silva pitched in nine MLB seasons (2002-20 … Phillies, Twins, Mariners, Cubs), going 70-70, 4.68. While he had a solid 1.7 nine walks per nine innings over his career, 2005 was the only year he led his league in fewest walks per nine. That season, he gave up zero walks in 18 of his 27 starts and one walk in each of the other nine. He finished at 9-8, 3.44.
As an aside, among the 25 lowest single-season qualifying walk rates, Silva’s is the only one recorded post-1888. At number 26 is Charles “Babe” Adams’ 1920 season at 0.62 (18 walks in 263 innings).
A perhaps not so Trivia(l) tidbit. On July 17, 1914 Adams started for the Pirates against future Hall of Famer Rube Marquard (of the Giants). To that point in the season, Adams had gone 7-9, 1.96 – and had walked only 22 batters in 142 1/3 innings pitched (1.4 walks per nine innings). He would be a lot stingier with the free passes on that day. Adams, in fact, would set the MLB record for the most innings pitched in a single outing without giving up a walk. Adams went the distance in a 21-inning, 3-1 Pirates’ loss (the Giants’ Marquard also pitched the full 21 innings). In the 21 frames, Adams gave up just 12 hits – and zero walks – while fanning six. Marquard gave up 15 hits and two walks, while fanning just two. The game was tied at one apiece after 20 innings, but the Giants got to Adams for two in the top of the 21st – on a single by CF Bob Bescher and an inside-the-park homer by 2B Larry Doyle.
Adams pitched in 19 MLB seasons (1906-07, 1909-16, 1918-26). He pitched for the Pirates in all but the 1906 season (Cardinals). Adams went 194-140, 2.76 over his career and led the NL in fewest walks per nine innings in four straight seasons (1919-22), finishing the league’s top-three in the category in nine times.
For those who like to know such things, the most consecutive innings pitched without allowing a walk in 84 1/3 by Athletics’ Bill Fisher – between the first batter of a game on August 3, 1962 and the second batter of the fifth inning of a game on September 30, 1962 (covering 13 starts and one relief appearance). Fisher pitched in nine MLB seasons (1956-64 … White Sox, Tigers, Senators, Athletics, Twins), going 45-58, 4.34 in 281 games (78 starts).
Primary Resources: Baseball-Reference.com; Baseball-Almanac.com
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