Getting Shelled

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Which starting pitchers have been shelled most often? I’m not talking about guys with careers of only a handful of starts. No, I’m thinking more about established pitchers. Which of those pitchers have most frequently had a tough day at the office?

To find the answer, I looked for pitchers who had the most games compiling a game score of 20 or less. Turns out there are 199 pitchers since 1919 who have at least 15 such games in their careers. Follow this link to see these pitchers and their lemon games.

Among those 199 pitchers, these are the ones with the highest rate of starts below our “Mendoza line” of game scores.

Rk	Player	GS	Shelled	Rate	G	W	L	W-L%	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	ERA+
1	Claude Willoughby	102	15	14.71%	219	38	58	0.396	841.1	1111	631	546	406	175	5.84	81
2	Bryan Rekar	108	15	13.89%	131	25	49	0.338	655	788	451	409	208	383	5.62	88
3	Chris Haney	125	16	12.80%	196	38	52	0.422	824.2	924	510	465	286	442	5.07	91
4	Benny Frey	127	15	11.81%	256	57	82	0.410	1160	1415	668	580	263	179	4.5	90
5	George Caster	127	15	11.81%	376	76	100	0.432	1377.2	1469	833	695	597	595	4.54	96
6	Clint Brown	130	15	11.54%	434	89	93	0.489	1485.2	1740	830	704	368	410	4.26	109
7	Jack Russell	182	21	11.54%	557	85	141	0.376	2050.2	2454	1187	1017	571	418	4.46	97
8	Gordon Rhodes	135	15	11.11%	200	43	74	0.368	1048.2	1196	676	565	477	356	4.85	95
9	Ricky Nolasco	148	16	10.81%	164	64	51	0.557	922.1	976	500	461	213	786	4.5	93
10	Sidney Ponson	278	29	10.43%	298	91	113	0.446	1760.1	2004	1051	983	609	1031	5.03	90
11	Ricky Bones	164	17	10.37%	375	63	82	0.434	1278.1	1422	754	689	464	564	4.85	95
12	Jaime Navarro	309	32	10.36%	361	116	126	0.479	2055.1	2313	1206	1078	690	1113	4.72	91
13	Jamey Wright	246	25	10.16%	526	85	121	0.413	1828.2	1963	1113	1002	898	1016	4.93	95
14	Ray Benge	248	25	10.08%	346	101	130	0.437	1875.1	2177	1108	941	598	655	4.52	96
15	Carlos Silva	180	18	10.00%	316	70	70	0.500	1241.2	1496	687	645	238	554	4.68	93
16	Sam Gray	231	23	9.96%	379	111	115	0.491	1951.1	2196	1107	907	639	730	4.18	107
17	Wes Ferrell	323	32	9.91%	374	193	128	0.601	2623	2845	1382	1177	1040	985	4.04	117
18	James Baldwin	202	20	9.90%	266	79	74	0.516	1322.2	1443	794	737	486	844	5.01	92
19	Steve Sparks	182	18	9.89%	270	59	76	0.437	1319.2	1451	800	716	520	658	4.88	95
20	Paul Wilson	153	15	9.80%	170	40	58	0.408	941.2	1029	560	509	336	619	4.86	89
21	Jose Lima	235	23	9.79%	348	89	102	0.466	1567.2	1783	972	917	393	980	5.26	85
22	Milt Gaston	269	26	9.67%	355	97	164	0.372	2105	2338	1277	1064	836	615	4.55	96
23	Kip Wells	212	20	9.43%	289	67	99	0.404	1301	1349	750	681	615	944	4.71	94
24	Mark Redman	203	19	9.36%	219	68	85	0.444	1238.2	1364	712	668	407	747	4.85	93
25	Buck Ross	182	17	9.34%	237	56	95	0.371	1365.1	1545	882	749	573	360	4.94	88
26	Elam Vangilder	187	17	9.09%	367	99	102	0.493	1715.2	1894	1014	815	700	474	4.28	101
27	Scott Erickson	364	33	9.07%	389	142	136	0.511	2360.2	2586	1306	1203	865	1252	4.59	98
28	Pedro Astacio	343	31	9.04%	392	129	124	0.510	2196.2	2292	1213	1140	726	1664	4.67	98

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/15/2012.

The complete list of our 199 pitchers is in the table below. You can scroll through or search for particular pitchers.

Any surprises?

[table id=25 /]

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Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Herb Pennock had a record of 3-9 in his 17 games.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/game_finder.cgi?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool&foo=1&type=p&id=pennohe01#ajax_result_table::none

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Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

In 2 of the 3 games Pennock won, the opposing starter also had a game score under 20. In one of those games, both starters had a game score of 10 or less, of one 13 such games. 8 of those 13 games occurred from 1987 to 2008, the other 5 from 1928 to 1938.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

One of the games where both starters had a game score under 10 was this Yankees-Red Sox game in Ynakee Stadium in 1987. An old Tommy John was facing a young Roger Clemens. John was shelled early and the Red Sox led 9-0 after two innings. One inning later, the Red Sox were behind 11-9, as the Yankees got to Clemens. Yankees would win 12-11 in 10 innings. Both pitchers had a game score of 8.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA198706260.shtml

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, I was 14 years old sitting the rightfield bleachers for that game. I remember one guy, clearly drunk, moustache foaming, cursing and storming out after the second inning. That was strange, because that Never, Never happened in the bleachers. Box seats, yes. But still, down 9-0 against Clemens. It didn’t look good. That 3rd inning was the most amazing half hour + I ever spent at the stadium. And it could have been more than 11 runs. Gary Ward made the first out of the inning, then got caught caught off third after a Mattingly double. Make the turn… Read more »

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Voomo, you do remember that game well. Ward had a WPA- of -0.329 for the game, almost twice as much as the next lowest Yankee.

Majik

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

That game was my first game at Yankee Stadium. My buddies and I (we were all in our late teens/early 20s) all drove down from the Boston area and spent a very drunken weekend at our friend’s apartment near 125th Street in Manhattan. What little I remember of the game is that we had seats way back in the grandstand along the first base line and that we were slightly obnoxious to the fans around us after the Sox built up that 9-0 lead. When things fell apart it seemed like the whole stadium turned around and started ragging on… Read more »

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

On 4/22/59 the White Sox scored 11 runs in the 7th inning on just one hit against the KC A’s. There were 10 BB, 1 HBP and 2 ROE. With Tom Gorman pitching the sequenece was ROE, ROE, single, BB, SB, BB and BB. In comes Mark Freeman to relieve and the sequence was BB, forceout and BB. Then in comes George Brunet with this sequence: BB, BB, HBP, BB, SO, BB,BB and GO.

The Sox won 20-6.

Mike L

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

perhaps the umpire was squeezing them?

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

That has got to be a record for walks in a single inning…

Great stuff.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

The EIGHT runs scored on walks have to be a record, at least.
____________

Curious about the official scoring on Gorman, the pitcher who started the inning.

ROE
ROE
Single (with an error on the play)
BB
BB
BB (with Gorman replaced mid-batter)

All runners scored.

Gorman was charged with 6 runs, 2 of them earned.

First of all, only 5 of his batters scored, as Shaw was forced at home a few batters later.

And I have no idea how the scorer came up with 2 ER when the first two batters ROE.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KC1/KC1195904220.shtml#play_by_play::none

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Amendment to the above – I failed to remove “all runners scored” after I noticed that that wasn’t the case.
Sorry for the confusion (because analyzing 53 year old boxscores really needs to be a precise science to make it worthwhile).

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Our very own Raphy wrote about that game on the old BR blog.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/3480

One of the commenters mentions a game between the Yankees and the Senators in which the Yankees had 11 walks in one inning.

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

And here’s a post from Sean on walking in 3 or more straight batters (since ’57).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/98

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

I spend ten minutes trying to find those 3 wins by Pennock, and you guys all beat me to the punch. Alas. My only response left is, “That’s what having the 20s/30s Yankees hitting on offense will do for you”.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

All of the game links are accessible from the link in the article, where I said “Follow this link to see these pitchers and their lemon games.”

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Pettitte’s next win ties him all-time with Herb Pennock.
Appropriate to the comeback…

Pennock with NY:
.643 (162-90)

Pettitte with NY:
.644 (203-112)

bstar

12 years ago

Doug,
I was not aware “Game Scores” were even available on B-ref. Do you have the link to the Play Index page you used to get this info? Very interesting. Stunned to not see Derek Lowe on this list after his last 3 years with the Braves.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

1. Go to Play-Index Pitching Game Finder, here.
2. Select “Find Players With Most Matching Games in Multiple Years”
3. Select your time period and other filters you want.
4. Under “Select Additional Criteria”, select Game Score from the drop-down list (it’s right below HR), and specify your search criteria
5. Click Get Report

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Derek Lowe is on the list. Type his name in the table search box to bring up his score.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks Doug. ‘Round Braves circles, we had a name for a Herb Pennock win. It was called the “D.L.W.”, or Derek Lowe Win.

Admin

Andy

12 years ago

For an explanation of Game Scores, please visit out Stats Glossary here:

http://www.highheatstats.com/?page_id=27

I have just updated it with an explanation of Game Score.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Carlos Silva is fat, not a good looking man, a bad pitcher, and a very rich man.

Doug

12 years ago

Re: the Sox-As game. I wonder at what point the As manager was ejected for arguing balls and strikes.

That is just crazy.

James Smyth

12 years ago

When I saw the description of the post, I thought of Sidney Ponson

Jeff Allen

12 years ago

Lima was less than 10%, huh? That actually surprises me that it was that low. We Ferrell’s presence that high is also interesting, makes me want to see if those weren’t mostly from the later part of his career. Other than that, no real surprises in the top 50 or so.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Jeff Allen

Ferrell had quite a rough patch from 1936 to 1938. He was shelled 19 times in 99 starts in those years, a 19.2% rate. In 1938 alone, he had 8 shells in 26 starts, over 30%.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Jack Morris does not belong in this list, he was pitching to the score 🙂