Quiz – Alex Cobb (stumped)

Alex Cobb, the Rays’ young right-hander, has made an impressive start to his major-league career. Among active starters with 300 career IP, Cobb is one of only 11 pitchers with a career HR/9 below 0.75 and a SO/BB ratio above 2.5. His .641 career winning percentage ranks second in that group, behind only Lance Lynn‘s mark of .654.

Cobb also authored a game start that is unique among all major league starts of the past 5 seasons. What is that start and why is it so unusual?

Hint: Prior to Cobb’s start, there had been 6 other such games in this century (since 2000). There were 13 such games for 1990-99, 44 for 1980-89 and 110 for 1970-79.

It appears I’ve stumped the panel, for a change. The unusual thing about Cobb’s game is that his game score was less than the number of batters he faced. Add in 8 innings pitched and it’s the only such game since 2008. With long starts becoming as rare as double-headers, and almost every pitcher usually able to register at least a handful of strikeouts (a big part of game score), these games are really getting scarce. The other matching games are after the jump.

Here are the only other games of this century with 8 innings pitched and a game score lower than the number of batters faced.

Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc BF
1 Randy Johnson 2008-06-20 ARI MIN L 2-7 CG 8 ,L 8.0 11 7 7 2 1 1 112 74 31 34
2 Jake Westbrook 2006-08-03 CLE BOS W 7-6 GS-8 ,W 8.0 15 6 6 1 1 0 118 77 28 38
3 Carlos Silva 2006-04-18 MIN LAA L 2-8 GS-9 ,L 8.2 12 8 8 1 1 1 109 78 28 37
4 Mark Buehrle 2004-09-20 CHW MIN L 2-8 GS-8 ,L 8.0 10 7 7 3 3 4 112 72 34 35
5 Josh Fogg 2003-06-14 PIT TBD W 12-9 GS-9 ,W 8.1 12 7 7 1 3 0 106 69 33 38
6 Paul Byrd 2002-09-09 KCR CHW L 6-10 GS-8 ,L 8.0 10 10 10 2 3 4 112 74 23 35
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/15/2014.

If you’re wondering, yes that was the only 8 inning, one strikeout game of Randy Johnson’s career. His previous low of two strikeouts was an ND against Cleveland way back in 1994. Johnson’s longest previous start with one strikeout was even further back – 6 innings in a 1989 loss to the Orioles, though he did have two 6 inning starts with no strikeouts (a W and an ND), both for the Yankees, in 2005 and 2006.

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Mort
Mort
10 years ago

I am going to guess that the start is his 0-8 CG loss against KC on June 25, 2012. It’s a very unusual start but I will just guess it’s the 8ER, 0BB, and 1K, not to mention the fact they kept him in for the whole game.

brp
brp
10 years ago

Related to the 4.2 IP, 13-K performance?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA201305100.shtml

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

If I run CG, loss, HR = 1 and SO = 1 I get 7 pitchers since 2000 but only Cobb from 2009-2013. But for the other decades my numbers don’t match

Mike L
Mike L
10 years ago

I’m sure it’s not it, but three swinging strikes in a complete game is pretty eyeopening.

Doug
Doug
10 years ago
Reply to  Mike L

That’s not it, but I agree it must be pretty rare. According to FanGraphs, these are Cobb’s 2013 PitchFx data (rankings based on 128 pitchers with 120 IP). – Swing rate on pitches in zone: 56.5%, 3rd lowest – Swing rate on pitches out of the zone: 33.9%, 9th highest – Contact rate on swings on pitches in zone: 90.1%, 40th highest – Contact rate on swings on pitches out of the zone: 61.5%, 41st lowest So, Cobb is doing a good job of keeping hitters off balance, and getting them to swing at pitcher’s pitches and take hitter’s pitches.… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago

Does it have anything to do with pitching that 1 SO complete game in follow-up to a 10 SO performance?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

Does it have anything to do with balls not in play?

John Autin
Editor
10 years ago

I took a shot at CG with 13+ hits and no walks, but that failed on two counts — Halladay had one in 2010, and there was just one other this century (Sabathia ’06).

RJ
RJ
10 years ago

I don’t know the answer, but I’m guessing this is the most recent non-Cobb time it happened:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN200806200.shtml

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Let me have one more try. CG, loss, game score less than 56 and SO = 1.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

OK Doug, I have one for you. Since 1945 these players are the only ones to do what?

Danny Murtaugh
Dusty Rhodes
Bobby Rhawn

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

No it’s not that.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

As a hint it was a game feat.

Artie Z.
Artie Z.
10 years ago

Is this a game the two of you are playing or can anyone guess?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

And I’ll wait until at least tomorrow to give the answer.

Artie Z
Artie Z
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

7-25-1948 – Danny Murtaugh hits a walk-off HR off of Rex Barney … in the bottom of the 8th. 9-11-1948 – Bobby Rhawn hits a walk-off HR off of Hank Behrman … in the bottom of the 6th. 8-2-1952 – Dusty Rhodes hits a walk-off HR off of Murry Dickson … in the bottom of the 6th. I don’t know if this is the correct answer, but they all hit walk-off HRs prior to the 9th inning. For his career, Rhawn hit 2 HRs. One is the aforementioned 6th inning walk-off. His first was an inside the park HR according… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

@27
It is the answer I’m looking for. Good work Artie. It didn’t take you long at all. The Murtaugh game was ended by the Pennsylvania Sunday Blue Laws. For the other two my best guess is that the games were called due to darkness, i. e. the umpires announced that the 6th inning would be the last due to impending darkness. In those days the ML rule was that lights could not be turned on during a regularly scheduled day game.

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