Quiz: Something Doesn’t Add Up

A chance observation led to an unusual search of the Play Index, which produced these four pitchers:

These are the only pitchers since 1916 with an extraordinary relationship among three adjacent items in their seasonal pitching lines. What might seem an error actually reflects a bizarre game feat. The pitchers are listed in order of the years in which this occurred.

 

Although the distinction derives from individual game performances, I can think of no way to find those games (and only those games) with a Game Finder search. The Season Finder search which returns these four pitchers (since 1916) uses a relationship of two stats, one of which is not listed on the main player page, but can be deduced. It is possible that others have had the game performance without it being reflected in the seasonal stats which I used to find those performances.

For one of these pitchers, the extraordinary relationship stands out more sharply, as he did “it” twice in one season. If you should find those games and browse the play-by-play, you’ll see the same cause in both cases. What’s more, one of those games features the only two instances from 1954-95 of an outrageously unconventional stratagem — which has some connection to the odd feat we’re after. The combination of events makes it my favorite random box-score find of the young year. (FWIW, the two prior uses of that odd stratagem came in this game, for reasons unknown; but it won’t directly help you solve the mystery.)

For another of these four pitchers, the strange event was motivated by sentiment for a teammate.

For the first two pitchers listed, there is no play-by-play of the unusual games, and I have not been able to tell which games they are.

(And no, in spite of Steve Blass, the feat has nothing to do with wildness.)

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Jamee
10 years ago

They all have seasons with Games < Games Started + Games Finished. I can't really work out, why, though.

Jamee
10 years ago
Reply to  Jamee

In 1968, Steve Blass is listed as having 3 GF. However, his game log only has two in it. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=blassst01&t=p&year=1968

Jamee
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

You can actually find all the games by looking at their fielding logs, and finding when they weren’t playing P. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=mcdowsa01&t=f&year=1970

bstar
bstar
10 years ago

I think it’s because they switched to another position after leaving the mound. I see Sam McDowell played one game at second and one at first base in 1970.

Or maybe he switched to second/first for one or two batters and then returned to the mound later in the game??

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Grrrrrrrrrrr. My internet froze up in the midst of this.

Jamee
10 years ago
Reply to  bstar

In the following two games, Sam McDowell played the field for a fraction of an inning, then went back to the mound.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS2/WS2197009020.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE197007060.shtml

Jamee
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

They were bringing in Dean Chance…for a platoon advantage? I can’t believe that having a lefty pitcher would be worth having a pitcher playing the infield!

Jamee
10 years ago
Reply to  Jamee

In order to get a groundball?

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  Jamee

Here’s another weirdity in that inning: with the bases loaded and one out, Chance got a GB forceout at second, but TWO runners scored on that play. Huh??

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  Jamee

I don’t know about the groundout allowing two runs, but apparently Alvin Dark shifting McDowell to first *maybe* backfired on him in that inning. Here’s what happened with two on and one out, according to this link: http://www.backtobaseball.com/playballregularseason.php?page=54&IDindex=WS2197009020&date=September+2%2C+1970# “Howard hits a ball on the ground to first. McDowell fields the ball and throws to Chance covering first. Safe…” Seeing that the Indians got a groundball out on the next play, they *maybe* could have gotten out of that inning with no runs scoring if they had kept Duke Sims at first. I’d say McDowell was probably unskilled at getting a… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

In each of the games McDowell was the first batter that Chance pitched to and Howard was having a big year. So the manager decided that this was a good time for the platoon advantage. The following batters were also right-handed. But in one of those games Chance gave Howard an intentional pass, so what was the sense of it.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

For the Steve Blass game Roy Face came in to pitch to a batter in the first inning. I saw from Face’s record that it was his last appearance in Pittsburgh, so I thought that that was the reason. Later that day Face was sold to the Tigers and that may have been a known fact to the Pirates at the start of the game. I went to the Charlton Chronology and it turned out that Face tied Walter Johnson’s record for most appearances by a pitcher for one team.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

I guess I should have explained that Blass went to LF while Face pitched and then returned to the mound.

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

No, those two Bud walks do not make sense.

…but maybe he just liked walking guys:

“On May 18, 1953 while pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, Podbielan walked a franchise record thirteen batters in a 10-inning game against the Brooklyn Dodgers.”

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

He gave up ONE run in that 13 walk game, pitched 10 innings, got the win, and had a 67 game score.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

Here’s the only thing I can come up with for those Bud walks. Irvin was followed by Dusty Rhodes and Spencer was followed by Ray Noble. Rhodes and Noble were slow runners and perhaps the Reds were gambling on DPs. Rhodes did hit into a DP. Noble hit a grounder to third that was misplayed and everybody was safe,

bstar
bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

John, I don’t know if this helps but this Wiki link suggests MLB.com computes games finished also, and apparently there is a discrepancy for Mo Rivera between his MLB.com total and B-Ref’s (952 GF vs. 951).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_leaders_in_games_finished

Not sure if baseball’s website computing the stat is evidence enough that it’s an official stat or not.