August 23, 2012

BP Unfiltered

Double Double, Arms in Trouble

by Geoff Young

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When we examined Sandy Koufax's workload a while back, reader LynchMob asked whether anyone had thrown more than 193 pitches in a game since Koufax did it on May 28, 1960. I found two documented cases, both by members of the following year's Dodgers:

• Stan Williams threw 207 against the Braves on May 17, 1961.

• Koufax threw 205 against the Cubs on September 20, 1961.

The key word is “documented.” While searching for other high-pitch-count games, I was puzzled by the absence of Nolan Ryan, particularly his 1974 campaign that included 202 walks and 373 strikeouts. So I perused Ryan's game logs for that year and discovered they don't include pitch counts.

Having reached a dead end, I asked a slightly different question: How often has a pitcher issued 10 or more walks and 10 or more strikeouts in the same game?

Not often.

Baseball-Reference features game logs back to 1918, which gives us 93 years and change. A double double has been achieved 12 times, by 10 different pitchers, two of whom are in the Hall of Fame. It's a fun list:

A few items to note:

• Ruffing did it against the '27 Yankees; you may be familiar with that team.

• Six of the 12 occurrences came courtesy of pitchers wearing an Indians uniform, which is more weird than meaningful.

• Feller and McDowell are the only repeat offenders; I had expected to find Ryan here as well.

• Mad props to Maloney for managing to throw a no-hitter; yes, it came against a bad Cubs team, but one that featured Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, and Ron Santo in the heart of the order.

• Nobody has accomplished the feat in nearly 22 years, the longest dry stretch during the period for which data are available.

• McDowell and Witt get bonus points for doing it in fewer than 8 innings. (I could spend a lifetime poring over Witt game logs and never get bored; my favorite is his line against the Brewers on April 17, 1986: 5 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 HR, 8 BB, 10 K.)

There's probably more fun stuff in here, but you get the idea. Meanwhile, the next time your arm hurts, just be glad the thing is still attached to your body. Slap some duct tape on it, and you're good to go.