Quiz – a funny thing happened on the way to the showers (solved)

These players in this quiz have the distinction of being the only pitchers since 1916 with an unusual (and very unexpected) game accomplishment. What is it?

Hint: this feat has been accomplished only by starting pitchers. None of these players has done it twice.

No fooling quiz solver extraordinaire Richard Chester. He correctly identified these players as the only pitchers to be credited with a win when surrendering 5 or more home runs. More on winning when you shouldn’t after the jump.

Here are the games.

Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc
1 Mat Latos 2012-05-27 CIN COL W 7-5 GS-8 ,W 7.1 5 5 5 0 3 5 96 65 51
2 Alex White 2011-09-10 COL CIN W 12-7 GS-5 ,W 5.0 8 7 6 1 1 5 87 55 25
3 Tim Wakefield 2004-08-08 BOS DET W 11-9 GS-5 ,W 5.0 8 7 7 0 2 6 79 56 25
4 Jeff D’Amico 1996-09-21 MIL DET W 13-6 GS-6 ,W 6.0 8 6 6 2 4 5 98 63 34
5 Mike Mussina 1994-07-01 BAL CAL W 14-7 GS-5 ,W 5.0 10 7 7 1 1 5 19
6 Willie Fraser 1988-08-16 CAL NYY W 15-6 GS-7 ,W 6.1 8 6 6 0 2 5 102 62 35
7 Don Mossi 1961-06-23 DET CLE W 15-7 GS-7 ,W 7.0 10 6 5 1 3 5 37
8 Preacher Roe 1953-09-01 BRO STL W 12-5 CG 9 ,W 9.0 9 5 5 1 3 5 117 78 51
9 Ralph Branca 1949-06-25 BRO PIT W 17-10 CG 9 ,W 9.0 12 10 10 5 5 5 145 86 23
10 Sloppy Thurston 1932-08-13 (1) BRO NYG W 18-9 CG 9 ,W 9.0 12 9 8 0 0 6 29
11 Larry Benton 1930-05-12 NYG CHC W 14-12 GS-7 ,W 6.2 9 9 8 5 6 6 23
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/3/2014.

Pitchers surrendering 5 or more home runs are 11-72 with 15 NDs. Included are four relievers (none of whom had a decision). Five pitchers (including 3 Red Sox)  have twice allowed 5 homers, with all ten of those games coming in the past 20 seasons. Two of them (Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz) are active so may yet move ahead of the others. Tim Wakefield is undefeated in such games with a win and an ND.

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Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
10 years ago

I know Mike Mussina and Mat Latos pitched complete game 1-hitters with no walks and faced only 28 men. Is it something related to that?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

Does it have something to do with starting and winning a game and giving up 5 HR?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

They all started and got credit for a win in a game in which they gave up 5 or more HR.

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago

Sloppy Thurston had an odd start to his career. First of all, his name was Sloppy because he was always well-groomed. As a rookie, he was 7th in pitcher’s WAR. And he led the league in Games Finished. Is that rare, for a rookie? It was. His 30 GF in 1923 set the record for pure rookies. It would be broken two years later by Jess Doyle. But 30+ GF would only be achieved 5 times before 1950. 48 times since then. He started games that year, too. And his super-swingman role gave the Chicago AL team six pitchers with… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

The 4th guy to finish 30 games as a rookie was Wilcy Moore.
When the 1927 Yankees come up, you usually hear about Murderers Row.

With good reason.

48.2 WAR from Position players
19.0 WAR from Pitching

But 5.6 of that WAR came from pure rookie Moore.
Led the league in ERA and Saves.
Also had a complete game win and a save in the WS

(he was also the worst hitter on the ’27 Yanx, contributing -0.9 WAR to the juggernaut)

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

30+ GF and
13+ GS in a rookie season has been done only by Sloppy.

And only three times, total.
Sloppy
Wilcy Moore (in his 4th year), and
Firpo Marberry

John Autin
Editor
10 years ago

Best Game Score while serving 5 dingers: 54, by Colby Lewis on 5/10/2012.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL201205101.shtml

In 7 IP, Lewis gave just those 5 hits, a walk and a HBP, while fanning 12. But he took the loss in a 6-5 game.

bstar
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Most hits allowed with no HR while getting a win: Eddie Rommel, who battled through 17 innings of looooong relief while “scattering” 29 hits and allowing 14 runs. His A’s beat the Indians 18-17:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE193207100.shtml

It helped to have Jimmy Foxx in the lineup that day: 6 for 9, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 16 TB for XX that day.

I’d never heard of Rommel but in the years spanning his career, he was 3rd in the AL in pitcher WAR (50.5) behind Lefty Grove (57.5 from ’25 – ’32) and Red Faber (53.5).