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?

Rk	Player
1	Tim Wakefield
2	Sloppy Thurston
3	Larry Benton
4	Mat Latos
5	Alex White
6	Jeff D’Amico
7	Mike Mussina
8	Willie Fraser
9	Don Mossi
10	Preacher Roe
11	Ralph Branca

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/31/2014.

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

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?

Author

Doug

Reply to Luis Gomez

Not that.

Something quite different.

Richard Chester

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

Reply to Richard Chester

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

Richard’s got it.

Well done.

Voomo Zanzibar

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 »

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)

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

Editor

John Autin

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.

Reply to John Autin

That is one of these 6 games with 5+ HR being the only hits allowed. 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 Colby Lewis 2012-05-10 (1) TEX BAL L 5-6 GS-7 ,L 7.0 5 6 6 1 12 5 114 75 54 3 Ted Lilly 2003-06-11 OAK ATL L 6-11 GS-4 ,L 4.0 5 7 7 1 2 5 64 39 25 4 Charlie Hough 1989-06-24 TEX CLE L 3-7… Read more »

bstar

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).