A famous pitcher established a new mark for an individual major league pitching record during the 1986 season. That pitcher extended his record during the 1987 season but finished the year sharing the record with another well known hurler. The second pitcher added to his total during the 1988 season to set a new mark for this record.

Question: What is the record and who are the pitchers who set new marks for it in 1986 and 1988?

Hint #1 – both pitchers are HOFers

Hint #2 – another well known pitcher may set a new mark for this record in the 2014 season

Congratulations to ReliefMan! He correctly identified that, from 1986 to 1988, first Steve Carlton and later Nolan Ryan held the record for the longest streak of consecutive starts without a complete game. Carlton set the record of 56 starts without a CG on Sep 23, 1986, later extending it to 59 games before notching his next CG in 1987. Ryan equaled Carlton’s total on Oct 4, 1987 and extended his streak to 66 games before his next CG in 1988. Today, Ryan’s mark is good for a tie with Jeremy Hellickson for 187th place, while Carlton has slid all the way to 260th spot, tied with Felix Doubront.

The current record-holder is Kirk Reuter who finished his career in 2005 riding a streak of 193 starts since his last CG in 1999. The active leader is Max Scherzer who has never pitched a complete game in 165 career starts. He is thus poised to pass Reuter with a full slate of starts in 2014. Unless, of course, Scherzer finally goes the distance in one of them.

The Dodgers look to turn around their fortunes at home. But history is not on their side.

Since the LCS switched to a best of 7 format in 1985, this is the 13th time a team has come home down 2-0 in the series. Two of those twelve previous series were in 1985 and both teams (the Cardinals and Royals) that were down 0-2 that year came back to win their series. But that comeback has happened only one other time since then; when the Red Sox stunned the Yankees in 2004 with a comeback from a 3-0 deficit.

More on game 3 after the jump.

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In the last 40 post-seasons (since 1973), these players have accomplished a feat that no other player can boast of. What is it?

Congratulations to John Autin! He correctly identified that these are the only players since 1973 to hit a World Series home run off a pitcher who won that season’s Cy Young Award.

The following might be stating the obvious, but I had to do something with my pregame nervous energy….

Recent days have sparked much talk about the success of young starting pitchers in this postseason. Indeed, several young starters have made impressive showings. But for every Michael Wacha, there’s a Matt Moore or a Julio Teheran — young starters with strong regular seasons, who bombed in their postseason starts. For every Sonny Gray gem of 8 shutout innings, there’s a Sonny Gray “meh” of 3 runs in 5 innings.

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The Cardinals’ 1-0 win in game 2 of the NLCS was the eighth postseason win by a team getting no more than 2 hits.
The prior seven:

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What sort of postseason event unites these six players, and one more who is not listed? They are listed in chronological order, starting with the most recent.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the 33rd round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds to the ballot those players born in 1942.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

Joe Morgan was not the favorite baseball broadcaster of the High Heat Stats community.  But as most of us recognize, the same sabermetric analysis that Morgan denigrated when speaking into a microphone shows that he was likely the greatest modern second baseman of all.  Though some COG voters declined to look past Joe’s television shtick, a large majority were able to use their evaluative mute buttons and view Morgan’s playing career in its own right, voting Little Joe in as the 32nd inductee into the HHS Circle of Greats.  More on Morgan and the balloting results, if you click on this RTROTE underline thing: Continue reading →

Quite a mixture of players on this list. But there is a common thread connecting this group. In the post-war period (seasons since 1946), what is the unusual career accomplishment achieved only by these players?

Hint: there is one active player who is likely to join this group next season.

Congratulations to Richard Chester who correctly identified that these are the only post-war players with 200+ GIDP, more GIDP than home runs, and more triples than stolen bases. Despite being obviously speed-challenged, this group fared pretty well – all were All-Stars, all had at least one qualifying .300 batting season, all but Groat were better than 100 career OPS+, and all but Piniella compiled at least 35 WAR.

Tonight in Oakland, Justin Verlander and Sonny Gray will square off in the last game of the Division Series round, as the A’s host a deciding game 5 against Detroit for the second year in a row. Instead of pointlessly rehashing Oakland’s four straight losses in LDS game 5’s from 2000-03 — no more germane to this contest than their three straight championships from 1972-74 — let’s take a very quick look at sudden-death starting pitchers.

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