Hail to the CBA and the Yakima Sun Kings forever. And also hail to the corner of the record book where David Peterson now finds himself: the first pitcher in major league history, according to Stathead, to post a line with at least six walks, five strikeouts, a hit batter, and a home run allowed — with the homer accounting for the only run against him — in fewer than five innings.
Or four innings, for that matter. Or, in fact, had the exact combination of six walks and five strikeouts with their one run allowed on a homer and their hit batsman. Peterson is the very first.
Peterson did all that while throwing 91 pitches to get 11 outs, and the Mets didn’t come completely unglued until the seventh inning, after which the back-to-back home runs by D.J. Stewart and Jonathan Araúz weren’t enough.
The previous record for fewest innings pitched in a game with at least six walks, five strikeouts, a hit batter, and a lone run on a homer was 5.2 for Jonathan Sánchez, for the Giants in Arizona on June 11, 2009. A Justin Upton homer and Max Scherzer on the (plus an Upton RBI single off Brandon Medders) lifted the Diamondbacks to a 2-1 win in that game.
Sánchez, who walked seven in that game 14 years ago, was the first pitcher to crack the six-inning barrier, and until last night was the only other pitcher at all to have a six-walk, five-strikeout game with a hit batter and the only run on a homer, in the entire 21st century. Sánchez remains the only pitcher ever to have such a line and be the losing pitcher.
The only other time that a pitcher’s team lost one of these games was April 15, 1942, when the Pirates scored five runs against Elmer Riddle in the first inning, and Ray Starr came in from the bullpen and kept things respectable, going the rest of the way with seven strikeouts and seven walks, and allowing the only other Pittsburgh run in a 6-2 affair on a Bob Elliott dinger.
There have been a bunch of different walk and strikeout totals among the now dozen pitchers in this group, but only one man hit two batters: Scott Garrelts plunked Brett Butler and Glenn Hubbard while also walking seven, striking out six, and outdueling Pascual Perez, who went the distance for Atlanta in a 2-1 loss (Chris Chambliss hit the homer) to Garrelts and the Giants at Candlestick Park on September 7, 1983.
Before Garrelts, there was Mike Torrez (1976 Orioles), Tom Griffin (1969 Astros), Ken McBride (1961 Angels), Pedro Ramos (1956 Senators), Bob Turley (1954 Orioles), Bobby Shantz (1952 A’s), and Rankin Johnson (1914 Chi-Feds), all in winning efforts of their own — sloppy games that were somehow one swing from being shutouts. Shantz went 14 innings at Yankee Stadium, striking 11 and walking seven in his game, while giving up the homer to Mickey Mantle and drilling Johnny Mize.
The one other pitcher on the list, the one between Garrelts and Sánchez? Dwight Gooden, against Atlanta at Shea on April 26, 1989. Ron Gant homered in the third inning, but the Mets scored two in the fifth for a 3-1 lead, and homers by Kevin McReynolds and Howard Johnson provided a 6-1 cushion. That was the final score, but Gooden provided some stress by walking his last two batters to load the bases in the ninth. Gerald Perry then made Randy Myers work for the last out, a 10-pitch battle finally ending with a foul tip into the glove of Gary Carter.
You can see that game now, thanks to the internet!
We Can Pod It Out 168: Sun King