Complete Game Sunday

With the increased prominence of specialized bullpens, a much heavier reliance on pitch counts than several decades ago and the constant monitoring of health and fatigue, complete games have become somewhat of a rarity. Back in the early part of the 20th century, pitchers routinely finished what they started but nowadays it is considered a spectacular feat to complete five or more games in a season. Which makes yesterday’s action particularly interesting in that three different pitchers all tossed complete game gems.

Josh Johnson burst onto the scene in 2006 with a very solid rookie season. Injuries hindered his availability and progress in 2007 but he returned last season and put up great numbers in limited duty. Against the Mets and Johan Santana yesterday, Johnson showed the ability to dominate and why, when healthy, he can be as good as anyone else in the league. Throwing 113 pitches, 77 of which were strikes, Johnson went the distance, surrendering five hits and one run, walking one hitter and fanning seven. That brings his seasonal total to 15.2 innings, 12 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 15 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, over in St. Louis, Kyle Lohse allowed a leadoff hit to Kazuo Matsui and then proceeded to retire the next 24 batters. Lohse, whose contract extension was largely ridiculed this offseason, finished with the tremendous line of 9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. On the season, Lohse has surrendered just 8 hits in 16 innings and has issued only one free pass.

As dominant as Lohse looked, however, he didn’t best Aaron Harang’s line. On the heels of a first inning 2-run homer from Brandon Phillips, Harang had all the support he would need, giving up just three hits while walking none and fanning nine Buccos. Harang has now given up 10 hits and 1 earned run in 14 innings of work this season, walking three while recording 11 strikeouts.

All three of these pitchers worked efficiently with their pitches which is likely the only reason they were allowed to stay in the game so long. Especially in the case of Johnson given his aforementioned health issues. In terms of WPA, Johnson slightly edged out Harang, 0.571 to 0.569. At 0.460, Lohse clearly dominated his opponent but not necessarily to the same degree as Johnson and Harang, at least via win probability added. Then again, Lohse pitched in the least stressful of the three games, with a pLI of 0.79; Harang recorded a pLI of 0.94 with Johnson at 1.25.

Regardless, all three of these pitchers dominated and it was great to see them finish their games instead of being lifted for setup men and closers simply due to the specialized nature of the positions. Three complete games in the same day is very rare, especially over the last few decades, and I will have more on just how rare it is later tonight, calling my Retrosheet database into action.