Epic Pitching Performances on the Same Night
Last night, Matt Cain and R.A. Dickey combined to allow one hit in 18 innings, striking out 26 guys in the process. It was two of the very best performances of the year, and they happened on the same night. So, that got me thinking – how often do we get two stellar performances on the same day?
To answer the question, we’ll turn back to Game Score (again, not perfect, but good enough for this exercise), and look for dates where two pitchers both posted a Game Score of 90 or higher. Because this is kind of labor intensive and the game is a bit different now than it used to be, I’m only going back 20 years, but that should still give us a pretty good idea of how rare it is for two pitchers to be that good on the same day.
Anyway, here is the breakdown.
9/8/93: Darryl Kile (93) and Jason Bere (91) – 17 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 22 K
9/21/93: Randy Johnson (91) + Todd Stottlemyre (90) – 18 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 21 K
7/15/94: Bret Saberhagen (93) and Andy Benes (91) – 18 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 25 K
9/17/95: Ismael Valdez (92) and Patt Rapp (91) – 18 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 16 K
9/4/99: Pedro Martinez (90) and Kevin Brown (90) – 17 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 23 K
9/29/00: Chan Ho Park (95) and Ron Villone (92) – 18 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 29 K
5/25/01: Hideo Nomo (99) and Kerry Wood (97) – 18 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 28 K
4/26/02: Shawn Estes (92) and Odalis Perez (91) – 18 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K
8/17/03: Mike Mussina (90) and Curt Schilling (90) – 16 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 21 K
4/16/04: Roy Oswalt (91) and Randy Johnson (90) – 18 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 18 K
5/18/04: Randy Johnson (100) and Jason Schmidt (97) – 18 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 26 K
7/8/10: Roy Oswalt (91) and John Danks (90) – 18 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 K
6/13/12: Matt Cain (101) and R.A. Dickey (95) – 18 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 26 K
13 times in 20 years, two guys have put up 90+ game scores on the same night. But, in most instances, one or both guys just barely clears the hurdle – only the Johnson/Schmidt duo in 2004 and the Nomo/Wood pair in 2001 featured both pitchers with a game score of 95 or higher, as we saw last night. And, given that Dickey’s game score is only lower than Schmidt’s due to the unearned run he allowed, you could probably argue that last night’s tandem was the best pair of pitching performances we’ve seen on the same night in since 1993 (and possibly before that, if any of you want to do the work and go back further). Of course, Game Score doesn’t adjust for park/era/opponent, so perhaps the fact that we’re back in a lower run environment now does tilt the scales back towards Johnson/Schmidt, but again, we’re hair splitting here. The point is that we don’t get nights like that very often.
Speaking of Johnson, I hope you noticed he’s on this list three times. What a beast.
Also, some of the names on this list are fantastic – Pat Rapp! Ron Villone! Odalis Perez! This was worth doing just for those finds.
On most nights, we’d be talking about what Lance Lynn, Wade Miley, Felix Dubront, and Jake Arrieta, did last night. Last night was not most nights, however. Last night belonged to Matt Cain and R.A. Dickey.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I own Dickey, Doubront, and Cain in one of my fantasy leagues. Needless to say, It was quite the bitter night for the other guy as they were pitching.
Cool story bro. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
That’s a clown comment, bro.
By the way, what were the game scores of the Matt Cain vs Cliff Lee game earlier this season?
Would a list of the highest combined games score show the greatest pitcher’s duels of recent history?
Please please someone run this.
Cain – 86, Lee – 85
Thank you. Was just wondering.
Also notable: Johnson’s appearances on the list come a decade apart.
If you wanted to look at “longevity of dominance,” you could look at the most years between a pitcher’s first and last 90 Game Scores. Johnson would be up there. I bet so would Nolan Ryan.
Well, yeah, because those two are strikeout pitchers. Although Johnson and Ryan were indeed dominant for a long time, let’s not forget about all the other dominant pitchers who got it done with fewer strikeouts than those two fireballers.
On June 29, 1990, both Dave Steward and Fernando Valenzuela pitched no-hitters. More than 20 years ago, but just thought I’d throw that out there.
*Stewart*
This was the first thing that came to my mind as I remember watching the games (well, sort of watching…more sitting in a bar while the games were on) but I remembered it as Dave Stewart and Dennis Martinez but heck it was Fernando.
How rare is it for three guys to post the combined numbers between Lynn/Cain/Dickey?
What puts me over the edge is trying to determine the K/BB ratio of all those. Johnson/Schmidt 26/1 and Benes/Saberhagen 25/1 are impressive, but last night’s was #DIV/0! If you try to put last night’s performance into numbers, it’s not even real!
Oh noes, math jokes. I thought I was done with those after I finished school. At least it’s a good one.
Math jokes are the first sine of madness.
It’s real, just infinitely good. If their K/BB wasn’t real, it would be a multiple of sqrt(-1). Which would also be notable, but not necessarily as impressive.
If you limit it to Game Scores 95 or above and 9 innings or less, there aren’t any other days where that happened before Nomo/Wood.
What about nights with two no-no’s, like June 29, 1990 when Fernado and Dave Stewart both threw one?
Dickey was insane. 23 swinging strikes on 106 pitches! I don’t mind losing to that performance. Just tip the cap and move on
if you’d gone back to october 1991, would Smoltz/Morris made the list?
Morris – 84, Smoltz – 82. Although that wasn’t just the same day, but the same game.
Yea they were great pitching performances, but would you really write a long narrative poem about them?
*Cistulli batsignal*
Damn, now you’ve got me wondering what insignia Cistulli would use for his batsignal? My guess, a giant mustache/glasses combo. Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of nobody like the mustache/glasses of doom that herald the arrival of the poet-warrior Cistulli.
If you want to look at awesome head-to-head combined performances, I remember that when Roy Halladay threw his perfect game two years ago, the only run of the game was unearned. Josh Johnson pitched 7.0 innings with 7 hits, 1 BB, and 6 Ks. It seems less good in retrospect, but I like the concept of a game ending without an earned run scoring.
Reminds me of this game (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI201007100.shtml) where Travis Wood had a perfect game going until Carlos Ruiz doubled to lead off the ninth. Wood had a 93 game score, Roy Halladay had an 85 game score. Combined line for the starting pitchers: 18.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 17 K. Phillies ended up winning 1-0 in the bottom of the 11th.
Forget on the same night, what about in the same game?
Who can source the highest combined game score for a single game. We have the Cain/Lee matchup from earlier this year at 171. Can anyone find a higher single game total than that?
173 for the Wood Game in 1998. (Wood 105; Reynolds 68). There’s probably a higher total for a nine inning game, but that one comes to mind right away.
178 for Halladay vs Travis Wood game mentioned above.
Randy Johnson and Jose Jimenez combined for a 178 in 99.
293 combined
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN192005010.shtml
But ok, for 9-inning performances, I think this one wins (179 combined):
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196906040.shtml
It wasn’t a 9-inning game, but they both only threw 9 innings.
How you can play 26 innings and *then* decide to end in a tie?
(I suppose their park wasn’t very well-lit.)
I compiled the postseason list a a year or two ago. Assuming no duo did similarly last postseason, here’s the list of highest combined postseason game scores since 1932:
177: Mike Cuellar (BAL 84) & Ken Holtzman (OAK 93), 1973 ALCS Game 3
170: Dave Boswell (MIN 73) & Dave McNally (BAL 97), 1969 ALCS Game 2
168: Vida Blue (OAK 90) & Jim Palmer (BAL 78), 1974 ALCS Game 3
167: Don Newcombe (BRK 79) & Allie Reynolds (NYY 88), 1949 WS Game 1
162: Nolan Ryan (HOU 90) & Dwight Gooden (NYM 72), 1986 NLCS Game 5
161: Sal Maglie (BRK 67) & Don Larsen (NYY 94), 1956 WS Game 5
161: Bob Turley (NYY 80) & Clem Labine (BRK 81), 1956 WS Game 6
159: Woody Williams (STL 77) & Brandon Backe (HOU 82), 2004 NLCS Game 5
159: Greg Maddux (ATL 69) & Livan Hernandez (FLA 90), 1995 NLCS Game 5
159: Josh Beckett (FLA 73) & Jason Schmidt (SFG 86), 2003 NLDS Game 1
159: Mort Cooper (STL 83) & Denny Galehouse (SLB 76), 1944 WS Game 5
158: Bob Feller (CLE 73) & Johnny Sain (Bos Braves 85), 1948 WS Game 1
158: Charlie Leibrandt (KC 74) & Milt Wilcox (DET 84), 1984 ALCS Game 3
Blue vs Palmer was the first 9-inning game. The first two on the list went 11 with each starter recording all outs in the game.
Anyone have the pitch fx or at least an estimated plot of Livan’s strike zone in the NLCS? Probably the worst umped “great” pitching performance ever.
This just proves controlling the running game doesn’t matter.
Hammels wiith a line of 6 IP 8 H 7 R 6 ER and Matt Cain with a PERFECT GAME both went 1-0 on the night
Pat Rapp ?!?!?
What would the game scores be from this game on May 12, 1917?
Cincinnati IP H R ER BB K
Toney (W) 10 0 0 0 2 3
Chicago
Vaughn (L) 10 2 1 0 2 10
“Cuellar” is one of the coolest names ever.
Wow, another big double pitching performance with E. Santana and Hammel, both broke 90 GS last night.