More on the Harden Feat

On Thursday we discussed the odd accomplishment from Rich Harden in his last start against the Rockies: Harden became the first pitcher since at least 1954 (as far back as my database goes) to pitch 3+ innings in a single game and not retire anyone via a traditional ball in play. Harden pitched three frames, requiring nine outs. He fanned eight hitters and recorded the other out when Chris Iannetta was thrown out attempting to take an extra base. No groundouts, no flyouts, no lineouts… not even any popups or foulouts.

The ELIAS Sports Bureau provided ESPN with an interesting stat similar yet different to the aforementioned bit of trivia. According to ELIAS, Harden faced 17 hitters, struck out eight, walked four, and gave up five hits. Add together the hits, walks, and punchouts and the sum equals the exact number of batters he faced. Apparently, over the last 80 or so years, nobody has had their PA = (H+BB+K) while facing as many hitters as Harden did against the Rockies.

I ran a query in Retrosheet to doublecheck this info and found that there have been 33,185 instances of PA=(H+BB+K+HBP) from 1954-2008. Of the 33,185, just 29 such games involved the pitcher facing 10+ hitters. That percentage is so low that my calculator actually provides the answer in scientific notation: 8.738 x 10^-4, or 0.0008738.

The highest tally of batters faced in this query belongs to former Cubs great Kevin Foster, who, on May 11, 1997, faced 14 hitters in two innings of work. Foster issued three free passes, hit a batter, struck out six, and surrendered four hits. He struck out the side in both of his innings and allowed four balls in play, all of which resulted in hits.

The next three pitchers accomplished the same feat while facing 12 hitters each: Chan Ho Park, Joe Coleman, and John Hudek.

Park faced 12 Giants hitters in two innings on April 17, 1996. One hit, five walks, and six punchouts later, his batters faced perfectly equaled the sum of these three parts. Joe Coleman of the Tigers faced 12 hitters in 1.1 innings on September 27, 1972, allowing three hits, walking five, and fanning four. Lastly, John Hudek of the Reds faced 12 hitters in two innings on September 13, 1998, walking two, striking out six, and allowing four hits.

Harden faced 17 hitters in three innings of work, but has anyone else been seen their batters faced equal the sum of hits, walks, and strikeouts in greater than two innings? Four pitchers met this criteria: Tom Niedenfuer on 5/18/85, Clint Sodowsky on 5/17/97, Tim Stoddard on 4/30/79, and Francisco Rodriguez on 9/27/02. All four went exactly 2.1 innings, making it abundantly clear that Harden’s outing last Wednesday was truly remarkable even if his overall performance was underwhelming.