More Streaking

How about another interesting streak of pitching? On June 10th in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Juan Pierre grounded out to the second baseman against Kevin Correia. At the time, Rafael Furcal was on 2nd after a single and sac bunt. On June 21st, in the top of the 5th inning, Landon Powell grounded out to the right side with two outs and Orlando Cabrera standing on second after a two-out double. The pitcher was also Kevin Correia. In between those two events, Kevin Correia faced 52 batters. During those 52 trips to the plate, there was never a man on base.

Correia retired the final fourteen men that he faced against the Dodgers, but as two of them came with Rafael Furcal on base, only the final twelve count here, comprising his work during the 3rd through 6th innings. At the other end, Correia retired the first 14 batters against Oakland on June 21st before surrendering the double to Cabrera and putting his streak to an end. In between those two games, Correia had a June 16th game in which he went eight innings and never once pitched out of the stretch, ultimately losing to a complete game, shut-out by Felix Hernandez.

Now, the reason it was 52 straight batters out of the windup and not the more impressive 52 straight batters retired is that during the Seattle game, Correia surrendered two home runs, one to Adrian Beltre and the other to Franklin Gutierrez. Obviously, neither put a runner on base. Here’s the breakdown of the 52 batters:

-Nine struck out swinging
-Five struck out looking
-21 hit ground balls (all outs)
-12 hit fly balls (10 outs, two home runs)
-One hit a line drive
-Four hit pop flys

31 balls were put in play during the stretch and all 31 were turned into outs. Correia also struck out 14 with, obviously, no walks so it was not solely a streak of good luck and good defense.