BR.com's Stat of the Day

Today Curt Schilling became the 3rd oldest player since 1957 to throw a complete game shutout while allowing either one hit or no hits. Nolan Ryan did it three times when he was over the age of 43, and Randy Johnson’s perfect game in 2004 came when he was a couple of months older than Curt is today.

On Tuesday June 5, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a stunning 12-11 victory over the Devil Rays. (Well, to the extent that any victory over Tampa can be called stunning). They did this despite team ace Roy Halladay getting rocked for 12 hits, 8 runs (7 earned) while recording only 10 outs. His game score was a meager 6.

What are the worst game scores since 1957 for a victorious team. Well, that’s what PI’s Pitching Game Log Finder can do for you.

First, go the the Game Log Finder page. Next, in the left column on the page, click on “W” for the Team result category (it just says team, but it’s team result). Then, over at the

right column, where it says, “Select Additional Criteria Games Must Match,” sort for Game Score less than or equal to 6 (Halladay’s score). Then, in the yellow box in the right column, set the sorter for game score, and click off on the ascending order option.

Turns out that’s only the third time in the last half-century a team won when it’s starting pitcher sucked that badly.

Here’s the results you’d get.

Through the first third of this season, A-rod has been money in the 9th inning, to the tune of 8 hits in 16 ABs, including 5 HR and a double, with 12 RBIs. (That’s a 2.100 OPS if you’re scoring at home or even, as Olberman used to say, you’re alone.)

But a look at his career numbers in the 9th inning tells us we can expect a big dropoff.

To see the full numbers, hit A-rod’s PI page here, scroll down to “By Inning” and then click the red text that says “9th inning.”

You can see that his career performance in the 9th inning is a lackluster .253/.334/.471, and that he hit under .200 in the final frame in 1995, 1998, 2002, and 2006.

If the Yankees are to have any chance of getting back in the playoff hunt this year, they need A-rod to stay well above his career norms in the 9th inning.

With the much anticipated debut of Homer Bailey coming up on Friday. To generate this list I used the pitching game finder and set the team to Reds, the games at start of career = 1 and then chose to sort of Game Scores. Note this will only find the debut for the player’s career not their Reds’ debut if they played somewhere else first.

   Cnt CarGm Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str **GmSc**
 +----+-----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--------+
     1     1 Wayne Simpson     1970-04-09    CIN @LAD W  3-0  SHO9  ,W   9    2  0  0  0  2  0             85
     2     1 Jeff Russell      1983-08-13    CIN  SDP W  3-1  CG 9  ,W   9    5  1  0  1  7  0             81
     3     1 Mo Sanford        1991-08-09    CIN @SDP W  5-1  GS-7  ,W   7    2  1  0  1  8  0  99  66     78
     4     1 Rob Bell          2000-04-08    CIN  CHC W  4-3  GS-7       7    3  3  1  2  9  0 100  67     70
     5     1 Tom Carroll       1974-07-07(1) CIN  STL W  2-1  GS-7  ,W   7    2  1  1  6  6  1             69
     6     1 Keith Brown       1988-08-25    CIN  STL W  4-1  GS-7  ,W   7    4  1  1  2  3  1  87  52     66
     7     1 Jim Maloney       1960-07-27    CIN @LAD L  0-2  GS-7  ,L   7    6  1  1  2  5  0 100  61     64
     8     1 John Roper        1993-05-16    CIN  COL W 14-2  GS-6  ,W   6    5  1  1  0  4  0  94  61     62
     9     1 Pat Darcy         1974-09-12(2) CIN  ATL W  6-2  GS-8  ,W   7.2  6  2  2  3  6  1             62
    10     1 Jim O'Toole       1958-09-26    CIN @MLN L  1-2  GS-7  ,L   7    4  2  1  5  4  0             62

Full List.