10 Responses to “Stephen Strasburg, best game scores in a debut, and happy birthday to us!”

1. Jeff Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 10:38 am

   5 Orioles and 4 Red Sox. 4 games against the Phillies. No relevance, just interesting.

2. Dave Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 11:06 am

   The problem is that unless Strasburg's got a perfect game or no-hitter going, there's almost no chance they'll let him go more than 6 innings. All the guys on the list above pitched at least 7, and all but 1 went 8 or more. No way Strasburg's cracking this list.

3. Johnny Twisto Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 11:19 am

   If Strasburg pitches 6 perfect innings and strikes out 8, he'll have an 80. Then he gets pulled and the fans riot.

4. Andy Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 11:25 am

   It just goes to show you how differently pitchers are used today that there's basically not a single recent highly-touted guy on this list. If Strasburg cracks 80 it will almost certainly be the second-biggest baseball story of the season.

5. DavidRF Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 11:56 am

   Getting a high game score is hard. JR Richard struck out 15 in his debut, but since he game up a couple of runs, he only gets a 75.

   Spooner is a fun guy. He got an 88 in his second game. That was near the end of the season so Dodger fans had all winter to be excited about him. Then he gets hurt in spring training and is never the same.

   Googling around, several sites are mentioning a record Spooner has. They all say he struck out the first six batters he faced. A simple check of the box score here shows that isn't the case. In his first six batters, he worked himself into and out of a bases-loaded jam (BB-1B-Flyout-Flyout-BB-K). The six consecutive K's were in the seventh and eighth innings.

6. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

   Maybe somene with more computer savvy can check this out; what about Bobo Holloman? Is my PMS {which stands for Pre-Mature Senility in my case} kicking in, or do I remember something from my early youth about him throwing a no-hitter in his debut?

7. Andy Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

   Frank, looks like Bobo threw a Nono in his first career start, which was actually his 5th career appearance:

   Rk	Gcar	Gtm	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
   1	1	4	Apr 18(1)	SLB	@	DET	W,8-7	7-8		99	1.1	3	2	2	0	1	0	0	13.50	7
   2	2	6	Apr 19	SLB	@	DET	W,6-3	9-10		0	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	7.71	5
   3	3	9	Apr 25	SLB		CHW	L,4-6	4-5		5	1.2	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	6.75	7
   May				Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
   4	4	14	May 1	SLB		WSH	L,5-6	3-4	L(0-1)	5	1.1	4	2	2	2	1	0	0	8.44	10
   5	5	19	May 6	SLB		PHA	W,6-0	SHO	W(1-1)	4	9.0	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	3.14	31
   6	6	23	May 12	SLB	@	PHA	W,7-3	GS-2		5	1.1	3	2	2	3	0	0	0	4.02	9
   7	7	32	May 24(1)	SLB	@	CLE	L,1-5	GS-3	L(1-2)	11	2.1	1	4	4	5	0	0	0	5.50	12
   8	8	36	May 27	SLB		CLE	W,5-1	GS-6	W(2-2)	2	5.1	7	1	1	4	3	0	0	4.63	26
   9	9	41	May 31(1)	SLB	@	CHW	L,4-7	GS-3	L(2-3)	3	2.1	4	4	3	2	1	0	0	5.26	13
   June				Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
   10	10	46	Jun 5	SLB		NYY	L,0-5	GS-	L(2-4)	4	4.1	6	5	4	4	1	1	0	5.70	23
   11	11	47	Jun 6	SLB		NYY	L,2-6	8-GF		0	2.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.34	7
   12	12	50	Jun 9	SLB		BOS	L,5-6	8-8		2	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	5.18	4
   13	13	51	Jun 10(1)	SLB		BOS	L,2-11	6-6		0	1.0	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	5.29	5
   14	14	59	Jun 17	SLB	@	NYY	L,3-5	GS-5	L(2-5)	6	4.0	5	3	3	5	1	0	0	5.45	22
   15	15	65	Jun 21(2)	SLB	@	BOS	W,2-0	GS-9	W(3-5)	3	8.0	2	0	0	5	3	0	0	4.50	28
   16	16	69	Jun 26	SLB	@	PHA	L,5-6	GS-7		4	6.2	10	4	4	2	1	0	0	4.61	29
   July				Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
   17	17	74	Jul 1	SLB	@	CHW	L,4-13	6-7		4	1.2	3	2	2	1	1	0	0	4.80	9
   18	18	78	Jul 5(2)	SLB		DET	L,1-7	GS-4	L(3-6)	3	4.0	4	2	2	2	3	1	0	4.78	17
   19	19	80	Jul 7	SLB		CLE	L,3-6	8-8	L(3-7)	1	0.0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	4.78	2
   20	20	85	Jul 12(1)	SLB	@	DET	L,7-8	2-7		4	5.0	6	1	1	5	1	0	0	4.55	25
   21	21	89	Jul 17	SLB		NYY	L,4-6			4	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.52	1
   22	22	92	Jul 19(2)	SLB		WSH	L,4-13	3-4		1	1.2	3	6	6	3	1	0	1	5.23	12
   				SLB							65.1	69	41	38	50	25	2	1	5.23	305

   Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
   Generated 6/5/2010.
8. Kahuna Tuna Says:
   June 5th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

   Happy birthday to the Baseball-Reference.com blog! . . . [T]he first post on this blog . . . [was] three years ago.

   And our youngest daughter was born three years ago today. Happy birthday to Noelle! Sometimes I call her "Nono."

9. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
   June 6th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

   One other thing -- Happy Birthday!

10. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    June 11th, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    To make Andy's list complete, I'd like to mention two World War II-era game scores.

    First, the debut of Al Jurisich, April 26, 1944: 12⅔ IP, 8 H, 1 R (earned), 4 BB, 7 K, for a game score of 87 and a loss. Jurisich's 87 is the highest debut game score for the period 1920-49.

    Second, the debut of Stubby Overmire, April 25, 1943: 9 IP, 5 H, 1 R (unearned), 1 BB, 6 K, for a game score of 80.

    One other fun note: The highest game score in 1942 for a pitcher starting his debut game was 72 by the Boston Braves' Lefty Wallace, who won a grand total of five games in the major leagues. The '42 Braves also had two other young pitchers who debuted as relief pitchers who would go on to excellent careers as starters — Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain.