The old saying goes that you never know what can happen on any given day at the ballpark. Maybe you’ll see a homerun, maybe it will be a great sliding catch, or maybe a guy you’ve never heard of is going to throw a shutout. Things like that can stick with you forever, sometimes more than if it was a superstar doing it because you know that one game on that one particular day was the best day of that player’s life. Those are the kind of guys I want to talk about. I’ve seen a lot of games over the years, and these are the best obscure pitching performances I can remember.
JD Durbin Shutout
Back in those halcyon days of the budding Phillies mini-dynasty of the late 2000s the Phillies didn’t just lead the league in MVP candidates, we also led the league in Durbins. To those who don’t remember, Durbins come in two varieties. There’s the Chad and the JD. The Chad Durbin was a solid member of the 2008 bullpen, but the “Real Deal” JD Durbin was a spot starter and midseason edition to the 2007 team that very few people remember.
On July 22, 2007, JD Durbin started for the Phillies. It was his 3rd start of the year and only his 7th appearance. The Phillies were hoping for as many innings as possible as they were hovering at .500 and facing a Padres team with a much better record. Hopes were not high considering the 9.00 ERA Durbin was sporting. This is why you come to the ballpark. Durbin scattered 5 hits with no one getting past 2nd base, cruising to the shutout in just over 100 pitches. Everything on this list was unexpected, but nothing more so than this one. Durbin finished the season with a 5+ ERA for the Phillies and was never heard from again.
Eric Milton Near NoNo
On July 25th, 2004, Eric Milton started the day by issuing a 5-pitch walk. Wonderful. You could feel the groans from everyone watching. Then, shockingly, a flyball out misread by the previously walked Mark Grudzielanek lead to a double play at first base. He was the last person to reach base for the Cubs until the 9th inning.
Around the 4th inning, Harry Kalas started to comment on how Milton had faced the minimum as his strikeouts climbed. Through 8 innings, he was at 1 walk, 10 Ks, and most importantly 0 hits. Unfortunately, Michael Barrett led off the 9th with a double, ending the no hitter. “At least he still has the shutout!” was what we were clinging to after 2 more strikeouts. Then it was single, double, and the butt clenching fear of “are we really going to lose this game???” The game was tied at 2 with the lead run at 2nd and Sammy Sosa at the plate. Ryan Madson was called in and got the out. What the hell though! We almost saw a no-hitter and now the game was tied??? No worries. Jim Thome walk, Doug Glanville sac bunt, and Pat Burrell single to in the game.
Vince Velasquez 16 Strikeouts
You are reading that right. In his 2nd start of his Phillies career after coming over from Houston in the Ken Giles trade, on April 14th, 2016, Vince Velasquez struck out 16 San Diego Padres. It was probably the most dominant single game performance I have ever seen outside of Cliff Lee in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series. He just completely overpowered the Padres that day.
It didn’t really start out as anything too crazy. He struckout the side in the first but was only up to 7 through 5. Then things started really working. 2 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th, and got them all in the 8th. I was watching it at work and just kept calling out the strikeouts once he got to 10. Shockingly, his pitch count remained low thanks to not giving out any walks and the Phillies needed him to stay in because the game was close. Up 3-0 in the top of the 9th, VV sat at 14 Ks. He struck out Jon Jay to start the inning and Wil Myers to end it finishing at 16. We REALLY thought we had something with Vinny and it was really hard to come to terms that it would just never get any better than that day.
Tyler Phillips Shutout
Reminiscent of the JD Durbin shutout, Tyler Phillips was called up in the dog days of summer to hopefully eat some innings but with absolutely no expectations against Cleveland. The local kid from Pennsauken, NJ had made 3 previous starts in his career with his childhood favorite team and held his own despite nothing really special in his arsenal. On July 27th, 2024 in front of tons of friends and family, Phillips twirled a shutout on only 105 pitches. He scattered 4 hits and gave up 1 walk in a game that felt like the kind of no trouble breeze we have forgotten about (The Phillies won 11-2 as I was writing this, but still). Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, and Kyle Schwarber all homered off former Phillie Carlos Carrasco in the 4th inning and the team never looked back. It was 7-0. Castellanos would add a solo shot 2 innings later and the pressure was completely off Phillips. Despite a walk, he faced the minimum over his final 5 innings. After the game, he said that he had never done anything like that before. Can you imagine? Your best day ever on your favorite team in front of everyone you know. Truly special.
Michael Lorenzen No Hitter
This one is still pretty fresh in everyone’s minds, but it won’t be forever. Years will go by and everyone will recall Roy Halladay’s heroics and Cole Hamels’ final start, but eventually people will forget all about what Michael Lorenzen did on August 9th 2023 in his 2nd start as a Phillie (I was at his 1st start…damn). Everyone probably already forgets what else happened in this game: Weston Wilson made his Major League debut collecting 3 walks and his first career hit (HR!) while Nick Castellanos hist 2 dingers including his 200th in front of his son.
The story though was obviously Lorenzen. After going 8 innings 5 days earlier against the Marlins, his encore against Washington will forever be a part of Phillies history. On a probably season destroying 124 pitches, 4 walks, and a completely unnatural 15 flyball outs, not a single National was able to successfully put the bat on the ball. He left just as quickly as he made memories for us, splitting town after the playoffs.
Gavin Floyd Complete Game Shutout
If you look up every game pitched by Gavin Floyd for the Phillies (shockingly only 19 starts) you will see that he never pitched 9 innings. In fact, the most he ever went was 7 innings twice including in his first career start. Wait, are you messing with us? Nope, and you remember the game. The day was May 11, 2006 and this game is famous for one reason. In the top of the 1st inning, Floyd loaded the bases with Mets on 3 walks. With 2 outs, Xavier Nady hit a ball to deep centerfield that would have cleared the bases if it fell. It didn’t. On a dead sprint toward the centerfield wall, Aaron Rowand caught the ball and almost immediately slammed his face on the exposed metal fence. The inning was over but Rowand was down. He broke his nose and had several facial cuts that caused him to miss 2 weeks. For who? His teammates. For what? To win the game.1
Chase Utley would hit a home run in the bottom of the first to put the Phillies on the board and the good guys would tack on another run in the 4th. These early runs and takeaways would prove very important as the presence of rain became ever more prominent and ultimately ended the game after 4.5 innings, just enough to be official. As far as game scoring goes, you don’t need to pitch 9 or even 8 for a complete game, it just needs to be the whole game. Interestingly, the Mets’ Steve Trachsel threw a 4 inning CG that day in the loss. Floyd’s final line was 5 innings pitched, 4 walks, 2 Ks, and 0 runs… a complete game shutout.
All stats and game recaps courtesy of baseball-reference.com
- IYKYK ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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