Philly Front Office

As Cristopher Sanchez climbs the scoreless innings ladder, you are going to hear a lot more about the famous streak of Orel Hershiser for the Dodgers back in 1988. There’s way more to it than just 59 innings. Did you know that it’s not really 59 innings and it’s not really just 1988?

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The streak started on August 30th, 1988, as the Dodgers faced the Montreal Expos in the bottom of the 5th inning. Tim Raines and Dave Martinez had just doubled and singled to score two runs for the Expos when Tracy Jones grounded out. No one would score on Orel Hershiser for the rest of the 1988 regular season.¹

I want to back up a few weeks to set the stage for the incredible run Orel was about to go on. Before this game in Montreal, Hershiser had already thrown back to back complete games and his ERA sat at 2.88. There was a shutout against Montreal on August 19th and a two-run loss against the Mets on August 24th. The loss to the Mets was of note since the two teams were leading their divisions and the odds on favorites to represent their league in the NLCS.

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Back to August 30th. The Dodgers would win the game 4-2 behind another complete game from Hershiser, his 3rd in a row. Hershiser didn’t let up another run the rest of the game, dropping his ERA to 2.84 and his streak sat at an unassuming 4 innings.

His next start was September 5th against the Braves in Atlanta. Hershiser let up a double in the first, but nothing more. Two men reached in the 3rd but no Brave would even make it to third base this game. Orel finished with a 4-hit shutout, his 4th complete game in a row, dropped his ERA to 2.73, and ran his scoreless streak to 13.1 innings.

On September 10th, the Reds came to Chavez Ravine and managed 10 base runners thanks to 7 hits and 3 walks. They even managed to load the bases in the 3rd inning but couldn’t bring anyone in. Hershiser was economical with his pitches though, needing 109 to get the Dodgers a 5-0 win. Orel tossed another shutout, his 5th complete game in a row, brought the ERA down to 2.62, and the streak was at 22 innings.

September 15th brought the Braves to LA and the closest threat to the streak at this point. After squandering back to back singles to lead off the 3rd inning, the Braves’ Andres Thomas doubled to lead off the 7th then reached 3rd on an error leaving runners on the corners with no outs in a tie game. Hershiser went grounder to first, intentional walk to load the bases, strikeout, fly out to end the threat. The Dodgers would walk it off 1-0 in the 9th with Hershiser pitching the whole game again. That made 6 straight CGs, 3 straight shutouts, a 2.52 ERA, and 31 straight scoreless innings.

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5 days later it was the Astros turn to get dominated. Despite another 1-0 Dodgers win, Houston never really threatened. One batter made it to 3rd and another to 2nd but both were due to fielding errors. Hershiser gave up 5 hits and no walks, lowering his ERA to 2.43 with his 7th straight CG and 4th straight shutout.

The scoreless streak had reached 40 innings at this point and things were now officially interesting. At the time, the all-time record was held by Don Drysdale at 58 innings set in 1968. He topped Walter Johnson’s 55.2 from 1913 who had beaten Jack Coombs 53 from 1910 to set the record. The same year as Drysdale, Bob Gibson went on a run of his own ending at 47 innings. Carl Hubbell was next at 45.1 followed by Cy Young, Doc White, and Sal Magilie at 45 innings rounding out the top 8. In his next start, Hershiser had the chance to drop all but Drysdale, Johnson, and Coombs down a peg.

That he did. Aided by a few timely double plays (which one is considered a very generous call) and a 3-run homer by Mickey Hatcher in the 8th, Hershiser and the Dodgers won 3-0. Orel went all 9 for the 8th straight time and a 5th consecutive shutout. His ERA had dropped to 2.35 and the streak had run to 49 innings, good for 4th place all time.

At this point, Hershiser and the record books had a potential problem: Orel had run out of time. With no division at stake, there was only enough games for one more start that season. LA would need Hershiser for the playoffs, not one more meaningless start on short rest. This meant nothing short of a marathon in his last start could beat Drysdale. Some had considered Drysdale’s streak to be at 58.2 innings, but even at 58, another complete game shutout would only tie the record.

You won’t believe it, he went 10 innings!!! After the 9th, the game was still tied at zero, so there would be extras. Though the game wasn’t important, the record was, and that meant sending Orel out for the 10th sitting at 58 scoreless innings. A missed catch strikeout put the lead off Padre on first then a bunt moved him over to 2nd. I can’t imagine the tension in the air. No bother. A groundout, intentional walk, and flyball got him to the end with 59 consecutive scoreless innings. He was pulled at 116 pitches and not allowed to go into the 11th. Considering the season was essentially over before the game had started, this was purely a record chaser and he got it. Funny enough, despite the streak still going strong, his complete game and shutout streaks ended because the game went 16 innings.

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This is where the record gets murky. The 1988 season ended with the streak still going and Orel was to face the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS. The Mets threatened in the 3rd and the 5th, but Hershiser took another shutout and a 2-run lead into the 9th. That’s when a leadoff single to Gregg Jeffries and then a double to Darryl Strawberry finally scored a run for the opposition. He had gone 67 full scoreless innings and was immediately pulled from the game. The crazy thing was that the Mets scored 2 more that inning off his replacement and ambushed the Dodgers for a 3-2 win. Don’t worry, the Mets didn’t go to the World Series in 1988. The Dodgers would come back on the arm of Hershiser who would win World Series MVP and the Cy Young award.

Technically, the 1989 season began with the streak still intact. For some reason, Hershiser was not the Opening Day starter and would face the Reds in Game 2. How long would the streak last??? Technically it had still been going on all winter. The answer? Not long. Barry Larkin led off the game with a single and was even picked off first but reached 2nd on an error. Two strikeouts should have ended the inning, but a walk to Kal Daniels and a single to Todd Benzinger put an end to the lengthy record right away.

All of this is even crazier considering Hershiser was going through some personal issues at the time. His wife gave birth to his son while this was going on and was forced to stay in the hospital for an extra 5 days with undisclosed complications.²

Photo

Stats: Baseball Reference

1. This is not considered .1 scoreless innings because someone had already scored. In case you were wondering what the .1 would be about though, MLB statisticians label an out as .1 rather than the .333 you would think would indicate 1/3 of an inning. So, it goes .1, .2, then 1.0 ↩︎
2. 49 AND COUNTING : With Title Clinched, Hershiser Focuses on Matching Drysdale’s Scoreless Streak – Los Angeles Times ↩︎