Greatest Pitching Duel Ever ?

[mlazar]

can anyone think of a greater pitching duel then this ? I'm not sure how many pitches Warren Spahn threw, but Juan Marichal threw 229 pitches ..makes me laugh at todays pitchers and their pitching coaches "pitch count concern"....

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/09/21/SP11635.DTL&hw=marichal+spahn&sn=003&sc=498

CANDLESTICK CLASSICS #2 / A Fight to the Finish / Marichal, Spahn duel for 15 scoreless innings

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=196307020SFN

Box Score of Game played on Tuesday, July 2, 1963 at Candlestick Park

Thanks,Mike

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Wasn't the best, but if I could purchase a ticket for the Time Warp Train, I'd go back to 1916 and watch Ruth beat Johnson in a 13 inning 1-0 game. I know; surprise surprise :o

[RuthMayBond]

It doesn't say how long Hubbell's opponent went, but how about in 1933, on July 2nd, Hubbell throwing an EIGHTEEN-inning shutout!

[Sultan_1895-1948]

It doesn't say how long Hubbell's opponent went, but how about in 1933, on July 2nd, Hubbell throwing an EIGHTEEN-inning shutout!

Holy Christ.

Brings a few questions to mind.

1. Did the manager take the day off?

2. Did every other available pitcher break their arm the day before?

3. Assuming the first two questions are false; how exactly does that conversation go?

Around the 12th or 13th inning, the skipper doesn't say something about how ya feelin', or you've done a great job, we'll get someone in there to finish it for ya. Ok, so he convinces him he's not outta gas and stays in a few more innings. In the 16th inning, the manager doesn't get a little concerned and just yank him? Course at that point, why not just let him stay out there, but damn. 18 innings?

[Bill Burgess]

On Oct. 2, 1908, there was a pitching duel where Addie Joss threw a perfect game, and Ed Walsh threw a 4 hitter, walked 1, gave up 1 run, and struck out 15 batters. Bad day for the hitters. In fact, bad year for them too.

Bill

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Waddell beat Cy Young in a 20 inning game on July 4, 1905. Not sure if they both went the distance though. Final score: 4-2.

[ScrewBll45]

I go with Koufax vs Hendley.

[RuthMayBond]

I go with Koufax vs Hendley.

I assume we're talking Sep. 9, 1965

[wamby]

Maybe Oescherr vs Cadore in 1920. Or the double no-hitter (Vaughn vs Toney?).

[Victory Faust]

On Oct. 2, 1908, there was a pitching duel where Addie Joss threw a perfect game, and Ed Walsh threw a 4 hitter, walked 1, gave up 1 run, and struck out 15 batters. Bad day for the hitters. In fact, bad year for them too.

Bill

That's my vote, too, because of the circumstances surrounding the game. The pennant was riding on every pitch.

In fact, with most of the questions that are posed on this website about the "Greatest this" or "Greatest that," I have to stop and ponder it for awhile. Not this question, though. To me, the answer is Walsh-Joss, hands-down.

Here's a good one that hasn't been mentioned yet: Walter Johnson vs. Smokey Joe Wood, 1912.

And Morris-Smoltz, 1991 wasn't so bad, either.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Here's a good one that hasn't been mentioned yet: Walter Johnson vs. Smokey Joe Wood, 1912.

And Morris-Smoltz, 1991 wasn't so bad, either.

Those are both good ones. Walter and Joe both won 16 straight games that season. If it's the 1-0 game at Fenway you're talking about; after that game is when Johnson supposedly said, "No man alive throws faster than Smoky Joe Wood."

[Ubiquitous]

How about most recent?

Game 4 of the 2006 World Series. Young unknown Brandon Backe going 7 innings, 7 strikeouts and no runs against Freedy Garcia who goes 7 innings with 7 strikeouts and no runs.

Yes its no 9 inning masterpiece but again I'm just talking most recent.

Backe by the way was the Houston pitcher that threw 8 shutout innings of game 5 of the 2004 NLCS against the Cardinals. Of course he got rocked in game 1 but hey we can't all be perfect.

[ElHalo]

How about most recent?

Game 4 of the 2006 World Series.

To be quite honest, I had to sit here for about fifteen seconds trying to decide whether or not you were trying to be funny. Then I saw Freddy Garcia's name and just assumed that you were referring to the 2005 WS, and realized that I didn't know enough about that particular series to know whether your statement applied to it or not, and didn't care enough to bother looking it up.

White Sox and Astros? Other than Angels/Giants, has there ever been a WS that more people were less interested in?

As to answering the thread, it's Joss and Walsh, and it's not close.

[mlazar]

victory Faust wrote:

And Morris-Smoltz, 1991 wasn't so bad, either.

but Lonnie Smith running the bases was.....

[Bill Burgess]

Flashbacks


The Greatest Game Ever Lost
Milwaukee Braves 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 0
May 26, 1959 / County Stadium
By Sandro Cozzi and James G. Robinson

On a chilly May evening in 1959, thirty-three-year-old lefthander Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivered arguably the greatest pitching performance in baseball history against the Milwaukee Braves. Even though Braves manager Fred Haney had loaded his powerful lineup with seven right-handed bats, Haddix pitched twelve innings of perfect ball -- shutting down such luminaries as Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Joe Adcock to repeated ovations from the 19,194-strong Milwaukee crowd.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Haddix's feat -- if Milwaukee's Bob Buhl is to be believed -- is that the Braves knew exactly what he was going to throw before each pitch. "His catcher, Smoky Burgess, was tipping them off," Buhl told historian Danny Peary years later. "Burgess was chubby and couldn't squat all the way down ... We'd yell from the bench what he was calling. But Harvey was doing such a good job of putting on and taking off speed that the hitters couldn't time him."

Milwaukee pitcher Lew Burdette had scattered twelve hits through thirteen innings, but Pittsburgh grounded into three double plays and none of the Pirates managed to score against the Braves' ace. Their best chance for a run was snuffed out when Roman Mejias was gunned down trying to advance from first to third on an infield single in the third. In the middle of the tenth, Haney asked Burdette if he'd had enough. "What for?" Burdette replied. "I'm not tired."

Haddix relied on his fastball, his slider, and two sparkling defensive plays from shortstop Dick Schofield to preserve the perfect game. Schofield twice robbed Braves shortstop Johnny Logan of base hits. But the Bucs' fielding would let Haddix down when Milwaukee second baseman Felix Mantilla -- a .215 hitter -- led off the thirteenth with a roller to third baseman Don Hoak.

It looked like Haddix's perfection would continue.

It didn't.

Hoak fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw to first sailed low and Haddix's streak of thirty-six up, thirty-six down came to an end. "Hoak had all night after picking up the ball," remembered Haddix wistfully. "He looked at the seams ... then threw it away." But Burdette disagreed. "They gave Hoak the error," he later recalled, "but [first baseman] Rocky [Nelson] could have stretched and caught the ball."

In any case, the error was charged to Hoak, Mantilla was standing on first and the perfect game was over.

Haddix's no-hitter was still alive, however, and remained so when Eddie Mathews bunted Mantilla along to second. Then Hank Aaron was intentionally walked to set up a double-play opportunity with Joe Adcock at the plate.

What would have been the longest no-hitter in baseball history ended on Haddix's second pitch, a slider that stayed up long enough for Adock to drill it over the center-field fence. As Mantilla scored, Hank Aaron -- who thought the ball was still in play and that the game had officially ended -- passed second and turned towards the dugout. Adcock arrived at third to find Aaron behind him and was promptly called out, turning his game-winning homer into a game-winning double.

But the damage was done. The Braves had won and one of baseball's most extraordinary single-game pitching feats ended as a loss.

"Harvey didn't even go to bed that night," remembered teammate ElRoy Face. "He just walked the streets until sometime in the morning." As Marcia Haddix, Harvey's widow, explained recently, "He felt that game was a loss for his team and he didn't play to lose."