In 1968, Bob Gibson started 34 games for the St Louis Cardinals, completing 28. Of the six games he didn't complete, his shortest outings came in his first two starts - both against the Atlanta Braves - when he "only" pitched seven innings. Three times he was removed after pitching eight innings - because as luck would have it, his turn in the batting order came up each time in the bottom of the eighth, with the Cardinals trailing. Tim McCarver pinch hit for him twice (unsuccessfully) and Johnny Edwards once (successfully); however, the Cardinals lost all three of those games. His only other "non-complete" game came when he worked the first eleven innings of a game that lasted thirteen innings.
Of the 34 games Gibson started, he won (and completed) 22 of them - 13 of those were shutouts (the most in the National League). One of those complete game shutouts lasted ten innings. He pitched all twelve innings of a 3-1 win over Houston at the Astrodome. The only run he allowed was unearned. In his very next start at home against the Mets, he went eleven innings in beating Tom Seaver, 2-1.
Of the 34 games Gibson started, he lost nine times and had three no-decisions. Two of those no-decisions came in those first two seven inning starts - games the Cardinals eventually won - but when Gibson was removed, he was actually on the hook for a loss. In the first game, he was down 1-0 (the run he allowed was unearned), but the Cards rallied to win, 2-1. In the second game, he was down 3-1, but the Cards rallied to win 4-3. His only other "no decision" came in that eleven inning game that lasted thirteen innings. When he was removed from the game, he was trailing 5-4, but the Cards rallied to tie the game, only to lose it, 6-5.
Of the nine games Gibson lost in '68, he allowed just one run three times - losing in ten innings once, and losing to the Giants' Gaylord Perry on a day he happened to be pitching a no-hitter. The only run Gibby allowed in that game came in the very first inning, when Ron Hunt, of all people, hit one of the two home runs he'd hit all year. In the other game, Gibson allowed one run on just one hit through eight innings. His replacement gave up a run in the ninth in a game the Cards lost, 2-0.
Of the remaining six games Gibson lost in '68, three were by scores of 3-2. In all three of those games, he only allowed two earned runs; so he was done-in by an unearned run each time.
He lost another game to the Giants that was shortened to eight innings due to rain, by a score of 3-1. In that game, Willie Mays hit a 2-run home run in the seventh inning to seal Gibby's fate.
He lost another one by a 5-1 score, although only three of the runs were earned runs. Perhaps his most frustrating loss of the season came in a 6-4 loss to the Pirates; a game in which he was staked to an early 4-0 lead; a game in which only three of the six runs he allowed were earned runs; and a game in which he struck out a season high 15 batters.
Gibson got off to somewhat of a slow start in '68. Through his first eleven starts, his record was just 4-5, with an ERA of 1.66; and he didn't have a single shutout to his credit. In his twelfth start, he pitched his first shutout, then reeled off four more shutouts in a row. The scoreless streak was finally snapped in a July 1 start in LA when the Dodgers scored a first-inning run on a wild pitch. That ended the scoring for LA; he won that game, 5-1, beating Don Drysdale. Curiously enough, the Dodgers were the only team Gibson failed to shutout at least once in '68.
Gibson finished the season with eight more shutouts in his final seventeen starts, going 12-4 over that span. But his September was fairly lackluster, by his standards. He was so irritated with his 2-3 September W-L record (including an ugly win against the Dodgers) heading into his final start of the season; that he took it out on the Astros - blanking them 1-0, as he lowered his ERA to a National League best 1.12. He struck out eleven batters in that game, marking the eleventh time that season he reached double digits in strikeouts. His season total of 268 strikeouts also led the National League.
Not surprisingly, Gibson's ERA in the 22 games he won in '68 was significantly lower than 1.12; try 0.57. Gibson gave up a total of eleven home runs all season; only two were hit in games that he won - in a June 2 win over the Mets, then not until a September 11 start against the Dodgers. So Gibson went most of June, all of July, all of August, and nearly half of September without allowing a single home run when he was the winning pitcher in the game.
In the 22 games Gibson won, he pitched a total of 204 innings - an average of nearly 9.1 IP per start.
Whenever the Cardinals scored at least five runs for him, Gibson won every one of those starts; but it only happened eight times all season. In other words, in the other fourteen games Gibson won that year, he had very little margin for error.
Gibson certainly pitched well enough to win 30 games in 1968. Between the three "no decisions" and nine losses, there were eight games in which he allowed two or fewer earned runs; but the St Louis offensive attack didn't provide much support when he really needed it; nor make some routine defensive plays behind him, to keep those nasty unearned runs off the board.
So yes, 22-9 very easily could have been 30-3; with any luck at all.
See for yourself. Here's Gibson's pitching summary for all 34 starts:
Apr 10 (ATL) 7 IP - 3 H - 1 R - 0 ER - 1 BB - 0 SO (ND) Final: STL 2 - ATL 1
Apr 15 (@ATL) 7 IP - 5 H - 3 R - 3 ER - 3 BB - 5 SO - 1 HR (ND) Final: STL 4 - ATL 3
Apr 20 (CHC) 9 IP - 10 H - 5 R - 3 ER - 1 BB - 8 SO - 1 HR (L 0-1) Final: CHC 5 - STL 1
Apr 26 (PIT) 9 IP - 7 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 1 BB - 5 SO (W 1-1) Final: STL 2 - PIT 1
May 1 (@HOU) 12 IP - 7 H - 1 R - 0 ER - 5 BB - 7 SO (W 2-1) Final: STL 3 - HOU 1
May 6 (NYM) 11 IP - 3 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 1 BB - 11 SO (W 3-1) Final: STL 2 - NYM 1
May 12 (HOU) 8 IP - 11 H - 3 R - 2 ER - 2 BB - 10 SO (L 3-2) Final: HOU 3 - STL 2
May 17 (@PHI) 9.2 IP - 7 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 4 BB - 5 SO (L 3-3) Final: PHI 1 - STL 0
May 22 (LAD) 8 IP - 1 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 2 BB - 6 SO (L 3-4) Final: LAD 2 - STL 0
May 28 (SFG) 8 IP - 4 H - 3 R - 3 ER - 1 BB - 5 SO - 2 HR (L 3-5) Final SFG 3 - STL 1
Jun 2 (@NYM) 9 IP - 7 H - 3 R - 3 ER - 3 BB - 8 SO - 1 HR (W 4-5) Final: STL 6 - NYM 3
Jun 6 (@HOU) 9 IP - 3 H - 0 R - 2 BB - 5 SO (W 5-5) Final: STL 4 - HOU 0
Jun11 (@ATL) 9 IP - 5 H - 0 R - 2 BB - 4 SO (W 6-5) Final: STL 6 - ATL 0
Jun 15 (CIN) 9 IP - 4 H - 0 R - 0 BB - 13 SO (W 7-5) Final: STL 2 - CIN 0
Jun 20 (CHC) 9 IP - 5 H - 0 R - 1 BB - 6 SO (W 8-5) Final : STL 1 - CHC 0
Jun 26 (PIT) 9 IP - 4 H - 0 R - 0 BB - 7 SO (W 9-5) Final: STL 3 - PIT 0
Jul 1 (@LAD) 9 IP - 9 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 2 BB - 4 SO (W 10-5) Final: STL 5 - LAD 1
Jul 6 (@SFG) 9 IP - 6 H - 0 R - 4 BB - 9 SO (W 11-5) Final: STL 3 - SFG 0
Jul 12 (HOU) 9 IP - 3 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 0 BB - 8 SO (W 12-5) Final: STL 8 - HOU 1
Jul 21 (NYM) 9 IP - 7 H - 0 R - 0 BB - 13 SO (W 13 - 5) Final: STL 2 - NYM 0
Jul 25 (PHI) 9 IP - 5 H - 0 R - 1 BB - 6 SO (W 14-5) Final: STL 5 - PHI 0
Jul 30 (@NYM) 9 IP - 5 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 1 BB - 8 SO (W 15-5) Final: STL 7 - NYM 1
Aug 4 (CHC) 11 IP - 12 H - 5 R - 4 ER - 3 BB - 10 SO - 2 HR (ND 15-5) Final: CHC 6 - STL 5
Aug 9 (@ATL) 9 IP - 4 H - 0 R - 0 BB - 5 SO (W 16-5) Final: STL 1 - ATL 0
Aug 14 (@CHC) 9 IP - 8 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 3 BB - 7 SO (W 17-5) Final: STL 3 - CHC 1
Aug 19 (@PHI) 9 IP - 2 H - 0 R - 2 BB - 11 SO (W 18-5) Final: STL 2 - PHI 0
Aug 24 (PIT) 9 IP - 6 H - 6 R - 3 ER - 2 BB - 15 SO - 1 HR (L 18-6) Final: PIT 6 - STL 4
Aug 28 (@PIT) 9 IP - 4 H - 0 R - 3 BB - 14 SO (W 19-6) Final: STL 8 - PIT 0
Sep 2 (@CIN) 10 IP - 4 H - 0 R - 3 BB - 8 SO (W 20-6) Final: STL 1 - CIN 0
Sep 6 (SFG) 8 IP - 9 H - 3 R - 2 ER - 0 BB - 7 SO (L 20-7) Final: SFG 3 - STL 2
Sep 11 (LAD) 9 IP - 11 H - 4 R - 4 ER - 2 BB - 6 SO - 1 HR (W 21-7) Final: STL 5 - LAD 4
Sep 17 (@SFG) 8 IP - 4 H - 1 R - 1 ER - 2 BB - 10 SO - 1 HR (L 21-8) Final: SFG 1 - STL 0
Sep 22 (@LAD) 8 IP - 7 H - 3 R - 2 ER - 5 BB - 11 SO - 1 HR (L 21-9) Final: LAD 3 - STL 2
Sep 27 (HOU) 9 IP - 6 H - 0 R - 0 BB - 11 SO (W 22-9) Final: STL 1 - HOU 0
No comments:
Post a Comment