Pitching Duels: A Thing of the Past

Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson

Once upon a time, when there were two major leagues of eight teams each, pitching staffs consisted of four starters – many of whom were expected to throw batting practice and relieve between starts – and three or four relievers, usually former starters who were past their primes or youngsters still struggling to make the starting foursome.

Sometimes, when injuries occurred or doubleheaders piled up, relievers became spot starters.

Relievers mopping up in blowout games might work seven or eight innings. Those who were later called ‘closers’ commonly worked two or three innings, not just the ninth.

In the 1940s the Yankees’ Joe Page and Dodgers’ Hugh Casey were the most prominent “closers”. They were followed by the Phillies’ Jim Konstanty in the ‘50s, Roy Face of the Pirates in the ‘60s, and Mike Marshall in the ‘70s.

Starting pitchers expected – and were expected to – pitch complete games. Some of them were of such a toughness and stubbornness and status that they fought being taken out of a game, even on those inevitable days when they weren’t at their best.

Managers learned to leave them alone and not even try to relieve the Lyonses and Groves and Deans and Gibsons. Maybe if they were trailing in a close game and a pinch hitter was called for would they grudgingly come out. 

If they gave up several runs in the first inning, they figured out what was not working and made adjustments. Even if they still continued to struggle, they refused to give up. They knew how to pitch, not just how to throw 100 miles an hour.

The Dodgers’ Hugh Casey - an iconic closer

Nobody counted pitches. Nobody was replaced because they had gone through the opposing lineup three times. If a game went into extra innings, they might face those same batters six or seven times.

Perhaps the most spectacular workload of any pitcher over a four-year stretch was that of 300-game winner Lefty Grove of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930-1933.

These were not Deadball Era days: American League team batting averages were over .280. Over that span Grove completed 80 percent of his 120 starts and relieved 60 times, averaging 290 innings pitched per year. His record was 108-27; he led the league in ERA every year.

In those days, some bullpens were in foul territory in the outfield. Pitchers could see when potential relievers were warming up. The A’s had an unwritten rule: When Grove was on the mound, nobody threw in the bullpen. If somebody started throwing to get in some exercise, Grove would stand on the mound, glaring out at him until the transgressor sat down.

Lefty Grove: a pitcher with a work ethic!

Other twentieth-century pitchers who completed well over half their starts and occasionally relieved included Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Ted Lyons, Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, Johnny Sain, Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal.  

What all this meant to baseball fans of the time was opportunities to see classic pitching duels whenever these warriors of the mound clashed. And if it was a Sunday or holiday doubleheader, to witness two classics for the price of one.

Elsewhere on this site you’ll find an account of baseball’s longest game, the 1920 26-inning 2-2 tie in which both pitchers went the distance.

Here are some other noteworthy pitching duels the likes of which we’ll never see again.

Lefty Grove

A July 4, 1925 doubleheader at Yankee Stadium drew 50,000 fans. In the opener Grove and future Hall of Famer Herb Pennock went 14 scoreless innings before the Yankees scored a run on two singles in the 15th. Grove gave up 14 hits and 5 walks, and fanned 10. Pennock gave up 4 hits, 0 walks and struck out 5. The A’s had 2 left on base.

In the first game of a 1927 Memorial Day doubleheader against the Yankees at Shibe Park, Grove didn’t have his good stuff. In the top of the first, the Yankees scored 3 runs on 5 hits, including 3 doubles, The A’s came back, then the Yankees came back.

After 8 innings the A’s led, 9-6. Grove was still pitching. He’d given up 12 hits and 8 walks. He started the 9th by striking out Babe Ruth, then walked Lou Gehrig. Nobody was throwing in the bullpen. After Meusel grounded out, Lazzeri singled. Dugan doubled. It was now 9-8. Collins singled. Grove then fanned Grabowski for his 11th strikeout to end the game.

On June 3, 1929, Detroit’s George Uhle was 9-0, Grove 7-1 when they dueled for 13 innings, Uhle winning, 3-2. Two months later Grove went 17 innings, the last 9 scoreless, giving up 20 hits in a 5-3 win.

On May 30, 1931 at Boston, Grove pitched a 12-inning shutout, winning 5-0; time of game 2:28.

Walter Johnson

Walter Johnson pitched often in relief but was seldom relieved. In September 1914, he twice went 13 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits at New York on the fifth and 2 run on 6 hits in Chicago on the 21st for his 26th win.

Johnson’s longest shutout occurred against the White Sox on May 15, 1918, in Washington before a scant crowd of 1,600. He and Lefty Williams matched 17 scoreless innings before the Senators scored a run on a wild pitch in the 18th. Johnson gave up 10 hits, walked 1 and struck out 9. Williams gave up 8 hits and walked 2. Time of game: 2:47.

On opening day 1926 in Washington, the 38-year-old Johnson and Eddie Rommel of the Athletics both pitched shutouts for 14 innings until Rommel gave up 3 hits and a run in the bottom of the 15th. Johnson gave up 6 hits and struck out 9. Time of game: 2:33.

Eddie Rommel

Perhaps the most unusual long complete game (except for the record 26-inning tie) occurred on July 19, 1925. The Athletics were at St. Louis. The A’s starting pitcher, Eddie Rommel, had a 15-4 record.

At the end of 9 innings, the score was 4-4. At the end of 10, it was 5-5. At the end of the 12th it was 8-8. The A’s scored 4 in the top of the 15th. Final score: 12-8. The Browns had used 5 pitchers; the A’s 1. Rommel had faced 63 batters.

Starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics, Eddie Rommel

The longest relief stint on record belongs to Rommel. It occurred on Sunday, July 10, 1932, in Cleveland, and resulted in the last of his 171 career wins. The A’s, who could not play at home on Sundays at that time, had taken only two pitchers to Cleveland for the Sunday game. After their starter gave up 3 runs in the first inning, manager Connie Mack called on Rommel to start the second.

Seventeen innings later Rommel was still pitching; the A’s won, 18-17. Rommel had faced 87 batters. You can look it up.

Dizzy Dean and Carl Hubbell

Anytime, anywhere Dizzy Dean was scheduled to pitch, he put fannies in the seats. And when the Giants’ Carl Hubbell was pitching at home on a Sunday, that would fill the Polo Grounds. So when the St. Louis Cardinals were in New York for a doubleheader on Sunday, July 2, 1933, Depression or no Depression, 42,000 fans were there to see it, even if Hubbell and Dean were not facing each other. And they saw a doubleheader for the ages.

In the first game, the Giants’ veteran lefty ace, King Carl, faced young Cardinals’ fastballer Tex Carleton. For 9 innings they matched goose eggs, then continued almost 3-up, 3-down through another 7 innings. The Cardinals pinch-hit for Carleton in the top of the 17th, and veteran Jesse Haines replaced him on the mound in the last of the 17th. The Giants finally won in the 18th on a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a single. 

Hubbell had faced 59 batters, given up 6 hits and no walks, and struck out 12. Time of game: 4:03.

The second game was another pitchers’ duel. The Giants’ young right-hander Roy Parmelee edged Dean, 1-0, the only run coming on a fifth-inning home run by Giants’ third baseman Johnny Vergez. The nine innings took only 1:25. 

On Sunday, July 1, 1934, in Cincinnati, Dizzy Dean started against the Reds’ number four starter, lefthander Tony Freitas. Neither was at his best; the score was 5-5 after 9 innings. It was still 5-5 after 16, Both pitchers were still working. In the top of the 17th the Cardinals’ Joe Medwick hit a home run to make it 6-5. The Reds tied it on a double and single in the last of the 17th. Freitas left for a pinch hitter.

The Reds’ ace, Paul Derringer, relieved in the 18th and gave up 2 runs. The Reds loaded the bases in the bottom of the 18th but failed to score. Dean had gone through the lineup 9 times, giving up 18 hits and 7 walks. His record was now 13-3.

Bob Feller

In 1941 the 22-year-old Bob Feller was already a 20-game winner for Cleveland. But he was still as wild as he was unhittable. On August 7 he faced Detroit at home, going 13 innings in a 5-4 loss. He gave up 13 hits and walked 11 while striking out 13. Nobody knows how many pitches he threw.

Bob Gibson

In contrast to Dizzy Dean, who would cheerfully banter with batters before sending them sprawling in the dirt, nobody had a meaner demeanor on the mound than Bob Gibson. Didn’t matter if it was a batter he didn’t like, a catcher with some advice, or a coach or manager who suggested it might be time for a pitching change, they all got the same dark reception.

On the night of July 25, 1969, two pitching titans went at it at Busch Stadium before over 32,000 fans: the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson and the Giants’ Gaylord Perry.

Both teams scored a run in the first, and that was it until Perry left for a pinch hitter in the top of the 13th and in the last of the 13th Gibson led off with a single and two hits later scored the winning run. 

Two months later, Gibson went 12 innings in the last game of the season, a 3-2 win over the Phillies’ Larry Jackson, who also went the distance.

Gibson’s longest game was 14 innings against San Diego on August 12, 1970. He wasn’t at his best, giving up 13 hits, but he shut out the Padres over the last 8 innings for a 5-4 win. By this time the Cards’ manager, Red Schoendienst, a former teammate, knew better than to try to take him out.

Juan Marichal

On the night of July 2, 1963, Carl Hubbell, along with 15,921 fans, was at Candlestick Park for a game between the Giants and Milwaukee Braves. Hubbell, the Giants’ director of player development, later called it the greatest pitchers’ duel he had ever seen.

Starting pitchers were 23-year-old Juan Marichal for the Giants and 42-year-old lefthander Warren Spahn, who had already won over 300 games, for the Braves. Marichal’s current record was 12-3, Spahn’s 11-3. 

Both pitchers were in control from the start. It was mostly 3 up, 3 down from the start. Base runners were scarce. Spahn ran into trouble in the 14th, when Giants third baseman Harvey Kuenn led off with a double. Spahn then walked Willie Mays intentionally, Spahn’s only base on balls of the game. Kuenn made it to third before the inning ended.

The game remained scoreless until, with one out in the 16th, Willie Mays hit a solo home run to end it. Marichal had given up 8 hits and 4 walks and struck out 12, Spahn’s allowed 9 hits and fanned 2. Somebody was counting pitches: Marichal threw 227, Spahn 201. Game time: 4:01.