Best pitched game ever

I remember that 22 inning game. It was on a Saturday. Dave Hansen, a utility player for them, pitched the final few innings for LA because they ran out of pitchers. Also, Fernando Valenzuela had to come in a play 1st base because they were out of position players.

The following day, the game also went into extra innings. I believe it was 13. Some correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Mike Scott came in and won it with a sacrafice fly.

 

i think that's exactly right...i couldn't remember how long the first game was...but i seem to remember there being a game the next night that went well into extra innings.

 

1. Billy Hatcher
2. Bill Doran
3. Kevin Bass
4. Glenn Davis
5. Denny Walling
6. Jose Cruz
7. Craig Reynolds
8. Alan Ashby

I freaking loved that team. I have memorable moments for every single one of those guys. A lawyer I work with is good friends with Craig Reynolds...his son now plays at Baylor.

 

1. Billy Hatcher - I remember him getting caught with cork in his bat (blamed it on Dave Smith)
2. Bill Doran - Mr. Hustle. He was Craig Biggio before there was a Craig Biggion.
3. Kevin Bass - One of my all-time favs. Switch hitter.
4. Glenn Davis - The big bopper. Does anyone else remember when he got a perm??
5. Denny Walling - Platooned with garner at 3rd. He is now Art Howe's hitting coach with NY.
6. Jose Cruz - Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz
7. Craig Reynolds - VERY religious. Does alot of charity work.
8. Alan Ashby - Loved Ash. Made you forget about our other catchers like Robbie Wine.

 

Yeah, I was at Nolan's shutout the night before (just didn't remember it was a shutout.) The Stros had a mathematical possibility of clinching the division that night if we won and the second place team (the Reds?) lost. The second place team won, so my buddy and I ran straight to the box office to get tickets for the next day's game -- which turned out to be Scott's no-no.

It was a businessman's special, and my cool dad (who isn't even a baseball fan) picked us up from school early and dropped us off at the park for the clincher.

Those were definitely the two best back-to-back pitching performances I've ever seen in person.

 

For some reason, I remember it as 15 innings on that second game, but I could be wrong. The 22 innings I remember.

 

Quick baseball trivia: Who was supposed to be the number 9 hitter after Deshaies struck out the first 8, and what did Tommy Lasorda do to piss off Astros fans everywhere?

 

Obviously it was some pitcher -- I'm guessing Lasorda had him bunt?

 

Didn't Dusty Baker ground out for the final out in that no hitter?

 

Deshaies pitches Astros near title/Lefty fans 8 at start to setmajor record

By NEIL HOHLFELD
Staff




Though it's hard to imagine anything upstaging the Houston Astros moving to the doorstep of winning the National League West title, Jim Deshaies came up with a way to do it Tuesday night.

Just strike out everyone in sight.

Deshaies , making his first start since Sept. 10, struck out the first eight Los Angeles Dodgers he faced to set a modern major-league record for strikeouts at the start of a game.

The Astros ' rookie left-hander broke a record set earlier this year by Joe Cowley of the Chicago White Sox.

The all-time record is nine, set by Michael Welch in 1884. Welch pitched for the New York team in the National League.

But that was in the dark ages. Deshaies broke Cowley's record by striking out Jose Gonzalez. After that, Deshaies struck out only two other batters , giving him 10 for the game.

It mattered little. Deshaies pitched his first major-league complete game, beating the Dodgers 4-0 on two hits. Deshaies , who has had a generally excellent rookie season, had not won since Aug. 24.

Obviously well-rested after a 12-day break between starts, Deshaies pitched his strongest game of the season. He has a 10-5 record, and has gone 7-1 against the NL West.

While the crowd of 27,734 was mindful of Deshaies ' strikeouts, another number was may have been even more important. The number two.

That's the Astros ' magic number to clinch the NL West title. The Astros ' win, combined with Cincinnati's 6-5 win over San Francisco, cut the Astros ' number to clinch dropped to two over both the Reds and Giants.

If everything breaks right, the Astros could be the NL West champions by tonight. The Astros would have to beat San Francisco in the Dome, and Atlanta would have to beat the Reds at Cincinnati.

If that happens, the Astros will have their first division title since 1980 and the second in the 25-year history of the franchise.

Deshaies began his record-breaking run by striking out Steve Sax, Reggie Williams and Enos Cabell in the first inning. The tip-off that Deshaies was back to his midseason form came in that inning.

The first three Dodgers were swinging and missing at Deshaies ' high fastball. In his previous three starts, hitters were either making contact or laying off that pitch.

But Cabell struck out on a pitch over his head to end the first , a sign that Deshaies was back in the groove.

In the second inning, Deshaies had to work to fan Pedro Guerrero. After working the count to 3 -2, Guerrero fouled off at least 10 pitches before taking one that just caught the inside corner.

Alex Trevino and Jeff Hamilton both went down swinging at fastballs. With those strikeouts, Deshaies tied the modern National League record for strikeouts at the start of the game. Both Andy Messersmith of Los Angeles in 1973 and Pete Falcone of the New York Mets in 1980 had fanned six straight.

By now, Deshaies seemed even more pumped up. He threw a high 2-2 fastball past Dave Anderson to tie Cowley's major-league record and needed only to fan Gonzalez, who had 23 strikeouts in 73 trips, to set the record.

Gonzalez fouled back the first two pitches. Deshaies threw one ball, then fired a strike past the late-swinging Gonzalez for the record.

Larry See, a pinch hitter for starting pitcher Dennis Powell, also seemed a likely candidate to strike out. In his 15 at-bats, See had fanned six times. Deshaies got the count to 1-2, but See popped out to second baseman Billy Doran, and became the first Dodger to put the ball into play.

By then, Deshaies was working with a 2-0 lead. The Astros scored twice off Powell in the first inning, using two walks, a double, a sacrifice fly and an error.

Billy Hatcher led off with a walk, and Billy Doran moved him to third with a chopped double down the left-field line. Phil Garner's sacrifice fly made it 1-0, and an error by Dodgers third baseman Hamilton brought home another run.

Deshaies gave up the first hit to the Dodgers when Sax led off the fourth with a clean single to left. Bass' excellent sliding catch of Williams' sinking liner started a run of 10 straight Dodgers retired by Deshaies .

This time, he struck out only one batter. Deshaies put a third strike past Guerrero to end the fourth inning. During the middle innings, the Dodgers made better contact but seven of their outs came on either pop-ups or fly balls.

The Astros took a 3 -0 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Alan Ashby hit his sixth home run of the season off reliever Balvino Galvez.

Galvez and Alejandro Pena kept the Dodgers close, limiting the Astros to two hits in their five innings of work.

During those middle innings, the result of the Reds' win over San Francisco went up on the board. With Deshaies zipping through the Dodgers , the crowd was in a preclinching party mood.

 

OK, that was a bad guess.

Man, I hated Lasorda and the Dodgers during the 80s. Remember when some Dodger said in 1986 that the Stros were just "renting first place"?

 

The part two answer was that Lasorda sent up a pinch hitter for the pitcher in the third inning, even though the score was 2-0. I know I felt like that was a chicken-**** move on his part.

 

Whooops... n/m.

 

I was at that game

Great thread ZZ

Best pitched game I ever attended....hmmmm....tough call....

1972, Jerry Reuss carries a no-hitter into the 9th but Larry Bowa breaks it up with a clean single to centerfield. I have disliked Bowa ever since.

J.R. Richard was the most dominating pitcher I ever saw. Seems like evey time I saw him pitch it was a 1-hit or 2-hit shutout.

 

I agree on J.R., but I can't pull a particular game out of my lousy memory. He was incredible, just incredible. For people who didn't see him, just imagine a bigger, more frightening Randy Johnson with better stuff. And that probably doesn't do him justice.

 

Unfortunately, I have always allowed someone else to see the well pitched games.

I had tickets to Dierker's no-hitter but gave them up.

I had tickets to Ken Forsch's no-hitter (3rd game of the season), but elected to go to a more important Rockets game.

I had tickets to Nolan Ryan's no-hitter, but my brother-in-law got married that day (had I known it was the first of 4 weddings for him, I would not have gone)

I had tickets for Mike Scott's no-hitter, but had to go out of town.

I was at the 24 inning game.

 

JR had a low 90 slider that was not hittable. It was beyond wicked.