The day the Dodgers pitchers really couldn't find home plate
Sunday's game against San Diego was bad, but you can always find something worse. In honor of these walks, this post will wander a bit.
On Sunday, April 14, 2024, Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers issued 14 walks to the San Diego Padres. And, unsurprisingly, this proved to be detrimental to the team’s chances of winning. And the Dodgers lost 6-3.
But, it was not even close to the worst pitching performance the Dodgers had ever put together at Dodger Stadium. And for that, you have to go back to the stadium’s first year, all the way back to June 29, 1962. On that day, Dodger pitchers walked 16 batters. And what fearsome lineup made the Dodgers pitchers quake in fear that day? None other than the worst team in the National League in the 20th Century, the New York Mets, a team that would finish 40-120.
The Dodgers came into the game with a 1/2 game lead over San Francisco for first place in the National League. The Dodgers had won the first game of a four game series, 5-4 in 13 innings, despite issuing 11 walks to the Mets. Fortunately, the pitchers struck out 16. Johnny Podres started and went 7 innings. Ed Roebuck pitched the last 5 1/3 innings for the Dodgers to get the win.
In an era when four man pitching rotations were common, the Dodgers had three great starters in Sandy Koufax (who would lose time with a circulatory condition), Don Drysdale (the team’s best pitcher for the whole season), and Podres. The fourth spot was up for grabs. Sometimes it went to Stan Williams, a hard thrower, who was prone to wildness (save that note for future reference), sometimes rookie Pete Richert was given the task. On this day, it was 19-year old rookie Joe Moeller who got the start.
Moeller had made the Opening Day roster with just one full year of minor league ball to his name. Dodger coaches and executives fell in love with Moeller’s velocity and projected stardom for him to become another Drysdale or Koufax. However, Moeller spent nearly his entire career shuttling between the bullpen and rotation and never became more than just a spare part on some great Dodgers teams.
Four days earlier, Moeller got a no-decision in a start at home against Milwaukee. Moeller gave up four runs and walked six. He also gave up a home run to Henry Aaron, which would end up putting him in a fairly large group of pitchers.
On June 29, Moeller had what would charitably called a bad start. He walked leadoff man Richie Ashburn on a full count. Rod Kanehl followed with a flyout. Then Moeller, lost the plate. Moeller walked Gene Woodling and Frank Thomas to load the bases. Former Dodger Charlie Neal drew another walk to force in Ashburn and send Moeller to the showers.1
Ron Perranoski, who had a blown save the night before (not that anyone knew what that was in 1962)), came into relieve in the first inning. Perranoski walked Sammy Taylor and Felix Mantilla to force into two more runs. Elio Chacon , in the midst of this wildness, struck out on three pitches.
That brought up Mets pitcher Jay Hook. Hook had a good batting average in limited at bats (.281) on the season, but ultimately he hit like a typical pitcher. Nevertheless, Perranoski walked Hook and the fourth run of the inning scored and the Mets still had no hits, just seven walks.
The Mets had batted around and Ashburn was up again. Perranoski didn’t walk Ashburn. Instead, the gave up a 2 RBI single to put the Mets up 6-0. Walter Alston decided that Perranoski was done and brought in Phil Ortega, who retired Kanehl to end the inning.
The Mets didn’t draw a walk in the second, settling for a hit batter instead. In the third, Mantilla homered off of Ortega and Hook drew his second walk, the Mets eighth of the game.
Williams replaced Ortega in the 5th with the Mets now up 7-2 and the distribution of free passes returned. Williams walked two in the 5th, but was able to get out of the inning as he solved the Jay Hook problem by striking him out. The Mets were now at 10 walks.
In the sixth, Kanehl drew Walk #11, but didn’t score. Williams had a peaceful seventh, but in the eighth, he walked Chacon, Kanehl, and Marv Throneberry. He also gave up a 2-run double to Woodling to put the Mets up 9-2. The Mets now had tallied 9 runs on just 3 hits. But there were 14 walks.
Frank Howard hit a 2-run homer off Hook in the bottom of the 8th to make the score 9-4 in favor of the Mets. But with a depleted bullpen, Williams went out in the 9th for his fifth inning of work.
Williams issued walks to Chacon and Hook (15 and 16) and Ashburn had the Mets fourth hit, another single, to score Chacon with run number 10. The game finished 10-4, with Hook going the distance. The Mets finished with a line score of 10 4 2.2
The 27 walks issued in consecutive games broke the Dodgers previous worst, which was also the MLB worst at the time, of 25, which came in an April 30, 1944 doubleheader at the Polo Grounds against the Giants. The Dodgers walked 17 in the opener, a 26-8 loss, and then added 8 more in the nightcap, which was shortened to 7 innings because the first game took so long.3 And the Dodgers won the second game to boot, 5-4.
Jay Hook is one of only two Mets pitchers to draw three walks in a game. The other is Jon Matlack who was inexplicably walked three times by Cubs pitching on July 2, 1975. Matlack would bat .129 in his career, but he mitigated that somewhat. He had 57 hits and 57 walks in his career.
The last pitcher to draw three walks in a game is probably not all that surprising. Shohei Ohtani was walked three times by Pittsburgh pitching last year, but only two came while he was pitching. The third came when he had moved to DH.
The last non-Shohei Ohtani pitcher to draw three walks in a game was Clayton Kershaw in a game against Atlanta in 2018. Kershaw also leads all active pitchers not named Shohei Ohtani in walks with 34.
Six pitchers4 have drawn FOUR walks in a game, but it hasn’t happened since 1950 when Boston’s Chuck Stobbs did so. Stobbs benefited from some good run support as Boston beat the St. Louis Browns 29-4.
The most walks given out by any team in a nine-inning game is 18. It’s been done twice, the last time in 1948 by the Red Sox. The 1915 Philadelphia A’s also walked 18 in a game against Detroit. That game had a combined 30 walks.
Moeller would make one more appearance with the Dodgers and then go to the minors and wouldn’t return to the big leagues until 1964.
Two other teams have scored 10 runs with just four hits. The Tigers in a 1996 game against Seattle and the 1925 St. Louis Browns against the Boston Red Sox.
The game took just 2 hours and 58 minutes to play, but that was a long time back then. And they started later in the day and you couldn’t play as late on a Sunday. And it was World War II, so it was sort of pretend baseball.
In addition to Stobbs, the others are Red Faber (who did it twice), Vic Frazier, Beany Jacobson, and Luther Taylor.