Today’s Sportstat: Remember when MLB pitchers recorded complete games?
BY JERRY TAPP
It’s pretty obvious that complete games are a dying breed in baseball. It is rare that a starting pitcher goes nine innings and gets credited with a complete game,
The Brewers are certainly one of those teams that use their bullpen quite a bit during the season. Through games of May 20, the Brewers are one of 17 teams this year that does not have a complete game by one of its pitchers. (In fact, the Brewers last complete game by a pitcher happened in 2017.) There have been only 15 complete games so far in the majors; in 2018, the Cleveland Indians led the majors with five complete games. There were nine of the 30 teams that did not have a complete game in 2018.
Zach Davies, who has been the Brewers most effective pitcher this season with a 5-0 record and a 1.54 ERA, has started 89 games for the Brewers in his career and has yet to have a complete game.
This year on May 5 he pitched into the eighth inning in a game against the Mets and finished with 7.2 innings pitched. His career long start is eight innings back on June 1, 2016 in a contest versus the Cardinals, a game that he was the winner.
Davies’ 89 starts for the Brewers without a complete game are the most in team history. Fellow starter this season, Chase Anderson, is close behind with 88 starts for Milwaukee without a complete game.
Here are the nine pitchers in Brewers history who (through games of May 20) have 50 or more career starts with the team without a complete game.
89-Zach Davies
88-Chase Anderson
74-Manny Parra
70-Marco Estrada
62- Chris Narveson
62-Jimmy Haynes
60-Junior Guerra
56-Mike Fiers
54-Shaun Marcum
If we expand this list to all MLB pitchers, there is a distinct Brewers flavor on the list. You noticed that Marco Estrada had 70 starts without a complete game during his career with the Brewers. Well, he actually (currently) holds the record for most starts without a complete game in MLB history with 194 in his career. Following are the MLB pitchers with 150 or more career starts without a complete game.
194-Marco Estrada
188-Bud Norris
170-Wei-Yin Chen
167-Tony Armas
167-Jake Odorizzi
152-Nathan Eovaldi
Chase Anderson is actually 10th of this list with a total of 136 starts without a complete game (88 coming in a Brewers uniform).
Of course, a complete game in the future by any of these pitchers listed above will eliminate them from the list. But for now… it’s interesting to see who is still looking for that elusive complete game. The problem is, however, that complete games are pretty rare these days.
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
