Shutout Through the Heart And You’re Too Late

Last night, six of a possible 15 (I suppose there could be more if there was a weird rainout and a game ended at 0-0), teams were shutout. The teams that went down were the Rangers, Pirates, Mets, Marlins, Padres, and Athletics.

However, the evening pales in comparison to June 4, 1972 when 8 whole teams were shutout. Not only that, but there were only 24 teams in the league, meaning 66% of the evenings games featured a team failing to score a single run.

That night the Orioles were shutout Catfish Hunter of the A’s; the Twins lost to the fantastically named Tigers pitcher Tom Timmermann; the Royals fell to John Curtis and the Red Sox; the Brewers fell to a triumverate of Rangers pitchers who handed out seven walks; the Dodgers fell to Bob Gibson; Don Wilson of the Astros shutout the Expos; and the Phillies shutout the Reds behind Bill Champion and Wayne Twitchell.

Six of the eight shutouts in ‘72 were complete games. Last night, only Hiroki Kuroda managed to go the distance.