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Tommy Byrne’s Control Problems

After wondering who had walked the most players in a single game, I came upon Tommy Byrne’s frightening game from August 22, 1951. Byrne, a pitcher who was traded from the Yankees to the Browns earlier in the season, went 12.2 innings and walked 16 batters against the Red Sox before losing 3-1. While Byrne was never known for his control, leading the league in walks three times and hit batsmen five times, even walking seven Tigers in a single inning once, this game was a little out of the ordinary: 

His total line for the game: 

12.2 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 16 BB, 5 K. 

There are no pitch counts available for the game, but you can probably guess that Byrne’s arm wasn’t feeling so great after having 27 batters reach against him. Naturally, his opponent 

Oddly enough, Byrne didn’t walk a batter for the first two innings, but that’s when the control problems flared up: 

3rd inning: 1 walk, 2 LOB, 0 runs

4th inning: 2 walks, 3 LOB, 0 runs

5th inning: 3 walks, 3 LOB, 1 run

6th inning: 1 walk, 2 LOB, 0 runs

7th inning: 1 walk, 1 LOB, 0 runs

8th inning: 2 walks, 3 LOB, 0 runs

9th inning: 1 walk, 1 LOB, 0 runs

10th inning: 0 walks, 0 LOB, 0 runs

11th inning: 0 walks, 0 LOB, 0 runs

12th inning: 1 walk, 2 LOB, 0 runs

13th inning: 4 walks, 3 LOB, 2 runs

Apparently Byrne really hit his stride in the 10th and 11th innings, though it’s remarkable that Zack Taylor, the Browns manager, would allow him to pitch that long when he clearly could not find the strike zone. I tried to understand why Taylor refused to go to a bullpen that included Satchel Paige, but the team was not playing a double header nor did the game before go into extra innings. This seems to be Taylor’s managerial style, though it resembles more a drunk on a bender than any kind of design, as Bryne was allowed to go 10 innings in a complete game loss to the Yankees six days later when he walked 13 batters. 

The Red Sox deserve plenty of blame for not forcing Taylor’s hand earlier in the game, stranding 22 men on base during tthe game. Sure, some of that was amazing luck with as many men failing to come home with only a Clyde Vollmer double play to help Byrne’s cause, but the Sox should have found a way to push someone in.  

I’ve always wanted to travel back in time to catch a few ballgames, but you can bet I’ll be skipping this one. 

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