Gavin Williams went 0-7 in his seven starts at Progressive Field this season, becoming the fifth pitcher in franchise history to fail to record a win in at least seven home starts.
Cleveland won at least one home game started by each of the other pitchers, however. So Williams is the first player in franchise history to make at least seven starts at home and have the team go winless in every game – a streak which was unfortunately extended to eight games in the ALCS against the Yankees.
The previous record for most home starts without the team recording a win was six by Wayne Garland in 1981, his final season with the Tribe.
In the fourth inning on Saturday night, Gavin Williams loaded the bases against the Padres, then walked Luis Arraez and two batters later hit Jake Cronenworth.
It was just the ninth time in the last 100 years a Cleveland pitcher walked a batter and hit a batter with the bases loaded.
Everyone on the list except Williams and Feller did it to consecutive batters.
Eckersley’s meltdown was a historically embarrassing moment for the team. In the bottom of the 9th, with the Indians leading 2-1 at Chicago, rookie manager Frank Robinson called up Eck – a rookie reliever making just his ninth career appearance. Eck promptly hit the first batter, tying the game, then issued a walk-off-walk to the next batter.
Through his first 10 starts with Cleveland, Ben Lively has a 2.59 ERA. Over the last 100 years, its the seventh lowest ERA through a pitcher’s first 10 starts with Cleveland.
Gaylord Perry (1.69) has the lowest in that span from 1972, followed closely by another 1972 acquisition Milt Wilcox.
Here are the nine pitchers with an ERA under 3.00 through their first 10 starts with Cleveland over the last 50 seasons:
Gavin Williams struck out 10 Rays in his 10th career start on Saturday.
It was his second straight double-digit strikeout performance. He’s the 36th pitcher in MLB history with multiple 10-K games within his first 10 career games.
He’s also the 8th rookie in franchise history with multiple 10-K games, joining:
Their one run allowed is the fewest combined runs allowed by rookie starting pitchers in three consecutive games in franchise history, breaking a record set by Bibee, Allen and Xzavion Curry earlier this year.
On a more depressing note, it was just the third time in franchise history the team won just one game in a three-game span in which its starting pitchers allowed one or fewer runs. The other instances:
In consecutive games against the Blue Jays, Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee tossed seven shutout innings.
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It’s the first time rookie starters pitched at least seven scoreless innings in consecutive games since Jeff Mutis and Albie Lopez in 1993 against the California Angels.
Mutis tossed a complete-game four-hit shutout, while Lopez tossed seven scoreless before giving way to the bullpen.
Here’s the full list of rookie starters to toss 7+ shutout innings in consecutive games, with their combined strikeouts in parentheses:
The 18 combined strikeouts by Williams and Bibee are also tied for the second most by rookie starters pitching in consecutive games. Here’s the leaderboard:
Gavin Williams became the 10th rookie in franchise history with at least seven innings pitched, zero runs allowed and one hit allowed against the Royals.
