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:
Last night for the Padres, Blake Snell walked seven batters while allowing just one run. That seemed rare, so I looked up some stats.
As it turns out, it’s not quiet as historic as a I thought, though still uncommon. The record for walks while only allowing one or fewer runs is, incredibly, 13 by Bud Podbielan for the Reds in 1953 (he later played for Cleveland in 1959).
The Cleveland record is 11 by Herb Score during his historic rookie year in 1955 – he’s one of 10 pitchers with double digit walks while allowing one or fewer runs.
Finley
The most recent Cleveland pitchers to match Snell’s line of seven or more walks with one or fewer runs:
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.
Logan Allen has 33 strikeouts through his first six career games, while Tanner Bibee has 34. The era in which which we’re in is a big factor here, but those are the sixth and seventh most strikeouts through six games in franchise history.
Over the last 40 seasons, only two Cleveland rookies have started at least 15 games while posting an ERA under 3.50: Cody Anderson in 2015 and T.J. House in 2014.
It’s odd that such a list would feature such irrelevant players, as neither had much hype as prospects or did much beyond their rookie years.
Here’s a few others who accomplished the feat, dating back to 1955 (it was slightly more common before then):
Over the last 40 seasons, only two Cleveland rookies have started at least 15 games while posting an ERA under 3.50: