Expert: Brian Flaspohler - 7/31/2011

Question
I am a Reds fan and have been my whole life. This season I have seen the Reds manager let the starting pitchers in the game long enough to give up 8 or more runs eleven times. I can not believe this is the norm. Can you tell me if any other managers have even came close to this stat?

Thank you
Jeff

Answer
Jeff,

I don't have the stats to back me up, but I suspect this is very unusual in modern baseball.  Back in the 30s and 50s, it happened much more frequently because pitchers finished many games and just stayed out there.  Those decades were high scoring decades for baseball and starters gave up many of the runs that were scored.  

But in recent times, starters are typically pulled very quickly.  Giving up more then five runs in a start is unusual - mostly because starters only go seven innings at most and giving up five runs in seven innings is an unacceptable run allowed rate!

If you want to do a little more research on this, go to Retrosheet.com.  They have play by play data for most of the last forty years of baseball.  They specialize in this kind of stuff.

Hope this helps!

Brian