Expert: Tom Schott - 9/16/2010

Question
Hi.  
Last year I saw Cliff Lee pitch a complete game in which he threw very few
pitches that were called balls.  I was wondering what the lowest ball total is
for a complete game.  I know that 58 is the lowest pitch count, but I'm just
looking for the record for fewest called balls.
Thanks.
Michael

Answer
Hi Michael,

 I found a game that Greg Maddux pitched against the Cubs where threw a complete game of 76 pitches and only 13 were balls. This is the best I could find, and you know, of course, we don't have pitch data for most of major league history.

Here's the game: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199707221.shtml