Pages

Thursday, October 1, 2015

50th Anniversary: Chris Short's 18 Strikeout Game

On October 2nd 1965 Chris Short set the National League Record for Strikeouts in a game.

1969 Topps #395 Chris Short

In the 2nd game of a double-header versus the Mets Short struck out 18 batters tying the modern National League record for Ks in a game. Short's 18 punch outs came over 15 shutout innings rather than the standard 9 and is not typically recognized in lists of high strikeout games.

The reason Short pitched 15 innings despite not allowing a run is that the Phillies were unable to score versus the Mets Rookie Pitcher Rod Gardner. In only his 5th career major league appearance Gardner also tossed 15 shutout innings, more than doubling his career total at the time.

In the end neither team scored and the game was suspended after 18 innings.

Gardner was Short's number one victim with 4 Strikeouts, Danny Napoleon took home a golden sombrero - even though he did not start. Joe Christopher struck out 3 times as well, but one of the Ks was versus Phillies reliever Jack Baldschun.

1969 Topps
1969 Topps #395 Chris Short (b-side)

This is the 3rd Topps Card issued for Short who debuted in 1959 but did not get signed by Topps until 1967.

Chris Short added 4 more shutouts to the team record mentioned in the -toon. His record 24 career Shutouts for the Phillies was eventually eclipsed by Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (39). The franchise shutout record is held by Grover Cleveland (Pete) Alexander (61) 

The Box for the All-Star game referenced in the text can be found here. Among the 7 batters Short faced were future Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew (popout) and Carl Yastrzemski (Walk). The final batter Short faced was hometown Angels All-Star Rep and future Phillies Manager Jim Fregosi who struckout.

Jim from Downingtown has an interesting post on the 67 All-Star game here, it includes vintage newspaper photos from the era. One of the pix is of Dick (Richie) Allen with Hall of Famer Tony Perez.  

Sources and Links
Phungo Chris Short Index (1964 Phillies Retrospective)
1960s Baseball - Jim from Downingtown

Retrosheet
Baseball-ref
1960s Baseball
Astros Daily
Phillies
2015 1003 - Added link to Jim from Downingtown's 1967 ASG posting.  
 

1 comment:

  1. The 1967 all-star game can also be found here:

    http://mlb1960s.blogspot.com/2013/07/1967-scrapbook-all-star-game.html

    ReplyDelete