On Saturday, Jeremy Guthrie pitched 0.2 innings and allowed 10 runs for a whopping 135.00 ERA to start his season. Not ideal. By the start of the third inning, the Washington Nationals were already on their third pitcher. This start was so bad for the 13-year veteran Guthrie that his career ERA rose from 4.37 to 4.42. Inspired by a rather heated discussion in my fantasy baseball group chat about whether or not this was a top three worst start ever, I decided to investigate.
Using Baseball-Reference’s incredible Play Index, I found that there have been three other outings during which a pitcher allowed ten runs or more in less than one inning of work. Interesting side note, 10 of the 16 games in MLB history at which a pitcher allowed 10 runs or more in one inning or less occurred between June and August. Something about that summer air.
Bubba Harris of the Philadelphia Athletics on July 4, 1948 gave up 12 earned runs in 0.2 innings against the Boston Red Sox, good for an ERA of 162.00, ouch. The Red Sox beat the A's by a final score of 19-5, in a game that somehow lasted only 2 hours and 35 minutes. Bobby Doerr, the oldest living Hall of Famer who turned 99 on April 7, hit the Sox’s only home run. Johnny Pesky led the team with 5 RBIs and Ted Williams, in the midst of an 8.5-WAR season, went 0-3 with three walks and two runs.
The funniest part about the game is that the A’s actually tied the game up in the top of the seventh before Harris returned for the bottom half of the inning. The A’s finished that inning down 14. Harris finished the season with a 4.13 ERA and a 105 ERA+, meaning his ERA was 5 percent better than league average, which is what Jason Hammel had in 2016.
The second worst outing under my qualifications was former NL Rookie of the Year Jason Jennings of the Houston Astros starting against the San Diego Padres on July 29, 2007. In 0.2 innings, Jennings gave up 11 earned runs in an 18-11 loss on that warm Houston afternoon. Jennings started the game with two straight walks and it got worse from there. A ground-rule double, sac fly, two singles, another walk, another single, a double, a home run, another single and another home run later, the Astros were down 11-0. Jennings faced 13 batters, allowed eight hits, walked three and struck out zero before he was replaced by Mark McLemore. His ERA that game was 148.50. Again, not good.
Finally, tied with Guthrie under my criteria but worse by ERA, is Luke Hudson, a former Kansas City Royals pitcher. On Aug. 13, 2006 against the Cleveland Indians, Hudson gave up 11 runs, 10 earned, in 0.1 innings on eight hits. Unsurprisingly, the Royals lost 13-0. The Indians in 2006, as some may remember, were led by Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner who combined for 12.5 wins above replacement. The 11-run bottom of the first was capped off by a Hafner grand slam. I can just imagine Tom Hamilton's call, "Swing and a drive, waaaaay back and gone!"
I would like to be the first to congratulate the recently DFA'd (designated for assignment) Jeremy Guthrie on joining this exclusive club.
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