Trever Miller’s (almost) unbreakable MLB record

[cheaptrick77]

(by Derrick Goold | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird...-league-record/

 

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals lefty specialist Trever Miller will begin this season with a 0-0 record — something he’s quite familiar with — and a chance to take a run at his Major League record everyone knows about and another that has only just been unearthed.

 

It will only take him, oh, a good four more seasons or so.

 

While doing the reporting for a forthcoming story on Miller set to appear within the week at Baseball Prospectus, writer David Laurila saw something interesting in Miller’s game-by-game log. It started with Laurila tracking Miller’s modern-day record for longest stretch of consecutive appearances without a decision. From Sept. 2006 to August 2008, Miller went 121 games without getting tagged with a win or a loss. The streak ended with Tampa Bay a few months before the Rays made their run to the World Series. It ended with a win.

 

Considering the streak started the game after a win, Laurila wondered: Just how long had Miller, who has now made a career of getting lefthanded sluggers out, gone without a loss? Without, you know, falling prey to the fragile nature of a late-game lead?

 

The answer: 240 appearances.

 

That’s 240 consecutive appearances without a loss.

 

From July 30, 2006 through a September appearance last season, Miller went 240 consecutive games without a loss. His first loss in more than three years came in Colorado with the Cardinals on Sept. 25. He allowed one run, walked one and struck out two in an inning of relief behind Chris Carpenter. Miller pitched to one batter in the ninth inning — the one batter who scored on a sacrifice fly after Miller had already left the game to Kyle McClellan. Miller slipped to 4-1 for the season.

 

That ended his Major League -record run … a full season ahead of the second-best streak.

 

Laurila asked the data monsters at BP to run the numbers on his theory — that Miller had gone an enormous amount of appearances between losses, that maybe, just maybe it was a major-league record. The information was available since 1974, and as Laurila wrote in an email to me this week: “Needless to say,there is little or no chance anyone came close in earlier eras.” The data crunch revealed that not only is Miller’s run of 240 consecutive games without a loss a record (since ‘74), it isn’t close.

 

The pitcher who ranks second, former Cardinals’ lefty Randy Flores, is 64 games behind him. His ended on Sept. 18 of last season. The top five, per BP and Laurila:

 

1. Trever Miller 240 … July 30, 2006 to Sept. 22, 2009

 

2. Randy Flores 176 … July 10, 2006 to Sept. 14, 2009

 

3. Rich Rodriguez 170 .. June 13, 1997 to April 5, 2000

 

4. Ron Mahay 154 … Sept. 12, 2006 to July 22, 2009

 

5. Bobby Seay 149 … August 26, 2001 to June 2, 2008

 

You’ll notice, as Miller did this morning when I showed him the list, that all five are lefthanded relievers. All cast in the same role as Miller, that of the one-guy, one-out specialist (most of the time). Miller said he was “shocked” to learn of the streak, and humbled to know it was a record. Not that it was one that, say, you think of in the same breath as 61 or 755, 300 wins or 3,000 hits, etc.

 

“It’s so easy to get a loss out of the bullpen,” Miller said when told of the record. “The more I digest it, especially the older I get, the more proud I’ll become of it. I’m not sure that it’s an accomplishment as much as a feat. It’s not something I was striving for. I wasn’t striving to go 240 games without a loss. I’m striving to win every one, and do my best every time out there. Obviously I had some good luck. And I was able to execute quite efficiently out there and do it consistently over that amount of time, that amount of games.”

 

He has a head start of three games, no decisions, going into this season …

 

-30-

 

[Stoney]

To be a reliever going against the best hitters and all the fluke stuff that can happen in the field and not get tagged for a loss for 240 appearances? Thats a pretty nice record to have.