Cliff Lee Goes 10: Roy Halladay Welcomes Him to the 10-Innings Club

With the game taking place in the Pacific time zone, a fair share of you reading this likely missed the pitching throwdown (“duel” just doesn’t seem an adequate description) between Cliff Lee and Matt Cain on Wednesday night at AT&T Park.

As you might expect with two of the best pitchers in baseball opposing each other while facing two of the more impotent lineups in the majors, there was a string of zeroes lined up on the scoreboard.

Cain went nine innings, allowing just two hits and no runs. But since the San Francisco Giants couldn’t score any runs for him, Cain was pulled for a pinch-hitter to lead off the 10th inning and didn’t get a decision.

Lee one-upped Cain, pitching 10 scoreless innings. He gave up seven hits and no walks. As Crashburn Alley explains, Lee was able to pitch the 10th because he’d thrown only 89 pitches through nine innings. After finishing the 10th, Lee had 102 pitches for the night. Had his turn to bat not come up in the 11th, maybe Charlie Manuel would’ve left Lee in the game. 

Alas, the Philadelphia Phillies couldn’t score, thanks in part to a curious decision to let Jim Thome pinch-hit against lefty reliever Javier Lopez. In the bottom of the inning, with Antonio Bastardo taking over for Lee, a Ty Wigginton error put Brandon Belt in scoring position. Melky Cabrera drove him in with a single to win the game.

With that, as pointed out by MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, Lee became the first pitcher to go 10 innings in a game his team didn’t win since Bret Saberhagen did it for the New York Mets against the San Diego Padres in 1994. It must be something about the West Coast.

Saberhagen struck out 11, issued no walks and allowed five hits in his outing, by the way.

Lee also became the fourth pitcher in the 21st century to go 10 innings. The one guy who might not be impressed by his effort is teammate Roy Halladay, who did it twice while with the Toronto Blue Jays.

In 2003, Halladay pitched a 10-inning shutout against the Detroit Tigers. He allowed only three hits, struck out five and walked no one. 

In 2007, Halladay got the Tigers again for 10 innings. At least this time, Detroit scored a run on him with a solo homer by Magglio Ordonez.

As if it weren’t amazing enough that Halladay twice went 10 innings against the Tigers, the same pitcher took the loss for Detroit in both games. Fernando Rodney was tagged with the loss in each game, pitching a poor inning of relief.

Also in 2007, Aaron Harang pitched 10 innings for the Cincinnati Reds. He allowed one run and seven hits against the Milwaukee Brewers, while racking up 10 strikeouts. A Ryan Braun homer accounted for the Brewers’ only run.

The fourth man to go 10 was Mark Mulder in 2005. Facing the Houston Astros and Roger Clemens, Mulder pitched a shutout for the St. Louis Cardinals, allowing five hits with five strikeouts and no walks. 

The last Phillies pitcher to throw 10 innings was Terry Mulholland in 1993. Mulholland allowed one run, despite giving up 10 hits to the Cardinals in the effort. 

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