The Streaks: Drysdale and Hershiser in Parallel

Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser are bound together, and not just for being right-handed starting pitchers for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They both broke the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched, a badge of sustained excellence that is the mirror-image of Joe DiMaggio’s fabled hitting streak. Drysdale claimed the record from Walter Johnson; two decades later, Hershiser took it from Drysdale.

This is a dual examination of their streaks. It shows their fundamental differences, their surprising similarities, and the final link that made the passing of the torch perhaps unique in baseball history.

May 14, 1968: Los Angeles

Don Drysdale needed a win. So did his Los Angeles Dodgers.

After Sandy Koufax’s retirement following the pennant-winning 1966 season, the Dodgers had plunged to eighth place in 1967. Their 14-16 record in this young season pointed toward more of the same. Drysdale’s record was mired at 1-3 after giving up two runs in six innings to the Braves four days earlier in a 2-1 loss.

In 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, allowing two runs was not a reliable way of winning a ballgame. Drysdale had allowed two runs in each of his last four starts. The results were two no-decisions and two losses, his Dodgers falling in all four games. Big D had to do better.

Starting that night at Dodger Stadium, he did.

Drysdale would retire the first seven Cubs he faced as well as the last seven batters he faced. In the fourth, a single and an errant pickoff throw put Don Kessinger on third with one out, but Drysdale K’d Billy Williams and Ernie Banks to squeeze free. A two-out rally in the fifth put another Cub on third, but Drysdale fanned Kessinger. He didn’t allow another hit that night.

His teammates did their bit, but just a bit. Ron Fairly’s sixth-inning groundout brought Wes Parker home for L.A.’s lone run, and Drysdale made it hold up. The 1-0 two-hitter was Drysdale’s 42nd career shutout: Whitewashings were nothing new to him. It was also the second time that year Drysdale had won a 1-0 shutout.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 9

August 30, 1988: Montreal

Orel Hershiser had endured a rough fifth inning. Tim Raines lashed a two-out double down the left-field line to plate Rex Hudler and put Montreal on the board. Dave Martinez then popped a single to score Raines, and Hershiser’s own errant relay throw went awry to let Martinez take second. Still, Hershiser got the third out, and the game, now 4-2, was still in his hands.

“Bulldog” had only given back only what he produced. His two-run double with two gone in the second had pushed his Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-0, which they expanded to 4-0 in the fifth. The game was still theirs if he got back in control.

Hershiser did just that. He allowed one baserunner in each of the next three stanzas, never letting anyone past first, then twirled a perfect ninth. Four shutout innings slammed the door on the 4-2 victory.

The result maintained a good string for both the Dodgers and Hershiser. It was L.A.’s fifth straight win, keeping the Dodgers six and a half games ahead of Houston in the National League West. For Hershiser, it was his third straight complete game, with zero, two, and two runs permitted in them. (However, he had lost the middle game, 2-1.) It seemed to be a night of continuing, not beginning.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 4

May 18, 1968: Los Angeles

Drysdale’s rotation spot came up again four days later, against the Houston Astros. The Dodgers, having lost two of three in the interim, needed another pick-me-up. Don, facing one of the league’s lesser offensive powers in the pitcher’s paradise of Dodger Stadium, obliged.

Drysdale pitched no-hit ball for the first four innings, scattered one hit apiece in the next three frames, and twirled a perfect eighth. Once again, his offense did just enough to get the lead. Houston shortstop Hector Torres misplayed the potential third out in the sixth, allowing a run by, again, Wes Parker.

Drysdale did not get to cruise to victory, though. Rusty Staub knocked a one-out single in the ninth, and after a forceout, Jimmy Wynn doubled into left. Pinch-hitter Ivan Murrell did not chance going for home. Drysdale intentionally passed Bob Aspromonte then coaxed Bob Watson to ground to shortstop. Zoilo Versalles made the play.

The win was Drysdale’s third, all coming by 1-0 scores. With four and a half months left to play, he was two shy of Carl Hubbell’s record of five 1-0 shutout wins in a season.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 18

September 5, 1988: Atlanta

L.A. hadn’t won since Hershiser’s last start, enduring three losses and then a rainout at Shea Stadium. The last was perhaps a relief to the Dodgers: The Mets had beaten them 10 out of 11 times that season. Hershiser had been scheduled to start the washed-out game but got bumped to the series opener in Atlanta. His Dodgers needed him to stop the skid, which threatened to put the team back into a dogfight for the division title.

Orel took the mound with a 2-0 lead already in his pocket. His first inning teetered with Gerald Perry’s two-out double, but he got the third out. Leadoff singles in the next two frames kept things lively, but he doused both fires. His lead now 3-0, he pitched perfect ball the next five innings. Jeff Blauser got Atlanta’s fourth hit to open the home ninth, but Hershiser stopped the Braves there, finishing with a swinging strikeout of Dale Murphy.

The blanking was Hershiser’s fourth straight complete game and his fourth shutout of the year. With Houston winning its third straight, Los Angeles’ lead held at five games, with 27 left for the Dodgers to play. The margin was solid but not comfortable.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 13

May 22, 1968: St. Louis

The Dodgers backslid again in Drysdale’s absence. They lost three out of four, including a doubleheader to Houston. Big D’s next assignment was a tall order: beat the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, in St. Louis. His opponent on the mound was Bob Gibson, whose record, 3-3 like Drysdale’s, also belied how well he was pitching that year.

Lou Brock started Drysdale’s game on the wrong note with a leadoff single. Rather than swiping second, as might be expected, Brock was erased on Curt Flood’s double-play ball. Drysdale would not allow his next baserunner until the fifth, an Orlando Cepeda single that went for nought.

The Dodgers didn’t wait until the sixth this time to give Drysdale his run. Parker was involved again, hitting the two-out double in the third that drove Paul Popovich in from first. Gibson pitched eight innings and allowed only that run—and only that hit—but it still left him on the short end. After he was pulled for a pinch-hitter, his reliever Joe Hoerner gave L.A. a second, unearned run in the ninth.

Drysdale survived a two-out threat in the seventh, but again the ninth added a scare. Brock smote a leadoff double to left and might have been more aggressive about stealing third if his run hadn’t been meaningless in a 2-0 game. As it stood, Drysdale produced three grounders—to third, second, and the mound—to leave Brock 90 feet shy of home and preserve the shutout.

The string was starting to attract notice. Half a continent away, the sub-head for the game in The New York Times declared “Dodger Pitcher Records 3d Shutout in a Row.” Already that season, another pitcher, Luis Tiant of Cleveland, had pitched four consecutive shutouts, in a streak the Orioles had broken just five days before. Fans began speculating about whether Drysdale could match El Tiante or even beat him.

But that last idea was pretty crazy.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 27

September 10, 1988: Los Angeles

The Dodgers backslid again in Hershiser’s absence, losing three out of four and letting Houston creep within four games. His start came against Cincinnati, which had won the opener of a three-game set in Los Angeles. At six and a half back, manager Pete Rose’s Reds had vague hopes of hauling themselves back into the race—if they could keep beating the Dodgers.

They put some early pressure on Hershiser. Barry Larkin opened the game with a walk, and Chris Sabo bunted him over, but Hershiser stranded him there. In the third, Larkin, Sabo, and Kal Daniels got two singles and a walk with two gone to load the bases. Hershiser buckled down and fanned Eric Davis to escape.

The Dodgers began producing run support in the fourth, on a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch, then tallied another in the fifth when Mickey Hatcher drove in Kirk Gibson. A two-run longball by Rick Dempsey in the eighth probably was unneeded insurance.

Hershiser continued to grind, allowing baserunners in each of the last four innings. A Davis double play erased one in the sixth; Jeff Reed and Ron Oester got to the corners with one out in the seventh before Hershiser got Ken Griffey Sr. to fly out harmlessly and Davis to whiff. Another Davis two-fer snuffed a threat in the eighth. Finally, one out from the finish, Bulldog gave up a double to Reed but caught Oester looking to seal the deal.

It was not tidy—Hershiser scattered seven hits and three walks—but with eight punchouts, he got the job done. It was his 20th win on the year, making him the first Dodger righty to reach that mark since Don Sutton in 1976.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 22

May 26, 1968: Houston

Drysdale carried his streak to the Astrodome, where both the ballpark and the opponent gave him improved prospects of lengthening the string. This nearly went awry in the first inning, when Ron Davis led off the game with a single, and one out later Rusty Staub’s safety drove him to third. Drysdale escaped the jam by getting Lee Thomas to ground into a double play. He would allow baserunners to reach second base in the second, fourth, and sixth innings, but he stranded them all there.

Drysdale used the lumber to aid his own cause. His third-inning single drove in Paul Popovich with the game’s first run. In the ninth, with his club ahead 3-0, he singled again and would score on Jim Fairey’s dribbling infield hit to make the score 5-0.

Once more, though, the ninth inning would be a heart-stopper. Singles by Denis Menke and (again) Rusty Staub opened the proceedings. Again, Drysdale coaxed Lee Thomas into a twin-killing to ease the pressure, but it left Menke on third. Jim Wynn got a walk. Bob Aspromonte got plunked, one of the few times one could be sure Drysdale had not meant to hit a batter. With the bags jammed and two out, Drysdale got Dave Adlesh to ground out to short. The game was won, and more, the shutout was in the books.

Drysdale did more than match Tiant’s shutout mark. He tied six other pitchers for the National League record of four straight shutouts, the last of the group having been Sal Maglie in 1950. Ahead of them all stood Guy “Doc” White of the 1904 Chicago White Sox, who threw five in a row.

Catching Doc White didn’t seem such a crazy idea by now.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 36

September 14, 1988: Los Angeles

The latest Orel exam arrived a day early. Los Angeles had a travel date on the 15th, so Hershiser faced the Braves on three days’ rest. With Atlanta in the midst of an awful 54-106 season, this might have seemed easy pickings for a short-rest pitcher. They were not.

Hershiser gave up four singles in the first four innings, including two to open the third. He stifled that threat with the help of two strikeouts and later stranded a man at second in the sixth. The seventh was almost the end.

Andrés Thomas opened that frame with a double into the left gap. Dion James hit a ball to first baseman Franklin Stubbs, who booted it, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Stubbs handled the next grounder for an unassisted out as James went to second. Hershiser intentionally passed Terry Blocker to get to Atlanta’s pitcher, who fanned for the second out. Ron Gant’s fly to left then ended the huge threat.

The reason Braves hurler Rick Mahler was batting for himself in the seventh is that he was also pitching a shutout. He also let the first two batters on in the seventh and also wriggled loose. They both threw blank eighths, and a scoreless duel into extras looked possible. But while Hershiser managed a clean ninth, Mahler cracked. Kirk Gibson walked to lead off and blazed home on Mike Marshall’s double down the left-field line.

The 1-0 walk-off final cinched Hershiser’s third straight shutout. It was also L.A.’s fifth straight win, moving the Dodgers a much more comfortable six and a half games up in their division with the season 18 days from its close. The pressure was easing from the pennant race but building in another area.

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 31

May 31, 1968: Los Angeles

Back home, and with an extra day of rest under his belt, Drysdale faced the arch-rival Giants. He found a rhythm of sorts against them, allowing one baserunner in each of his first six innings. Only once did the Giants get past first base, as in the fifth Hal Lanier reached on a force, took second on a grounder, and scrambled to third on Drysdale’s errant pickoff throw. Jim Davenport’s pop to short stranded him there and kept Drysdale’s streak alive.

The Dodger bats gave him some backing, putting up singletons in the second, third, and eighth. Drysdale logged two perfect innings to get to the ninth ahead 3-0—when it all fell apart.

Willie McCovey worked a walk, Drysdale’s first of the game. Jim Ray Hart singled into center. With not just the shutout but the lead now in jeopardy, Drysdale walked Dave Marshall. Ninth innings had been anxious for him, but this was a nightmare: bases loaded, nobody out, the go-ahead run at the plate in the person of catcher Dick Dietz. Drysdale got him to 2-2, then, with a pitch he absolutely didn’t mean to do so, hit Dietz in the arm.

The streak was dead…until Harry Wendelstedt resurrected it.

The home plate umpire threw up his arms and called ball three. Dietz, he ruled, had made no effort to avoid the pitch (or by some accounts, had moved into it), legally nullifying the hit-by-pitch and disallowing the run. The call was unusual, even strange, but by the book. Uproar still ensued. Giants manager Herman Franks vociferated against Wendelstedt’s call and got thumbed for his trouble. Drysdale stayed out of the fracas, saying later the delay “gave me a chance to catch my breath and collect myself.”

He didn’t waste his second chance. His payoff pitch to Dietz got lofted to left field, too shallow to move the runners. Pinch-hitter Ty Cline grounded to Parker at first, who threw home for the force. Another pinch-hitter, Jack Hiatt, popped one to first, where Parker gloved the final out.

Drysdale had notched his fifth straight shutout, breaking the NL record and matching Doc White’s all-time mark. Close ahead was Carl Hubbell’s National League record for most consecutive scoreless innings, listed at 46.1. Beyond that was Walter Johnson’s all-time feat of 56.

By now, everyone in baseball knew the importance of Drysdale’s performance. The Dodgers fans had given Drysdale several standing ovations during the game. Parker, who caught the final out, did not take the ball out of his glove but ran it over to Drysdale so the pitcher could claim it for himself. The next day, Red Patterson, publicity director for the Dodgers, shipped the ball to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, saying, “Don will be along in a few years.”

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 45

September 19, 1988: Houston

Hershiser’s wait for his next game was eventful. On the 15th, his second son Jordan was born. The next day, Orel himself turned 30. That number often heralds the onset of a professional athlete’s decline. Hershiser apparently was concentrating on other numbers, mostly zeroes.

The game at the Astrodome was meant to be a marquee matchup against Nolan Ryan, but Ryan left with an injury after two innings. Hershiser’s streak nearly left earlier: Kevin Bass got a single with two down in the first, swiped second, then reached third on Alfredo Griffin’s error. Hershiser let him go no farther. He cruised from there until the fifth, when another single and error put two aboard with two outs. Casey Candaele then hit a long fly to left, but the Astrodome contained it for the third out.

It took until John Shelby’s leadoff homer in the seventh for the Dodgers to get Hershiser his run, but he made it stand up. Nobody reached on him in the sixth through eighth, and Kevin Bass’ single to open the ninth got erased by a double play. A foul pop to catcher Mike Scioscia rounded out the four-hit shutout in a tidy 96 pitches. It was Hershiser’s 22nd win that year, the most for any Dodger pitcher since Koufax piled up 27 in his final season of 1966.

Speculation was rising over whether Hershiser could match the standard set by Drysdale 20 years earlier. In that pursuit, he had one Dodger broadcaster firmly in his corner: Drysdale himself. When asked if he was pulling for Bulldog, Don said, “You bet. That’s what records are for, to be broken. And it might as well be another Dodger—and another with a number in the 50s. [Hershiser wore 55 as a Dodger; Drysdale had 53.] The clubhouse men didn’t even bother to give us decent numbers. You can tell what they thought of us.”

Consecutive Shutout Innings: 40

June 4, 1968: Los Angeles

Drysdale came into that night’s game with a fresh and entirely predictable honor in his pocket: He was National League Player of the Month for May. (His only meaningful competition in the voting had come from someone who had threatened his streak a couple of times, Rusty Staub.) His engagement was another night game at Dodger Stadium—and Harry Wendelstedt would be back behind the plate. The Pirates game would be, as the philosopher observed, déja vu all over again. So would the result.

Drysdale allowed just one baserunner in the first four innings, when a wayward pitched clipped future Dodger Manny Mota on the top of his helmet in the second. (Mota would be out five games after the beaning.) His teammates got him three runs in the fourth against Pittsburgh starter Jim Bunning, a flurry started with a walk by Wes Parker, who seemed to be involved in every rally supporting Drysdale’s streak.

The pivotal moment came relatively early this game, the sixth rather than the ninth. Gary Kolb, hitting for Bunning, laced a one-out double and advanced on Matty Alou’s groundout. Ex-Dodger speedster Maury Wills hit a slow roller toward second baseman Paul Popovich. Kolb would score if Wills could beat it out. Popovich raced in, made the scoop, and threw to first—just in time, according to umpire Bill Jackowski. Popovich made several great plays that night, but none better.

Drysdale finished up his three-hitter with no more serious scares and didn’t forget who had given him a crucial assist. He embraced Popovich after the game, saying he couldn’t have done it without him. To reporters, Don said, ”He’s a great guy to have behind you, believe me.”

History was his, with his sixth straight clean-slate game. Hubbell was long behind him, and Walter Johnson tantalizingly close ahead, the last record left for him to challenge. His win had even pushed the Dodgers over .500 for the first time in a month, but that was ancillary. It was Drysdale’s name that was on everybody’s lips. Everybody’s.

Consecutive Scoreless Innings: 54

Tangent to History
June 5, 1968: Los Angeles

It was just past midnight as the senator received the cheers of his supporters in the hotel ballroom. After making sure the microphones worked, he began his victory speech.

“I want to, first, express my high regard to…Don Drysdale—” Cheers, applause, and whistles interrupted him. “—who pitched his sixth straight shutout tonight. And I hope that we have as good fortune in our campaign.”

This politic name-dropping accomplished, his speech rounded into more standard territory, lavishing gratitude on those who had backed him in California’s Democratic presidential primary. He wrapped up after 10 minutes, saying, “My thanks to all of you, and now it’s on to Chicago and let’s win there.”

Sen. Robert Kennedy shook some of the hands reaching up toward him before leaving the podium. His campaign had caught fire at just the right time, peaking with his critical win in California. If anyone in America had had a better three weeks than Drysdale, Kennedy was the man. He left the ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with his eyes fixed firmly forward, ready for whatever destiny awaited him at Chicago’s Democratic National Convention in August.

It was a destiny he would never meet.

September 23, 1988: San Francisco

Once again, a Dodgers pitcher pushing his scoreless streak deep into the 40s would have to do it against the team’s arch-rival, the Giants. This was not the only looming parallel.

Hershiser began the third inning badly, yielding singles to the eight-nine hitters, Jose Uribe and Atlee Hammaker. A grounder by Brett Butler produced just one out at second, leaving runners at the corners. Ernest Riles then hit a chopper to Steve Sax at second, who made the relay to shortstop Alfredo Griffin for one. A sliding Brett Butler helped send Griffin’s late throw to first wide, and Uribe crossed the plate.

The streak was dead…until Paul Runge resurrected it.

The third-base umpire saw Butler going wide to the right of second base to take out Griffin, too far wide. Runge called Riles out on Butler’s interference, ending the inning and nullifying Uribe’s run, which was already on the Candlestick Park scoreboard.

Butler would strenuously deny he had swerved out of the basepath. “There was no way they were going to get [Riles] at first no matter what I did,” he maintained, “so what incentive did I have to try to take [Griffin] out?” He hung responsibility squarely on Runge, if not by name. “A lot of times when records are in the balance like that, there’s no explaining some of the things that happen. People react in different ways.”

Hershiser knew just how contingent his salvation had been. “I was on the mound, rubbing up the ball, when I looked back at Runge’s out sign. I know what that means, so I ran off the field fast,” Hershiser said later, adding, “I didn’t want him to change his mind again.”

Hershiser responded to his rescue with three perfect innings, leaving no risk of needing a second favorable call. He did need runs, though, as Atlee Hammaker blanked the Dodgers through seven. In the eighth, however, Mickey Hatcher launched a three-run homer to give Hershiser his run, and some spares. He wobbled a little late, giving up two hits and two walks (one intentional) but stranded everybody.

The shutout gave Hershiser five in a row. One more, in his final scheduled start at San Diego, and not only would he tie Drysdale for the shutout record, he’d pull even in consecutive innings without a run allowed. With the division title effectively certain—with nine games to play, their magic number versus second-place Cincinnati was down to two—the playoff tune-up would be compelling baseball for exactly one reason.

Consecutive Scoreless Innings: 49

June 8, 1968: Los Angeles

Major League Baseball had pronounced a delay to the start of that Saturday’s games, waiting for the end of Robert Kennedy’s funeral before they played ball. The solemnities ran hours behind schedule, however, throwing the slate into muted chaos. This confusion did not touch the Dodgers, playing a West Coast night game well after the funeral ended. Hearts might be heavy, but Drysdale’s pre-game routine would proceed on schedule.

Despite the national grief—or even because of it: humans need our emotional relief—over 50,000 fans came out to watch Drysdale pitch against the Phillies, Walter Johnson, and history. He gave them what they wanted, allowing one harmless walk in the first, then recording two groundouts and a strikeout of Clay Dalrymple in the second to pull level with the Big Train. In the top of the third, Drysdale induced Roberto Peña to ground out to third. The streak was at 56.1 innings. Don Drysdale was alone in front.

Scarcely had the ovation of the fans faded when something peculiar happened. Home plate umpire Augie Donatelli went out to the mound and inspected Drysdale’s head. There had been rumors and allegations that Big D had produced his string of zeroes by loading up his pitches. This appeared to be Donatelli’s response to the whispers—and it’s interesting to note that he made his inspection after Drysdale had broken the record.

Donatelli found no forbidden substances and let Drysdale finish out his 57th scoreless frame. The umpire made a second check before the fourth inning, again coming up (ahem) dry, and Drysdale got to 58 with three easy grounders. The Dodgers reached Phils starter Larry Jackson for three runs in the bottom of the inning, stretching their lead to 4-0.

The fifth began badly. Tony Taylor led off with a single, and Clay Dalrymple’s base hit moved Taylor to third with no outs. Drysdale reached back and struck out Peña for the first out. Howie Bedell, batting in the pitcher’s spot, flied to left for the second. The fly, though, was too deep. Taylor came in to score, and there was no umpire’s ruling to save the day. Don Drysdale lost his streak, 55 years to the day after Walter Johnson, whose record he had beaten less than an hour before, lost his.

Big D was mortal once again, and he knew it. “I could feel myself go ‘blah’ when the run scored,” he would say later. “I just let down completely. I’m sure it was the mental strain.”

In the next inning, he gave up a home run to Bill White, which ended a string of 88 innings in which he had not surrendered a long ball. The following inning, he gave up a third run on a walk, error, and single, and with one out, Hank Aguirre came on to relieve him. Aguirre held Philadelphia hitless for the final two and a third, saving the Dodgers’ sixth straight win.

The ordeal was over, but the mark remained. Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley was reported, by his own GM, as wanting to present Drysdale’s wife, Ginger, with a string of 58.2 pearls for her husband’s accomplishment. I have no idea whether O’Malley delivered the way Drysdale had.

Consecutive Scoreless Innings: 58 2/3

A Baseball Writers’ Association vote later that season made the conundrum of fractional pearls moot. They ruled that a starting pitcher could not receive credit for partial innings in a scoreless streak when a run scored in that inning (but relievers could get partial credit when entering mid-inning). Drysdale’s record string was officially reduced to 58 innings.

Drysdale did not embrace the decision. “Any more meetings,” he quipped, “and it’ll be down to 47.”

Consecutive Scoreless Innings: 58

September 28, 1988: San Diego

Of the 22,000-plus at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego that night, there was one notable holdover from Hershiser’s previous game. Once again, Paul Runge was one of the umpires, just as Harry Wendelstedt had repeated after his streak-saving call 20 years earlier. All those spectators would watch Hershiser attempt to tie Drysdale’s two great records with a shutout. Weirdly, he failed to tie one, and broke the other.

The early, and middle, going was as close to a breeze as Hershiser had had in the last month. For the first eight innings, he didn’t allow more than one baserunner in an inning, and nobody who got aboard made it past first base. He decisively erased Roberto Alomar’s two-out single in the eighth by picking the future Hall of Famer off first.

The rest of the NL West champions were taking the game seriously, too. Kirk Gibson drew notice when dashing into the San Diego bullpen in left field foul ground, chasing a Tony Gwynn foul fly he did not reach. His teammates wanted him to get the record. It was Hershiser who was equivocal—though he didn’t pitch like it.

The ninth inning was almost too easy: three groundball outs on eight pitches, and Hershiser stood with Drysdale at 58. Broadcasting for the Dodgers, Drysdale left the booth to prepare for the postgame interview. The hitch was that Andy Hawkins, pitching for the Padres, had been blanking the Dodgers, and the game was scoreless going into extra innings. Hershiser didn’t have his shutout, but he would be pitching the 10th inning for the scoreless-inning record.

It began well, but also badly. He got Marvell Wynne to fan on a 1-2 pitch in the dirt, but the ball bounced over Mike Scioscia, and Wynne reached base. Drysdale, having just reached the Dodgers’ dugout, thought, “Oh, no, I’ve jinxed him.” Wynne advanced to second on Benito Santiago’s sacrifice, then to third on Randy Ready’s groundout.

That was where Hershiser wanted it to end.

”I really and truly didn’t want to break the record,” he would say after the game. He told this to Dodgers pitching coach Ron Perranoski, visiting the mound after the second out. “I wanted to stop at 58 2/3. I wanted me and Don to be together. But the higher sources”—he meant Perranoski and manage Tommy Lasorda—”told me they weren’t taking me out of the game, so I figured, what the heck, I might as well get the guy out.”

The guy, after an intentional walk to Garry Templeton, was Keith Moreland. On a 1-2 pitch, Moreland lofted a ball into right field. Hershiser bent over, hands on knees, watching José González catch the fly, then walked off to a standing ovation from the crowd at Jack Murphy. Drysdale, waiting in the dugout, embraced him.

After 10 innings, Bulldog’s night was over. His streak, at 59 innings, stood alone at the top.

When Hershiser expressed his wish to have left the record tied in his post-game interview by Drysdale, Big D had a sharp reply. “If I had known that,” Drysdale said, “I would have been out there kicking you in the seat of the pants, telling you to get more.”

San Diego eventually won that night’s game, 2-1 in 16 innings. Fans of the Dodgers scarcely could have cared less.

Consecutive Scoreless Innings: 59

Epilogue: 1968

Even at age 31, Don Drysdale was thinking ahead to the end of his career and his next moves after playing. He wanted to stay in baseball, possibly as a manager, but he stated publicly that he might be done pitching “as early as next year.” Shockingly for someone who had the run he did in May and June, he was right.

On July 20, he dived into Ron Santo on a play at the plate and got spiked. He played through the injury for several weeks with diminished effectiveness then was shut down in late August and didn’t pitch again that year. (The Dodgers were hopelessly out of contention by them and would end the season tied for seventh.) Drysdale hoped to be back in form in 1969. His struggles showed otherwise.

“A torn rotator cuff is a cancer for a pitcher,” Drysdale would say, “and if a pitcher gets a badly torn one, he has to face the facts, it’s all over baby.” That was what he had, from the initial spiking or the grinding through the pain or whatever. Drysdale faced the facts and retired.

A decade and a half later, he fulfilled Red Patterson’s prophecy, entering the Hall of Fame in his 10th  year of eligibility. Like his old teammate Sandy Koufax, he had made the Hall despite a career truncated by injury. Without that four-week stretch in 1968, it’s likely his bronze plaque would not be there.

Epilogue: 1988 — Choose Your Own Adventure

How did Orel Hershiser’s streak end? There are two plausible answers.

One is that, in his first start of 1989, he gave up a first-inning run to the Cincinnati Reds, ending his streak at 59 innings. (Or 59.2, if you care to ignore that committee’s officious cheese-paring.) Todd Benzinger drove home Barry Larkin, who had singled and reached second on a bad pickoff throw.

There is another, perhaps better, answer. In Game One of the 1988 National League Championship Series, on October 4, 1988, Hershiser faced the New York Mets. Paul Runge was once again there, umpiring in right field. Amazingly, almost as though a time-warp had intervened, Harry Wendelstedt was also there, behind the dish.

Hershiser dueled Dwight Gooden that evening, and for eight innings the potent Mets attack could not solve him. He faced the minimum in six of those eight frames, making the Dodgers’ two runs look like they would hold up.

They didn’t. With one down in the ninth, Dwight Strawberry doubled home Gregg Jefferies. Tommy Lasorda double-switched Hershiser out, but reliever Jay Howell couldn’t stop the bleeding, and the Mets pulled ahead, 3-2, where the game would end.

Baseball records don’t include postseason play, so the record stands at 59 innings. In another sense, one that embraces greater time continuity and accepts the raised difficulty of facing a playoff team, the record might instead be 67 innings. (Or 67.1.)

The rest of Hershiser’s season brought him a championship and MVP Awards for both the NLCS and World Series, not to mention a Cy Young Award. The rest of his career did not carry him to Cooperstown but left him not far from it. For any future induction committee debating his worthiness, his outstanding 1988 performance, largely but not exclusively the scoreless streak, will be the foundation of his case.

The committee might also consider this, an indication of how far things have changed—some might say “fallen”—in 30 years. In 1988, Orel Hershiser pitched eight shutouts and 15 complete games. In 2018, the entire National League pitched eight (single-pitcher) shutouts and 17 complete games. It’s not Babe Ruth out-homering every other American League team in 1920…but it’s still pretty good.

References and Resources

• Baseball-Reference
• The Sporting News, May-June & August-September 1968, and August-September 1988
• The New York Times, May-June 1968, and August-September 1988
• The Baseball Codes, Jason Turbow with Michael Duca
• SABR Baseball Biography Project
• Baseball Almanac
• Finally, this YouTube video shows extensive ABC News coverage of Robert Kennedy’s final speech and subsequent assassination. Look to time index 0:06:00 for the Drysdale passage, but the full (and very long) video is a fascinating historical time capsule on several levels.