Complete game streaks a rarity nowadays

The franchise leader in complete games pitched for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins is Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson who had 38 complete games in 1910 in 42 starts for the Washington Senators. Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven, also in the Hall of Fame is the Twins leader in complete games in a single season with 25 complete games in 40 starts back in 1973. The last Twins pitcher to lead the AL in complete games was Carl Pavano with seven in 2010.

But who holds the Minnesota Twins record for the most complete games in a row? That record of course belongs to Twins curve-ball ace Camilo Pascual who had 8 complete games in a row between May 10, 1964 and June 17, 1964. Bert Blyleven is second on the Twins list below but he pitched 10 complete games in a row in 1985 for the Cleveland Indians.

 

Camilo Pascual
Rk Name Strk Start End Games W L GS CG SHO IP H ER BB SO HR ERA
1 Camilo Pascual 1964-05-10 1964-06-17 8 7 1 8 8 1 71.2 58 19 28 58 4 2.39
2 Bert Blyleven 1986-07-22 1986-08-11 5 3 2 5 5 1 43.0 19 10 10 37 6 2.09
3 Roger Erickson 1978-08-05 1978-08-23 5 3 2 5 5 0 46.0 40 13 12 18 2 2.54
4 Dave Goltz 1976-05-14 1976-05-30 5 5 0 5 5 0 47.0 32 11 12 33 1 2.11
5 Bert Blyleven 1975-08-02 1975-08-19 5 4 1 5 5 1 44.0 26 10 11 30 3 2.05
6 Jim Hughes 1975-05-09 1975-05-28 5 5 0 5 5 2 45.0 25 5 17 26 2 1.00
7 Bert Blyleven 1973-09-14 1973-09-30 5 3 2 5 5 1 43.0 27 10 6 37 2 2.09
8 Dick Woodson 1972-08-01 1972-08-18 5 4 1 5 5 2 45.0 25 4 11 26 1 0.80
9 Jim Merritt 1968-04-11 1968-05-01 5 3 2 5 5 0 45.0 31 9 7 27 3 1.80
10 Jim Kaat 1966-08-23 1966-09-09 5 5 0 5 5 2 45.0 29 5 9 35 4 1.00
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/18/2017.

Back in 1980 Oakland A’s starter Rick Langford as a 28 year-old pitched an amazing 22 complete games in a row between May 23 and September 12 and that included a 14 inning win against the Cleveland Indians. The A’s starting staff had an work-man like 94 complete games in 1980. The starting five made up of Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman started all but three A’s games that season. The team finished with a 83-79 record under skipper Billy Martin and pitching coach Art Fowler.

Nolan Ryan who was pitching for the California Angels at the time had a streak of 10 complete games in a row against the Minnesota Twins from September 30, 1972 through September 28, 1974 but the Twins did manage to win 3 of those 10 games. About the time Ryan’s streak was ending, teammate Frank Tanana started a streak of his own pitching 7 complete games in a row against the Twins from September 27, 1974 through June 15 1977.