Nick Pivetta threw seven strong innings and was one of three pitchers to help the Padres shut out … More
On June 4, 1972, there were 16 MLB games played. In half of them, one team was shut out. Just for completeness, here are those games:
- Athletics over Orioles 2-0 (in both ends of a double header)
- Tigers over Twins, 3-0
- Red Sox over Royals, 4-0
- Cardinals over Dodgers, 4-0
- Rangers over Brewers, 10-0
- Astros over Expos, 5-0
- Reds over Phillies, 2-0
Prior to last night, there had been just seven occasions when there were seven shutouts in a single day, with the latest being September 5, 2006. Said differently, we have not had a day in major league baseball like yesterday in nearly 19 years. And only one other day like it in the last 57 years. Suffice it to say, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, was somewhat of an anomaly in baseball history.
Let’s take a look at yesterday’s games:
- Padres over Nationals, 1-0
- Rangers over Orioles, 7-0
- Athletics over Tigers, 3-0
- Rays over Royals, 3-0
- Twins over Mariners, 2-0
- Cubs over Cardinals, 8-0
- Astros over Phillies, 2-0
What is interesting (to this writer, at least) is that Orioles were on the losing end of three of these games; and the Royals, Phillies, and Expos/Nationals were all shut out on both days.
But what is even more interesting is that to get eight shutouts in 1972, a total of 14 pitchers were used by the winning teams. In 2006, a full generation later, 14 pitchers were used to get seven shutouts. But fast forward another generation, to 2025, and to get the same seven shutouts, the winning teams required 27 pitchers, nearly twice as many.
But “required” is doing a lot of work in the previous paragraph. “Required” is in the eye of the beholder and the manager and pitching coach and club’s pitching philosophy. In the seven shutouts last night, only one pitcher (Jacob Lopez of the Athletics) threw more than 100 pitches (103 to be exact). The average for the starters was 85.
Back in 2006 (which is not that long ago), three pitchers went well over 100 pitches (Doug Davis of the Brewers threw 121 in a complete game, Bronson Arroyo threw 117 to finish his complete game, and Jeff Suppan threw 121 to get through 7-2/3 innings). In the aggregate, to get seven shutouts in 2006, the average starting pitcher threw nearly 104 pitches. Nineteen additional pitches from your starter is essentially one additional inning.
Getting seven shutouts in a single day should not be shocking insofar as offense is down league-wide. The current rate of 4.35 runs per game is the lowest since 2022. And while there have been more singles per game this season than at any time since 2017, doubles, triples, and home runs are down. And if you compare 2025 to 2006, the last time we had this bizarre type of day, let’s run the numbers:
- Batting Average: .245 vs. .269
- Runs/Game: 4.35 vs. 4.86
- Doubles: 1.56 vs. 1.88
- Triples: 0.13 vs. 0.20
- Slugging %: .398 vs. .432
The only area where offense is even close to where it was 19 years ago is with respect to home runs (2006 had 1.11 per game, and this season that number is 1.10).
To flip this analysis on its head, pitching has improved by leaps and bounds. In 2006, the average ERA was 4.52, this year it is 4.04. Strikeouts per game are up from 6.52 in 2006 to 8.26 this year. Statcast data doesn’t go back to 2006, so it is impossible to state with specificity how hard pitchers were throwing 19 years ago. But, some reports show that the average fastball in 2007 was 91.9 MPH. That number is now 94 MPH.
MLB pitching velocity is going up year by year.
All of that said, on both days last weekend we had five teams score at least 9 runs, with only a handful of shutouts. So, there is just no way to know if we will see another day like Wednesday again this season, or this decade, or this generation. Which is why, when something like that happens – when seven teams score no runs – it is important to mark the occasion and then try not to take anything away from it.
