1-0 Losses

I had the Mets game on and they mentioned that Steve Trachsel has lost seven 1-0 games in his career. They said that's an awful lot. However, they gave no perspective. They didn't tell any other players. I hate when announcers do things like that. Is it a lot?

The first two people I thought about when they said this was Roger Clemens and Steve Traschel himself. They said that Trachsel had lost 7 of these games, right off the top of my head I could remember two that Trachsel won. In 2000, he was the first player in baseball history to win back-to-back 1-0 games at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park when he outdueled Orlando Hernandez and Pedro Martinez.

I checked Roger Clemens' 2005 season. This is absolutely amazing. There were 5 games that Clemens started that the Astros lost 1-0. That's amazing. The part that makes it absolutely amazing, is that Roger Clemens record in those 5 games was 0-0. In each of those 5 games, he pitched shutout ball as well, and it was the bullpen that gave up the one run (3 of them went extra innings).

I used the Yankees (of course) as my sample to figure out if these 1-0 losses were a lot.

Steve Trachsel came into the league in 1993. In his 359 starts, and 139 losses, 7 of the losses were 1-0. Since 1993, the New York Yankees have lost 7 1-0 games.

In games last season that the NL Champion Astros had Clemens starting, they lost 1-0 5 times. The last time the Yankees lost more 1-0 games in a season than that was 1917, during the dead ball era. The Yankees one other time since than lost five 1-0 games, 1972, the year before the AL instituted the DH. This is just Clemens starts for the Astros, and they lost that many, in a hitters park.

In 22 different seasons, the Yankees went the entire year without losing a game 1-0 (14 of those seasons they won the pennant). For 4 consecutive seasons from 1948 - 1951 the Yankees did not lose a 1-0 game.

I would assume the Yankees would be better at this than most teams, but I have not checked. However, it seems that the announcers were right and Steve Trachsel's seven 1-0 losses are a lot.