Greg Maddux set a new record for walk-less innings Tuesday night against the Houston Astros.
photo by Tim Evearitt (archived photo)
Tuesday night at Turner Field Greg Maddux passed Christy Mathewson and Randy Jones as the National League pitcher with the most consecutive innings without giving up a walk.
He began the evening against Houston with a string of 64.1 innings without walking a batter. He gave up four runs in the fourth inning - the same inning that gave him the record.
He went six innings and has 70 1/3 innings without walking a batter.
The Major League record was set in 1962 by Bill Fisher at 84 1/3 innings.
Maddux was lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning with the Braves down 5-3. With two men on and two out, Marcus Giles hit a 375' shot into the left field stands to give the Braves the lead 6-5.
Maddux also became the second pitcher in Major League history to post at least fifteen wins in at least fourteen seasons.
Only Cy Young, who won 15+ games for fifteen straight seasons (1891 - 1905) has more 15+ seasons than Maddux.
Not bad for a night of pitching:
-- pass legendary Chrity Mathewson, and
-- move one season closer to tying the great Cy Young.
* * * * *
"Pitching is not about striking everybody out or not walking anybody, it's about getting guys out and keeping your team in the game. The object is to keep the other team from scoring, everything else is secondary."
The one factor that makes Maddux the dominating pitcher he has become is his approach to pitching.
Certainly Maddux has an outstanding array of pitches and impeccable control night-in and night-out. But the one factor in Maddux's game that has made him the premier pitcher of his generation is his pitching philosophy.
Maddux is the thinking man's pitcher. This is not a man who blows batters away with 100-mile-an-hour fastballs or wicked curveballs. Pure and simple, this man IS pitching.
"Hitting is all about timing," said Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone. "Pitching is upsetting that timing. His command is awesome
Maddux continues to work very hard on his control, always striving for perfection.
Maddux can frustrate fastball hitters with a 78-mile-an-hour changeup or catch those sluggers waiting on hanging curveballs with a 91-mile-an hour fastball on the outside corner.
To look at Maddux, listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds in the Atlanta media guide, is to look at a guy with an average build who could pass for the guy next door. Imposing is a word that describes Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens but not one you would use to describe Maddux when you run into him in a hotel lobby. On the mound, however, there are no adjectives grand enough to describe Maddux's game.
In the clubhouse after a game, he is the same self-effacing person whether he wins or loses.
-- Last season he became only the third pitcher in Major League history to post at least 13 consecutive seasons of 15 or more wins. Cy Young did it 15 straight times (1891-1905) and Gaylord Perry 13 (1966-78).
-- Maddux's 254 wins, 3,483.1 IP, 102 complete games and 34 shutouts rank second among active pitchers to Roger Clemens.
-- He became only the second pitcher to win back-to-back NL Pitcher of the Month Awards last week.
-- He’s won four consecutive Cy Young Awards, including three with the Braves.
-- He has won 10 Gold Gloves and is the all-time leader for putouts among pitchers.
"You know what the secret of pitching is?" Maddux asked rhetorically. "Making your strikes look like balls and your balls look like strikes. So when people are telling me that I've got a bigger plate than everybody else, that tells me they think my strikes look like balls. That's one of the best compliments you can get."
In pitching, as in real estate, location is everything.
"He figured out early on that it's not how hard you throw, but where you throw it that's important," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said.
This story is adapted from an article by Jim Molony a regional writer for MLB.com.
The sign tells the story.
photo by Tim Evearitt