There's Nothing Purer Than A 1-0 Baseball Game
Today, we look back at a few notable 1-0 games throughout MLB history and zero in on a recent 1-0 contest between the Phillies and Tigers.
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Pregame Pepper
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. . . Other than a 0-0 tie in Spring Training games, of course, a 1-0 baseball game is the lowest possible score a contest can have, but even these games are not without drama. Here are a few notable 1-0 games throughout MLB history.
Game 7, 1991 World Series: Jack Morris goes the distance, pitching all 10 innings in the ultimate winner-take-all game and lifting the Minnesota Twins over the Atlanta Braves for their second World Series title in franchise history.
Game 3, 2001 American League Division Series: The iconic “Jeter Flip” play to rob Jeremy Giambi of a hit helped the New York Yankees prevail over the Oakland Athletics.
April 15, 1968: The Houston Astros beat the New York Mets, 1-0, but the score was made even more notable because it took 24 innings to get to that point — the longest any MLB game has ever remained scoreless.
Sept. 9, 1965: The Sandy Koufax perfect game, beautifully immortalized over the airwaves by Vin Scully.
May 26, 1959: “The Harvey Haddix Game,” which featured the left-hander Haddix taking a perfect game into the 13th inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves … and ending up with a loss.
Leading Off
The Simple Joys Of A 1-0 Baseball Game
By Russ Walsh
For me, there is nothing better than watching a crisply played, well-pitched, low-scoring baseball game. While most of my friends and family members prefer lots of offensive fireworks, loads of home runs, and bunches of baserunners scampering across the plate, give me a good old-fashioned nail-biter of a 1-0 game any day. In the 1-0 game, the importance of every pitch, every swing, every take, every defensive play, is heightened. It is edge-of-your-seat stuff, and when your home team takes a 1-0 lead into the top of the ninth, while you sit in the stands full of fret and worry, you also realize that every one of your nerve endings is electrified with anticipation. You are truly alive to the moment.
Such a game broke out on June 6 this year at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia when the Philadelphia Phillies took on the Detroit Tigers. It was one day before my birthday and my eldest daughter, Beth, and I were celebrating by taking in a game, something we once did regularly but now do together only rarely. Beth is a great person to watch a game with. She understands the game, played it, coached it, and even kept score back in the days when her father was a high school baseball coach. We arrived at the park a half hour early for a 6:40 p.m. start time (Whose idea is it to start these games at 6:40?), enough time to grab a cheesesteak and an adult beverage before finding our way to our seats.
We settled into those seats just in time to see Taijuan Walker taking his warmup tosses on the mound. The presence of Walker did not portend a low scoring game. Walker had been knocked around a bit in his two previous starts and was sporting an ERA over 5.00. The Tigers were going with an “opener” in lefty Tyler Alexander, who also sported an ERA over 5. Detroit hoped to get two-plus innings out of Alexander and turn the game over to the bullpen. Philly was hoping that Walker could go past five innings and save the bullpen a bit.
The game began auspiciously for Walker as he got swinging third strikes out of all three hitters at the top of the Tigers’ order: Zach McKinstry, Javier Báez, and Spencer Torkelson. In the bottom half of the inning, Kyle Schwarber led off for the Phillies and foiled Detroit’s lefty/lefty strategy by launching an Alexander offering on a high, majestic arc three rows back into the right-field seats. The crowd of 36,664 exploded and Philly led, 1-0.
Walker took that tiny lead and ran with it. Through four innings he allowed only a walk to aging slugger Miguel Cabrera. Meanwhile, the Phillies could do nothing more with Alexander, who gave way to José Cisnero in the fourth inning.
In the fifth, the Tigers threatened for the first time in the game. After Akil Baddoo popped out, Zack Short singled for the Tigers’ first hit of the game. Up stepped Cabrera, whose bat has slowed considerably, but who still managed to whistle a line dive to right for a double. Nick Castellanos played the ball in quickly to hold Short at third. Walker then walked the light-hitting backup catcher Jake Rogers to load the bases.
With the tying run 90 feet away, Walker struck out Jake Marisnick for his biggest out of the game. McKinstry then whistled a line drive to deep center field, straight over Brandon Marsh’s head. Marsh initially turned the wrong way on the drive but spun around and recovered in time to make the catch, as 36,664 fans breathed a collective sigh of relief. I looked at Beth and we both said “Whew!”
Meanwhile the Phillies were flailing away futilely at a succession of Tiger relievers. Cisneros pitched one inning, while Tyler Holten and Will Vest each worked two scoreless frames. After Schwarber’s home run, the Phillies managed only two singles (by Bryson Stott and Kody Clemens) the rest of the game. Detroit’s defense helped the pitchers out. In the fifth, Short made a diving catch on a Marsh line drive and turned it into a double play. On the very next play, Baddoo made a spectacular diving catch to rob Phillies third baseman Drew Ellis of a double.
Walker finished strong and left after the seventh inning, having given up just those two fifth-inning hits and three walks. Seranthony Domínguez pitched the eighth for the Phillies and worked around a two-out Báez single by whiffing Torkelson.
After Clemens grounded out on a spectacular play by substitute Andy Ibáñez at second base to end the bottom of the eighth inning, the Phillies’ Craig Kimbrel jogged in from the bullpen. The veteran Kimbrel, who was left off the playoff roster by the Los Angeles Dodgers after struggling in 2022, was experiencing something of a rejuvenation with the Phillies, and with the recent injury to José Alvarado had established himself as the closer. Still, he was vulnerable to the home run ball. As he took his warmup tosses, I turned to Beth and said, “Boy, there is no room for error here.”
The first hitter in the ninth was third baseman Nick Maton. Maton is a former Phillie, who had crushed a three-run homer against his former mates the night before. The count ran to 1-2, and Maton flailed at a high fastball and foul tipped it into J.T. Realmuto’s glove. One down, two to go. Baddoo then saw three high, 96 mph fastballs from Kimbrel, swung at each one and never came close to any of them. Two down, one to go.
The crowd rose to its feet. The stadium lights flashed off and on. The PA system blared. Short stepped into the batter’s box. Kimbrel fired a fastball. Short swung and missed. Kimbrel fired another fastball. Short again swung and missed. The final pitch of the evening was a 97 mph fastball. Short took it. The pitch just kissed the outside corner. Umpire Adrian Johnson raised his right hand. Strike three. Game over. Screaming, cheering, hugging, and bouncing all over the ballpark.
As we walked out of the park, I said to Beth, “Now that was a ballgame.” I glanced up at the stadium clock in center field. It was 8:47 PM. The game had been played in 2:07. I said to Beth, “Two hours and seven minutes. That’s the kind of game Robin Roberts used to pitch.” I was beyond proud that she knew who I was talking about.
Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, die hard Phillies fan, and student of the history of baseball with a special interest in the odd, quirky, and once in a lifetime events that happen on the baseball field. He writes for both the SABR BioProject and the SABR Games Project and maintains his own blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. You can reach Russ on Twitter @faithofaphilli1
Jim Kaplan wrote a book called 'The Greatest Game Ever Pitched' about the 16-inning, 1-0 game settled by a Willie Mays home run against Warren Spahn. The winning pitcher was another future Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal. The 1963 game took place in San Francisco, where the winds prevented an earlier Hank Aaron home run. Both pitchers went all the way, throwing more than 200 pitches apiece.
I love 1-0 games!