I don’t know the correct answer. I’m hoping someone else does. I Googled already, and didn’t find the answer.
I was inspired to ask because I came upon an old baseball card for Mike Wallace, an old middle-innings reliever for the Yankees. In 1974, splitting time between the Phillies and the Yankees, he was 7-0.
I’m sure that’s not the record, but i got me wondering- who did ahve the most wins in a season without a loss?
The answer could well be a similarly undistinguished middle innings reliever… or a good starter who got hurt early in the season.
Tom Zachary, 1929 Yankees, 12-0 (11 starts, 26 games)
Dennis Lamp, 1985 Blue Jays, 11-0 (1 start, 53 games)
Roy Face had an 18-1 season. A lot of these records are based on a minimum number of games played (16 for the modern season I think), and no one meeting the minimum went undefeated in a season.
I did a search on baseball-reference.com, which says that the record is 12, but I need to register in order to find out who did it. (One was 12-0, one was 11-0, and two were 10-0.)
Here’s what I could get out of the stats list at mlb.com (it only lists pitchers with 20 or more wins):
Most wins with 9 or fewer losses: Walter Johnson, 36-7, 1913 Washington
Most wins with 5 losses: Joe Wood, 34-5, 1912 Boston
Most wins with 4 losses: Lefty Grove, 31-4, 1931 Philadelphia Athletics
You’re right about Guidry’s 25-3 being the best with 3 losses
The best record with 3 losses by an active player is Cliff Lee’s 22-3 for Cleveland in 2008.
The best record with fewer than 3 losses by an active player is Clay Buchholz’s 12-1 in 16 games (he was out for three months with a neck injury) for the Red Sox in 2013.
The most wins in a season by an active player is Justin Verlander’s 24-5 for Detroit in 2011.
Didn’t he start that season 10-0? I seem to recall that. At the time it seemed impressive, but you really don’t want your reliever getting wins. You prefer saves.
Face’s job as reliever was to pick up where the previous pitcher had failed. That means coming in with men on base, usually more than one and in scoring position(s). And he was expected to pitch multiple innings after that.
The fact he went 18-1 in those conditions is far more impressive than someone who only pitches the 9th with no one on base and no need to pace himself.
Of course, if his team was behind or the go-ahead run was on base when he took the mound, then there was little risk of getting a loss; if they were behind, they would have to tie the game (or take the lead) and then lose, and if the tying run was on base, he would either have to get out of the inning without behind behind and then lose the game, or lose the lead, get back to at least a tie, and then lose it again.
I didn’t look them all up, but many (probably most) of Face’s wins were of the type suggested by That Don Guy. Very frequently the Pirates would pinch-hit for the starting pitcher in games where they were trailing and send Face to the mound.
–On 8/9/59, for instance, they pinch-hit for the starter down 2-1 in the top of the eighth; Face came in, gave up a run, and then benefited from the Pirates scoring 2 in the ninth and two more in the tenth to win. He did go three innings.
–On 8/23 same deal–down 3-1 this time, another PH for the starter, in comes Elroy, the Pirates score one in the 8th, one in the 9th, and one in the 10th.
So he pitched well, and sometimes for multiple innings (though nearly half of his games were one inning or less), but his WL record is mainly a function of a) how we often was brought in with his team slightly behind and b) the Pirates scoring a lot of late runs.
By the way, he started 17-0 before losing on the eleventh of September, in a game where he *was *brought in with a one-run lead, which he could not protect.