{"id":924,"date":"2026-07-11T06:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=924"},"modified":"2026-07-11T06:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:38:48","slug":"mlbs-pitching-craziness-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=924","title":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s Pitching Craziness Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span> wrote here a couple weeks ago about \u201c<\/span>Baseball\u2019s Increasingly Rare Complete Game<\/span>.\u201d The piece resonated with readers. It was our most-clicked article for a week and one of my most-viewed pieces of 2026. It prompted some excellent responses, including this instructive lead comment from reader Albert Alioto: \u201cJuly 2, 1963. The San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings. Both pitchers, Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn, went the distance. Spahn was 42 years old.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The Summer of Deadly, Mind-Numbing Pop-Ups<\/a><\/p>\n

Albert flagged Jim Kaplan\u2019s book about that game, titled <\/span>The Greatest Game Ever Pitched<\/span><\/i>. Kaplan dubbed it the pitching \u201cduel of the century.\u201d That\u2019s hard to dispute. Albert personally met Marichal nearly 50 years later. The guy was a terrific pitcher. He hurled 18 complete games that year \u2014 among the 214 he <\/span>completed between 1962 and 1971<\/span>. In 1968, he had 30 complete games. That was more complete games than the 29 by all MLB pitchers combined last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that wasn\u2019t unusual for that era. For the likes of Marichal and Spahn and Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax and most top starters in a team\u2019s rotation, complete games were the goal. It was the norm for the entire history of baseball until the last decade or so, as \u201canalytics\u201d have hijacked the sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was also Albert who emailed me last week with a news item further underscoring the increasing rarity (if not insanity) of MLB complete games. Ironically, I read his email just as another case in point popped up (literally for a few batters) in Pittsburgh that evening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Albert informed me of a case with his erstwhile Oakland A\u2019s. As some of you know, the celebrated A\u2019s franchise has left Oakland \u2014 itself a sad story. The \u201cAmazing A\u2019s\u201d of the 1970s were one of the best clubs ever, rivaled that decade only by Cincinnati\u2019s awesome Big Red Machine. The fact that the A\u2019s could be permitted to leave Oakland is a testimony to what a depressing place the once-splendid Bay Area has become. It seems more committed to radical politics and gay pride than to its two historic sports teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the other storied Oakland franchise \u2014 the Raiders football team \u2014 is also gone. Likewise, the \u201870s Raiders were awesome, rivaled only by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. <\/span>The Raiders bolted the Bay Area for Las Vegas in 2020. The A\u2019s are currently playing in a minor-league park in Sacramento until their new home is finished on the Las Vegas Strip. A\u2019s owners were so quick to get out of Dodge that they\u2019ve settled for an amateurish-looking minor-league facility until the Vegas structure is completed. Oakland must have really become inhospitable. As for whoever is responsible for these huge losses, shame on them. (READ by Paul Kengor: \u201cRemembering the Raiders-Steelers Rivalry of the 1970s.\u201d) <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of shame \u2014 and back to the point of this article \u2014 the A\u2019s fans were chanting \u201c<\/span>SHAME! SHAME!<\/span>\u201d last week when the opposing coach ended his pitcher\u2019s perfect-game bid because of a pre-determined pitch limit.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Coaches bow to the golden calf of analytics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

It happened last Sunday in Sacramento. The visiting Miami Marlins manager <\/span>pulled pitcher Eury P\u00e9rez<\/span> after seven perfect innings. P\u00e9rez\u2019s replacement proceeded to immediately detonate, walking batters and giving up hits and homers alike, including a grand slam. The Marlins nearly blew an eight-run lead in a wild near-collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

For seven innings, P\u00e9rez was perfect. But that\u2019s not what matters in today\u2019s MLB. What matters is the pitch count. Coaches bow to the golden calf of analytics. Faceless wizards behind the curtain (or screen) dictate when to pull a pitcher. Once P\u00e9rez hit 92 pitches, the coach reached for the baseball as quickly as Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire reached for steroids in a Bay Area pharmacy. P\u00e9rez was pulled ahead of the eighth inning, safe from the unthinkable travesty of daring to throw 100 pitches. The Marlins went to the bullpen as fans booed. Even A\u2019s fans were outraged. They, too, wanted to witness a perfect game. It\u2019s historic, rare. And today, in the era of the \u201cpitch count,\u201d they\u2019re increasingly rare if not impossible and impermissible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reliever Lake Bachar walked the first batter he faced. The perfect game was over. The second batter hit a single. The no-hitter was over. Could it get worse? By the inning\u2019s end, a grand slam by the A\u2019s Jonah Heim made it 8-5. Heim and the A\u2019s generated more runs in the ninth. The Marlins barely held on for a 9-8 win.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more International Fraud Cartels Have Scammed Us Out of Billions. Trump Is Fighting Back.<\/a><\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez was yanked for the reasons that dominate decision-making in modern baseball: a young and developing pitcher, a pitcher recovering from a recent injury (hamstring), or the alleged wisdom of bringing in a fresher and stronger arm from the bullpen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bunkum! Let the kid have a shot at a perfect game. He may never get another.<\/span><\/p>\n

A similar scenario unfolded in Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening. Pirates\u2019 pitcher Jared Jones was tossing a gem against the first-place Atlanta Braves. He, too, had a perfect game going. He was yanked in the sixth after only 77 pitches. Predictably, the bullpen blew the game, as it has done all season for the Bucs, giving up a two-run homer to catcher Joey Bart (who had just been traded by the Pirates to the Braves). The Pirates lost 3-0.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of Jared Jones, the Pirates manager, Don Kelly, had a more valid injury excuse: a top pitching prospect, Jones recently reentered the rotation after missing a year and a half with major elbow surgery. He\u2019s on a short leash as he builds up his arm strength. But still, he was humming. He had only thrown 77 pitches and seemed at full strength and not waning one bit. No one was warming up in the bullpen as Jones mowed down the Braves\u2019 explosive offense, striking out Michael Harris II, Matt Olson, and Drake Baldwin in <\/span>their first two at-bats<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear if Pirates manager Don Kelly talked to Jared Jones to see how he was feeling and if he could go longer. One thing was sure. Jones didn\u2019t feel great about not getting a perfect game. In fact, he said it downright sucked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt does suck,\u201d said Jones. \u201cSomething cool\u2019s coming on, but I\u2019m on, what, my eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It is indeed. Obviously, that\u2019s a matter for debate, and I don\u2019t have enough information about Jared Jones\u2019s elbow, but for now, there\u2019s no debating that this craziness is becoming quite the spectacle in Major League Baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n

One wonders: Are there genuinely good \u201canalytics\u201d to back these \u201cpitch count\u201d sacred cows? Is there enough \u201cdata\u201d \u2014 over a statistically reliable period of time with large enough sample sizes \u2014 to verify that pulling pitchers from perfect games after 70-90 pitches is a smart strategy and genuinely keeps pitchers healthy?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, P\u00e9rez and Jones were recently injured. But non-injured pitchers, including the likes of reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes and everyone else in the league, are likewise under pre-imposed limits. There are virtually no exceptions. Does this really matter?<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The Missing History of the \u2018Nakba\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t seem to matter in the days of Juan Marichal.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE from Paul Kengor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Truth About the American Founders and Slavery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s Increasingly Rare Complete Game<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Father\u2019s Hand in the Valley of Death<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A most wonderful article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-arena"],"yoast_head":"\nMLB\u2019s Pitching Craziness Continues - National Logistics Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=924\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MLB\u2019s Pitching Craziness Continues - National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A most wonderful article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=924\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-11T06:38:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\"},\"headline\":\"MLB\u2019s Pitching Craziness Continues\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-11T06:38:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924\"},\"wordCount\":1282,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/00f31159f2fb58f290f17d03a6118335.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports Arena\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=924\",\"name\":\"MLB\u2019s Pitching Craziness Continues - 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