From Shutout to Walk-Off Home Run

It was a very late night for the Mets and Braves at Turner Field on Monday as rain delayed the start of the game until 10:53 p.m. Dillon Gee was brilliant for New York, pitching eight shutout innings of three-hit ball and driving in the game's first run with a seventh-inning single.

He took that 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth looking for a complete-game shutout. Jason Heyward grounded out to start the frame before Justin Upton singled. That set the stage for Freddie Freeman:




It was 1:22 a.m. and just like that, the Braves turned a would-be 1-0 loss into a 2-1 victory. It was the 22nd time since 1945 (and first since 1994) that a starting pitcher took a shutout into the ninth inning only to allow a game-ending home run. Here are the first 21.

#	Date	Batter	Tm	Opp	Pitcher	Score	Inn	RoB	Out	RBI	WPA	Play Description
12	1948-07-27	Pat Seerey	CHW	WSH	Mickey Haefner	down 1-0	b9	1--	2	2	0.90	HR; Appling Scores
28	1952-06-29	Dick Kryhoski	SLB	DET	Virgil Trucks	down 2-0	b9	12-	2	3	0.91	HR; Nieman Scores/unER; Garver Scores/unER; Kryhoski Scores/unER
40	1954-05-12	Bobby Hofman	NYG	CIN	Harry Perkowski	down 1-0	b9	1--	1	2	0.79	HR (Deep LF Line); Samford Scores
67	1958-07-29	Sherm Lollar	CHW	WSH	Russ Kemmerer	down 1-0	b9	-2-	2	2	0.86	HR; Fox Scores
69	1959-05-15	Bob Nieman	BAL	DET	Don Mossi	down 1-0	b9	1--	0	2	0.68	HR; Boyd Scores
74	1959-09-13 (1)	Mickey Mantle	NYY	CLE	Jack Harshman	down 1-0	b11	1--	0	2	0.68	HR; Kubek Scores
108	1963-07-19	Roy Sievers	PHI	NYM	Roger Craig	down 1-0	b9	--3	1	2	0.61	HR; Gonzalez Scores
109	1963-07-29	Dick Brown	BAL	DET	Mickey Lolich	down 1-0	b9	1--	2	2	0.91	HR; Saverine Scores
110	1963-07-29	Don Lock	WSA	CHW	Joe Horlen	down 1-0	b9	-2-	2	2	0.86	HR; Hinton Scores
111	1963-08-11	Jerry Lynch	PIT	HOU	Hal Brown	down 1-0	b9	1--	2	2	0.91	HR; Clemente Scores
139	1966-09-21	Willie Horton	DET	CAL	Dean Chance	down 1-0	b9	-2-	2	2	0.87	HR; Cash Scores
154	1968-09-25	Ron Santo	CHC	LAD	Bill Singer	down 1-0	b9	123	0	4	0.28	HR; Smith Scores; Williams Scores; Nen Scores
172	1970-09-15 (2)	Curt Blefary	NYY	BOS	Mike Nagy	down 2-0	b9	-23	1	3	0.73	HR; Lyttle Scores; Baker Scores/unER
182	1971-08-24	Jim Spencer	CAL	WSA	Pete Broberg	down 1-0	b9	1--	1	2	0.82	HR; Fregosi Scores
193	1972-09-09	Dave Kingman	SFG	CIN	Don Gullett	down 1-0	b9	1--	1	2	0.81	HR; Maddox Scores
247	1978-06-02	Jose Cruz	HOU	STL	John Denny	down 1-0	b9	1--	1	2	0.82	HR; Cabell Scores
253	1978-07-26	Lou Piniella	NYY	CLE	Rick Waits	down 1-0	b9	1-3	1	3	0.55	HR; Rivers Scores; Munson Scores
268	1979-07-23	Dave Kingman	CHC	CIN	Tom Hume	down 1-0	b9	-2-	0	2	0.55	HR (LF-CF); Dilone Scores
281	1980-10-01	George Foster	CIN	SDP	Bob Shirley	down 1-0	b9	1--	0	2	0.68	HR; Kennedy Scores
312	1984-06-24	Tim Teufel	MIN	CHW	Richard Dotson	down 2-0	b9	12-	1	3	0.80	HR; Engle Scores; Brunansky Scores
420	1994-05-07	Mark Lemke	ATL	MON	Jeff Fassero	down 1-0	b9	1--	2	2	0.90	HR (Fly Ball to Deep LF); Brown Scores

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/18/2013.

There are two Hall of Famers among the 21 home run hitters. Mickey Mantle hit the only one that came in extra innings and Ron Santo hit the only one that was a grand slam.

Last night's was the only game on the list in which the pitcher had driven in the only run prior to the final inning.

Gee had only allowed three hits in the first eight innings, but seven of the pitchers listed had allowed even fewer before the last frame. Harry Perkowski, Dean Chance, Pete Broberg and Don Gullett took two-hitters into the ninth.

Bill Singer was three outs away from a one-hitter before the Cubs went walk-double-intentional walk to load the bases before the aforementioned Santo grand slam. Mickey Lolich was two outs away from a one-hitter and one out from a two-hitter until Dick Brown hit his pinch-hit blast. But one game takes the cake, and it came on the same exact day as the Lolich game.

On July 29, 1963, White Sox righty Joe Horlen no-hit the Washington Senators for eight innings. He retired the first batter of the ninth, but Chuck Hinton knocked a single to break up the no-hit bid. The next batter grounded out, so at least Horlen was an out away from the shutout, but then Don Lock clubbed a home run to deal him a stunning defeat.

As Tim Kurkjian of ESPN often likes to say, you go to a baseball game and you might see something that's never happened before. In this case it's something that happens very rarely and had not occurred since "The Sign" by Ace of Base was the #1 song in America.




One other thing about this game. The Mets won on Sunday on a come-from-behind walk-off dinger, making them the first team since at least 1945 to be on both ends of this event in consecutive games. On five occasions it happened in back-to-back games in the same series (with the same team hitting the homer). There was also once instance of a team giving up game-ending comeback walk-offs in two straight games, but to different opponents.

Date	Batter	Tm	Opp	Pitcher	Score	Inn	RoB	Out	RBI
8/5/1978	John Lowenstein	TEX	CLE	Jim Kern	down 3-2	b12	1--	2	2
8/6/1978	Gary Gray	TEX	CLE	Rick Waits	down 2-1	b9	1--	2	2
6/22/1979	Doug DeCinces	BAL	DET	Dave Tobik	down 5-4	b9	1--	2	2
6/23/1979	Eddie Murray	BAL	DET	John Hiller	down 6-5	b9	12-	1	3
7/8/1982	Jerry Hairston	CWS	DET	Dan Petry	down 2-1	b9	1--	2	2
7/9/1982	Buddy Bell	TEX	DET	Dave Tobik	down 2-1	b9	.-2-	1	2
8/29/1986	Dick Schofield	CAL	DET	Willie Hernandez	down 12-9	b9	123	2	4
8/30/1986	Doug DeCinces	CAL	DET	Bill Campbell	down 4-3	b9	1--	1	2
5/10/2005	Kevin Millar	BOS	OAK	Octavio Dotel	down 2-1	b9	1--	1	2
5/11/2005	Jason Varitek	BOS	OAK	Octavio Dotel	down 5-4	b9	1--	1	2
6/28/2007	Carlos Lee	HOU	COL	Brian Fuentes	down 5-4	b11	123	2	4
6/29/2007	Mark Loretta	HOU	COL	Brian Fuentes	down 8-7	b9	1--	2	2
6/16/2013	Kirk Nieuwenhuis	NYM	CHN	Carlos Marmol	down 3-1	b9	-23	1	3
6/17/2013	Freddie Freeman	ATL	NYM	Dillon Gee	down 1-0	b9	1--	1	2

That first Angels-Tigers game was a doozy. The Tigers led 12-5 with one out in the ninth and 12-9 with two outs. Schofield hit what some call an "Ultimate Grand Slam," a homer hit with the bases loaded with two outs and down three runs. The five hitters to pull this off since Schofield are Alan Trammell, Chris Hoiles, Brian Giles, Adam Dunn and Ryan Roberts.