D-backs’ Robbie Ray climbing list of longest scoreless streaks in team history
May 31, 2017, 8:25 AM
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Back on May 14, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell hit a two-run, opposite-field home run off of Arizona Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray. The blast gave Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead in the third inning. They would go on to win the game, 6-4 in 10 innings.
The home run was also significant because it’s the last time an opposing team has scored off of Ray.
The left-hander has been masterful in his last three outings, including Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, when he struck out 10 Pirates in flinging his first career complete-game shutout.
Ray’s scoreless streak is now at 24.2 innings, which is the third-longest in franchise history for a starter, and the longest by anyone not named Brandon Webb.
Webb had a stretch of 41 consecutive scoreless innings, including three complete-game shutouts, during the 2007 season. The D-backs won the National League West that year and Webb finished second behind San Diego’s Jake Peavy in the National League Cy Young voting.
Webb had a 25-inning scoreless streak in 2006. Ray passed up right-hander Andy Benes for third place on the D-backs’ list. Benes had a 23.1-inning streak in the club’s expansion season in 1998.
Here are some other numbers from Ray’s impressive streak:
84
Ray has faced 84 hitters since the last time he allowed a run.
9
Since the streak started in the fourth inning of the May 14 game against Pittsburgh, Ray has allowed only nine hits. Eight of them have been singles. Only Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison, who doubled in Tuesday night’s game, has managed to get an extra-base hit off of the lefty.
26:3
Ray’s strikeout-to-walk ratio during the streak. In his last two starts, that number is 19:0.
64.9
Ray has thrown 339 pitches during the string, 220 of which have gone for strikes, or just under 65 percent. Of those strikes, 47 of them have been of the swing-and-miss variety.
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