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View Full Version : Consecutive scoreless innings streaks



coxfan
02-26-2014, 04:01 PM
I didn't realize until recently that consecutive scoreless innings streaks were redefined some years ago to disregard fractional innings. Now any inning in which a run scores counts as nothing as regards beginning or ending a streak. The South Carolina Gamecocks currently have a team streak of 51 scoreless innings, which would have been 51 2/3 innings under the system with which I grew up. That's because they last allowed a run with one out in the third, but the streak now officially starts only with the fourth inning.

The effect of the change, which was decreed by Elias Sports, was to modify some past records. I assume Babe Ruth's longstanding record streak of 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series (which I heard about my whole childhood, has now been changed. It was broken by Whitey Ford anyway).

The change makes sense to avoid ambiguity in the fractional innings, such as when a run scores during a double play. For pitchers, there would be confusion if a run was charged to a pitcher who'd been taken out of the game an out or two before the run scored.