The Phillies and Giants didn't have a monopoly on amazing pitching performances last night, as another one of the West Coast Games produced an amazing feat. A's starter Bartolo Colon threw 38 straight strikes from the fifth inning through the eighth inning.
Here's the video from MLB.com of all 38 pitches.
The streak produced two strikeouts and two base hits.
Colon's first pitch to Macier Izturis, the first batter in the Angels' fifth inning was a ball, before his next 38 were strikes, until his second pitch to Bobby Abreau in the eighth inning -- a pitch that was called a ball, but could have gone either way. Abreau ended up grounding out -- as well as seeing two more balls. The next batter, Howie Kendrick also saw three balls before striking out swinging to end Colon's night.
In all, Colon went eight innings, allowed four hits and no runs, while striking out five and walking none. He threw 108 pitches and 82 strikes. He also picked up the win to improve to 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA.
Here's the Pitch F/X date from BrooksBaseball.net:
As you can see, this wasn't the work of an umpire with an extra-large zone -- everything was either inside the strike zone or at least bordering on it so closely that it's hardly out of the question to call those pitches strikes.
According the San Francisico Chronicle, the data on consecutive strikes goes back to 1988, and Colon's streak is the longest since then. The second-best streak was 30 pitches by Tim Wakefield in 1998.
It seems the players on both sides were impressed by the showing.
"You can't get 38 strikes out of a pitching machine," A's outfielder Jonny Gomes told the Chronicle. "I've never seen anything remotely close."