Veteran right-hander Jeremy Guthrie has played 12 years in the big leagues, and it’s very possible Saturday was the worst moment of his career.
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Guthrie, who did not play in MLB in 2016, got a spot start for the Washington Nationals against the Philadelphia Phillies, and, well, it did not go well. Not at all. Let’s look at the line score, shall we?
Oh. Oh no. No no no. To be fair, only 10 of those 12 runs were charged to Guthrie, who recorded two outs. He now owns a 135.00 ERA for the season. On the bright side, Saturday is Guthrie’s 38th birthday. Happy birthday, Jeremy!
Here’s the play-by-play for that first inning. This is how all that damage happened:
Let’s not absolve reliever Enny Romero of any blame here. He inherited a runner from Guthrie and allowed him to score. Guthrie could have escape with only nine runs allowed in two-thirds of an inning, which would have lowered his ERA to 120.90. That’s a little better than 135.00.
The Phillies, meanwhile, scored 12-plus runs in an entire game once last season. They did that in one inning Saturday. The last team to score a 12 runs in one inning is the Mets, who did it last April. The last team to score 12 runs in the first inning was the Yankees, who did it against the Orioles in July 2011.
Baltimore’s starter that day? Zach Britton. Admit it, you thought it was going to be Guthrie, who went 9-17 for the 2011 Orioles.
Amazingly, the 10 runs are not the most runs Guthrie has allowed in a start in his career. He allowed 11 runs in one inning in May 2015, when he was a member of the Kansas City Royals. Guthrie finished that season as a World Series champ. He and the Nationals would gladly trade Saturday’s start for a similar outcome.