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Game #78: Diamondbacks vs. Giants

Brandon McCarthy hasn't won during his last eight outings. Will the ninth time be a charm against the Giants tonight?

By Jim McLennan
Christian Petersen

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Ryan Vogelsong
RHP, 5-4, 4.81
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Brandon McCarthy
RHP, 1-9, 5.18

Diamondbacks Lineup

  1. Didi Gregorius - SS
  2. Gerardo Parra - RF
  3. Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
  4. Aaron Hill - 2B
  5. Miguel Montero - C
  6. Martin Prado - 3B
  7. David Peralta - LF
  8. Ender Inciarte - CF
  9. Brandon McCarthy - P

There have actually been longer winless streaks by a Diamondback. Much longer. More than twice as long, in fact. Poor Brian Anderson went almost a year between wins, going 17 starts from July 2001 to the following June. Even future Cy Young winner Max Scherzer had a 13-start streak - and those were the first 13 of his career. You'd have got long odds against him taking 14 starts to record his first W, especially after he threw 4.1 perfect relief innings in his debut. But McCarthy is certainly on pace for one of the worst first-halves in Diamondbacks history - admittedly, as measured by losses, and we'll take the caveats there as read. .

He'll probably get four more starts before the break, but he's already well up the list of most losses by a D-backs pitcher prior to the All-Star Games, and could conceivably top the list, if he loses out the rest of the way. For right now, the eight others to have nine or more first-half losses, all had at least two more bites at the cherry than McCarthy - and all had more wins too. Here's the top 15:

Rk Player Year G L W W-L% ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO
1 Willie Blair 1998 19 12 3 .200 5.00 122.1 138 72 68 21 43 59
2 Doug Davis 2007 18 10 5 .333 4.26 105.2 126 57 50 10 59 77
Omar Daal 2000 18 10 2 .167 7.36 91.2 121 86 75 17 40 41
Trevor Cahill 2013 17 10 3 .231 4.66 96.2 97 52 50 10 39 69
5 Andy Benes 1998 19 9 6 .400 4.73 129.1 136 72 68 19 39 82
Brandon Webb 2004 19 9 3 .250 3.81 113.1 104 64 48 8 64 85
Doug Davis 2009 19 9 4 .308 3.41 116.0 112 50 44 12 55 91
Andy Benes 1999 18 9 5 .357 5.51 111.0 126 75 68 22 54 79
Brandon McCarthy 2014 15 9 1 .100 5.18 92.0 107 57 53 15 17 78
10 Casey Fossum 2004 12 8 2 .200 6.27 60.1 81 47 42 14 25 46
Javier Vazquez 2005 18 8 7 .467 4.54 119.0 126 62 60 15 16 110
Micah Owings 2008 19 8 6 .429 5.02 100.1 96 60 56 12 35 85
Jon Garland 2009 18 8 5 .385 4.53 109.1 124 60 55 10 40 44

He's also moving up the list for most first-half starts with only one win. Since 1998, his 15 currently have McCarthy tied for 11th, with three players level on 18 starts. Most recently Zack Greinke in 2005, who went 1-11 with a 6.20 ERA. How things change. Again, if McCarthy gets through his next four starts without a W, he'll top the list - the only pitcher in the past century to make 19 first-half starts with one win was Matt Keough for the 1979 Athletics. He went 0-11 on his way to a 2-17 record. Let's hope McCarthy can render all this entirely irrelevant by beating the Giants' this evening, and get his W total a little closer to his RBI one!

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