Poor Kenshin Kawakami. Last night, he pitched six shutout innings for the Atlanta Braves in Arizona, struck out eight men, tying a career high... And got a no-decision, as the Braves hitters failed to score until after he had left the game. That’s par for the course for him: after a dozen games this year, he is still winless, having a record of 0-8, despite a credible ERA of 4.48.
Kenshin Kawakami: Baseball’s Unluckiest Pitcher
No-one has gone deeper into the season without getting a W, since Matt Beech went 0-7 in his first 15 starts for the 1997 Phillies. However, Beech's ERA over that time was more than a run worse than Kawakami's, at 5.82. The only streak opening a year with a comparable ERA in recorded baseball history was Donovan Osborne, who posted a 4.42 ERA while not winning 14 games for the 1995 Cardinals.
Since the start of 2009, 97 NL starters have gone exactly six shutout innings in a game - more than two-thirds took the W. But Wednesday wasn’t the first time Kawakami did that, and was cruelly robbed of a win. He also pitched six shutout innings against the Reds on May 19th: there, he actually left with a 4-0 lead, until the Atlanta bullpen coughed it up. Cincinnati tied the game in the top of the ninth, before the Braves rallied to win in the bottom half.
More broadly, half of Kawakami’s appearances have been “quality starts” - six innings or more, three runs or less; those are generally good enough for a win slightly over half, and get you a loss only about 18% of the time. But his record there is 0-3 with three no-decisions. He has simply been stunningly unlucky, and it’s more proof - as if any were needed - of how Win-Loss record is not a good measure of pitcher effectiveness.
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