Shutout

In baseball, a shutout refers to a game in which one team wins without allowing the opposing team to score any runs. If the starting pitcher can pitch the entire game without giving up a run he earns a complete game shutout. The currect record holder for most career shutouts is Walter Johnson with 110; the current active leader is Roger Clemens with 48 (tied with Kid Nichols for 25th all-time).

Related Topics:
Baseball - Pitcher - Complete game - Walter Johnson - Roger Clemens - Kid Nichols

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Though less than half of Johnson's record, Clemens' total is not likely to be reached by anyone else for a long time if at all as even star pitchers rarely earn more than 1 or 2 shutouts per season today with the heavy emphasis on pitch counts and relief pitching. This causes pitchers to frequently be taken out of the game in the 7th or 8th inning even though the opposing team hasn't scored a run. For a pitcher to get a complete game shutout today, it usually means either he threw an unusually low number of pitches, or a large amount of runs were scored by the pitchers own team (allowing them to give the pitcher a "chance" to complete the game on his own), or the team has a need that day to keep an unusually overworked bullpen rested if possible.

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The term can also be used, however, to describe periods of time longer or shorter than one game. For instance, the efforts of a relief pitcher could be described as "three shutout innings" or a pitcher may have pitched a shutout over the "past 22 innings" (slightly over two full games.) See also: no-hitter and perfect game.

Related Topics:
Pitcher - Shutout - No-hitter - Perfect game

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