Remember When Greg Maddux Threw a 77-Pitch Complete Game?

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On this day in 1997, Greg Maddux was scheduled to start the first game of a double-header between the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.  Double-headers can make for a long day at the ballpark, so Greg Maddux made sure to do his part to get himself and the rest of his teammates off the field as soon as possible.  He threw a complete game with only an unthinkable 77 pitches to earn the Braves a 4-1 win.

Brad Mangin/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Greg Maddux was known to be masterful and extremely efficient every time he took the mound.  But even this was almost unfathomable.  To put the feat in perspective, if he had not thrown a ball the entire game and struck every single batter out with only three pitches, he would have thrown four more pitches than he did that July 22nd day.  In a game that took just two hours and seven minutes to complete, Maddux did not walk a single batter.  No Cubs batter faced a three-ball and only two of them faced a two-ball count.  The Cubs recorded just five hits on the day, with only one being an extra base hit.

Maddux’s strikeout total for the game ended up being six, accounting for 70% of his total pitches thrown.  63 of his total 77 pitches were strikes, and of the 31 batters he faced, 26 of them saw a first pitch strike.  On this masterful day from the Braves’ ace, the lone Chicago run was scored from Shawon Dunston who singled, stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a Sammy Sosa groundout.

The remarkable game drew plenty of remarks all around the baseball world, but perhaps none as memorable as from Cubs’ first baseman (and former teammate of Maddux) that day, Mark Grace.  “He’s a brilliant, brilliant pitcher.  If my life depended on one game, I’d want him to throw it.” 

Garett