May 11, 1904: Cy Young goes 15 innings for Boston in 1-0 win over Detroit

Cy Young pictured in 1903. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

In the course of his Hall of Fame career, Cy Young threw 76 shutouts. Ten of them came in 1904, his 15th major-league season and fourth with the Boston Americans.1

The 37-year-old Young began a remarkable early-season stretch in 1904 by holding the Philadelphia Athletics without an earned run in eight innings during Boston’s 2-0 loss in Philadelphia on April 25. In his next appearance, on April 30 in Washington, Young was called on in relief and threw seven hitless, scoreless innings without walking a batter.

Six days later, on Thursday, May 5, Young’s next outing was in Boston and he threw the first perfect game of the twentieth century. He faced just 27 of the visiting Athletics and retired each one of them.2

On the following Wednesday, May 11, Young – who had not allowed a run in 23 innings or an earned run in 28 innings – took the mound again, this time facing off against the Detroit Tigers and left-hander Ed Killian at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The Americans, who had won the American League pennant in 1903 and beaten the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first-ever World Series between the American and National Leagues, were again in first place, three games ahead of the New York Highlanders. Detroit was in seventh place in the eight-team AL, six games behind Boston. 

Both pitchers performed masterfully on May 11. The 27-year-old Killian’s first year in the majors had been 1903; he appeared in only nine games but counted three shutouts among his eight starts. He held Boston batters hitless their first time through the order – until Cy Young came to bat in the third inning and hit a two-out single.

Young dispatched the Tigers easily through the first five innings. He faltered in the sixth – hitting a batter and walking two others. With two outs, there were Tigers on all three bases, but Young struck out left fielder Matty McIntyre. It was the only time in the game Detroit got a man as far as third base.

Young held the Tigers hitless until the seventh inning, when right fielder Sam Crawford doubled with one out – the first hit off Young in 24 innings.3 Young then hit third baseman Ed Gremminger with a pitch, but a double play helped kept the game scoreless.

In the first nine innings, Killian allowed only four hits – and three of those were by Young himself, two singles and a double down the left-field line in the eighth.4 Killian, who walked only two batters, allowed another three hits over the following five innings, but the game remained scoreless. Young allowed just five hits in all – two doubles and three singles. He hit two batters and walked four, but the Tigers couldn’t get a run off him.

There were a lot of fly-ball outs by both teams, with seven of the first nine outs of the game on outfield flies. Tigers outfielders caught 11 in all and Boston outfielders caught 13, eight of them by Patsy Dougherty in left. In the 12th inning, Young picked up three assists, fielding each one of the three balls hit to him.5 He then fielded another for the first out in the 13th.

By the time the game reached the 15th, still 0-0, it was becoming darker and “it was patent that no more could be played.”6 There was only one umpire, future Hall of Famer Tommy Connolly, and he conferred with both team captains at the end of the 14th; all agreed they would play just one more inning.7

Young held Detroit scoreless once again, in the top of the 15th. Second baseman (and ex-Boston Beaneater) Bobby Lowe struck out, Collins threw out catcher Bob Wood on a hard grounder to third, and Killian flied out to Dougherty.8

What had started off seeming like something of a lackluster game had the crowd keyed up as the innings progressed. The Boston Journal reported, “So admirable was the pitching of both men that at the conclusion of each extra inning they were given most hearty applause, and the youngster received no less cordial ovations than were accorded to the home favorite.”9

Killian had perhaps begun to tire. After second baseman Hobe Ferris led off the 15th by singling to right-center field, Boston manager Jimmy Collins sent in John O’Neill to pinch-hit for catcher Lou Criger. O’Neill tried to sacrifice, but Killian threw to shortstop Rabbit Robinson for a force play at second base.

Even though Cy Young had three base in the game (he was 3-for-5), Collins sent up a pinch-hitter for him, too – Duke Farrell, who swung at the first pitch and singled to short left, pushing O’Neill to second.

Patsy Dougherty then “smashed the first ball pitched” over the shortstop’s head and into left-center field, a single that scored “the fleet-footed” O’Neill with the winning run.10 Young had his 382nd career victory, with a scoreless streak of 38 innings.11

It wasn’t the only time Cy Young had beaten Detroit in a 15-inning game. On August 27, 1901, he had allowed one run in the top of the first inning and then battled the Tigers’ Roscoe Miller to a 2-1 victory.  At Bennett Park on June 21, 1902, Young had given up one run in the second inning and then won, 4-1, in the 15th.

Boston won the AL pennant again in 1904, edging the Highlanders by just 1½ games. Detroit (62-90) was in seventh place, a distant 32 games behind. Because the National League champion New York Giants under John McGraw declined to play postseason games against the AL champions, Boston could claim to remain world champions.

Killian finished the 1904 season with a record of 15-20 (2.44). He threw four shutouts. In 1905 Killian’s eight shutouts led both leagues, an accomplishment shared with Christy Mathewson. His record was 23-14 (2.27). His best season came in 1907, when he was 25-13 (1.78) for the Tigers, who finished in first place. The Chicago Cubs won that year’s World Series; Killian threw four innings of one-run relief in Game Three. His final career stats were 103-78, with a 2.38 ERA.

Cy Young went 26-16 with a 1.97 ERA in 1904. Over 22 years, 1890-1911, he had a record of 511-315 with a 2.63 ERA. In the eight seasons he pitched for the Boston Americans – who became the Red Sox in 1908 – his ERA was an even 2.00, and his won-lost record was 192-112. Besides his 15-inning shutout in this game, his Boston tenure included two 10-inning shutout wins, against the Chicago White Sox in 1903 and 1907.12 Young also threw 13 shutout innings on September 9, 1907, but so did Philadelphia’s Rube Waddell, and the game was called a 0-0 tie after 13 full innings.13

Author’s Note

SABR member Dixie Tourangeau notes that Cy Young was 3-7 against Killian, and that only Nick Altrock (3-7-2) and Addie Joss (5-8) had that many wins over Young in the twentieth century.14

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to Richard “Dixie” Tourangeau for suggestions to improve this account.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Play-by-play is not available for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS190405110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1904/B05110BOS1904.htm

Notes

1 Among pitchers, Young is fourth all-time to Walter Johnson (110), Grover Cleveland Alexander (90), and Christy Mathewson (79).

2 His was the first perfect game thrown in the major leagues since the distance from the pitching rubber to home plate had been established as 60 feet 6 inches in 1893. His other no-hitters were in 1897 and in 1908.

3 Young allowed no hits in the final two innings on April 25, then had seven innings of no-hit relief on April 30, the nine-inning perfect game on May 5, and the first six innings of this game. As of 2024, Young had the major-league record for consecutive hitless innings. “Great Triumph for ‘Cy’ Young,” Boston Herald, May 12, 1904: 8; Matt Kelly, “This Record Is Now 118 Years Old,” MLB.com, May 11, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-hitless-innings-streaks-in-mlb-history.

4 “Killian Lost Hard Game,” Saginaw (Michigan) Evening News, May 12, 1904: 4. The Globe account detailed the placement of Young’s hit.

5 The Boston Journal said that each of the three grounders was “hard-hit.” W.S. Barnes Jr., “‘Cy’ Young Added One More Wonder Game to Record,” Boston Journal, May 12, 1904: 1, 12. The Bostons played error-free ball; the Detroiters committed just two inconsequential errors. Both the Journal and Boston Globe accounts provide detail on a number of innings when runners for one team or another appeared to be mounting a threat.

6 “Killian Lost in 15 Innings,” Detroit Evening News, May 12, 1904: 9.

7 T.H. Murnane, “15 Innings and 1 to 0,” Boston Globe, May 12, 1904: 1.

8 The Journal said Dougherty caught the ball, while the Globe said it was Collins.

9 Barnes. Killian was 27, appearing in just his 15th major-league game.  He was 3-1 so far in the season. Young was a decade older, age 37.

10 Barnes.

11 Young went on to throw 45 consecutive innings of shutout ball – the final seven innings on April 25, seven in relief on April 30, the nine innings on May 5, these 15 innings on May 11, and the first seven innings of his game on May 17. The first batter in the eighth inning on May 17 singled, and Young yielded three runs, losing the game. As of 2024, his 45 consecutive scoreless innings are tied for eighth-longest in major-league history. Mark Simon, “The 10 Longest Scoreless Streaks,” MLB.com, September 11, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-scoreless-inning-streaks-in-history.

12 The 10-inning shutouts, both in Chicago, were on July 1, 1903 (which was the fourth in a string of four consecutive shutouts he threw from June 13 to July 1), and May 19, 1907.

13 Neither pitcher had walked a single batter; each had given up just six hits. The game was called due to “the rising mist of a damp evening, and the smoke from the railroads adjoining the game.” “Athletics and Boston Play 13-inning Tie,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 10, 1907: 1.

14 Richard Tourangeau email to author on December 26, 2023.