August 22, 1908: Irv Young tosses 17-inning shutout, scores winning run to keep Pirates in first place

The Pittsburgh Pirates were in danger of falling out of first place for the first time in more than five weeks. Their normally potent offense had scored just 11 runs in the first eight games of a pivotal homestand, and on August 22, 1908, their slump continued in a marathon scoreless battle with the Brooklyn Superbas.1 As twilight descended in the bottom of the 17th,2 Pittsburgh starting pitcher Irv Young hit a two-out single off Brooklyn starter Jim Pastorius. Three batters later, Young scored on a Texas Leaguer by Danny Moeller, giving the Pirates a hard-fought 1-0 victory.

In 1905 Young had enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons by a pitcher in National or American League history.3 He went 20-21 for the Boston Nationals despite the team’s dreadful 51-103 record, tossing an NL/AL rookie-record 378 innings.4 Young was never able to duplicate that success and he lost 25 games in 1906 and 23 more in ’07. The first third of the 1908 season was no better and on June 18 Boston – then known as the Doves − traded him to the Pirates in return for two young pitchers.5

Young had pitched much better since joining Pittsburgh, especially when facing the weak-hitting Superbas.6 In four appearances against Brooklyn, he had allowed just five runs in 29⅓ innings.7 The 31-year-old southpaw was working on two days’ rest after hurling eight innings of relief in a series-opening loss to Brooklyn on August 19.

Young was opposed by another lefty, Pastorius, a 27-year-old Pittsburgh native. Coming into his August 22 start, Pastorius had lost six consecutive decisions and had a woeful 3-12 record.8 He lasted just three innings against the Pirates in his previous big-league outing, 21 days earlier. Pastorius pitched for the Superbas in an August 17 exhibition game against the Fairmount (West Virginia) Badies of the Class D Pennsylvania-West Virginia League—and lost that one too.9

The Pirates had been in first place since July 15, but their lead was tenuous after losing two of the first three games in their four-game series against seventh-place Brooklyn. Pittsburgh’s 65-42-1 record had it a half-game ahead of the surging New York Giants and 3½ games up on the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs. The Superbas trailed the Pirates by a whopping 24 games.

Poor weather limited the crowd to just 3,787 for the Saturday afternoon affair at Exposition Park.10 Rain delayed the start of the game by at least 30 minutes and umpire Hank O’Day paused the contest twice in the second inning because of heavy showers, which resulted in wet and muddy field conditions.11

Pittsburgh’s red-hot Honus Wagner was the only baserunner in the first two innings. Wagner had hit .376 since June 24, raising his average to .333—second best in the NL—and his 33 steals led the senior circuit.12 Wagner led off the second with a single, was sacrificed to second, and attempted to steal third. But he was tagged out after he slid through the mud, ending up in the grass on the other side of the bag.13 “This play caused plenty of laughter at the expense of Hans, who lay upon his back and plowed up a long strip of mud,” recounted the Pittsburgh Post.14

The Pirates loaded the bases in the third on a single by right fielder Owen Wilson and two-out walks to center fielder Roy Thomas and third baseman Tommy Leach. Pastorius escaped the jam by retiring player-manager Fred Clarke.

Pittsburgh’s next good scoring chance came in the sixth when Thomas led off with a double to left field.15 Two outs later, Pastorius issued an intentional walk to Wagner. The move worked like a charm, as second baseman Ed Abbaticchio flied out, stranding two more baserunners.16

Young, meanwhile, had been mowing down the Brooklyn batters. Only two Superbas reached base in the first six innings: Pastorius with a third-inning walk and third baseman Tommy Sheehan with a single in the fifth.

Pastorius limited the Pirates to a harmless single by Abbaticchio in innings seven through nine.

Pittsburgh catcher George Gibson drew a one-out walk in the 10th and smartly raced to second on a foul popup caught by Brooklyn catcher Lew Ritter. Thomas hit a fly ball into center field, but rookie Tommy McMillan, playing in his fourth major-league game, made an outstanding catch to send the game to the 11th.

Young scattered four singles, a double, and a walk from the seventh to the 12th frame before running into trouble in the 13th. Pastorius walked to open the inning and was sacrificed to second by Harry Pattee. With two outs, left fielder John Hummel singled to center and Thomas made a great throw to the catcher Gibson, nailing Pastorius at the plate by 10 feet.

Pastorius continued to wiggle out of trouble, stranding two runners in both the 14th and 15th.

Young limited Brooklyn to a bunt single by right fielder Harry Lumley in the 16th, with the last two outs of the inning coming on dazzling catches by outfielders Wilson and Thomas.17

Pastorius had held Pittsburgh to 8 hits and 7 walks in the first 16 innings. After Pastorius got the first two outs in the 17th, Young slapped a hard single past shortstop Phil Lewis.18 Thomas, who had a double and three walks in the game, singled into right-center field and took second base on Lumley’s futile attempt to throw out Young at third.19

The next batter, Leach, had been held to a walk in his seven plate appearances.20 Pastorius intentionally walked him to face the little-used Moeller with the bases loaded. The rookie Moeller had come in to play left field in the 16th inning and was hitting just .204.21 He hit a flare over second base that dropped untouched, sending Young home with the winning run.22

The fans mobbed the Pirates, shaking their hands and slapping them on the back.23 “Many a supper had been standing untasted for two hours,” observed the Pittsburgh Press, “but that made no difference to those who had witnessed the greatest baseball game of the season.”24

The 17-inning game tied the NL/AL record for the longest shutout since 1901.25 Since the Giants also won their game that afternoon, Pittsburgh’s lengthy victory over Brooklyn preserved the Pirates’ half-game lead. But not for long.

The Giants swept the Pirates in a four-game series at Exposition Park on August 24-26, jumping 3½ games ahead of Pittsburgh and Chicago. Young pitched poorly in the series finale and made only one more appearance in 1908,26 giving up five runs in an error-filled inning of relief against the Cubs on September 5.27 Despite finishing with a 4-3 record and a 2.01 ERA with Pittsburgh, his contract was sold to the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association before the 1909 season. Young never pitched for the Pirates again.28

On September 18 the Giants, with a lead of 4½ games over the Cubs and 5 on the Pirates, seemed to have a stranglehold on the pennant. And then New York cooled off, Pittsburgh won 13 of its next 14 games, and Chicago went 12-2-2 in its next 16 contests, with one of the Cubs’ ties coming against the Giants in the controversial Merkle Game on September 23.29

The Pirates had a chance to clinch the pennant on October 4 by defeating the Cubs in the last scheduled regular-season game for both teams.30 On the other hand, a Pittsburgh loss would put the Cubs in the driver’s seat and keep the idle Giants, who had their appeal of the Merkle Game ruling still outstanding and three more games to play, on the outskirts of the race.

In front of a delirious crowd of 30,247 in Chicago, Mordecai Brown tossed a complete game seven-hitter against the Pirates and knocked in the eventual game-winning run in a 5-2 Cubs victory. The pennant drama continued.

Just before noon on October 6, the National League board of directors announced that they were upholding the decision of President Harry Pulliam and the umpires: The Merkle Game was indeed a tie, to be replayed at the Polo Grounds on October 8.31 When New York swept its three-game series from Boston, the Pirates were eliminated from the race and the replay of the Merkle Game on October 8 became a winner-take-all contest for the pennant.

In that historic game, the Cubs roughed up Christy Mathewson for four runs in the third inning and Brown pitched 8⅓ gutsy innings of relief for a 4-2 Chicago win. In just over four days, Brown had prevented pennant-winning victories by the Pirates and Giants, helping the Cubs claim the NL flag for the third consecutive season.32

The Pirates gained a measure of revenge on the Cubs in 1909, winning 110 games and ending Chicago’s three-year reign as NL champion.33 Pittsburgh went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in seven games in the 1909 World Series.34

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, Seamheads.com, The Sporting News contract cards, and the SABR biographies of Irv Young and Jim Pastorius. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Seventeen-Inning Struggle Lost to Pittsburgh” on page 6 of the August 23, 1908, edition of the Brooklyn Standard Union.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT190808220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1908/B08220PIT1908.htm   

Notes

1 In 1908 the Pirates scored an average of 2.9 runs per game at home and 4.6 runs per game on the road. Pittsburgh was a much better team on the road—they went 56-21-1 (.727) in away games and 42-35 (.545) at Exposition Park.

2 “Great Victory for Young Cy,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1908: 71.

3 Young compiled a 2.90 ERA and led the majors in innings pitched (378), starts (42), complete games (41), and Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement for pitchers (9.9 bWAR). His 9.9 bWAR ranked second among rookie pitchers in the NL/AL from 1901 to 2025. As of 2025, the only NL/AL pitcher who amassed more bWAR in his rookie season was Russ Ford of the 1910 New York Highlanders (11.4 bWAR).

4 As of the end of 2025, Young was one of only eight NL or AL pitchers since 1901 to win at least 20 games for a team that had a winning percentage below .400. Steve Carlton of the 1972 Philadelphia Phillies was the last pitcher to perform the feat. As of 2025, Young still held the NL/AL record for the most innings pitched by a rookie.

5 Boston received pitchers Tom McCarthy and Harley Young in return for Irv Young. McCarthy went 7-8 for the rest of his big-league career; Harley Young appeared in only six more major-league games.

6 The Superbas had a team batting average of .213 in 1908—only the 1910 Chicago White Sox and the 2020 Cincinnati Reds had a lower team batting average in the AL/NL from 1901 to 2025.

7 Prior to the trade, Young had allowed 8 runs in 19 innings against Brooklyn. As of 2025, Retrosheet and Baseball Reference did not indicate how many of those runs were earned.

8 Pastorius went on to lose 14 consecutive decisions. His 14th consecutive loss came on September 26, 1908. As of 2025, he still held the Dodgers franchise record; the NL/AL record was 27 consecutive losing decisions, set by Anthony Young in 1992-93. He broke the losing streak on July 28, 1993.

9 Pastorius gave up four runs to the Badies on 8 hits and 4 walks in 8 innings. “Brooklyns Draw Well,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, August 18, 1908: 7.

10 The Pirates averaged 4,967 fans per game in 1908, fifth best in the NL.

11 The Pittsburgh Gazette Times reported that the game started at 3:30, 30 minutes late; the Brooklyn Standard Union noted that the game started 45 minutes late. “Seventeen-Inning Struggle Lost to Pittsburgh,” Brooklyn Standard Union, August 23, 1908: 6; “Longest Game in Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, August 23, 1908: 18.

12 Wagner had a career year in 1908 and was the best position player in the big leagues by a wide margin. He led the majors with a .354 batting average, earning his sixth of eight career batting titles. He also led the majors in RBIs (109), stolen bases (53), on-base plus slugging percentage (.957), and bWAR (11.5), among other categories.

13 Ralph S. Davis, “Seventeen-Inning Baseball Game Won by Pittsburg Team,” Pittsburgh Press, August 23, 1908: 1.

14 “Pirates Conquer Brooklyn’s Team in Record Siege,” Pittsburgh Post, August 23, 1908: 1.

15 Pittsburgh had purchased Thomas’s contract from the Philadelphia Phillies on June 1, 1908.

16 Pittsburgh stranded 15 baserunners in the game.

17 Wilson also made a great catch in the first inning, robbing Hummel of a home run. “Pirates Conquer Brooklyn’s Team in Record Siege”; “Superbas Lose to Pirates 1 to 0 in Seventeen Innings,” Brooklyn Citizen, August 23, 1908: 6.

18 “Superbas Lose to Pirates 1 to 0 in Seventeen Innings.”

19 The Brooklyn Standard Union and the Pittsburgh Press reported Thomas’s hit going to center field; the Pittsburgh Post said it was to right field.

20 Leach finished the season with 45 extra-base hits, second on the team behind Wagner.

21 Moeller entered the game after third-string catcher Paddy O’Connor pinch-hit for left fielder Spike Shannon in the bottom of the 15th. Shannon had entered the game in the 10th after backup catcher Ed Phelps pinch-hit for Clarke in the bottom of the ninth. (Clarke uncharacteristically had gone 0-for-13 in the four-games series against Brooklyn.) It was Moeller’s first plate appearance in three weeks. It turned out to be his last hit with Pittsburgh. Moeller went 0-for-10 for the rest of the season and did not make the Pirates in 1909. His contract was sold to Jersey City of Eastern League in April 1909. He played five more seasons in the big leagues with the Washington Nationals (1912-16) and Cleveland Indians (1916).

22 “Pirates Conquer Brooklyn’s Team in Record Siege.”

23 Davis, “Seventeen-Inning Baseball Game Won by Pittsburg Team.”

24 Davis, “Seventeen-Inning Baseball Game Won by Pittsburg Team.”

25 Pittsburgh shared the record with the Chicago Orphans, who defeated the Boston Nationals, 1-0, on September 21, 1901. Twenty-two-year-old rookie Long Tom Hughes pitched all 17 innings. As of the end of 2025, the NL/AL record was a 24-inning shutout of the New York Mets by five Houston Astros pitchers on April 15, 1968.

26 The Giants touched Young for four earned runs on 11 hits and four walks in 8⅔ innings of work on August 26.

27 The Cubs scored five runs on four hits and a walk in Young’s one inning of work. As of 2025, Retrosheet and Baseball Reference did not indicate how many of those runs were earned.

28 Young returned to the big leagues in 1910, hurling two undistinguished seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He continued to pitch in the minor leagues until 1916, twice winning 20 games for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. He finished his big-league career with a 63-95 record and a 3.11 ERA.

29 The Giants went 8-9-1 from September 19 to October 3, including going 0-2 against the Pirates and 1-2-1 against the Cubs.

30 The Pirates had a half-game lead on the Cubs and were 1½ games ahead of the Giants on the morning of October 4. The Giants had three games remaining against the sixth-place Boston Doves on October 5-7. They were also waiting to hear from the National League board of directors on their appeal of the ruling by league President Harry Pulliam that the Merkle Game between the Cubs and Giants on September 23 would be treated as a tie. Few people expected the National League board of directors to overturn Pulliam’s decision and award the Merkle Game to New York. Most onlookers expected the game to remain a tie and not be replayed. This meant a Pirates win on October 4 would be a pennant-clinching victory. On October 6 the board of directors ordered the (tied) Merkle Game to be replayed, although it is unclear if they would have made the same determination had the Pirates won on October 4. Cait Murphy, Crazy ’08 (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007), 237, 253; “All Pittsburgh Rooting for One More Victory and the Championship,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, October 4, 1908: 1.

31 Murphy, 253; “Disputed Game a Tie,” New York Tribune, October 7, 1908: 5.

32 The Cubs went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers four games to one in the World Series. It was Chicago’s second consecutive World Series title.

33 Pittsburgh (110-42-2) finished 6½ games ahead of Chicago. As of the end of the 2025 season, the 1909 Pirates still held the franchise record for most wins in a season.

34 The Pirates (1901-03, 1909), Cubs (1906-08, 1910), and Giants (1904-05, 1911-13) won every NL pennant between 1901 and 1913.