September 28, 1988: Orel Hershiser pitches his 59th consecutive scoreless inning, breaking Don Drysdale’s record

Some baseball records may never be broken: Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Rickey Henderson’s 1,406 career stolen bases, the career triples mark of 309 by Sam Crawford, Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 straight games played, and Cy Young’s 511 career wins are frequently cited examples.

Another record some considered unassailable was the consecutive scoreless innings mark set by Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1968. During the “Year of the Pitcher,” Drysdale went 58 2/3 scoreless innings before finally yielding a run.

Drysdale broke a long-standing mark from the Deadball Era – Hall of Famer Walter Johnson had pitched 55 2/3 scoreless innings for the 1913 Washington Nationals. Two decades later, another Dodger, Orel Leonard Hershiser IV, made a run at Drysdale’s mark.1

Hershiser’s streak began on August 30, 1988, against the Montreal Expos. He pitched a complete game; the last four innings were scoreless.2 The National League West Division-leading Dodgers won, 4-2, and Hershiser pushed his season record to 18-8.  

After the game in Montreal, Hershiser caught fire with an incredible run of five consecutive shutouts from September 5 through 23.3

The streak nearly ended on September 23 against the Giants in San Francisco. In the third inning, with runners at the corners and one out, José Uribe appeared to score when Ernie Riles hit into a force at second. But umpire Paul Runge called Brett Butler out for a hard slide that interfered with the relay at second base, making it an inning-ending double play with no run scoring. If this call hadn’t been made, Hershiser’s streak would have ended at 42 innings.4

Coincidentally, Drysdale’s streak had a similar break, also against San Francisco. With 44 scoreless innings under his belt, Drysdale hit Dick Dietz with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, which should have forced in a run. But umpire Harry Wendelstedt said Dietz violated Rule 5.05 (B), requiring the batter to avoid being hit by the pitched ball. Since Dietz was hit while not avoiding the pitch, his at-bat continued. Dietz flied out and Drysdale’s streak continued.5

Hershiser was familiar with Drysdale’s history. When he came off the field after his own close call against the Giants, he exclaimed, “Dick Dietz revisited! Dick Dietz revisited!” Hershiser added later, “I think [Dodger manager] Tommy Lasorda was the only one in the dugout who knew what I meant.”6

After that game, Hershiser’s next start was September 28 against the San Diego Padres. Coming into this game, he had completed 49 consecutive scoreless innings. Two days earlier, the Dodgers had clinched the division title. They were gearing up for an NL Championship Series matchup with the New York Mets.

On a pleasant evening in San Diego, 22,596 fans came to see if the Padres could break Hershiser’s streak during the last home game of the regular season. The pitching matchup featured right-handed hurlers Hershiser and Andy Hawkins.7 As part of the evening’s festivities, Tony Gwynn, who won his third career batting title in 1988, received the Padres’ MVP award.8

Each pitcher surrendered a single in the first. In the third, Hershiser got the Dodgers’ second hit. He laced a grounder to left for a single, but the “Bulldog”9 was stranded at first when the inning ended two outs later.

As the game reached the seventh-inning stretch, it was scoreless. Hershiser had allowed just two hits in six innings and no Padre had reached second base. Hawkins was working on a three-hitter.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, San Diego’s Marvell Wynne hit an opposite-field liner to left for a single. Benito Santiago10 flied out to right on a 1-and-2 count, and Hershiser was tied with Johnson’s 55 2/3 scoreless innings. Then, Randy Ready smacked Hershiser’s first pitch, grounding out to short to end the inning, and Hershiser’s streak was 56 innings, giving him the second-longest stretch after Drysdale.

Sitting in the dugout between innings, Hershiser sang hymns to clear his mind and reduce the gravity of the streak.11

After eight innings of dueling pitchers, the game remained scoreless. Hershiser needed just two more scoreless innings to break Drysdale’s record.

As it happened, Drysdale was working as a Dodgers broadcaster in 1988 and was present at the games. Vin Scully did the play-by-play and Drysdale would do the pre- and postgame shows and sometimes spell Scully for a couple of innings per game.12

In the ninth, Los Angeles’ John Shelby led off with a single to right. Hawkins retired the next three Dodgers. In the bottom of the inning, the respectful San Diego crowd gave Hershiser a standing ovation as he walked to the mound. Hershiser threw just eight pitches in the inning and induced all three Padres batters (Tim Flannery, Gwynn, and Carmelo Martínez) to ground out. The score remained Dodgers 0, Padres 0. It was time for extra innings.

Both starters pitched in the 10th. On the second pitch of the inning, Hawkins hit Alfredo Griffin. Hershiser put down a sacrifice that advanced Griffin to second. Hawkins got the final two outs when Steve Sax and Franklin Stubbs grounded out.

In the bottom of the 10th, Hershiser faced the Padres’ numbers 5, 6, and 7 batters. Wynne struck out swinging at a curveball but took first on a wild pitch. Santiago’s sacrifice made Wynne the first Padre to reach second base. Left fielder Ready’s groundout advanced Wynne to third – and gave Hershiser 58 2/3 scoreless innings, tying Drysdale’s mark.

Hershiser was on the verge of breaking the consecutive scoreless innings record, but the Padres were 90 feet from scoring. The hot-hitting Garry Templeton13 was intentionally walked. With Padres on the corners, San Diego manager Jack McKeon sent up Keith Moreland to bat for Hawkins. On Hershiser’s first pitch to Moreland, Templeton advanced to second on defensive indifference.14 Hershiser worked the count to 1-and-2 and threw a pitch Moreland launched to right field. It was caught by José González to end the inning. 

With his 59th consecutive scoreless inning, Hershiser had broken the record!15 He was mobbed and congratulated by his fellow Dodgers. Lasorda gave him a big hug. The crowd cheered loudly.

“Where’s Drysdale?” said Hershiser. “I’ve got to find Drysdale.”16 As Hershiser entered the dugout, Drysdale greeted him and gave him a hug. Drysdale’s first words to him were, “Great job!” Later, “Big D” added: “It couldn’t happen to a better kid.”17

“I really didn’t want to break [the record],” Hershiser said. “I wanted to stop at 58 2/3 [for] me and Don to be together at the top. But ‘higher sources’ [Lasorda and pitching coach Ron Perranoski18 told me they weren’t taking me out of the game, so I figured what the heck, I might as well get the guy out.”19

Upon hearing that, Drysdale said, “I’d have kicked him in the butt and told him to get back out there and go as far as he can.”20

Hershiser, who threw 117 pitches, allowed just four hits; his only walk was intentional. Hawkins pitched an admirable 10 innings as well: four hits and two walks on 123 pitches.21

The starters22 were done for the evening, but there was still a game to finish.

The game remained scoreless through 15 innings. In the top of the 16th, LA finally got a run across when Mickey Hatcher singled off Dave Leiper and later scored on a throwing error by Bip Roberts. Dodgers 1, Padres 0.

In the bottom of the 16th, with two outs, Martínez walked. Mark Parent23 pinch hit for Wynne. On a 1-and-1 count from Dodgers reliever Ricky Horton, Parent slammed one to deep left for a two-run homer. Final score: Padres 2, Dodgers 1.24

As of April 2025, only four big-league pitchers have had scoreless streaks exceeding 50 innings: Hershiser, Drysdale, Johnson, and the Philadelphia Athletics’ Jack Coombs (53 innings in 1910).25

ESPN statistician Dan Szymborski estimated that the odds of a league-average pitcher throwing 59 scoreless innings were approximately one in 71 million.26 Regardless of odds, for any pitcher to prevent runs over 50-plus consecutive innings is a monumental accomplishment.27

During the scoreless-inning streak, opposing batters had a .155 batting average (31-for-200). It was a momentous time for Hershiser, who celebrated his 30th birthday and became a new father during the streak.28

The Dodgers went on to win the 1988 World Series over the Oakland A’s, four games to one. Hershiser was the first pitcher to be named MVP of both the League Championship Series and the World Series. He was also the ’88 NL Cy Young Award winner.29 Not bad for someone who had been cut from both his high-school and college baseball teams.30

The modest Hershiser said: “When people used to ask me what record would stand forever, [the consecutive scoreless innings mark] was the one I usually picked. Now, I think someone’s going to break it … because I know I’m not any big deal.”31

“I don’t know that we will ever see the likes of what we have seen Orel Hershiser accomplish,” said teammate Kirk Gibson. “It may be that no pitcher in history stayed in the groove for so long and so well.”32

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland, Gary Belleville, and Kurt Blumenau for their assistance.

Sources and Photo Credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org for general player, team, and season data.

The Orel Hershiser baseball card image was downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN198809280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1988/B09280SDN1988.htm

Notes

1 Although Drysdale pitched 58 2/3 scoreless innings in 1968 to set the record, in 1988 the Elias Sports Bureau changed the criteria for the scoreless innings record to not include fractions of innings pitched by starting pitchers. (Fractional innings can be included in the records only if relief appearances were part of the streak.) Therefore, Drysdale’s record was rounded down to an even 58 innings. Drysdale didn’t like that: Before the game he said, “I don’t know whether Elias is running baseball or baseball is running baseball.” See Kevin Kernan, “Orel New Capt. 0 – Padres Win in 16 on Parent’s HR,” San Diego Union Tribune, September 29, 1988: C1.

2 In the fifth inning, the Expos scored two runs off Hershiser: Tim Raines doubled, scoring Rex Hudler, and Dave Martinez singled, scoring Raines.

3 Here is a summary of the first six games of the streak:

Note: On August 30, Hershiser’s last 4 innings were scoreless.

4 Mark Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s Scoreless Streak,” espn.com, August 27, 2013, https://www.espn.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/9606617/looking-back-orel-hershiser%E2%80%99s-major-league-record-scoreless-innings-streak.

5 Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100, (New York: Avid Reader Press, 2021), 68.

6 Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s Scoreless Streak.”

7 Entering this game, Hershiser had a 23-8 record with an ERA of 2.35. Hawkins was 14-11 with a 3.51 ERA. Hershiser was known as a “thinking man’s pitcher” who could precisely locate pitches and change speeds effectively. His arsenal included fastballs, a hard sinker, curves at different speeds, and a changeup. Hawkins’ style was similar to Hershiser’s: He was not an overpowering pitcher. Hawkins mixed breaking balls and fastballs while emphasizing control and enticing groundball outs.

8 Kevin Kernan, “Orel New Capt. 0 – Padres Win in 16 on Parent’s HR,” San Diego Union Tribune, September 29, 1988: C1. This was the third straight year Gwynn had won the team MVP award. Gwynn’s batting average was .313 for the 1988 season. Of the eight batting titles he earned in his career, this was his lowest batting average.

9 Hershiser was nicknamed Bulldog by Tommy Lasorda, who thought Hershiser’s boyish looks, lanky body, and unusual name did not invoke fear in opposing batters. “I don’t like your name,” Lasorda said. “From now on I’m going to call you Bulldog. You’re going to act like a bulldog and pitch like a bulldog.” Mark Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s scoreless streak.” With or without the nickname, the mild-mannered Hershiser certainly possessed an “inner bulldog” with a quiet, but intense competitive spirit. As Dodger teammate Mike Marshall said, “Don’t ever underestimate how tough he is. He’s the most competitive person I’ve ever known.” Peter Gammons, “A Case of Orel Surgery,” Sports Illustrated, October 31, 1988, https://vault.si.com/vault/1988/10/31/a-case-of-orel-surgery.

10 In 1987, Hershiser ended Santiago’s 34-game hitting streak. Santiago’s streak set big-league records for a rookie and a catcher. It also set a Padres team record.

11 Regarding the singing of hymns quietly to himself, Hershiser, a former choirboy, said: “After all, with the pressure that is on you, it’s almost like a spiritual situation anyway.” Paul Attner, “Bulldog Hides in Choirboy Body,” The Sporting News, October 31, 1988: 12.

12 Bill Plaschke, “Drysdale Takes Hershiser’s Best Pitch and Keeps Smiling,” Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1988: Sports – 18.

13 In his previous 11 games, Templeton was 13 for 38 (.342). “9/28/88: Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres,” MLB Diamond Classics, YouTube, August 27, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvO9-bW3XTk, 1:16:21, accessed May 2025.

14 Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia did not attempt a throw when Templeton took second base. The play was ruled catcher’s indifference (a form of defensive indifference), rather than crediting Templeton with a stolen base. See Associated Press, “O Yes, Hershiser is the Zero Hero,” San Luis Obispo (California) Telegram-Tribune, September 29, 1988: B1.

15 The scoreless innings record applies to regular-season play only. Hershiser did not have another regular-season start in 1988, and he did not extend his streak further because he gave up a run in the first inning he pitched in 1989. (On April 5, 1989, the second game of season, the Cincinnati Reds’ Barry Larkin scored on Todd Benzinger’s single.) It is worth noting that the first eight innings Hershiser pitched in the 1988 playoffs were scoreless before he surrendered two runs to the New York Mets in the ninth inning of Game One of the National League Championship Series. So unofficially, his streak extended to 67 innings.

16 Plaschke, “Drysdale Takes Hershiser’s Best Pitch and Keeps Smiling.”

17 “Drysdale Takes Hershiser’s Best Pitch and Keeps Smiling.”

18 Perranoski had this to say about Hershiser’s streak: “It takes a pure athlete as coordinated as he is to maintain that kind of groove for so long. It would be like a bowler rolling 300 games every day for six weeks.” See Gammons, “A Case of Orel Surgery.”

19 Sam McManis, “Hershiser Sets Record with Something Extra,” Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1988: Sports – 1.

20 Bob Slocum, “Zeros Sound Like a Broken Record – Hershiser Scoreless Streak at 59,” San Diego Union-Tribune, September 29, 1988: C-1.

21 It was the second-longest outing of Hershiser’s career. Of his 117 pitches, 74 were strikes. Hershiser said Hawkins’ good pitching helped him stay focused on his own pitching: “When he’s out there throwing zeros, it does help.” See “O Yes, Hershiser is the Zero Hero.”

22 he Hershiser-Hawkins duel was one for the ages. This was just the fifth time since 1920 that each starting pitcher went at least 10 innings while allowing four hits or less and no runs. Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s Scoreless Streak.”

23 At the time, Parent had a career batting average of .166, with 145 at-bats.

24 The 4-hour 24 minute, 16-inning game was the longest by a Padres team since they went 20 innings on August 15, 1980, losing 3-1 to the Houston Astros. John Maffei, “Parent Produces Clutch Home Run,” North County Blade-Tribune (Oceanside, California), September 29, 1988: C-3. The Dodgers had one run on six hits with one error, while leaving 11 on base. The Padres had two runs on five hits with two errors, while stranding 10 baserunners. The winning pitcher was Leiper, Horton was the loser. For Hershiser, this ended his shutout streak of five games, so Drysdale retained his record of six consecutive shutouts.

25 “Consecutive Scoreless Innings Pitched,” baseball-almanac.com, accessed February 20, 2025, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/consecutive_scoreless_innings_pitched.shtml. As of May 2025, the closest any pitcher has come to breaking Hershiser’s record was a streak by another Dodger: Zack Greinke. In June and July of 2015, Greinke threw 45 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

26 Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s Scoreless Streak.” Szymborski’s analysis was based on the fact that in 2013, teams scored in about 26.4 percent of innings, giving a league-average pitcher approximately one in 71 million odds of maintaining a scoreless streak for 59 innings. The long odds of one in 71 million could certainly go up or down based on the quality of the pitcher relative to the league average, or because the rate of scoring per inning is higher or lower in a given year.

27 Hershiser’s stats during streak: 59 innings pitched, 0 runs, 31 hits, 38 strikeouts, 10 walks, three extra-base hits, and 700 pitches. Batters went 0-for-31 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-9 with runners on third during the streak. Mark Simon, “Inside Hershiser’s Scoreless Streak.” Hershiser pitched 41 of his 59 innings on the road, including the last 28 innings.

28 Gordon Verrell, “Scoreless Streak Undergoes Orel Surgery,” The Sporting News, October 10, 1988: 32. Hershiser’s son, Jordan, was born with fluid in his lungs. The newborn recovered and went home from the hospital in under a week. Hersch, “Plenty of Nothing.”

29 In the 1988 NLCS against the Mets, Hershiser had a 1.09 ERA over 24 2/3 innings with one win and a save. In the World Series, Hershiser had two victories and an ERA of 1.00 over 18 innings. He contributed offensively in the fall classic, going 3-for-3, with one double, one run, and one RBI. Hershiser was the unanimous winner of the ’88 NL Cy Young Award (his only CYA). Frank Viola of the Minnesota Twins received all but one vote for the ’88 AL Cy Young Award. That one vote, which went to Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley, prevented Hershiser and Viola from being the first two unanimous winners since 1968, when Bob Gibson (St. Louis Cardinals) and Denny McLain (Detroit Tigers) won.  Jack Lang and Tom Powers, “Cy Young Landslides,” The Sporting News, November 21, 1988: 45. The 1988 season was the best of Hershiser’s career: He led the NL with 23 wins, 267 innings pitched and 7.2 WAR; he led majors in complete games (15), and shutouts (8). He won his only Gold Glove Award. His 2.26 ERA was the third best in the NL. Hershiser was also awarded The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year, Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.

30 Hershiser’s high-school baseball was played at Cherry Hill East in New Jersey; his college career was at Bowling Green State University. He was cut once from both his high-school and college teams. Rod Beaton, “Hershiser Zeros in on Record,” USA Today, September 28, 1988: Sports – 1C.

31 Verrell, “Scoreless Streak Undergoes Orel Surgery.”

32 Attner, “Bulldog Hides in Choirboy Body.” In Hershiser’s last 12 outings (’88 regular season and postseason since September 1), he had only five earned runs over 97 2/3 innings and an ERA of 0.46. In 2000, after 18 big-league seasons, Hershiser retired. The three-time All-Star finished with a 3.48 ERA, a 204-150 record (.576 W-L percentage), 56.0 WAR, and 2,014 strikeouts over 3,130 1/3 innings. Post-retirement, he worked as a pitching coach for the Texas Rangers, and as a broadcaster for ESPN, ABC, and the Dodgers. In 2006 Hershiser developed a penchant for poker. He has played professionally in major tournaments including the World Series of Poker. He has a habit of giving an autographed baseball to the player who eliminates him from a tournament. Hershiser said, “You break down poker hands like you break down the sequence of a hitter.” Julia Morrill, “Romance Brought the Dodgers Great to Las Vegas, and a Card Game Very Well May Keep Him There,” Sports Illustrated, August 2, 2010, https://vault.si.com/vault/2010/08/02/orel-hershiser.