Brandon Webb chases history

Brandon Webb is scheduled to start for the Diamondbacks tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers. Webb currently has a 42 consecutive scoreless innings streak. The record, of course, is held by Orel Hershiser who had 59.

42 scoreless innings is incredible, especially in this day and age with more offense and pitchers being taken out of games earlier than ever.

Let’s not get carried away though. It’s far from a certainty that Webb will throw two more shutouts in a row to break Orel’s record. Before this streak started, Webb had only two starts where he didn’t allow a run.

A look at the other best pitchers in the majors and how often they’ve had starts without allowing a run (Webb hasn’t allowed a run in 7 of his 26 starts):

Chris Young: 10 of 23 (but two starts were 3 innings or less)
Jake Peavy: 7 of 25
Brad  Penny: 6 of 26
Tim Hudson: 6 of 27
Johan Santana: 4 of 26
Kelvim Escobar: 3 of 23
Dan Haren: 3 of 26
John Lackey: 2 of 25

So this is far from a certainty. But it will be fun to root for. A lot of us like to see records challenged and broken, and this is an extremely impressive record.