Shields Fires 10th Complete Game of Season

James Shields fired a complete game 7-hitter against Toronto yesterday as the Rays defeated the Blue Jays 6-1. It marked the 10th time this season that Shields has gone the distance for Tampa making him just the 2nd player since the year 2000 to reach double digit complete games in a single season. Shields struck out 12 and finished the game throwing 125 pitches. As I touched on last week, the modern era isn't really conducive to complete games. Pitch counts and closers work against pitchers in the sense that more often than not, they're coming out of the game early. To give you an idea how special it is what Shields has been able to do, he has more complete games than all but 3 of baseball's 30 teams. The Brewers and Cubs have only one and the San Diego Padres don't have ANY!

Photo Credit: draysbay.com

To find a season when a pitcher last threw more complete games than Shields - CC Sabathia also threw ten in 2008 - you have to go all the way back to 1999 when the Big Unit, Randy Johnson, threw 12 complete games for the Arizona Diamondbacks. With 33 games remaining in the regular season for the Rays, Shields likely has 6 starts remaining with a chance to equal Johnson's mark.

Here's a quick rundown of Shields 10 complete games

4/19 - vs Chicago Whitesox - 9 IP 4 H 1 R 1 BB 9 K - 105 pitches - W 2-1
4/24 - @ Toronto Blue Jays - 9 IP 4 H 0 R 2 BB 7 K - 95 pitches - W 2-0
5/22 - @ Florida Marlins - 9 IP 3 H 0 R 1 BB 13 K - 126 pitches - W 4-0
6/14 - vs Boston Red Sox - 9 IP 5 H 0 R 3 BB 5 K - 110 pitches - W 4-0
6/19 - vs Florida Marlins - 9 IP 4 H 1 R 0 BB 10 K - 110 pitches - W 2-1
6/24 - @ Houston Astros - 9 IP 3 H 1 R 1 BB 9 K - 106 pitches - W 5-1
7/10 - @ New York Yankees - 8 IP 4 H 1 R 1 BB 5 K - 102 pitches - L 1-0
8/9 - vs Kansas City Royals - 9 IP 6 H 0 R 3 BB 8 K - 117 pitches - W 4-0
8/16 - @ Boston Red Sox - 8 IP 3 H 3 R 1 BB 6 K - 114 pitches - L 3-1
8/26 - @ Toronto Blue Jays - 9 IP 7 H 1 R 1 BB 12 K - 125 pitches - W 6-1