(Updated Nov. 25, 2024)
Using a combination of fastballs and sliders with control and confidence, Bob Gibson capped the most successful stretch of starts ever experienced by a Cardinals pitcher.
On Aug. 19, 1968, Gibson got his 15th consecutive win, pitching a two-hitter in the Cardinals’ 2-0 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia.
During the 15-game winning streak, from June 2 through Aug. 19, Gibson made 16 starts, with one no-decision. Ten of the 15 wins were shutouts. His ERA in that 16-start stretch was 0.68 in 146 innings, with 124 strikeouts. He pitched nine innings or more 16 games in a row.
“I haven’t seen anybody that good during the time I’ve been in the majors,” Cardinals outfielder Roger Maris said to The Sporting News.
Looking back on Gibson’s 1968 season, Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver told Cardinals Yearbook in 2018, “It got to a point where I could sense the helplessness when hitters came to bat … There were many times when I could feel a hitter’s legs buckle as one of Bob’s vicious sliders whizzed across the plate.”
Slip sliding away
Using only fastballs and sliders against the Phillies for his 15th win in a row, Gibson struck out 11, including Dick Allen four times and Bill White three times.
“He had great control of his slider,” McCarver said to the Associated Press. “The last strike on Rich Allen in the ninth broke a foot.”
Gibson credited the development of his slider with making him a dominant pitcher.
“My slider was nasty,” Gibson said in a conversation for the book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches.” “They could look for it and couldn’t hit it.
“Actually, I had two sliders … My main slider was my hardest one, and it would just break abruptly and mostly downward. And I had one where I’d twist my wrist a little more and give it a bigger break. That one didn’t have the speed or suddenness of the first one … but if I got it where I was supposed to get it, a right-handed batter wasn’t going to do anything with it.”
In his bid for the 15th consecutive win, Gibson held the Phillies hitless for five innings. In the sixth, with one out, pitcher John Boozer singled to center.
The Phillies’ only other hit came in the eighth when Johnny Callison, batting for Boozer, singled to right with two outs. Boxscore
Confidence equals control
The 15th consecutive win gave Gibson a season record of 18-5 with a 0.99 ERA in 234.2 innings. The shutout, his 10th, tied the Cardinals’ single-season record established by Mort Cooper in 1944.
“Of all the reasons behind his brilliance, I start with his command,” McCarver told Cardinals Yearbook. “Gibson threw hard and featured the best slider I’ve ever caught by a right-hander. His pitches exploded with movement a few feet from the plate. What made them even more effective was his ability to throw them where he wanted. He could consistently hit a target no wider than two baseballs.”
In discussing his slider with Cardinals Yearbook writer Stan McNeal, Gibson said, “I had pinpoint control in 1968 … If I wanted to throw it outside, I’d start it in the middle of the plate and I knew it was going to be outside … That was an unbelievable feeling. It really was. Hitters were at a disadvantage because I knew where the ball was going and I could throw it there in any count. Most pitchers would get to a 3-and-2 count and throw a fastball because they could control it, but I’d throw a slider because I could control it as well as the fastball. Sometimes it would break out of the strike zone, but they’d swing anyway.”
Gibson’s consecutive win streak ended in his next start, Aug. 24, at home against the Pirates. The Cardinals led, 4-0, after six. Willie Stargell hit a three-run home run off Gibson in the seventh. The Pirates scored a run in the eighth and two more in the ninth to win, 6-4, overcoming a 15-strikeout performance by Gibson. Three of the Pirates’ six runs were unearned. Boxscore
Gibson finished the 1968 season with a 22-9 record, and 1.12 ERA, pitching 13 shutouts and 28 complete games. In Game 1 of the 1968 World Series, he struck out 17 Tigers batters.
In a 2018 interview with Joe Schuster of Cardinals Yearbook, Willie Horton recalled how he became the 17th strikeout victim: “On the last pitch, he had me set up for a slider, so I was looking for a ball off the edge of the plate, maybe even six inches outside. I set up for a pitch out there, so if it broke I would have hit it, but it just stayed in on me and I couldn’t do anything with it. I learned later he had a backdoor slider. I can’t think of another right-handed pitcher who would try to throw a backdoor slider, because you can make so many mistakes with it. He had one _ and that shows how great he was.”
On Oct. 28, 1968, Gibson was named unanimous winner of the National League Cy Young Award. Two weeks later, on Nov. 13, he was named recipient of the NL Most Valuable Player Award.
In the book “Late Innings,” Gibson told author Roger Angell, “I was never that good again … I’d like to think I’d really perfected my pitching to that point.”
RetroSimba 