Bob Gibson's Scoreless Innings Streak Ends on a Wild Pitch

On July 1, 1968, Bob Gibson's streak of 47 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings ended in the first inning at Dodger Stadium when a wild pitch allowed Len Gabrielson to score from third base. A crowd of 54,157 had packed into Chavez Ravine hoping to see Gibson challenge Don Drysdale's record of 58 consecutive scoreless innings, set just weeks earlier. The Cardinals still won the game 5-1, and Gibson pitched brilliantly after the wild pitch, but the streak was over.

The circumstances carried a whiff of controversy. Gibson maintained that the pitch had deflected off catcher Johnny Edwards's mitt, which should have made it a passed ball rather than a wild pitch. In his 1994 autobiography "Stranger to the Game," Gibson wrote that the ball was not in the dirt and the catcher had gotten his glove on it. A passed ball would have been charged to Edwards, not Gibson, and the scoreless streak would have continued. The official scorer at Dodger Stadium ruled otherwise.

Gibson had entered the game riding five consecutive shutouts. In his previous start on June 26, he had shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 to push the streak past 40 innings. His dominance during the 1968 season was without modern parallel. He would finish the year with a 1.12 ERA, the lowest in the live-ball era, along with 22 wins, 13 shutouts, and 268 strikeouts in 304 and two-thirds innings.

After the Gabrielson run on July 1, Gibson did not allow another run for 23 more innings. Had the official scorer ruled differently, his streak could have reached 71 consecutive scoreless innings, a total that would have shattered Drysdale's mark by 13. Instead, Gibson's streak stood at 47 and two-thirds, the second-longest in modern National League history at the time.

The 1968 season belonged to pitchers so thoroughly that it prompted Major League Baseball to lower the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches before the 1969 season. Gibson's dominance that summer was the single biggest reason for the change.