On June
20, 1968, Bob Gibson extended his scoreless innings streak to 38, pitched his eleventh
complete game, as well as his fourth shutout in a row with a 1-0 win over the Cubs in
St. Louis. Gibson allowed just five hits in the contest, while his counter part
Ferguson Jenkins allowed just four. A triple by Lou Brock in the third would haunt
Jenkins after Curt Flood made the most of it with an RBI single that gave Gibby
the lead that he would not let go of.
Not only did Gibson run his scoreless innings
streak up to 38, the Cubs set a National League record for not scoring in 46
consecutive innings. The previous record had been set in 1931 by the Cincinnati
Reds. The Cubs tied a still standing major league record of 48 consecutive
innings without a run scored against the Reds in their next contest but avoided
breaking the record by putting one on the board in the third inning of that
contest. The Philadelphia Athletics set the record in 1906.
The June 20th contest was a rematch
between Jenkins and Gibson. The two went head-to-head on the April 20th
in what was Gibson’s third start of the campaign. Jenkins got the win that day,
winning 5-1 over the Redbirds in St. Louis. However, as we know that
was not the case on this day in June. With that said, it was not because of a bad effort by Jenkins. He struck out 11 Redbirds, and as mentioned before he allowed just four
hits. However, that triple by Lou, and the following single by Flood were the hits that mattered. You toss in the splendid pitching by Bob Gibson and
the day belonged to St. Louis.
Gibson wrapped up that day by bringing his
record up to 8-5. On the flip side, he lowered his ERA from 1.30 to 1.21. The
main story of the day in newspapers across America regarding Gibson was the
scoreless innings streak and that story would continue. Stay tuned...
Sources included: The
Post-Tribune, The Pittsburgh Press, The Marysville Appeal Democrat, The Boone News County Republican,
The Woodland Daily Democrat, St. Joseph Gazette, USA Today, and
Baseballreference.com
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