Cy Young is the all-time leader in complete games with 749 and the only player to complete more than 700 games. Pud Galvin is second all-time with 646 career complete games and the only other player to complete more than 600 games.
No major league player has ever thrown two perfect games, although Jean Faut of the AAGPBL accomplished the feat with perfect games in 1951 and 1953.
No pitcher has thrown more than one. The perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series is the only postseason perfect game in major league history and one of only three postseason no-hitters.
The last pitcher in the major leagues to throw as many as 10 complete games in a single season was Randy Johnson, who threw 12 complete games in 1999 for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The last pitcher to throw 20 complete games in a single season was Fernando Valenzuela, who did so for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986. The last pitcher to throw 25 complete games in a season was Rick Langford, who had 28 for the Oakland Athletics in 1980.
Ryan pitched in 807 games, threw 222 complete games, and had 61 shutouts. He threw an incredible 5,386 innings and struck out 5,714 batters—an average of more than one an inning.
Necciai is the only professional pitcher to record 27 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, and a ball from that 7-0 win over the Welch Miners – which Necciai donated to the Hall of Fame in 2001 – is on display in the Museum's One for the Books exhibit.
Nolan Ryan holds the record for no-hitters in the major leagues with seven. A no-hitter is a rare accomplishment for a pitcher or pitching staff—only 320 have been thrown in MLB history since 1876, an average of about two per year.
On May 26, 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched a perfect game for 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves, but lost the no-hitter and the game in the 13th inning.
There have only been 15 unassisted triple plays in MLB history, making this feat rarer than a perfect game.
The rarest achievement for a pitcher is a perfect game, in which not a single player on the opposing team gets on base. Because there are no hits in a perfect game, all perfect games are no-hitters. And it's impossible to score without getting on base, of course, so a perfect game is also a de facto shutout.
Randy Johnson: May 18, 2004
Johnson became both the oldest and tallest pitcher to throw a perfect game, as the 6-10, 40-year-old lefty dominated the Braves in a 2-0 win. He finished the game with 13 strikeouts, though that was almost routine for the Hall of Fame flamethrower.
The pitcher's name? Cy Young -- yeah, that guy. On this day 118 years ago, Young gave up his first base hit in over two weeks, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive hitless innings that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, remains unchallenged as the Major League record.
1) Carl Hubbell -- 24 straight wins
Hubbell famously struck out five straight Hall of Famers in the 1934 All-Star Game and also hurled an 18-inning shutout in '33, so this streak is just one of several bolded points on his Cooperstown resume.
More than 9,000 men have taken the mound in a big league game, but what pitcher Johnny Vander Meer accomplished more than three quarters of a century ago by tossing back-to-back no-hitters is considered by many one of the game's most unbreakable records.
Big Days in Astros History - April 23, 1964 - Ken Johnson throws a no-hitter... and loses! The big, easy-going, 230-pounder was told he had become the first pitcher in the annals of baseball to pitch a nine-inning no-hitter and lose.
Throwing a no-hitter is a pretty uncommon feat on its own, and throwing more than one is even more rare. There are 35 pitchers who have thrown at least two no-hitters, including the postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Over nearly 145 years of professional baseball, no player was tougher to strike out than Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Sewell. In 7,132 career at-bats, Sewell heard the umpire say “Strike three” just 114 times.
Pitchers Hitting Grand Slams. Pitchers have contributed significantly to the grand slam story. It was a National League hurler, Bill Duggleby of the Phils, who was the only player ever to hit a bases loaded home run in his first at bat in the majors. This feat was accomplished on April 21, 1898.
"At the beginning of every major-league game, an average pitcher facing a lineup of average hitters has a . 000983 percent chance of pitching a perfect game," according to numbers crunched by smart people in a 2012 SBNATION article. That's about 1 perfect game for every 34 seasons, according to SBNATION.
Ryan hit his second and final career home run in a 12–3 win on May 1, 1987, against the Atlanta Braves. In nine seasons as a pitcher with the Astros (his longest tenure with any team), Ryan compiled a 106–94 record in 282 starts, a 3.13 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, with 796 walks and 1,866 strikeouts in 1,854 innings.
So what Lonnie Smith did against him is amazing. A right-handed batter, Smith has the best career batting average and best career on-base percentage of any hitter with at least 30 plate appearances against Ryan. Smith hit . 500 (12-for-24) with five walks versus Ryan.
On the same day that Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's all-time steals record, Nolan Ryan made history as well, recording his major league record seventh no-hitter. On May 1, 1991, at the age of 44, Ryan became the oldest player to register a no-hitter.