Obscure sports trivia

The 1987 Twins only won 85 games, but they won 100+ games twice (1965 and 2019). The team we're looking for is in the low 90s.

 

Hey, Rockies!

Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!

 

I misread my notes and there are actually two teams tied at 92 wins apiece. The Rockies hit that mark in 2009, and are one of them.

The other is the Marlins, who topped out at 92 wins when they won the World Series in 1997 (the "notable team" I mentioned in the question).
That is one of two times the Marlins have won even 90 games. Strangely, the other was in 2003, when they also won the World Series after winning 91 games.

The Rockies and Marlins are two of the seven teams that have never won 100 games. The Angels are the only team that has never lost 100.

 

A question in honor of Pete Rose.
On April 23, 1964, Pete Rose reached on an error in the ninth inning and scored on another error as the Reds beat the Colt .45s 1-0 without getting a hit. To this day, it is the only time one pitcher has thrown a nine-inning, complete-game no-hitter and lost.
Who was the pitcher?

 

I remember reading about that once. I believe the pitcher's name was ... Ken Wilson?

 

Half right, so we'll give it to you.
It was Ken Johnson, a journeyman pitcher who played for seven teams between 1958 and 1970. There have been some other combined nine-inning no-hitters that were losses, and a few eight-inning no-hitters that were lost, but 60 years later he's the only one to go a full nine innings solo and lose.

 

Ah! Johnson. I just remembered it was a Ken with a common last name. Don't know what made think of Wilson.

 

You might have been thinking of Don Wilson, who pitched for Houston in the ‘60s (but after they changed their name to the Astros).

 

I think it was HOF 2b Nellie Fox who erred.

There are several guys who went longer than nine innings with a no-hitter and lost, most notably Harvey Haddix. The double-no-hitter guys from the dead-ball era; both lost their no-hitters and one guy lost the game. Somewhere in the recesses of my brain something tells me Jim Maloney also lost a no-hitter in the 10th inning and lost the game.

I remember Andy Hawkins losing an 8-inning no-hitter 4-0 or something like that.

 

Hawkins lost 4-1 to the White Sox. I remember watching the last couple of innings of that game on WPIX.

This is from May 2022, but it's got most if not all of them to that point.

These pitchers gave up no hits ... and lost

 

Maloney pitched 10 no-hit innings against the Mets on June 14, 1965. He had 18ks but lost 1-0 when he gave up a homer leading off the 11th. MLB does not recognize this as a no-hitter.

Coincidentally, he did pitch a 10-inning no-hitter against the Cubs later that year and won 1-0. He fanned 12, walked 10, had one HBP, and threw 187 pitches.

He was a great pitcher whose career flamed out at 29, one of many Reds pitchers from the 1960s-70s to leave the game prematurely because of arm injuries.

 

Also, Pedro Martinez had a perfect 9 innings.