The month of May has been a fun time to celebrate the Oakland A’s franchise history of starting pitching. We’ve already looked back at the anniversaries of four no-hitters this month, including two perfect games, going back as far as Chief Bender in 1910.
Not every great performance by a starting pitcher results in zero hits, though. They can also set themselves apart by piling up strikeouts, or working deep into extra innings, or even just avoiding walks such that they allow fewer total baserunners than a no-hitter.
One way to measure starts against each other is Game Score, first created by Bill James.