May 30

Big Train’s Last Shutout

May 30, 1927

Walter “The Big Train” Johnson gave up only three hits as he led the Washington Senators (18-18) to a 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox (10-26). The shutout will be the Big Train’s “Major League Record” 110th career shutout and the last one of his illustrious career.

Walter Johnson’s shutout record is one Major League Baseball record that will never be broken. Currently there is not one active pitcher with enough shutouts to be registered on the Top 100 Career Shutouts List. To see how out of reach this record is all you have to do is look at the list of active players with the most complete games in a career. Roy Halladay leads that list with (67) complete games.

Statistics from Baseball Reference

Year Age W L ERA G CG SHO IP ER HR BB SO WHIP Awards
1907 19 5 9 1.88 14 11 2 110.1 23 1 20 71 1.088  
1908 20 14 14 1.65 36 23 6 256.1 47 0 53 160 0.964  
1909 21 13 25 2.22 40 27 4 296.1 73 1 84 164 1.117  
1910 22 25 17 1.36 45 38 8 370.0 56 1 76 313 0.914  
1911 23 25 13 1.90 40 36 6 322.1 68 8 70 207 1.123 MVP-5
1912 24 33 12 1.39 50 34 7 369.0 57 2 76 303 0.908 MVP-3
1913 25 36 7 1.14 48 29 11 346.0 44 9 38 243 0.780 MVP-1
1914 26 28 18 1.72 51 33 9 371.2 71 3 74 225 0.971  
1915 27 27 13 1.55 47 35 7 336.2 58 1 56 203 0.933  
1916 28 25 20 1.90 48 36 3 369.2 78 0 82 228 1.006  
1917 29 23 16 2.21 47 30 8 326.0 80 3 68 188 0.969  
1918 30 23 13 1.27 39 29 8 326.0 46 2 70 162 0.954  
1919 31 20 14 1.49 39 27 7 290.1 48 0 51 147 0.985  
1920 32 8 10 3.13 21 12 4 143.2 50 5 27 78 1.128  
1921 33 17 14 3.51 35 25 1 264.0 103 7 92 143 1.352  
1922 34 15 16 2.99 41 23 4 280.0 93 8 99 105 1.364 MVP-17
1923 35 17 12 3.48 42 18 3 261.0 101 9 73 130 1.287 MVP-20
1924 36 23 7 2.72 38 20 6 277.2 84 10 77 158 1.116 MVP-1
1925 37 20 7 3.07 30 16 3 229.0 78 7 78 108 1.288  
1926 38 15 16 3.63 33 22 2 260.2 105 13 73 125 1.274  
1927 39 5 6 5.10 18 7 1 107.2 61 7 26 48 1.291  
21 Yrs 417 279 2.17 802 531 *110* 5914.1 1424 97 1363 3509 1.061

Mark Hornbaker