PHOENIX -- Arizona fans were given a special treat Saturday when a Wade Miley garden gnome was distributed to those in attendance at for the Diamondbacks' game against the Rockies at Chase Field.
For an inning, Miley must have felt the strike zone was about the size of the six-inch figurine, which showed Miley wearing camo overalls and holding a fishing pole in his right hand.
Miley walked four of the first five batters he faced, but remarkably, it did not hurt him, as Carlos Gonzalez grounded into a double play after the first two and Wilin Rosario struck out with the bases loaded after the next two to end the first inning.
Miley shouted and pumped his fist after getting out of the inning, in which 18 of his 29 pitches were balls.
The Diamondbacks said it was the first time in franchise history that a pitcher had walked four batters in an inning without allowing a run. And according to Baseball Reference, Miley's outing made him the first starter since 1959 to walk seven or more hitters in five innings or fewer without a
run scored.
The last time any major league pitcher walked four batters in an inning without any of them scoring was 2011, when the Reds' Francisco Cordero issued four free passes to the Mets in the 13th inning, sandwiched around a caught stealing, and escaped with a line-drive double play.
Miley walked another batter in the third, making it his first career five-walk game, but got rid of that runner with another double play. He walked two more runners over the next two innings, eventually getting removed from the game with two men on and one out in the fifth, but reliever Brad Ziegler induced an inning-ending double play to keep the bizarre shutout intact.
Miley finished with seven walks, four hits allowed and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
“I just didn’t have it tonight. That’s the bottom line," Miley said after the game. "... I was lucky. I don’t know how many base runners they had. How they didn’t score, I don’t know. Just got lucky."
The MLB record for most walks in a start with no runs allowed is 11, shared by Mel Stottlemyre (1970) and Lefty Gomez (1941).
