Alfredes Aceves was the winning pitcher in last night’s 16-inning marathon between the Red Sox and Rays, throwing three scoreless innings before Dustin Pedroia’s hit finally broke a 0-0 tie.
With the victory Aceves improved to 19-2 for his career, which is a .905 winning percentage that ranks as the best mark in MLB history among all pitchers with at least 20 decisions. Seriously.
Of course, by making the cutoff just 20 decisions the whole list is basically filled with pitchers like Aceves, who while very effective weren’t exactly Cy Young contenders:
W L WIN%
ALFREDO ACEVES 19 2 .905
Luis Aloma 18 3 .857
Howie Krist 37 11 .771
Brendan Donnelly 32 10 .762
Brad Clontz 22 8 .733
Brad Clontz! All five of those guys are non-closer relievers who vultured wins because of how they were used as much as how well they pitched, but 19-2 is still pretty remarkable for someone with just 189 total innings.
Bump the decision cutoff up to, say, 250 and the leaders are Whitey Ford (.690), Pedro Martinez (.687), Lefty Grove (.680), Roy Halladay (.669), and Christy Matthewson (.668), which is a slightly more impressive list.
