June 8: An Unlikely Phillie Snaps A Hall of Famer’s Scoreless Streak

The Main Event

• June 8, 1968 – Pinch-hitter Howie Bedell ended Don Drysdale‘s record scoreless innings streak at 58 2/3 innings with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, giving Bedell his only RBI for the season. The Dodgers won anyway, 5-3.

In the spring and early summer of 1968, Don Drysdale did something no pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball had ever done. Over the course of six consecutive starts, the Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander threw six straight shutouts and went 58⅔ innings without allowing a single run, breaking a record that had stood for 55 years. It was the defining achievement of a Hall of Fame career — and it ended with a sacrifice fly off the bat of a man who, at the time, had just two career RBI.

The Streak Begins: May 14, 1968

Drysdale was already a legend by the time the streak began. Standing 6″ 5″, the right-hander known as “Big D” had won the 1962 Cy Young Award, made eight All-Star teams, and pitched the Dodgers to three World Series championships. His reputation as a brushback artist was equal to his reputation as a power pitcher; as future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda once put it, the trick against Drysdale was to hit him before he hit you.

On May 14, Drysdale two-hit the Chicago Cubs, besting Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins 2-0. That shutout launched what would become the most dominant sustained stretch of pitching in the modern era to that point. Four days later he blanked the Houston Astros. He then outdueled Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals on May 22, beating another all-time great 2-0. A second shutout of Houston followed, then a gem against the San Francisco Giants on May 31 — that one nearly ended early.

The Controversy That Almost Derailed Everything

The Giants game featured the streak’s most contentious moment. In the ninth inning, with the bases loaded and nobody out, Drysdale hit San Francisco catcher Dick Dietz with a pitch. Under normal circumstances, the batter walks, a run scores, and the streak dies. But home plate umpire Harry Wendelstedt ruled that Dietz had made no effort to avoid the pitch and refused to award him first base. The crowd of over 46,000 erupted. Dietz returned to the plate and eventually flied out. Drysdale escaped the inning without surrendering a run. The ruling was immediately controversial and remains disputed to this day.

With that brush with fate behind him, Drysdale went on to throw a sixth consecutive shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 4, passing Doc White‘s all-time record of five straight shutouts set by the Chicago White Sox in 1904 and running his scoreless innings total to 54, within two innings of Walter Johnson‘s all-time record of 55⅔ set with the Washington Senators in 1913.

June 8, 1968: The Record Falls — and Then the Streak Does Too

Drysdale took the mound against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium in front of 50,060 fans. The context of the day was impossible to ignore: the Dodgers wore black armbands on their left sleeves mourning Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated two days earlier at the Ambassador Hotel just miles away.

The Phillies started veteran Larry Jackson, and Drysdale — perhaps feeling the weight of the moment — opened with a shaky first inning, throwing seven of his first eight pitches for balls. But he steadied himself. In the second inning, Drysdale retired Bill White, Tony Taylor, and Clay Dalrymple in order. That brought his scoreless streak to exactly 55⅔ innings, matching Johnson’s record. The third out — a strikeout of Dalrymple — pushed him past it. The record was his.

The Phillies went scoreless in the third and fourth innings as well, extending the streak to 58 frames. Meanwhile, the Dodgers had taken a 4-0 lead with a run in the first and three more in the fourth.

Then came the fifth. Taylor led off with a single to right and Dalrymple followed with a single to center, pushing Taylor to third. Roberto Peña struck out for the first out. With the pitcher’s spot due up, Phillies manager Gene Mauch called on a pinch hitter: Howie Bedell. The 32-year-old outfielder had played his first game with the Phillies just two days earlier. He lofted a fly ball to left field. Taylor tagged up at third and scored easily. The streak was over at 58⅔ innings, and 58 consecutive scoreless frames dating back to May 14 — nearly a month of dominant, run-free baseball — belonged to history.

Drysdale allowed a solo home run to Bill White in the sixth and an RBI single to Cookie Rojas in the seventh before Dodgers manager Walter Alston lifted him. The Dodgers won, 5-3, improving Drysdale’s record to 8-3. Despite the streak’s end, Drysdale had struck out 46 batters during the run and finished the season with a 2.15 ERA. The record stood for 20 years, until another Dodger — Orel Hershiser — broke it in 1988 with 59 consecutive scoreless innings.

It would be 58 years later when Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sanchez would put together a streak of 55 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, coming close to the likes of Drysdale and Hershiser. The streak made Sanchez the left-hander with the longest consecutive scoreless streak in major league baseball and the pitcher with the longest consecutive scoreless innings streak in Phillies history; a record that had stood for 115 years.

Who Was Howie Bedell?

The man who ended one of baseball’s most remarkable streaks was, in almost every measurable sense, a marginal big leaguer. Howard William Bedell, a left-handed hitting outfielder from Clearfield, Pennsylvania, played in just 67 career games across two brief stints — 58 games with the 1962 Milwaukee Braves and nine with the 1968 Phillies. He finished with a .193 career average and exactly three major league RBI.

However, Bedell’s obscure MLB career didn’t tell the full story. He was a legitimate minor league hitter. In 1961, he set a then-American Association record with a 43-game hitting streak. He went on to win a batting title in the Eastern League and earned two All-Star berths there in 1964 and 1966, suggesting the big leagues simply never gave him the runway to show what he could do.

After his playing career ended — his last big league game came less than a month after his sacrifice fly off Drysdale — Bedell moved into managing and front-office work in the Phillies organization, later served as a coach with the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners, and capped his career in baseball as farm director of the Cincinnati Reds from 1990 to 1991.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for June 8

• June 8, 1914 – Phillie Fred Luderus hit two home runs in a 7-5 Pirate victory at Baker Bowl. The first dinger was hit to right-center field, where it lodged in a hole in the brick wall for an inside-the-park home run.
• June 8, 1923 –  Pat Collins of the St. Louis Browns appears as a pinch-runner and again as a pinch-hitter later in the same game. Collins is allowed as a courtesy to briefly pinch-run for teammate Homer Ezzell in the third inning when Ezzell needs to use the restroom. In the ninth, Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack allows the Browns to pinch-hit Collins for pitcher Ray Kolp, drawing a walk.
• June 8, 1933 – Jimmie Foxx hits three home runs in his first three at-bats as the Philadelphia Athletics outscore the New York Yankees, 14 – 10. Foxx had homered his last time up the previous day to give him four consecutive home runs.
• June 8, 1951 – Traded Dick Whitman and cash to Brooklyn for Tommy Brown. The Phillies had purchased Whitman from the Dodgers in 1949. He never did play for Brooklyn after the trade. Brown was dealt to the Cubs 53 weeks after this trade.
• June 8, 1959 – Purchased switch-hitting outfielder Solly Drake from the Dodgers. Drake hit just .145 with the Phillies over the rest of the season, which would be his last in the majors.
• June 8, 1982 – Released Del Unser, who had been a first round pick of the Senators in 1966. Unser had two stints with the Phillies (1973-1974, 1979-1982) and later worked for the team as a coach and in a front office role.
• June 8, 1985 – Released pitcher Pat Zachry. The Phillies had sent Al Oliver to the Dodgers for Zachry in February and after 10 relief appearances released him with a 4.26 ERA over 12.2 innings. Zachry never returned to the majors.
• June 8, 1989 – After letting the Pirates take a 10-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Phils come back to earn a 15-11 win, thanks in part to Steve Jeltz‘s two homers — one from each side of the plate. The comeback resulted in Pirates broadcaster Jim Rooker walking 300 miles from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. After the first inning, Rooker stated that he would “walk back to Pittsburgh if the Pirates lose this game.” He made good on his promise and raised money for a children’s hospital by making the walk following the baseball season.
• June 8, 1996 – Jim Eisenreich hits two home runs, but it’s not enough as the Phillies drop a 7-3 game to Houston at the Astrodome — the first Phillies game shown on the Fox network.
• June 8, 1999 – Claimed Amaury Telemaco on waivers from Arizona. Telemaco would pitch six seasons with the Phillies and post a 4.11 ERA with the team. He would be re-signed on June 14 and then released again on July 4.
• June 8, 2005 – Traded Placido Polanco to Detroit for Ugueth Urbina and Ramon Martinez. The Phillies had added Polanco in 2002 as part of the trade that sent Scott Rolen to the Cardinals.
• June 8, 2015 – Signed free agent pitcher Kevin Correia. At this point in his career, Correia was running on fumes and made just five starts for the Phils with a 6.56 ERA.

ICYMI

• PBN Extra Innings – The Sunday 7: Seven Pitchers With Bad Rookie Seasons (subscription req’d.)

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for June 8

• Cub Stricker (born 1859) – Born in Philadelphia, Stricker was a first baseman who played for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1882 through 1885. He hit .239 during his time with the Phillies. Overall, he played 11 seasons for 11 teams – Philadelphia, Cleveland (Indians and Spiders), Boston Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, and Washington Senators).
• Art Mahan (born 1913) – A left-handed hitting first baseman, Mahan played just one season – 1940 – in the majors and it was with the Phillies. He hit .244 in 146 games. He was demoted late in the season due to a prolonged hitting slump and then served as a U.S. Navy Training Officer during World War II. He then transitioned into coaching and athletic administration at Villanova University.
• Charley Schanz (born 1919) – A right-hander who pitched for the Phillies from 1944-1947 going 25-41, 4.19.
• Del Ennis (born 1925) – Born in Philadelphia, Ennis was an outfielder who started his career in 1946 following serving in the military. In 11 seasons with the Phillies, Ennis was an all-star three times and he hit .286/.344/.479/.823 with 259 home runs and 1,124 RBI. He played 1,630 games with the Phillies, picking up 6,940 at-bats.
• Bill Smith (born 1934) – A left-hander, Smith made five starts and 19 relief appearances with the Phillies in 1962. He went 1-5, 4.29 that season.
• Kevin Gross (born 1961) – Debuted with the Phillies in 1983 and would pitch for the team through 1988 when he made his only trip to the All-Star Game. After the season, Gross was dealt to Montreal for pitchers Jeff Parrett and Floyd Youmans.
• Pete Orr (born 1979) – Primarily a utility player throughout his career, Orr hit .247 in 96 games with the Phillies from 2011 through 2013.

Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!

Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.

Privacy Policy | Contact us

© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.