Congratulations to CajunCenturion! It is, indeed, possible to "pitch" a complete game without throwing a single pitch. Who wudda thunk it? I admit I intended the answer to be 25, and was expecting a mixture of 27s, 24s and 25s in the responses. But everyone here was too sharp to fall for the obvious 27-pitch-perfect-game scenario.
Cajun's answer had me scurrying to the rule book, and I found out a few things I didn't previously know. The first is the definition of the "normal length" of a game. Is it always nine innings (8 1/2 if the home team is winning)? I would have said "yes" without hesitation, but then I found this gem in the rule book:
Official Baseball Rules said:
4.10(a) A regulation game consists of nine innings, unless extended because of a tie score,
or shortened (1) because the home team needs none of its half of the ninth inning or only a fraction of it, or (2) because the umpire-in-chief calls the game.
EXCEPTION: National Association leagues may adopt a rule providing that one or both games of a doubleheader shall be seven innings in length. In such games, any of these rules applying to the ninth inning shall apply to the seventh inning.
If anyone had found this rule that allows the possibility of a seven inning "normal length" game, I would have given credit to the answer 19 for being the losing pitcher in a 6 1/2 inning game, as unlikely as it seems that it could ever happen.
I was also concerned that the wording of my question didn't explicitly rule out games ended by forfeit. Even allowing forfeited games would not get the required pitch count down to zero, however. That's because of the scoring rule 10.03(e)(2), which reads in part
Official Baseball Rules said:
If a game is forfeited before it becomes a regulation game, the official scorer shall include no records and shall report only the fact of the forfeit.
So, on to Cajun's answer. He is right that there are several situations where a runner can be declared out without a pitch being thrown. I personally was aware of the rules against batting out of order and using a bat that has been tampered with. I didn't know about the penalty for switching from one batter's box to the other, but it's in the rules too. So here is one situation that would get a pitcher through an inning without a pitch being thrown.
1. The first scheduled batter, A, doesn't appear and the next batter, B, goes to bat instead.
2. B gets called out for moving from one batters box to the other while the pitcher is in position to throw his first pitch.
3. The fielding team appeals to the umpire that B batted out of turn, and the umpire rules that A is out.
4. C enters the batters box and the umpire notices that he has filed one side of his bat flat. C is declared out and ejected from the game. The inning is over. Pitch count = 0
If this comedy of errors continues for a whole nine inning game, the pitcher will get credit for a complete game victory (and a perfect game!) without throwing a single pitch. Amazing!
