Jayson Stark posed this question this morning:
Fun question for my favorite Useless Infomaniacs: It’s Miley vs Smyly tonight. Got any other great rhyme-zone matchups from yesteryear? Go!
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) May 10, 2016
This is right up the VORG’s alley. With the Retrosheet gamelogs accessed, I compiled a list.
This list is NOT an all-inclusive gathering of all rhyming pitching duos. It represents only those pairs where dropping the first letter of each of their last names leaves the same trailing letters (ex. Cain and Sain both leave “ain”). It does NOT include alternate spellings that would also rhyme, like Matt Cain and John Maine, who actually did face off against each other on June 4, 2008. Additionally, this list only goes through 2015 and only deals with starting pitchers. With all that being said, here are the couplets, with links to the box scores:
| date | vteam | vlg | hteam | hlg | VisSP | HomeSP |
| 19180503 | WS1 | AL | PHA | AL | Ayers | Myers |
| 19200818 | DET | AL | BOS | AL | Ayers | Myers |
| 19520826 | SLA | AL | NYA | AL | Cain | Sain |
| 20130409 | NYN | NL | PHI | NL | Gee | Lee |
| 20120509 | NYN | NL | PHI | NL | Gee | Lee |
| 20110822 | NYN | NL | PHI | NL | Gee | Lee |
| 20000403 | SFN | NL | FLO | NL | Hernandez | Fernandez |
| 20030809 | MON | NL | HOU | NL | Hernandez | Fernandez |
| 19520817 | CIN | NL | SLN | NL | Hiller | Miller |
| 19970902 | DET | AL | ATL | NL | Keagle | Neagle |
| 20120530 | PHI | NL | NYN | NL | Lee | Gee |
| 19530530 | BOS | AL | WS1 | AL | Nixon | Dixon |
| 19820518 | OAK | AL | DET | AL | Norris | Morris |
| 19610429 | CLE | AL | NYA | AL | Perry | Terry |
| 19520623 | NYA | AL | SLA | AL | Sain | Cain |
| 19610820 | NYA | AL | CLE | AL | Terry | Perry |
| 19600911 | NYA | AL | CLE | AL | Terry | Perry |
| 19750510 | CHA | AL | CLE | AL | Wood | Hood |
This second list is generated by dropping the first letter of only one of the pitchers:
| date | vteam | vlg | hteam | hlg | VisSP | HomeSP |
| 19140923 | CIN | NL | BSN | NL | Ames | James |
| 19140513 | BSN | NL | CIN | NL | James | Ames |
| 19900711 | OAK | AL | MIN | AL | Sanderson | Anderson |