Opposing Pitchers with Same First Name (and Opposing Catchers Too!)

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SportsnetLA’s Alanna Rizzo (and more than a few others) noted a quirk in the batteries in Saturday night’s Dodgers/Padres game.

Indeed, Clayton Kershaw was facing off against Clayton Richard. Kershaw was being caught by Austin Barnes, while Richard had Austin Hedges as his batterymate. So how many times might the opposing pitchers AND opposing catchers each share a first name?

With the Retrosheet gamelogs fired up, I found 17 instances of this through 2016, but nothing as unlikely as “Clayton” and “Austin”. It had been over 11 years since the last occurrence

DATE VIS HOME VIS SP HOME SP VIS CAT HOME CAT
19410528 PHA BOS Bill Beckmann Bill Fleming Frankie Hayes Frankie Pytlak
19410928 BOS PHA Dick Newsome Dick Fowler Frankie Pytlak Frankie Hayes
19430926 BRO CHN Ed Head Ed Hanyzewski Mickey Owen Mickey Livingston
19540623 PHA CLE Bob Trice Bob Lemon Jim Robertson Jim Hegan
19650512 HOU LAN Don Nottebart Don Drysdale John Bateman John Roseboro
19690704 ATL SFN Ron Reed Ron Herbel Bob Didier Bob Barton
19690714 DET WS2 Joe Sparma Joe Coleman Jim Price Jim French
19690919 CIN HOU Jim Merritt Jim Ray Johnny Bench Johnny Edwards
19820523 PIT SDN John Candelaria John Curtis Steve Nicosia Steve Swisher
19840723 SEA CAL Mike Moore Mike Witt Bob Kearney Bob Boone
19860719 LAN SLN Bob Welch Bob Forsch Mike Scioscia Mike LaValliere
19870429 LAN PIT Bob Welch Bob Patterson Mike Scioscia Mike LaValliere
19870704 LAN PIT Bob Welch Bob Kipper Mike Scioscia Mike LaValliere
19910510 ATL PIT John Smoltz John Smiley Mike Heath Mike LaValliere
19920722 CHN CIN Greg Maddux Greg Swindell Joe Girardi Joe Oliver
20020411 CIN PIT Jimmy Haynes Jimmy Anderson Jason LaRue Jason Kendall
20060421 ATL WAS John Smoltz John Patterson Brian McCann Brian Schneider

1 thought on “Opposing Pitchers with Same First Name (and Opposing Catchers Too!)”

  1. Kershaw and Richard previously started against each other on July 13, 2012, and June 21, 2013. As best I can tell, the very first time each team started a pitcher named Clayton was on June 6, 2011, when the Rockies started Clayton Mortensen in San Diego against Richard.

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