Shutout (baseball)

In Major League Baseball, a shutout (denoted statistically as ShO or SHO) refers to the act by which a single pitcher pitches a complete game and does not allow the opposing team to score a run. If two or more pitchers combine to complete this act, no pitcher is awarded a shutout, although the team itself can be said to have "shut out" the opposing team.

The ultimate single achievement among pitchers is a perfect game, which has been accomplished 24 times, most recently by Domingo Germán of the New York Yankees on June 28, 2023. Until a rule change implemented by MLB in 2020, a perfect game was previously also, by definition, counted as a shutout. A no-hitter completed by one pitcher is also a shutout unless the opposing team manages to score through errors, base on balls, catcher's interference, dropped third strikes, or hit batsmen. The all-time career leader in shutouts is Walter Johnson, who pitched for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927. He accumulated 110 shutouts, which is 20 more than the second place leader, Pete Alexander. The record for shutouts in a single season is 16, a mark which was achieved by George Bradley in 1876 and Alexander in 1916. These records are considered among the most secure records in baseball, because pitchers rarely earn more than one or two shutouts per season anymore due to a heavy emphasis on pitch count and relief pitching. Complete games themselves have also become rare among starting pitchers.

As of 2025, the leader among active players for career shutouts is Clayton Kershaw, who has thrown 15.

A shutout is defined by Major League Baseball rule 10.18:

A shutout is a statistic credited to a pitcher who allows no runs in a game. No pitcher shall be credited with pitching a shutout unless he pitches the complete game, or unless he enters the game with none out before the opposing team has scored in the first inning, puts out the side without a run scoring and pitches the rest of the game without allowing a run. When two or more pitchers combine to pitch a shutout, the league statistician shall make a notation to that effect in the league's official pitching records.

A shutout in baseball statistics is abbreviated as ShO or SHO, not to be confused with strikeout (SO). To achieve a shutout, a pitcher must pitch a complete game without allowing the other team to score a run. However, there are exceptions and other stipulations to this rule.

Jim Creighton of the Excelsior of Brooklyn club is widely regarded to have thrown the first official shutout in history on November 8, 1860. In the National League's inaugural season of 1876, the eight teams played between 59 and 70 games, but it was common for each team to only have one pitcher on the team who pitched every inning of every game. For that reason, George Bradley pitched 16 shutouts in 1876, which still stands as the Major League record (tied with Pete Alexander who pitched the same number in 1916). Bradley's 16 shutouts in one year were almost half the total number he pitched in his nine-year career as a pitcher. From 1876 to 1916, 10 shutouts or more a season was recorded 19 times. With the increase in power hitting in the live-ball era, as well as the increased utilization of relief pitchers, shutouts and complete games dramatically declined. Since 1917, 10 or more shutouts a season has only been achieved 10 times by pitchers with very exceptional seasons. Jim Palmer was the last American League pitcher to achieve this mark with 10 in 1975, and John Tudor was the last National League pitcher with 10 in 1985, not including the 11th shutout that Tudor threw in the World Series that year.

In 1968 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Don Drysdale pitched a Major League record six consecutive shutouts on his way to a total of eight. While his statistics that year are often overlooked when compared to fellow National League pitcher Bob Gibson, Drysdale did pitch a then-record 58+2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings pitched over the course of a month, whereby he did not allow an opposing run. He can be said to have "shut out" the opposition for 58+2⁄3 consecutive innings pitched. That scoreless streak would later be broken by Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser in 1988, who pitched one more out than Drysdale to record 59 consecutive shutout innings. Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs is the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to have pitched two shutouts on the same day. On September 26, 1908, the Cubs played a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Reulbach pitched both games to completion, in which the Dodgers failed to score in both games.