Lohse Tosses 12th “Maddux” in Brewers History

Jun 1, 2014; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Kyle Lohse (26) is congratulated by catcher Jonathan Lucroy (20) after pitching a complete game shutout to help the Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 9-0 at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

In April of 2012 I was introduced to the concept of “The Maddux” by Craig Calcaterra on HardballTalk.

The long and short of it is that “The Maddux” is when a pitcher throws a complete-game shutout of at least 9 innings (no rain shortened games, etc) in 99 or fewer pitches.

Today Kyle Lohse threw the 12th Maddux in Brewer franchise history with his masterful performance against the Cubs. The previous Maddux for the Crew was also thrown by Lohse, last year in late September against Atlanta. The Brewers’ 12 Madduxes have been thrown by just 6 pitchers with Jamie Navarro and Chris Bosio each tossing three, Chris Capuano and Lohse throwing two, and Teddy Higuera and Tomo Ohka each throwing one.

Here are those 12 games:

^{Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2014.}

Not surprising to anybody, Greg Maddux is the all-time leader in Madduxes with 13, Zane Smith with seven is in second place.

Lohse may be having the best season of his career. His K/9 of 7.05 thus far is a career high, his previous high was 6.10 for St. Louis in 2012. His current walk rate of 1.41 BB/9 is also a career low, his previous low was 1.62, again for the Cardinals in 2012.

More strikeouts and fewer walks is always a good thing, especially for a pitcher like Lohse who spends a lot of time “pitching to contact.” He is looking like one of the best free-agent signings in Doug Melvin’s tenure.