6/7/36: No K's For A Hall of Fame Pitcher
- Paul Semendinger
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
by Paul Semendinger
June 8, 2026
***
We all know the story about baseball today - there are a lot of strikeouts.
In 2025, Yankees pitchers struck out 1,440 batters - an average of 8.88 strikeouts per game.
In 1936, the Yankees played in a game that would be unheard of today.
On June 7, 1936, the Yankees played the longest game in baseball history in which a starting pitcher recorded no strikeouts.
Here are some facts about that game:
The starting pitcher on the Yankees that day was future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing.
In his career, Red Ruffing struck out 1,987 batters.
Ruffing led the A.L. in strikeouts in 1932 with 190.
On the game on June 7, 1936, Ruffing pitched 16 innings!
Ruffing's opponent, Oral Hildebrand, of the Cleveland Indians, also pitched a complete game (15.2 innings).
The Yankees won the game 5-4 in the bottom of the 16th inning on a two-out walk-off solo homer by George Selkirk.
Ruffing faced 63 batters that game. He walked three. He allowed 10 hits and 4 runs (3 earned). But he struck out none!
The Yankees had four Hall of Famers in the lineup: Ruffing, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, and Tony Lazzeri.
Earl Averill, a future Hall of Famer, played for Cleveland.
The Yankees hitter with the most hits that day was... Red Ruffing, with three.
In addition to George Selkirk's homer, the only other player to hit a round-tripper that game was... Red Ruffing!
Red Ruffing batted .269 across his career. He slugged 36 home runs.
Between 1928 and 1932, in 281 games (578 at bats), Red Ruffing batted .324 with 14 homers and 89 runs batted in.
Not to be forgotten, as a pitcher, Ruffing won 273 games.
Ruffing was on 6 World Series Championship Teams. He went 7-2 in the World Series.
