Shutout (baseball)

In Major League Baseball, a shutout (denoted statistically as ShO or SHO^[1]) 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 in over 135 years, 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.^[2] A no-hitter completed by one pitcher is also a shutout unless the opposing team manages to score through a series of errors, base on balls, catcher's interferences, 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,^[3] which is 20 more than the second place leader, Pete Alexander.^[4] The record for shutouts in a single season is 16, a mark which was achieved by George Bradley in 1876 and Pete Alexander in 1916.^[5] 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 2023, the leader among active players for career shutouts is Clayton Kershaw, who has thrown 15.