Yesterday in Major League Baseball saw two of the worst possible days an athlete can have. Toronto's Alex Rios went 0-5 with five strikeouts in a loss to Los Angeles of Anaheim and Detroit's Dontrelle Willis pitched 21/3 innings of no-hit ball but gave up five earned runs on five walks and a hit batsman (the reliever promptly gave up a hit to knock in the inherited runners), and took the loss.
Two thoughts:
1. Rios' day is about as bad a day as possible for a hitter. The only thing that could've made it worse was if he had stranded a bunch of runners in the process (he left on just two) or grounded in to some double plays. But 0-5 with 5 Ks is just horrible.
Willis' day should probably be classified as unusual or frustrating rather than bad. Five runs in 21/3 is far from a pitcher's worst possible outing.
2. How do the worst days in other major sports stack up to these? The football equivalent would likely be a quarterback producing numbers like 6-19, 74 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs (read: a typical Sunday for the current 49er starter), or 22 carries, 41 yards, 0 TD, 2 fumbles for a running back.
The closest in basketball would be an off-night for a shooter -- 0-13 FG, 2 points, and so on.
So is Rios' day as bad as it gets? Do share.
