Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie has one of the worst starts in MLB history

This is certainly not a record Royals right-hander Jeremy Guthrie wanted next to his name.

Guthrie took the mound for Kansas City on Monday afternoon at Yankee Stadium and gave up 11 earned runs in one official inning of work. Whichever way you slice it, Guthrie’s brief outing qualifies as one of the worst starts in major league history.

He became just the second starter since 1914 to give up 11 earned runs while pitching one inning or fewer. Jason Jennings in 2007 with the Astros is the other.

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The Yankees scored eight runs in the first inning, with Chase Headley, Brian McCann, and Brett Gardner all taking Guthrie deep. Even though he was clearly laboring, Guthrie came back out for the second inning and promptly gave up a three-run homer to Stephen Drew after allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base. That made the score 11-0 for New York and brought Guthrie’s day to an end as he was finally replaced by Brandon Finnegan.

The total damage against the veteran right-hander looks like this: 11 earned runs, nine hits, three walks, one hit batter, four home runs allowed, 16 batters faced, three batters retired. Yikes.

Jeremy Guthrie is only the second starting pitcher in baseball history to give up 11 earned runs in one inning or fewer.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 25, 2015

By any measure, today’s start from Jeremy Guthrie is one of the 50 worst in baseball history. His Game Score of -11 is tied for 32nd worst.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 25, 2015