Stanford starter's 156-pitch complete game sparks debate on social media

Stanford is doing everything it can to try and win the 2023 College World Series.

For renowned Cardinal coach David Esquer, that includes trotting out Quinn Matthews to toss a 156-pitch complete game on short rest, as he did Sunday.

Matthews had 16 strikeouts in Stanford's 8-3 win over Texas that tied the teams' best-of-three NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional series at one game apiece. He has now thrown 366 pitches over three appearances dating back to June 2 — the latter two coming on short rest, which is generally defined as anything below six days for college baseball starters. 

Social media was abuzz with reactions to Matthews' outing, praising the pitcher for his "legendary" performance while also questioning the wisdom of letting the 22-year-old throw so many pitches in an age where pitch counts are suppressed as more and more pitchers deal with catastrophic arm injuries from overuse.

By comparison, no MLB pitcher has thrown as many pitches in a single game in at least 22 years. According to Sportradar, Hall of Famer Randy Johnson threw 159 pitches for the Diamondbacks against the Phillies on May 13, 2001. Per Baseball-Reference, the last instance of a pitcher topping 156 pitches was former Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield with 169 on June 5, 1997, versus the Brewers.

The MLB-high for this season was set by the Pirates' Rich Hill, who threw 119 pitches this past Friday. There have thus far been only five instances of an MLB pitcher throwing 115 pitches in 2023.

Following Sunday's outing, Matthews said that he could pitch in Monday's win-or-go-home game if need be.

Here's how social media reacted to Matthews' outlier performance.