Alex Wood about to pounce on the Vulture

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 4, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

In 1966 Phil Regan won fourteen games as a relief pitcher for the NL Champion Dodgers and earned the nickname “The Vulture” for pilfering wins from the starting pitchers.  He also only lost one game and has the greatest winning percentage of any Los Angeles Dodger with at least twelve wins. Eric Stephen explains how he earned the nickname.

But what stood out was his 14-1 record.

In eight of those wins, Regan entered a tie game, and four times he came in when the Dodgers were trailing. Only twice did he earn a win after blowing a lead, each time surrendering a one-run lead by allowing an inherited run to score.

But he earned the nickname “The Vulture” from teammates, one he and the team embraced.

Alex Wood won his thirteenth game last night and with only one loss now has a winning % of .929 putting him within one more win of matching Phil Regan’s amazing record in 1966.

Only Phil Regan and Ron Perranoski were relief pitchers on the list below which shows every Los Angeles Dodger with at least twelve wins and a winning percentage of over .800%.  You can see by the ERA+, these were not fluke years, these pitchers earned those wins.  Well most of them anyway, Rick Rhoden’s record was a bit flukish.

Player            W-L%  W Year GS L ERA+
Phil Regan        .933 14 1966  0 1  203
Alex Wood         .929 13 2017 17 1  179
Clayton Kershaw   .882 15 2017 21 2  204
Clayton Kershaw   .875 21 2014 27 3  197
Zack Greinke      .864 19 2015 32 3  222
Orel Hershiser    .864 19 1985 34 3  171
Ron Perranoski    .842 16 1963  0 3  179
Sandy Koufax      .833 25 1963 40 5  159
Tommy John        .813 13 1974 22 3  132
Clayton Kershaw   .808 21 2011 33 5  161
Brad Penny        .800 16 2007 33 4  147
Rick Rhoden       .800 12 1976 26 3  113

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.