Top 10 doubleheader shutouts in MLB history

Earlier this week, the Yankees shut out the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 and 2-0, the first doubleheader shutout in major league baseball in more than 25 years. The double shutout is a true rarity in baseball.

Here, in chronological order, are the top 10 doubleheader shutouts in MLB history.

1. Sept. 4, 1902 — The Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Beaneaters scored the fewest combined runs in a doubleheader — one. Boston won the first game 1-0; the nightcap ended in a 0-0 tie.

2. Sept. 26, 1908 — In all of baseball history, only one pitcher has thrown shutouts in both ends of a doubleheader. Chicago Cubs pitcher Ed Reulbach, right, blanked the Brooklyn Dodgers twice in the same day, 5-0 and 3-0. Reulbach went on to win 24 games that year, and helped the Cubs win their last World Series. He was the last living member of the championship Cubs, and died in 1961.

3. July 2, 1933 — Pitching all 18 innings, New York’s Carl Hubbell, below left, outlasted St. Louis, 1-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds. King Carl struck out 12 without walking a batter. The Giants also won the nightcap 1-0, Roy Parmelee topping Dizzy Dean. Parmelee fanned 13 batters and walked none.

4. June 28, 1936 — Nearly three years later the tables were turned on Hubbell, who suffered the loss in the first game of a 3-0, 6-0 Cubs sweep. Larry French won the opener for Chicago and Bill Lee took the nightcap. Hubbell, aka The Meal Ticket, was National League MVP in both 1933 and 1936 and was later inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

5. June 27, 1962 — The Cardinals blanked the Cubs twice in the same day as Larry Jackson and Ray Sadecki pitched complete games for St. Louis at Wrigley Field. The scores were 4-0 and 8-0.

6. Sept. 12, 1969 — With the Mets mounting a drive towards their first playoff appearance, Jerry Koosman pitched a three-hit shutout in the opener and Don Cardwell hurled eight innings of four-hit ball in the nightcap. The Mets beat the host Pirates in both games by the score of 1-0, and Koosman and Cardwell singled in the only runs. The New York Times later referred to it as the Mets best doubleheader of 1969.

7. July 27, 1975 — Boston came to New York and blanked the Yankees twice at Shea Stadium, 1-0 and 6-0. Bill Lee outdueled Catfish Hunter in the first game, and Roger Moret was the victor in the second game, in which Ron Guidry made his major league debut.

8. April 19, 1987 — Kansas City was the victim in the Yankees’ last double shutout. Charles Hudson and Pat Clements did the honors in a 5-0, 1-0 sweep at Yankee Stadium.

9. June 26, 1988 — Charlie Lea and Frank Viola were the winners as the Twins topped the A’s twice, 11-0 and 5-0, in Oakland.

10. April 16, 2014 — It took nearly 26 years for the next double shutout. Masahiro Tanaka, right, and Michael Pineda stopped the Cubs at Yankee Stadium. Counting the 1932 and 1938 World Series, the Cubs have never won a game at Yankee Stadium

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