> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.grumpybuck.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # On This Date: Bob Feller Strikes Out a Record 18 Tigers, and Loses (Oct. 2, 1938) - URL: https://www.grumpybuck.com/on-this-date-bob-feller-strikes-out-a-record-18-tigers-and-loses-oct-2-1938/ - Published: 2026-10-02T12:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-02T13:55:08.000Z - Description: On Oct. 2, 1938, 19-year-old Bob Feller struck out a record 18 Tigers and lost 4-1, while Hank Greenberg's chase of Babe Ruth's 60 ended in the same doubleheader, called for darkness. - Author: Brad Riddell - Tags: Sports History, On This Date, Baseball, MLB On Oct. 2, 1938, the last day of the season, a 19-year-old Bob Feller struck out 18 Detroit Tigers in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland Stadium. Nobody had ever struck out 18 in a 9-inning game. The Indians lost, 4-1. And Feller's record wasn't even the biggest story in the ballpark. ![The Plain Dealer, Oct. 3, 1938: "Feller Strikes Out 18 Tigers for World Record, Loses Game." The deck: "Whiffs Laabs 5 Times; 27,000 See Indians Lose Pair."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/plain-dealer-1938-10-03-feller-18-tigers-world-record.jpg) The Plain Dealer, Oct. 3, 1938: "Feller Strikes Out 18 Tigers for World Record, Loses Game." The deck: "Whiffs Laabs 5 Times; 27,000 See Indians Lose Pair." ## 18 strikeouts, 7 walks, and a loss Feller went 9 innings, gave up 7 hits and 4 runs, walked 7 and struck out 18\. All 4 runs were earned; Cleveland didn't make an error. Detroit scored twice in the 6th on a Roy Cullenbine single, a Hank Greenberg double and a Birdie Tebbetts double, and twice more in the 8th on walks to Cullenbine and Greenberg, a Tebbetts sacrifice and a Mark Christman single. The Indians got their run in the 9th on a Hal Trosky sacrifice fly. The winning pitcher was Harry Eisenstat, who struck out 3\. Tebbetts, years later: Feller "just mowed us down. Yet we scored off him. Eisenstat threw at 81 mph, struck out three guys, and beat Feller. Kind of funny." Feller struck out 6 in a row at one point, had 10 through 4 innings and 14 through 6\. Pete Fox, leading off the 9th, was No. 17, which tied the modern record of Dizzy Dean and of Feller himself, who'd fanned 17 A's in 1936 at age 17\. Chet Laabs was No. 18, and the last out. Laabs went 0-for-5 with 5 strikeouts. His name is in the record book for the wrong reason. ![Feller at the finish of his delivery.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/bob-feller-follow-through-cleveland.jpg) Feller at the finish of his delivery. "I wish I'd had a little more control," Feller told the Plain Dealer. "I did have as much stuff as I've had in a long time." The Cleveland Press got the better line out of him, and put it in the headline: "I should have fanned 20." ![The Cleveland Press, Oct. 3, 1938: "'I Should Have Fanned 20,' Says Bob Feller After Striking Out 18 for New World's Record." Greenberg, at left: "no more homers."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/cleveland-press-1938-10-03-should-have-fanned-20.jpg) The Cleveland Press, Oct. 3, 1938: "'I Should Have Fanned 20,' Says Bob Feller After Striking Out 18 for New World's Record." Greenberg, at left: "no more homers." ## The other story: Hank Greenberg and 60 Greenberg came to Cleveland with 58 home runs and a doubleheader left. He needed 2 to tie Babe Ruth and 3 to pass him. Against Feller he struck out in the 2nd and the 4th, then hit a ball off the left-center fence in the 6th, a double, and walked in the 8th. "Feller's curve was jumping wickedly," he said, "and with that and his fast ball, he was murder." In the second game he singled 3 times and walked, and after 7 innings, with Detroit ahead 10-8, umpire George Moriarty called it for darkness. Greenberg remembered the exchange: "I'm sorry, Hank, this is as far as I can go." "That's all right, George, this is as far as I can go too." He finished with 58\. He spent the rest of his life calling the idea that pitchers walked him on purpose "crazy stories," and the numbers back him up: his walk rate across the league barely moved in September, and he was walked twice in the whole 3-game series in Cleveland. He'd also lost a 59th homer to a rainout earlier in the year. What actually happened on the last day was that the best young arm in baseball struck out 18 men in front of him. ## Feller at 19 He'd come out of Van Meter, Iowa, where his father had strung arc lights in the barn so he could throw all winter, straight to Cleveland in 1936\. In 1938 he went 17-11 with a 4.08 ERA, led the league with 240 strikeouts, and walked 208, still the most in a season since 1900\. Wildest and best on the same day, and on the same season. ![The leg kick that came out of a barn in Van Meter, Iowa.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/bob-feller-leg-kick-cleveland.jpg) The leg kick that came out of a barn in Van Meter, Iowa. The 18 stood as the American League record until Nolan Ryan struck out 19 in 1974, and as the big-league mark until Steve Carlton's 19 in 1969\. Sandy Koufax tied it twice. It's still Cleveland's franchise record; Corey Kluber matched it in 2015\. Eighteen months after this game, on Opening Day 1940, Feller threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in history. He'd lose nearly 4 seasons to the Navy after that, and still win 266 games. ![Chief Petty Officer Bob Feller. He enlisted in the Navy 2 days after Pearl Harbor and served on the USS Alabama.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/bob-feller-navy-uniform-wwii.jpg) Chief Petty Officer Bob Feller. He enlisted in the Navy 2 days after Pearl Harbor and served on the USS Alabama. The Indians finished 3rd, the Tigers 4th, and about 27,000 people went home having seen a strikeout record and a home run chase end on the same afternoon. ![Feller and a Cleveland teammate.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/bob-feller-handshake-cleveland-teammate.jpg) Feller and a Cleveland teammate. ![Feller's 1952 Topps card, No. 88.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/1952-topps-bob-feller.jpg) Feller's 1952 Topps card, No. 88. **Feller's 18 or Greenberg's 58: which one's the better story? Tell us in the comments.**