Breaking Down 38 Straight: Bartolo Colon Does Something MLB May Never See Again

Last season, Roy Halladay started a baseball game against the New York Mets by throwing 18 straight strikes. It certainly was impressive and an excellent display of control, but on Wednesday night Oakland A's Bartolo Colon did something even more remarkable.

Although it was not to start the ballgame, Colon had a streak of his own that might not be matched for quite a long time.

Between the fifth and eighth inning, Colon threw an unfathomable 38 straight strikes.

You read that right: 38.

Making it more impressive is that Colon achieved the feat against the hard-hitting Los Angeles Angels.

A look inside the streak of 38 strikes reveals a couple very impressive statistics. Here is the breakdown of how he recorded the strikes during the streak: 17 were called strikes, 10 were foul balls, 10 balls were put in play (eight outs and two hits) and stunningly only one was a swinging strike.

I am not sure what is more impressive, 38 straight strikes or that only one of them resulted in a swing and a miss. Kendry Morales was the only one to take the bat off his shoulders and miss and it resulted in a strikeout.

Colon's fastball has always had phenomenal movement. It had so much movement on Wednesday that most the Angels just watched it go by.

Thirty-five of 38 pitches were either a two-seam or four-seam fastball. He mixed in two changeups (both to Morales in the at-bat in which he struck out) and one slider.

There are not many things that seem impossible in baseball, but seeing another pitcher throw 38 straight strikes, especially the way Colon went about it, is something that I can confidently say I will not ever see again.

Colon was practically flawless on Wednesday throwing eight innings of scoreless baseball while giving up only four hits and striking out five Angels. Eighty-two of Colon's 102 pitches were strikes and he did not allow any walks.

The veteran has now thrown 15 straight scoreless innings. On the season, he has a 2.63 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and 19 strikeouts while only walking two batters in 27.1 innings. Colon is now 3-1 in 2012.

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