Striking Out The Side Plus One for Good Measure, II

Craig Stambaugh writes:

As I was looking over the list you put up of the 4 strikeout/inning club, I couldn't help but notice that no one appears on there twice...except Chuck Finley...and he appears three times!! I wonder if there is a reason for that. I'm trying to think if he throws a lot of junk that would end up in the dirt and be hard to catch, which would maybe result in the catcher missing several called third strikes? Just got my brain going with that one...thought I'd share.

Mike:

Thanks for the email. I actually hadn't noticed that.

I think it's mostly luck but Finley does have a good disposition for a 4-K inning. He lead the AL and tied for the major-league lead in wild pitches (15) and was second in the AL in strikeouts (200, over 100 behind Pedro) in 1999. So doing it twice in 1999 made sense. In 2000 he was still fourth in the AL in Ks, but his 9 WP were way behind the leaders (18 in the AL, I forget who did it, and 23 in the NL by Matt Clement). Besides he did it in 2000 on a passed ball by Einer Diaz and Diaz had only 4 on the year.

Here are the three linescores from the games:

5/12/99 (I had date wrong): Ana 1-@NYY 0, Finley: (w, 2-3) 8 IP, 3 H, 0 HR, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, 2 W

8/15/99: Ana 10-@Det 2, Finley: (W, 7-10) 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 HR, 2 R, 2ER, 2 BB, 12 K, 2 WP

4/19/00: @Clev 2-Tex 1, Finley (W, 1-0) 9 IP, 5 H, 0 HR, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 13 K, PB-Einer Diaz.