The other day, fellow SABR member Brian Rash informed me about White Sox Bobby Jenks's amazing pitching streak, which has gone completely under the radar:

On July 17, 2007, Jenks gave up a 2-run homer to Ryan Garko, then retired the next three batters.
Over his next 11 appearances (from July 19 thru Aug 8, last night), Jenks faced 32 batters and has retired every one of them (plus, he got a DP on an inherited runner, making it 33 OUTS in a row over those 11 games).

So, Jenks has now retired 35 straight batters (for 36 outs thanks to that double play) since any batter has reached base in any way, making it equivalent to a 12 inning perfect game!

Only a few pitchers have retired 35 or more batters in a row:

41-Jim Barr, SF NL, 1972
40-Tom Browning, CIN NL, 1988
39-Randy Johnson, ARI NL, 2004
38-Harvey Haddix, PIT NL, 1959
38-David Wells, NYY AL, 1998
35-Bobby Jenks, CHI AL, 2007
(source: Brian Rash)

Jenks has also pitched 11 straight games without allowing a baserunner.  Here are the top marks for consecutive appearances without allowing a baserunner since 1957:

G	PITCHER	TEAM	DATES	IP
13	John Franco	CIN	10/3/1986-5/08/1987	13
11	Pedro Borbon	ATL	5/05/1995-6/10/1995	7.2
11	Bobby Jenks	CHA	7/19/2007-PRESENT	11
10	Paul Assenmacher	NYY	8/04/1993-8/29/1993	7.1
10	Tony Fossas	STL	4/28/1995-5/23/1995	5

But if you impose a minimum of 1 inning pitched per appearance to get rid of the pitchers who just face a hitter or two and then come out, you get:

Most consecutive games without allowing a baserunner, min 1IP per game, since 1957:

G	PITCHER	TEAM	DATES	IP
11	Bobby Jenks	CHA	7/19/2007-present	11
8	John Wetteland	NYY	9/19/1995-4/09/1996	8.1
8	Jeff Montgomery	KC	7/19/1997-8/06/1997	8
8	David Cortes	COL	8/07/2005-8/27/2005	10

So Jenks has no competition when it comes to pitching a perfect inning every time out, as he surpasses the old record by almost 40%, and he's still going!


STREAKS TO WATCH
--Chone Figgins, LAA AL, has gone 105-for-262 (.401) since May 24, which easily makes it the longest stretch of hitting .400 this season.  He can attempt to match Tony Gwynn's since-1980 record of maintaining a .400 average over a 730 at-bat stretch.  Ichiro's best streak was maintaining a .400 average over 535 at-bats.

--The longest active hitting streak is 14 games, by Melky Cabrera, NYY AL.
--The longest active on-base streak is 37 games, by Kevin Millar, BAL AL.

A CENTURY OF COBB
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 years ago:
August 9, 1907: Cobb did not play