Brandon Webb is flirting with baseball history. Tonight he will attempt to add to his amazing string of scoreless innings pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The record is 59 innings held by former Los Angeles Dodgers great Orel Hershiser. The previous record was 58 and 2/3 rds innings by another former Dodger great, Don Drysdale. Brandon is facing a red hot Milwaukee Brewers team that has scored 16 runs in their last 2 games against the Diamondbacks. Shutting them down would be remarkable but keep in mind he most recently shut out the Florida Marlins and the Atlanta Braves, 2 teams that can absolutely rake the baseball. As a matter of face he has thrown 3 consecutive shutouts.
The wife of the late Don Drysdale, Ann Meyers Drysdale, who is the General Manager of the Phoenix Mercury told me that luck played a huge part in her husbands streak as well as Hershiser's. Late in his streak, Drysdale actually hit a batter but the umpire ruled the batter moved into the pitch, thus the streak lived on. Hershiser's lived on when a very close play at the plate was called in his favor. During Webbs streak, I can think of a couple of Chris Young plays in center, a huge double play by Orlando Hudson and Steven Drew but for the most part, he's been dominating.
Keep in mind that the sinker ball genius is still 18 innings away from breaking the record. He'll need some of that luck to get there. If he doesn't and the Diamondbacks win, Brandon Webb will be very happy. There's no question he would love to record but he's genuinely a humble hero that always puts his team first and no, he didn't pay me a dime to write that.

Gary Cruz - CBS 5 Sports Anchor
gcruz@kpho.com