who has the lowest era in mlb history
List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders The lowest single-season ERA in league history was posted by Tim Keefe, whose 0.86 ERA in 105 innings pitched for the National League's Troy Trojans in 1880 led his closest competitor by .52 runs.[13] In the American League, Dutch Leonard's 0.96 ERA is a single-season record.[14] Keefe and Leonard are the only two pitchers ever to allow less than one run per nine innings pitched in a single season. The widest margin of victory for an ERA champion is 1.96 runs, achieved when Martínez' 1.74 ERA led Clemens' 3.70 in the American League during the 2000 season. The largest margin of victory in the National League is 1.26 runs—Dazzy Vance's 2.61 ERA over Carl Hubbell's 3.87 in 1930. The smallest margin of victory for an ERA champion is .009 runs. Although the statistic is traditionally recorded to two decimal places by most sources,[15][16][17] the 1988 American League title was decided by a margin of less than one hundredth of a run when Allan Anderson's ERA of 2.446 (55 earned runs in ​202 1⁄3 innings)[18] bested Teddy Higuera's 2.455 mark (62 earned runs in ​227 1⁄3 innings).[19] Other contests decided by one hundredth or less include Luis Tiant's 1.91 ERA ahead of Gaylord Perry's 1.92 in 1972[20][21] and Mark Fidrych (2.34) over Vida Blue (2.35) in 1976.[22][23]
List of Major League Baseball annual shutout leaders Walter Johnson holds the career shutout record with 110. The most shutouts pitched in one season was 16, which was a feat accomplished by both Pete Alexander (1916) and George Bradley (1876). In the dead-ball era and throughout much of the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, starting pitchers were generally expected to perform complete games, and starting pitchers would throw dozens of complete games a year — thereby increasing a pitcher's chances of achieving a shutout. These shutout records are among the most secure records in baseball, as pitchers today rarely earn more than one or two shutouts per season with the heavy emphasis on pitch counts and relief pitching. Pitchers today will often pitch only a few, if any, complete games a season. In 2009, five pitchers tied the National League with only two shutouts, and in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2015, the American League leaders also only had two shutouts.