page_title: Ed Killian
section_title: The "twilight twirler"
hierarchical_section_title: Ed Killian / Professional baseball player / Detroit Tigers (1904-10) / The "twilight twirler"
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Detroit baseball player Ed Killian.
context_page_description: Edwin Henry Killian, nicknamed "Twilight Ed" and the "Twilight Twirler", was an American left-handed baseball pitcher.
  Killian played professional baseball from 1902 to 1912, including seven seasons with the Detroit Tigers from 1904 to 1910. He recorded a won-loss record of 103-78 for a winning percentage of .569. Twice a 20-game winner, Killian's career earned run average of 2.38 ranks 26th best in major league history. He also helped lead the Tigers to three consecutive American League pennants from 1907 to 1909, including winning both games of a doubleheader on September 30, 1909, to clinch the third pennant.
  As a hitter, Killian posted a .209 batting average with 56 runs, 52 RBI and 16 bases on balls.
  Killian allowed only nine home runs during his major league career. He holds the major league record for the longest streak without allowing a home run -- a streak of 1,001 innings that ran from September 19, 1903, to August 7, 1907.
  Killian played in the minor leagues for the Rockford Red Sox of the Three-I League and the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League.
context_section_description: In January 1904, Killian was traded by the Naps with Jesse Stovall to the Detroit Tigers for Billy Lush.  Killian pitched the rest of his major league career with the Tigers.  In 1904, Killian had 32 complete games and a 2.44 ERA in 331 innings, but lost 20 games. The 1904 Tigers team (one year before the arrival of Ty Cobb) was a weak-hitting group that compiled a .231 team batting average (nearly 60 points lower than Mullin) and finished in seventh place.
  As proof that his 1904 win-loss record was not indicative of his talents, Killian battled Cy Young in one of the most remarkable pitching duels in history on May 11, 1904.  Young and Killian each pitched 14 scoreless innings, before the Red Sox scored a run in the 15th inning, winning 1–0. Early in his career with the Tigers, Killian received the nicknames "Twilight Ed" and the "Twilight Twirler") after pitching multiple extra-inning games that extended into the twilight hours.
  In 1905, Killian reduced his ERA further to 2.27.  He started 37 games and completed 33.  He wound up with a 23–14 record, the third best win total in the American League  and fourth best in complete games. His eight shutouts in 1905 was tops in the American League.
caption: Killian in 1908
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