How Often Do MLB Games End in a Shutout? Scores and Fair Odds
Across 61,233 MLB games, roughly one in nine ended with the loser on zero. Here is how those shutouts finish, which side gets blanked, and what a fair price looks like.
Few results in baseball feel as complete as a shutout, and bettors are regularly offered a price on one. So I went to public records and asked a simple question: across MLB regular-season games of nine or more innings from 2000 to 2025, how often did the losing team finish on zero, and what does that frequency say about a fair price?
The headline answer is 11.8% of 61,233 games, or 7,241 shutouts, which converts to fair odds of +747 before any bookmaker margin. That number feeds into how I frame run-suppression angles on my free baseball tips page, but the detail underneath it matters more than the headline, so let me walk through it chart by chart.
Period 1Any shutout prices at +747 with no margin
This table is the reference card. Any shutout landed in 11.8% of games with a 95% range of ยฑ0.3, so the sample is large enough that the base rate is tight. The home team was blanked in 5.3% of games (fair odds +1787) and the road team in 6.5% (fair odds +1438).
| Outcome | Games | Rate | 95% range | Fair odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any shutout | 7,241 | 11.8% | ยฑ0.3 | +747 |
| Home team shut out | 3,250 | 5.3% | ยฑ0.2 | +1787 |
| Road team shut out | 3,991 | 6.5% | ยฑ0.2 | +1438 |
| 1-0 final | 1,073 | 1.8% | ยฑ0.1 | +5456 |
| 2-0 final | 1,097 | 1.8% | ยฑ0.1 | +5456 |
| Shutout by 5+ runs | 3,016 | 4.9% | ยฑ0.2 | +1941 |
The exact-score lines are where I slow down. A 1-0 final and a 2-0 final each came in at 1.8% of all games, both pricing at +5456, while a shutout by five or more runs sat at 4.9% for a fair +1941. Those long numbers are easy to misjudge by feel, which is exactly why I keep them written down.
Period 2The shutout share has climbed since the early 2000s
A single long-run average hides real movement. The lowest season in the file was 2000 at 8.4%, and the peak came in 2014 at 14.6%. The early 2010s ran consistently high, there was a dip in the late part of that decade, and 2025 finished at 13.6%, comfortably above the full-period figure.
View the data: games ending in a shutout, by season
| Shutout % | |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 8.4% |
| 2001 | 9.3% |
| 2002 | 11.3% |
| 2003 | 10.6% |
| 2004 | 10.4% |
| 2005 | 10.7% |
| 2006 | 10.6% |
| 2007 | 9.9% |
| 2008 | 11.1% |
| 2009 | 11.3% |
| 2010 | 13.5% |
| 2011 | 13.3% |
| 2012 | 12.7% |
| 2013 | 13.6% |
| 2014 | 14.6% |
| 2015 | 13.9% |
| 2016 | 11.4% |
| 2017 | 10.8% |
| 2018 | 12.8% |
| 2019 | 11.0% |
| 2020 | 9.8% |
| 2021 | 11.8% |
| 2022 | 13.9% |
| 2023 | 12.6% |
| 2024 | 13.2% |
| 2025 | 13.6% |
Here is the main caveat in my own words: any one season can drift by a point or more on chance alone, and 2020 was a 60-game season, so I would not read too much into a single year. What I do take from this line is that the recent run of seasons sits above 11.8% more often than not, so the long-run +747 may be slightly generous to the 'no shutout' side in the current environment.
Period 3Road teams get blanked more often in every era
Splitting the data into eras shows the home-road gap is stable. In 2000-09 the home team was shut out in 4.5% of games and the road team in 5.8%. In 2010-19 those rates rose to 5.8% and 7.0%, and in 2020-25 they were 5.9% and 7.0%.
View the data: home vs road team shut out, by era
| Home blanked | Road blanked | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000-09 (24,221 games) | 4.5% | 5.8% |
| 2010-19 (24,232 games) | 5.8% | 7.0% |
| 2020-25 (12,780 games) | 5.9% | 7.0% |
Two things stand out to me. Both sides got blanked more often after the 2000s, and the road side has carried the higher rate in every period. That fits the broader result that home teams won 55.1% of shutout games, so if I am pricing a team-specific shutout, the venue goes into the calculation before anything else.
Period 4Shutouts cluster tightly at 2-0, 1-0 and 3-0
Among the 7,241 shutouts, 2-0 was the most common final at 15.1%, with 1-0 and 3-0 both at 14.8% and 4-0 close behind at 13.6%. After that the bars fall away steadily, with 5-0 at 11.2% and 8-0 at 5.
The surprise is the tail. Blowouts of 9-0 or wider made up 10.7% of shutouts, so a shutout is not only a pitchers' duel; plenty of them arrive in lopsided games where the trailing lineup simply never gets going.
View the data: how shutouts finish
| Share of 7,241 shutouts by final score | |
|---|---|
| 1-0 | 14.8% |
| 2-0 | 15.1% |
| 3-0 | 14.8% |
| 4-0 | 13.6% |
| 5-0 | 11.2% |
| 6-0 | 8.0% |
| 7-0 | 6.7% |
| 8-0 | 5.0% |
| 9-0 or more | 10.7% |
For exact-score betting, this tells me the first three scores are almost interchangeable in frequency. I would not pay a premium for 2-0 over 1-0 or 3-0 on the strength of that narrow lead at the top.
Full-time verdict
A fair price for any shutout across the full sample is +747, based on 11.8% of games. Recent seasons such as 2025 at 13.6% suggest the true rate may now be a touch higher, so treat anything far shorter than that anchor with suspicion.
The road team was shut out in 6.5% of games against 5.3% for the home team, and that gap held in every era. Fair odds of +1438 versus +1787 reflect it, so check the venue before backing a team to be blanked.
Shutouts of 9-0 or more were 10.7% of all shutouts, and five-run-plus shutouts were 4.9% of all games. Do not assume a shutout means a low total; match it with the starting pitching matchup and the opposing lineup's form.
Questions bettors ask
How often does an MLB game end in a shutout?
Across 61,233 regular-season games of nine or more innings from 2000 to 2025, 11.8% ended with the losing team on zero runs. That works out to fair odds of +747 with no bookmaker margin.
What is the most common shutout score in MLB?
2-0 was the most common, at 15.1% of shutouts. 1-0 and 3-0 were right behind at 14.8% each, so the three are very close.
Are home or road teams shut out more often?
Road teams were blanked in 6.5% of games and home teams in 5.3%. Home teams also won 55.1% of all shutout games in the sample.
I'm Yuki Tanaka, and I write the baseball winning tips at correct-score.vip โ a sport where pitching matchups and patience matter more than anything.
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