Yes, we’re back for all those of you who were anxiously awaiting this next post… (I just hope there’s at least one of you out there…)
But enough sulking! There’s pitching to discuss! There were another 93 games this week in the Majors and plenty of quirks.
The average GS of starting pitchers this week was 47.8, down slightly from the 49.6 mark last week. The low water mark was Monday the 12th when pitchers combined for an ERA of 5.80 and an average GS of 42.0. On the flip side of that coin, yesterday was the high water mark of the season and pitchers combined for a losing record (9-10), but had an ERA of 3.03 (second best single day mark) and an average GS of 55.0, by far the highest single day average this season.
Last week there were just two single games with a GS over 80 and I attribute this more to the time of the season than anything else. The single easiest way to get a high game score is to pitch longer. One point for every out and two points for every inning after the 4th adds up very quickly (to the tune of 37 points for a complete game).
There were five games with a GS over 80 this week; Doug Fister (80) of the Mariners against the Athletics (8.0-3-0-0-0-4), Livan Hernandez (80) of the Nationals against the Brewers (9.0-4-0-0-2-3), Ricky Romero (82) of the Blue Jays against the White Sox (8.0-1-2-2-2-12), Jonathon Sanchez (84) of the Giants against the Pirates (8.0-3-0-0-3-11), and finally Ubaldo Jimenez of the Rockies against the Braves.
Jimenez became the first pitcher in the 18 year history of the franchise to throw a no-hitter last night, walking 6 and striking out 7 for a GS of 88, the highest mark so far this season. I was only able to watch the last four innings (which apparently is when he stopped walking people) and his performance in those innings was nothing short of masterful. He had excellent movement and tremendous velocity (hitting 98 on the radar gun in the 9th inning) and the Braves never put solid wood on the ball except for once. Troy Glaus hit a sinking line drive into the gap in left centerfield that looked for sure like it was going to drop except in just about every no-hitter, there is at least one remarkable defensive play that saves the game and this was it. Centerfielder Dexter Fowler had the ball in his sights the whole time and caught it as he was falling to the turf, never taking his eyes off the ball to brace his fall. Congratulations Ubaldo, but it’s time to get back to the other frivolities this week offered.
- Lowest GS in a Win? 39 by Luke Hochevar of the Royals (5.0-6-5-4-3-5)
- Highest GS in a Loss? 68 by Brett Myers of the Astros (7.0-4-2-1-2-7)
- Lowest GS in a Loss? 8 by Jeremy Bonderman of the Tigers (4.0-9-10-8-4-4) with a nod to Jason Hammel (9) of the Rockies (1.2-8-7-7-3-1)
- Highest GS in a No-Decision? 78 by Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals (7.0-1-0-0-2-5)
- Lowest GS in a No-Decision? 11 by Craig Stammen of the Nationals (1.1-7-7-7-1-0)
- Highest Combined GS? 155 and surprisingly, it wasn’t the Rockies-Braves game that included a no-hitter (that game came in at just 123, 88 for Jimenez and 35 for Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami). It was the Mets-Cardinals game where the first run came in the 19th inning. Jaime Garcia and Johan Santana combined to pitch 14 innings, allowed 5 hits, walked 3, struck out 14, and neither pitcher got a decision in the game. By the way, these game ranked 7th and 8th (out of 186) this week in GS and they were two of the three games with a GS over 70 that didn’t record a win.
- Lowest Combined GS? 28 in the Phillies-Nationals game. If the previous game was the Tough-Luck game (great performances spoiled by a lack of run production) this was the All-Luck Game. Kyle Kendrick and Craig Stammen combined to record 9 outs… not innings, outs. They allowed 13 hits, 13 runs (all earned), walk 4 and strike out just 1.
- Largest difference in GS? 57 between Felix Hernandez (65) and Jeremy Bonderman (8).
- Only once this week did a lower GS pitcher record a win while a higher GS pitcher recorded a loss. James Shields of the Rays posted a 46 (6.2-9-4-4-1-7), a fairly good line considering the 9 hits and 4 runs. Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox posted a GS of 56 (5.0-3-4-0-4-7) and got the loss. Obviously this situation was facilitated by the fact that both starters gave up four runs, but Buchholz’s score was bolstered by the fact that none of the runs he allowed were earned.
That’s all for this week but stay tuned for more useless information about starting pitching, hopefully coming to you every week through the season (we’ll see how that works out).
Until next time, hard in, soft away, rock ‘n’ fire!
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