So again, some of you may notice that I am being less than consistent with what I wanted to be a “weekly” item in this space. However, that ship sailed because there are many wonderful things going on in my life that don’t include strikeouts or game scores or perfection.
However, in my defense, last week ago, my better half had her appendix removed over the weekend so understandably, this column got forgotten. Then last Saturday, my better half and I adopted what is quite possibly the cutest puppy that exists in the world, an adorable 10-week old German Shepherd/Chow Chow mix. So this column got delayed yet again.
NEWS FROM LAST WEEK
On April 17th, Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a no-hitter (more about this later), setting the bar at 88 for highest GS of the season. He held the top spot for 13 days, when Colby Lewis threw 9 shutout innings for a GS of 90 in a no-decision. That was the only GS at or above 90 in the first five weeks of the season. Last week, there were 3 games with a starter earning a GS of 90 or above.
First, Dallas Braden retired 27 Rays batters in order without allowing a baserunner of any kind. Yes, for those of you who read this blog but haven’t been paying attention to baseball recently, he threw the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history (more on this later as well). Then, two days later, Johnny Cueto of the Reds came within one measly single of another perfect game. His 9.0-1-0-0-0-8 line also earned him a GS of 93, matching Braden’s mark. Another two days later, Mat Latos of the Padres earned a GS of 91 with a 9.0-1-0-0-0-6 line. Not sure where this is
I’m not sure what is in the water guys are drinking these days but we are being treated to overall better starting pitching so far in May than we were in April. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Two more notes before I move on to the theme for this edition of Starting Pitchers 2010; Brett Cecil of the Blue Jays put forth the worst performance by a starting pitcher this week, earning (I use the term lightly) a GS of 8 (2.0-8-8-8-2-2). However, he didn’t get a win or a loss, since opposing starter Rich Harden allowed 7 runs over 2.2 innings (GS – 19).
Lastly, the Giants owe their most sincere apologies to Jonathon Sanchez. On May 13th, he put forth a line of 8.0-3-1-1-1-5 for a GS of 76… and he got a loss for his trouble. This is the second time that Sanchez has had a GS of over 75 and received a loss (78 on April 20th). Sanchez is so far the only pitcher to lose a game with a GS over 72 and he’s done it twice. Anyways, back to May 13th… on that day Mat Latos threw a shut-out, thus continuing the woes of the Giants whenever some guy named Sanchez starts the game.
FUN WITH PERFECTION (KINDA…)
Since we’ve had two no-hitters this year, I decided to go some digging on that very subject. For reasons that I won’t list here, the only no-hit games that I was able to investigate were those starting in the 1952 season. I didn’t look up how many that left out so don’t ask; it still gave me a pool of 139 no-hitters and 14 perfect games from which to draw conclusions… or at least interesting tidbits.
Highest GS?
On September 9th, 1965, Sandy Koufax threw the fourth and final no-hitter of his illustrious career. He threw a perfect game and struck out 14 for a GS of 101. Matching that feat was Nolan Ryan, who didn’t allow a hit to the Blue Jays on May 1st, 1991. Ryan walked 2 and struck out 16 in what would also be his last (of 7) career no-hitter.
Lowest GS?
55 by Roy Oswalt in 2003. Now, you might be asking yourself how he got such a low score in a no-hitter. Well, he pitched only one inning. The Astros used Oswalt and five relievers in that no-hitter and Oswalt was the starter that night. Anyways, in the spirit of the question, the lowest GS in a 9-inning no-hitter was achieved by Joe Cowley in 1985, George Culver in 1968, and Ken Holtzman in 1969, all of whom earned a GS of 84. Cowley was one of three pitchers to allow an earned run in a no-hitter (9.0-0-1-1-7-8), Culver was one of the other 7 to allow a run of any kind (9.0-0-1-0-5-4), and Holtzman achieved his relatively low GS by not striking out a single batter (9.0-0-0-0-3-0).
Most Walks in a No-Hitter?
10, by Steve Barber in 1967 and Jim Maloney in 1965. The biggest difference is while Barber couldn’t get the last out of his no-hitter (8.2-0-2-1-10-3), Maloney managed to be the only pitcher since 1952 to throw a no-hitter and record more than 27 outs (10.0-0-0-0-10-12).
Most Strikeouts in a No-Hitter?
5 times has a pitcher allowed no hits and struck out 15 or more batters and Nolan Ryan did it three times. Ryan put together a line of 9.0-0-0-0-4-17 in 1973 (100) and a line of 9.0-0-0-0-2-16 (101) in 1991. After that, Ryan (9.0-0-0-0-8-15), Don Wilson (9.0-0-0-0-3-15), and Warren Spahn (9.0-0-0-0-2-15) have all struck out 15 batters in a no-hitter.
So where do Jimenez and Braden rank (by GS) amongst these performances? Ubaldo Jimenez’s no-hitter produced the 116th highest GS out of 139 games, mostly due to his 6 walks, tied for 12th highest amongst no-hitters.
Braden’s perfecto ranks 63rd, largely due to the fact that he “only” struck out 6 batters. By comparison, in the 14 perfects games since 1952, the starter has averaged 9.2 strikeouts and only Mark Buehrle (6) and Dennis Martinez (5) struck out as few batters as Braden.
Lastly, those 139 no-hitters produced an average GS of 89.1, with an average line of 8.8-0.0-0.1-0.0-2.8-7.5.
That’s all for this installment ladies and gentlemen, but next up, I’m going to examine Cy Young award winners by average GS over the course of their Cy Young winning season. Out of curiosity, who do you think will be highest?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment