Giants phenom Madison Bumgarner entered last night's game against the resurgent Twins with a 3.21 ERA. He left with a 4.06 ERA. Giving up eight runs in a third of an inning will do that to you. But it could have been worse. His reliever quashed a two-on, one out rally.
An average Game Score for a pitcher is about 50. Bumgarner's latest episode earned a 2.
The 21-year-old's previous worst outing in 2011 was a five-run, five-inning performance in his second start. He's surrendered two runs or fewer eight times this season. He won't be over 4.00 for long.
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The Phils' Cliff Lee and Cards Kyle Lohse squared off against each other Wednesday night and held each other's teams in check on three runs and 13 hits in 17 frames of work. They walked one and struck out three between them.
Think about that: 17 mostly impressive innings (all the runs scored against Lohse on a pair of dingers in the fourth) and only three whiffs. You know how often you see that? Never.
The reason is BABIP. Pitchers who don't fan batters are relying on balls being hit into gloves. That requires a gumbo of good defense and lucky placement. Lee's shutout withstood five line drives (75% of liners are hits, often for extra bases) and 17 grounders (skid through roughly 35% of the time, but mostly for singles). He induced just three pop-ups (almost always outs). In other words, Lee was either very lucky to surrender just two doubles and four singles, or he had some special sauce that resulted in the kinds of weakly-hit grounders and flies that return batters to their dugouts.
Lohse's case is as odd as his pronunciation. He didn't walk or strike out a single Phillie in eight innings. (It's only the 23rd time in 23 years that a pitcher has gone eight innings without a walk or strikeout.) Nary a double or triple passed his way either. But two of the 16 fly balls against him left the park, and that's why he lost. Lohse got two thirds of his pitches over the plate, but he wasn't fooling anyone. That's a bad combination for a righty facing Ryan Howard.
Lohse also out-performed his pitching profile, which would produce on average 13 safeties, rather than the seven he surrendered. Clearly, some nifty leather-working saved him, as the Cardinal defense turned three double plays behind him.
The bottom line is that in the long run, BABIP will float to the surface. That's why you don't see successful pitchers failing to get a even a single strike three.
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From baseball-reference.com:
Jack McKeon first managed the Royals in 1973. He had some great players during his time, like John Mayberry, Hal McRae, Lou Pinella and Paul Splitorff. Regarding those players:
- John Mayberry's son is now a big-leaguer
- Lou Piniella retired as a player, became a manager, and retired as a manager
- Ed Kirkpatrick and Paul Splittorff are deceased
- Hal McRae retired as a player, his son retired as a player, and McRae retired as a manager
McKeon? He's still managing 25-year-olds.
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This one's just a question. With the College World Series down to its final four (three SEC teams, including the hometown defending champion 'Cocks) did the city of Omaha really build a $130-million baseball stadium for just two weeks a year? The Triple-A Omaha Royals have their own park, as does the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
Someone please tell me I Googled a sham site. I wasn't aware anyone outside of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi was that dumb.
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