A funny thing happened in New York City tonight. Was it your face? …No. Steven Wright and his second rate knuckleball made easy work of the Yankees, going 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks as he escaped with the Win. Why is this funny? Because it’s teh second straight start where Wright has at least 8 Ks. Previously he could only reach eight strikeouts previously by combining his previously two highest totals. Wright had never K’d more than four batters all season, and now he’s done it in back-to-back starts. Wait! Hold on! Don’t jump to the wire just yet. Entering last night’s outing, Wright held a 5.24 FIP and 4.83 xFIP. At the end of this tale, we have a guy who has a pair of solid starts and a bunch more clunkers under his belt. What’s the moral of this story? Don’t trust a knuckleballer.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
Madison Bumgarner – 7.1 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 9 Ks. Aces.
Danny Salazar – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 7 Ks. Gonna.
Matt Harvey – 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 6 Ks. Ace. Great to see Harvey back on track.
Taylor Jungmann – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 8 Ks. I’m telling you, run with the not-old man. You’ll be happy.
Luis Severino – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. It was a pretty impressive debut that I’ll go into much detail about tomorrow in his GIF Breakdown. TL;DR Pick him up now and he’ll be ranked near #50 next week. Think Nola with a little more K upside, but a slightly less polished.
Brett Anderson – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. Our Call Boy took advantage of the Phils despite Philadelphia holding the best record in the majors since the ASB. Hey, that’s baseball.
Matt Boyd – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 2 Ks. It was his first start for the Tigers are arriving in the David Price summer bonanza deal. Boyd has some decent stuff but it lacks the polish to consistently put away batters. He could throw up a 7/8 K start, then a 2/3 like tonight. It’s good for him that he’s out of Rogers Centre though. Boy did that place smell of HRs. Yuck.
Johnny Cueto – 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. This is kinda belghy Cueto. I know you’re part of the Royals now, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to collect strikeouts like your offense.
Nick Martinez – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 Hits, 3 BBs, 1 Ks. Nick, you know you were named after the creepiest man ever, right? Santa Claus visits every kid in the world during the darkest hour of the night and what does he do? HE GIVES THEM PRESENTS. This is ignoring the fact he knows when you’re sleeping and who’s naughty or nice. Jeez, what were parents thinking.
Taijuan Walker – 7.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks. And now we’re suddenly back to Sucky Walker, lone ranger. Okay, he gets a small pass because this was inside the cesspool that is Coors (drink PBR kids!), but those blindly plugging after his last brilliant effort should be well aware of the awesome abs situation.
Hector Santiago – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. While his ERA is finally regressing, it’s nice to see his K/BB isn’t. Interesting…Watson! Bring me my hat. Where are we going sir? Nowhere, I just like my hat. A lot.
David Holmberg – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Blegh.
Rubby De La Rosa – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Blegh Blegh.
Jeff Locke – 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks. BLEGH BLEGH BLEGH. Do you need a cough drop? No, I’m fine. I’m just allergic to consistent mediocrity.
Ian Kennedy – 7.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks. FIP/xFIP are super cool because they can tell you that despite having eleven straight starts of 3 or fewer ER, Kennedy was due to end that streak very soon as he had a 4.43 FIP during that span. I will say that I’m kinda impressed with the 15.5% K-BB% he’s held up. Golf clap.
Scott Kazmir – 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. This isn’t all that bad, just he didn’t last long enough to get a few more Ks and even out the WHIP. Just one of those nights.
Gio Gonzalez – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks. One of the more impressive outings from Gio and it came with a 1.80 WHIP. That’s Gio for you! Cue 80s sitcom music…Zoom in on Gio who now has his arms folded as he leans back against nothing…roll credits and fade to black… That’s a wrap folks! Good job today.
Carlos Martinez – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks. CMart has seen happier days. It’s called Happy Days. Dude, I doubt he’s seen that.
Wei-Yin Chen – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 Hits, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. Awwww, but I liked being on the Chen Train! It had some really cool perks, like being a train.
Kendall Graveman – 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks. The regression is here and is not going anywhere. This is the Kendall Beall of his ability.
Erasmo Ramirez – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. I never really had all that much confidence in Erasmo, but I guess he’s still an okay ERA guy for those desperate in deeeeep leagues or in AL-only leagues.
Dan Haren – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. He’s no longer the ace of Miami because he’s out of Miami. Glad he got the memo.
Chris Rusin – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Rusin has limited upside, pitches his home games at Coors Field, and doesn’t deserve a spot on your team. This should be the blurb for every Colorado starter.
Carlos Rodon – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. I know there’s upside in here somewhere, but when digging so far you’ve hit C level, we have a problem. It’s sea level, Nick. Random fella, I’m giving him a letter grade and trying to be clever n stuff. Just go with it.
Drew Hutchison – 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 Hits, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. This game was at home which means he didn’t get blown up and escaped with a Win. He’s now 10-2 with a 5.42 ERA and 1.52 WHIP. Wat.
Aaron Harang – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 5 BBs, 1 Ks. HAAARRRRANNNGGG!!!
Williams Perez – 6.0 IP, 5 ER, 10 Hits, 2 BBs, 2 Ks. So glad he’s back from the DL. So glad.
Tyler Duffey – 2.0 IP, 6 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 1 Ks. You’re not supposed to start pitchers in their debut unless it’s a premier prospect, and even then it’s iffy. You definitely don’t start a guy like Duffey that if you live outside of Minnesota you thought was that guy on the Royals.
David Phelps – 4.1 IP, 7 ER, 8 Hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks. Has Phelps been startable at all this year?
Today’s Streamer
Joe Ross vs. Arizona Diamondbacks – Sure, it’s not the best matchup, but it’s the last we’ll have from Ross for a long while and you best milk that cow before she moves to another pasture. Or something like that.
Tomorrow’s Streamer
Aaron Nola vs. San Diego Padres – He’s in Petco, the Phils have been streaking, and Nola is a much sturdier pitcher than his sub 45% ESPN owned rate indicates.
Game of the Day
Joe Ross vs. Arizona Diamondbacks – It’s like graduation day, but the opposite and super sad. I hope he gets a proper statement to end his fantastic stint in the bigs.