Twitter / Email

Follow us on twitter: @allthingsastros or email us at astrosastrosastros15@outlook.com

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Importance of Starting Pitching

After starting the season 10-30, the Astros are 14-14 in their last 28 games. That's .500 baseball, folks. And if you want to know why, look no further than the Astros starting pitching during that stretch:

  Opponent W/L IP H R ER BB SO QS
Keuchel 5/15 @ Detroit ND 5 2/3 7 5 4 2 3  
Lyles 5/17 @ Pittsburgh ND 5 4 2 1 2 4  
Bedard 5/18 @ Pittsburgh ND 6 7 2 2 0 3 Y
Harrell 5/19 @ Pittsburgh L 7 4 1 1 1 3 Y
Keuchel 5/20 vs Kansas City W 6 2/3 9 4 4 4 6  
Norris 5/21 vs Kansas City ND 6 5 0 0 2 2 Y
Lyles 5/22 vs Kansas City W 6 6 1 1 1 3 Y
Bedard 5/24 vs Oakland ND 5 4 2 2 5 4  
Harrell 5/25 vs Oakland L 1 2/3 6 6 6 3 1  
Keuchel 5/26 vs Oakland L 6 10 6 6 1 4  
Norris 5/27 vs Colorado ND 7 8 2 2 3 3 Y
Lyles 5/28 vs Colorado ND 7 6 1 1 3 3 Y
Bedard 5/29 @ Colorado ND 6 7 2 2 3 4 Y
Harrell 5/30 @ Colorado W 5 2/3 8 4 3 4 2  
Keuchel 5/31 @ LA Angels W 7 6 2 2 0 4 Y
Norris 6/1 @ LA Angels W 6 4 0 0 3 6 Y
Lyles 6/2 @ LA Angels W 5 2/3 6 2 2 1 5  
Bedard 6/3 @ LA Angels W 7 5 1 1 1 2 Y
Harrell 6/4 vs Baltimore L 7 5 2 1 0 6 Y
Keuchel 6/5 vs Baltimore W 6 5 1 1 2 3 Y
Norris 6/6 vs Baltimore L 7 9 3 3 1 7 Y
Lyles 6/7 @ Kansas City ND 7 6 2 2 1 3 Y
Bedard 6/8 @ Kansas City L 4 2/3 8 6 6 3 2  
Harrell 6/9 @ Kansas City ND 7 2 0 0 3 1 Y
Keuchel 6/10 @ Seattle L 6 7 2 1 0 6 Y
Norris 6/11 @ Seattle L 7 5 3 3 1 6 Y
Lyles 6/12 @ Seattle ND 7 3 0 0 2 10 Y
Bedard 6/14 vs ChiSox W 6 3 1 0 3 6 Y


In summary, over the last 28 games, the Astros rotation - much maligned in the early part of the season - is 9-8 with an ERA of 3.00, a WHIP of 1.29, and 19 quality starts. Compare that to just 10 quality starts in Houston's first 40 games. Only 5 times has a Houston starter allowed more than 3 earned runs in a game, and three of those starts were by Dallas Keuchel, two of which the Astros won anyways. Here's a breakdown of each pitcher over the recent stretch:

Pitcher Starts/Quality W/L IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
Lyles 6/4 2-0 37 2/3 31 8 7 10 28 1.67 1.09
Norris 5/5 1-2 33 31 8 8 10 24 2.18 1.24
Bedard 6/4 2-1 34 2/3 34 14 13 15 21 3.38 1.41
Harrell 5/3 1-3 28 1/3 25 13 11 11 13 3.49 1.27
Keuchel 6/3 3-2 37 1/3 44 20 18 9 26 4.34 1.42




























Every single pitcher is pitching better. Want to see ERA's before this recent stretch of good pitching?

Lyles - Before: 8.36, After: 3.48
Norris - Before: 4.32, After: 3.47
Bedard - Before: 6.67, After: 4.82
Harrell - Before: 5.11, After: 4.52
Keuchel - Before: 4.43, After: 4.37

With a little more help from the bullpen and some more support from the offense, that's a pretty respectable rotation. Don't believe me? The Oakland A's are 41-28 on the year. Here are the ERAs and records of their top 5 starters:

Tommy Milone - 6-6, 3.61
Jarrod Parker - 5-6, 4.45
A.J. Griffin - 5-5, 3.78
Bartolo Colon - 8-2, 2.92
Dan Straily - 4-2, 4.45

Believe it or not, the Astros are getting on the right track.

No comments:

Post a Comment