Thursday, July 02, 2009

NL Least

The Phillies lost tonight in Atlanta, pulling the Marlins into a tie for the division lead. As a side note, Jair Jurrjens was the winning pitching on Wednesday night and on Thursday night scored what proved to be the winning run (as a pinch runner). I wonder how often a pitcher has won a game and scored the winning run on back-to-back nights?

Anyway, here is a look at the starting pitching in the division, using our favorite stat, the Game Score. Remember, last year teams with a score of 50 or better won at a .683 pace. The first number below is the Game Scores of 50 or better, followed by the team's W-L record in those contests.

Philadelphia 33 (20-13 .606)
Florida 39 (28-11 .718)
New York 44 (30-14 .682)
Atlanta 46 (30-16 .652)
Washington 33 (16-17 .485)

Interesting that Philly and Washington have the same number of 50+ starts. Phillies fans can hope improved starting pitching. Such would seem reasonable, except the longer the season goes on, the more one wonders whether Hamels and Co. will flip the switch. The Fightins have won 19 games in which their starter's Game Score was below 50, which one would figure cannot continue. The Mets and Braves have only won 8 and 7, respectively.

The Mets, for all their woes, have a better Score total than I expected.

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