Tuesday, August 5, 2014

2014: COMPLETE GAMES #72, #73, #74, #75

Four more CGs over the past four days...we'll get to those in a moment. But--first--let's take a look at who has had the most CGs thrown at them thus far in 2014.

Yes, that's most thrown at, not thrown by. With 75 CGs (remember, 8+ IP) as of this afternoon, that averages out to 2.5 CGs per team. But, as you'd suspect, it's not that uniform.

So who's the team with the most "CGs against"? It's not really close. It's--

The Mariners. With a total of eight (8). They had one in April, two in May, two in June, and three in July.

The Padres are their only competition: they've had six (6) thrown against them.

The Mets have the early lead in August, however, and they can thank the Giants. First, Ryan Vogelsong (#72, 8/1) allowed only two hits in a 5-1 win (the only run coming on Lucas Duda's eight-inning home run.

Next, Madison Bumgarner, who's been giving ground of late, threw a two-hit shutout at them (#74, 8/3), needing only 95 pitches to complete the CG.

Earlier that same day, the Astros' Scott Feldman, having an indifferent year, scattered eight hits against the Blue Jays (#73, 8/3). He struck out only two, tying him with Lance Lynn for second place in the "least Ks in a CG" 2014 sweepstakes. (Rick Porcello would seem to have a lock on first, what with his 0-K performance back on July 1st.)

Last night (8/4, #75), Garrett Richards blanked the Dodgers on a five-hit shutout as the Angels took the first game in their in-season "Freeway Series." It broke Richards' two-game losing streak (he dropped games to the Tigers and O's in his previous two starts).

BTW, until Richards beat them with a CG last night, the Dodgers were undefeated in games where the opposition had thrown CGs against them. (No, it wasn't just one CG, it was two...wonder if anyone has managed to win all of the games where CGs have been thrown against them--it can't be more than two or three CGs over the course of a season, n'est-ce pas?)