Papelbon’s First Four-Game Stretch Without A Strikeout

In blowing his second straight save tonight (How the hell do you walk Carlos Gomez?), Jonathan Papelbon now has only one strikeout in his last 5.2 innings pitched and is on a four-game stretch without a punchout.

He has only gone three consecutive games pitched without a K one other time in his career, last year from September 22nd to the 28th (2.1 IP).

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 5 IP, 8 BB, 2 H

The disgusting line of 5 IP, 8 BB, 2 H has only been accomplished four other times in major league history…

Randy Johnson, 05-18-1997
Stan Williams, 06-29-1962
Darren Dreifort, 04-07-2000
William Van Landingham, 06-15-1997

Surprisingly, the worst anyone faired was Randy Johnson with 4 earned runs allowed. Williams allowed 3 ER, Dreifort 2 ER, with Van Landingham and Matsuzaka 1 ER each.

Red Sox Starting Pitching

Below is a graph of the Pure Quality Starts log for the Red Sox 5 main starting pitchers — Beckett, Matsuzaka, Buchholz, Lester and Wakefield.  As you can see, the starts have been really awesome of late, it’s only too bad that some of the starts came during a really rough stretch for the Sox hitters.

Here is how PSQ works:

How is PQS different? The old Quality Start method — minimum 6 IP, maximum 3 earned runs - is overly simplistic and does not measure any real skill. Bill James’ Game Score methodology is better, but is not feasible for quick calculation.

In PQS, we give a starting pitcher credit for exhibiting certain skills in each of his starts. Then by tracking his “PQS Score” over time, we can follow his progress. Here are the criteria…

1. The pitcher must have gone a minimum of 6 innings. This measures stamina. For a 6 IP performance, the pitcher gets 1 point. If he goes less than 5 innings, he automatically gets a total PQS score of zero, no matter what other stats he posted.

2. He must have allowed no more than an equal number of hits to the number of innings pitched. This measures hit prevention and earns him 1 point.

3. His number of strikeouts must be no fewer than two less than his innings pitched (IP minus K must be 2 or less). This measures dominance and earns him 1 point.

4. He must have struck out at least twice as many batters as he walked. This measures command and earns him 1 point.

5. He must have allowed no more than one home run. This measures his ability to keep the ball in the park and earns him 1 point.

5 and 4 points are DOMINANT starts, 3 and 2 points are AVERAGE starts, 1 and 0 points are DISASTER starts.