Justin Germano: Who would have guessed that after his first three starts Germano’s ERA would sit at 0.47? Another terrific outing by Germano, 6 IP, 6H, 1 BB, 0 ER but also no strikeouts. As good as he’s been you have to think this is unsustainable. Justin has only struck out 5 in 19 innings thus far. Pitching coaches and TV talking heads like to talk about pitching to contact but you’ve got to strike some guys out if you’re going to be successful. Striking out well under 3 per 9 innings isn’t going to get it done in the big leagues.
One thing I noticed after Germano’s last start was he didn’t throw his curve the first time through. I also speculated that may have been due to Bowen catching instead of Bard. So what did Germano throw today?
Looks like the same pattern as his first start when Bard was catching. A lot of curveballs mixed in there. I haven’t looked at the location data but he seemed to miss a lot with those curveballs but fortunately he missed badly enough that the Mariner hitters couldn’t do anything with them.
Heath Bell: Another ho hum performance from Bell. 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K. How crazy is it that the Padres have so many guys that just dominate out of the pen? This can’t possibly last all season but I’m enjoying it while I can.
Scott Linebrink: Speaking of pitching to contact, Scottie’s K/9IP is down to 5.23 this year after being over 8 each of the last 3 years. However, his H/9IP is down to 5.66, it was 8.33 last year. We’re only talking about 21 IP so it may not be anything to worry about. He may just be trying to be more efficient, his pitches per IP is a career low 13.98.
Trevor Hoffman: A little drama today as Trevor gave up a couple of singles to start the 9th before getting a foul pop, a fly out and a strike out to end the game.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Didi // May 21, 2007 at 10:17 am
Yup, I kept thinking that Justin was going to get hit hard yesterday after missing with a few of his curveballs. Then, again, I kept thinking the Padres was going to get more runs. What do I know?
I know that Justin can’t possibly sustain this rate without striking out more batters. His stuff is not nearly as good as the Yankees’ Chien Ming Wang.
Is Justin’s BABIP high?
2 Didi // May 21, 2007 at 10:18 am
I meant low for Justin Germano’s BABIP against.
3 Anthony // May 21, 2007 at 10:41 am
According to Baseball Prospectus, Germano’s BABIP is .200. I absolutely hate the way the word luck is used to describe things like that but in this case I have to say he’s been lucky.
He’s done a great job of keeping hitters off balance but it’s going to catch up to him at some point.
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