Late Tuesday notes: Cleveland’s comeback, Gio’s game scores

Justin Masterson put his team in a 7-run hole Tuesday by allowing 8 runs in 3.2 IP. But after Seattle knocked him out with 6 runs in the bottom of the 4th, Cleveland answered with 7 in their next time up, and went on to claim their 4th straight win, 9-8.

How rare is it to overcome such a disastrous start as Masterson had? Find out after the jump.

  • Since 2009, teams whose SP allowed at least 7 runs in 4 IP or less have a combined record of 31-479 (.061) — that’s about 1 out of 16, or a season record of 10-152.
  • The 7-run comeback is Cleveland’s largest since this game in 2009, when they fought back from 10 runs down and beat the Rays with a 7-run 9th that included four straight walks to bring in the tying run.

Speaking of walks … Mariners SS Brendan Ryan has a career average of 37 walks per 162 games and began Tuesday’s game with 2 walks in 31 PAs this year. Then he drew 4 walks in 5 times up — the first 4-walk game by any player this year. One of them forced in a run; two came on four pitches, but all were clearly not intentional. Ryan, who struck out in his other trip, scored twice and had an RBI without ever putting the ball in play.

  • Four walks is twice as many as #3 hitter Ichiro Suzuki had through 12 games and an AL-high 50 PAs.

For the second straight start, Gio Gonzalez tossed 7 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits, as the Nats improved to 9-3.

  • From 2009-11, Washington had just one such start (7+ IP, 0 R, 2 H or less).
  • Gio’s last two Game Scores were 79 and 80. The last Nats pitcher with two straight Game Scores of 75+ was John Patterson in 2005.

__________

This week’s episode of “How’d he get that job?” focuses on Angels reliever Kevin Jepsen.

Now in his 5th season in the bigs, the righty Jepsen has career marks of 5.04 ERA, 83 ERA+, 139 innings, and -0.2 WAR. Of his two full seasons with the Angels (2009-10), the better one saw 59 IP, 101 ERA+ and 0.8 WAR.

His minor-league career shows a 4.00 ERA, 8.3 SO/9 and 1.58 SO/BB. The lone standout season, the one that seems to have gotten him to the majors, was 2008, his third year in a relief role, when he had a “hit-lucky” 1.81 ERA in 55 IP, with a modest 1.26 WHIP and 1.87 SO/BB ratio.

After his mediocre 2009-10 seasons and a rocky start in 2011 (7.62 ERA in 13 IP), Jepsen was demoted in June and spent the rest of the year back at AAA, posting a 4.45 ERA and just 6.4 SO/9 in 28 IP.

And now he’s back, costing the Angels precious games. On Tuesday, Jepsen played the lead role in the club’s latest bullpen self-immolation, turning a 1-run lead in the 8th into a 3-run hole in part by walking the #9 hitter — Oakland’s #9 hitter — and later allowing a go-ahead double on a 1-2 pitch. Through Tuesday, the Angels are the only team without a save, and their 5.70 relief ERA is the 4th-worst in MLB. They’ve also let in 10 of 22 inherited runners, the 2nd-worst raw total and 6th-worst percentage.

The bulk of the damage has come from Jepsen, Rich Thompson and Hisanori Takahashi, who’ve combined to allow 16 ER in 11 IP for your basic 13.09 ERA. Now, lots of relievers have ugly stats early in the season. But at least Thompson and Takahashi have a track record of success in the majors. Jepsen’s presence in the big leagues would seem to be based on wishful thinking.

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Evil Squirrel
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Sniff!

At least he still has my support. With Lincecum struggling, I hope Cain finally gets thrown into the Cy Young talk this year…

Eric
Eric
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

When’s the last time a guy went 10 innings while throwing only 102 pitches?

Doug
Editor
12 years ago
Reply to  Eric

Last time was Mark Mulder for the Cardinals against Houston, Apr 23, 2005, 10 IP, 101 pitches.

Others to do this since 1988 (all with 10 IP).

Kevin Appier KCR vs CLE, 1992-07-23, 95 pitches
Roy Halladay TOR vs DET, 2003-09-06, 99 pitches
Darryl Kile COL vs SDP, 1998-09-20, 102 pitches

Most pitches throwing 10 innings or more since 1988.

Tim Wakefield PIT vs ATL, 1993-04-27, 10 IP, 172
Orel Hershiser LAD vs ATL, 1989-10-01, 11 IP, 169
Greg Maddux CHC vs STL, 1988-05-17, 10.2 IP, 167

Evil Squirrel
12 years ago
Reply to  Doug

My word, look at those pitch counts on that last list! I’ll bet those three all had their careers shortened by injury, especially young pups like Maddux and Wakefield….

Evil Squirrel
12 years ago

MLB Network is reporting that Bartolo Colon threw 38 consecutive strikes at one point in tonight’s game against the Angels. Probably not searchable, but I’ll bet that’s close to if not THE record….

MikeD
MikeD
12 years ago

I’m sure we all had the same point. Sounds interesting, but without compares it’s hard to say what it really means beyond the obvious: Colon was throwing strikes.

MikeD
MikeD
12 years ago

We all had the same *thought*.

Doug
Doug
12 years ago

Has the Indians offense ever turned it around. 14 runs in their first 4 games, then 47 runs in their next 5, before getting cooled off tonight by Jason Vargas and the Mariners. In their last 4 games before tonight, Cleveland had at least 5 starters with no zeros in their batting line – that is, 5 starters with at least one run, one hit and one RBI. It is the first time in the game-searchable era that Cleveland has done this in four consecutive games (I found 5 earlier occasions when they did this in 3 consecutive games). Going… Read more »

Bill Chuck
12 years ago

Justin Masterson, Max Scherzer, Randy Wolf, and Clay Buchholz are the four starters this season who have surrendered at least seven runs and ended up with a no-decision.

Bill Chuck
12 years ago

Jumping ahead to Wednesday: Here’s Nine to Know – http://www.billy-ball.com/2012/04/nine-to-know-for-april-19/