Ervin Santana is on a hot streak
Posted by Andy on August 28, 2011
Yesterday Ervin Santana pitched his 8th-straight game with at least 7 innings pitched. That's among the best streaks so far in 2011:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Tm | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roy Halladay | 2011-04-24 | 2011-06-15 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 83.2 | 76 | 24 | 23 | 9 | 89 | 6 | 2.47 | PHI |
| 2 | CC Sabathia | 2011-06-14 | 2011-08-01 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 76.2 | 57 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 87 | 3 | 1.76 | NYY |
| 3 | Tim Hudson | 2011-07-07 | 2011-08-21 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 64.2 | 45 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 46 | 4 | 2.09 | ATL |
| 4 | Justin Verlander | 2011-05-29 | 2011-07-10 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 72.0 | 46 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 74 | 3 | 0.75 | DET |
| 5 | Jered Weaver | 2011-05-23 | 2011-07-07 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 70.2 | 44 | 10 | 10 | 16 | 55 | 1 | 1.27 | LAA |
| 6 | Ricky Romero | 2011-05-13 | 2011-06-26 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 69.1 | 52 | 15 | 15 | 23 | 53 | 5 | 1.95 | TOR |
| 7 | James Shields | 2011-04-14 | 2011-05-28 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 70.1 | 51 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 74 | 5 | 1.66 | TBR |
| 8 | Ervin Santana | 2011-07-22 | 2011-08-27 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 65.2 | 48 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 41 | 4 | 2.06 | LAA |
That Halladay streak was insane...9 walks and 89 strikeouts over 83.2 innings...whew. Since then, he's fallen "way off", with 9 walks and 68 strikeouts in 77.1 innings (heh).
Getting back to Santana, his current streak is twice as long as his previous longest such streaks:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Tm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011-07-22 | 2011-08-27 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 65.2 | 48 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 41 | 4 | 2.06 | LAA |
| 2 | 2010-07-03 | 2010-07-24 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 31.1 | 18 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 2 | 2.30 | LAA |
| 3 | 2008-08-19 | 2008-09-04 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 29.1 | 24 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 34 | 2 | 1.84 | LAA |
| 4 | 2008-07-01 | 2008-07-21 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 28.0 | 30 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 31 | 4 | 3.54 | LAA |
| 5 | 2006-06-28 | 2006-07-15 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 29.0 | 19 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 23 | 2 | 3.41 | LAA |
Nice.
August 28th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
One of the reasons for this impressive streak is necessity.
Other than Scott Downs who is the 8th inning guy, the Angel's bullpen has been a crapshoot. While Walden has been mostly good, he is among hte league leaders in blown saves. Thompson and Cassevah have been putting up good numbers in low-leverage situations, but Sciosia doesn't seem to have any faith in them in close games.
Rodney has not looked consistent either and I don't think Takahasi is a long term answer either.
I expect that Sciosia 11 will give Weaver, Santana and Haren a lot more innings the rest of the season than Sciosia 2000 thru Sciosia 2010 ever would have dreamed of.
August 29th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
FWIW, the longest streaks of 7+ IP in starts, by decade:
1920s -- 39, Red Faber, 1921-22
1930s -- 29, Red Lucas, 1931-32
1940s -- 35, Ted Lyons, 1941-46*; 29, Hal Newhouser, 1945
1950s -- 29, Robin Roberts, 1952-53, and Vern Law, 1959-60
1960s -- 40, Bob Gibson, 1967-69
1970s -- 42, Catfish Hunter, 1975-76
1980s -- 39, Rick Langford, 1980-81 (#2 was 26 by Jack Morris)
1990s -- 24, Darryl Kile, 1997
2000s -- 17, Roy Halladay, 2007-08
2010s -- 14, Cliff Lee, 2010
August 29th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Sorry about the excessive bold.
August 30th, 2011 at 12:32 am
1960s -- 40, Bob Gibson, 1967-69
This of course includes his legendary 1968, but his brilliant stretch started in late '67, and what makes it more amazing is that it directly followed his return from a broken leg, just about 7 weeks after his injury. His first two starts after his return were well-pitched but shy of 7 IP. After his streak ended in early '69, he immediately followed it with 5 CG victories in a row.
Anyway, I'm sort of a fan of multi-season stretches of pitching excellence which are overshadowed by the calendar year neatly standing out in the middle. We all know about Gibby's 1.12 in '68. But from 9/12/67 through 5/25/69, he pitched 415 IP in 47 games with a 1.15 ERA.
Another great one is Dwight Gooden. His 1985 was one of the greatest seasons ever. Expand it out from 8/11/84 through 5/6/86, and you have 50 starts, 404.2 IP, at a 1.38 ERA -- even lower than his '85 ERA. And a record of 37-5! I just love that. (And yet, 6 months shy of his 22nd birthday, he would never be that good again. And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with drugs or overuse or Mel Stottlemyre or whatever. Even without any of those things, what are the chances he could have continued pitching that well? Nobody can be that good forever. He was bound to disappoint from that point on.)
Any other good ones?
August 30th, 2011 at 12:41 am
Pedro Martinez, 4/20/99 - 5/30/01:
46-10, 1.78 over 491.1 IP in 68 G (66 starts), with 690 K. Opponents OPS of .495 (surpassed by 8 pitchers with at least 100 PA over '99-'01).
August 30th, 2011 at 12:55 am
BTW, that's a very interesting list JA/2. The concept is simple and yet it's something that people don't really know or think much about, so the results are fascinating.
In a similar vein, Justin Verlander is now up to 47 straight games of at least 100 pitches thrown (at least 103, in fact), easily the leader since 1988 (when pitch data is *mostly* complete). Some time I'll have to try checking possible challengers to see if they have any pitch data missing which breaks their streak.
August 30th, 2011 at 7:01 am
#2, the only reason Morris didn't have the #1 streak is that he was pitching to the score.
🙂