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David Wells vs Red Sox and Mo Vaughn

Posted by Andy on May 17, 2010

David Wells was part of the broadcast team for yesterday's TBS coverage of the Twins-Yankees game. He's mentioned a couple of times about how much difficulty he had facing the Red Sox and specifically Mo Vaughn.

I looked up his splits. Here are his career totals against all teams against whom he pitched at least 100 innings:

Split W L W-L% ERA G IP H ER HR BB SO BF WHIP
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 16 11 .593 5.25 51 226.1 237 132 36 62 152 962 1.321
Baltimore Orioles 17 13 .567 3.87 46 246.1 256 106 28 40 132 1014 1.202
Boston Red Sox 14 20 .412 4.86 50 261.1 306 141 38 68 165 1134 1.431
Chicago White Sox 8 8 .500 4.58 34 157.1 184 80 27 49 95 697 1.481
Cleveland Indians 20 4 .833 3.78 41 216.2 237 91 26 37 138 901 1.265
Detroit Tigers 14 8 .636 4.60 43 201.1 228 103 21 43 144 855 1.346
Kansas City Royals 16 3 .842 3.11 32 168.0 148 58 8 28 108 663 1.048
Milwaukee Brewers 9 5 .643 4.14 26 111.0 109 51 6 29 62 467 1.243
Minnesota Twins 19 6 .760 2.34 38 200.1 172 52 14 31 132 786 1.013
New York Yankees 19 11 .633 3.09 45 244.2 222 84 26 49 175 988 1.108
Oakland Athletics 10 8 .556 4.69 36 161.1 176 84 23 45 128 698 1.370
Seattle Mariners 11 11 .500 4.47 44 207.1 210 103 34 49 132 870 1.249
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10 2 .833 2.80 18 115.2 120 36 11 14 71 473 1.159
Texas Rangers 10 10 .500 4.75 41 202.2 229 107 33 45 127 873 1.352
Toronto Blue Jays 5 10 .333 5.82 20 130.0 157 84 10 27 90 565 1.415
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2010.

Wells said specifically that he felt he always found a way to lose. The stats seem to bear that out. His ERA against Boston was pretty bad but his record was really awful, as Boston is the only team against which he lost 20 games in his career.

Wells also mentioned that pitching as a visitor in Fenway Park was particularly difficult for him. Check out Wells' starts in Fenway (excludes starts in Fenway when he played for the Red Sox):

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H ER BB SO HR Pit Str GSc 2B 3B ERA
1 2004-06-08 SDP BOS L 0-1 GS-6 5.2 6 0 0 2 0 81 55 59 0 0 0.00
2 2003-07-25 NYY BOS W 4-3 GS-6 5.2 7 2 5 3 0 110 66 45 1 0 3.18
3 2003-05-19 NYY BOS W 7-3 GS-7 ,W 6.2 9 1 1 4 0 102 66 55 1 1 1.35
4 2002-08-27 NYY BOS W 6-0 GS-9 ,W 8.0 5 0 0 6 0 129 86 78 3 0 0.00
5 2002-05-25 NYY BOS W 3-2 GS-4 3.2 5 2 4 2 0 93 57 41 1 1 4.91
6 2002-04-13 NYY BOS L 6-7 GS-8 7.1 7 4 2 3 0 109 75 49 1 0 4.91
7 2000-06-17 TOR BOS W 11-10 GS-7 ,W 6.1 11 5 0 4 1 89 60 31 1 1 7.11
8 2000-05-25 TOR BOS W 11-6 GS-8 ,W 7.0 10 3 2 6 0 107 76 47 2 0 3.86
9 1999-09-23 TOR BOS W 7-5 GS-8 ,W 8.0 12 5 1 4 2 129 85 41 0 0 5.62
10 1998-09-07 NYY BOS L 3-4 CG 8 ,L 8.0 6 4 0 10 1 106 76 64 2 0 4.50
11 1998-05-23 NYY BOS W 12-3 GS-7 ,W 7.0 5 3 1 5 2 59 0 0 3.86
12 1997-09-10 NYY BOS L 2-5 GS-7 ,L 7.0 12 5 2 5 0 113 72 36 2 0 6.43
13 1997-06-02 NYY BOS W 5-2 GS-7 ,W 7.0 6 2 2 7 0 116 72 62 1 0 2.57
14 1996-09-24 BAL BOS L 8-13 GS-6 ,L 5.1 8 9 1 4 4 96 65 19 1 0 15.19
15 1996-07-18 BAL BOS W 6-3 GS-7 ,W 6.2 6 2 2 3 1 103 65 53 0 0 2.70
16 1994-04-06 DET BOS L 4-5 GS-6 ,L 6.0 7 5 2 2 1 91 59 38 2 1 7.50
17 1993-09-28 (2) DET BOS W 7-6 GS-6 5.0 8 3 0 2 1 84 54 41 2 0 5.40
18 1993-06-25 DET BOS L 2-8 GS-8 ,L 7.0 8 5 2 5 1 106 68 44 2 0 6.43
19 1992-08-04 TOR BOS L 4-9 GS-5 ,L 5.0 7 8 3 1 3 100 54 19 1 0 14.40
20 1992-04-17 TOR BOS L 0-1 GS-4 ,L 4.0 3 1 1 3 0 63 41 54 1 0 2.25
21 1991-08-03 TOR BOS L 1-4 GS-6 ,L 5.2 6 4 2 5 2 95 57 44 2 0 6.35
22 1991-04-22 TOR BOS L 4-6 GS-5 ,L 4.1 8 5 2 0 2 62 32 25 0 1 10.38
23 1990-06-26 TOR BOS L 0-3 GS-7 ,L 7.0 6 3 3 2 1 106 63 52 2 0 3.86
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/16/2010.

What an interesting progression. As you can see from the "App,Dec" column, he lost his first 6 starts in Fenway and was 0-7 in his first 8 starts there. In the 6 starts that followed, he alternated wins and losses. Over his final 9 starts there as a visitor he went 5-0. So maybe he learned something along the way.

As for Mo Vaughn, all I can say is HECK YES he killed Davis Wells:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Mo Vaughn 76 66 30 0 0 9 18 7 16 .455 .526 .864 1.390
Alex Rodriguez 77 74 25 5 0 8 18 3 15 .338 .364 .730 1.093
Ken Griffey 83 78 22 4 1 8 15 4 13 .282 .325 .667 .992
Chili Davis 79 74 26 6 0 7 19 5 16 .351 .392 .716 1.109
Albert Belle 63 56 21 6 0 6 11 5 9 .375 .429 .804 1.232
Frank Thomas 71 59 21 6 1 6 15 12 10 .356 .465 .797 1.261
Gary Gaetti 27 24 6 0 0 5 9 2 2 .250 .296 .875 1.171
Miguel Tejada 49 48 16 2 0 5 10 1 6 .333 .347 .688 1.034
Juan Gonzalez 68 63 18 3 0 5 13 5 11 .286 .338 .571 .910
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/16/2010.

That's 9 homers and a 1.390 OPS in 76 plate appearances.

7 Responses to “David Wells vs Red Sox and Mo Vaughn”

  1. Jim Says:

    On the opposite spectrum, he must have loved going to Cleveland... Going 20-4 against them and also the baby Devil Rays, going 10-2 with a 2.80 era

  2. DavidRF Says:

    Lefty's struggling in Fenway is pretty common historically. Whitey Ford's splits are similarly lopsided and the Yankees gave up even trying to pitch him there.

    Its to Wells' credit that he eventually figured it out.

  3. koma Says:

    the only other team against them wells has a losing record are the Toronto Blue Jays, and its even worse posting an 5.82 ERA with a .333 W-L%

  4. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    Two of my favorite "oh no, not HIM again" batter-pitcher matchups are Hank Aaron vs. Ron Perranoski and Hank Aaron vs. Don Gullett.

    Aaron against Perranoski: 24 PA, 13 H in 18 AB, 2 doubles, 2 HR, 6 BB, .722 BA, 1.958 OPS.

    Aaron against Gullett: 36 PA, 12 H in 26 AB, 2 doubles, 7 HR, 9 BB, .462 BA, 1.929 OPS.

    Frank Howard's overall numbers against Sam McDowell aren't quite as devastating as these (1.253 OPS in 95 PA, including 2.528 in 18 PA in 1968), but during his last four years with Cleveland (1968-71) McDowell pretty much pitched around Howard every time he saw him. In this 1970 game, McDowell twice walked Howard intentionally leading off an inning. In the sixth inning, with Howard coming to bat, the Indians brought in Dean Chance to pitch, moved McDowell to first and replaced their left fielder; for the seventh inning, McDowell came back to the mound and a new left fielder was brought in. Granted, Howard was hitting everyone hard in those seasons, but McDowell must have felt as if he were Frank's personal chew toy.

  5. Innuendo Says:

    Seems like the Sox went for Wells after they noticed he had learned how to pitch at Fenway. In his 18 home games for the Red Sox in 2005 and 2006, Wells was 10-3 and 3.96 (hitters .281/.434/.308) in 116 innings. He also one complete game.

  6. DoubleDiamond Says:

    I remember that Dave Hollins of the Phillies owned a pitcher named Butch Henry for a while in the 1990s. I also remember that Paul O'Neill, probably when he was with the Reds, always did well against Don Robinson.

  7. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    Dave Hollins owned every particle of Butch Henry: 27 PA, 23 AB, 15 hits, three doubles, six homers, 11 RBI, two walks, .652 BA, 2.232 OPS. Brrrr.

    Paul O’Neill did very well against Don Robinson: 44 PA, 39 AB, 11 hits, one double, five homers, 13 RBI, five walks, .282 BA, 1.056 OPS. But O’Neill’s numbers were even better against Joe Boever: 9-20, six doubles, one homer, nine walks in 29 PA, .450 BA, 1.521 OPS.