Line Drive: The Good...

Dave Paisley

When trying to keep track of thirty teams, it's obviously impossible to see every team play every game. In fact, it's not even possible to see more than a handful of teams on a regular basis. ESPN highlights are usually horribly misleading, even if they are fun to watch. So what we fans are left with are those handy-dandy little box scores that can be found in the newspapers and even on your favorite baseball website.

When I'm perusing the daily scores and standings, there are usually a couple of lines in the boxes that jump out at me. With that in mind, I've been scouring the box scores for a week or two, looking for oddities and basically anything that catches my eye. Due to the nature of box scores, pitching lines are usually what jump out, as pitching tends to come in bigger chunks (and in Baltimore's case, tends to blow chunks...)

Here's the good (and sometimes awesome) side to pitching lines.

The Reclamation Projects

Sometimes, there's nothing nicer to see than a guy once relegated to the scrap heap make a comeback and be effective. Sometimes it's just enough to see somebody get a particular monkey off their back. The Brewers have traditionally been a haven for reclamation projects, and it doesn't always work out. However, there are two interesting cases pitching in the Brewer rotation right now, and both have acquitted themselves well in the past week or so. Who knows if it will last, but here are two pretty decent performances from a couple of guys recently given up for dead.
 

Hideo Nomo	Mil	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Mon, 31st May	W, 2-1	6.1	3	2	2	2	3	0	2.41

It seems a shame to pick out this game from all of Nomo's Milwaukee performances. perhaps the only caveat here is that he was pitching against the padres. After giving up two runs in the first, the Brewers chipped away a run at a time, allowing Nomo to leave with a 4-2 lead in the seventh. Four more late runs salted this one away. His losing pitching opponent in this case was the unlucky Woody Williams (more of whom in the companion piece to this article.)

Perhaps more to the point, Nomo has regained his best form for the Brewers, giving them five strong games, never giving up more than two runs, never going less than six innings. Can he keep it up? It's all part of the fun of reading the box scores.

Jim Abbott	Mil	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Sun, 30th May	W, 1-5	6.0	6	2	2	1	3	1	7.14

This is one everyone had to be rooting for. After three pretty rough outings to start the season, Abbott has settled down a bit, bouncing between the rotation and the pen. He kept Milwaukee in his previous start against Atlanta, but had no hope of a win when he came out, down 2-0. Finally, in his first win of the season, he allowed two runs on what was just Ruben Rivera's fourth homer of the season, while the Brewers finally got some runs, winning the game 10-3.

The Awesome

Of course, there are the pitching aces who go out and give a good performance almost every time. Occasionally, they crank it up and turn out an awesome performance. Here are three recent ones.

Pedro Martinez	Bos	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Sat, 29th May	W, 10-1	8.0	5	2	2	0	9	0	2.01

Eleven games, eleven decisions, only one of them negative. Wow. Never given up more than three runs, nor gone less than six innings (while averaging over seven.) It's hard to know where to start, but Pedro is well on his way to a first AL Cy Young award. But that's what I said this time last year.

In this particular game, you have to love the five hits (none for extra bases) and the zero walks against the most potent attack in the league - the Cleveland Indians. Pedro gave up one run early, then had to hold on until the cavalry came up with four runs in the eighth to win it, capped off by a Garciaparra three run homer off Paul Shuey to take the lead.

Curt Schilling	Phi	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Sat, 29th May	W, 8-2	9.0	4	0	0	1	9	0	2.57

What more is there to say about Curt Schilling's perseverance in Philly? If he gets a little testy that management isn't doing it's share to make the team competitive, he gets blasted. Yet all he does is go out there and give his all every time. And this one is a gem. This is his fifth nine inning complete game and his second shutout. Gotta love that one walk and a measly four hits. There are plenty of guys who can give that up in an inning these days -- and still keep their job in the rotation.

It's interesting that his losing opponent was Colorado's much maligned Brian Bohanon, who dropped to 6-3 with this 2-0 loss. It's a shame he ran into the Schilling buzz saw that night.

Randy Johnson	Az	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Sun, 30th May	W, 6-2	8.0	5	1	1	1	10	1	2.88

What is there to say? Typical Johnson numbers. He was a surprisingly low 4-2 after his first ten starts - surprising because the Diamondbacks have been very prolific at scoring runs this year. However, the pen let him down on a few occasions. After beating the Mets 10-1 in this start, Johnson's record was 6-2 in twelve starts, still within reach of 20 wins if (and that's a big if) the run support keeps coming.

The Rookie

There's a surprise in every crackerjack box, and here's what was in the Tigers'...

Jeff Weaver	Det	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Thu, 27th May	W, 6-3	8.0	5	2	2	1	5	1	2.89

Where would the Tigers be without Jeff Weaver? Why, in last place - d'oh! As it is, they feature the third worst record in the AL. Weaver beat the White Sox 10-5 here, after the bullpen coughed up some runs late. He's been very consistent -- he hasn't given up more than four runs in a start. This was his longest outing so far this year (his next highest was seven innings.)

The Rehab

Here we have two veterans fighting their way back after a couple of weeks off. Not too shabby, in either case.

Roger Clemens	NYY	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Thu, 27th May	W, 4-0	7.0	2	1	1	3	7	0	4.12

This was the Rocket's second start back from DL and he's now won all three of his starts since returning. The strikeouts haven't been there all year and two bad starts (including the one where he got injured) have inflated his ERA quite a bit. But he still has that not-losing streak going...

John Smoltz	Atl	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Tue, 1st June	W, 6-1	6.0	4	0	0	1	4	0	2.34

Give Smoltz credit -- every other year he goes down with some ailment that requires about a month off, but then he comes roaring back in Cy Young form. This time he beat Colorado 7-2, after a two week layoff. Not only did he not allow any runs himself, he managed to swing the bat a little, too, going 2 for 3 himself with a double, an RBI and a run scored.

Despite missing two weeks, he still leads his nearest rotation mate, Greg Maddux,  by two wins. And remember, chicks may dig the long ball, but hitters seem to prefer Glavine and Maddux to Smoltz for hitting them.

Next up: Line Drive part 2 -- The Bad and the Ugly...

about the author

Dave Paisley once starred in a school production of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Please don't ask him which part was his.