The Phillies Starting Pitchers Are Putting Up Historic Numbers
The Phillies took their first loss of the NLCS on Thursday night. But it had nothing to do with the performance of their starter Ranger Suarez. 5.1 innings, no runs allowed. It drops his career ERA in the postseason t0 0.94 across 6 starts, and two appearance out of the bullpen. That just so happens to be the lowest postseason ERA in the history of the MLB for people with at least 5 starts. But it is not just Ranger Suarez. The Phillies entire rotation these playoffs has been historically great. Aaron Nola has a 0.96 ERA in 3 starts this postseason. Zack Wheeler has 2.37 ERA, and his WHIP is 0.63.
The greatness of the rotation goes even deeper than that though. Jayson Stark joined The Best Show Ever, and shared some stats that shows this rotation is having the best postseason, at least so far, in the history of the league.
“9 games into the postseason, (their starters) have allowed 8 earned runs. 36 batters have reached base. We have never seen anything like this from any rotation ever. Not just in terms of how few baserunners there have been, but if you look at WHIP, it is the lowest by any rotation through 9 games ever. It supplants that Randy Johnson Curt Schilling 2001 Diamondbacks rotation. 5 walks from the starters in 9 games. Again that is the fewest ever. In 9 games they have only faced 6 hitters while trailing. They have been in control, or at least even in every single game.”
Let that last stat sink in. They have only trailed while pitching to 6 batters. That has a lot to do with the lineup and the bullpen too, but the starters have more than done their job keeping the Phillies in games. They didn’t trail at all last night until Ketel Marte hit his walk off single. The starters trailed twice vs the Braves, but the Phillies got the run back the next inning every time. And in their one loss against the Braves they didn’t trail until the 8th inning.
The Phillies starters have barley allowed any baserunners, let alone give up any runs. They haven’t just been good, as it stands they have been the best starting rotation in baseball history. There are still plenty of games to go, and they have to keep this up. But the Phillies can be pretty comfortable in every game knowing they will have the pitching advantage, whether it is Wheeler, Nola, or Ranger on the mound.
All that could change with Cristopher Sanchez on the mound tonight. He was actually one of their most reliable starters in the regular season, but hasn’t pitched in 19 days. But at most, he would pitch tonight, and in one World Series game if they make it there. Otherwise the Phillies have a starter putting up historically good numbers going in every single game for the rest of the playoffs.
You can listen to the full conversation with Jayson Stark below:
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