Venom Vision: Wins elude starters
Jun 26, 2013, 10:30 PM | Updated: 11:02 pm
The Arizona Diamondbacks have gone 76 straight games heading into play Wednesday without being shut out, the longest active streak in baseball.
But the number itself isn’t all that meaningful when you take into account that they’ve also lost 11 games in which they’ve scored just one run, not to mention team has been dominated in recent weeks by the likes of Lance Lynn, Eric Stults, Clayton Richard and Mat Latos.
What is meaningful about the streak is simply what it stands for.
Going into the season, general manager Kevin Towers said this year’s roster was filled with players who would never give up on an at-bat regardless of the score, and whether it’s been Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero, Jason Kubel or Josh Wilson (who isn’t even on the team anymore) producing late in games to preserve the streak, that certainly has been in the case.
In the Around the Diamond Segment, another streak is put under the microscope — this one of the negative variety.
Since Wade Miley won in St. Louis on June 5, not a single D-backs starting pitcher has recorded a victory. But while the rotation has had its fair share of struggles in June, the 17-game drought doesn’t tell the whole story.
It doesn’t factor in that on three separate occasions in that span Patrick Corbin pitched eight innings while only giving up a run, or that Ian Kennedy had his best two outings of the year, or that Randall Delgado’s first start against the Miami Marlins on June 18 was quality with a capital Q.
The individual win is often a hallow statistic because it rewards and punishes pitchers based on factors sometimes out of their control — lack of run support or a spotty bullpen.
The D-backs’ starting pitchers don’t deserve a pass because it hasn’t been all that pretty, but it hasn’t been as ugly as 17-straight games without a win either. Sometimes stats fail to put things in proper perspective.
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