Major League Baseball's Top Pitching Duos

Every once in a while, I’ll get a really good idea for a post from a comment made by a reader. This is one of those posts. In last night’s game summary, loyal reader and commenter (thanks!) JAYRC said that Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson might be the best pitching duo in all of baseball. That made me want to look into things.

The season is still young, so it certainly doesn’t mean that all of these trends will continue, but there are some very good pitching duos in the game right now. Numbers do tend to fall off as the season progresses, so this might be something I can go and look at in November as well.

Anyway, I was going to check all of baseball, but I hit a few snags. It took me a lot of time to do just the American League. I spent an hour doing just the AL.

Second, it’s not really fair to compare AL pitching stats to NL pitching stats since NL pitchers do get to pitch against pitchers and generally weaker lineups. So, what I have here is the seven best pitching duos in the American League.

I’ve done the math and the presenting, you can draw your conclusions. Enjoy.

Team	Duo	Record	ERA	WHIP	K/9	SO/BB	IP
Yankees	Sabathia	5-3	3.56	1.12	6.4	2.26	86
	Chamberlain	3-1	3.71	1.44	8.6	1.89	53.1
	TOTAL	8-4	3.61	1.24	7.23	2.07	139.1
	Rank	7th	t-6th	6th	5th	7th	6th
Rays	Shields	5-4	3.41	1.28	6.6	3.01	82
	Garza	4-4	3.67	1.12	8.1	2.36	73.2
	TOTAL	9-8	3.52	1.21	7.28	2.62	155.2
	Rank	t-5th	5th	t-4th	4th	5th	2nd
Tigers	Jackson	6-3	2.16	0.98	6.7	3.26	83.1
	Verlander	6-2	3.26	1.13	11.3	4.04	77.1
	TOTAL	12-5	2.68	1.05	8.91	3.69	160.2
	Rank	2nd	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	1st
Twins	Blackburn	5-2	3.31	1.32	4	1.62	76.1
	Slowey	8-1	3.97	1.35	6.5	7	68
	TOTAL	13-3	3.61	1.33	5.1	2.96	144.1
	Rank	1st	t-6th	7th	7th	4th	5th
Royals	Greinke	8-2	1.55	0.96	9.4	7	87
	Meche	2-5	4.08	1.47	6.6	1.85	68.1
	TOTAL	10-7	2.66	1.19	8.16	3.52	155.1
	Rank	4th	1st	3rd	3rd	2nd	3rd
Angels	Weaver	5-2	2.26	1.01	7.5	3.15	75.2
	Saunders	6-4	3.77	1.22	4.6	1.95	71.2
	TOTAL	11-6	2.99	1.11	6.11	2.5	147.1
	Rank	3rd	4th	2nd	6th	6th	4th
Mariners	Hernandez	5-3	3.22	1.27	9.1	3.43	78.1
	Bedard	4-2	2.37	1.12	9	3.39	60.2
	TOTAL	9-6	2.85	1.21	9.06	3.41	139
	Rank	t-5th	3rd	t-4th	1st	3rd	7th