Porcello in Impressive Company

You can pretty much pencil in a win when Rick Porcello goes up against the Cleveland Indians.  The rookie was dominant again last night as the Tigers topped the Indians to move to ten games over .500 for the first time in months. 

Porcello gave up one run in seven innings, before giving up a solo homer to the only batter he faced in the eighth inning.  Had he allowed no more than the single run, it would have been the fifth time he went at least seven innings and gave up one earned run or fewer. 

He’s pulled off that feat four times this season:

• Apr. 19 against Seattle
• May 5 against Minnesota
• June 12 against Pittsburgh
• Aug. 1 against Cleveland

So, if you’re keeping track at home, that’s four of these games (all in one season) before he turns 21.  Last year, of all big league pitchers, only one player that young threw one game with similar numbers. 

Young pitchers just aren’t supposed to be this good this soon.  Quite often, young pitchers can keep teams off the board, but they are not able to pitch through seven innings because of pitch counts. 

That’s what makes Porcello so impressive.  In his seven-plus innings of work last night, he threw only 80 pitches.

Porcello has thrown four of these games with at least seven innings and no more than one ER. Here’s who has done it more often. The list is impressive:

• Felix Hernandez: six times in 2006
• Zack Greinke: seven times in 2004
• Dwight Gooden: 18 times in 1985
• Bret Saberhagen: five times in 1984
• Dwight Gooden: 17 times in 1984
• Fernando Valenzuela: 12 times in 1981

First of all, it’s no wonder Gooden fell apart; they rode that kid hard.  Greinke was amazing in 2004, but struggled for a couple years after that season.  Hernandez is coming into his own this season and has always been a good pitcher.  Both Hernandez and Greinke are Cy Young Award contenders right now.

Porcello is not flashy.  He doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts or talk a lot of trash, but we are really seeing something special this season.  The Tigers also deserve a lot of credit for judging him correctly.  They thought he was ready to make the move to the bigs at the age of 20, and they deserve kudos for pulling the trigger and for keeping him healthy.

Should Porcello make a few more starts this season, he has a chance to move up the leader board for wins by such a young player. 

In the expansion era of baseball (since 1961), only 13 pitchers aged 20 and younger have won more games than Porcello.  He is currently tied with Felix Hernandez on the list with 12 wins, the most by a kid since 2006. Here’s the leaders:

1. Dwight Gooden (20 yrs) 24 wins
2. Wally Bunker (19) 19 wins
3. CC Sabathia (20) 17 wins
4. Dwight Gooden (19) 17 wins
5. Don Gullett (20) 16 wins
6. Bert Blyleven (20) 16 wins
7. Dave Rozeman (20) 15 wins
8. Jim Palmer (20) 15 wins
9. Frank Tanana (20) 14 wins
10. Gary Nolan (19) 14 wins

So with a couple more wins this season, Porcello would join a pretty impressive list.  Don’t put it past him, the pressure of this playoff race doesn’t seem to bother him.