Johans 1st Inning Follies

After losing to the Braves 8-3 on August 4th, we noted in our  Z-Cap that Mike Pelfrey has now allowed 12 first inning runs in his last 7 starts (15.42 ERA) and has failed to reach the 6th inning in any of those outings.  The team has been unable to bounce back from his  early struggles, going 1-6 in the last 7 games Pelf has pitched.

While doing some late night number crunching, in an attempt to forget about last night’s 8th inning disaster, I found that as bad as Pelfrey has been, his recent poor 1st inning performances haven’t even bloated his opening frame ERA to a staff worst (among current starters):

That prize surprisingly belongs to staff ace Johan Santana, who has been lit up to the tune of a 7.83 ERA in the 1st inning this season.  This is quite the drop off from 2009 when the former Cy Young award winner posted an opening frame ERA of 1.44 for the year.  When you consider Johan’s overall numbers on the 2010 season, the fact that he boasts an earned run average approaching 8 in any inning is somewhat surprising:

Photo by Michael Baron

In reality, however, it’s hard to forget Santana’s recent 1st inning woes against the Cardinals (July 23, 6 ER) and Braves (August 2, 3 ER), both of which resulted in crucial Met losses.  In fact, in the 6 starts in which he has allowed a run to cross the plate in the 1st inning the Met’s ace is winless (0-4) and as a team New York is 1-5. ..TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST AND OTHERS LIKE IT HEAD TO METSZILLA.COM BY CLICKING HERE:

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