To ensure it is not lost in the wreckage of Saturday night’s disappointing 3-2 ninth-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants, researcher Tom Orf pulled the tables below. They put St. Louis Cardinals left-hander Jaime Garcia’s second consecutive outing of nine (or more) strikeouts into perspective.
It marks only the third time since 1920 that a Cardinals starter has begun the season with two appearances with nine or more strikeouts each. At least one of the other names is most familiar, that of Hall of Famer Bob Gibson.
St. Louis Cardinals pitchers with nine or more strikeouts per start, first two starts of the season (1920-current)
| Streak Start | End | G | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | HBP | WP | BK | Tm | |
| Jaime Garcia | 4/3/2011 | 4/9/2011+ | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 0 | 0.60 | 1 | 1 | 0 | STL |
| Bob Gibson | 4/15/1966 | 4/21/1966 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 1.50 | 1 | 1 | 0 | STL |
| Bill Hallahan | 4/18/1930 | 4/22/1930 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 16 | 20 | 1 | 1.50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | STL |
Garcia’s start has matched only seven others this past decade across Major League Baseball and is the first such stretch in the last five years. Some very prominent names appear below.
Note that only Curt Schilling in 2002 was able to collect the strikeouts without yielding any runs. Garcia’s ERA is second-best. Pedro Martinez in 2005 and Brandon Duckworth (!) in 2002 had three such starts to open the season. Jaime’s next turn should be on Thursday to open the Cardinals series in Los Angeles.
Pitchers with nine or more strikeouts per start, first two+ starts of the season, MLB this decade (2002-2011)
| Streak Start | End | G | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | HBP | WP | BK | Tm | |
| Jaime Garcia | 4/3/2011 | 4/9/2011+ | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 0 | 0.60 | 1 | 1 | 0 | STL |
| Byung-Hyun Kim | 4/30/2006 | 5/5/2006 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 3.29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | COL |
| Pedro Martinez | 4/4/2005 | 4/16/2005 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 30 | 1 | 2.45 | 0 | 3 | 0 | NYM |
| Roger Clemens | 4/8/2005 | 4/13/2005 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 0.64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | HOU |
| Josh Beckett | 4/6/2004 | 4/11/2004 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 0 | 0.64 | 2 | 0 | 0 | FLA |
| Brandon Duckworth | 4/5/2002 | 4/16/2002 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 3 | 2.37 | 2 | 2 | 0 | PHI |
| Kerry Wood | 4/3/2002 | 4/10/2002 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 20 | 0 | 2.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | CHC |
| Curt Schilling | 4/2/2002 | 4/7/2002 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ARI |
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Nice to salute Jaime’s great beginning to the season. He looked iffy in spring training, and it sounded like TLR was making excuses for him. But it turns out, TLR knew what he was talking about.
In the minor leagues, some guys who have started well include SS Ryan Jackson, 3B Niko Vasquez, OF Oscar Tavares, RHPs Miller and Rosenthal.
Mr. T. slugged his 2nd HR already, then hurt his hammy. Sigh.
You take off all the time you need, Oscar, to get mended.
lineup: Theriot SS, Rasmus CF, Pujols 1B, Holliday LF, Craig RF, Freese 3B, Skip 2B, Laird C, Lohse SP
The Mets promoted Izzy and are getting rid of Blaine Boyer. Blaine pitched well when it doesn’t count, spring training.
Matt Holliday, great guy, gets back after having his appendix cut out just a week ago. Matt gets paid either on the DL or not, but he must have a good work ethic to get back after those pitchers.
With Matt back, TLR can focus on RF. Give Lance some off days, try to get Craig or Jay untracked too. Having Freese wake up yesterday turned out to be helpful.
Another who pitched well when it didn’t count………..Broderick has been shelled in his 2 outings so far.
I wonder if the Cards will want him back?
In the minors, probably. In the majors, probably not.
Well, I assumed he’d come back to the minors since we’d have no obligation to keep him i the majors. Would the insult him by sending him back to AA? I dont see him cracking the Memphis rotation.
He wouldn’t have a choice, but maybe it won’t get to that. I can envision a scenario in which Washington wants to keep him and makes a trade with the Cardinals so they can send him down. (Of course that assumes he clears waivers first.)
So he would have to go through waivers again? What if some other team took him? Would that team have to sign him or send him back to the Nats? How many times could this happen?
Writers usually represent the situation in shorthand, either to be quick or because they don’t fully understand the process by saying Washington would return him to St. Louis. Here is how it really works.
Once Washington puts him on waivers, other clubs get an opportunity to claim him if they want to keep him on their 25-man roster all season long instead. Only if he is not claimed are the Cardinals presented with a decision.
It could happen over again as many times this season as he is waived.
This very thing happened with Luis Perdomo a few years back. He was claimed in Rule 5 by San Francisco. They decided not to keep him and San Diego grabbed him off waivers. He remained on SD’s 25-man roster all season long, so the Cardinals lost their rights at that point. The next season, SD sent him back to the minors.
If during that first season, SD had decided they didn’t want him anymore, he would have gone back on waivers. At that point, the same steps would occur.
CC, since you love accuracy, Broderick was shelled in his first outing. Riggleman is only going to use him when the Nats are way ahead or behind. His second appearance was successful.
Successful? 1.2 IP 2 ER 3H 1BB — Your standards are getting low Jumbo!
Its not just Izzy who is back. Even wildman Gary Daley Jr. is rallying, fresh up from A level ball. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110410&content_id=17638152&vkey=news_t105&fext=.jsp&sid=t105